A/N: This was so much fun to write. XD And I'm glad to be back in this fandom again, though I won't be leaving the Shrimpshipping parade anytime soon, lol. As is, any reviews would be more than helpful!
"It is coming."
The voice rings out through all of StarClan, reaching into every crevice, being heard by every cat, passed on to every medicine cat. No one ignores the words, which sound as though they are being spoken from eons away, muffled and distant.
"Out of the darkness, out of the depths, out of the fire."
The cats of StarClan freeze, turning their eyes towards the sky. Above them, all is dark. There are no stars and no moon and everything is so very, very still.
"It will take on the form of one of our kin, and It will kill all in It's path."
There is no argueing with the voice, for it is always right. That is why they crouch down where they are standing and raise their hackles, the thick scent of fear filling the clearing.
"Only one cat can make a difference during these dark days, but none will listen to him, none will know the truth, none can help."
"Then what can we do?" cries one cat, with black fur and two white paws.
Around him, the other cats of StarClan wait eagerly for an answer. For some bit of hope that they can cling too and pass on to the cats that are still living.
They recieve only silence - for there is nothing that even their great leader can do now.
-x-x-x-x-
It is a prophecy that every medicine cat gets, that every Clan must be leery of.
It is coming, and it will kill all in Its path.
They recieve no other warning save for the image of two sharp, glowing eyes. Orange eyes that hold nothing but torment and the threat of destruction.
For once, there is no doubt that StarClan has forsaken them.
-x-x-x-x-
The first death is a she-cat in WindClan. A cream-pelted queen by the name of Petalshine. Her mate is beyond the point of being distraught, suddenly left to raise five kits on his own. Expected not to mourn because they need him, they need his strength, they need his protection and to know that everything will be alright.
That whatever killed their mother will never harm them, because he is there.
So Rabbitclaw stands strong and doesn't howl at the sky like he wants too. Instead, he tightens up his heart and carries on.
-x-x-x-x-
RiverClan suffers next. Another queen, this time one that has not yet given birth to her kits. Mudsplash, daughter of the leader, next in line to be the deputy.
The entire Clan suffers; both from the loss, and from the knowledge that they are burying more than one life.
She has no mate, but her mother does not recover. Tinystar gives up her position of leader, of warrior, of fighter, and moves to the Elders Den where she speaks to no one.
-x-x-x-x-
In ThunderClan, Hawkpaw stops training. His entire life suddenly resolves around his mother, who is once again in the nursury, ready to give birth in only a few days. The attacks have been going on for nearing two moons now, and only queens and kits have been attacked, have been killed, have been torn into hundreds of thousands of millions of pieces.
He fears that his mother may be next, because the other three Clans have already been struck in the last half-moon. The creature goes after the Clans in order, taking the same amount of queens from each, never hitting them more than once in a row.
Hawkpaw's mentor, Firesplash, tries hard to understand. Still, it hurts to watch her apprentice waste away into a bundle of nerves. To see such potential wasted, and watch as the young tom grows gaunt and wild-eyed.
-x-x-x-x-
The beast does not pass up on ThunderClan that half-moon, and manages to kill their last queen. Falconswoop dies before she gives birth and her body is never found - just blood, so much blood, and Hawkpaw cannot stop screaming.
Poppycloud, the medicine cat, ends up having to force him to eat poppy seeds so that he falls asleep. When he wakes up, he is a different cat.
-x-x-x-x-
Gone are the days when there were four Clans. Now, there is only one. ForestClan; made up of the survivors from the other Clans, of those who still wish to believe in StarClan but can't, those who still want to hope but can't.
Beyond them, in the skies, in the Heavens, in the stars, those who have passed one try to find answers. For anything that can stop their ranks from rising so quickly. Anything that might give ForestClan a reason to keep living.
And they find it.
A name, whispered only in the darkest crevices of StarClan, feared even by those in the Dark Forest. Something that hasn't been seen for centuries, and always brings destruction with it when it comes.
"Bajang." says the voice from the sky, and everyone stops to listen. "It is here and it will not leave."
And then the voice, the leader, the saviour, the God, says no more.
-x-x-x-x-
Hawkpaw doesn't sleep anymore. He just sits at the front of Poppycloud's den and lets himself waste away to nothing but skin and bones.
No one pays attention to him anymore, because he is broken and dead inside and they have so much more to worry about. They cannot stop having kits or they will all die off, but the creature always takes the queens and only the queens and the leaders don't know what to do or where is safe.
So they all huddle together in the camp that used to belong to ShadowClan, living off of crow food and letting Hawkpaw dissapear into the darkness.
-x-x-x-x-
Firesplash is gone, and Hawkpaw cannot stop watching Shadeclaw. The tom is deputy of RiverClan, with pitch black fur and strange, strange eyes.
They're orange and bright and evil, and isn't that what StarClan once told them to watch out for, so many moons ago? Hawkpaw thinks that it is. When he points this out, no one listens.
Shadeclaw has green eyes, they tell him, not orange.
-x-x-x-x-
One day, Shadeclaw comes into camp and he isn't himself. Hawkpaw sees it and recoils from the older tom. The others greet the warrior like nothing is different. Like his maw is not drawn back into a lipless sneer, and his eyes are not angular like those of a birds. Like his claws don't stick out from his paws and his back legs aren't bent and bowed at the joints.
Hawkpaw cannot breathe.
Cannot tear his eyes off of the strange cat that isn't a cat.
Cannot move from his ever-present spot at the front of the medicine cat's den.
Just watches as Shadeclaw lumbers through the den like he isn't a beast, and as the other cats just go on with their lives.
-x-x-x-x-
The leaders don't believe Hawkpaw, but the cats of StarClan do. They search for more answers and come up with none.
So, once again, the voice calls out to them.
"It lives in the trees." says the voice, and everyone listens and prays and hopes. "Destroy the tree."
And they tell Hawkpaw this, because he is the only one left that will listen.
-x-x-x-x-
In the forest, there is no being that does not fear fire. From the smallest of mice to the strongest of badgers, the flickering flames are a danger to all. Nothing is safe when the forest turns into a blaze of orange and red and black, and nothing can escape.
So Hawkpaw creates fire, he doesn't remember how, doesn't know where it comes from, and sets the land that used to belong to RiverClan ablaze. Watches as embers lick at the trees and smoke burns at his eyes - and, around him, listens as the creature that has killed so many howls out in agony.
-x-x-x-x-
StarClan visits ForestClan that night, and tells what has happened. That they are safe now. That Hawkpaw has saved them.
So the four leaders gather around and call him up and they give him a name.
"Hawkfire."
And the Clan cheers for him and praises him and loves him - yet all he can think about is how, when he needed them most, they paid him no mind.
So he leaves, and he never returns.
Without him, ForestClan wilts away to nothing.