A/N: This oneshot was inspired by a picture I found on Deviantart. Look up "My Dearest Feathertail," and you'll find it. So half of the credit goes to the artist, AsterDog! This is a short CrowxFeather story, with a hint of CrowxLeaf. Enjoy!
It was nighttime. Stars shone in the inky black sky. The plump moon cast a ghostly light over the sleeping earth below. A steady gust of wind acted up, sending cold ripples through the lake's calm surface.
Many, many cats slept restlessly in a field just beyond a Twoleg nest and the Horseplace. Faint scents of marshes and swamps, moors and heather, trees and undergrowth, water and fish all blended together, a confusing thing. Fur brushed against fur.
Perching by the shimmering water was a lone tom, his smoky gray pelt ruffled from the cold. Wide blue eyes gazed into the distance.
Claws grasped onto the overhanging rock, loosening it from the stone ceiling. It fell, along with the pale silver tabby who chose to give up her life to kill the cruel, malicious lion cat.
Crowpaw shut his eyes tight as the sound of shattering rock blew against his sensitive ear fur mercilessly. The ground underneath his tense body shuddered, and then all was still again.
"Feathertail!" he heard Stormfur gasp.
Slowly his eyes opened, and Crowpaw squeezed out of the crevice he was recently forced into after Sharptooth, the evil mountain cat, tried to attack him.
What he saw made his heart sink to his paws; his throat went dry, and a lump formed. Horror and dismay washed over him in waves. "Feathertail! No!" he yowled, springing over the pieces of stone. Crowpaw sped past Sharptooth, who was lying on his side, bleeding profusely from a wound on his flank; the big cat's eyes stared lifelessly.
Within heartbeats the WindClan apprentice was next to Feathertail, the beautiful RiverClan she-cat. He stared at the kind, patient cat he came to love, not seeing his companions nearby, nor hearing them or the Tribe of the Rushing Water cats.
Feathertail was dying.
"Hang in there. Hang in there, please!" Crowpaw begged softly, nudging Feathertail's shoulder with his pink nose.
But she merely gazed up at him, her eyes blue pools of love, and said, "I saved you once. Don't make me save you again." Her voice was weak, and yet strong. Her body then went limp, and her eyes became dull.
The almost-black tom stared, half-expecting his beloved to start breathing again, to sit up and purr. But no... She was gone...
Forever.
Crowfeather mentally shoved the memory away with a paw, grief-stricken. It was his fault. Feathertail died because of him; she saved his worthless life. "I'm so sorry," he whispered.
"It's not your fault," breathed a voice as the wind picked up again. Crowfeather sat up, alarmed. "Do not grieve over me; we'll be together someday, but for now, you must live your life. Find happiness, serve your Clan... love another."
So faint... but recognizable. "Feathertail!" Crowfeather almost yowled, but instead hissed, not wanting to wake up any other cat. "Is that... Is that really you?"
There was a purr. Something warm brushed against his side, and a tail intertwined with his. "I will always watch over you."
The dark tom turned his head, but saw nothing. The warmth left his side, as Feathertail made her up to Silverpelt again.
He got to all four paws. "I love you, and I always will..." he murmured.
"I love you, too," came that voice again, fainter this time, and Crowfeather looked up. He blinked once, twice, three times, but what he saw wasn't an hallucination, apparently.
A lone cloud. Light gray. Shaped into the head of a cat. Feathertail?
Crowfeather breathed in the chilly air, almost catching the sweet smell of the she-cat he fell in love with. He saw the cloud slowly fade away, and suddenly felt someone watching him.
He turned, and saw a cat among the sleeping crowd, her amber eyes trained on him. It was Leafpaw, ThunderClan's medicine cat apprentice.
The tabby she-cat looked startled, then guilty, when Crowfeather looked her way. She instantly laid her head back down and closed her eyes.
"Love another."
No, thought Crowfeather, deciding to sleep where he was, that's not possible.