ECHOES

Chapter Eleven

"We may not have it all together, but together we have it all."

~•~•~•~•~•~

Wasps were constantly stinging the tom's heart. Poison flowed through his veins, his breathing loud and ragged. His eyes were round and glassy like a mirror, reflecting on everything that he had just experienced. He was weak like a rock that was constantly being pounded with hammers, ready to crackle into millions of different pieces.

Dimstar was broken.

It was if the russet tom's world had crumbled to dust right in front of his eyes. The memory of blood seeping from immense wounds and the familiar, piercing yowl of agony rang through his head. Dimstar couldn't push away the memory of what had just happened. He couldn't push himself to believe what had just happened.

But every event that had just happened wasn't a dream at all. Dimstar had truly saw Archangel swarm into camp after the large dispute that morning. He had watched his son be murdered. Dimstar had watched his son die right before his eyes. It wasn't a dream, he was awake.

Dimstar was even awake while burying his son. He was digging a hole large enough for Quailchaser's limp body, tears still brimming his green eyes. It was beginning to snow and the sun was beginning to crawl out of rhe sky. Dimstar could see everything around him clear as day as Cloverpool, Splashsky, and him worked to bury Quailchaser. He was wide awake.

But he wished that he was dreaming.

Dimstar's memories and thoughts kept bouncing around in his head, but he tuned in back to what was going on around him. Small specks of white were falling from the sky, symbolizing the beginning of leafbare. The sky was glowing with orange and small streaks of purple as the sun began to sink back down below the trees in the distance. The moon began to rise and already some stars could be visible in the sky. A breeze blew through the forest, the tree branches and flowers dancing along with it. Quiet croaks or frogs could be heard and the singing of birds was softly fading away for the day.

The rebellion leader's claws were scoring through the dirt to form a hole for Quailchaser's body to be placed in. It needed to be deep enough for no predators to get to it and large enough to fit his son. Clumps of dirt got stuck in his claws as he tore through roots and dug the deepest he could. Dimstar's eyes were still speckled with puddles of tears, a mixture of sorrow and anger still spiraling inside of him.

Splashsky was assisting at the other end of the grave, his progress more slow and steady though. Dimstar could tell that the newer warrior was broken and trapped in a spiral of melancholy from everything that had just happened. After all, Splashsky did love Quailchaser more than anything, but he had just witnessed that love fade in the blink of an eye before him.

Cloverpool was quiet the whole time, he tail still curled around her dead son's body. Her head was hung, her eyes shut as Splashsky and Dimstar dug. Dimstar glanced over at her every here and there as he dug, sympathizing his mate. He was afraid to comfort her though, for the last time they actually talked was during the dispute in which Dimstar broke her heart.