A fresh dusting of snow left map of movement throughout the forest. Naked tree branches provided a cadence of background chatter as a gentle breeze thrust them together in soft clatters. Crunchy leaves could still be felt underpaw, a reminder of how swiftly the seasons had changed. Some how so swift and slow all in one flawless breath. Time moved on. And so did he.
The young tom's gait was heavy and slow, seemingly more awkward and uncomfortable with each step. All along his pelt were signs of the past moon, a pelt that felt dauntingly weighted at this point. Patches of his brown and white coat had been torn, leaving behind a spattering of crusted blood. If there was one thing that he had learned, it was that there was no time for rest or relaxation without any cat to watch his back. Most strangers were not friendly and the ones that were often had little resources to share. But none of that mattered anyways. He hadn't set out to make friends or settle down, he had set out to find the great forest, the one he now believed was around him.
It felt empty, and underwhelming, but relief clutched at his heart. This was home.
Chad had never stood on these lands before but it was the home of his ancestors, his kin, a lineage beyond his parents. Several near-death ago, he had begun to begrudgingly admit that Stoatfur and Appledapple had been right in everything that they sad. Thankfully, it would be something that he would never had to admit directly to them. A sign left his maw as he thought of his parents. The pair of them had been everything he had ever known and it was for that reason he had left it all behind. Grand stories of the intricacies of clanlife and greater purpose were so much more appealing than wasting away back at the stoneden. Now, he was just physically wasting away.
He paused at the edge of a ravine and let out a groan. This should have been a joyous occasion, reaching a landmark that signaled how close he was to his destination after all the devastation and pain he had lived through. But Chad was hungry and cold, and his body was stiff. Another defeated sign before finally offering his voice to the vacant woods, "Come on now, almost there. You didn't come this far just to prove Stoatfur right, did you?"
The sun slowly sunk towards its resting place on the horizon. It felt like hours that he was climbing the steep ravine, a trek made every worse by frost-covered leaves. Then, finally, the tunnel was before him - a promise from kithood tales woven and promised glory. A future, now his future. With a revitalized burst of energy, Chad pushed through the entrance. His matted coat snagged here and there but it did not matter as painful sensations had eventually turned to a mere numbness. Besides his focus was elsewhere, on looking forward, on meeting his kin...
Stumbling through the entrance in an awkward mess, the apprentice-aged tom righted himself as quickly as possible. One eye was swollen and agitated from an untreated wound just above but that didn't stop him from blinking. Twice, three times, and then once more. He drank it in scanning the clearing, noting the dens, the highrock, all the stories made real in an instant. Chad was baffled, enthralled. Disbelief washed over him. For only a moment he was entranced by this feeling, the satisfaction, but it was dashed away in an instant as a realization dawned on him.
This camp, this home, was empty. Cat scent was stale and just a memory. He staggered back a few steps and bumped into the wall.
"You've got to be f-"
