Before I begin the story, I'd like to talk about how this story will work.
This story is based on the storyline of "The Lost Warrior" trilogy by Erin Hunter. For copyright and creative purposes, many details have been changed or added but the main storyline and characters remain the same.
Credit for the creation of all characters go to the minds of Erin Hunter and Kate Cary.
This is my first story, so I expect there to be many mistakes or poor decisions. Please help me find them in reviews. It will help me a lot. :)
I will try to write as quickly as I can, but I have a busy schedule (even though it's summer...) so no promises.
Enjoy the story! :)
Everything was gone.
Everything.
All because they had destroyed it.
Graystripe looked down at the horrid scene below the ledge. Before him was a scene that only his most cunning nightmares could have crafted. There were white, shiny monsters surrounding the stump of where the marvelous Fourtrees once stood proudly. There was a wooden den that he knew carried the bodies of many, many cats, more than he could possibly count. Sure, some of them were rogues he didn't have a shred of care for, but he knew most of them. They were Clan cats, victims of the merciless capturing that the Twolegs had done. Graystripe couldn't stop himself from reciting their names as they were placed in the belly of the biggest monster of the group.
Mistyfoot.
Brightheart.
Cloudtail.
Leafpaw.
Graystripe could hear a whimper of despair from Squirrelpaw as he turned to look at the rescue group. When he turned, he saw her with a terrified expression, right before she buried her face into Brambleclaw's neck. As Brambleclaw tried desperately to comfort his friend, Graystripe faced the rest of his rescue patrol, as in Rainwhisker and Thornclaw.
"Got any ideas?" he asked them, trying to hide his rage and speaking calmly. The other two looked at each other and then out at the clearing before shaking their heads. Graystripe sighed with frustration. There was really no way that they could release the imprisoned cats unnoticed, and they would almost certainly lose a direct encounter with the Twolegs. He was out of ideas.
"I have an idea," said Brambleclaw. "From what it looks like, the Twolegs are only taking cats to the monster one at a time. If one of us distracts the Twolegs who is moving a cat at a specific time, then the rest of us can free the cats in the monster.
It was a good idea, and the rest of the patrol showed their approval by nodding. Then, Thornclaw asked the overlaying question that may have meant life or death.
"Who's going to distract the Twolegs?"
Sharp intakes of breath, scuffling of paws and lack of eye contact gave away that no one wanted to do it. That was understandable, because of how many cats the Twolegs had captured in the span of two days.
At last, with the overarching pressure of running out of time to do the plan in the first place, Graystripe gave in on his common sense and volunteered to do it. To his relief, there was not much, if any, resistance to his proposal.
After Brambleclaw volunteered to lead the raid on the monster, the cats prepared to take position, all except Squirrelpaw, who stayed put.
"You coming?" asked Brambleclaw. "Yeah, yeah." she said. "I just- uh…" she trailed off and looked at the ground, her eyes clouded with worry. "She'll be there in a second." Graystripe told Brambleclaw, who then walked off to where Thornclaw and Rainwhisker were preparing. Graystripe took a deep breath and moved to approach Squirrelpaw, who was still staring at her paws.
"I know you're scared," said Graystripe, while lifting her head up to face him with his tail, "but there is no need to worry." Squirrelpaw's look of reluctance prompted him to go on. "When your father and I were made warriors, many, many seasons ago, we swore an oath; that we would always go into every fight prepared to sacrifice for the sake of our Clan. This," he said with a gesture to the Twoleg camp with his tail, "is no exception."
Squirrelpaw still looked unsure but didn't object.
"Brambleclaw has also made that oath, and in a couple moons, you will too. But behind that oath, there is always the fear for our own life, no matter what the case."
"Ok, but what are you saying?"
"I'm saying that this forest is full of scared, but fiercely loyal cats right now. So, I'm not going to ask you to not be scared, but to think of how loyal you're going to be. To your Clan. To your family. To your sister."
Squirrelpaw took a moment to absorb Graystripe's speech and finally relaxed. "Thanks, Graystripe." she said, smiling for the first time since she returned, and went to join Brambleclaw and the rest of the group.
Graystripe then took position, all the while repeating his own words inside his head.
Don't be scared. Be loyal.
Don't be scared. Be loyal.
Don't be scared. Be loyal.
Graystripe took position alongside the wooden Twoleg den. Several times, he had to stop himself from holding his breath or else he would most certainly faint.
He replayed the plan in his head one last time. I will attack a Twoleg from behind to distract them. Since the Twolegs largely focus on the care of their own kind, they will immediately focus on assisting the Twoleg I attack, then I will cooperate with that assist time to keep them distracted for long enough for Brambleclaw's group to release the cats from the monster.
It seemed so perfect in his mind. But Graystripe couldn't shake the nagging feeling that something would go disastrously wrong.
Graystripe put that feeling away as he saw Brambleclaw's head emerge from the bushes. That was the signal. Graystripe nodded to Brambleclaw as an affirmation that he saw him, and pricked his ears to the den.
There was a scuffling noise and a cringe-worthy sound that sounded like Twoleg conversation.
One.
There were creaking sounds as a Twoleg emerged from the den.
Two.
The Twoleg reached forward with his free hand and opened the monster door.
Three!
Graystripe let out a huge yowl as he charged at the Twoleg. He leaped and dug his claws into its leg. The acrid, musky scent of Twoleg blood filled his senses as the Twoleg let out a loud yowl and dropped the cage it was holding. Graystripe watched as the cage flew through the air and shattered completely when it hit the ground. As the Twoleg crumpled to the ground and grasped its wound, Graystripe ran to the cage and ripped the crumpled pieces away from the she-cat it was holding.
"Go! Run!" he commanded the she-cat
The she-cat looked at him for a couple of seconds before turning and sprinting towards the bushes.
Then, Graystripe heard a chorus of new yowls coming in the direction of the den. Right on schedule, he thought as two more Twolegs rushed to the Twoleg that Graystripe had attacked. At that moment, Graystripe did everything he could to distract them. He hissed, clawed, growled, swiped, or attacked; anything that would buy Brambleclaw's group some time.
That's when things started to go wrong.
As Graystripe dug his claws into a Twoleg's arm, he noticed two cats, rogues, he figured out from his lack of recognition, running away very close to the Twolegs. They were just close enough for one Twoleg to turn away, look at the monster, and see Brambleclaw's patrol releasing cats from their cages.
Oh no…
Just as he feared, the Twoleg signaled for the other Twolegs to get up, and they ran towards the monster. In seconds, the monster would close and the ThunderClan patrol would be trapped.
So Graystripe did what only a fiercely loyal and brave Clan cat would do. He took off towards the monster at full speed.
Just managing to beat the Twoleg by a couple of seconds, the moment he leaped on the monster, he screamed, "Everybody out!" as loud as he could. All cats, whether Clan cats, rogues or kittypets, obeyed his authoritative tone and took off from the monster and into the bushes surrounding the clearing.
All except Cloudtail.
He was trying really hard, harder than Graystripe had ever seen in his life, to break the lock of Brightheart's cage. Graystripe could see tears of hopelessness gleam in the sunset as he uselessly yanked and struggled against the stiff lock.
"Cloudtail, please go!" pleaded Brightheart, tears openly flowing out of her good eye. "No! We're not leaving without you, Brightheart!" said Cloudtail, who was shaking so much, he could hardly stand.
Time was running out. Graystripe needed to get all cats out of here now, or else the three of them would be captured. "Cloudtail, get out of here now! That's an order!" he shouted desperately.
Cloudtail's look of fear and determination showed open denial to his pleading, and so Graystripe had no other choice.
Graystripe reared back and drove his head into Cloudtail's shoulder. Cloudtail lost his balance, let go of the lock and tumbled off of the monster with a wail, just as the Twolegs reached them. Graystripe turned to face them, his eyes blazing and claws unsheathed.
Without thinking, he climbed the wall of cages and leaped right at the Twoleg. The Twoleg in front was caught off guard by the attack, that it wasn't hard to drive his center of balance off and cause him to fall off the monster. When he fell, Graystripe noticed that he had been the only one around to attack him. Good, he thought, that must mean that they ran away.
But when he heard a roaring sound from the monster, he figured out really quickly that he was wrong.
"Graystripe!" wailed Brightheart in terror. Graystripe turned and tried once again to break Brightheart's lock. The friction was strong on this one, but after a few seconds, he managed to get it free.
Graystripe was very close to telling Brightheart to run far away when a squealing noise caused them both to flatten their ears and press against the ground. When Graystripe looked, he saw a sort of rope attached to a large, cylindrical tank with spherical sides. Graystripe figured out that it was attached to the monster and keeping it from escaping. That meant he had more time to help Brightheart.
But once again, his hopes were quickly dashed when a groaning sound from the rope attached to the monster made him realize they were out of time, and as he opened Brightheart's crooked cage door, the rope broke.
Strange black liquid splashed everywhere and in less than a second, the monster took off at a dizzying speed. In that same moment, a flood of cages flew out the monster doors, and one of them hit the doors, immediately causing them to close on Graystripe and Brightheart.
"No!" screamed Brightheart, as Graystripe leaped to the door window to see them driving away from the forest wreckage. Graystripe could only stare as Brightheart joined him to look out the other window. For what seemed like forever, the two cats stared hopelessly at the home they were being forced away from, and Graystripe knew that he had failed everyone in his Clan and, with Brightheart, now faced certain death.
"Is that smoke?"
The question surprised Graystripe, but when he looked, he did indeed see smoke rising in the direction of the Twoleg camp. What started as a dark gray pillar quickly turned into a large cloud of black smoke.
Seconds later, before Graystripe could think of anything to say, there was a huge explosion. The force exerted from it hit the monster hard enough that Graystripe and Brightheart were propelled away from the windows.
Graystripe felt the world spinning around him as he hit the floor of the monster. For a couple of seconds, he felt like how couldn't get up again. But when he heard a groan from Brightheart, he forced himself to stand on the unstable surface and tend to his Clanmate.
"Are you okay?" said Graystripe. Brightheart nodded, telling him all that he needed. Graystripe hurried back to the window to see a pillar of flames towering into the sky. Graystripe felt himself go numb as he watched the terrifying spectacle.
"I-I think we've stopped moving…" said Brightheart shakily. To Graystripe, her voice sounded miles away, even though she was a couple of feet away. His eyes were locked in a trance at the tower of flames in front of him. It was only when Brightheart joined him at the other window that he tore himself away and glanced at Brightheart.
"Cloudtail...no…." whispered Brightheart, before silently breaking into sobs. Graystripe desperately wanted to comfort her, give her hope that Cloudtail and the rescue patrol had escaped the powerful flames, but he was just as terrified and hopeless as she was. Here they were, trapped in a monster with no way of getting out, and confronting the possibility of half of ThunderClan dying right before their eyes.
Where could hope possible be now?
The answer came to him when two paws landed on the other side of his window.
Graystripe yelped with surprise and fell back to the monster floor. As he was getting up
and taking a breath, Brightheart said the last name he expected to hear.
"Brambleclaw!"
Graystripe immediately looked back to the window and sure enough, there was
Brambleclaw, peeking into the monster with wild, terrified eyes. He immediately rushed to the window and met Brambleclaw's gaze, which flooded with relief right away.
Then a flash of white filled the other window, and the sudden gasp from Brightheart let
him know that Cloudtail was here as well.
'Can you hear me?" shouted Graystripe to Brambleclaw. Brambleclaw nodded.
"Any ideas on how to get us out?"
Brambleclaw shook his head and mouthed, "Do you?"
"No." said Graystripe with a frustrated sigh. They were so close! How were they going to
get out?
Apparently, Cloudtail had some
ideas; or he gave in to desperation and lost his mind altogether.
Cloudtail started ramming his head against Brightheart's window. Brightheart desperately
tried to get him to stop, but he either didn't see her or didn't care.
In the end, it didn't matter, because, after three hits, the window shattered. That's when
Cloudtail stopped and let out a sigh of relief.
Brightheart knew what to do next. She pressed her own front paws against the shattered
glass and put as much force as she possibly could. After a couple of seconds that seemed like an eternity of tension, the glass broke, and Brightheart fell through the open hole into Cloudtail's arms.
"You came back…" she said through refreshed sobs.
"I never would leave you, Brightheart. I love you." He held her tight.
"Let's get her out of here." said Graystripe, who promptly took position beneath her belly.
Cloudtail released her and lowered himself to just below the window, where Brambleclaw joined him shortly after.
After receiving a look of affirmation from Brightheart, Graystripe pressed against
Brightheart, giving her the force necessary to struggle out, though it took several seconds for her to struggle out. When she struggled out, she fell right into the paws of Brambleclaw and Cloudtail. Brambleclaw returned to assist Graystripe while Cloudtail covered her face with vigorous licks.
Graystripe repeated what Brightheart had done. He positioned himself out of the window
and used his front paws to try and push himself out of the monster. Even with Brambleclaw helping, though, he still couldn't get himself out of the monster.
Then, as soon as StarClan gave him luck, they snatched it away just as quickly.
"I can't- nnrggh - get...out…" groaned Graystripe. "Keep...trying." said Brambleclaw.
Then, Graystripe saw a spectacle that he never ever thought of in his life.
A rope of fire.
A literal rope of fire.
Heading straight for them.
He had no time to process why this rope of fire even existed or why it was heading
straight for them, but he knew that they had to get out of there.
"Cloudtail! Brightheart! Run!" The two began to run, but they turned around and stared at him, realizing that he may not get out in time.
The rope of flame jutted inward suddenly and headed straight for the monster.
Graystripe stopped.
And then he made the stupidest decision of his life.
He stopped trying to get out. When Brambleclaw looked, he gave the most apologetic look of his life and shoved Brambleclaw off of the monster. The force caused him to lose the friction between his body and he slid back into the monster.
When he landed on the floor of the monster once again. He took in everything that was happening at that moment. The floor was heating up, he could hear the crackle of flames beneath him, and he could hear the most desperate cry he had ever heard.
He didn't know who it came from, but the cry seemed to echo in his mind.
"Graystripe!"
That was the last thing he heard.
Taking a breath, he shut his eyes as the world exploded around him.
He felt the explosion rupture his bones as he took cover on the Thunderpath.
For the first time in his life, Brambleclaw was scared to open his eyes.
He was able to hide in his own little world of hope that sheltered him from the worst at least for a little bit before Cloudtail nudged the side of his head.
He opened his eyes, and after blinking away the smoke, he stared at Cloudtail and Brightheart, whose grief-filled eyes told him the worst that he had tried so hard to shelter himself from had happened.
And so, forcing himself to stand up to his worries once again, he turned.
The monster that Graystripe had trapped himself into had, in the seconds he had turned
away, descended into a smoldering wreck. Jagged pieces scarred the Thunderpath, causing cracks to form around them.
And Graystripe…?
Brambleclaw felt the world slip away from him. His ears rang and his heartbeat echoed in his body. Somewhere in this time, Squirrelpaw pulled him away from the scene that would haunt him forever.
They had failed. He had failed.
Because of him, the unthinkable happened.
Graystripe was dead.
Wow. I think I went a bit overkill on this, considering I turned it into a freaking Michael Bay movie.
So here's what happened that caused the explosions. The truck (monster) was connected to an old-fashioned gas tank. The connection was the rope that held them back for a few seconds.
When the gas pump broke off the tank, gas sprayed out while the other side of the pipe remained connected to the truck. The sudden ignition of the engine caused the spark needed to cause the first explosion.
Because the other side of the pipe was still connected to the open gas tank of the truck, gas started to leak out of the open-ended pipe (This part the cats didn't notice), therefore causing the setup necessary for the fire of the first explosion to ignite the leaked gas.
Once the fire got into the truck's gas tank, the monster exploded.
And now Graystripe's dead.
Or so it seems.
SCIENCE!
Hope you enjoyed the prologue of my first work. Hope you enjoyed! Please review, if you can, and keep watch for more chapters coming soon!
Best,
-Xerenity