AN - Hi. This is my first of the challenges for the Hiddenclan Forum. My character is Stormpetal, a grey she-cat, and my disaster is a tsunami. The basic challenge is to write about a cat who is the last one left after a disaster strikes. So, here it is!
I had been born by the water, raised by the water, and trained to fight in the water. Water was everywhere. It was a small trickle making it's way down a hill. It was a giant rush falling to a pool below. It was a wide river, slow at times and fast at others. The first time I had opened my eyes, it had been to see the Sun-drown place. It had seemed so beautiful. But the wave that had taken my world had not been the same.
My name is Stormpetal, and I am a Waveclan warrior. Well, I was. My clan had started out as a group of Riverclan cats wanting to make a life by the Sun-drown place. They had set out alone, but had met many loners along the way, and by the time they got to the Sun-drown place, they were almost as big as a clan.
So, they became one. My mother's father had been the third leader of our clan. We have learned much about the Sun-drown place since the original group got here. One kittypet we met on a border patrol told us that the Twolegs call it an ocean. It provides fish, just like the rivers by the lake we used to live by, yet they have a much saltier taste. I've grown up with it, and I can't imagine anything else.
For so many seasons, the ocean waters have provided us with life. But I had never realized just how dangerous they could be. We had all been playing by the shore one day, and noticed that the water was receding. On the sand where the tide had been was lots of flopping fish, and we all raced to grab what we could.
That's when we saw it. An enormous wave, coming right at us. None of us had time to move. It took everyone. The elders sunbathing, the warriors showing off who could swallow the most fish, the apprentices playing with the kits, the queens watching with amusement - everybody. Gone. I had woken up at night, and I hadn't had to search to know that I was the last Waveclan warrior.
But how could that be? How could Starclan let our whole clan be wiped out by the waters? And why had I been chosen to live?
I didn't want to wake up. There was no life for me here. I had the water tossing me everywhere, and had felt ready to go to Starclan. But it had stopped, leaving me dizzy and half-drowned. Now, as I stood shivering in the night, with even the moon hiding it's light, I felt hopeless. Where would I go?
There was always the other clans by the lake, but I wasn't eager to see it they would take me in. I had grown up in Waveclan, and I didn't think that these cats would accept that. To me, our clan had been just as real as the other four. There was the other clan, Skyclan. My elders had been talking about them before. But I didn't know how to find them, and it sounded like they didn't have as much connection with the water. What now?
I continued to shiver, and I knew it wasn't the cold. I could still see my clanmates being pulled in by the waters drowning grip, yowling a warning to the others. It had been too late. I felt like crying out. The kits had been so young. Two of them had been so close to becoming apprentices. Did they have ceremonies in Starclan? The two had really been looking forward to it.
I remembered watching the apprentices play around with the fish tails, and thinking about having my own apprentice someday. Maybe one of the two kits would've been given to me to train. I played through some basic battle moves in my head, and my sorrow grew. My training didn't matter now.
I knew enough to catch food for myself, and find water, and a shelter. But I wasn't sure that I wanted to leave the shore. It was all I knew. The world beyond the Sun-drown place was not for me.
The damage caused by the waves was spread all over the beach. There were strands of seaweed everywhere, and I still saw some remains of fish left by my clanmates. I got up unsteadily to step closer to the water, but paused. Did I want to see what lay on the beach? It would only confirm what I already knew about my clanmates.
I lay down again. My gaze went up to the stars. They had never felt so far away. It hurt to know that there were new ones up there now, for each member of my fallen clan. I closed my eyes, and dreamt of flying up into the stars, and joining my clanmates.
