divine loser [C]

Silverpaw

“Heatherberry?”

The new name felt odd in his mouth. Silverpaw hadn’t had much time (or desire, truly) to speak with her or anyone else for the last few moons. But everything kept changing in ShadowClan, and for once, it seemed to be for the better. He wanted to dig his heels in and bark and fight against moving forward, moving on in anyway; he wanted to, and he had been, and the world revolved around him. In spite of his staunch determination to languish in his rage and grief, Pineblossom’s assignment as his new mentor shook some dormant part of him back to life. Bitterness still clung to him, and he did not want to run after every cat that crossed his path as he had when he was just apprenticed…

… But he at least wanted to be civil. Heatherberry was his friend. He thought so, at least. He’d meant to talk to her after Batswarm and Moondancer’s bodies were returned, but with Honeylight’s own loss so shortly after… Silverpaw shook his head and pushed out a heavy breath. “If you’re not busy, come outside? I haven’t visited in a while.”

Silverpaw

Silverpaw returned a faint mirror of the medicine cat’s smile at her appearance, bowing his head politely in greeting. It warmed his pelt a little, that Heatherberry was happy to see him, so he straightened up in respect of her presence. “I’m glad I’m not interrupting,” he mewed. His whiskers twitched once and he pushed his smile a little wider to combat the frown that would have overtaken his pleasant expression at her question. What do you mean how have I been? How have any of us been? He wanted to snap, but he gave his tongue a quick bite to stay the impulse. It would do him no good to snap at those who were supposed to be his friends. Heatherberry hadn’t meant anything by it. It was only polite conversation.

“Oh, you know,” Silverpaw laughed airily, waving a forepaw loosely through the air. “As well as ever, Heatherberry. I’m grateful to finally have a proper mentor again. I miss actually training.” The corners of his smile tightened. He just wouldn’t mention why he’d been without a mentor to begin with, or that his prolonged period without was partly due to his own refusal to move forward from it. “Yourself? I meant to talk to you sooner, before your ceremony-- which, congratulations on your new name, it’s nice --but...” Silverpaw shrugged and waved his tail as if to brush away the sentence. “No time, I suppose. How are you, though?”