- Jul 20, 2022
- 160
- 19
- 18
I WANT SOMETHING JUST LIKE THIS
Even now, weeks after it was all said and done, Dusk still didn't feel entirely right. He didn't regret removing a potentially dangerous cat from his clan, but he did feel bad for what that had meant for the family members of the cats that remained behind. He couldn't pretend to know any of them very well considering his lack of extrovert qualities, but he knew that the ever-smiling Brightshine looked after his nephew. New that Mallowlark, for all his weirdness, had always been social and happy to contribute. And while he was sure their families pain was just as great, it was harder for him to feel for them when he spent so little time with them.
Mallowlark in particular had bothered him.
Again, time was never spent personally with the tom, but Duskfire had always liked them. He'd never had a reason not to. He might even go so far as to say that there was a part of him that was envious over what the tom had, not in a malicious way, but a curious one. Dusk had never had a family, not even a small one. The only cats he'd ever had around him were those that would have ripped him apart for getting too close to their food or personal space. To have cats that you loved so much that it physically hurt to lose them...
The closest he'd ever come was Inkylotus, but now there was only a bitter loneliness in the taste of his name.
Mallowlarks cries still sounded in his head from time to time, and with them a stinging regret. Did the ever-grinning tom hate him now? Did he resent Duskfire for not standing against Sootstar or for only allowing Pollenfur to accompany them to the border that day? The bengal hadn't even let them say good-bye. He couldn't. Sootstar was a knife that would cut loose anything that she thought might threaten her, and Duskfire couldn't allow the rest of Emberfangs family to become her next targets over a prolonged, grief-filled goodbye. In that moment with tensions running high, there'd been too great a risk that their leader might have impulsively cast them out as well for showing Emberfang so much love after she had just openly attacked their leader.
Duskfire could see their loyalty, though. And he wouldn't have them punished for their grief.
And so, in means of apology to at least one of the cats whose hearts he'd helped tear open that day, Duskfire had been hard at work. Really, he would have gone to Mallow sooner but he felt like words wouldn't be enough- and Dusk was already shit with words, so like, he had to have something more if he was going to seem sincere about this.
It had taken a total of five snakes for him to get it right.
He killed them all in the same week and had stripped off as much meat as he could before setting them out to dry with whatever bits of sinew and flesh were left. It had taken several days for it to fully dry out, but that had been the easy part. After this, Dusk had then ruined the first four snakes trying to scrape the rest of the crap off the bones. It was hard because he wasnt used to weilding the bone tools like Mallow was, and he'd broken off too many pieces of the other skeletons for them to be useable.
Through a mixture of luck and a bout of desperation-driven hyper-fixation, Duskfire managed to get the final skeleton almost perfectly clean. And, while he wasn't sure if Mallow would like it or not, he had also managed to find an in-tact snakeskin that, along with the skeleton, was now safely cradled in a giant leaf-sack that he was carrying along. The camp was pretty quiet right now and Mallow seemed to be sitting off by himself, so this seemed like as good a time as any.
For as large and strong as he was, the Deputy didn't feel all that confident as he padded toward the white and black tomcat. He knew it was random as fuck for him to just approach the other like this, and that it was even more random to be giving him a gift, but he didn't know of any other way to do this than by just being direct. Or at least, as direct as a nervous, rambling idiot could be.
"Uh, hey, Mallowlark." he greeted as he set the large, wrapped up leaf down at his paws. It was hard for green eyes to meet those of the other toms, but he eventually forced himself to do just that. tail flicking nervously behidn him. "I um- I found this out by Outlook rock. I know you probably already have one and if you don't want it you can just dump it or whatever, but like, I thought you might maybe want it."
Glad that his bout of word-vomit was over, he cautiously nudged the bundle toward the other, unsure of how his gift would be recieved.
https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/4145ZROVytL._SY445_SX342_QL70_FMwebp_.jpg -snake skelly
windclan deputy - male - 21 months - single - tall, strong bengal tomcat
