[V2]FrostxOtter

[Rolo]

Frostpaw tried to focus on the ground. She tried to study the dirt beneath her feet, to look at the criss-crossing pawmarks indented in the earth. She tried so hard.

But it was impossible.

A crowd jeering. Eyes narrowed, focused on her. The sense of being trapped. The possibility of death.

Frostpaw attempted to keep her breathing steady as she looked back at the harsh crowd. Her ears back, despite her efforts. Her stance low, weak.

She'd been in this position so much in the past. She'd lost count. It always ended badly. Public punishings weren't supposed to be fun and games, after all.

And this time, there was a sense that something extra was going on. A darkness that seemed to loom over the clan clearing, invoking a sense of dread that nearly suffocated her.

And she was afraid.

Volepelt towered above her, high upon clan rock. His head was raised to the stars, pelt glittering in the moonlight. Arrogant and in his element.

"Starclan, I bring before you these two warriors, although neither are worthy of your mighty gaze. They have sinned frequently, with no sense of guilt. Our actions become us, and therefore these sins have become them. Their souls are black, captured by the Dark Forest. We plea to you now, have mercy on them. They stand before you now, ready to receive cleansing and to pay for their actions in blood."

The clan yowled in agreement. Frostpaw shivered.

She had always claimed that the clan was against her... but it had always been metaphorical. Now, it was literal, obvious to any onlooker. They hated her. They wanted her blood to be spilled. And, although she'd had little investment in them beforehand, it chilled her.

Maybe... maybe they were right? If they all thought her bad... perhaps she really wasn't worth the ground she stood upon? Even her so-called accomplices didn't step forward now. She didn't blame them, it would mean their blood, but it did make her wonder...

If it were not for the cat beside her, she would have felt lonely. She turned to look at Otterclaw beside her. Her fellow 'lost soul'. She took comfort in his presence, and was so very glad she hadn't got to go through this alone. However, she had barely glanced at him before she turned back to look at the crowd, consumed by her own thoughts and fear.

She hoped they made it through this. She really, really did.

[Pyro]

"I have plenty of guilt. Guilt over getting caught, that is." he muttered under his breath.

It was strange.

His chattiness had in previous times made him an annoyance. But he'd never thought that his words would gain him such animosity from his clanmates. Granted, it was not his words lone that had landed him here, but his actions as well...But one does not usually believe one's own family will turn on them for any reason.

He certainly did not believe that family would one day make him a scarred, bloody, half-starved shell of his former self. Funny how the universe worked.

The warrior stayed close to Frostpaw's side, head low, golden eyes watching his clanmates with unease. He glanced down at the apprentice, and managed a weary, nervous smile. "Chin up, Frostpaw, just another day at the races." Haha, really. Another day of watching to see which would break first: their bodies or their spirits. It was anyone's game at this point. Their spirits were decidedly low and their bodies...well. It was safe to say there was not another pair of cats in the entire forest that looked half as worn-out and beaten down as the two of them did right here, right now.

The yowls of his once-friends made him scornful. How blindly they followed Volepelt and what they assumed to be the will of Starclan. Look how fear had made them complacent. Even as they stalked forward to begin the punishment he felt...no. He didn't pity them. He was past pity. They all had a choice. They just chose the one that made them all mindless beasts. What kind of a clan tortured their own?

No use yelling about the blood that they'd have on their paws if they killed him and his comrade-in-suffering. They'd relish the blood. They wanted the blood, blood of sinners, blood of 'black souls' as Volepelt had so charmingly called them.

"Well then, get on with it." he chuckled. Otterclaw would find it within himself to laugh. "Or is our punishment to hear you hiss and yowl like madcats? Real harsh on the ears, I'll admit."

[Rolo]

Frostpaw's mind drifted so far away from reality, she had no longer heard the baying crowd. She didn't see the dirt beneath her paws. Her feelings were numb to the sensation of the world.

Chin up, Frostpaw.

It was only hearing Otterclaw's voice that bought her back to existence. Frostpaw blinked. The sound of the crowd, the sight of their pelts melting into one. It hit her hard, and she shook her head, attempting to shake them away.

She looked at the older cat beside her, unable to stop the fear showing in her eyes. She was grateful he was there to support her, there to pull her up. Although her mind felt empty, she attempted to come up words of confidence in return.

"At least we don't have souls to break. Focus on keeping your body safe. Please." She urged, her voice dull.

This done, her duty fulfilled, it struck Frostpaw that living in her dreams might be a better alternative than facing reality. She'd always heard of people suggesting you should think of the thing that made her most happy.

It was her attempts to do this that bought her even greater distress. She realised, in that moment, that she hadn't really got the material for a happy place. Scrolling back through her memories, there were scarcely any memories that gave her any joy. She'd always been disliked, isolated. Her clanmates had only ever put up with her. She'd never played. Not even the memories of being curled up in her nest as a kitbought her comfort, as the fur she had nuzzled into then had been that of her loathsome mother.

Even Finchpaw... even those memories of Finchpaw were difficult. She felt pride for his successes, joy at defeating his father all those times. But these memories had been marred by all those times she'd wronged him, caused him to argue with her.

She'd never laid, in bliss, among the flowers. She'd never gazed up at the stars in awe and wonder. She'd never just sat and felt happy. She'd never allowed herself those moments, she'd given them up in her pursuit of intellectual stimulation and logic. Just like her mother had always forbade her those moments of accomplishment and acceptance, no matter how hard she tried to achieve them.

And she regretted it.

Then and there, Frostpaw decided that, if she got through this, that was what she would do. She'd chew her words and swallow them and just... be happy. She'd find cats she liked and be happy with them. She'd walk the world and love it. Otterclaw. Finchpaw. They'd come with her. They'd play on the grass and in the snow... she'd groom her pelt until it gleame-

"There is a kind of sinful evil that does not listen to reason. It resists. It does not alter, given normal punishment or instruction. In these cases, Starclan decrees that we must break it. We must shatter the hold the Dark Forest holds, in order to give these cats the chance to see the light. And so, Fogclan, I announce that these two cats, whose names are unworthy of Starclan, shall receive the greatest cleansing. Council members, please gather around the lost souls."

Unseen by Frostpaw, various expressions crossed the faces of the council members. Relish, doubt. Reluctance, glee. But led by their indoctrination and instruction, they obeyed as worthy Starclan followers.

Frostpaw's fantasy broke as she felt bodies surrounding her. She looked around her, to find herself surrounded. Rowanheart, Reedfoot, Tawnywhisker...

Instinctively, she backed away. Her body collided with Otterclaw. She jumped initially, before realising it was him and, with not a thought on the matter, took comfort in his touch. She was soon as pressed up against him as she could get, her head dipped, her eyes closed. Bracing herself.

She thought about the future again. About Otterclaw, so close she could feel the warmth of his body. About Finchpaw, far away but close in heart. About stars. And snow and rivers and trees and dappled light and...