"Have we...ah...lost them?" Leafpool asked, panting from their narrow escape from a small group of cats who started to chase them and separate Squirrelflight, Leafpool and Crowfeather from their friends, family, kits, lovers and other significant clan members.
"That was close." Leafpool laughed nervously for the sake of her own morale, shaking loose sand from her pelt. Stretching her back until she heard her spine popping. "You wouldn't believe how eager I am to get home, drink water and reunite with everyone."
"Are you hurt at all?" Crowfeather inquired. He had apprenticed with Leafpool at one stage in his life under the mentorship of the Thunderclan's medicine cat Cinderpelt.
Due to the chaos of the escape, the trio became hopelessly lost in the endless piles of sand. Not a single cloud visible in the sky to provide shade. No trees or rocky outcrops to use as landmarks. However, the trio of cats were not about to give up. Not until there were no other options. Squirrelflight, Leafpool and Crowfeather were strong willed.
Squirrelflight, Leafpool and Crowfeather kept walking long after their supplies depleted. Trying to get home. With no way to communicate with the other clans for help finding their way home to one of the familiar clans or to find drinking water and some shade.
As an ex-acting leader, Squirrelflight chose a direction to walk in and lead the ex-medicine cat and current deputy clan leader in what felt like circles. Pushing on through their mental and physical exhaustion, skin peeling from the pads of their feet due to the intense heat and scorching, sunbaked sand. As well as their parched throats.
Squirrelflight, Leafpool and Crowfeather's thoughts were reduced to, One paw in front of the other. Anything to distract the two she-cats and the tom cat from dreadful thoughts. No longer overthinking everything that had happened to them until this moment.
"Look!" Leafpool got excited when she lifted her paw to shield her eyes from the glaring sun and she saw ripples in the sand. Feeling relief wash over her. "There is something over there! I think it's...water? It's water! Squirrelflight. Crowfeather. Look! We're saved!"
Crowfeather and Squirrelflight stopped dragging their paws through the sand to fan their faces with their tails. Sweat poured down from their tongues, brows and along their backs, evaporating before reaching the sand. Their whole heads throbbing in agony.
Squirrelflight, Leafpool and Crowfeather's dizziness compounded when the three cats noticed a small group of cats emerge over one of the dunes. Standing between them and the water that Leafpool spotted in the distance. Maybe two or maybe four? Squirrelflight could not tell since her head was spinning from heatstroke and the stranger's attempts to disguise their identities. These cats carried no identifiable markings or personal items. There was no mistaking that these were the cats who pursued the trio earlier.
It did not make sense. Who would be out prowling in this blistering heat?
"Crowfeather!" Leafpool called out as the black tom cat swayed and fainted. Landing on the sand with a soft thud. Black was not the best fur colour for desert terrain like this.
"Back off!" Squirrelflight snapped, curling her upper lip defensively. "I'll hurt you."
Squirrelflight jumped between her friend and the cloaked, masked and hooded cats. Hissing at the unknown cats. One of the cats lept at her from behind, tackling the dark ginger she-cat. With her brain already heat-stricken and her blistered paws too tender to fight back, it did not take long before the dark ginger she-cat was subdued.
"Wait..Are they...multiplying?" Leafpool thought out loud as everything faded to black.
Two more cats advanced on Leafpool, knocking Leafpool over and then dragging her away through the group also dragged Squirrelflight and Crowfeather by the scruffs of their necks. Water sloshing in their canteens as the strange, faceless cats abducted the dark ginger she-cat, the black tom cat and finally the brown tabby she-cat.
When Squirrelflight returned to consciousness, their ears perked at the scrunching of sand. Their paws bound to prevent escapes as the strange cats dug holes. Three large holes. The dark ginger she-cat struggled, but her pleas were ignored. She was pushed roughly into the first hole. The canteens were so close. Squirrelflight could smell the water. Licking her lips out of instinct and desperation. Trying to beg with her green eyes.
Leafpool was awoken by her stomach grumbling. She could not remember the last time that she ate. Maybe the water she saw earlier was a mirage caused by heat waves.
"Crowfeather?" Leafpool rasped with no water to wet her throat. "Squirrelflight?" She tried to paw her way out of the hole, but all she could do was turn her head. She was buried up to her neck. The pressure of the sand compressing tightly around her lithe body. Crowfeather did not open his blue eyes. He was exhausted and overheated.
"Y-yes?" Squirrelflight responded weakly.
"I think we're…" She didn't want to say 'going to die', "...buried."
The more Leafpool tried to dig, the more soft sand fell into the hole. Squirrelflight joined in the struggle to dig to freedom, but her attempts were just as fruitless as Leafpool's.
"Hey! Crowfeather. Wake up! We need your help." Squirrelflight commanded.
Crowfeather was startled awake and tried to paddle out of the sand, but he too failed and gave up as a new wave of dizziness spread through his body like wildfire. The gravity of their perilous situation dawned on Squirrelflight, Leafpool and Crowfeather.
The unidentified hostile cats noticed the struggle and laughed uproariously, forcing the trios heads to sink lower by applying the weight of a branch. While the lighter framed cats back-filled the holes at a safe distance. Spraying the trio's faces with more coarse sand. The sand continued to ebb and flow between Squirrelflight and Leafpool's claws. Behaving like...quicksand!
"It's quicksand!" Squirrelflight shouted in a panic. "Stop moving or else you'll sink faster."
"You're never going to escape." Sneered the largest mystery cat. "Don't bother trying."
Squirrelflight felt like the tone those words were spoken in should have been a clue.
"Not that it matters." The leader of the hostile cats muttered under its breath. Its intent gleaming in its eyes. The only thing visible under the layers of cloth. "I ensured my...followers buried the three of you in a way that leaves your heads exposed to the heat."
"In one sandstorm Leafpool, Crowfeather and I will become doomed beneath the quick sand."
"If the heat, hunger and thirst do not kill you first." The hostile cat rolled its eyes. "What a shame. I did not expect you to succumb to such a tragically simple trap so quickly."
The mysterious cats abandoned the trio without speaking further. If the mystery cats leader spoke a minute longer, their victims would know who they were. Especially Squirrelflight. The dark ginger she-cat was smarter than other cats gave her credit for.
The abductors trapped the dark ginger she-cat, the black tom cat and the brown tabby she-cat buried up to their necks, to perish from thirst, hunger and heat. There was no sign of the water that Leafpool saw earlier. Tears started to trickle down Leafpool's cheeks as her head disappeared beneath the quicksand along with her hopes of escaping. As the quick sand crushed down onto her filling her eyes, nose and mouth, Leafpool smiled one last time, imaging the smiling faces of her beloved clan members.
Squirrelflight tried to distract Leafpool by talking to her until they lost their voices similar to the way the she-cats lost their way while traversing the desert with Crowfeather. Squirrelflight feared that Crowfeather was unconscious with little chance of waking up. Squirrelflight could do nothing but pray that Leafpool's head would break the surface of the sand or else Squirrelflight would die alone. Squirrelflight didn't want to die alone.