ONE WORLD
The rain roars.
The grassed sway and thrash.
I bound through the sopping undergrowth with my Clan and lunge at the enemy cats. I rip, tear, and bite. By Clanmates do the same. I fight with a fury.
As a try to get a grip on a harsh little tom tearing at my face, I feel a she-cat tumble over me. I let go of the harsh tom to attack the weaker she-cat. She lies whimpering on the ground. Her leg is broken.
She whines when she sees me glaring down at her. We both know we are of enemy Clans. I growl. She twitches her broken leg and a see a slice on her chest before the rain washes the blood away.
"Please," the helpless cat whispers.
I unsheathe my claws, staring deep into her plain yellow eyes.
"Please spare me," she rasps.
I don't move. Should I kill this helpless cat and fight for my Clan as I had been so brutally trained? Or should I spare her?
"Please," her voice is full of fear.
I slice my claws across her throat and a world ends. I watch as a cat with a life of her own dies slowly. I stare, unable to bear the emotions creeping over my back like a burden. I try not to think it, I really do, but I realize she was one more cat with a life, one more cat who would never see her kits grow up, never fulfill the dreams she had, never become an elder.
I run away. I am scared of the dead, lost world limp beneath my claws.
After that, I cannot live with myself. I am a lost cat. My friends do not understand. They do not know what I have done. They carry their own burdens.
Why I am so torn, I do not know. The world I shattered is burned into my memory, my mind. I cannot let it go.
My pelt looses texture, I stop eating. I grow so sick I am not allowed to fight in the battle anymore. I do not care. I do not even know what I want anymore, as sickness, misery and confusion clogs my vision.
Finally though, I cannot bear it. I am unable to use my senses clearly, I am so clogged with what I have done. I join the next fighting patrol and tumble weakly out of camp. My friends stick close my, intent on protecting me. But the moment we reach the battle field, I break free of their flanking guard and throw myself into a heaving mass of fighting warriors.
My body tries to protect itself as I seize up, my limbs searing as they skid across harsh rocks. I tumble to a spot and the rain washes over me. I try to get up. I wait. I am here for a reason, but I will not lay a claw on a cat again.
Green eyes glint in the gloom, and then a second later a warrior appears in front of me. I struggle to remain standing as I face what I am here for.
But now it is too much, too scary. I gasp as I realize I am a coward, I cannot do it. I am weak.
"Please," And the words slide out of me. I try to back up, but my legs aren't working. I am torn up, a lost, broken cat. I have destroyed everything. I have ended a world.
The enemy warrior growls and comes foreword. The pain of his teeth on my throat is nothing but a tingle, I am already to clogged up with agony. I tumble to the ground with a splatter as my own world ends.
I look up, seeing the world above me. The vision does not go away, even though I am dead. That is all I can see, the Earth above me. Other cats jump over my lost world, fighting around me. None of them even glance my way.
And then I know where the she-cat's world went when I ended it.
Nowhere.
I want to gasp but I am dead as I realize there is nothing beyond this life. This is it, and I have destroyed two worlds, mine and another's, the only ones we'll ever have.