Tales of NOT Perfectheart: A ToPh AU (Chapter 3)

Instructions

TRIGGER WARNING: Mentions of blood and hunting, some verbal violence and anger. Continue at your own risk. SPLASH! It had been three days since...what happened. Everyone's seemed to move on, not even caring. Sometimes, I think everyone's...happier without him. How disrespectful. Everything's changed and I don't like it. How can life move on like this? How is everyone so...different? Yet...it seems too normal. Far too normal. Hunting helps me calm down. Ha, that's a sentence I thought I'd never say. But fishing, the cold waters soaking my warm fur, the blood of the fish staining the waters... It somehow calms me. And if I can help one more apprentice stay alive... That'd mean the world to me. "Tansypaw!" Moonpaw stood, shouting my name. She was standing by the riverside, holding some herbs. "Tansypaw, you have a scratch!" I look to my shoulder. Huh, she's right. I never even noticed the rocks below were scratching me. Perhaps I should come up. I swim back to the riverside, where Moonpaw begins treating me. She seems so...calm. Just like normal. Normal... I can't TAKE this anymore! "Why did this happen? WHY is everyone so normal? I need to know, is there something happening? Someone just died, and we're ignoring this!" I didn't realize I said that. Let alone, shout that. Moonpaw sighs, continuing to treat my wound. She just keeps going, saying nothing about anything I just said. Whatever. I don't need anyone's approval to feel my feelings. I can do whatever I want. Perfectpaw never conformed. He never stayed silent. He spoke his mind. So, I'll do that, too. "I take your silence as a 'I don't care.' No wonder why. I know you hated him. But this much? So much that you don't care that your BROTHER died? What are you, heartless?" I stand up, brushing off those stinky, stupid herbs Moonpaw gave me. She sighed again. Stupid, stupid sighs. Sighs aren't a sorry. Sighs don't fix anything. "Tansypaw," Moonpaw said. "Look, just because someone died doesn't mean that the whole Clan has to drop everything and wallow in sadness. Some of us have actual jobs to do." Moonpaw walked off, obviously frustrated. Why did that feel...so good? Letting out my feelings, my anger...It felt so much better than hiding everything... Like a breath of fresh air.