Talk at The Field's Edge (short story)
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Doebur hadn’t been able to stop thinking about what she overheard. Questions and thoughts fluttered around in her mind like a nest of butterflies, echoing the anxiety that burrowed itself in her gut. With it, though, was excitement.
She wasn’t exactly sure why, but she was happy.
A flattened trail in the long dead grass showed where she had been pacing. She needed to talk to Eaglefluff and Toadjump, but she knew that if she didn’t think first and properly collect her thoughts, she would blurt out whatever it was she was thinking in whatever random order it came in–and in this case, with the ideas and thoughts coming to her mind, she really wanted to say it right. So she paced, swishing her tail and muttering, for what must have been hours because when Toadjump appeared from the den, she froze and looked at him, and realized only then how sore her paws were.
Eaglefluff, who had been watching his mate, hurried to meet him. “Everything okay? You were in there a while.”
Toadjump’s shoulders slumped, but he didn’t look upset or tired. If anything, he looked as if a heavy weight had been lifted off of him. “Couldn’t be better.”
“It could be!” Doebur cut in excitedly, then slapped a paw over her mouth. Idiot!
Both Eaglefluff and Toadjump looked at her, surprised. Eaglefluff’s expression was tinged with worry, probably from having watched Doebur’s muttering pace. She got like that sometimes, and he knew he just needed to let her go through it.
“What could be better, honey?”
“Uuuhhhh…” Shit. All thoughts she had worked to collect fled like fearful mice, leaving her mind empty as she wondered what she should say. “Let’s move somewhere more private.”
Toadjump began to head back into the den. “I’ll leave you two alone.”
“No!” Doebur exclaimed quickly. “I mean, uh, it involves you, you should come with us.” Immediately, Doebur wondered if that was a mistake. She should talk to her mate first, shouldn’t she? That was the proper thing to do. Too late now, she decided to be careful with what she said.
Toadjump looked into the den. “Birch won’t want me going too far with my bandages, and I probably shouldn’t leave the clearing with my leg.”
“How else can you leave the clearing?” Eaglefluff asked sincerely.
“Is he asleep?” Doebur asked. She suspected she would have heard the grumpy tom by now if he wasn’t.
“Yeah.”
“Then we should be safe at the edge of the clearing.”
“Okay…”
The cats moved over, Toadjump curious, Eaglefluff confused, both of them concerned, and Doebur desperately trying to remember her earlier thoughts as the field’s edge grew too close too fast.
Then they were there, and both toms were looking at her.
Okay. Start with something easier.
“What did you do to get here?”
Toadjump’s eyes widened, while Eaglefluff quietly said, “we brought him here.”
“To the Dark Forest, love,” Doebur patiently explained. Now understanding, Eaglefluff turned his curious eyes to Toadjump.
Toadjump couldn’t look at them, instead finding a particular blade of grass off to the side very fascinating. “I may or may not have definitely killed my patients.”
“Eight of them?”
Toadjump’s gaze flicked to her, surprised.
Doebur smiled sheepishly. “I may or may not have overheard.”
“I may or may not have told her not to.”
“I may or may not have not listened.”
Toadjump smiled awkwardly. “I may or may not be very confused right now.”
“Right.” Doebur shook her head. “We won’t judge you or anything. My cousin, well she’s a whole thing, and Eaglefluff’s mothers all earned their places here. I just..want to know.”
Toadjump dipped his head, and took a deep breath. “Okay, well…” he explained to them what he had done to each cat, his reasonings at the time and the conclusions he came to, and how he truly believed it was the right thing. Then, with some questions about Birchspark, he explained how his mentor had been furious, unable to forgive Toadjump for his crimes until just today.
“That all seems pretty reasonable,” Eaglefluff said when he was finished. “Considering the stuff other cats do to get here. But I only know this, so my judgement might be off.”
“You don’t regret it?” Doebur already knew the answer, she heard it, and she didn’t frankly care either way, but for some reason the question spilled out.
“I think I just want to move on from it.”
“We can do that,” Eaglefluff offered.
“Yeah,” Doebur agreed. “Let’s change the subject to…So you were a medicine cat. What made you choose that path? We never talked about it before.”
Toadjump appeared to think. “I guess it just pulled me.”
“No worries about not having a mate then?” Doebur smiled, hoping to show that she was joking, definitely not checking anything.
“Oh many crushes. Some things just felt more important, I guess.”
“I get that….How about now?”
Toadjump blinked.
Doebur tried to look casual, like she wasn’t burning under her fur. “You’re not held back by the code anymore. Any cat interests you? She-cats? Toms?”
Eaglefluff gave his mate a confused, but open, look, then watched Toadjump, simply curious. Wait..were his eartips darker?
“I’m gonna be careful with she-cats from now on. A surprisingly high number of them have protective mates who don’t care that you didn’t know any better. And toms…” Toadjump trailed off. Apparently, he wasn’t sure of the answer.
Eaglefluff’s tail wrapped around Doebur’s side. “What if her mate likes you too?”
Toadjump was surprised at that, then his brows furrowed in confusion, then he looked at Eaglefluff and then to Doebur and back again, and finally realization hit. "Oh.”
The trio stayed silent, unsure and unable to speak, for what felt like moons, At last, Toadjump opened his mouth to speak–
“Toadjump! Get your sorry tail back here! I swear, if you damage that splint at all, I’ll tear the leg off you!”
Toadjump stared at Eaglefluff and Doebur. “I–I–”
“Toadjump!”
“Another time,” Toadjump told them, before limping after his old mentor.
The pair watched him go, then when he disappeared into the den after Birchspark, they blinked at each other.
“I guess there are some things we should discuss.”
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--POV change! This time neither Birch nor Toad.
--"Start with something easy" -> "So who did you murder?"
--Was a bit harder to show Eagle's emotional intelligence, but I hope it's clear in how he figures out what Doebur is getting at.
--I thought of this art piece of Eagle and Doebur and wanted to bring back the blushing ears.
It's also why Eagle calls Doe 'honey,' it's the same nicknamed used by the cats the artwork is inspired by (the other nicknames wouldn't work as they're words that cats wouldn't know).
--Doebur can be really smart, but she can get flustered and lose all intelligence sometimes.
--Just realized Birchspark has the same suffix to one of Eagle's mother's prefixes.
--I am very tired writing this.
@elementaldeityoffood