- Jun 7, 2022
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✵ ღ ☾ IT TOOK ME BY SURPRISE - Stars, she wants sleep, prays for it even. The restless night pacing outside of the medicine den for Lilybloom, and now the nightmarish intrusive thoughts at cause her to toss and turn, the thoughts of a Fox’s claws sinking into everyone close to her, what could have been Houndsnarl’s fate, thank the stars he seemed to be invincible.
So, like as any horror story began, she couldn’t take it anymore, and slipped out of camp under the pastel pinks and purples of dusk.
Soon enough though, it turned to a black night, her path only partially lit by a waning moon.
Turn around.
The voice in her head was low, but Lakepaw obeyed nonetheless, her only trouble now was finding her way back to the island, her brain fogged by her ongoing lack of sleep, her vision only the slightest bit fuzzy.
Snap.
Something cracks from behind her, followed by something that almost sounded like.. sniveling? Panting?
She stops in her tracks, an ivory forepaw hovering over the ground in hesitation. Yet, she is Lakepaw, and of course she investigates.
Pushing away the shrub barrier that blocked her from whatever ungodly creature had made those noises, slitted eyes squint against the the darkness.
A figure, another cat, is hunched over something. The stink of rogue and disease similar to a rain cloud in its thickness hits Lakepaw, her nose scrunching up.
They are abnormally scrawny, and their fur is patchy, a dire consequence of starvation. Confusion scrunches in Lakepaws brow bones, it is barely leaf-fall, how could one cat end up in such a state of famine?
❝ Hey. ❞ Her tone is firm, commanding. ❝ This is Riverclan territory you need to le- ❞
Two bulging eyes whip around to face her, scraps of whatever poor vole they had been devouring sloppily scattered across their gaping jaw.
“My prey!”
Their screech was guttural, loud enough to stretch across a good portion of the territory.
They charged Lakepaw before she could even think twice.
The apprentice stumbled back, confusion morphing to shock, which morphed into anger.
They charged once more, this time aiming to side-swipe at Lakepaw, but their form was sloppy, and only managed to graze the scarred skin across her chest.
Now, Lakepaw sprung, grappling onto the deranged rogue in a fit of anger, trying to pummel them with her forepaws.
Teeth sunk into her left paw, and with a growl Lakepaw stumbled and fell, crashing onto her shoulder, giving the rogue the advantage.
Slash!
Lakepaw blinks, staring up at the rogue in bewilderment.
White-hot pain.
Warm vermillion.
Blood spills onto her right eye, and down her left cheek bone.
❝ You… did you just fucking slice my face open? ❞ Through the pain of nerves being split in two, she grits her words, the metallic taste of her own blood making her stomach churn.
She rolls onto her belly, tail sweeping across the floor as the rogue drops into their own defensive stance.
Lakepaw sluggishly pounces once more, aiming for a good bite to the shoulder- a bite that should have sent this rogue running back to whatever food-barren place they must of come from.
Lakepaw is blinded in her right eye, but the pain drives her, the refusal to fall unconscious from blood loss and to be at the claws of this rogue drives her.
Her jaws sink into something softer than a shoulder, she knew that deep down, that she missed, but she doesn’t stop. A choked cry leaves the rogue, they pummel at her shoulders, her limbs.
By the time the blue tabby had let go, it was too late, she had already delivered the killing bite.
She stumbled back, blood dribbling from her jaw, the entirety of her face, the small scratches that littered her flank, and with horror she watched as the rogue bled out at her paws, their eyes fixated on her with their own different kind of horror.
The rogue is dead. Driven to insanity by starvation, but Lakepaw had been the one to stop their heart.
The blue tabby can only stare as the adrenaline begins to fade, and the real pain begins to settle in, tearing at her facial laceration. A trembling paw pushes up at her left cheek bone in a weak attempt to keep the skin together.
Finally, she could hear the faint thundering of running paw steps, closer…
Help..
Help…
She wants to call out, but her voice finds no words.
By the time her knights in shining armor would find her, her forepaw would still be held up, the tremor now gone. ❝ The… rogue, attacked me… they got my face pretty good. ❞ She would mumble out, turning to face the others, ❝ Beesong… uhm, I think I need Beesong. ❞
❝ Speech. ❞
[tldr; while out on a walk, Lakepaw encounters a starved rogue devoting a vole (most likely coming from the carrion place or twoleg place) when Lakepaw tries to get them to leave, they attack, and Lakepaw ultimately ends up killing them. Lakepaw ends up with a pretty severe laceration stretching from the top of her right eye to the bottom of the left side of her face, she is currently in shock. @BEESONG just in case Nico wants them in this thread!]
THE HATRED IN HER EYES
