[Captain]

Originally Posted by Brilliance

Blackbirdpaw calmly trotted into the clearing, beside her another black cat. Much darker than her and didn’t carry the brown tint that her own pelt had. Had it been night, he wouldn’t be visible at all. The only physical feature giving him away was his blue eyes. Two bright blue abysses, pool of hidden irises, staring into you, more through you than anything else. It wasn’t his fault though, Blackbirdpaw had treated Jaguarkit as a special case, taking care of him when no one else wanted to bother. It took Blackbirdpaw time to comprehend why Jaguarkit was...expressionless. Whenever she played with the little ones, they were rowdy, boisterous play mates. Saved for Pitchkit, who appeared to be cynical about everything in life. Jaguarkit...on the other paw just didn’t do anything. He stood there, or laid there, his head on his paws and his eyes remained on a fixed distance. Blackbirdpaw even called out his name a couple times to check up on him, but he never answered her. From what she observed, the milky glaze that his eyes held; he was blind. Then, the fact that he wasn’t responding to her sound, he was deaf. Blackbirdpaw has a soft heart, almost easily trusting she appeared to be. She started to coddle her younger sibling, taking him in her paws to be sure he was okay. Currently, the she cat thought it was a marvelous day for Jaguarkit to get some fresh air. Blackbirdpaw tried her best to keep him locked on a schedule because if she hadn’t, he’d be in that same spot, languidly moving about to a minimum. Feeling the breeze through her pelt, her eyes landed on the kit pressed against her. Glowing yellow hues, softly beaming down at her companion, Blackbirdpaw knew he could feel that sense of freedom as well.
Jaguarkit didn’t bother to leave Blackbirdpaw’s side. With a heightened sense of smell, he knew of her acceptance. It was hard for him to accep others he didn’t know. He preferred being around company he could trust. Additionally, he knew that it wouldn’t have looked right for him to be exploring a territory that he never saw or heard. However, he smelled the mingled scents of the other cats. Some fresh, others...not so fresh. He smelled prey, definitely fish, and maybe even a few voles. His frosty eyes glanced from one place to another - darkness. Something he was entirely used to, and it brought a peacefulness that others wouldn’t understand. Black was such a beautiful color. It was his favorite color. Not that he had much of a choice anyway.

It was a peaceful morning within the spacious clearing of Riverclan, but the black-furred tomcat’s mind couldn’t really seem to rest easy. How many long moons had passed since his beloved Talonfang had passed onto the stars above with such urgency and hardly a goodbye he could move on with? Sproutwhisker was unsure, but he knew that he couldn’t let this get him down too much. He was alone once again in his clan, mateless and a single father to five kittens who no longer had the sweet scent of their mother to lull them to sleep each night. The saddened truth as it was, the warrior had let it all get to him ever since he had let out a hardened wail of agony that day when he discovered her still form in the nursery, discovered by one of his daughters - Pitchkit. Within his own depression and grievance, Sproutwhisker had seemed to lose his place as a father and forget about his own children for quite some time, letting his weight decline and the color leave his eyes - making him look older and greyer than he actually was. Losing his father had been hard enough, so why her too? That was the question he asked himself constantly. Was he was a curse among cats that he grew close to? Was that why he was abandoned by his own birth family so many moons prior? These endless questions went through his head over and over again with no mercy as the tomcat sat there on the edge of the clearing, staring down at his paws with this lost, sunken expression deep within the male’s gaze. It was sad really, considering how bright and friendly the tomcat seemed at one time - happy to be with his friends and spend time with his children, including his own apprentice who was his adopted daughter at this point. What happened? Why did everything just seem like a dull blur in his life now? Questions, questions, questions. Swimming through the black-furred tomcat’s mindset with no clear end. “Talonfang..” The name of his mate whispered in Sproutwhisker’s thoughts, which made him shake his head - wanting to scream out once more in unholy pain. Who would be next to die? Blackbirdpaw? Flintheart? Hawkfeather? Who would he have to see next for the life to leave their eyes? Sproutwhisker straightened up, looking around the clearing at the other cats who inhabited it. Some looked in his direction, pity and maybe sympathy gleaming in their expressions, but it didn’t last long as they hurried away on with their lives. This type of behavior was identical to how Ripplewhisker was when he lost Swallowstorm, not by death by a broken heart. Maybe the next cat to die - would be him. Who knew these answers anymore? His dulled amber-hued eyes caught sight of a pair of dark-furred cats that he recognized - his daughter and son. His children. Jaguarkit looked like his mother, smelled like her and reminded him of her, but still, Sproutwhisker hated that Blackbird paw had to take care of him because he had been too careless. He wondered if they even wanted anything to do with him after he had fallen to madness and emotion since Talonfang’s death - to the point where he couldn’t even go greet them and stayed sat where he was. It was painful, living like this.