a broken tide against soot and stars

[Eppy]

INITIAL WARNING: contains blood, injury, and death. Not severely explicit, but is still an injured and dying kitty (he comes back to life though!)

The sun cast its rays down over the forest territories, practically reflecting in the river’s surface. A stiff wind picked up time and again, pulling the reeds half over and rustling fur. In the morning, it had helped to pull away the storm that had washed out the territories, cooling down some of the Green-Leaf heat. Now it was beginning to calm, casting the illusion that there was peace over the clans.

Sootstar was tired.

So many of his clan mates were gone, taken away by the twolegs who had invaded their territories. Their fates were unknown. Were they killed? Taken somewhere far away? Forced to become kittypets? Which was worse? Even among those who remained, things were changing. Warriors didn’t remain warriors forever. His senior warriors, the voices of reason, were retiring. There were less kits than ever before, due to the loss – disappearance – of cats. They had lost apprentices, resulting in fewer warriors. And it wasn’t just RiverClan. All four clans were suffering and losing friends. It was a threat to them all.

And this wasn’t even the problem that StarClan was facing.

He moved slowly, toward Fourtrees, carefully keeping his eyes and ears pricked for any sign of danger despite the nagging thoughts. Who knew where the twolegs could be lurking, or what kind of traps they had set to capture them?

If only the good weather could improve the fortune of their clans, and drive the twolegs away from their territories. What were they, mere cats, supposed to do to stop these strange and seemingly, much more advanced and intelligent creatures from doing whatever they wanted with them? His warriors had teeth and claws and training, but the twolegs had strange tools and ways to keep cats at a distance, preventing them from escaping. And then they disappeared, again and again. So many of us.

Somewhere near by, he heard a startled wail. Then an angry, panicked snarl. Twoleg voices echoed through the trees. Sootstar pricked his ear, fur bristling, turning his head in the direction of the sound. It was in the direction of the ThunderClan border, and close.

Without hesitating, he ran toward the sound, unwilling to stand by and let another cat be taken when he could try and help them.

As he broke into the clearing, right over Sunningrocks, he saw the paths cut through the earth over in ThunderClan territory where the twoleg monsters had carved through. One twoleg had just vanished into the undergrowth, chasing a cat who had successfully evaded them. The other cat was not so lucky. Sootstar could tell it was an apprentice just based on size, but he did not know their name. They were likely a new apprentice, in ThunderClan. They were backed up against a large outcrop of rock, baring their teeth and snarling and spitting at a twoleg that was cornering them with a stick and a strange wiry loop – he had seen many cats get taken that way, with it wrapped around their neck, unable to get closer or run away.

The leader moved quickly, sliding across the river gracefully, not bothering to shake the water out of his fur. No matter what clan, he would not allow another innocent cat to be taken while he was there.

”Run! Don’t stop for anything!” He yowled, startling the twoleg who jolted, and making the apprentice move, shooting out from his spot. He saw the twoleg try to swing out with the loop, missing. As soon as the apprentice moved past him, Sootstar turned, attempting to also run for it, not needing to stay here for another moment. He didn’t see the second swing, which missed the apprentice’s neck. His hind leg came down over the hoop a moment later, not noticing it on the ground.

He felt as something wrapped tightly around his leg, biting into the skin. He hissed as his leg jerked back with sudden pressure and strength, and he heard a pop from somewhere behind him. He was wrenched suddenly into the air, a horrifying pain accompanied by a louder, much more sickening pop, and he howled as pain seared through him. The smell of blood was sharp in his nose. Somewhere, he heard panicked twoleg yowling, before it was drowned out by the roaring of his ears.

A moment later his head and muzzle collided with the hard stones, before the rest of his body fell down after. Dimly he was aware of the pressure on his leg receding, even if it barely reduced the pain that was thrumming through the limb. A strange, cold sensation took over his body, weakness spreading out from the base of his neck, all the way through down spine and through his paws.

Something foreign touched him over his shoulder and, panicked, he twisted as well as he could, biting at the thing. It was a twoleg paw, and his teeth sunk through flesh for moments before the startled creature shook him off and jumped back with a yelp.

He blinked, lying still. His ears were ringing with the sound of his body impacting the stones and the rushing of his heartbeat, and he struggled to hear anything over that. Things were too loud and moving too fast. Multiple twolegs were speaking to each other, one of them angrily. He tried to ignore them, fighting the shivers that wracked his body. Everything was freezing, the heat leaching out of him through his burning leg and a patch of sticky fire on the back of his head.

A moment later his vision went dark as something warm and soft was placed over him, smelling faintly of odd chemicals and abnormal flowers. Very distantly, there was the scent of other cats. He could not recognize the fabric, but despite the foreign nature, the darkness and separation of so many sights and sounds he couldn’t seem to interact with was soothing.

Somewhere, in the functioning corners of his mind, he was aware he was injured and should be attempting to get back to his clan. But his body was not responding to his commands, and he was slowly sinking further into a state for forced relaxation – he couldn’t get up even if he wanted to.

The strange material of the thing draped over him was carefully wrapped around him, except for his leg. There was a sickening, but somehow distant, pain, as the pressure wrapped tightly around his leg began to loosen. More heat began to leave his leg, slipping away from his body, leaving coldness behind. Something soft was wrapped around his leg in the place of the painful hardness, almost as if it was trying to keep the warmth inside.

Then he was lifted up by foreign paws, carried somewhere. Twoleg words drifted through the material, somehow, seemingly trying to sound soft and soothing rather than angry or upset like before. Maybe it had not been their intention to harm him, and was simply an accident.

He was placed down on something soft. There was a roar. He felt the steady trickle of heat from his head, down to the back of his neck. Pain in his leg thrummed again and again, but slowly faded. He blinked up at the darkness, stars twinkling into view, the scent of cats growing stronger as the smell of strange flowers faded. It wreathed all around him, making him feel warm, even as coldness took his last breath away.

He blinked. He was crouched in a clearing, the pain muted. His mind felt clear, strangely aware of the sudden alertness and understanding that had been missing before. He must have had a head wound. He remembered with shocking clarity the moment his head had cracked off of the hard stone at Sunningrocks.

He recognized this clearing. The stars had come to meet him. He had been here before, a few times. Once to receive his nine lives, and once to lose one. He looked to the side, and saw a faded outline of himself, head and leg coated in blood, hind leg twisted at an odd angle.

Losing a life once again.

”Sootstar,” a voice spoke, but it seemed to waver. Quieter than before. Was it the distance between them, as he was being taken from their territory? Or something more?

A single cat stepped forward, her coat gleaming in the starlight. His mother was a welcome sight, despite her grim expression. She knew better than to sugarcoat reality.

”Your path takes you beyond our reach. This is not the future we had seen for you. What the clans face now was not foreseen. We will heal what we can, but your leg is beyond our powers. Soon the humans will take you beyond our hunting grounds, and your path will lie outside the clans, for now. It may loop back to us, in the future, if you desire it. That is all I can tell you, my son,” she told him.

He nodded. He understood. He knew immediately what he had to do. He could not lead RiverClan from outside the territories. They could not have another absent leader. His future lay outside the clans, at least for now, and he would make do. He would salvage what he could for his clan.

”I do not know the limit of your powers or what I can ask for,” he began carefully. ”But for the sake of my clan, I ask to forfeit my leadership and lives as you see them so that a new leader can take my place. I can not lead them, and RiverClan needs a leader to survive what is happening. Tidebreak needs your support as much as the clan’s trust.”

A few whispers broke out among the faceless ranks of StarClan. He waited, as if to be judged, for their decision.

”We can honor this decision. It cannot be reversed – once you have given up your leadership, you cannot take it back from the current leader if you return to the clan.” He twitched his tail tip, almost impatiently. Why would he do that? ”We understand the weight and value of your sacrifices, for the good of your clan. Sootfur,” it was almost jarring to hear his old warrior name once again, but in another way, it was a weight lifted off his shoulders. His clan was in the paws of StarClan and Tidebreak now. They would survive. ”we take back from you your leadership and nine lives, so they may be passed down to the deputy that you chose to follow you.”

A strange feeling passed through him, like a chill, pulling energy from his very soul.

”Despite your sacrifice, you would join our ranks as a leader. You have led your clan with respect, and you make this choice out of duty and honor,” his mother told him.

The feeling of his lives being drained from him was not quite the same as them being given. It wasn’t painful, but it also wasn’t pleasant either.

Before long, he realized the stars around him were fading, becoming distant. He felt a weakness, as if he was losing his grip on the star-filled forest. He blinked slowly, trying to overcome the sluggishness of his mind and the strange slowness of the field around him as the starlight began to grow dim. The sensation was fading, but he didn’t feel as if he had lost all of his lives.

”You are being pulled out of the reach of our power, away from our hunting grounds. We won’t be able to maintain our connection,” the voice of his ancestors was wavering, in and out of his hearing.

His mother stepped closer as the clearing began to fade into darkness. ”No matter how far you go, we will always find you, and all of our lost clan mates,” her voice and scent followed him into the darkness.

He blinked, sucking in a gasping breath. A spasm of pain ripped through his leg. The dull roar of a monster shook around him, slightly muted. He could feel the warmth of foreign material draped over and around him, still smelling faintly of not quite right flowers and distant cats. He was alive again, his mind clearer, head slightly sore but no longer warped with confusion like before. They had managed to heal that injury.

The scent of his mother wrapped around him, almost soothingly. He could still hear her last words echoing in his ears, hardening his resolve. He may not be in clan territory anymore, or a leader, but he was still a warrior and he had a duty to the clans, and any cat, to help those in need.

The steady beating of his heart carried him through the rest of the journey. Eventually the monster went quiet, and he felt tension run through him. If they wanted him dead, they would’ve left him in the forest, or killed him before bringing him whether this was. Still, the unknown of the situation made him tense, fur bristling in unease, ears going flat. Slams and pops made his body flinch, sending more pain into his leg. Another pop, and the area he was suddenly felt open, with the sudden gust of air. He heard twoleg voices, and the sound of metal scraping on metal, making his ears ache. He growled, low in his chest with anxiety. The voices got quieter, softer.

Twoleg paws pressed down on him, tightening the hold of the thing wrapped around him and trapping his limbs against his body. Suddenly his head was free, and he found himself staring in surprise into the eyes of a twoleg, who seemed to jolt back in equal surprise, as if not expecting him to be so alert – or maybe alive. They both stared at each other, until he hissed slightly to voice his discomfort with this situation. The twoleg moved on, moving something and freeing his injured hindleg. It seemed to make a noise that sounded strangely upset, and Sootfur did not understand this creature being upset about his injury. Twolegs and cats weren’t allies. Except they were, quite often, in the case of kittypets who loved their twolegs and seemed to be loved quite fiercely back. He could not begin to understand the emotional capacity or reasons why twolegs were doing what they did, but there was more to it that he could possibly understand.

He kept his claws sheathed, and did not struggle – even if he could – because a compliant prisoner could learn more than a defiant one.

He soon found himself wrapped back up, and he went still again, carefully quiet aside from occasionally pained hisses and growls when he was moved. He could smell from the air when he was inside some kind of structure, no longer feeling the wind. Instead, he smelled many cats. Many familiar cats. Cats from all clans, and also no clans, smelling of anger and fear and distress. He shifted slightly, toward their scents, knowing he was in the right place.

This was not how he had planned for his day to go, but he did not regret any decision he had made that led him here. He could only make do with what he did, every step at a time. He would figure out how to escape, and get these clan cats back home, no matter how long it took.

That was his path now.

END NOTES: Be aware that the humans in this post did not intend to cause major injury or death with their actions. The one with the tool was an untrained and new voluntary using a loop for an animal with a lesser weight class, and he did not follow instructions on how to use it (i.e. not lifting animals up by it, only using it around the neck, etc.). It was not done intentionally, but out of inexperience, surprise, and an in the moment reaction. The second human who attempted to treat him used a blanket to cover him to try and treat shock, as well as wrapped the leg injury.

The combination of blood loss from his head wound, and pain and the severity of his broken leg resulted in instantaneous shock that was quickly fatal to a small animal such as a cat. His head wound was healed by StarClan when he lost his life, but they could not heal the severe leg break. At that point, he had lost two lives. After sacrificing his leadership and remaining lives, StarClan was able to take another 4 lives from him before he was removed from their acting territory and severed from their hunting ground, allowing them to give Tidestar 6 total lives.

Sootstar/fur has left the clans for now. One day I may bring him back as a warrior, but for now I am simply starting fresh. Thank you for reading! <3

obligatory tags: DELAWARE , chill , [:ripples:]