Achilles, it's not much but there's proof [p]

[Neptune.]

Cinderpaw
~<>~
9/100
7 moons || she/her || ShadowClan Apprentice
small black tabby with minimal white markings and 3 legs; amber eyes
[cw: minor elements of ableism and self loathing]

The days, for Cinderpaw, had passed by uneventfully and with nothing much for her to actually do. Her family had also... complicated things. She wanted to see them, to learn how her littermate's training was going, to feel some sort of connection to the family she so often felt disconnected from... but she couldn't look at momma without remembering the meeting she had called, the way her siblings spoke about momma 'blaming' them for the bad things that happened, and the fear she'd felt when momma and papa had shouted at each other.

Some nights she replayed that scene in her head and prayed no one else in the apprentice den could hear her silent weeping. Stupid Cinderpaw, she imagined them saying, what a fool our sister was to believe this family was happy and healthy! What an idiot she was for not seeing the cracks! How blind she had been if she thought the siblings who barely spoke to her loved her! And she had been a fool, really. She'd only been seeing the parts of her family that she wanted to see. And it was this very love for her family that led her to getting grossly disfigured in the first place. Stupid Cinderpaw, blind to the real world.

She'd had a hard time even looking to the medicine den since then, scared that if she were to poke her head in, her mother might start yelling again, might start saying things that weren't true. Eggshells. She's walking on eggshells. Still, sooner or later she will need to be able to enter that den even if she's afraid, and Mossy had promised her they'd bring her out to visit the thing she lost those few moons ago, they'd promised a trip as soon as she was better. She didn't want to overstep if they were busy, but she figures it might still be good to check if the offer still was there.

Her walking had gotten a little steadier in her moons of rest, and she only stumbles once as she approaches the medicine den - more out of nerves than actual clumsiness, Cinderpaw suspects. A count of five passes before Cinderpaw feels able to poke her head into the den, amber eyes blinking in the darkness for a moment before everything comes back into focus clearly. Various different smells waft toward her, the scent of herbs and of the lingering blood and pain and grief that colored the medicine den in a mix of blue-grey melancholy. Toward the back, Mossfreckle was messing around with something, but they didn't appear to have a patient, so Cinderpaw feels a little better about coming to bother him.

Small, black and white paws fiddle nervously with the ground as she thinks bout how to get the healer's attention. Her voice still won't work, no matter how hard she tries to force it out, the most she'd managed was a weak, raspy murmur. So, she'd have to make some sort of noice from the entrance. She could just walk in, but... no. She can't do that when the shadows look so sinister and still whisper her mother's angry words. Sitting down, Cinderpaw looks around for a small pebble on the ground, something that won't hurt, and palms it.

Without giving herself time to feel guilty about it, she tosses the pebble right at Mossfreckle's back, and crouches low to the ground the second it makes contact, ears immediately falling as she realizes that might've been mean. Um... oops? No time to feel guilty, though, all she has to do now is wait for them to notice her.

[ @ellie - mossy <33 ]