Chapter 2: Clawfall Arrested/Forgiven
"Tell the cat your story!" One cat said as they brought Clawfall to the loner's den.
"Let us see if he's impressed!" The other cat mewed.
"You were lodging here last night!" The first one meowed.
"You were the honest medicine loner's guest!" The other one growled.
Clawfall was confused.
"And then, out of Starclan goodness!" The first one yowled.
"When he learned about your plight," The second one glared at Clawfall.
"You maintain he made a present of this mice."
"That is right." The loner - well, Medicine loner mewed.
"But my friend, you left so early.. Surely something slipped your mind.." He headed and got a fresh squirrel.
"You forgot I gave this also... Would you leave the best behind? So, warriors, you may release him.. For this cat has spoken true. I commend you for your duty, and Starclan's blessing go with you." He waved his tail, signaling him to leave.
"And remember this, my brother, see in this some high plan.. If you eat this precious squirrel, be become an honest cat. By the witness of our ancestors, by the passion and the blood, Our ancestors have raised you out of darkness: I have bought your soul for Starclan." The medicine cat weaved away, leaving Clawfall to dive into the squirrel.
"What have I done? Oh Starclan, what have I done? Become a thief in the night, become a rouge on the run.. And have I fallen so far, and is the hour so late that nothing remains but the cry of my hate? The cries in the dark that nobody hears, here where I stand at the turning of the years?" The black tom mewed.
"If there's another way to go, I missed it twenty long moons ago! My life was a battle that could never be won, they gave me a number and murdered Clawfall! When they chained me and left me for dead, just for stealing a single squirrel!"
"Yet why did I allow that cat, to touch my soul and teach me love? He treated me like any other, he gave me his trust, he called me brother.. My life he claims for Starclan above! Can such things be? For I had come to hate the world... This world that always hated me.." He growled.
"Take an eye for an eye! Turn your heart into stone! This is all I have lived for! This is all I have known!" He snapped.
"One word from him and I'd be back.. Beneath the claws, upon the teeth.. Instead he offers me my freedom, I feel my shame piercing my heart." He cried.
"He told me that I have a soul, how does he know? What spirit comes to move my life? Is there another way to go?" He questioned himself.
"I am reaching.. but I fall, and the night is closing in. As I stare into the void, of the whirlpool of my sin! I'll escape now from the world, from the world of Clawfall! Clawfall is nothing now, another story must begin!" He ran to the stream, yowling. He put one of his white paws in the stream and washed the mud away.