blotting out [closed for minecraftnerd]

Dovespirit sat at the edge of camp, eyes glassy and mind spinning. Ever since that fateful night of the vigil, things had been different. There were no more laughing patrols with her friends, or brushing by one half-heartedly in camp. Instead, her and Talon avoided one another coldly. Every time she saw the gray tom, she felt as though she was being stabbed in the chest repeatedly. It was her fault, she'd decided, for being so hare-brained about the whole thing. She should've been able to tell Talon had feelings for her. Everything added up, now that she knew. She was just too slow and too much in denial to have realized it before.

Starclan, if I'd known being a warrior was this complicated I would've just stayed an apprentice forever.

She glanced up miserably from her perch, catching a familiar pelt weaving through camp. "Oak—fall!" she called, forcing herself to her feet. He was the calmest and probably wisest out of the group of three. If anyone can sort this out, it's him.

Oakfall was mindlessly wandering through camp, looking for something to do or someone to talk to. He heard a familiar voice behind him and smiled as his friend Dovespirit came into view. He was still so incredibly proud of him and his friends, from the small kits pretending to fight, to actual training, to now being Oakfall, Dovespirit, and Talonstrike. He knew that with his kit now an apprentice, him with his new name, and his best friends by his side, the world seemed to be brighter than ever. But as he drew closer to his friend, he saw the white she-cat looked greatly troubled. He could see it in her eyes, she was really worried about something. What was wrong? "Hey," Oakfall purred reassuringly, "what's going on? Do you need to talk?" His face had assumed a worried expression now, despite his kind words. He and his friends had been through their whole lives together, and he had never seen Dovespirit like this before.

At the sight of her friend's young, smiling, handsome face, the she-cat wanted to cry. Maybe I shouldn't bring Oakfall into this, she began to think. But this has to do with his closest friends. I can't just leave him out of it. Dovespirit started to nod, glancing down half-ashamed. "Yes—please," she managed, glancing up at him pleadingly with watery blue eyes.

She coughed from the effort of holding tears back, turned around and slunk out of camp, just beyond the barriers where no cat would hear them, where the tallgrasses waved slightly in the warm breeze. It was hot but the sky was gray; a storm was soon to come. It foreshadowed a dark story to come, but Dove was too focused on swallowing her feelings and being able to talk without breaking out in sobs to notice.

She sat down, her mouth suddenly very dry.