A/N: This is my entry for the Ravaged by Flame challenge on the Warriors Challenge Forum as part of a contest to become Clan leader. Enjoy!
A gale howled through the trees, bending the mighty oaks and tall pines to its will as if they were mere saplings. Lightning flashed against the black sky, pursued closely by the bellow of thunder as the roiling wall of clouds continued to move closer in a single ominous line. The storm was going to be terrible; and no animal was foolish enough to leave their dens in this weather.
No animal, that is, except for the cat that was running across the forest floor.
The tom streaked between pines, reddish-ginger fur blowing wildly in the roaring wind. Unusual amber-green eyes flashed warily as he glanced up at the darkening sky. He kept his mouth clamped firmly shut; bundles of leaves hung from between his jaws, fluttering feebly in the wind.
I have to get back to camp before the storm hits...
A large boulder loomed up before him, jutting up from the forest floor. But the cat was unfazed. He simply clambered around the rock, squeezing through a hidden tunnel behind it and emerging into a clearing.
The ShadowClan camp was utterly deserted—save for the hulking tom whose dark gray pelt and deep blue eyes were nearly indistinguishable from the storm raging above them.
"Russetfoot!" the tom meowed, taking a few steps forward. "What in StarClan's name were you doing out there!" The gray cat looked skywards. "This storm is going to break any minute!"
Russetfoot, the ginger tom, ran past him and into one of the dens at the other end of the clearing. The other tom followed him, a look of confusion on his face.
Russetfoot had dropped his bundles of herbs on the den floor and was now sorting through them. He glanced back at the storm-colored cat. "I was trying to get all my herbs before the weather hit," he replied. "The Clan's going to need them, especially with RiverClan being so hostile."
The tom smiled. "You'll make a good medicine cat, brother."
Russetfoot didn't look up from his herb-sorting, though his eyes glinted in the dim light. "And you make a great warrior, Stormwhisker."
~000~
The two cats huddled together in the medicine den, eyes wide as they stared out at the hurricane before them. The rain still hadn't started, but the wind screamed above them like some great creature, tearing branches from trees and hurling them about in its rage.
Stormwhisker watched the sky, the flashing lightning reflecting in his eyes. Russetfoot crouched beside him, gazing out with a look of worry.
The dark gray tom pushed himself closer to his brother. Ever since their mother had been killed by foxes in their kithood—their father dead before they were born—the two had been inseperable. Despite Russetfoot choosing the path of a healer, they had been constantly at each other's side during apprenticehood. The only family they had were each other; and they clung fiercely to that bond.
Stormwhisker found his gaze drifting to the nursery. One of the Clan's queens, Petalfrost, had recently given birth. He couldn't hear anything over the storm, but he imagined that the poor things must have been terrified.
"I don't like it."
Stormwhisker turned his head to see Russetfoot, looking even more uneasy than he had before. He sighed. "Neither do I, Russetfoot. But it's just a storm. It'll pass." He glanced back at the sky. "They always do."
But the ginger tom shook his head, pupils dilated. "No," he insisted. "Something's not right. I can feel it."
Stormwhisker rolled his blue eyes. "Russetfoot—"
But then something changed in the air. Both cats' fur stood on end; Stormwhisker thought he smelt something oddly smoky.
And then it happened.
An arc of pure light sizzled across the sky, striking down into the forest with a thunderclap so loud it shook the ground beneath their paws. Stormwhisker flinched away from the mighty sound, huddling closer to his brother.
After a few moments, the thunder died away...but it was replaced by a different sound. A powerful roaring crackle, building slowly until the air was choked with thick, black smoke and an unnatural orange light filled the sky.
The brothers leapt to their paws as one, frozen with horror. For the storm had given birth to a new terror—a monster that mercilessly destroyed everything in its path. Feared above any gale or beast, no matter how deadly they were. Feared by every creature in the forest and considered the most terrible foe of the Clans.
Fire!
