all good jokes must have a good setup. kalopsiacharm’s words echoed in whale-fallpaw’s head as they stared at the fragment of green shell in their nest. the same seashell they had given skunkpaw so many moons ago. why had skunkpaw left this in whale-fall’s nest…? was it a joke? a prank, maybe? skunk liked those, didn’t she? whale-fall stared at her nest. empty. okay. they could wait until skunk came back to give her her shell piece, ask what the joke was. whale-fall sat in their nest, holding the fragment, forcing their eyes awake. it was hard to stay awake- the moon was nearing it’s high in the sky. whale-fall lasted. for a bit. but as the first rays of sunlight came through the den, they lost, collapsing into their nest. they remembered waking up to some commotion outside. lots of warriors talking. one name whale-fall caught- skunkpaw. had skunkpaw gotten into trouble again? played some trick on another cat, too? whale-fall lifted up their head, blinking the sleep out of their eyes. they were still so very tired, but they wanted to hear what the commotion was all about. they slowly stepped outside, catching more words. missing gone disappeared loner dead murdered whale-fall’s ears flattened against their head. they frowned- was skunkpaw- but no! their frown turned upside down into a forced, strained smile. this was all a joke. skunkpaw wasn’t missing, or dead, she was just playing a biiiiig joke on the whole clan. she would be back soon, whale-fall assured themself, though they didn’t fully believe it. ~ it had been 8 days. 8 days since skunkpaw had gone missi- no. 8 days since skunkpaw had started her joke. it was just taking a bit. but all of it was part of a plan. the shell fragment left in whale-fall’s nest, the sudden disappearance… if she had wanted to leave forever, she would have said goodbye. this was all a joke! right? whale-fall was waiting for the punchline. it was taking too long. taking too long for skunkpaw to come home. her ceremony had passed by, and her name had been skipped. they hadn’t cheered any names- simply shouted out about how it was all a joke, how the clan had to believe them, had to believe that skunkpaw was coming back. why had the clan given up on her? they thought back to heartbreakhaven’s crumpled face. the look of disappointment in his eyes. the look in the eyes of their clanmates as they begged that skunkpaw receive a warrior name. the look in skunkpaw’s eyes as whale-fall said that her acting was really good. but was she really acting? grandwa hadn’t been acting. not on that day in the water… skunkpaw was their friend, though. surely it wasn’t all a lie? they tried to think, think of one time they talked where skunkpaw hadn’t been pretending to be a monster. whale-fall thought back to all the times skunk had told them ‘i hate you-‘ no. no. there! that was proof. skunkpaw wasn’t actually like that. because she couldn’t hate whale-fall. they were friends. she had accepted the shell they had given her… skunkpaw didn’t actually hate them. whale-fall would search for her. they would spend all of their time looking for skunkpaw, because they needed to hear it. needed to hear her say that it wasn’t real, that they were friends, that skunk didn’t hate fal- whale-fallpaw needed to prove it to themself. prove it to themself that skunkpaw was just acting. prove it to the clan that it was all a lie. prove that whale-fall wasn’t wrong. whale-fall would find skunkpaw. surely she would tell them the truth. the punchline of this huge joke.
srp I didn’t proofread at all help
