Burrowsand was a sweetheart all his life, but what if, unlike others in the Dark Forest, he gets corrupted?
It’s a situation I want to explore. We’ve had the bad guys who were always bad, the good guys who are still good, the ones who did bad but are now good.
What about the ones who were pushed too far after they became a resident?
What if the dark, kill-or-be-killed life of the Dark Forest broke someone?
Burrowsand doesn’t fully realize until after he’s dead that he has been manipulated by the cat he trusted the most for most of his life (and then killed by him). He feels betrayed—by him and by StarClan for condemning him for something he was tricked into doing.
He’s sad and lost and scared and frustrated, but at this point he’s still Burrowsand.
At this point I don’t know how long it takes or what exactly happens to make him change, but I have mentioned before that he adopts a kit. I’m thinking that kit dies somehow (most likely murdered, as that would cause Burrow to be more violent to other cats. He’s already been manipulated, abandoned, and now his child has been killed, at this point he believes no one else can be trusted, no one else matters).
In addition to that, I have this thought of Burrowsand being part of a small group, one who sticks together for safety but who don’t care for each other.
Burrowsand was allowed to join only because they saw him as a pushover—a lackey to do things for them. But they acted nice for the most part, keeping him on a leash just loose enough for him to believe he was safe with them, that they cared for him.
Then he finds the kit and knows that even with the group it won’t be safe (or maybe they refuse to help it?) and takes it to the Daycare before later adopting it.
He bonds with the kit, it becomes his child. He becomes a father.
Then the kit is killed, and that makes Burrowsand crawl back to his group, which he soon finds out through overhearing two cats talking that it was the plan—THEY had done it.
He was bullied by his peers and mentor, manipulated by someone he loved, murdered by someone he loved, damned to suffer in hell for things he was tricked into doing, was manipulated again by different cats pretending to be his friends, and then his baby was murdered by them just so that he could keep being their servant.
He goes and gets minnows, just as he always does for them. He gets lots, plenty for everyone. And he sits from the shadows and watch as they eat.
But even with them gone, how can he ever go back to who he was? He can’t. He can never go back.
