Hate, or Love? (Sequel to Me, or Her?)

Part 2: Screeching Regret

Hurrah!! Part 2 is finally out! Sorry there's such a huUUUGE gap between this and Part 1 (woaH from June to September? uhm srry) but it's out now, so that's all that matters, right?... right

I'll just let you get right into the story now x3

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I duck beneath a bracken frond and then glance up at the sun between the leaves above. It is climbing down the blue sky, getting ever closer to the sunset. As I do that, a robin flutters above the forest's canopy, and I heave a great sigh. Oh, how I wish I could be a bird right now and just fly away. But on second thought, my life will most likely end at the paws of a cat....

It's worth it.

"Will you shut up?" I hiss at Scamp as I halt in my walking. Ever since I agreed to let him tag along with me for a few days only this morning, I have been regretting it. I don't remember the last time he stopped talking, besides the one time where he had to pause in order to sneeze. "If you want to continue traveling with me for even the rest of this day, please, just please, talk less. Or not at all," I mutter at the end.

The black tom stands before me with now flattened ears, and his amber eyes grow wide with guilt, as if he were a kit.

I do not feel any pity for him in the slightest.

"You mean you haven't been listening to me telling you about my old housefolk?" he queries with some sadness.

"I don't even care about your housefolk," I spit out. I am acutely aware of how harsh that sounds, but he's asking for it. "I barely care about kittypets. If you miss your Twolegs so much, why don't you just find some new ones who will gratefully fill your belly with kittypet slop?"

As I glare at him, I see that his eyes grow soft with hurt. But it's true - if he is missing his Twolegs, why not go back to where he belongs and rid this forest of cats like him who can't stand the wilderness alone?

A few, long seconds pass before Scamp replies to me. "You just don't understand," he meows quietly. "My housefolk are like your Clanmates; I've been with them my entire life. Don't you miss your Clanmates?"

His question manages to make me freeze and hold my breath. It echoes in my head, and with that, memories gradually rotate in my mind. Of playing mossball with the other kits while my mother watched; getting excited when I found out I was learning battle moves that day; becoming a warrior and receiving my rightful name. Memories all the way up to the very last one within ForestClan: Hawkstrike forcing me to leave, and that he and Rosebreeze will be with each other for the rest of their days.

"Cedarfrost, are you okay?"

Scamp's urgent speech snaps me out of all the images, and I take in a deep breath. I soon realize that my claws had unsheathed and dug themselves into the dirt beneath me. I quickly retract them and return to my normal snappy self. "Yes, I'm fine."

But the black tom continues to look intently at my eyes. Getting slightly uncomfortable, but still irritated, I try my best to avoid eye contact by staring at the grass or looking into the trees behind him. Can't he just leave me alone?

"Cedarfrost, if you need to say something, say it."

The way he says my name. He says it so... smoothly, like how water trickles slowly and gently down a leaf, or the touch of a worn-down stone on your paw pads.... My gaze gradually travels upward until it rests on Scamp's face. Not his eyes, but just his cheek. His black fur looks so soft, so glossy as the small amount of sunlight that reaches between the leaves and branches shines on it almost luxuriously....