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Clawface had failed his leader. He had died in battle to some stupid ThunderClan cat. Weakness really was a family trait.
He didn’t know where he now resided. It wasn’t the StarClan that shone bright in stories. Not that he honestly expected to go there after what he’d done anyways. Killing a medicine cat, stealing kits, training kits, following some of the more questionable orders from Brokenstar. And now it would all catch up to him.
He was floating in complete darkness. It was sort of like swimming without all the cold and wetness. Nothing to look at but his own pelt. Nothing to feel either. It was very dull for an afterlife.
That nothing continued for a while, until he saw a faint light in the distance. It didn’t stay there for long and Clawface didn’t see what it was, but it felt like he was being watched. After the light disappeared from view, he began to fall.
Clawface crashed down through impossibly tall trees, getting hit by dead branches and decaying trunks on the way. Hitting the ground was somehow worse as it ate him and spit him back up, made of an impossible quantity of needles that stung everywhere. It hurt more than anything Clawface had previously experienced. It was so dark he could barely see. He screamed into the forest. The forest did not care.
Sleep never came no matter how hard he tried to rest. The pain didn’t get any better. It took ages for him to get back enough energy to get up and begin walking. This cursed place was nothing but a floor of needles and those huge dead trees. There was no sound but his labored breathing. The air had a slight pressure to it that felt like a thunderstorm was brewing. Maybe it would rain soon.
It never did. He was getting hungry, but no prey would live in an environment like this. He had not seen even a single insect. Not that he really could see in the first place. It had been much longer than a day, but the sun never rose. There were no stars to light his path either, he had fallen down here from an empty void.
Time passed. He didn’t know how much. It didn’t matter here. The pain was finally residing, but he suspected it was just because he was growing numb to it. He had tried to sleep again. He couldn’t. He’d found disturbed ground and followed it, but it had led nowhere in particular. Once another path had crossed it. He hadn’t crossed any paths yet, he was sure of that. There were others here too.
Hunger stabbed in his chest. Needles he hadn’t bothered to clean were stinging all around. His pelt was a mess, he didn’t care. He had not rested in ages. He followed the path. He would find whoever had made it.
He screamed into the forest. He screamed so much. He screamed until he had no voice left. He kept trying to scream. The forest did not care.
He couldn’t be weak. He had to continue on this path. It would lead somewhere, he was sure of it. He was as sure of it as the hunger that never let him go.
Nothing changed. He was foolish enough to believe that something would eventually change, but nothing did. He was still in pain. He was still hungry. It was still dark. It was still quiet. He was still alone. He was still so alone.
He had tried to dig through the floor of needles. There were only more of them. He tried eating them, but they tasted like ash and didn’t make the hunger go away. His mouth was now dry to add onto this suffering.
Clawface curled up into himself and cried.
He had cleaned up, his pelt was pristine. He had eaten more needles just to eat something. He had tried to drink his own tears but it didn’t really work out. He wouldn’t let this cursed forest defeat him. He would show it what he was made of! He would find whoever made this path!
The forest didn’t care.
He couldn’t die. He couldn’t hurt himself. There was no way out. The pain stayed. The hunger held its grasp. This was eternity.
He had prayed to StarClan. He promised them that he would never do any wrong again. He promised he would do whatever they wished him to do. He begged them to just be able to talk to someone.
There was a distant dim light in the sky again some time after his prayer. It was there for a while, and then disappeared. It never came back. Clawface tried everything, but it never came back.
He just wanted it all to end. The pain. The loneliness. The quiet. The darkness. All the suffering. But the forest did not care.