Hi all! This is my first fanfic, and I hope you will enjoy it! It's called "Glazing Over", and it's going to feature some of the warrior cat's deaths. If any of you are reading this at this point and are thinking that I stole other people's ideas, well, I did get inspired by some other fanfics to write this one, but please be assured I will not copy any others (which is not allowed anyways).

So, anyway, on to the first chapter, which is going to be about…? Sootfur! Oh, and also let me know if you would like me to narrate from first-person or third-person, okay? Thanks!

DISCLAIMER: I don't own Warriors, or any of the characters featured in the books.

Sootfur sighed as he slumped into his nest in the warriors' den. Tension was running high throughout the ThunderClan camp, because Leafpool, the medicine cat apprentice, had left. Cinderpelt, especially, was frantic, thinking that Leafpool's disappearance was somehow her fault. But blaming herself isn't going to help bring her apprentice back, Sootfur thought. He yawned wearily. There was a strange thumping sound in the distance… the heat of the sun must be getting to him. The young gray tom wrapped his tail over his nose, wanting to forget about everything.

The thumping sound was growing louder.

How could that be? Sootfur wondered, in a haze of tiredness.

There was a distant roar, vibrating through the hot, still air, until it thrummed in Sootfur's ears. Feeling uneasy, he shot to his paws and poked his head out from the den.

Big white and black creatures crashing through the thorns. Glittering, glaring eyes and glinting claws.

"Badgers!" Squirrelflight yowled.

Badgers… the word triggered a sharp feeling of hatred in Sootfur's mind.

"I smell something really weird," Sootpaw meowed uncertainly. He was on a hunting patrol with Thornclaw, Willowpelt, Ashfur, and Firestar. Determined to impress his leader, he sniffed the putrid scent, willing his mind to remember it…

Sootpaw remembered that scent from training. "Badger!" he gasped.

"Great StarClan!" Thornclaw snapped. Ashfur's blue eyes widened. "That's pretty bad."

"Only one?" Firestar inquired sharply. Sootpaw scooted closer to Willowpelt, his mother, breathing in her sweet scent; the tense reaction from the warriors scared him a little.

Thornclaw scented the air, and uncertainty flashed in his eyes. "More than one."

Suddenly, a roar of fury echoed around Snakerocks, and a huge black and white creature rushed out in front of the cats. It had small eyes dark with hatred, and when it raised a paw to swat at Thornclaw, Sootpaw could see long, sharp claws.

"Attack!" Firestar bellowed, ramming himself into the badger's side. The badger swiped its claws down Firestar's shoulder. Sootpaw watched as his leader rolled onto his side and reached for the badger's belly. He remembered going over that move with Longtail not a few days ago. Ashfur and Thornclaw raced forward; the gray tom bit the badger's ear while Thornclaw gripped its shoulder. Leaping forward with the idea of helping his leader, Sootpaw was quite unprepared when another dark shadow flashed over him.

Something careened into him, something sharp raked down his side, hot and smelly breath was forced into his lungs. Sootpaw gasped for air, as a second badger loomed over him, paw raised to deal the death blow.

"Nooo!" he heard an anguished wail, and then everything was in slow motion. Sootpaw rolled over, and glimpsed his mother, his kind and loving mother, racing toward the badger with fire burning in her eyes. The badger roared and brought its paw crashing down. Sootpaw closed his eyes… wanted to die…

"ARRRGGGHAAAAHHHH!" A scream of pain, and a sharp crack. Sootpaw was knocked to the ground a few fox-lengths away, and rolled over, terror flooding his mind.

Willowpelt was clasped in the jaws of the badger, limp, motionless.

She'd saved him from the badger… by receiving the blow herself.

Ashfur leaped onto the badger's back and clung onto its shoulders. The badger roared and tossed Willowpelt aside. Hot tears spilled out from Sootpaw's eyes as he saw his mother stretched out beneath a willow tree, blue eyes open and still burning with anger.

"Sootpaw! Sootpaw! Can you hear me?" Firestar was dragging him to safety.

His mother had died to save him. Sootpaw wanted to avenge her death. He'd remember those badgers. He wanted to kill them for what they had done.

He was running, running, running towards the nearest monster, tearing at its thick fur with his claws, yowling and screaming for revenge. How could the badgers have done such a terrible thing? They had crippled him, crippled him for life.

A dull, thudding pain in his hind leg. So? What was a little pain compared to the agony the memory of his mother's last sacrifice brought to him?

A black and white beast loomed over him, and whacked his paw hard against Sootfur's back legs.

An explosion of hatred and fear. Willowpelt! Save me! Help me! Please…

She wasn't there to protect him anymore. He had to save himself.

He started to drag himself to the bramble bush. The world was rimmed with red.

"Sootfur!" Squirrelflight rushed over to him, and gazed down with horror at his broken back legs. "Come on! We have to get you to Cinderpelt!"

"No!" Sootfur snarled. "I can do this myself!"

Roaring, growing ever closer. Sootfur braced himself for the end. Willowpelt! I can't do this!

The shadow swayed above him. He couldn't tell if it was white or black or both.

A paw darting toward him…

Claws tore at his throat. Sootfur yowled in agony and anger. Squirrelflight wailed, "Sootfur!"

But something was fading from him. The world was glossing over with black.

And then he saw her. Pale gray fur shining silver, bright blue eyes that had once flashed with fire warm and loving.

"Willowpelt!" He buried his nose in her shoulder fur, tears leaking from his eyes.

"Sootfur… my dear son…" Willowpelt whispered, licking him fondly on the ears. "Let's go."

Then they padded off, together, into a swathe of glittering stars.