Author's Note: In the last AN, I said I was going to edit all 19 other chapters before posting this one. I did that. Most of them just had minor edits to be a bit cleaner and flow better but a few had some larger edits and both chapters 9 and 15 had large portions added to them. If you're reading this when the chapter comes out, I recommend reading back again.
As I said previously, I had two endings planned for this story. One was a conclusive ending and more was open ended. Even though I currently have no plans to continue this fic after this, I thought the open ended one was the better ending.
Big warning for, like, dead cats.
The Kin scattered.
Some wanted to explore. Some were so horrified they had to leave. Some checked for life. Few froze like Lionblaze. Few wandered forward, dazed, to stare at the sea of bodies.
There were so many. And the deeper they padded into clan territory, the more there were. Blood and bodies, strewn around like an enraged predator's victims. It was all senseless killings. Like a badger ran through and started killing cats for sport. It was horrifying to see but impossible to look away from.
There was blood. Oh, there was so much blood. Lionblaze tried not to look at the faces of the cats around him. He didn't want to know who they were. He couldn't. If he did, that would make this all so much more real. Lionblaze knew he was in shock. His hazy mind wasn't ready to accept what lay before him and he was okay with that.
He could tell, however, that these were all clan cats. ShadowClan, ThunderClan, WindClan- But no RiverClan. What was that about? They were closest to the border between ThunderClan and ShadowClan but if there were WindClan cats, why weren't there RiverClan cats? And why weren't there non-clan cats' bodies? Warriors would never go down without a fight. They would have taken a few down with them. And where were the crowfood-eaters? No birds, no foxes, no badgers… There was no one trying to feed off the cats' bodies. If there had been, Lionblaze would have been distraught but now it just seemed unusual. It made everything seem more eerie. Almost dreamlike.
The smell was overwhelming. Jayfeather plucked his way through the former battlefield without tripping over any of the bodies, that's how bad the bodies smelled. It was so pungent that even the blind could pinpoint exactly where the decaying carcasses lay. Jayfeather's expression was tight. Lionblaze wanted to run up to him and plunge his muzzle into his neck fur but Lionblaze didn't think he could stand to touch anyone right now.
He wanted to throw up. His stomach twisted and he hated it. He hated it all. And what made it worse, he could have prevented this. This massacre- If he'd been here he could have stopped it. He was undefeatable. If he'd been here…
Why did they leave? Factually, Lionblaze knew why. They'd been driven out. They didn't owe these cats anything. But he wasn't thinking clearly right now. All he knew was that guilt and regret was flooding him like an ocean trying to fit into a brook. He existed to prevent this from happening and he what? Turned away? So what if they didn't want him here? This was his duty. He could have done something.
It hurt. The bones in his chest ached. He swallowed, feeling his grief welling in his throat. It hurt so much. Where was Cinderheart? And Hollyleaf? Had they survived? What about Brambleclaw? And Squirrelflight? And Leafpool? Had they died before they could make up? His friends from his youth, would he never see their smiles or hear their laughter again? Was this the end of the clans?
Surely there had to be someone left. Afterall, the three had survived. Jayfeather and Dovewing were here with him. And Ravenpaw, he was a ThunderClan cat. He was still at the barn. Darktail too. He was half WindClan yet he was fine. Stormfur was safe up in the mountains, alive and well. That was five cats. There had to be more, right? They weren't a clan but their beating hearts meant that this wasn't the end…
His paw was scraping the earth before he realized it. And then a second paw joined.
He began digging. It was a mindless task. His thoughts went blank, only focused on expanding the hole in front of him. Jayfeather joined him, paws working beside his brother's. Around them, members of the Kin looked down at the ground and began scooping up pawfuls of dirt. Dozens of cats, all different and unique, all united in this one moment.
Lionblaze's pads didn't ache. His claws didn't catch or tear. He couldn't use his powers to save the clans but if they were good for anything, he'd use them to make sure every clan cat got a grave. They deserved that much.
The sounds of digging were somehow infuriating and comforting at the same time.
The droning noise made Dovewing's fur stand. It was loud and it was everywhere. But it also gave her something to focus on. Anything was better than focusing on the bodies around her. Crouching down, she began to dig as well.
As her paws worked, she tried to filter through the noises. She memorized the pattern of each cats' paws. All of them were working. Dozens of cats were still breathing. Their hearts still beat. In the mass of bodies, those lights of life were priceless. Their presence was the only thing keeping Dovewing from snapping.
But as more time passed, she became more connected with the forest and she began to hear more. At first, she thought it was just her mind playing tricks on her. Her paws were stained with dirt and she was tired. She kept digging until the grave was big enough to house two cats but she couldn't ignore what she was hearing.
She lifted her head, feeling a twinge in her neck at the change in position, and padded away. She could hear others calling after her but she ignored them. She could hear something, something unusual. Something that didn't sound right. And she needed to figure out what it was or it would drive her up a tree.
Faintly, she was aware of Lionblaze and Jayfeather trailing after her. They asked no questions. They were used to her antics and understood what they had to do. They kept their distance and let Dovewing wander wherever she felt she needed to be.
They neared the edge of ShadowClan territory. Dovewing had never been this far in. The pines- they were beautiful. Their sharp scent covered the smell of the bodies scattered about. Dovewing couldn't stop to enjoy it though. She heard some kind of… scraping. Like something was rubbing against a rough surface. And was that breathing?
She broke into a run, alarming her companions. "Dovewing?"
"I think I hear someone," Dovewing told them, tossing her voice over her shoulder as she picked up speed. "I think someone is alive!"
She heard Lionblaze and Jayfeather's paws fly into action behind her. Lionblaze flanked Jayfeather, guiding the two after Dovewing at a hurried speed, but Dovewing didn't slow down for them. There was something important here. She knew it and she had to find it. It already felt like she was too late.
She crossed the edge of the ShadowClan border, leaving clan territory. Whatever she was looking for, it was close. She came to a stop, angling her ears to try to figure out where the faint noise was coming from. Lionblaze and Jayfeather caught up, stumbling clumsily as they approached, and joined her. Lionblaze's amber eyes searched the land and Jayfeather's noise went to the sky, trying to pinpoint anything noteworthy in the area.
"I smell blood," Jayfeather announced after a while.
"So do I, mousebrain," Lionblaze grunted. "It's everywhere."
"No, I mean fresh blood. There's a body nearby that was alive recently," Jayfeather responded. His head swiveled around before pointing his nose into the distance. "That way."
Dovewing hurried in that direction. She nearly tripped over a large root but she didn't stop to see if her claws had gotten caught. She focused her hearing, trying to locate the source of the noise. She leaped up onto a particularly large stone. Immediately, her nose was slammed with the scent of fresh blood.
"Great StarClan!"
"What is it?" Lionblaze called from behind but Dovewing didn't respond. Her eyes were wide, fixed on the bloodied form at her paws. Fresh gashes lined the tom's shoulders and ugly wounds marred his head. Through the splatters of red, she could outline tabby markings on brown fur.
"Dovewing?" the cat's gravely voice croaked weakly. He tried to lift his head but his neck gave out quickly, forcing him to put it back down on the surface of the stone. "Is that you Dovewing? Are we going to StarClan?"
"Tigerheart." Dovewing's voice broke as she pressed her nose against his forehead and lapped away some of the blood to reveal his fading orange eyes. "Oh Tigerheart, what happened to you?"
He wasn't in StarClan.
Jayfeather hadn't considered visiting the Moonpool until Lionblaze noted the half-moon was rising. It was almost an afterthought decision to come. He didn't really want to but he knew he had to. Yellowfang, Spottedleaf, Bluestar- whoever was there, he didn't care. He had to know. What, he wasn't sure. But he needed some kind of closure. He needed to know what happened, why, and if he could have done something to stop it. It was too late, he knew, but anything would be better than nothing.
But when Jayfeather opened his eyes, it wasn't StarClan's hunting grounds he saw. It was bizarre. He had, of course, come to the Moonpool and visited cats who weren't members of StarClan but it was so strange to just appear somewhere else.
There wasn't a cat in sight. No Yellowfang, no Spottedleaf, no Bluestar. None of the cats whose bodies he'd spent the past several days burying. Not even Frostfur, Speckletail, Loudbelly, or Shadepelt. Jayfeather hadn't seen them in awhile but he knew they were still watching over him. He half expected to see them here, despite being able to visit them at any time he pleased.
He began padding through the strange territory. The grass felt dry and sharp under his paws. The crispness of the air made him want to sneeze. Something in the back of his mind told him it should be hot but he couldn't feel it. Instead, the atmosphere felt almost… misty. The clouds were so low, blurring his view of the horizon. Jayfeather's tailtip curled. That didn't feel right. A sign, perhaps?
A figure stepped out of the fog.
"Rock," Jayfeather greeted with a dip of his head upon the sight of the hairless cat. He didn't know how he felt about seeing his old friend. He felt nothing, really. If any cat were to show up here, it made sense it would be Rock.
"Jayfeather," Rock rumbled in response. "It has been quite some time. It's good to see you, though I wish it were under better circumstances."
"Where's StarClan?" Jayfeather asked, looking around. The mist began closing in, blanketing the scene in white until the biome he'd been standing in was virtually invisible. Some of it brushed the fur on his legs and soon it became so dense that he couldn't see his own paws. If not for the feeling of solid ground under his paws, he might've thought he was floating.
Rock shrugged. The haze danced around him but didn't touch him quite yet. Soon, Jayfeather knew, it would consume him and Jayfeather would wake up but they still had some time. Hopefully Jayfeather would get some answers before then. "The Dark Forest attacked StarClan at the same time it attacked the clans."
Jayfeather's ears went up and his eyes went sharp. "Are they…?"
Rock kicked the ground with a forepaw. "They're not here and we're not on StarClan territory. I cannot be sure."
"Where are we anyway?" Jayfeather asked, looking around. Occasionally, a gap would open up in the layer of fog, giving him a glimpse of the land around him, but it remained thick and unchanging for the most part. When he looked back at Rock, the older tom was already sinking into it.
"The place you will find your answers," Rock told him and Jayfeather jolted awake, plunging back into darkness. He sat up almost automatically, joints creaking after spending the night asleep on the cool, stone floor. He padded out of the cave and felt the rising sun's warmth wash over him.
"Did you hear StarClan?" Dovewing asked upon his arrival. Darktail and the healing Tigerheart were curled up on either side of her, too deep in their slumber to be awoken by her voice and movement.
Jayfeather shook his head and padded to his brother's side. For a moment, Lionblaze's shadow blocked the sunlight from touching his fur but the sun continued to rise and its rays warmed him once again. He shifted his blind gaze in its direction. In his mind, he could see the beautiful dawn colors on the horizon. "I think… I think I know where to go though. The three can still save the clans."
Author's Note: Aaaand we're done!
Thank you so much for reading! It's been no secret I had a hard time writing this story. Originally it was just going to be a oneshot but you guys asked for more and it ended up stretching into a year-long project, far longer than any of my other Warriors' stories. I was dissatisfied with a lot of this story along the way but now that we're at the end, I think I'm happy with it.
As I said before, I currently have no plans to continue this fic. The ending is open ended but not really a cliffhanger or anything. I think I want to take a break from his fandom for awhile. During this story, I turned 18, applied for college, got accepted into college, picked which college I'm going to go to, and went through a number of personal growths. I know Warriors can be for any age or gender but as an adult man, I am unsure if this is where I want to remain and I don't know if I will have as much time to write in the coming years.
But, I do love this story and I may one day come back to it. I'm going to mark The New Horizon as complete but if I continue, I may add chapters to this story or write the sequel as a separate story. I have an idea of how this story would go on but it's kind of half baked. Here's what I have so far:
-The three begin the journey to find the remains of the clans
-Expanding on Darktail's character. Specifically Darktail coming to terms with what happened with SkyClan as well as his history with Onestar. Possibly him being the fourth cat in the prophecy as well
-Expand on what happened to Tigerheart when he was dragged away by the Dark Forest warriors during the battle. There was no room to touch on it here but the idea was to give him some kind of memory loss regarding what happened and for it to slowly be revealed.
-A lot of the earlier comments implied that you guys wanted some Hollyleaf/ Fallen Leaves action so I may touch on that as well.
-Honestly I have no idea if Cinderheart and Berrynose are dead but they might be
I generally post status updates for my fics on my tumblr sideblog entityupdates so check it out if you're interested or want to talk to me. Any suggestions or reviews would be greatly appreciated. And again, thank you so much for taking this journey with me and I hope you enjoyed.