A glance at the now-deceased bat before she shrugged one shoulder.
"Probably. Give it to Spiderthroat 'n make him try it. That way it won't be too much of a loss if it's poisonous or somethin'." All jokes, of course. She would never want to poison her deputy. Whack him upside the head for stress relief, sure, but that was fairly tame as far as most impulses went.
Bumblestar's ears twitched again as she listened to Mudhound speak. She slowly trailed after her sibling, scanning the rest of the cave as it opened up to her gaze. Lush moss, small pools, ground the seemed to sink ever so slightly beneath her paws where she stepped. She could get lost in here - go for a night walk and come sleep beneath the waterfall whenever she needed something to snap her out of her haze. The hardest part would be convincing herself to stand.
Then she saw what her sibling had intended to show her.
Her throat went dry and closed up. She stared at the prints indented in the soft walls, silent for a long while, before she slowly lifted a paw and allowed it to hover over what she knew was Wolfhive's.
"When-" Her voice cracked.
'When did you do this?' she wanted to ask, but couldn't bring herself to finish the question. Instead, she swallowed.
She had seen him. At least, she thought she had. Glimpses, flickers in the corners of her vision that vanished whenever she turned in an attempt to catch him fully. Sometimes she thought she was going crazy. It wouldn't be too far off, would it? Seeing her dead son when no one else did?
Tears didn't fall - she'd lost the ability to cry at some point - but her eyes stung and she blinked hard to make the pain go away. Carefully, fearing a sudden slip that would ruin his imprint and the last physical reminder she had of him, she pressed her paw against the wall beside it. It was smaller than his, and much smaller, than Mudhound's. If she were able, she'd have laughed at the difference.
Words wouldn't come, so instead Bumblestar closed her eyes and pressed her nose into Mudhound's shoulder for a long moment in silent thanks.
[ @
Rani ]