- Jun 7, 2023
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The shadow cast by the Tallrock was longer than ever, there was so much darkness that, even above ground, Sootspot felt as if he was traversing the tunnels. The sun was at its peak, even as an uneasy warmth crowded his thick fur, he could not help but imagine what was happening behind the imposing figure. He had sentenced his mother to death by leaving, but StarClan had other plans. Perhaps they were keeping her alive long enough for her to come to her senses, pick a new Deputy, and steal the lives right out from Sunstride's nose, but... he'd never known the afterlife to be so clever, or so kind. No... StarClan was making him face his actions, and with each breath, he cursed them more. Something moved atop the rock he gawked at, an outline of a figure, shifting like branches in the wind. 'That could've been my den... if only she trusted her blood more than a snake.' Sootspot cast an easy smile towards the faceless guard, then, a nod. A tail lashed back in greeting toward Sootspot, amicable enough, and the Tunneler slinked out of his sight. 'But I still love you, it's just too dangerous to show it.'
Suspicion was ripe around the chimera, he could not blame the clan for it, for he was equally as suspicious of them. The cats who'd killed their own kin for Sootstar, the cats who'd done every malicious deed she'd asked, the cats who'd torn apart traitors for the same things they wished to be spared for; there was no greater enemy than the one who pretended to be your friend, and Sootspot did not want to fall into the trap of liking WindClan's greatest pretenders. Creatures didn't change, they only hid the most undesirable parts of themselves when it mattered. A sharpness appeared and faded from a distant chartreuse gaze, then, when he blinked once more adder-like pupils landed upon a tortoiseshell apprentice. There was a moment where he mirrored her expression before it disappeared with the same smile he'd offered the guard - same muted intensity, same width, so simple that Sootspot hoped it did not reveal that he'd spent hours within the tunnel practicing it in his youth. "One might suggest it is rude to stare." He did not blink whilst he spoke, as if to prove a point to Sunstride's tawny rat.
'Clanmate,' he reminded himself, even when the idea was acrid. 'Not vermin, a clanmate now, in spite of it all.' "Was there something you needed from me?"
@SCORCHPAW