and then i ate his liver (c)

A heavy silence hung over Heatherberry, her own nonstop thoughts suddenly gone quiet as she stared ahead of her. Unblinking. Unmoving. Had she seen this scene before? She was sure she had. The red that stained Wolfpaw's maw forced a memory to flit by of a tom whose pelt was a deep red that she had shared a meal with at some point. She had found him rather weird for how he had meticulously picked apart his prey, leaving each piece in a neat pile while the rest of the gore remained on his fangs, face, and paws. The same teeth he had used to rip a purple kittypet collar from her neck after she had finally returned to ShadowClan after the mass kidnapping all those moons ago. The same teeth he had used to, eventually, kill a SkyClan cat as a 'fun little hunt'.  And it had all started with the mutualization of prey.

"Force me to the ground,
O righteous one,
Bury your secrets in my skin,
Carve your justice into my bones,
You, Pure One,
Enrich the soil with my life's blood,
Make sure there is no drop left for me." *

She recalled the muffled lyrics that could be heard from the inside of the leaders den where the council had decided his fate - to some tune she had never heard of nor would have ever dreamed up. His maniacal laughter that came from Redice in the midst of his execution; before the light fell from his eyes.

The cyclops finally blinked. How silly. Wolfpaw was not Redice. He was Pineblossom's son! A child of Pineblossom couldn't be capable of such a fox hearted deed. Instead of standing there trying to convince herself over and over again that him taking his frustrations out on the corpse of a rat was much better than killing another cat, Heatherberry forced her paws forward in his direction. "Is there something wrong with the prey? If so, I'm sure there are plenty of others to choose from." Her practiced smile held no obvious notes of uneasiness, but she sure did feel it.

* text for the lyrics in purple were taken from this topic where Redice (Tara) had been executed

A chill ran down her spine at the apprentice's words. Whatever she had thought his reply to her would be, but this was not it, but her smile remained even as she was met with his brusque tone. "Death is not the only time one should see a medicine cat. Illness, check ups, just to talk... All very good reasons to go see one, I'd say." Being a strange little guy beating a rat to a pulp in the middle of camp, even after it's been long dead, was another.

She watched his expression carefully, though there wasn't much movement of his permanent frown even when he spoke harshly. Curiosity was there, though it felt rather minimal for such a big question. Was it... Truly a question? Should she even be humoring him? "Hm... Depends on the size, I'd say. My body would contain more blood than yours as you're not full grown. Why do you ask? Do you want to see another cats blood?" There was a bit of hope that just saying it outright would make him lose interest in finding out for himself; though perhaps she should be bringing up some concerns about Wolfpaw to his mother at some point. Her ear twitched as her eye wandered to look at the mess he had made. Perhaps sooner rather than later.

Curiosity... Her gaze didn't leave the mushy pile of rat as she stood in silence. His questions rang in her ears, her expression neutral. "I suppose they would; every creatures bones crumble in the same way. Bleed the same color of blood."

Her eye flicked back to look at Wolfpaw. "Would you like to go on an herb hunt with me one of these days, Wolfpaw? I'd like to get to know you more. You are... Interesting." Worrisome. Reminiscent of a long dead warrior. Trouble. Or perhaps he truly was just curious.