My Family, I'm Finally Coming Home (SOLO)

It had been days since the Clan cats at the shore had moved on. Led by Scorchclaw, they went off to find their way back home, after StarClan promised them a way back to the forest, at long last. The Clan cats were probably back in the forest by now, and RiverClan's cats would be back in their own territory.

Every RiverClan cat but Flurryshine.

The morning before the Clans left to follow StarClan's sign, Scorchclaw had approached her about her mentor Dewshine, and her mentor's mate Gingerstripe. They both had died in the floods, and Flurryshine had made a promise to herself to bring them back to the forest so they could be buried in their home -- even if Gingerstripe had originally come from ShadowClan, she knew him well enough to know that wherever Dewshine was, that had been home to him. Unfortunately, StarClan took too long to send a message to the cats, and Scorchclaw had been on his last whisker in patience with her. He told her to bury the bodies here. She tried to argue back, but he wouldn't back down.

And now here they were, buried underneath wet sand and dirt in an unfamiliar land, where their kits would never be able to visit them.

And Flurryshine remained by their sides. Dewshine had been the cat she had grown closest to ever since her mother Snowblossom died, but even before then she was like a second mother to her. She had taught her everything she knew about how to be a good RiverClan cat, and she had been very patient and kind the entire time she had been her apprentice. Even when she had taken in the exiled Gingerstripe as a mate, when every cat was against it -- including her first mate Hillfire -- she still stood by her side, giving her and Gingerstripe both the love and support they still deserved.

Even when the initial flood crashed into RiverClan's camp, Flurryshine had chosen to stick by Dewshine's side as opposed to helping her own kit Sunpaw.

In hindsight ... even if it would've hurt ... she really should have tried to save her daughter over her mentor. Dewshine had already lived her life, even if she had been expecting kits, but Sunpaw still had promise and potential. It was all because of her assumption that she would be forever paralyzed from the chest down due to that fallen rock that she didn't save her. She had thought that Sunpaw was going to die anyway. Snowblossom wouldn't have abandoned you, you fox-heart.

Flurryshine had done so wrong by so many cats over the course of her life. She practically betrayed the Clan by taking Hillfire as a mate, even if she didn't know of his evil intentions at the time. She failed Firepaw as a mentor, and he paid the price with his life during the battle against Lichenmask and his followers. She didn't visit Icepaw as often as she should have when he had been badly injured to wish him a speedy recovery. She didn't once try to find Aspenstrike or Lakewhisper when they had gone missing. She hadn't been fast enough to save Snowblossom from drowning. She had wished death upon Sootcloud during one of his horrible seizures. She had abandoned her last living kit for her mentor, who had died anyway. And to top it all off, she didn't uphold to her promise, her final wish made by Dewshine herself, to care for her kits in her absence.

She kept failing her loved ones time and time and time again. It was no wonder she was all alone now.

She didn't deserve StarClan's mercy. The only thing she deserved was to rot away in the Dark Forest for all of eternity.

She collapsed to the ground with a body-shaking sob, burying her face between her paws. She wished she had been a better RiverClan cat. Instead, she was just a failure. A failure who didn't deserve to see her loved ones in StarClan again.

Flurryshine felt weak, starving, and dehydrated, but above all else she felt tired. She just couldn't keep her eyes open any longer. She wanted to sleep. She needed to sleep....

She slowly closed her eyes and fell asleep, and her breathing soon slowed to a stop.