[Fawn]

Dovekit - {reaction to the otter patrol's return}

It was as if a hush washed over the world.

Dovekit stiffened when her gaze fell upon the awaiting horror: deceased otters, and a Spiderthroat looking like he was about to jump right into the grave with them. The iron tang of wounds rested heavy in the air. Where there could have been relief from seeing ThunderClan’s newest threat (one of them, anyway) dead on the ground, Dovekit’s stomach twisted in uneasy knots, and her breathing reduced to sharp mechanical motions.

Every time she’d seen Spiderthroat lately, he’d looked like this. A bloody pulp of matted fur and bruised flesh. His repeated flirtations with death-adjacent danger were not some infrequent, discordant note reducing his appearance to that of a disgustingly fresh-birthed kit, but a lifestyle choice.

Feast, he’d said. All he said. The single utterance made her go entirely rigid.

Her paws, tingling with a sudden loss of sensation, didn’t feel like her own as they carried her to the edge of camp, the numbness climbing through her quaking body. Relief had been carved out of Dovekit. Only to be replaced with sinking, overwhelming dread. Her vision tunneled, and she wretched over to dry heave.