Embers of Weary Hearts - SkyClan's Disaster

It had been a normal morning.

Sneezefeather woke up and warmly greeted Owlwhisper, her closest companion. Everything was normal. Dawn slowly filtered through the clearing, illuminating the sky will brilliant hues of orange, red, and blue, foretelling of what was to come. Other cats slowly awoke, and Sneezefeather greeted them warmly.

Stretching out, she bathed in the light of the sun, unaware of the life-changing events that would happen in just a manner of minutes.

Somewhere near the Twolegplace...

The ground underneath gurgled and hissed. The giant Twoleg dens shook, and a monster skittered off the road, unbalanced and scared by the now forming hole in the ground in front of them. The earth fractured and scarred, sending vibrations through all of the Twolegplace, alarms blaring. Children wailed and dogs barked, birds scattering into the sky. Jagged rocks jutted upwards, as if reaching for the sky, while frigid fissures etched their way into the ground, long, deep, and mercilessly swallowing up everything.

The monster that skittered off the Thunderpath slammed into a wooden pillar, thick cobwebs stretching across the sky from wood pillar to wood pillar. The wooden tower fell, and as it did it created a chain reaction. The cobwebs followed, sturdy, dragging down the next pillar and the next, until one by one the city was a blackout. Panic ensued tenfold. The cobwebs began to spark, short circuiting and sudden a fiery blaze lit up the town.

Twolegs yowled in fear and pain, and the sirens blared twice as loud. The fire travelled quickly. Singed wooden pillars and fallen thick cobwebs several as means for the fire to travel swiftly. Wooden Twoleg dens caught fire quickly too, until it reached the edge of the forest.

A recipe for disaster.

Embers lunged greedily for the forested paradise, with only one goal in mind: to devour it. Sparks of flame flicked into the sky as the fire began to eat the forest alive. Trees fell from the earthquake, and the blazing monster wasted no second in scorching any vegetation that was unlucky enough to exist in this forest.

The first sign anything was wrong was the smoke. Sneezefeather blinked, and raised her head, confused. The scent of soot and ashes had suddenly appeared and she looked to the sky.  Her eyes widened as she saw the tall pine trees lit ablaze, smoke billowing into the sky. "SkyClan! We need to--" Sneezefeather was cut off with a yelp at the ground shook beneath her, causing her to stumble.

Her eyes widened, and her resolve hardened. "SkyClan! There's a fire in the forest! We have to head to RiverClan territory, it cannot cross the river! Help the kits and elders!" With that, Sneezefeather ran like a hare to the nursery, her mate, Coppersun, right behind her. She had four young kits, and their safety came before hers.

Sundrop's relatively short life hadn't been uneventful, exactly, but it certainly hadn't been disastrous or anything. That was all set to change, however, when the call to run rang out through the camp. Fire was something she only knew of from queen's tales, a fascinating source of danger and intrigue, and now it was coming to swallow the camp she'd spent her entire life thus far in.

Most would react with panic, or at the very least some real concern. Sundrop, well - she didn't exactly race toward the flames, but she watched the awe-inspiring fire rise into the treetops with fascination and curiosity. This was the all-consuming thing that mothers and elders told misbehaving kits about (tales she had been on the receiving end of numerous times), and it had captured her attention completely.

Sparks and embers flew off of the flames, like little fireflies - she could see now where they got their name - and she wondered if she'd ever see something like this again. It was destructive, yes, and the trees were swiftly burning; but it was beautiful, even still.

(For one brief moment, she wished she'd been named for the fire blazing around them, rather than the sun that shone light through the trees; much closer to earth and a true force of nature. But she was sure such a request to change it would go unanswered, and anyway, they were supposed to be doing something - oh.)

Evacuation, yes. They were meant to be leaving, to let the fire take everything it wanted except for them. What they'd done to spare themselves from its wrath, she wasn't sure - perhaps it was just because they had legs and trees didn't - but she made her way to the elders to try and help, as a good and honorable warrior should. She'd file away the idea of changing her name, to revisit when the camp wasn't burning down and they didn't need to go.

(Whoever she asked would be more likely to listen then, anyway. Probably? She still wasn't sure, maybe it was rude to ask...)

Deep within the trees, inside a (formerly occupied) fox den hidden beneath a mighty oak, the wanderer paced, setting the plans for the day well in advance. The bitter chill of leaf-bare had left her with few morsels of prey to hunt, and even fewer that would go unnoticed by her former Clan. She thought them idiots - mostly of their leadership, of course, but of a few of the other cats as well. At this point, SkyClan's glory had diminished to nothing more than a mere cinder, and the wanderer wanted no part of it. No, better to fly free than be dragged down; and so, she paced, and planned, and carefully applied her camouflage for the day (leftover ash mixed with mud to disguise her distinctive fur and mask her scent).

Discerning the location of prey was of the utmost priority, as was her daily reconnaissance of the area - routine, even boring, but necessary. Had her kin been keeping watch rather than playing with their paws, the fire of so many moons ago would have been handled much more promptly. And perhaps the wanderer would have escaped with the others, rather than being left to die among the burning remains of liberty, the ashes of justice. And also the ashes of the old SkyClan camp, of course, but mostly of justice.

It wasn't that the wanderer cared any more, really. She didn't! She just... kept an eye on things anyway, just to make sure the Clan was safe, that they weren't being choked too hard by the iron grasp of her kin. Not all of her Clanmates were deserving of contempt, after all. No, the wanderer didn't care what happened to them, she just happened to pass by, concealed in the undergrowth, keeping a careful watch on things, occasionally warding off predators or leaving fresh-kill near the camp for others to stumble upon, or-- okay, maybe she did care a little, but what of it? It wasn't illegal to give a Mousedung.

A slow, steady breath, and the wanderer stepped out into the open air, the sky tinted red by the sunrise. Her initial observation was one of concern; it was far too quiet, the silence almost deafening compared to the usual shrill chirp of the robins that lived above her. (She'd have hunted them long ago, but these ones were useful; they had a habit of causing quite the ruckus whenever a predator tried to get close to her burrow, after all, and so, the wanderer had granted them amnesty.) But this time, they were silent. Something had caused them to flee, even the fledglings escaping their nest in what had clearly been (judging from the scattered branches on the ground) quite a hurry.

Which meant they'd sensed something, felt the arrival of an event that only the finely-honed abilities of a bird could detect. And whatever it was, they'd considered it important enough to leave their home.

Which meant whatever it was, would most likely affect the forest as well.

Which meant whatever it was, SkyClan would need the wanderer's help.

So as the ground began to shake, and as not too far away, a series of sparks began to jump from cobweb to treetop, sending a plume of hostile gray smoke into the sky -- suspicious amber eyes narrowed and focused, and ash-covered golden paws began to sprint towards the camp.

No hesitation. No surrender. No cat left behind.

Rustwood was an early riser. He was up far before dawn, sitting at the edge of camp with ears pricked for danger. There was danger, but a kind he wasn’t trained to see. It came from the sky with Sneezefeather's warning. The longhaired tom turned his eyes to the sky. The gray smoke drifting into the air was a clear sign of fire, as well as the sudden soot scent that made his nose twitch. The warrior's expression never changed but for a furrowed brow as he stood and led the way out of camp. Sneezefeather had raced to the nursery (a given if you'd ever met her), along with a couple other cats. Warriors evacuated the elders' den, the medicine den, but no one seemed to be taking head of the large group of cats that stood at the edge of camp.

Dark eyes glinted as Rustwood realized he would need to be that cat. Smoke curled off of the treetops, and flames were visible with the smog and soot, racing towards the camp at an unnerving pace. As if the fire wasn’t bad enough, the earth was shaking beneath their paws. Small fissures began to open up, cracking the rocky ground. His breathing got faster as the tom lunged to the front of the SkyClan cats. "Follow me," He said curtly but loudly, dashing across the trees and rocks he knew so well. There was a sound in the air, one that sounded like rocks splitting. But that couldn’t be. Never had Rustwood - never had anyone dealt with this, the splitting of ground beneath their paws, slowly devouring their home. To the river they would go. But would it be any safer there?

"Don't worry, darlings, you'll be okay!" Sneezefeather mumbled, two kits dangling from her jaws, two in her mate's. Havenkit, Snoutkit, Flamekit, and Stagkit. Two sons, two daughters. Ambery copper eyes met soft violet blue with a nod, both set ablaze with determination. The pair made a sprint out of the nursery, and somewhere in the back of her mind she briefly thought of the simpler days of apprenticehood, how she, Copperpaw, and Owlpaw, along with the rest of their friend circle, had been nearly too much for the warriors of SkyClan. Somewhere in her subconscious mind she recognized Hailfeather, one of her friends, even if they had drifted apart in recent moons, dash past her, and Owlwhisper, her closest friend, and her brother's mate, run beside her and Coppersun.

And then she heard it.

The crackle of the fire. It was upon them. But that wasn't what sent chills creeping up her spine and caused her hackles to raise. No, it was Hailfeather's cry.

"Petalrain!"

It hung in the silence for only seconds, but to Sneezefeather it felt like years. She turned around instantly, her kits handed off to some warrior her mind was in too much of a panic to recognize. She watched Petalrain dive into the nursery, and emerge with one kit. Her eyes met Sneezefeather's and shock filled her blue gaze, along with horror. The molly recognized the whitish cream bundle in her jaws as Bloomkit, her favorite daughter. Cold fear rooted her paws to the ground. Petalrain didn't like Beechkit because she looked like Slightpaw, but she wouldn't leave Beechkit to die, would she?

Petalrain answered her unspoken question as she took a couple steps forward and gave Hailfeather, her mate, Bloomkit.

...and then she turned around and leapt into the blazing nursery, showing zero traces of hesitance.

Sneezefeather could only watch in despair.

---

Petalrain's pale coat was smudged with ashes as she dashed into the burning inferno that was once the nursery. She'd heard the tiniest whimper from Beechkit, and alarm filled her whole being as she saw both Owlwhisper and Sneezefeather outside the nursery, neither with the pointed brown fluffy body of Beechkit. Owlwhisper, Sneezefeather, and Astersage were all out, each with their respective kits. The roof began to shake, bits of flaming twigs barely missing her. But that didn't matter, she had to find Beechkit, had to save her.

Suddenly matching blue eyes locked.

The nursery seemed to shrink within itself.

Time itself stopped.

And for a moment, Petalrain allowed the tears to fall.

There was a time, not all that long ago, a couple leaf-bares ago when fire had singed the forest once before. Her friend circle had diminished that day by two. Slightpaw, her sister, and Crimsonpaw, a dear friend. She hadn't seen either, but they'd been described to her by Driftingwood and Sneezefeather and Owlwhisper, respectively. Looking back, Petalrain now realized that she, too, had died that day. She'd closed herself off from every cat save for Willowfoot, Emberflare, and Hailfeather.

She'd shut out Sneezefeather and Owlwhisper.

She'd shut out her best friends.

And still they tried to make amends with her desperately.

Realization dawned on her at the worst times. A chunk of the ceiling came crashing down, her kit screaming in the background. Blood rushed to her ears and she grit her teeth against the heat. No. Not like this. Not before.. Not before she could fix everything! Emberflare, Leapfire, Driftingwood, Willowfoot, Coppersun, Elderdust, Hailfeather, Slightpaw, Crimsonpaw... They'd all want this. They'd want her to make amends for her mistakes.

So she would.

Starting with Beechkit.

Bursting forward, she dodged around the fallen branch and grabbed Beechkit by the scruff, eyes tearing up from the smoke. She could do this. It was a matter of will, and that was something Petalrain had much of. Beechkit coughed, breathing in smoke, and Petalrain knew they had to get out there quickly. Beechkit cried out in pain as faint embers wisped her paws. Petalrain wished she could've eased the pain, but every moment was the difference between life and death.

"Just a little longer," her teeth were gritted against each other, and tears pooled her vision, but there was the exit. The entrance to the nursery. So close, so close. She could feel the air, and she longed for it.

But life was cruel, and it would've been a fantasy dream to have everyone exit the fire alive.

So, as the nursery began to crack down on itself, Petalrain knew exactly what she had to do.

Sneezefeather locked eyes with her through the blazing branches. She cried out, and Coppersun held her back, but Petalrain wasn't sure what she said. She could hear the whispers of her friends, calling out to her, both dead and living. She knew what she had to do. And she had to do it now.


Swinging her head back, she threw Beechkit with as much force as she could, and to her relief, her kit landed outside the nursery. Glancing up, she saw the roof crack once, twice, three times, and she knew this was the end. Closing her eyes, a gentle smile crossed her maw. When she opened them, they were once again glowing with the peacefulness they hadn't seen since her apprentice days, and with just a few last words, the queen accepted her fate with dignity and open paws.


With that, the nursery finally gave into the fire, collapsing on top of the faint cream molly. Petalrain would never be seen again.

---

As Petalrain dashed forward, so did Sneezefeather, but Coppersun was right behind her, "Sneezefeather, no!" he cried, tackling her to the ground, refusing to lose her, too.
"Let me-- let me go! She's-- Petalrain- she-!"
"No! Driftingwood almost died last time when she tried to save Honeycomb, and Crimsonpaw did die, I'm not losing you!"

Sneezefeather bit back tears, and with a surprisingly strong kick, was freed from Coppersun's hold. "Sneezefeather!" He cried, fear and pain in his voice as he tried to stop her once more. Sneezefeather's heart spiked as the nursery cracked and one scorching branch fell in, "Petalrain!" The lilac she-cat screamed, eyes wide.

And then she saw her.

Her coat was charred and tears blurred her eyes but she was alive; and she had Beechkit. Sneezefeather sighed in relief.

The relief was short lived.

It happened so quickly, yet so slow.

A branch snapped, and then another, and as their eyes met, Sneezefeather knew what Petalrain was going to do. Coppersun must've known too, for as she leaped forward, crying out, "It can't end like this!", her dark ginger tabby mate held her back fiercely while she sobbed, fighting against him to reach the cat who was once one of her best friends. "Love my daughters for me."

No! Sneezefeather though fiercely, you'll love them yourself!

But it was just a false hope that told her this.

Petalrain swung her head back.

And launched Beechkit.


The reinforcements of brambles and ivy crashed down all at once, and Sneezefeather stared in horror, tears spilling onto the ashen ground. She faintly recognized Coppersun forcefully nudging her along, and that she grabbed Beechkit, but her mind was in shock, and it would be a while until it fully caught up with what just happened.

Hailfeather was screaming and sobbing, and one of their Clanmates helped him and Bloomkit, but for Sneezefeather, she'd never forget Petalrain's last words as they echoed around her head.