#raisel

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The group was discouraged when no one seemed to know of a way out of the barren land–or even if there was a place out at all. But the fact that they were now surrounded by other cats sparked hope that none of them had held for a long time.

When no one could answer her question, Sandhowl went on. “I’m clearly dead.” She spared a glance at the foam curling over her bottom lip. “Would I be wrong to assume that this is the Dark Forest?”

Flashcry sighed, letting his shoulders fall. He tried not to think about the deep scars carved into his belly and legs, or how they had been bleeding a trail behind him for as long as he had been there. Which was…Stars, he had no idea how much time had passed. But one thing was for certain: he was well and truly dead.

“That is where we appear to be,” he muttered. “Thought it’d be a bit more of a forest.”

Raisel opened his jaws. “Well, there’s a considerable lack of a forest,” he commented, words overlapping with Flashcry’s observation, though the other tom didn’t seem to mind the interruption. “I should bring that up with someone when we get out of here.” He tilted his head, licking his bloodied paw. “Eh, it’s better than StarClan. I could do without the sand though, but sacrifices have to be made, I assume.” 

He plopped down in front of the white cat, rolling onto his back with his paws in the air, the drying wet-red sand falling off of them in clumps. What a day….or was it a week?

When Sandhowl proposed the question, Bouncefur had flinched with such intensity, it almost had them leaping off of the ground. They blinked hard for several heartbeats, unable to believe the possibility. It was only worse that every other cat seemed to agree that that…place...was really where they were. 

“The Dark Forest?” they gasped, finally able to speak. “But I didn’t do anything wrong!” Their  tail swished in a panic. “This has to be a mistake. A bad dream, right?....Though it’d be an awful long dream….” They eventually sank down on the rough gravel, putting their chin on their paws as they thought. Eventually, the ginger cat looked up with a furrow of their brow. “Why are you fellows here then? I thought we were ‘sposta wander around the Dark Forest alone forever or somethin’ like that.”

Laureldawn carefully resisted the urge to smack the ginger she-cat. “I did what I had to do,” she muttered, almost a growl.

Bouncefur was completely oblivious to the she-cat’s urge, and shook their head. “I mean like, why are we all together if we’re ‘sposta be wandering alone ‘n stuff.” They rested their head back down, humming in thought. “Unless this really is just a really, really long dream and I’m gonna wake back up to see my family again. I mean, one time I had a really long dream where I was a kit again and grew up to be an elder all in one dream! It felt really real too.”

Sandhowl couldn’t stop herself from staring at the ginger cat, a slithering horror crawling up her skin. The cat’s words, their mannerisms, it was reminiscent of someone she had known in life–someone she would rather forget, but who had haunted her dreams since the beginning. She considered their words. Maybe she really was trapped in a dream. Or a nightmare, surrounded by cats that resembled her victims but different enough to give her false hope.

She pushed the thoughts and memories away and took in the cats around her. Did it really matter all that much if they weren’t real? What harm does indulging do? Then, as she looked, she noticed something strange in their eyes.

“Are my eyes pink like yours?”

“‘Pink’?” Bouncefur repeated, tilting their head in response to the rather unexpected question. They stretched their neck toward the sandy she-cat to get a better look, not noticing as Sandhowl leaned away from her. “Uuuuuuuh, yeah, sorta.”  They pulled their neck back. “Wonder what that means…” The ginger cat hummed in thought again, before springing up, opening their mouth to speak before swiftly closing it again. The thought had been lost.

Meanwhile, Raisel tilted his head to the side, examining the cats around him. Their eyes were varying shades of pinks. “I’m assuming it’s unlikely we all got hit in the face with a branch, so it has to mean something. There’s definitely something more to this place,” he went on, “when I was trai…” he trailed off, correcting himself. “...listening to the stories, there were always trees and monsters. So how do we find them?”

“‘Monsters’?” Sandhowl repeated, alarmed. Were there Thunderpaths here, and she didn’t know it? Or…she shivered…did those great beasts travel wherever they wanted here, round black paws crushing anything in their path. 

Raisel nodded before realizing most of these cats around him were most likely from Clans. Well, that’s awkward. “Er, no…well, maybe? I actually don’t know if those kinds would be here. Do you think Twolegs go to the Dark Forest?” He glanced behind him, now picturing hoards of Twolegs grabbing at them with their bony, furless long paws. He shivered before continuing. “The stories my group would tell were more so of cats so thin, they were just skeletons, wandering the forest and ready to leap at you. They were said to be so old that your paws would crunch through their bones, but that they’d swarm in hoards, kinda like ghosts. And they were here to torment the cats sent to the Dark Forest.”

Fearful murmuring broke out among the group.

Laureldawn sighed a very heavy sigh, tired of these guessing games and kit-tales. “The pink means murderer," she told them all.

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There are more responses beyond this seen on Prompt 4, but I figured this was a good place to pause for the story.

Characeters:

Flashcry belongs to @indigo-flightly-falls

Laureldawn belongs to @ambitiousauthor

Raisel belongs to @wills-woodland-warriors

Bouncefur belongs to @elementaldeityoffood

seemingly almost everyone apart of addisonverse(a ask blog extend universe) supports mspec lesbians

the only people I can officially confirm is

@/ps4dd1s0n

@/add1ss0n

@/sp4mt0n-g

now idk if void is apart of the ask blog universe but they and jester have done other questionable things with others just rolling with it