Rather long author's note at the end of this, but I'd appreciate it if you could read it and tell me your thoughts. That's all I'll say for now, on with the chapter!
Word of the Day: foliage
Definition: leaves on trees
Brief summary: He had lost his home and his humanity. What was a boy to do, now? (child TC, pre-circus, post-mutation)
For a long time after his tears had finally stopped flowing, all he could do was sit underneath the tree he had collapsed under after running as far and hard away from the mean men as he could. He felt like he was frozen in that position, and all he could do was stare into the foliage above him. He didn't know how long he had sat there for, when he finally was broken out of it when he smelt something, and his stomach growled at him. Even then, all he could-or would- think about was how hungry he was. He definitely did not notice or think about how his new-found tail had begun to swish back and forth along the dry grass, and he certainly did not feel the way his ears swiveled atop his head as they tracked the sounds in the surrounding forest, and there was no thought in his head at all about how the men had chased him and shot at him, and Oh-no-his-arm-was-still-bleeding.
He hardly even noticed as another tear tracked its way down his face, aside from the slightest surprise at finding he still had tears to shed. He had tried so hard to stay strong, like his father would want him to, but he still found rogue tears building up in his eyes after every time he swiped them away. And every swivel of his ears, swish of his tail, and throb of his arm brought the tears coming again, as he bit his lip and stared into the treetops above.
Shaking his head to regain his composure-again he thought disappointedly of himself- he ripped a strip of cloth from his already tattered shirt, and tied it as tightly as he could around the scrape on his arm. That was one thing he could fix, at least. Staring forlornly at his orange and black furred arm, he wished that he could fix everything else, too. As his stomach gave a demanding growl, he got the faintest of smiles. At least that was one more problem he could find a solution to. As long as he had those, he would be able to keep himself from thinking about the things he couldn't set right. So, standing and ignoring what he couldn't do anything about, he left to try and find food. And take things one problem at a time.
I tried hard to keep this in line with what I've written in past chapters, like him remembering his dad telling him that crying doesn't solve anything. Yeah, I don't know, I feel like even as a kid, Tigerclaw would try to prioritize, at least a bit. It matches with how I've made his parents, too, and with teenage TC in the first drabble I did. Hopefully, all of this is staying together and characterizing him similarly. With so many chapters it's getting hard to make sure I don't contradict myself. Well, anyway, what did you think?
Also! I've been considering for a long time putting this into chronological order; long time followers especially, thoughts? Would that be a good idea or just a confusing waste of time?
R&R Until next chapter!