Charadecharm knew how things had to be done. Routine. Step after step. His whole life had been that; following the path of least resistance. By all means, he had it all. Perfect friends. Perfect mother. Perfect clan. Until being convinced to step out into the unknown on the exploration, everything had been premeditated. Expected. The body on their trail was not perfect. Immortellespark lay behind them, and Char didn't have to wait for Splendorstake to tell him what had happened. He knew his way around injuries, and he knew one he couldn't fix. Dead. Almost subconsciously CharadeCharm began to whisper the words he had heard so many times, but he paused before they were little more than warm breath in the air. May Starclan light your path? But this wasn't a Mossclan cat. She was from Urchinclan. A clan who shunned the stars and stalked in the darkness, who didn't twist away from murder in disgust. Who /encouraged it./ He wanted to hate her. His mentor would have wanted him to hate her. Stars, by all means there was no reason to see this cat as anything other than an enemy! So why was it so hard? Maybe it was Splendorstake, showing obvious signs of distress behind the mask she tried to hard to sustain. The cat who had traded him herbs and asked only for knowledge in return. A cat who had trusted him to look out for those on this exploration. To heal them of their wounds. Wounds that now had taken a cat's life. He had failed. Failure wasn't..... Wasn't who he was. " I hope someone guides your path," he whispered under his breath, solemn stare not moving from her body. "Whether it be among the stars, or somewhere else." Their adventure had barely started. Yet they had already lost. "I hope wherever you go you find good hunting, swift running, and shelter where you sleep. Goodbye, traveler... I'm so sorry."
