Sandclan's Destiny Book 3: Blackout

Epilogue

VenomClan camp was silent at that moment, but Longscar could tell a lot was going on in everyone's  head. 

He knew they were Darkforest trainees, almost every one of them. He had little reaction to it. He was not one of them, he had no NEED to be one of them. They denied him by not choosing him and he felt some relief.
 He sat underneath the stone crag, like a massive jaw above him, teeth threatening to bite into him but they never did; they only cast long and obscure shadows on the sand that swallowed figures up, but never ate- never. It gave him little solace as he spent his nights awake and his days mainly resting. He hated the business of the camp, especially as OakClanners and GreenClanners were coming and going as they pleased; they came a long ways and some slept over, complaining about their trek through uncharted territory and all the way around the other territories, having to climb the steep cliff into kittypet turf and down. He wondered how hard it was to cross a thunder-path and climb all that way.

He then remembered the Dreaded Leaf-bare. The cold had nipped him but never truly ate him, as well as the shadows. It seemed he were like a ghost, transparent. No cat ever spoke to him, and most pretend they never see him. He was older than them, he was a senior warrior. Wolfstar had apprenticed him when he was a new warrior. Longscar was Russetstar's son. He sometimes thought of Russetstar. That led him thinking about StarClan, which led onto much more, much worse thoughts.

He glanced up at the stars. There were many of them, but he knew that didn't matter. They were gone now. They always were, for VenomClan at least. Longscar liked to think they left immediately as Wolfstar became leader, or immediately as Russetstar died. 

But Longscar was a ghost, and he knew he wasn't going to StarClan when he died. They've probably already set his destination to the Darkforest, where he would spend the rest of his days emotionless as he already was. They probably figured he'd be better off there. He had no risk of becoming insane or greedy with power, or treacherous like Greenstar.

He looked up at the stars, shining bright like broken shards scattered in the velvet canvas that was the night sky. He blinked once at the brightness. The stars did the same back to him. He looked away and at the ground where he saw a bug rolled over onto its back, legs curled up to protect its chest.

Well, not protect. It had failed in that. Longscar looked back at the sky, contemplating the omen.