Warriors Contest Fics

Firestar4ever's Contest Round One

Prompt: I just died! He thought to himself. What happened? What do I do now?

Hawkstar looked up at the sky, unable to draw the will to move. He knew it was a hopeless effort to try and escape this fate. A huge chunk of molten rock appeared above him, falling towards him at a dizzying rate. He closed his eyes and dropped his head, mouth falling open in one last utterance of forgiveness.

"I'm sorry."

When nothing happened after a few moments, he opened his eyes and looked up.

Nothing.

He looked to the left of him, and jumped upon seeing the still smoking rock inches away from his body. Had it missed him? How was he not feeling anything from the heat? All around him, the ground was hot and scuffed, grass burned and scarred from the flames.

Hawkstar remembered his medicine cat telling him that sometimes, when a cat had very severe injuries, in the first few moments after they received those injuries, they felt no pain. Was that it? He looked down, only to jump and yell again.

His body, previously a pretty golden brown, was now a shinier golden covered with a silvery film and misty stars. His paws were floating a few mouse-lengths above the ground, and as he looked, were disappearing from sight every few heartbeats. Most alarming, however, was that now that he looked, he could see a dirty golden brown form beneath the rock. He could only draw one conclusion.

I just died! He thought to himself. What happened? What do I do now? He had honestly never considered what life was like afterwards. Wasn't he supposed to be in StarClan, living the rest of his days in the prey-rich peaceful grounds of paradise? What was he doing here, wandering through this hell?

Hawkstar padded forward, noting with a small corner of his subconsciousness that though he wasn't touching the ground, he still had to avoid things like rocks that littered the floor. All around him cats were falling to the ground, some crushed under rocks, others succumbing to flame, and still others taken down by fighting cats, murdered where they stood for no reason.

Yet none of them were standing here as he was. Perhaps they were invisible? But Hawkstar had a horrible suspicion as to why he was still there.

"I have to fix this." He spoke. His words caused his shoulders to buckle as if something heavy had covered him, and yet his mind cleared from the heaviness that had filled him from when he was a leader.

"Yes you do." The voice said. Hawkstar snarled, dropping into a fighting stance and slashing out at the voice behind him.

"Only when you have witnessed the rebirth of these Clans will you be able to finally rest in peace." The voice continued to intone, unperturbed. "You are not the only leader faced with this ultimatum. Each of your fellow leaders died here today, and each will be made to wander alone until you can help fix these Clans and make them great as they once were." Hawkstar shook, his fur standing on end. The voice had come from nowhere. No other cat was near him.

"Fix it, Hawkstar! Do your true duty as a leader!" The deep voice thundered. Hawkstar was left stunned in the following silence.

"Fix what?" He yelled out, suddenly irritated. "I did nothing wrong!" The frustrated tom flicked his tail, stomping towards his Clan's territory and ignoring the death around him.

~~

It took Hawkstar thirteen moons to realize that his only saving grace would be to see Frostfire and her band of cats survive. Hawkstar had watched and waited day after day, wandering through all the territories in search of something to fix (as the mysterious StarClan cat had put it) and until Frostfire, a previous member of his Clan, had led a group into the land, he had been lost. Now he was quite aware of what the cat had meant, but he still didn't know what to do.