❒
Even before the trio could get anywhere with finding Mistyfalcon, they were stopped in their tracks by Ratrunner's heroic actions in saving Swiftheart. However, the Dark Forest cat turned to fight Ratrunner instead. Forestpaw's breathing quickened and without thinking about Icepaw or Stagshade, raced over to his mentor.
"N-NO! RATRUNNER!" he cried out, praying that his mentor could hear him and escape. He was too late in arriving, though. The she-cat had pounced on Ratrunner with unsheathed paws. She was ruthless...
❒
There was blood, blood
everywhere. The young apprentice was frozen in place, shaking like a leaf. He couldn't look away from the dark-furred heap on the ground. It had only been a fraction of a second. One moment, Ratrunner had been valiantly fighting Vixenstar and the next...
and the next, he had crumpled to the ground, blood pouring from the fresh wounds on his neck. Forestpaw couldn't stop looking. He urged his body to move, his eyes to look elsewhere. He was stuck. He was stuck
memorizing his mentor's slow and painful death.
❒
He hadn't even noticed how Swiftheart or Duskflight scrambled over to Ratrunner's body. He hadn't even noticed Icepaw's quick escape back to camp. For him, the whole world had frozen over. He tried to blink away the morbid image of Ratrunner's bloody figure but he couldn't. His glassy eyes just continued to stare. The sobs coming from his clanmates finally managed to snap him out of his daze—almost as if someone had physically shaken him awake. One by one his paws began to drag him over to his mentor. Despite how jelly-like his legs felt, he kept going. His chest was on fire as his lungs refused to work. He was slowly suffocating with despair and horror. Everything swayed but the only thing that mattered to him was getting to Ratrunner's side.
❒
By the time he had made it, his chest was heaving. However, he hadn't even noticed. He collapsed down next to his mentor's chest and buried his face into his short pelt—he cared not for the blood that was slowly being soaked up by his own fur. His amber eyes remained glassy and unseeing—he couldn't stop replaying how Vixenstar had struck down the tom. Words were stuck in his throat and his tongue felt drier than sand, however, he forced himself to speak.
"R-Ratrunner? Don't leave me please. Please, Ratrunner. Please... Y-You're the best mentor ever. T-The clan needs you. We all love you! Don't leave us please! DON'T LEAVE ME!" Despite his desperate pleas, he knew that there was no saving the tom. At that moment, another piece of himself had broken away.
║
Forestpaw is mourning Ratrunner's death ║ 
