Quote:
Originally Posted by Raindancer
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.
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Frustrated and confused for no reason obvious to himself, Hoot rolled the moss he'd gathered and into a ball so that it would be easy to carry. He picked it up between his jaws and began to pad back around the tree. The tom noticed Silence waiting patiently on the other side, her tail wrapped around her paws. Hoot's stared at her for a heartbeat before the scent of mouse drifted past his nose. The Abyssinian's belly noticed it too, growling once more, but louder this time. Hoot stubbornly willed his stomach to stop complaining. Hoot had gone longer without food before. He and his stomach would make it for now. Perhaps Silence had changed her mind about being hungry anyways. She'd caught it, so she might as well eat it. A quiet voice in the back of Hoot's head told him that wasn't why she'd brought the mouse out of her den, but he ignored it.
Setting the moss ball outside of the den, Hoot turned back to Silence, who he'd caught smiling at nothing. He gave her a questioning glance. "Something funny?" He mewed with the least amount of emotion he could manage. His effort was wasted, he realized, as Silence couldn't hear his tone of voice anyways.