[Deleted]

The battle had gone, well quite honestly it had gone insane for Silentcloud. Her opponent had proven more than worthy, and that would have stood before she had egged on Cherrypool to the point where she was seeing red (pun intended). After Silentcloud had taken it to a whole new level, which in her defense she found necessary after the things Cherrypool said about Stoneclan, their fight turned into a blood bath. Silentcloud had honestly bled this much in a battle before, partially because Cherrypool was out for just that, her blood, but also in part to her refusal to leave the battle until the very end. Many warriors fled once injured badly, she kept fighting until she had no choice but to leave or die at Lighteningclans claws. So now she sat wrapped up and covered in goop and other medical type stuff in her local medicine cat den. She was in quite a bit of pain most of the time, however Blackeagle and Ivypaw’s concoctions did quite a bit to soothe her. Her physical pain wasn’t much at all, but her heart took a nasty cut that no medicine cat could fix; Silentcloud had fought so hard and had lost. Her pride was shattered and she could feel the shame burning deep inside her.

[Fawn]

[Smear:805f19]EAGLETALON[/smear:db690f] StoneClan || Warrior || 38 Moons

The world was bent upon spinning his life out of control, he was sure of it. Though he had never before been particularly challenging of the will of StarClan, of the actions of dead cats with the power of the stars in their paws, there was a bitter, questioning pang at the back of his mind there amidst all that worry. Since finding out that his closest friend Hawkwing had developed feelings for Frozenrain, the she-cat to whom he had already set his sights on, Eagletalon had admittedly been a little upset with his friend. He could've chalked it up to 'the heart wants what the heart wants', but somehow that felt like letting Hawkwing off easy - considering Frozenrain had never hinted at reciprocating the crush he had on her, Eagletalon hadn't had any choice but to compare himself with a cat who was his brother in all but blood. He didn't like drawing a compare and contrast list against a cat who was practically kin, but it had kept him up at night, and ever since Hawkwing had become deputy, the busyness that came with so high a rank had kept the two brothers from interacting as much as before. Was it Eagletalon's mind playing tricks on him, or was Hawkwing avoiding him on purpose? In the midst of these social inconveniences and uncomfortable matters of the heart, something else had risen up that blew these small-time problems out of the water in a single heartbeat. StoneClan had fought LightningClan for Sun Stones. And StoneClan had lost more than a piece of territory. Though Berrysong had not been a friend of his (or anyone, for that matter), her death was still felt like a great chunk of ice sliding into his belly, plaguing the normally incorrigible, bold warrior with a sense of overwhelming concern for the cats that had survived. In the pit of Eagletalon's stomach, he burned. He hated having missed that battle. But he hated more, Eagletalon had come to realize as he approached the Medicine Cat's den with steps that had grown slightly uncoordinated now that he had to abruptly stop running, was the sight of his Clanmates so horrendously injured. Though his first thoughts had initially gone to Frozenrain, who had participated in so uncharacteristically violent a battle, they had not lingered there. Not when he knew that Hawkwing would drag himself through hell and back feeling guilty and upset over it all. He had a cat who deserved his worry too, and she was sitting right here covered in medicine muck and a thick layer of shame. Whiskers twitching with shock - he knew she had been hurt, he just hadn't known how badly - the sand-colored warrior approached, his scarred body cast in shadow as he attempted to speak around the feeling of his heart beating in his throat. "You look like you've had a fight with an eagle," he observed, tone full of forced cheerfulness to mask his own dismay at her condition, Eagletalon feeling his heart sink and roll and rise with the depth of his emotions. He fixed her with a smile, before gently, somewhat hesitantly leaning over to rasp a tongue across one of her ears. "There will be better days, Cloud. I can see a disgraced warrior when they're sitting right in front of me," he mewed, tone softening to one who understood all too well what it was like to lose a battle. Though it was rare for him nowadays, the shame was always the same for cats like him and Silentcloud. "But trust me, though your wounds are gonna hurt for a while, as long as you fought with all you had and more, you have nothing to be ashamed of." Blackeagle may have been in charge of healing the body, but it would be Eagletalon who healed her heart and her fighting spirit.

[Deleted]

Silentcloud seemed as if she didn’t even register Eagletalon’s presence, she didn’t even look at him until he spoke directly to her. She remained silent as her name suggested her tail flicking in agitation, she was furious in that moment it was as if he had no idea how badly they had failed. “A cat died Eagletalon.” She reminded him with a hiss as the words rolled off her tongue. “We fought so poorly that we lost clanmates to those Lighteningclan rats… I will never forgive myself for allowing Berrysong to perish at their claws.” She laid her head back down and covered her nose with her tail to signify she was done speaking, most likely forever. If she could just cease to exist at that moment, and be swallowed up by the ground as if she never was she would have taken the chance in an instant. “What’s even worse-“ She said around her tail fluff which caused her voice to be muffled, “Is that we have done nothing, and it seems we won’t do anything to teach Lighteningclan the error of their ways.” It was true, they had killed a Stoneclan warrior in cold blood during the battle they had started, and her clanmates were going to do nothing.

[Fawn]

[Smear:805f19]EAGLETALON[/smear:db690f] StoneClan || Warrior || 38 Moons

Eagletalon did not flinch at the anger Silentcloud displayed, the fury in her eyes and the pain in her voice no shock to his system or anything like it. It was because he felt those things too. To think that Berrysong had died for so stupid a reason - a bunch of warm rocks! They were StoneClan, not like they needed to hold on some rocks so badly that a cat had to lose their life over it! It was enough to make his blood boil, to put the fire in his blood and a rage in his heart, to make him terrible and unbeatable, to lay siege to LightningClan and anyone who dared associate them - but that would not change things. It would not bring Berrysong back, and it would not make Silentcloud heal faster. "There isn't anything anycat can do at the moment. Not like we can march into their camp for the sake of one cat. If anything, we can come up with a plan to take back Sun Stones, but I don't know if it's even worth it anymore." It was just a bunch of rocks. He was not so much attached to the territory as he was to the battles that were fought there, the moments of great pride, grief and pain, as numerous as the stones in the whole of StoneClan's territory. Watching Silentcloud curl up, the sand-furred tom felt his heart sink like dead weight, jaw tightening as he took a sentinel's place beside her, pelts slightly brushing. "Sorry - I'm really not that great at cheering cats up," he confessed with a slight, faint laugh at his own failings. "To be honest, I'm so mad I can barely breathe, like I'm going to burst out of my pelt and attack LightningClan until there's nothing left..." She would understand. She, who was cut from the same cloth such as him, knew the kind of indescribable rage in the pit of both their stomachs, turning the bile to acid and each word on their tongues to poison until a wrong had been thoroughly righted. In this case, that wrong had been Berrysong's death. Though what could be done to fix it, short of 'an eye for an eye', Eagletalon did not have the answer to that.

[Deleted]

Eagletalon was very right about one thing, he wansn’t cheering her up much at all. This wasn’t however his fault, Silentcloud knew nothing but time could fix the not so physical wounds she had garnered during the battle. He could however give her the gift of good company, he knew exactly what she was going through and he could dull the pain from the damage to her spirit. She looked into his eyes without speaking and tapped the ground beside her with her tail, “I just need some company, and I really like you Eagletalon.” It was a strange time and place to make such a confession and didn’t seem to fit in at all with what they had been talking about before, however her tact was thrown to the way side in light of previous events. “Your company is more then enough, and if you can convince Ivypaw to let you take me on a walk I would be very grateful.”

[Fawn]

[Smear:805f19]EAGLETALON[/smear:db690f] StoneClan || Warrior || 38 Moons

Rather than take her words as a confession, Eagletalon, who was a bit dense when it came to these things, merely took it as one friend speaking to another, the relationship between them evolving from fond acquaintances to a genuine companionship sort of feeling - like the kind he had with Hailstrike. Unconscious of the fact that his relationship with Silentcloud was quite a bit different from Hailstrike's, the handsome sandy warrior made a deep bow of his head, eyes glittering with all the fierceness of his namesake, but warmth lingered in those amber pools of his as well. "I like you too, Cloud. I'll just go have a quick word with Ivypaw - and if I can't convince her to let you go, we'll just have to sneak out." He winked, brushing his tail against her flank as he exited in search of the Medicine Cat apprentice, grateful for the break in the building, roiling emotions he'd nearly lost himself in. Treating the scenario as though they were apprentices trying to get permission to leave camp from a warrior, Eagletalon approached the small she-cat with a respectful dip of his head, exchanging a few words. It had taken a bit of silvertongued effort on his part, but with a bit of pressing and the promise that he would not let anything come to harm the injured she-cat, Ivypaw finally consented. "I'll look after her, don't worry. She'll come back with no more injuries than she had when she left. Thanks, Ivypaw." Departing, Eagletalon poked his head into the Medicine Cat's den again, identifying the silver spotted she-cat with ease, Silentcloud not having moved since he'd gone to get permission. "We're all clear. Let's go get some fresh air, Cloud - all these herbs and roots and whathaveyou... They're great for healing, and I get that they're important, but nothing clears the mind quite like a decent walk." Hoping that with his upbeat tone he might be able to bring the she-cat out of her downward-sliding state of misery, Eagletalon was exceptionally patient with the battered feline, conscious of the fact that her body wasn't the only thing mangled. It would heal over in time, he knew that. But it still wouldn't stop him from worrying, and a spark of anger flitting across his eyes every time he thought of his friend's opponent. Cherrypool. He inwardly spat the name. The devil of LightningClan, eh? Or one of them. Whatever she is, her days are numbered. There was no doubt in his mind that Silentcloud would go toe-to-toe with the white wretch again at some point, and he was also of the completely biased opinion that it would be the LightningClanner who walked away with nothing less than a limp and an extended stay in the Medicine Cat's den.

[Deleted]

Silentcloud couldn’t help but let the hope of leaving the cramped confines of the den, and her honestly awful thoughts, for the fresh air and mentally freeing landscape of the forest. She could slowly feel the warmth spread beneath her fur as he mentioned sneaking out of camp with him, she would love more than anything to sneak out of camp with him. He was fun, adventurous and a more than capable warrior that could watch her back in a fight and even more in her state keep her safe. However it wouldn’t be needed she soon learned as he returned with the okay from Ivypaw to leave camp for their walk. It wasn’t as adventurous but it wasn’t nearly as risky either.So as they made their way out of camp, slowly of course as Silentcloud was limping fairly badly, she made small talk about the fine weather and other unimportant things. What was important was brought up after they had left the confines of camp behind them. “So anything exciting you have planned for our little excursion?” She asked with a tone of genuine interest.

[Fawn]

[Smear:805f19]EAGLETALON[/smear:db690f] StoneClan || Warrior || 38 Moons

Keeping his eyes trained on the battered warrior beside him, Eagletalon let out a short laugh at the curious words Silentcloud directed his way. "Plans? I'm more of a...'go wherever the wind takes me' kind of tom. If we're still out when dusk falls, we can visit the sky springs, I'm not much of a stargazer but they're nice to look at sometimes." The casual shrug that accompanied those words signified his honesty, Eagletalon often not one to brag or boast or try to be something he wasn't. Perfectly comfortable to walk beside her - though they might as well have been 2 moon old kits, for how fast they were traveling - he tried to come up with something to discuss that wouldn't rile up the she-cat further. I can discuss her apprentice? But that'll just make it seem like I'm only interested in some kind of progress report or whathaveyou. He was not the Clan deputy - while yes, he wanted Silentcloud to know that he was interested in all points of her life, be it their mutual friends or any apprentices she was training at the time - Eagletalon's muzzle scrunched a bit. When did I get so boring? "Oh Cloud, you'll never guess what rumor's going around camp lately." He mewed, the enticing tone he put on those words making it sound as if this were likely to be a humorous or unusual retelling rather than something serious or likely to play havoc on the heartstrings.