Russetdawn scrambled up clumsily, taking far too long to get to his paws as he drew in deep great breaths in order to try and catch his breath-which is hard to do with a big gaping hole in your neck. "Where am I?" He asked in panic, ears pressed back against his head as his green eyes wildly searched the clearing. Everything was dark and loomed over him, the shadows shifting and he was just waiting for one to jump out at him.

What had happened? It took a moment before he remembered that beautiful red sunflower being covered in crimson and a sudden flash of pain. There was blood everywhere and he convulsed before ending up here. Had he... died? A sudden realization washed over him. Oh god, this wasn't Starclan. "Why am I here?" He wailed loudly in horror, what could he have possibly done to end up here? Was it the loner he had been seeing recently? He couldn't imagine, lots of cats had out of clan affairs and went to Starclan. Maybe it was his intent to fool Sunclan for survival? He wasn't sure how that ended him up here but he sure didn't like it.

Finally, as if lost in his own world, he noticed the grotesque cat covered in endless sludge and whose eyes were popping out of his head. It was disgusting and if Russetdawn had anything in his stomach he might have retched right there and then. "Who are you?" He asked suspiciously, claws sliding out as his hiss ended in a cough.

"I-I-I don't know. I am Russetdawn of Dayclan. Foxstar... she-she..." He never imagined that he would be smited down by the leader of Sunclan. Then again, he had never particularly imagined his death either If anything, he expected it to be a simple one in battle or maybe from old age, long after he had finished his duties as a warrior, maybe had a few kits, the boring and average life. Yet the young warrior now found himself dead and banished to Starclan. Here sat an old Commissioner from a group he had only heard old legends of, asking him if he was a ghost. What did that mean? Wasn't he supposed to go to Starclan? He honestly couldn't understand.

"She killed me. Why am I in this place? I am no murderer and I've never done anything wrong. I'm supposed to be in Starclan, I think. Are mistakes like this normal?" His mind was going off a thousand words and minute and his mouth was closely following that pace as well.

Russetdawn's tail was tucked between his legs and his red ears flattened on his skull at the cats words. "W-wait, is there a way out of here?" He called. For once the Dayclan warrior was unsure of himself. Was he still considered a Dayclan warrior in the afterlife? He didn't really feel dead. It felt like he was in a dream. Weren't dead cats supposed to be like all knowing or be able to have spectral knowledge beyond that of other cats? He couldn't be certain.

The russet red tom spun around to look at her. She was bright and seemed much more out of place, standing out strongly against the trees and the shadows in the background. "So... I'm stuck here?" His heart sank. He had always wanted to die in battle, protecting his clan, and then pass on to Starclan where he could meet the family he had never known and hunt endlessly among the stars with fallen clanmates. Not even the loner he had come to fall for could follow him into the Dark Forest. He would never get to know the unborn kits in her belly, never be a father, he could not even see them from this dense and dark forest and a pit of grief caused his chest to clench.

The tom shifted his paws, unsure about the options suggested to him. Killing a Starclan cat did not seem like the right way to gain entrance to the place where he believed that he truly belonged and knocking them out really didn't either. "Are there no ways that... well... don't involve killing or violence?" Then again, was he really asking that to a Dark Forest cat of all cats he could possibly ask about not killing. Was it possible he was the only one in this place who had never killed a cat, not even in battle or accidentally?