[Quasar]

Originally Posted by littlelove

The first voice to direct itself towards her was curious - and, worst of all to Cinderpaw, foreign.

The apprentice's hollowed gaze met Snowwing's, looking the pale queen up and down. She desperately attempted to stutter out an answer to her question. "I-i-i... Do you-u..?"

Remember me?

It was easier thought than said, though, and instead of finishing her train of thought Cinderpaw began to shake. How was it this easy for one of her worst fears to be realized? That she'd been forgotten the second she'd been shoved into some hole in the ground? Something unsettling crawled across her skin, and she wondered if it was a maggot waiting to begin chewing away at her rotting flesh.

Nothing she'd felt before matched the relief that washed over her when Bat-- well, she knew it probably wasn't 'paw' by now -- made his presence known, and addressed her. Not by name, but close enough! A thankful, strangled cry emitted from her throat. The way he smiled sent a brief shock of alarming cold through her veins, but she chose to ignore it for the much more appealing fact that someone who hadn't hurt her was welcoming her back to Thunderclan.

Though, catch-up wasn't exactly a game she wanted to play right now. "I-- know. I sa--w you all." She croaked, hoping to get her point across. She'd need to be debriefed on all the new names, maybe - she hadn't heard any of them, after all - but it was easy enough for her to infer a lot of what she saw from above. Sparrowstar was leader. Cindersky was dead. Nobody had visited her grave. Her father was gone, and plenty of who she thought were her friends before that vote became warriors without her, and life moved on. She didn't need to realize those things all over again. Her head pounded from all the things she was feeling at once. Maybe she should slow down --

She was so focused on... well, literally everything else that she didn't realize who was nearby until she was enveloped into a familiar hug.

Cinderpaw froze within Shallowshiver's hold, mind blanking. Sobbed apologies met her ears, and the apprentice's face twisted slightly in an emotion undiscernible to her and most likely everyone else. She wasn't processing their words as much as she was just hearing them. Every muscle in her body screamed for a different reason.

She hung limply in her parent's grasp. There was little use in hugging back and letting herself cry, or pulling back and glaring towards them. It'd been proven to her countless times that the things she said or did meant pathetically little to Thunderclan.

[ @leader @Flea @Quasar @birdie bc you wanted to read also this is still open for anyone who wants to join in]

Shallowshiver | they/them

The silence that came from Cinderpaw was deafening. She had such a lack of reaction to, well, everything that seemed so unlike her. Cinderpaw had always been the first to speak out, without a care for what her clanmates may have thought. But over and over again, that aspect that made her so brave was beaten into the ground by those who should have been listening to her words. Did the clan do this to her? Their heart throbbed painfully as they were once again reminded of just how badly they had failed her. They knew it was too late to take back actions that had long since been decided on.

"Are you okay?" they asked, pulling back to carefully look over the apprentices scars. Immediately they realized how stupid a of question it was. No, she wasnt okay. Both mentally and physically she had been thrown straight into hell, no cat would come out of that the same as they once were, "What can I do to help? If you want me to just leave you alone... I will. I know that I'm probably not the first cat you would have wanted to see" Stars, that hurt to say out loud. Did that really matter, though? They could handle it, as long as it helped Cinderpaw even a bit. That was all they cared about.