[Liekki]

Originally Posted by dior

blackfall’s expression remained placid, the exception being a slight twitch of his whiskers at shinepelt after she plunged her head into the waters. he felt a twinge as he realized he couldn’t hold back a glint of amusement in his eye. it wasn’t like him to worry himself too much about his streak of insensitivity, but this time he did. he didn’t quite understand her peculiar habits, but he also knew she couldn’t help it.

his amusement disappeared as quickly as it appeared and was replaced by sympathy. something he didn’t often experience.

the tom resumed a crouching position next to the river, keeping his eye trained not on any passing fish, but on the flowing movement of the algae. he had given up on catching fish; he just didn’t know if too much attention would make shinepelt nervous. as she began to speak again, his gaze flitted up from the river.

“oh, I’m doing alright,” he replied. a moment of silence passed before a crooked smile slightly lit up his usually somber face. “and yes, my name is blackfall.”

his smile began to wane as he noticed her gaze suddenly focus on his bad eye. he remained still, keeping up his pretense of fishing as she drew closer. but he knew he couldn’t hide his growing discomfort, whether it was a subconscious twitch of his tail or a slight bristle along his nape.

but as soon as she asked her question, his muscles that he didn’t realize were tensed immediately relaxed. he still felt scrutinized, but no cat ever asked him what happened. they looked too scared, as if he would turn around and claw them if they did. he appreciated her asking him about it instead of just staring with a sickening sense of sympathy and fear like most others.

“oh this?” blackfall winked his right eye shut, fixing her lightheartedly with the blank milky stare of his left.

“I’d like to say it’s a battle wound to be proud of, but a tree collapsed while I was out with a border patrol and a splinter as big as a squirrel caught it.”

he paused, suddenly looking down at his paws. “just a case of bad luck really,” he muttered with a shrug.

Shinepelt's nose twitched as she looked at Blackfall, worried that he was going to mock her for her strange habits, but no biting remark came. She relaxed slightly, her mood brightening when she realized this meant that not everyone in camp hated her... or at least there were some cats who could tolerate her. Her one dream was to get rid of her useless fear of germs and find a friend, and who knows? Maybe she even longer for true love, not that she was ever going to admit that.

She watched curiously as Blackfall's face shifted, obviously not comfortable about the topic for his eye, or rather, he had seemed to expect a different response from Shinepelt and had been bracing for it. She knew how that went and couldn't help but sympathize not only because of his eye, but his reaction to her gazing at it. "Oh," she said awkwardly. "Well we all make mistakes that are often foolish." Shinepelt couldn't help but think she had made more than her share of stupid mistakes, but none of them had resulted in permanent physical injury. Her scrapes and cuts had healed, but her emotional state was very fragile at the moment. When he described the cause of his injury, she couldn't help but cringe. The thought of something as dirty as a tree branch going into something as sensitive as an eye? Her stomach flipped, but she tried to hide the queer expression on her face. "I'm surprised it wasn't infected... " the molly said in shock. When she realized that sounded rude, she added, "that's good, though! Wouldn't want an infection." She didn't know whether she was talking about herself or Blackfall in that instance, but she supposed it didn't matter, as long as she sounded like she was being kind.