Quote:
Originally Posted by Thistledawn
Hoot jumped with surprise when he heard Silence's voice. He had prompted her to use it, but he also expected her to shake her head no, telling him she wouldn't. Her voice sounded weird. It wasn't anything like Hoot had ever heard. Silence's voice sounded like she'd abandoned it in a cave for a couple moons, only recently remembering it and using it. Not only that, but it looked like it hurt. It seemed that the she-cat was swallowing hard to make it feel better. Guilt prickled at Hoot's tan colored pelt. He didn't want Silence to hurt herself. He was just curious.
Trying to seem disinterested, Hoot watched Silence as she let her body tell her story. Her views were different from what Hoot's were. She's wrong, he decided. Silence seemed like a good cat. He still didn't know her. Although his heart was tugging him towards her, tugging him towards a friend, Hoot pulled away. Good cats like the two of them needed to be alone. They needed to be alone or else they'd be tainted by other cats' evil. He'd zoned out for a moment, missing a portion of what Silence was saying, but he'd gotten the gist. He'd understood enough to understand that they weren't as alike as Hoot thought they might have been. She enjoyed company. She wanted the cats who stayed with her to stay longer, to stay forever. Hoot didn't want any part of that. Hoot didn't want strangers and their words and their impossibleness. Hoot wanted isolation and silence. Hoot wanted to be alone. After all, if the young tom was good at anything, he was good at being alone.
Hoot looked away as Silence looked at him with a warmth in her eyes that he'd never seen before. He watched as she etched something in the dirt. At first he couldn't tell what it was, but once she swiped a paw across her throat, he understood what she meant. He nodded, still trying to avoid Silence's orange eyes. Without another word, the tom padded behind the tree and began gathering moss, tearing it with his claws when he needed to. Hoot would leave and return home when it was time, leaving Silence and their time together in this clearing. He'd go home and he'd rest and hunt and mark his territory as if today hadn't even happened. |
Silence would have sighed if she could. Her words had shut him down again, and she regretted that. He seemed to be honestly a kind cat, once he let himself open up. Something had striped his nerves down so that kindness rubbed like bark against him. He moved behind the tree and Silence went into the den and came back out with a mouse. Hoot'd said he wasn't hungry but she wanted to make sure he'd eaten.
You can't change how cats are. she thought as she waited for him to return, curling her tail neatly around her paws.
But you do what you can and hope it was enough to leave them with a pleasant memory. Silence smiled smally as she recalled the words of the old tom who raised her. She made up her mind to ask Hoot for help with a little errand when he came back.