the sea crashed against the shore, loud enough to drown out almost every thought—almost. frecklepaw stood ankle-deep in the cold water, trembling so badly that her paws kept slipping beneath her. deepabyss was dead. her father was dead. the words made her chest seize. she could still remember the weight of his presence beside her, the sound of his voice, the way she had always known he would be there when she turned around. now, when she turned, there was nothing. her mother was already gone. frecklepaw had hated how empty everything felt after losing her, but at least she had still had her father. deepabyss had been the one piece of home she had left. and now even that was gone. the loner had killed him. not fate. not sickness. not some accident that couldn't be blamed on anyone. there was a living cat somewhere who had chosen to take her father's life, and frecklepaw couldn't make herself think past that. they had decided that deepabyss wouldn't come home. they had taken away the cat she still had left. a broken sound escaped her throat. “no.” she shook her head violently, stumbling backwards as her chest tightened. “no, no, no—he can't be.” her voice cracked apart, and suddenly she was crying so hard she could barely breathe. “dad...” she choked, staring down at the water. “you were supposed to stay. you were supposed to come back.” her claws dug into the wet sand until it crumbled beneath them. she wanted to be angry at the loner. she was. but anger couldn't fill the space beside her. it couldn't make his pawsteps return. it couldn't give her one more conversation, one more moment, one more chance to say goodbye. then came the second blow. the dark forest. frecklepaw went completely still. “you sent him there?” her voice was tiny. her head snapped towards the stars, tears streaking down her face. “you took my mother, and now you take him too?! what else do you want from me?!” her paws shook as she dug her claws deeper into the sand. “you don't get to take him from me and then put him there!” her voice broke into a sob. “i hate you.” the words came out as a scream, swallowed almost immediately by the roar of the ocean. she stared towards the horizon one last time, almost expecting to see him waiting there. nothing. frecklepaw collapsed onto the shore, burying her face against her paws. her body shook with every breath, her cries eventually becoming quieter and more broken. for once, there was no bragging. no determination. no desperate attempt to prove she could handle it. there was no one left to protect, no one left to impress, no one left to prove herself to. just an empty shore. and two parents she would never see again.
_______________________________ what happens now? now frecklepaw is becoming more sensitive to things, and she often feels very alone, facing everything herself. she is isolated and quieter now, keeping her distance except for necessary things like chores and hunting. she has a deeper hatred for the stars now, and when she oofs in the future, she will most likely not reside with any of them, just wandering between borders. freck also now fears and absolutely hates loners and other outsiders, blaming the whole group for her father's death.
