Quote:
Originally Posted by Charmer
Shinefang continued digging as Grousestar spoke. "You should. Just make sure no toms come to visit at the same time. Handsome young tom like you around their mates? They may get the wrong idea." Shinefang let out a mischievous chortle at his own off-color joke, then grabbed hold of the stem in his teeth again and pulled. This time the root came free, and he stumbled back as he struggled to keep his balance. He inspected the knobby root briefly and nodded. "That's a good one," he muttered to himself. He'd heard Groustar's question, but didn't answer right away. He didn't turn and look at the leader. When he had given the root a lengthy inspection, he stood straight and stared into the distance. "I just don't want to see it happen to another queen... to another father. I remember some things from when Slatepelt was in the nursery... before she kitted. But I want... need to learn more." The tom turned around and glanced briefly at the young, brown tabby. His remaining orange eye was clouded with grief. "I missed her everyday." Shinefang had always felt like a little part of himself had died that day. For the longest time, part of him wished the rest had too. But he'd survived. He'd moved forward, and he'd become an outstanding warrior. He'd made a good life for himself. But he'd have traded it all for just one more day with Slatepelt. The tom stood up at last. "We ought to keep moving," when he looked at Grousestar, the grief was gone again, shoved into the darkest corner of his being where anger and hatred for the cats he blamed for her death festered and infected him for years until it had become a part of him. Now he just looked like the driven warrior-turned-medicine cat again. "We'll collect the root on the way back."
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At the joke, the leader chuckled out and shook his head lightly. "I'm not sure if handsome would be the best word to describe me, I appreciate the compliment however, they'd likely more or less see me as annoying! I know I've heard that one plenty of times." Watching the medicine cat continue to struggle with the root, he halfway wondered why he hadn't offered his help yet. But by the time he was getting ready to offer it, he had pulled it out of the ground himself. Always getting lost in conversation aren't you? His mind teased, causing him to roll his eyes with a small laugh to himself; which might have seemed a bit odd considering there had been no conversational ques to elicit such a reaction. But then it disappeared as he was brought back into the conversation, muting himself so that he could hear Shinefang properly. His eyes glanced over with a gentle look, ready to look away if the medicine seemed uncomfortable under his gaze. Slowly his head would nod and he would glance at the ground. While he couldn't relate to that pain, for even Grousestar hardly knew what love was, he understood what the older tom meant by needing to know more so that he could try to prevent this from happening to any other cat.
"Right!" Eager to move away from the pain he had caused, he mentally cursed himself from bringing it up in the first place. "So that was chervil. What other little plants are you on the hunt for today? Or are you just going around seeing what you can find?" He mentally marked the location where they were leaving the root, something he was actually pretty decent now; the leader was beginning to know this territory like the back of his paw, especially considering he was out walking and hunting in it almost every day.