Disclaimer: Warriors isn't mine.
Prologue
The silver tabby tom picked his way through the once familiar territory, the gray tabby she-cat and the black tom close at the tabby's heels.
The silver cat felt his paws fall into familiar ground, felt as though he was coming home. But his home was gone.
He turned from the familiar path, the one that led through the cedar trees to where the entrance had been. Instead he led the two cats to the right, up a small slope, and then towards camp.
The silver tom stopped, and let the other two look. He looked himself, looked at his old home. The river bed was growing plants, they'd always been so careful to remove most of them.
Silt and dirt lay mixed in with the sand, which lay still, no longer turned daily by paws. The dens stood empty, the camp barren, it seemed to emit a hollow feeling; one could almost feel the desolation of the land.
The silver tom's fur ruffled in the breeze.
"A Clan once called this river bank home." He meowed softly.
But they're gone now. Swept away by the very creek they lived by, hunted in and took their name from. Now all that remains is the deputy that ran from them. The cat that couldn't be loyal, he's all that's left.
The other two had padded forward, standing on the riverbanks that overlooked the camp, and that the Clan had carved their dens in.
"Falcon."
The silver tom looked up, jerking out of his thoughts. "Hmm? Yes, Rook?"
The black tom shifted his weight. "Why?"
"Why are they gone?" Falcon asked, trying to understand the tom's question.
Rook shook his head, his green eyes focused on silver tabby's blue ones. "No, why did you show us this? Why teach us the battle moves of the Clan?"
"Because you asked." Falcon replied. "I enjoyed answering your questions." He had. The two had a natural curiosity, one that reminded him of eager apprentices, and it had reminded him of what he had lost. The pain he suffered he deserved. He should've been there. He should've been here.
The gray she-cat's gentle amber eyes studied Falcon. "Falcon, is that really why?"
Falcon stared at the empty camp. Images flashed through his mind, of a group of kits racing through camp, afternoons of apprentices playing tag, evenings of the day's tales exchanged as warriors, and the two nights. When the moon shone down on the Clan and the deputy was chosen.
Falcon glanced at them. "What do you think?" he asked his mentor voice back in place.
Rook, the tom was always so eager to answer him, spoke. "I think…" he trailed off, glancing down at the camp.
Falcon did not prompt, Rook didn't need it. He knew that. Rook would answer in his own time.
"You're rebuilding CreekClan. But I don't know why."
Falcon's claws sank into the dirt beneath him, and his voice was rougher than usual. "You're right." Well half right.
Rook shrugged. "It was more Feather's idea."
Falcon flicked his ears back once. "You don't know why."
Feather glanced at Rook, then at Falcon. "No."
Falcon raised his head. "I'll tell you why. My name is not Falcon." He let them gasp. "My full name is Falconheart. I was the last deputy of CreekClan and I am the only cat of CreekClan to remain after the flood. I have not taught you the ways of a Clan, I have taught you the ways of my Clan." He turned his blue eyes on them. "I have taught them to you because there is no one else that cares to learn. No one wonders about the Clan that lived here only two moons ago. No one but you two."
Feather and Rook shared startled glances as Falcon added his last bit. "So enjoy your look at this. Because this is all that remains. The ruins of a once proud camp." And a deputy that couldn't be there when it counted.
Rook parted his jaws. "Falconheart."
"I am Falcon now Rook. The Clan is no more." Falcon turned away, turned his back on his home once more.
"We could bring it back." Rook insisted. "You wanted to rebuild it didn't you?"
Falcon paused midstep. "You would go against Buzzard? You would leave your only home behind to build a Clan out of nothing?"
Rook snorted, "I've been against Buzzard my whole life."
"Ignore him." Feather meowed. "Falconheart, if you wanted, we could. But we'd need you. Rook and I could be Clan mates. We could bring CreekClan back."
"No." Falcon almost snarled, but he wasn't prone to it, not any more. "You can't bring CreekClan back."
"But-"
"The cats that made CreekClan are gone." Falcon continued. "However, you could build a new CreekClan."
"We could. We will, if you'll agree."
Falcon looked at his paws. "I doubt my opinion on this matters at all, but yes. I'll teach you about the Clan. I'll help make the new Clan."
"Great!" Rook jumped to his paws, tail waving. "We could use a good leader."
Falcon almost snorted. He was a far cry from that. He wasn't even a good deputy. "Well, I know how to start." He glanced at them. "Are you two sure about this?"
"Yes!"
"Then meet me here tomorrow." Falcon swallowed thickly. "And we will begin."
The two younger cats ran off, and Falcon's whiskers almost twitched.
Perhaps… maybe he could make amends after all. If he rebuilt the Clan, maybe they would forgive him for not being the deputy he should've been.
I trusted you.
Falcon flinched and looked down. "I know you did." He gazed up at the sky, the deep black that appeared in between branches of cedar trees. "Do you see me? I'm doing this for you. Because you counted on me."
Because I let you down.
"Because they want to join. Because they need somewhere to belong to."
Because I want to belong again.
Falcon looked over his home once more. "I suppose CreekClan could be rebuilt." But he wouldn't lead it. Even if those two mouse-brains managed to somehow rebuild it.
Falcon stood over the camp for a long moment, before turning away once more. He had goodbyes to say. It was time he made up for his failures to his Clan. To his family and friends.
But he had to fail one more cat for that to happen.
XXX
A.N.: NaNoWriMo time has come and if you have no clue what that is Google was given to us for a reason my friends. XD
Thank you for clicking on my story and showing an interest in it what-so-ever. I hope you all like it, because it has to be at least 50,000 words long. If you're confused don't worry, the first few chapters are what I call the Blast From the Past chapters, to explain what happened to make Falcon(heart) the only CreekClan cat left, and why he feels he betrayed his Clan, how he met Rook, and set the stage basically. My English teachers should be thrilled I know how to write an exposition.
Word Count Explanation: Prologue to happen is the chapter. The Disclaimer and A.N. do not count towards the NaNo word count.
