things that go meow in the night

Her own gut was clenched when Corvus arrive. The stench of death and decay was thick in the air; this cat was a heinous, doomed creature. She felt an intense sympathy for it as it scrambled around in the darkness. The light was so dim, but she could just barely make out the milky whites of its eyes. It had been burned so badly that its eyes had been stolen from it by the fire. That was all fire was good for: taking, taking, destroying, taking. "Nothing, I was just... patrolling, and this poor thing found its way on to my path," she said, a bit of a whine sneaking into her voice.

"I think we need to kill it," she added softly. "Right?" It was horrific to watch. "Put it out of its misery." The cat was misery incarnate if she'd ever seen it. Was it right to cast this kind of judgment on the life of another creature? If they let it live, could it even survive on its own? "I mean, otherwise it will just, well," she stammered, "can it even survive on its own?" Ash still hung in the sky. With the moon and stars obscured, everything felt a touch more sinister.