The light in the shadow (closed)

Stoatclaw lay in the medicine den, picking idly at his nest with a white paw. His time in Shadowclan was boring, almost mind numbingly so, but that was a good thing. Boring meant he wasn't being accosted by the red warrior, or any cats looking to rid their camp of his presence. Besides, it wasn't always like this. Some times he would get Burdockroot talking, mainly about herbs and the like, but it was still conversation he was glad to partake in. Burdockroot wasn't here at the moment though. She had left to replenish her stocks, which meant Stoatclaw was on his own until she returned. The tom's picking ceased, and his eyes rolled lazily toward the den's entrance. He had been prepared to a hollow entryway, but he saw something else. It was the figure of a cat shrouded in shadows. Stoatclaw squinted at the figure, firing off his best guess as to who it was. "Rookfire?"

Lighttail hadn’t wanted to believe it. She hadn’t wanted to believe that one of her own clanmates had attempted to brutally murder anyone, much less Stoatclaw. For days, she couldn’t bring herself to see him. She told herself it was to avoid drawing suspicion (about what? He was just a friend…), but in reality it was because she couldn’t face him. She was never in that kind of relationship with Stoatclaw, but somehow what she did with Astraeus made her feel like she’d wronged him in some way. Not only that, but she had this irrational fear that he wouldn’t know her, that his memory had been taken like her mother’s.

At long last, she got up the courage to visit Stoatclaw in the medicine den. He didn’t recognize her immediately and her heart skipped a beat. No, no, this isn’t real. It’s not happening. “It’s Lighttail, actually.”

Lighttail! The voice alone was enough to give her away, but stars why was she here? Stoatclaw quickly flopped onto his belly, ignoring the pain that lanced through him at the fast movements. He did not want her seeing how badly he had been injured by her clanmate. It was bad enough that he had lost, but now Lighttail had to see him like this too? The tom's pelt grew hot with embarrassment. "H-Hi, Lighttail... Long time no talk." Despite not wanting to be seen like this, Stoatclaw desperately wanted to talk to her. He had missed his friend. "Burdockroot isn't here right now, but... I could use some company. If you're not doing anything, I mean." The tom stared intently at Lighttail, awaiting a response.

“Actually, um, I came to see you. I’m so sorry about all this. I seriously had no idea Redice was that dangerous. If only I could have done something!” Lighttail began to tear up. “Are you okay? I mean, I know you’re hurt, but like, is there anything I can do? I’m not a medicine cat, but I spent a lot of time helping my mother with stuff when she lost her memory.”

Stoatclaw was quick to speak up. "It wasn't your fault! I mean, there was no way you could have known he would do something like that." Even now Stoatclaw was surprised. The red warrior- Redice had leapt across the Thunderpath, intentionally crossing the border to attack him. Never would he have thought a cat would do such a thing, but he was a living example of being too trusting of other clans it seemed. Stoatclaw was aware of the glimmer in Lighttail's eye. The tom shot to his paws, ignoring the pain that slashed at his belly as he padded closer to the she-cat. "I'm fine!" He lied. "Healing up quickly, so you don't have to worry about me. Being able to talk to you is enough, I've really missed out little talks." His words while true were still embarrassing. The tom fought against the urge to avert his gaze, choosing instead to follow the change in subject.

"Your mother lost her memory? It doesn't surprise me that you'd help her. You've always been an incredibly kind cat, but that must have been hard for you to deal with. I'm sorry you had to go through that." His friend had to suffer through something like that, and he hadn't even been there for her. He didn't feel good about that at all. "Did she ever, er, recover?"

Relief washed over Lighttail as she saw that Stoatclaw was improving, though she didn’t miss the wince when her friend moved. Still, she couldn’t hide how glad she was that he didn’t seem to have any head trauma. “It was around the time we all had to flee our territories. She hit her head on a rock after fighting a fox. Her memory was completely wiped clear back to apprenticehood. But yeah, she’s fine now. Still, I ended up being more or less in charge of her every time we had to evacuate.”