[Captain]

Originally Posted by Ritsuka

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry!" Reedlight apologized quickly, racing over to Snowleap with an apologetic gaze. How had he made such a stupid mistake? Was it because of their chat earlier whirling in his mind? The dark tabby continued to mentally berate himself as he approached, and that barrage of scolding only intensified when he saw Snowleap's newly squired injury.

"What happened? Was it the squirrel?" Reedlight asked, leaning forward to sniff and check the injury, a frown on his face. Great. Now another thing he could blame himself....

♢ Snowleap ♢

Releasing the squirrel from his grasp, he watched as the limp body fell onto the forest floor amongst the leaves. The dark-furred warrior couldn’t think straight, the stinging pain in his left leg making him wince and not want to move. But as Snowleap saw Reedlight rush over to him, uttering frantic apologies over and over again, he didn’t have the heart to allow his clanmate to see him like this. Holding his breath, the Riverclan tomcat heaved himself upwards, standing with his left paw lifted and curled so he didn’t have to put weight onto it. Eyeing the bite mark on his leg, he could see that the squirrel had broken through his skin, a few small drops of blood oozing out of the wound. He felt foolish for letting something like this happen. What would Kestrelstar say if he saw him gain an injury like this in the middle of leafbare? He could only imagine how Snakeheart would be scolding him the moment he stepped foot into the medicine den. This shouldn’t have happened.

The tall tomcat snapped out of his frantic overthinking when he felt Reedlight leaning close to him, sniffing his leg and asking him what happened. Right. He wasn’t alone out here. Snowleap had nearly forgotten. “Y-Yes,” He meowed, his voice trembling a little, but he shook his head, “The damned thing bit me. But… I’ll be fine.” He didn’t want to burden Snakeheart and Reedpaw with his stupid mistake. “Listen to me. It’s not your fault, okay?” Snowleap looked at Reedlight with a serious gaze, “I should’ve communicated with you better. This is on me.” Deep down, the young tomcat knew something like this would happen to him. He always worked too hard and too recklessly. “Don’t worry about me. Let’s finish this hunt and get something else to take back to the clan.” Snowleap hated being coddled. This was nothing. It's fine.