An Unusual Friendship {CLOSED for Seer}

It was a strange feeling. Pantherblaze looked at his own crossed paws with a serious look, not quite sure of what to do. Since he became a warrior, he had been so busy that he didn’t find time to even socialize with his own clanmates. He always thought he didn’t have time for that stuff but today... the deputy didn’t assign him any patrol and he had nothing to do. It was the first time he noticed how lonely he was even in a clan full of cats.

Sighing, the tortie tom stood up and left his nest behind. Outside, he saw the camp filled with different types of cats, different types of personalities. He hissed softly as he turned his head away. Nobody could understand him... he was different from them. He was a half-clan warrior and even if most of them didn’t know, his past history was far different from them. He was born with an inner rage that his clanmates wouldn’t understand. Thanks to his past, he was destined to be alone.

A soft hiss caught Elmcloud's half-baked attention, pulling him away from the mindless task of grooming. Carefully pressing the remaining stray strands of fur back into place with a gentle brush of his muzzle, he eventually lifted his gaze in search of the source of apparent irritation. Catching sight of Pantherblaze's form, and the subsequent faint scent of aggression that clung to his fur, he paused for a heartbeat. The two hadn't been extraordinarily close- in fact, Pantherblaze seemed to be a bit older than him, but not by much.

"Did somebody put a thorn in your nest?" Elmcloud questioned, a lightly joking tone overtaking his voice as he gazed at the tom with attentive eyes.

The tortie warrior turned his sight to the other warrior, a bit confused by Elmcloud talking to him. Nobody wanted to talk to him so it was a strange occasion. The older warrior didn’t laugh or smiled by his joke. He was actually bad understanding the sense of friendly jokes like that since he was not used to them. He didn’t have friends as apprentice so he wasn’t able to learn about those interactions. ”It’s just a bad day... Nothing too big to worry about.” He answered looking at the tom with one green eye.

"Seems like every day is a bad day around here," A careless shrug punctuated Elmcloud's brief statement, "I'm sure quite a few of us can relate." Especially me. Lingering thoughts of the foul stench of illness and metallic blood still stubbornly clung to his conscious during most days, but some days it was easier to will them away. Twisting around to fully face his somewhat reluctant denmate, his meticulously grooming fell to a halt. "Half of the Clan might loathe me, but you'd be surprised at how adequate of a listener I can be."

The tom looked at the younger warrior with curiosity. He never spoke to him before but it was one f the few cats he could tolerate without many problems. It was weird. His last friends were his siblings but they were all dead. Pantherblaze flicked his tail and stood up, glancing at his clanmate. ”I’m not a cat of many words but... I guess some chat could help a bit. However, I’m not really comfortable talking here in the camp...” He mewed softly, looking around with a bitter taste in his mouth. Elmcloud seemed like a cat interested to know him a bit better but he couldn’t simply open up to him in such a crowded space where everyone could hear. First, the tom wanted to see if the warrior’s intentions were the same he supposed.”Would you mind to come with me on a casual stroll? I wanted to take some fresh anyways.” He mewed sincerely.

Blinking curiously, a momentary glimpse of interest pooled within the golden depth's of Elmcloud's gaze as he continued to peer at his Clanmate. Briefly, he found himself wondering what could possibly be so important that they were unwilling to allow such words to reach the ears of their Clanmates. But then again, he knew many cats who were simply private and preferred to keep the nature of their conflicts largely unknown. StarClan knows he himself hardly bothered to actually let his Clanmates genuinely know what was going through his brain at times. "If that's what you prefer," Elmcloud responded, rising from his previous position, "I'm alright with doing such."

Pantherblaze was truly surprised by how open was Elmcloud and even smiled a bit by his answer. When was the last time he smiled so sincerely? "Thank you... let's go..." The black and orange warrior flicked his tail and walked by Elmcloud's side, looking at him sometimes from the corner of his green eyes.

He left the camp and started wandering through Skyclan woods. The young warrior did not say a word for a while, trying to understand why his clanmate accepted to come with him. He finally sighed and turned his head to him. "Sorry for bringing you out here... it's just... I don't feel comfortable in the camp. I always feel like I don't fit in there thanks to-" My Riverclan father... The warrior hesitated and stopped talking for a second before shaking his head and looking away from the other warrior. "Nevermind. It's not important."

Matching Pantherblaze's pace, Elmcloud's tail adopted a leisurely swinging rhythm as the camp gradually vanished from their sights. Gaze occasionally drifting to the brightly colored canopy that loomed high above them, the bright patches of sunlight that bled through the gaps in the leaves made his eyes ache. Although it was nice for the warm moons to finally make their reappearance, the increase of sunlight surely was a pain. Twisting around to blink at Pantherblaze as he finally spoke, the tom's whiskers twitched curiously. His companion's words resonated deeply within the core of his being.

While it had been many moons ago, Elmcloud could still recall the judgmental stares of his Clanmates and their furtive whispers that had caused Poppysong to hide her face in shame. The foul recollection sent a spike of bitterness crawling down his throat. Abruptly swinging his head to face the slightly perceptible trail before them, his mouth became heavy with a frown. "Sometimes I still don't feel entirely comfortable with every cat," Elmcloud eventually admitted, ears folding slightly, "I know a lot of cats still haven't forgiven Poppysong for...everything. They still look at me the way they used to look at her."

Pantherblaze looked at the tom with a feeling he never felt before for anybody: empathy. The warrior never thought that he would find a cat that could understand him... someone who knew how it felt to be judged and tormented by their parents' mistakes. The tortie warrior touched, a bit hesitant at first, the tom's shoulder, trying to be the friendly cat he never was. "I guess... we're not so different as I thought, Elmcloud. Trust me when I say that I know what you feel... Mapleshade might have been a good Skyclan warrior to the eyes of our clanmates when she was alive but... she made mistakes too that have cursed me and the rest of my long gone siblings..." She mewed lowering his head a bit as he gazed away from the brownish warrior. He wondered if it was okay to tell him the secret of his origins and about his real father. He just started talking to the other warrior but he had been so open to hear him and to share... was it fine to do the same?

Idly focusing on the soft, springy tufts of fresh greenery that welled up beneath his paws, Elmcloud's nostrils flared slightly as he struggled to find his composure once more. Once it was lost, it was always difficult to find once more. It was always difficult delving back into those memories, especially now that everyone had gone and left him to bear this burden alone. A slight start crept down his spine at Pantherblaze's gentle touch, the ensuing twitch beneath his fur allowing him to stay tethered to the present. Ears twitching at the other tom's admission, Elmcloud's attention returned to the tortoiseshell tom beside him. It was surprisingly comforting to hear such a statement- he had always foolishly believed himself to be the only cat who struggled under such circumstances.

"It's not fair, is it?" There was a gruff note of rather bitter amusement in his normally pleasurable voice, "They get to do as they please and we're always the ones who suffer because of it." Elmcloud was never sure if he actually blamed Poppysong for everything, after all she had believed Crowstar to be lost, but there was always that lingering spark of resentment.

”It is, indeed.” He agreed with a bitter sound on his voice. He never blamed his mother for what happened. Her mistake was to fall in love with a monster like his father, the cat who left her and his family like they were trash. The fur of his tail bristled as the anger against Batfang started to raise again inside his heart but he tried not to snap out again like he always did. Instead, he lifted his head and looked at the trees with fire in his green eyes. ”I can’t stand this injustice... Tell me, Elmcloud, if you have the chance, the possibility, to make justice for everything bad they have done to do... would you do it? I have been thinking about this since a while... I just... I can’t stay still when the one who let my siblings dies is living happily without any kind of punishment...”

Elmcloud's only immediate answer was a thoughtful pause.

Did he want justice? Hadn't they suffered enough? Poppysong had lost the very kits that she had nearly given herself up for, only to perish from a cruel fate. Stoneteller... well, he didn't know much about his father aside from the fact that he only just managed to guide his Tribe to the forest without losing what few remained. Was it even fair of him to long for something as selfish as justice, when they hadn't acted out of anything but love?

"Sometimes," He admitted plainly, "But I think they've been punished enough for what they've done. Plus, they're long dead- what could I even do?"