A/N: Hello there, peeps! This was a story written out for the Warriors Challenge Forum (link in profile), in which it had to star one of my forum memebers. In this, you get to meet Echostream, based on the song Savin' Me by Nickleback. Hope you enjoy it!
"Hurry up, Echostream!" Cinderflash calls out, pausing just at the foot of the Thunderpath. "We're not going to make it in time!"
Echostream just rolls her eyes. Despite her friends constant worries of being late, they didn't really need to be back at camp by any certain time. They just had to bring fresh kill back with them. Kill which she is carrying, not the uppity grey tabby.
Pushing her way out of the dense cover of holly on the forest floor, the young warrior pauses to take in the scene before her. It doesn't matter how many times she comes out here. The sight always takes her breath away, and the knowledge that she can live in a place such as this always makes her heart beat just that much faster.
Behind her stretches the Berry Forest, where warriors are allowed to hunt. Only warriors though, as crossing the Thunderpath is to dangerous a feat for an inexpierience apprentice. She knows that if she were to turn around right then, she would see towering oak trees and underbrush so dense one had to climb through it, no matter where in the forest they were travelling.
In front of her, just aside the large black path that stretches through here, is Water Glade; the landmark just before FadedClan's camp. A large meadow, with several young oaks trying to grow into their own forest. The patches of land not covered in lush, soft grass is filled with small white flowers. And in the far east portion of the land, a clear spring lays. Water runs into it from a stream, one that travels down a mountain of white rocks and is always cold. Always like Leaf-bare.
A peaceful place, that is for sure. One that Echostream loves to explore - because there always seems to be a new crevice to crawl in, a new patch of land to discover.
Cinderflash has already crossed the Thunderpath and is now standing on the edge of Water Glade, tail lashing in irritation. "Come on, Echostream! Don't be such a slow snail!"
And, because Echostream trusts her speedy friend's judgement, she starts to bound across the strip of night that lays permantly in their territory.
In moments, all she knows is pain.
-x-x-x-x-x-x-
"Echostream? Hold on, Echostream!"
The young warrior can hear her name being called but she can't decide who is saying it.
Can't figure out what they're asking her to do.
Can't tell why she hurts so badly.
"Echostream! Echostream! No, please, don't go!"
Sad? Why does that voice sound so sad? For a moment, Echostream tries to get her mouth to work, tries to ask what's wrong. Then a wave of exhaustion hits her and she lays still again.
"My baby! No, StarClan, don't take her from me!"
Someone else is calling her name now, underneath the panic-filled shout. This second voice is much more calming. Beckoning her towards it, even though she still cannot figure out who it belongs to.
Echostream decides that, really, she doesn't care.
-x-x-x-x-x-x-
When clarity once more reaches Echostream, it comes in the form of unbearable pain. Her entire body feels as though its been set on fire. She cannot get her eyes to open nor can she call for help, the pain is to great.
In moments, a calming voice saying her name drags her back into the realm of sleep.
-x-x-x-x-x-x-
"I don't know when she'll wake back up, Bluepetal,' someone says, and there is grief in their voice. As though they have lost something important to them, something they can never replace.
Vaguely, Echostream's jumbled mind registers the name Bluepetal. It's her mothers name, though for the life of her she cannot imagine who her mother would be so worried about.
"But she will wake up, won't she Stonebird?" Bluepetal begs, and it's odd because Echostream can all but picture her mother. Blue-grey pelt ruffled, light green eyes filled with worry, and she so wants to open her eyes to comfort the elder she-cat.
But she can't. All she can do is listen to the voice and, once more, drift to sleep.
-x-x-x-x-x-x-
When she wakes up a third time, Echostream decides that the voice lulling her back into sleep belongs to a liar. It isn't time to rest, it is time to wake up. To go back to her duties as a warrior and a mentor. To ease her mother's worry, though she still doesn't know what it's over.
So she struggles to ignore the musical voice trying to pull her back into the land of dreams and, instead, wills her eyes to open. After a moment, they do and she is greeted by the blurry sight of FadedClan's medicine cat den.
Instantly, the light grey form of Stonebird is taking up her vision. The other she-cat says something but Echostream doesn't catch it. When she opens her mouth to say as much, it is as though someone has just slammed their paw into her jaw.
Echostream lets out a strangled yowl of pain and then, once again, her vision goes black.
-x-x-x-x-x-x-
Run over by a monster, Echostream eventually finds out. Not just hit by one, but actually pulled under its large paw and trampled. Twice - once by each paw on the creature's left side, or so Cinderflash insists. Stonebird says that, with the extant of injuries she has recieved, that is a completely reasonable scenario.
Injuries...Oh, has she been injured. Just thinking of her battered body make her heart ache. Three of her legs, twisted beyond repair. Large portions of her flank, now nothing more than a stain on the Thunderpath. Jaw, broken and unable to close properly.
So much damage. So much that could not be fixed.
Bluepetal insists that she should focus on the positive, on the fact that she is alive. But Echostream isn't sure if that is true or not.
After all, how can she be alive when no cat will look at her? When even Stonebird loathes to take care of her? How can she be alive...when she is no longer a warrior?
-x-x-x-x-x-x-
Two moons pass, each one slower than the last. Echostream is all but forgotten, except by that ever-present voice in her dreams.
Come home, it tells her, come home to me.
And if she could place where the voice was from, she might be willing to. After all, there is no life for her here anymore. Not now, when she is trapped in a broken body with a broken soul.
Come home, the voice begs her, come home to me.
Each time Echostream hears it, it's as though she falls just a little bit further. Spiraling out of control, getting further and further away from her Clan. Yet StarClan will not come to take her - and, some mornings, the young she-cat wonders if she is being punished for something.
Then she wonders if even a cat of the Dark Forest would be so cruel.
-x-x-x-x-x-x-
Almost four moons after her accident, Echostream wakes up in the middle of the night. It isn't an unusual happening, as the waves of pain that rack her ailing body often wakes her. What is unusual is the fact that there is a cat standing in front of her when she opens her eyes.
It's a tom, with a pelt as vibrant as the sun and eyes as green as the grass in Water Glade. The frail moonbeams that can reach the inside of the den bounce of of his fur, reflected by what seems like thousands of miniture stars nestled there.
"Come home,' he tells her, and his voice is that of a songbirds, 'come home to me, Echostream."
And, suddenly, she remembers a brave apprentice whose heart was as bright as his pelt. One that died many moons ago, struck down by greencough.
His name was Blazepaw, and he was Echostream's brother.
That night, the broken young she-cat is made whole.