forget the world. [VA]

[stag]

➢ It was one of those conversations you to have to just listen to. Keep it together and just listen to it, one of those ones where time stops for them. As if Flowerleap was just…playing a sick joke on him. Minnowpaw hadn’t been paying attention to the signs at first, lost in staring at the ground instead of their father. Feeling the warmth of the hug as the older cat embraced them, words blistered tears in his eyes. “It’s going to be okay, they are both in a better place, mama and sissy are in a better place, I promise my little Minnow…” The silence that follows is almost unbearable, it is sick, Minnowpaw let’s it remain though. Tears flowing down a stream and they buried his face into its fathers.

➢ Minnowpaw had always thought they were safe from the leafbares grasp, it could never happen to them or his family. It just happened to other cats, not it. That was he thought at least, Minnowpaw had no clue to even think. How do you think in a situation like this…? What do you even do? The cold was frozen, impossible to bury the bodies of their family members and with Flowerleap’s sudden but small sickness, Minnowpaw had been in and out of the herbalist den daily. Losing another cat was not an option. Minnowpaw had been overheating a conversation or two with his father and another cat, a friend, that’s what Minnowpaw guessed. Alas, Minnowpaw couldn’t catch a break in life? Padding up to the place their father was discharged from for once last time. Was his father going to die as well? Minnowpaw refused, burins the thought in his mind as they pushed through the snow, claws digging into the small patch of earth possible as Flowerleap met him at the entrance. A surge of energy flooded through Minnowpaw, causing them to drop the flowers he had been carrying as a gift.

➢ His father looked…better….(?) Minnowpaw was still not buying it, but happy to see their father again. The silver cat was breathing alright and acting (roughly like his old self) the conversation just happened to come up as they moved out into the clearing. “I was um, given an update on your mother and sister’s burial, if you care to listen…” Why was he talking like that?! Like he didn’t love either of them, acting like stranger to them?! As if Minnowpaw hadn’t been left here without any time to say goodbye! The learner remains silent, ears peeking as they padded through the snow, next to their father. Only offering a small hm in reply. “The earliest they can bury them is in a quarter moon…Minnowpaw, I- I’m sorry…I- this must have flipped your world upside down, I’m sorry, my little Minnow…” quarter moon. A quarter moon, they were stuck in the cold, roughly covered from leafbare harsh winds just laying there, in sleepy thicket. Minnowpaw feels the bubbles of anger forming as their face formed a distorted look. Minnowpaw is still quiet until the words properly form. “So they’re going to lay there?! What if they come back and freeze again?! Hawkey was sick and so was Mama! Daddy, they were sick! What if they just go to the Stars that guide again and they don’t get back in time to see me get my name?! That’s all I want, Daddy. I want Mama to see me get my special name…she promised…” Words fading into a mumble then to silence as they shut down.

➢ Minnowpaw can hear the tomcat’s sigh, no words are spoken as they break off the same path. Minnowpaw wanted to go after him, but the idea stopped itself from coming true as they used the excuse of needing to take a nap came up. Practically dragging themself to the learners den, Minnowpaw feels, the once halted tears, begin to fall. Dripping onto the icey ground as the calico locates their nest. Teeth digging right into the stick he had been given, eyes locked onto the feathers that were also a gift. They would come back…they had too, Minnowpaw allows the dogs to make him shudder at each of them as they racked their body. Paw now peaches gently on the feathers and stick as Minnowpaw released the stick from their jaw and held it. Hawkey and Mama would come back, Minnowpaw just had to give it time, surely that’s how it would work. All he needed was patience…to wait for the right time, and it wasn’t now.