Wilted Leaves

It had been her first time out since the fox attack. Her face had mostly healed, if by healed you meant a large, ugly, and painful scab covering her entire half of her face. Mapleface's jaw was crooked and hurt really bad as well. It was hard to talk, eat, drink, and sometimes even breath. She had lost so much weight in the time since her life basically ended. Pretty much every bone in her body poked out in angles, and her pelt lay loosely on her body. She was literally a shadow of once she was. But she didn't want to be cooped up any longer. With determination in her paws she set out to her least favorite place; the rocky slope she had once loved.

Her journey started off easy enough and she found herself at the edges of a horrible abyss. Flashbacks racked her mind and she yowled from the reoccurring pain. Yet she felt like she had to move on. Mapleface started walking again, stumbling every few steps from her messed up balance. She had made it up half way the slope when she needed to rest. Climbing up on a boulder, she found she could see for quite a few tail lengths. Sure, she could only see rocks, but her paws ached and she didn't have anywhere better to be.

The rain started suddenly. There was almost no warning when large, angry droplets started to fall out of the sky like StarClan was mourning over the loss of her precious face once more. She was drenched in seconds, and the rock beneath her paws got slippery. Mapleface stood, her head spinning. It dawned on her that she had not eaten since the previous sunrise before. Her body shivered from the cold liquid pelting her and she took a step foward. She had a get down. Stretching her neck, she realized how far down she was, or at least it felt it was too far to jump, even though she had made the leap only a few minutes before.

Her heart thudded in her chest. She would just have to leap. It would be dangerous, with all the other jagged stones around her; however it was her only way off. Taking a breath she leaped. Her muscles bunched, her eyes met her target, but she didn't take in the slip of the rock beneath her paws.

As she jumped, her back paws flew out behind her, knocking her straight down onto her stomach, bashing her head against the rock. Not enough to kill (yet), but enough to knock her out as well as force the air out of her lungs. The momentum as well as the same factor that had caused this accident kept her moving. Mapleface fell in a sideways and down motion of the length of the boulder. Reaching the bottom? Her death.

A horrible sound filled the air. Not from thunder, no. But from breaking bone and more. As her body fell at a slightly slanted angle, the poor cat's head fell directly on a small, but pointy rock. It pierced straight through her head, killing her instantly. To help her along, her neck snapped. Blood started to drip out of the wound. Her eyes were closed, luckily for the cat who found her, but it was a horrible sight. A mangle-faced cat dangling off a spear-like rock.

OOC: Ummmm... I know this sucks buuttt

OOC: I thought you were going to keep her D; this makes my face quite sad ;n;

It wasn't very long after that small voices could be heard throughout the territory. As the voices got closer, though, they were very easily recognizable as Gingerheart's and Thrushstripe. As a matter of fact, it didn't take Thrushstripe very long to realize that his sister had managed to get out of camp on her own. He was always trying to check in on Mapleface to see how she was doing considering she could barely eat and she had always seemed to be growing thinner and thinner every single day. It even got to the point to where he was seriously concerned about her well being. She had seemed to depressed since the accident and he had tried everything he could to try to cheer her up but nothing ever worked.

Just after the deputy had found out that she had gotten out of camp, he quickly told Gingerheart and within a heartbeat, both of them were out in the territory looking for their kin. "Mapleface!" Gingerheart called out as she tried to find the scent of her daughter. They were quickly able to find the trail whenever they exited the camp, but as soon as they made it halfway through the territory, the clouds opened up and rain poured down onto them, erasing whatever trail they had. All that was left now was just to call out for her and hope for an answer. "Thrushstripe do you have any idea where she could have gone out here?!" Gingerheart cried over the rain. She didn't want to have to go through the struggle of losing someone else. It would be too painful...

Yet, Thrushstripe was feeling even worse. It was his fault she was in this situation in the first place. He should have looked after her better. He should have known she was going to try something like this. He should know where she went... "I-I have no idea. She never said anything about going somewhere by herself!" he answered, his voice coated in worry and regret. All he could do was just keep going. But it didn't take long for his feet to move him towards what used to be Shadowclan's territory. Gingerheart had followed behind constantly calling Mapleface's name until she came up to the border. Instantly she stopped. "There's no way she would go over there. She knows that we lost this land to Windclan..." Gingerheart grumbled as she began to turn back around and head in a different direction.

"We have to look anyway. In her state, she might not have heard. She probably still thinks that this is our land. It would only make sense for her to go here anyway. This is where the attack happened..." his voiced trailed off as he flashed back to that moment before shaking his head to clear his thoughts. No, that is long gone and over now... Stay focused! Without another thought, he dashed over the border and ran towards the rocky terrain, quickly jumping over all of the rocks and boulders that got in his way. "Mapleface!" he shouted through the white sheet of rain only to stop halfway through the territory to see a small red stream that was coming from a rather large boulder he hadn't quite jumped over yet. Instantly, all of Thrushstripe's thoughts went to the worst that could happen. Everything in his body locked up as he tried to think of whether or not he should see what the red stream was coming from or let Gingerheart do it. All he could do was just pray to Starclan that it wasn't Mapleface.

It didn't take long for Gingerheart to find her way to Thrushstripe, but as soon as the younger tom stopped, Gingerheart froze in her tracks. It took her a minute to realize just what had him so frightened, but when she saw it, her own heart stopped. That small, red stream that was draining away with the pouring rain. The crimson color of blood flowing from a rock. That wasn't natural. Yet, Gingerheart knew that she had to face whatever it was behind there. Taking a deep, shaky breath, she very slowly stepped to where she could see what was source of the blood and almost instantly she felt as if she herself had died. There was Mapleface with a rock shoved into her head. Never in her life had Gingerheart felt so much horror and fear so quickly. It was like she couldn't take her eyes off of her daughter even if the sight was just too horrible to look at. She couldn't even move from where she was. Nothing in her body was letting her go. Something was keeping her from doing anything.

"Ging... Gingerheart?" Thrushstripe questioned as he saw his mother's reaction. Now it was pretty obvious what had happened... and that it was Mapleface that was lying behind that boulder. With all the blood that had run down in the rain, there was no way she was alive now. But Thrushstripe just couldn't bear to turn that corner and what his sister's injuries. Yet, he knew that he had to. Someone had to take her back to camp, and it seemed as if Gingerheart was in too much shock to do it. Thrushstripe had already done it once... But now, there didn't seem like there was going to be any rush.

Gingerheart coudn't move. There was no other way to explain it. All she could do was stare at the body and wonder what had happened... Did she slip because she couldn't see? Was she just too weak? Had someone else done this? Without another thought, her legs gave out from under her, sending the senior warrior to the ground with a tiny splash as her drenched fur hung off of her like a 10-pound weight and landed into a puddle on the ground. As soon as she hit the ground, her vision moved from her daughter to the stony floor. How much more was she going to lose? How much more could she take of this?

Without even looking, Thrushstripe moved around to the other side of the rock so that most of the damage was facing away from him. So what he did was just mainly just a lump of fur and broken bones as he pushed himself underneath her and lifted up as carefully as he could. Even though all he wanted to do right now was to crash to the ground and never get back up; he wanted to just fall down and be left to die. He didn't want to face all of his clan mates as he took his dead sister into the clearing. He didn't want to see any of their faces, but he knew that he had to keep pushing forward. If not for him then for Mapleface and Gingerheart. As the tom lifted up the body, there was the sickening sound of the rock dislodging from the body's skull until all that was left was a limp figure on his back. Without even saying a word, he began his tread back to camp, not even checking to see if Gingerheart was behind him. He knew she wasn't in the mood to talk, and Thrushstripe felt that if he tried to say one word he would collapse and never be able to breathe again.

So this is what despair and loss felt like...

OOC: I guess I could continue this in camp?

Ooc: yes please