- Jun 7, 2023
- 407
- 47
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In the past, it would have been easy to simply confuse Rattleheart for a ghost within Windclan. A silent, observing, unambitious tunneler who was often lingering in the background, but didn't offer up any thoughts of his own. For a long time he had been pleased enough with that existence, happy to soak up information passively while letting his siblings and clanmates remain in the spotlight. The less attention on him, the less justification he would have to give for why he never found himself celebrating Sootstar's victories as strongly as the rest. The less attention on him, the less attention on his thoughts and his anxieties, and less need for him to talk about them with anyone. An eternity of biting his tongue, and keeping his nose out of any important business unless it came right up to him.
He supposed, in a way, that it was inevitable for something to snap.
Though he still wouldn't consider himself someone important along the lines of Scorchstreak or Bluepool, he was done with hiding his true thoughts away. Done with keeping his head down and just hoping that things would work out. Done with being such a coward when he had family, friends, and now even a mate to worry about. His anxieties were no longer a fact that he could just swallow down or shove away, but he found that he wasn't as terrified by that as he used to be. Not when they had Sunstride leading them - someone that he trusted with those anxieties. Someone that he trusted not to lash out or manipulate him in the way that Sootstar surely would have done.
That was how he found himself padding through the barn, looking for a familiar golden coat among the crowd of clanmates and nests that was scattered all around. It thankfully didn't take the tunneler long to spot him, nodding in Sunstride's direction as he grew close. "Sunstride. Will you walk with me? I just wanted to pick your brain a little, about Windclan's future. Not that I don't trust you, just... a conversation to put my anxieties at ease." It was almost funny, the way his words were an echo of Sunstride's own not all that long ago, when he had asked both Rattleheart and Scorchstreak to help him with the Shadowclan kits and returning them to their home. A decision that none of them still seemed to regret, yet seemed so long ago now.
[ PENNED BY EO ]