[fancypost bgcolor=; borderwidth=0px; overflow: none; width: 480px;][justify]Matthias had not really ever thought about exploring until he had run into Matthew. He had said he was lost, but had not seemed too troubled by it. The carefree attitude had inspired Matt to explore some of the territory around both of his homes, and so far, he was loving it. He was waltzing through a lush forest, not unlike the one he had met his doppelganger in, and it took his breath away. The beautiful golden and scarlet hues of the leaves, the stunning carpet they made on the forest floor when they fell to the ground, the crunch of them beneath his paws. Matthias loved it, all of it. Unfortunately for him, all good things must come to an end, and that would shortly become apparent to the tomcat. Matthias had decided that it would be a good idea to use one of the trees as a scratching post -- some of them were already laced with claw marks, so what would be the harm in adding a few more? He pressed his paws against the tree, unsheathing his claws and digging them into the trunk. As he tried to pull them out, Matt realized that they wouldn't budge. The tabby paused, his eyes widening as he continued to try and pull his claws out to no avail. Great, he hissed to himself. Trying not to grow frantic, Matthias (foolishly) used his back claws to balance himself against the tree in an effort to pull his front claws out. Now his back claws were stuck. "Fan....tastic," Matt snarled irritably.
Suddenly, he heard the crunching of leaves behind him. Fear began to consume him and the fur along his spine rose, though was shortly followed by the rest of his fur. He looked like a giant fluffball, which would have been a bit funny to him, had he not been stuck to a tree. The crunching was growing louder, and Matthias couldn't help but freak the fuck out. In a bunch of jerky movements, futile efforts to free himself, Matthias kept trying to flail his limbs about, wanting to escape before whatever it was could get closer and possibly kill him. And then, it happened. He was free.
Matt landed on the ground with a thud, wasting no time in sprinting out of the forest and into the desert, his adrenaline preventing him from understanding the severity of what had actually happened. After what seemed like forever, the forest faded away into a desert, and Matthias slowed down until he tripped over his own paws and lay curled up on the ground breathing heavily. As his fight or flight instincts began to fade and then came the pain. An excruciating bolt of agony shot up through his legs and his brown eyes flickered down to his paws, only to find that they were stained with blood. Something felt off. He tried to unsheathe his claws, but that only made the pain worse -- not only that, but nothing happened. The tree, Matthias thought to himself, not able to fully put together his thought. The brown and white tabby knew what had happened, but he didn't want to believe it. His claws, all of them, they had all been wrenched out when he'd tried to escape whatever had been behind him. God, it hurt so fucking bad. A loud, unintentional caterwaul could be heard from him, and Matt couldn't help it. He wailed and wailed, unable to stand the pain that kept slowly ebbing through his body. And to make matters worse, he was trespassing.