Fallen Down[CLOSED]

Delta stubbornly refused to believe that her exile was a bad choice. After leaving the territory and a quiet goodbye to Mistyrain, she'd found herself unsure of what to do. So she walked, away into the Twolegplace. The scents conflicted, leaving her with no tracking skills, and only her eyes and ears to guide her. After washing the blood off, she found her right eye was blurred. Likely because of Swallowflight's attack... Oh,  Starclan, he hated her now. Sandblaze and Lightfang seemed sad, but at least they recognized her decision. She left the Twolegplace, making her way around the forest another way. She had no idea how long she'd been walking. Several sunrises, she knew. But with less trees, she couldn't hunt as easily. And as she came near the moorland, a ferocious fox clambered around. As she ran from that, she slammed into a raccoon. It wasn't as big as a dog, but certainly as mean. She did her best to fight it, but there was nary a tree in sight. It tore off the end of her tail when she attacked it and left her bleeding and battered, but she ultimately managed to drive it off.

She had to keep going. There was a barn up ahead...  along with the scent wafting towards her of mice and cats. She walked in,  leaving a bloody trail beyond, tattered fur and scarred skin. A familiar scent reached her. She flattened her ears back in surprise. "A... Asterspark?" She'd heard that Stagclan had been driven out. But what were the odds her punny friend was here too? A voice inside told her he was partly to blame for her exile, but she shook it away. A friend. That was who he was. And maybe Delta could adjust to rogue life, with his help.

Sans sighed heavily and slumped into his makeshift bed of hay on the upper floor of the abandoned barn. His belly was full -- all the mice around the Twoleg structure had taken care of that problem when his attempts to hunt down mice closer to Clan territory had failed. After Thornbriar had sent him away when he saved her and Yewpaw from the raccoon that had attacked them in ShadowClan territory, he had come across this place. He found it to be chock-full of mice, so here he had remained for a few days now.

His belly was nice and full, yes, but everything else about him felt empty. He missed ShadowClan. He missed his brother and crush and the rest of his friends. He just wished he had never sided with Burnt and went against the Clan that had raised him. Why did he have to be so stupid?

"A... Asterspark?"

His ears perked at the familiar voice, his head raising from its resting position. He padded to the edge of the upper floor and peered down, and his eyes widened. He instantly recognized the cat limping into the barn. "maplepaw? is that really you, kit? what're ya doin' all the way out here? why aren't you--?"

By the time he reached the ground floor to approach his friend, he saw it. The rest of her looked battle-worn and scruffy, and her amber eyes were dim and full of exhaustion, but the tip of her tail was missing, leaving behind a bloody stump. "whoa, kit! what happened to you? c-c'mere, lay down on the hay." He nuzzled her in the direction of a large pile of the prickly dried grass, flattening a spot with her paws so they wouldn't poke at her as badly.

Once he laid her down, he immediately raced into one of the darker corners of the barn to retrieve a large pawful of cobweb. He unraveled the sticky stuff from his paw and began wrapping it around the apprentice's tail wound, helping to stop the bleeding. It was thanks to watching Morningpaw stopping his own bleeding wounds with cobweb many moons ago that he knew what to do, but that was as far as his medicine cat knowledge breached. "what happened? what are you even doing here? why ain'tcha in skyclan? i ... i-i assume that's where you went when you suddenly disappeared...."

Delta nearly full-on collapsed as Asterspark nudged her onto the hay. "Well, it's Delta now." She coughed. "My name, I mean." She began, only realizing how tired and hungry she was now that she was laying down. "I was exiled and I met a raccoon. I'm feline like the Twolegplace is not the best hunting grounds." She wondered why Asterspark was out here. Maybe Scorchstar had exiled him, too... Who was to say? "My brother Lightfang convinced me. But then..." She paused, feeling a tear threaten to spill out. She blinked it away, wishing she could blink away the blur in her eye, too. Maybe this wasn't... No. This was her choice. This was the best choice. She would be free as soon as she healed. "Tinystar gave me a choice. I didn't want to be trapped there, so... the only other option was exile. Swallowflight, he got so mad, he... He gave me this." She gestured to her eye scar, and after a moment her ears perked back up in an almost fake happiness. "But I'm sure he didn't mean it! I'm sure it was just hard to swallow and he overreacted. He- haha, he couldn't have really disowned me, right? Ha- ha- he doesn't hate me! B- Because that would mean I made the wrong choice, right? I bet... I..." She swallowed and looked down, a realization dawning on her. "...he hates me, doesn't he? they all do. i left them behind and expected them to be fine with it. Oh, Starclan..." She folded her ears back. She really was an idiot.

Sans frowned sadly, his ears drawing back in sympathy for the young molly. She was too young to have to suffer such hardships. He gently rasped his tongue over her ears. "well, uh.... at least you're wanted here. if you don't got anyplace else left to go, y'could always stay with me. i've, uh ... been exiled from my clan, too. scorchstar gave me a choice similar to one tinystar give t' you. i'm ... not even called asterspark 'nymore. now i go by sans. heh, get it? 'cuz i'm sans clan. heh...."

He finished bandaging up Delta's tail wound and helped her into a decently comfortable lying position. "you should rest 'til your tail starts feelin' a bit better. in the meantime, i can catch ya a mouse or two. there's plenty here. don't move, i'll be back soon, alright?" Sans offered her a small yet friendly smile before padding out of the building to begin searching for prey.

Delta smiled a little hearing Sans talk. So he'd made the same choice. It made her feel a little better, admittedly. Knowing there was someone still her friend in this whole mess. With trouble, she stood again. "I can hunt for mysel-" She dropped back down, sighing. Looked like she couldn't. She got comfortable and looked at her tail. Though not completely gone, a significant portion was torn, leaving little to no white left. It made her stomach twist, so she glanced around the barn instead. There were high-up places to climb, plentiful mice skittering around, and hey- it wasn't her Skyclan nest, but the hay was pretty comfy. She felt relieved to talk to a cat that didn't hate her in some form.