"What has my sweet kit come to?" Darkstripe purred, sliding his paws against the hardened cracked ground, not even wincing when he pressed down on a sharpened rock. "You're as depressed as a queen who just lost a kit." He muttered, and Ashfur briefly wondered if he was talking about his mother. Ashfur digged his claws into the dirt, not caring if it hurt or not. His pelt puffed up and his tail wagging to and fro, curling around his leg. He wanted so badly to jump and claw his father's fur off, but it felt as if his body was in a cold shock, as if he was drowning in a river during the chill of leaf bare. A breeze ran through, and his fur flowed softly in the wind. It would have been comforting to have wind in his pelt if he was still in his den, sleeping and having dreams about anything, anything at all but this. He felt the air chill his lungs, which were heaving with panic as his father grew closer, his thin matted pelt barely taillengths away from Ashfur's groomed one.
"I'm so sorry this has happened to you, Ashfur." His voice came, dripping with fake sympathy as he abruptly stopped in his tracks, his gaze resting with interest. "Tell me, what's troubling you?" He prompted. If it wasn't for the tall-tale echo of his voice in Ashfur's ears, he would have never heard the pathetic cracked mew that Darkstripe barely slipped out. Ashfur hesitated. It didn't seem like Darkstripe was going to attack him. He didn't want to change his mind so quickly, but he forced his pelt down. He turned his gaze to the side, but still felt Darkstripe's hard burning gaze into him, as if he was looking for something specific. Forcing himself out of the strike position, he mewed bitterly "Why does it matter?" It's not like Darkstripe really cared. He fixed his soft blue gaze on the Warriors den, and his heart wrenched. Darkstripe wouldn't hurt anybody, would he? His mind wandered, and he briefly wondered how nobody woke up yet from all the hissing and yowling he slipped out. Or were they awake, and they just didn't care that he was in danger? "It matters to me because I am your father, Ashfur." Darkstripe hissed out, as if the words were burning in his throat. Ashfur fought back a defiant snort at that, but bravely hissed out, "Y-You lost your chance to be my father long ago!" He mentally clawed himself at the sound of his shaky mew, but twisted his gaze towards Darkstripe.
Darkstripe's eyes looked saddened, and he mewed out softly, "I'm not here to fight." His words seeming tiny compared to Ashfur's yowled, as if he were a kit being scolded by a clan Deputy. "Well that's too bad! You trepass on my territory, you get the claws!" He spit, lowering his head and body a little more. Darkstripe puffed his fur out, making his frail starved body look twice as larger, the bones in his sides only slightly poking out. "Don't be a fool," he hissed. "This was once my territory too." He added menacingly, "You couldn't beat me even if you tried." Ashfur's eyes burned in anger, and then in fear as Darkstripe walked closer, his tail raised high and his paws gliding against the ground as if he was floating above it. Ashfur walked back, his sudden personality change made his tail tuck between his legs, which felt like the only thing he could move under Darkstripe's gaze. "You will be wronged, Ashfur." His voice came out, the voice that was once his father's coming out as if it were multiple voices, all echoing in his head. Since he was barely a pawlength away, Ashfur could smell his blood-tainted breath, which had the scent of a slowly rotting forest, but he could not feel it on his fur. "By your own choice; and once you are, the stream with run red. You will travel with me to your new home." Ashfur blinked in fear-tainted confusion, but before he could reply Darkstripe unsheathed his claws, moving them uncharacteristically fast down Ashfur's face, red liquid darking his grey speckled fur, and his throat was split open, Ashfur's blood covering his father's dark fur, making it darker than a fox's heart and his red tint becoming darker. Darkstripe briefly licked it clean, and yowled at Ashfur, tackling him to the ground.
