[The Cannibal]

Originally Posted by Lonestar23

Pinekit had been expecting her to be upset, knowing that she would hate him for what he had done, but he hadn't been expecting the guilt- or the pain that came with it. It seemed to hit him harder than anything else, and it was only then that he realized the severity of what he had actually done. I never should have told her. I should have just eased back into my own character. She never would have noticed, probably. Pinekit thought, with a rueful lash of his own tail. For a moment, he wondered if he should just stay here. Going after her would only upset her more. But Pinekit, being the cat that he was and never starting anything that he wouldn't finish....well, other than his game with Adderpaw...slowly got to his paws and approached the apprentices' den, stopping at the entrance. "Adderpaw?" He asked in a soft voice that was so uncharacteristic it almost surprised him, before he realized that he sounded like his fake character. "I know you're in there, so don't even bother trying to ignore me." He added, sounding much more like himself. He liked it, too...it was nice to not have to worry so much about what he should say, although he knew he should pick his words carefully here. He could end up only hurting her more, which was something he didn't want to do. "You think this is a game to me? You think I'd be here just to, as you put it 'toy with your emotions?' And what do you think I would gain from that, huh?" He asked, his voice harsher than he meant it to be. It was the frustration and anger- not at Adderpaw, but at himself- that made his voice sound that way. "None. I get nothing from this. The only thing I would get would be you, as my friend. Why do you think I play these games? Did you think about that? Did you think about the fact that maybe, just maybe, I can't make a real friend of my own? Did you ever think that maybe someone hurt me before and caused me to be like this?" He asked, his voice still in his own tone. It wasn't quite as harsh as before, and it was more laced with pain than before as well. "I doubt you believe me. You probably think this is another game to me, even after all of that. Go ahead. Go ahead and find yourself a real friend, forget about me. Forget about me just like-" He cut himself off before he could continue. If Adderpaw wasn't going to be his friend...such a strange word...then he couldn't trust her. If she wanted to be friends with the Pinekit that he had been acting as, the one who was never upset and smiled most of the time, and liked to play all the time, and didn't mind losing...then that was her problem. Still, he was going to wait for her reply. Wait and see what she said.

Maybe, just maybe...she could give him another chance. Maybe she would be the first to do so. This was the first time Pinekit had tried anything like this, and it was strange and unfamiliar territory. He wasn't quite sure he liked the feel of it, either. It was too uncertain. He couldn't be sure of anything, which was another reason he played the games. The one thing that he could be sure of...or at least, that he had been sure of...was that he would always win. But this time he had lost, badly. Even if Adderpaw hadn't been playing the game. And what is friendship, anyway? Isn't it a game? Worried that you'll hurt someone, trying to hold on to your friends while balancing everything else, acting like what they say doesn't hurt you sometimes? If that isn't a game, I don't know what is. Pinekit thought to himself, with a frustrated twitch of his tail. He continued to wait for Adderpaw. He wasn't going to give up easily at all. Even if she turned her back on him now, he was at the very least going to get her to give him one more chance, just for a few minutes, a conversation...anything. His ultimate goal was to gain her friendship back, although seeing how badly this had hurt her, he was sure that it was going to be a long and hard road, and one that Pinekit wished he had never ventured down. I hurt her. I did this by myself. He thought, the realization hitting him again.
(Alright...poor Adderpaw, I can't believe she doesn't have any other friends!)

{Yeah, I know, it's weird but it definitely builds on her character!}

To be completely honest with herself, Adderpaw thought that that was the end, right then and there, that he would have taken those words, shrugged it off and just went off to trick another poor cat into giving him things that he wanted, or doing things that he wanted, making them think they were his friend only to.. Sighing out, the yellow tabby only buried her face further into her tail as she started to get a hold of her sobbing, quieting down to just the occasionally hitches and hiccups of breath. She had never felt so low and terrible and alone in her life before now. All those times of being strong, shrugging off what other kits said to her, shrugging off the fact that she didn't have any friends, had come crashing down to this sobbing mess of an apprentice in her nest. What had she ever done to deserve this? Was it wrong to be confident that she would do well in life? Was it wrong to be herself despite some cats not liking how she was? Was it so wrong for her to be her? That's what it started to seem like, especially now that the one she thought was her friend was just a sneaky trickster that only wanted what he wanted and didn't care for another's feelings, didn't care for friendship, just took what he wanted and left.
But that wasn't the end. She heard a soft voice call her name from the entrance, her right ear swiveling a bit in the direction before she realized who it was. That soft voice was Pinekit's. Or was it? She didn't even know what was the real him anymore. Curling even tighter into a ball, she didn't bother answering and simply remained silent. But what he said next caused her to pause in confusion. That wasn't the voice she normally heard him use. Was he acting again, to try and mend the bond so that he could just get more benefits from her? Probably. So she simply remained silent.

As he spoke, Adderpaw quietly listened from her nest, slowly lifting her head from her paws, tears staining the fur around her eyes as they looked towards the entrance of the apprentice's den. "Of course you think of this as a game, what do you mean? You said I won. This is all a big game to you Pinekit, are you too mouse-brained to see it? A big game that you thought you would win before you slipped up. Maybe you told me on purpose, and are doing this on purpose too, mending the bond to make me think that maybe you really are a cat that could be my friend so that you can get benefits from me even longer, only to leave me in the long run. That wouldn't surprise me." Meowed the she-cat, her voice shaky with tears with a bitter note in it, an almost sort of scowl on her face. "Maybe you should put yourself in another cats paws for a second. How would you feel if I played with you, told you things, shared tongues with you and was nice to you, making you think I was your friend only to come along and say I was tricking you so I could get something I wanted. You're a liar Pinekit and you probably never even meant anything you ever said to me, it's all lies." More tears started to flow from her eyes and she gritted her teeth, looking away. "A-And to think.. To think that you were actually a good trustworthy cat that I could go into battle with knowing that you would have my back.. Starclan help me if I were deputy and you wanted to be deputy, huh?" Sniffling, she simply shook her head and laid her head back in her paws. It was clear it would definitely be an extremely hard job gaining her trust back.