Whitepaw had been waiting all day, long until nightfall and had accidentally fallen asleep. He was woken abruptly though to yowls erupting.

He shot onto his feet, fully alert. He saw warriors rush to the entrance and Whitepaw watched from where he was. When a path cleared everyone got quiet, Brackenpath came through the crowd dragging a body with him. Whitepaw felt his soul shatter.

"NO!" He roared, breaking into a sprint to Dapplepaw's body. He slammed into Brackenpath and it knocked him out of the way. Whitepaw froze when he reached her.

Her eyes were closed and her pelt was different to him. It no longer glowed, he felt no warmth come from her. Whitepaw stood there, feeling more broken and abandoned then he did when his mother left the clan.

The she-cat who had comforted him and been at his side. The she-cat he loved, the one he wanted to grow old with and have a family with was gone.

Whitepaw fell. His legs could no longer hold him, as if all the despair in his heart weighed so much his legs couldn't take the pressure. He laid over her corpse.

He didn't wail. He refused to yowl out his current state of emotional break down.
Thousands of thoughts went through his mind as he held her close.

He growled, a sudden rage over taking him.

"You were there! What happened to her?!" Whitepaw demanded with a snarl, viciously turning to Brackenpath. The tom seemed to stiffen and cower under the younger tom's gaze and larger stature.

"S-she was bitten by an adder!" Brackenpath meowed. Whitepaw growled and held up a claw to strike at Brackenpath for not preventing this. Before he could Sandstar stopped him.

"Rage is a child of anger and despair. Whitepaw, lower your claws or I will have you stricken down." The old tom ordered, the rasp gone from his voice as if he had lost seasons of age and was in his prime.

"I know you cared deeply for Dapplepaw but she is gone. An adder took her life. There is nothing Brackenpath could have done, nothing any of us could have done. It was fate that killed her. We all grieve for such a young cat loosing all the blessings a long life can grant, but I will not have my warriors turn on eachother." Sandstar growled. Whitepaw stared at the ground, his chest growing and shrinking with each of his heavy breaths.

He slowly lowered his claw and looked away from Brackenpath and the others and went into the apprentice den to be alone. Sandstar watched him and breathed out of his nose, as if it was in relief.
"Bury her immediately." Sandstar ordered his clan.