Warriors Super Edition: Mistpelt's Story

Chapter 7

The next few days were absolutely insufferable.

After I had discovered the bodies of my parents, I had done nothing but sob as I lied next to them, so overwhelmed with grief and wishing more than anything that my body would just sink into the ground beneath me. My throat was burning, and my head was practically pounding from how much I had been whimpering.

I was also experiencing the most horrible cycle – being so distraught and shocked that I couldn't believe it was all real, hoping that it actually wasn't real, and becoming just as distraught and shocked when I processed the fact that it was real.

My parents were dead, and I had lost them in one of the most horrible ways possible.

It had been nighttime when I found Chrissy and Sparrow, and I was there being consumed by sadness until morning broke. I don't even know how, but I finally pushed myself to stand up after having laid down with my head in my paws for the entire night. I had looked at my parents again, took another moment to wait out another horrible wave of grief, and then proceeded to limp a few tail lengths away so that I could begin to weakly dig into the ground.

And from that morning until sunhigh, I dug two large holes into the ground, and from sunhigh until the next night, I tried with all of my might – both mentally and physically - to drag both Chrissy and Sparrow into each hole, and then proceed to cover their bodies with dirt.

I was still very young, however, I was already certain that that was the most emotionally draining, most unnerving, and the most upsetting thing that I would ever have to do, and I wouldn't wish it on my worst enemy.

And for days after that, I didn't move from those burial spots. Those evil, evil dogs never came back, but that honestly didn't matter to me now. The damage had been done.

Whether or not Chrissy and Sparrow had actually been able to fight the dogs off before they died, I wasn't sure. All that I knew now was that I hated those mangy creatures with every fiber in my body.

These first few days of absolute grief, I had to admit, were incredibly exhausting and left me feeling completely numb. I could not fathom a universe where I would be able to feel any positive emotion – how could I? What would there ever be to be happy about when I had lost the both of my parents in such a tragic way?

So, for those first few days, after I'd settled by Chrissy and Sparrow's burial spots, I didn't move, eat, drink, and only slept when my body absolutely forced me to.

But I eventually transitioned from being able to do nothing but sink into my grief, to being desperate to find anything in order to distract me from my grief.

I still don't know how I managed it, but I forced myself to move on. As much as I hated to leave where I knew my parents still were, I knew that they would want me to continue traveling as if they were still with me.

However, now, here I was, standing numbly in a rocky clearing, only having traveled for a quarter of a day and having absolutely no idea where to go. And no motivation to go there at all...

Of course, my first instinct had been to go see Barley and Ravenpaw – the two only other cats that were in my life and meant so much to me... but not right now... I told myself, my head so incredibly foggy with sleep deprivation and grief. How would I even face them? And seeing them would mean that I would have to tell them the news.

I then screwed my eyes shut, holding back a whimper. Things are still so, so fresh, and telling them makes it feel even more real...

After I opened my eyes again, I then forced myself to take at least a few pawsteps forward. I will live in denial as long as I possibly can, I then thought, the warm sun casting on my back as I traveled through the forest.