An Eye. [closed]

It was dark in this marsh. Very little stars glittered in the sky here. Mist swirled along the ground as if it was moving water, rushing to a wall of mist that spread to the sky overhead. No birds chirped, nor insects in the area. As if something, or someone, has silenced them. No, this land was truly empty. Devoid of life, much like Wolfpaw's soul. The only song it sang was an agonizing chorus of ominous foreboding.

She stood there, her legs halfway obscured by marsh water and mist. Long fur clung to her sides, damp with the swelling mist in the air. Her pelt nearly blended in with her surroundings, one of her own design. One pale blue eye, one pale green, gazed upon this dreamland of her creation. A scar slashed down her shoulder and looked like a lightning bolt, another marring her face in half. Talon marks raked across her body, still weeping because she willed them to in this form—all an elaborate way to intimidate a monster. To get through to one, you must act like one.

Burdockroot knew darkness. She was raised by it, born by it, during an equinox that brought the Dark Forest to her clan and nursed her to a cold-hearted beast. Turned medicine cat. For most of her life, she felt nothing. Nothing but anger and rage that had consumed her until nearly the last moons of her life. Betrayal. Betrayal did that to her. By Nightstar, mostly. Heatherberry had melted her icy heart at the last moment, giving her a sense of peace before her final moments. And he- the monster slowly coming into this desolate land before her, had hurt her.

He didn't just hurt Heatherberry, but another. Much like Redice, she had seen this evil since he was a kit. The medicine cat had begged Nightstar to do something before it was too late. He did nothing. Redice killed. If you can't trust someone else to do it, you must do it yourself.

And that is why Wolfpaw was met with a snarl.

"You sniveling kit-" she growled as a way of greeting. "-I promised you I would be watching."

Burdockroot bared her teeth at the young cat, a rumble in her throat. Slowly, the large molly stalked forward until she was a breath away from the apprentice, peering down at the young, troublesome tom. She stared for a long moment, the rumble like thunder in the air. Before, without warning, she swatted the tom with unsheathed claws that sent him staggering. Using the moment of being off balanced, the molly slammed her body into him, sending him sprawling and shoving a heavy, strong paw on his chest to hold him down. Slowly, she leaned down to breathe in his ear, her breath frigid against his fluff.

"Do you know what happens to cats like you, Wolfpaw? You end like this, helpless with-" She cut herself off, lowering her jaw to his throat and squeezing. The tips of her fangs threatened to pierce skin, hovering right on the border for a few seconds before she slammed her jaws down with a snarl. With a thrash of her head, his jugular was torn from his throat, chunks of flesh following.

Burdockroot stepped back, her maw unbloodied as she sneered at the tom below her. While he felt the excruciating pain of his most precious body part being torn, his neck was intact and he was free to breathe. As the tom lay there, doing whatever he needed to recover, Burdockroot's eyes softened just slightly.

"Your mother doesn't deserve to see that, Wolfpaw. She suffered much to bring you to life." Yes, it was unbelievable that this worm of a life was brought to the world by such a mother, Pineblossom. One time, her love. Now, a friend. She was truly one of the few cats the scarred medicine cat respected and felt attached to. Maybe that was why Burdockroot cared so much to set this tom straight- not for him. For her.

Burdockroot snarled, allowing the apprentice space... for now. "Ask your mother how much the dead can do, we were raised by the dead." Her expressionless eyes bore into Wolfpaw's soul. Now, she took a step towards the apprentice, feeling the tingle in her starry body drawing her back up to StarClan soon. "I'm watching, Wolfpaw. You have the chance to turn your life around. Prevent your throat from being torn from you. Prevent your mother, your siblings, from witnessing it. Preventing you from spending your eternity-" She flicked her fluffy tail to the wall of mist behind them now. "Away from them in the Dark Forest, never to see them as you slowly rot painfully and forgotten."

Her growl, low and dark, echoed through the air around them as the space slowly faded into nothing, her mismatched eyes the last thing Wolfpaw saw as he awoke, her growl still to ring in his ears.