Failure
Summary: This is because he never was, and he never would be. From his parents' pride and joy, to their disgrace – he was only a failure, after all.
Author's Note: This is my first story posted on and I know the prologue's short, but please tell me what you think of it!
Disclaimer: I do not in any way, shape, or form, own the Warriors series. I can only hope…
Prologue: Fallen
Icepaw was a failure. There was no other word for it – it was simply failure, that one word, blunt and harsh. Icepaw was a failure, and there was no changing that.
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Oh, sure, everything had started out normally enough. The litter of kits being born – Icekit had two sisters, Lilykit and Darkkit – but they are irrelevant. Unneeded in this story I am about to tell you about a failure. As I said above, that word was the only one that fit Icekit's description – even from when he first opened his eyes, you could tell he was a failure.
Icekit didn't have any disabilities – he was as pure as kits come, no blindness, no deafness, and with a snow-white coat, save for the short speckles of black on his fur and his shining, bright amber eyes. His mother and father couldn't have been more proud of him – his was their pride and joy, their light to spark up their little, puny, mortal lives. But Icekit was a failure, and you could tell by speaking to him.
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"C'mon, Eaglewing!" A little innocent voice, crying out in glee. This was the voice that used to belong to Icepaw. Or was it that Icepaw used to belong to the voice? It doesn't really matter now anyways.
"Alright, Icepaw. Mind slowing down a bit?" A mottled brown cat ran up to catch up with Icepaw – as far as I can remember he was Icepaw's mentor, Eaglewing. Not that he matters either. Much.
I believe they were going hunting that day, the two cats. This matters, though. It matters if nothing else matters. Trust me on this one.
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"Eaglewing! I caught something!" The little voice called, urging Icepaw's mentor over.
Eaglewing came, despite him supposed to be watching his apprentice silently – he had become much too attached to those shining amber eyes. Much too attached. Eaglewing swiftly found Icepaw, a small, struggling little water vole beneath his paws.
"Do you remember how to kill one of these? It's the same as for most other prey."
"Of course I remember, Eaglewing. You don't have to be snappish about it."
With this small remark, Icepaw buried his fangs in the soft fur of the water vole, piercing through flesh until he finally killed the small creature. And that was when he made his first kill, actually tasted the blood of another animal.
"We take it back to camp now, right, Eaglewing?"
"Yes, little one. We take it back to camp now, so the elders can eat it."
"Mhmm, Mhmhmh!" The voice's reply was muffled by the vole as the cat attached to it skipped back to camp, the cat's mentor following.
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Seven moons later Eaglewing was found dead, a lone cat lingering over the body as its last drops of life seeped away, disguised in the pool of crimson that already surrounded the now-corpse. Eaglewing was dead, and that was that.
The failure was on the patrol when they discovered his body.
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All that DuskClan could figure out was that Eaglewing had fallen from a great height – there was a cliff nearby – before he died. The majestic eagle had finally fallen and joined the rest of the pitiful mortals on the ground. And that was where he deserved to stay.