Death Sentence (challenge)
Graystripe looked up from his cage, glancing at the other starving cats hidden in the shadows around him. He had to find a way out. Somehow. Despair invaded his thoughts. But what if he couldn't? What if there was no way out? He pushed the insidious whisper away resolutely. He had to keep trying. What would Firestar do if he died? Graystripe sighed. And yet… It seemed as if they didn't need him. They couldn't need him, not if the clan had yet to mount a rescue mission. Then again, Firestar had changed over the years. He was just one cat, even if he was his friend. Graystripe decided he had liked his leader better when he was still Rusty the kittypet, or Firepaw the intrepid. All of a sudden, a click of the door interrupted Graystripe's musings. A twoleg queen, tall and slender, slipped through the doorway. She was clothed all in changing shades of dark grey, nearly invisible in the shadows. In the twoleg's hand was a wirelike object, whose function Graystripe was unable to determine. Glancing around constantly, she took the wires to the lock on the cage nearest the door, muttering under her breath. There was a soft click as the lock came open and the cat inside slipped silently out. One by one, the twoleg padded around the room, unlocking every occupied cage. Graystripe hurried outside as soon as he was able. In a half a moment, the cool night air smelling of mud and trees enveloped him. Soon. Soon he would rejoin the clan. Soon he would be home.
Graystipe walked along the side of the Thunderpath. How long had it been since the first time he had been here, chasing a squirrel, and found a little ginger tom in a twoleg garden? What had happened to that little ginger tom? Abruptly, Graystripe heard something. Was that… barking? His heart sank. It was getting closer. Dogs. Graystripe leapt up onto the fence where a cat with green eyes had once lazed, staring at the sidewalk. A pack of them. Half a dozen at least, running at him. And on the other side of the Thunderpath, on the edge of the forest—green eyes glinted at him. As Graystripe prepared to dart across to the other side, a monster roared by, screaming defiance to the hurtling wind. Graystripe reeled back, falling from the fence. He landed on his paws, whirling around. They were on him.
This can't be happening. Firestar stared at the ground on the other side of the Thunderpath. There was a small, grey patch of fur with eyes blue as sorrow, fighting like all Starclan the enormous dogs around it. Graystripe. A keen of grief echoed through his mind. They couldn't get to him. Thunderclan was right here, ready for rescue- only to see the quarry die, torn to pieces by dogs just on the other side of the unpassable expanse of sooty death. The same dogs that had killed Bluestar. The same dogs that would kill everything, everything he cherished. Graystripe. The world was spinning about him. Graystripe, who had brought him into the Clans. Graystripe, the faithful friend. Graystripe, bereft of his lover but still loyal to his Clan. Gone. The sun went black.