Small talk [c]

With a quiet and peaceful sunhigh, it was hard to sleep in the dens knowing there were splotches of warm rays waiting for her. There she lay near Jaggedrock, her black pelt slowly turning brown as she lounged, eyes wandering about camp. Harriertalons attention couldn't help but keep turning to Nightstar's den: was he sleeping? Did he still hurt? Was he eating properly? How was he after Redice...? Things she'd never be able to approach him about normally. It would never be her place.

But... She had only chatted with him once, just them, when she was an apprentice. And about nothing good, really. Maybe if she stared hard enough, it would send signals straight into his head and will him to approach her first.

Nightstar found it hard to sleep lately.

He had never killed before, not until Redice and the tom had found it in his twisted delusions to make it worse, moments before and during the end of his life. He felt suffocated just as much as Redice must've felt as he bit down on his trachea and wrapped his paws around his mouth and nose, Redice returning the favor as he encouraged him and shoved his own throat into the back of the leader's molars, even when his strength began to ebb. Redice tried to take him with him, and maybe if he had been a bit unluckier he would have.

It seemed to haunt his sleep, waking him up panting and heaving, drool saturating his chin as he choked on nothingness. Amber eyes opened up blearily as he looked to find that a few stray sunbeams were smattering the entrance to his den, the residual feeling of being haunted ebbing away just as quickly as a tick fastened to his skin, taking his blood and growing fat and slow. Nightstar would have felt haunted, hunted even by the demons on his sleep had Redice not done what he did, but the cat on his deathbed seemed more than determined to make his mark and had succeeded at a feat that was easy to achieve in the first place.

Nightstar forced himself to his paws, his muscles stiff and unwilling to do his bidding as he made his way out, unfocused. He stopped just outside his den, unsure of what to do, his eyes landing on the pile contemplatively before bile surged into his throat. Food and going back to sleep was out of the question then.

His eyes narrowed as they landed on the camp entrance, his paws carrying him swiftly into the tunnels and out into the territory where perhaps his demons would not follow.

Ears perked as her will seemed to reach Nightstar, though he didn't seem to quite catch the message she was sending as he paused for a moment, seemingly contemplating the fresh-kill pile, only to immediately turn the opposite direction of Harriertalon. Her ears went back in disappointment as she watched his white-tipped tail disappear through the camps entrance. However, a rare opportunity to catch the ShadowClan leader alone, and without his usual entourage, would not be missed.

The brambles rustled around her as she followed, hoping he hadn't disappeared already. To her relief, he was still well within sight. However, he seemed... Disheveled. Much more than he usually did these days and it caused her to hesitate for a brief moment. But not for long. "Nightstar? Her expression was friendly, though it would not be easy to turn her away even if he tried.

He had almost gotten completely lost in his thoughts, in the fear that nipped at his heels like a persistent dog, when Harriertalons usually meek voice brought him back to the present. It didn't snap him into presenthood, but more or less like a small niggling voice that gave one a moment to remember. Nightstar suddenly felt every stray hair out of place, every still healing claw mark, and the crust around his maw from his restless sleep should he even call it that. Fear and anxiety surged through the leader's pelt as he realized how improper and how weak he looked in front of his warrior. A white-tipped paw raised to brush away the crust and he shook out his fur to smooth it, shifting himself to be tall and confident and leaderly. "Harriertalon." He meowed, ignoring how rough his voice sounded, "What is it?" He asked, completely ignoring the fact that Harriertalon saw him like that.