Chapter Text
After a solid eight minutes of hesitation and not falling back asleep, Ravenpaw steadily and carefully rose from his nest, resisting the urge to shake the few leaves pricking at his fur out. He slowly padded to the exit of the apprentices’ den. A snuffle of sorts echoed slightly through the insulated den. Ravenpaw froze and turned his head so quickly it was almost audible.
It was just Graypaw.
…snoring.
He should probably tell him he snores in the morning.
Ravenpaw continued his slow and steady trek to the apprentice den exit. Relief flooded his mind as he set a paw outside. The moonlight hit his black pelt, giving it a shiny, blueish tint as he shook the leaves from his nest out of his fur. The small dark-furred feline glanced over every corner of ThunderClan’s camp and, once he was sure none of his clanmates were awake, he slipped out of the apprentice den’s opening and towards the camp’s exit. There was a cat guarding, he didn’t take the time to see who. He crouched past the guarding cat and ran for it once he was out of their line of sight. Ravenpaw padded through the already pawstep-covered dirt in the forest ThunderClan resided in, tuning himself into the sounds of the night. A walk would be nice to get his mind off things. To get his mind off how his own mentor was telling the clan he was a traitor. To get his mind off how he’d probably be exiled for a false reason.
It was fine.
Graypaw and Firepaw would make sure it turned out fine.
…right?
Ravenpaw wasn’t sure how far he’d gotten when the snap of a twig made him jump out of his thoughts. How far was he? He turned behind him to see how far camp was.
He did not see ThunderClan camp. Just darkness.
Darkness with two piercing yellow eyes glaring back at him so deeply that it probably could’ve seared through his fur out of sheer will.
The darkness in between the trees produced a low growl. Ravenpaw immediately bolted away from the forest.
Straight into a thunderpath.
Ravenpaw barely caught himself from running headfirst into a monster, the thing going so fast it was nothing but a flash of light and color. Ravenpaw skidded to such an abrupt stop, his pawpads burned when he lifted them from the edge of the black surface that was the thunderpath. He heard a low growl and heavy pawsteps from behind him and nearly ran into the thunderpath again.
It was the horrifying eyes he had seen in the forest. The eyes shifted to reveal the barely visible in the night form of a fox. A fox that had clearly not eaten for moons.
A fox whose next meal was likely going to be Ravenpaw.
Ravenpaw briefly considered running across the thunderpath, but any action faded from his mind as he locked eyes with the massive orange and brown creature. He simply froze. Not that there was anything he could do to a massive fox alone. Ravenpaw prayed to StarClan that any second now he’d wake up and it’d all be a nightmare and his friends friend Firepaw and Graypaw would tell him it wasn’t real. He prayed Graypaw, Firepaw, Whitestorm, even Tigerclaw, would run from the bushes and chase the fox away.
He prayed to be home again.
Ravenpaw screwed his eyes shut as the fox clamped its jaws around his neck, scratching at its face as its teeth pierced through his fur and black spots filled his vision. He yowled as loud as he could, hoping someone, anyone, could hear.
The last thing he felt was his hind paws being lifted from the grass and the fox’s grip lightening ever so slightly.
Either he didn’t put up much of a fight, or a fox was kinder than his mentor and ended him quickly.