cw // blood, injuries, description of death of an apprentice (NOT STOAT), descriptions of drowning, emetophobia
There was still an excitement that welled in Stoatpaw's chest-
Stoatpaw. She'd really been apprenticed. It felt so surreal even now, but with the falling of the sun, her eyes grew heavy. Instinctually, she'd turned to head to the nursery before realising almost with sadness that, no, she'd be in the apprentice's den now. Right... She watched with an ache as her father and Monsterkit vanished into the nursery. Thought the apprentice shook her head, no, she was so excited for this and it meant she got a nest of her own now! It probably wouldn't be much now, but she could make it her own if she went on more herb patrols with Cicadabuzz. Just the realisation was enough to make her purr, woes pushed aside. Soon, she'd go train with Sablestar, be allowed to join patrols without being coddled, getting to
do something for the clan. That put a pep back in her step, not much though as sleep still tugged at her eyelids. With a smile creasing her face, she followed the apprentices inside the den.
Maybe if she hadn't had such a knack for sneaking around and out of the nursery, she would have been in awe of the den, but she'd been in there plenty of times to come to pester Fleapaw or find Tickpaw to come along a herb patrol. Now, she would sleep amongst them as an equal. Cats settled in their nests, and it seemed there were extras now. Maybe the other had been tasked with setting up nests for the new apprentices? She knew there'd be time she'd have to gather her own bedding, but for now, she was grateful to her peers for the help, so it meant she could curl up and sleep with ease. Maybe cats were trying to speak to her, congratulate her or address her, but she was too tired to process many of the faces around her. She'd gladly talk with her peers in the morning, she'd worked herself up all day in excitement, and just to sleep was all she longed for. For once, she realised, there wasn't a chill in the air. Even sleeping alone for the first time in a very,
very long time, it didn't feel cold. She breathed a sigh of contentment, for everything that'd been happening as of late, she felt... Calm. Serene even. An ease in her chest that she'd missed.
Sleep came... Easily? No, she wasn't asleep yet. She'd only just lay down. Her mind was that funny haze, the kinda heavy fog you feel when you're dosing off. She wasn't asleep yet. The air was heavy, breathing becoming a heave if anything. Stoatpaw couldn't help but whine, that tired feeling gone the moment she settled. Her eyes parted, a huff of frustration leaving her lips. There was an ache that gnawed at her bones, a familiar kind that she knew she needed to walk off, so maybe taking a lap around the camp would help...
Taking bleary, wobbly steps out of the camp, Stoatpaw couldn't help but grumble. Her sleeping was already getting all kinds of messed up but with Sablestar as a mentor? Well, she probably had to expect it to get worse, really...
"Huh?" Her eyes narrowed, seeing the bushes at the edge of the camp rustle. Stoatpaw's ears flattened, looking around camp; no one else was out there; even after the patrol, a creeping fear still crawled up her spine. She swallowed hard, trying to back up. That was until the ground thundered beneath her paws. Her mind fell back to almost a moon ago now, the thundering roar of whatever passed through camp. By instinct, Stoatpaw dropped to the floor, flattening herself in case it really
was something dangerous stampeding through the camp.
Prying her eyes open, her blood ran cold with fear. Around her, where there were no cats before, stood a clearing full of figures, strangers digging rage-filled claws and fangs into throats. Viscera and blood staining the mud a sickly rich red. Stoatpaw tried desperately to claw her way backwards, away from the fight she'd found herself in. In that moment she was thankful she couldn't hear, from the mouths parted in snarls and eyes clouded with fear, the sounds would have been ingrained in her mind. Not as if it was any better than the sights she was forced to behold.
A flash of bright light - lighting - struck fear into Stoatpaw's soul, a terror she'd never felt before. The cat had never been put into fight or flight like that before, and oh stars, she needed to run. Desperate to hold back tears, the apprentice pivoted and tried to run, only to strike into something hard, stumbling head over paws with a thud. She cried out, struggling desperately to capture her heaving breath. She didn't want to turn and see what it was, but she moved without thinking before a cry fell from her lips. A far too familiar curled-up form splayed from where she once stood. An apprentice, bloodied and torn up. Throat streaming red from a fresh wound, terrified, glassy eyes stared up at her. Lips moved, as if to try and speak to her, she could not tell if they managed to utter a noise. But she knew what they spoke.
"H E L P M E."
Stoatpaw was useless to help as the cat fell limp at her paws, their blood pooling where she stood, empty eyes still looking up at her. She couldn't cry, even if she tried. Though the apprentice was snapped from the horror, she beheld when lightning snapped again in the air, lashing the air. She closed her eyes tight. She wasn't asleep yet. She knew she hadn't, right? Oh please, tell her she'd fallen asleep. She wouldn't dare to even open her eyes now as her pelt grew wet; with lightning comes rain. It lashed against her body, sending cold to her bones like she'd never known before. Where was her father? Sablestar?
Anyone? Her breath caught as the apprentice realised something that sent a new wave of terror through her whole form; she could feel
eyes. Pairs and pairs of furious eyes digging into her flesh.
She was next.
The apprentice moved without her own volition. Eyes opening and being met with the gaze of the cats. Their eyes were glassy, like the apprentice. They were... Were they really?- Before she could finish the thought, a roar in her ears, blood rushing, making her dizzy. A voice.
A voice?. It spoke within her mind; she could barely comprehend what was happening.
"WE ARE FORGOTTEN NO LONGER. SOULS LEFT TO LINGER, INSULTED BY THE DAMNED."
Her head darted around.
"Who is that." She pled, body heaving, wracked in sobs. None of the cat's lips moved, and no one spoke to her. Then who?
"LET US BE FREE OF THESE SHACKLES, GIVE US PEACE. RELIEVE US FROM THESE BURDENS, RELIEVE US FROM THIS PAIN."
The voices overlapped, from a life of silence to voices growling in her mind. A rage she thought she had no hand in fueling. It was between her heaving sobs that Stoatpaw realised something terrifying. Water pooled around her paws. That downpour that thundered all around her wasn't any simple storm. The water began to rise, not a gentle trickle, a slow stream, but as if the ocean itself. Full of her own rage, she had lashed to shore and grasped at every cat, living or dead, and clawed at their bodies to submerse them beneath the murky waters. The corpses of the murdered cats bobbed atop the thrashing water.
"Wait...". She was barely able to whine, the word slipping from her lips like a prayer that what she was seeing wasn't a reality. This was no water. That acrid, iron smell was something she'd never forget. Stoatpaw was forced to recall the very omen to this moment, the dead hawk she tried to move. The blood that soaked into her coat. The carrion and blood that bittered her lips. The crimson rose, her white pelt soaked a deep red. She tried desperately to paddle to the surface as it rose, to realise she couldn't move.
She couldn't move
"SHAKE US OF THESE LANDS. BRING US OUR DEMANDS."
The apprentice flailed desperately, trying to free her paws of whatever held her from the surface. Her chest heaved as the pressure of the flood pressed against her as if it were to snuff her from existence in one fell swoop.
"Please. Please, I'm sorry we didn't know-" Stoatpaw cried out as if these vengeful spirits were to forgive her for her crime. The desecration of their resting place. The dishonour her clan brought to them.
"No- Please wait-" Her pleading cut short as the blood lapped against her face, leaving her a spluttering mess with the metallic taste of blood filling her every sense. For a moment, a second even, she dislodged herself. Paws slapping desperately at the surface. She couldn't stop the yowl that slipped from her throat as she felt claws dig into her pelt, soft flesh pierced by unseen claws that dragged her down. She tried. Oh, how she tried to stay at the surface. The flicker of the moon being clouds was the last thing she saw before dipping below a murky crimson ocean. Stoatpaw had no training; she had no idea how to fight off these unseen spirits dragging her beneath the waves. She stood no chance. Another claw dug its way deep into her side, and the young cat couldn't help but cry out, her mouth and lungs filling with blood. Her panicked failing only grew as she clawed desperately,
aimlessly at the unseen cats below her. Her vision grew cloudy; she hadn't been able to breathe for so long... She wasn't ready to die yet.......
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•
Stoatpaw's chest burned as she spluttered awake, her face sodden with tears, and her body ached. Was she awake? Was any of that real? Was... Stoatpaw felt her stomach churn, a dizzying feeling clouding her mind. Without a thought or grace, the apprentice fled from the den and thankfully was able to escape before the freshkill she enjoyed hours earlier, which had now dripped from her lips, an awful mushed mess left on the floor. Tears still rolled from her eyes as her body wracked with sobs, burning from her throat made it only so more painful. The apprentice didn't dare to close her eyes. She'd see everything all over again. Though bleary eyes, she looked to the leader's den; Sablestar stood there, just as horrified and dazed.
They'd all made a terrible, terrible mistake in that graveyard...
Her whole form ached, she wasn't sure how long the nightmare had lasted, how real it was but Sablestar was awake now too. With heavy paws and a heaving chest, she wobbled her way to the leader and looked up at him with teared-filled eyes.
"Please." Her voice small, shaking with every breath.
"They're upset. We need to put them back." Stoatpaw couldn't help but sob again, any joy from that day lost from the nightmare that plagued her every thought.
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Stoatpaw
✦—Shadowclan apprentice | 6 Moons
✦—She/Her
✦—"SPEECH", 'THOUGHTS', ATTACK
✦—A slender white cat with faint lilac markings and blue eyes.
#96d5f1
⤷ Written by Phoenix
