(It’s alright!)
Ashfeather watched, feeling a bit of a nervous pride as Windpaw carefully uncurled her tail. However, she noticed the apprentice’s gaze fall to the ground. She saw how uncomfortable Windpaw was and felt both a pang of sympathy and one of anxiety at the same time. The position was getting too hard for her to hold with her mangled tail. Shaking, she tried to focus ahead. The unnatural bulge of her belly against her malnourished sides made her even more unbalanced, especially as her paw pads began to sweat with effort. Windpaw’s question took her entirely by surprise. What should she say?
Are you okay? The question rang in her ears. This was her apprentice; she couldn’t just say no. Her life was getting better: she had a mate, she was pregnant, and she had friends. But... was she really okay? Were her Clanmates judging her? She didn’t know enough about Windpaw. But she seemed similar to how she had been when she was an apprentice. Nervous. Insecure. Maybe she still was. Ashfeather wanted to tell her to lift her gaze, straighten her tail, but that seemed inappropriate for the time. She felt her knees buckle and fell to the ground with a thud. Sitting up and feeling the tension relieve from her limbs, she looked at Windpaw before feeling her gaze falling to her paws.
“I-I don’t know,” she admitted. Then she glanced up at Windpaw.
“Are you?”
@
Wings