Chapter 12-

Training is boring.

Snapstar wants to teach him how to stalk silently, but the sand makes his steps light and silent anyway. Sagepaw doesn't argue, though his thoughts command him to move faster, and request to at least practice somewhere where it'll count.

He commands them to shut up.

Sagepaw feels no happiness and Snapstar's voice sharpens with praise. "Good job! Prey won't hear a thing except their neck snapping." The image of Tansypaw flashes in his mind, neck thrown back at an odd angle and red streaming from his mouth. The tom freezes, the familiar grief hitting him like a monster speeding across the Thunderpath.

Speaking of the Thunderpath, why does it smell so sour?

Instantly, Sagepaw jolts to attention. Snapstar stretches his nose high, mouth propped open. The tom's position goes rigid, freezing like Sagepaw. The smell is thick, disgusting, and Sagepaw fights to spit it out. Smoke. So much smoke.

Snapstar jumps to his paws, looking panicked, so panicked. "Fire, fire..." he whispers, tail lashing, "Fire!"

The two run, scrambling out of the Sandy Hollow, eyes darting through the new-found haze. Snapstar nudges his son, no, not son, forward. The smoke thickens, but they run on, both knowing where they must go. Thunderclan camp.

The soil heats up as they run, the smoke getting thicker and resistant, but they don't stop. Not until a wall of orange and red heat meet them. Fire, engulfing the trees and shrubs, fed by the sticks on the burning ground. Sagepaw's eyes widen. They are too late. Too late. Too late. How are they too late?

Snapstar pants, his eyes crazed. "My clan...My home..." Sagepaw curls his lip in disgust. How could he be so worried about a home? It's Smoothpaw and Flickerpaw Sagepaw's worried about.

"How do we-"

Sagepaw is cut off by Snapstar huffing loudly. His tail, once lashing, goes still and alert. And the Thunderclan leader runs. Not towards camp, not trying to get around the wall, not pacing. Away. Runs away. Sagepaw freezes in panic.

"Dad?" smoke fills the apprentice's mouth, "Dad?" But no outline cuts through the smoke, no cat returns. "Dad!"

Sagepaw has to do this alone. He can't sit here, feeling confused and lost, breathing in full breaths of smoke. He has to do something.

Sagepaw turns and sprints, parallel from the fire, feeling weaker with each step. Black, billowing, smoke fills the tom's throat. It hurts, each wheezing breath like fire through his nostrils and throat. But there has to be a way around. There has to be.

But there isn't.

Sagepaw circles camp, but the only thing he gets closer to is the fire. It rages, getting closer and licking his paws. Each time he veers away it feels closer, reaching out to him like paws of warmth, eating the color of everything and making them black and gray. Sagepaw feels like it's already burned him.

The tom feels all the strength leave him, his chest burning and his mouth in a world of hurt. Everything hurts. His head the most.

Brown paws land in front of Sagepaw, and blue eyes meet his.

"Come on."

A muzzle slips under his, and his body is forced to stand. Sagepaw wants to flop down in the pure heat again. "Who...Why..." His mouth feels charred like the logs of wood. The she-cat, whose icy eyes reflect the pure opposite ice, allows Sagepaw to lean on her as he stumbles away, away, away, from the wall of fire.

"Thunderclan is in the river. Come on," she urges, picking up the pace. The fire eats up the land behind them. Sagepaw knows they are racing against the fire, against the clock, but he can't move any faster than a slow amble. But the she-cat keeps moving, even through her own wheezes and coughing, so Sagepaw does too.

Finally, the refreshing feel of cold hits Sagepaw's ankles, and wet seeps into the apprentice. Sagepaw collapses into the fresh, icy, water, breathing in foggy air. Hotness dissolves into a strange comfort and the cat next to him pants in pure exhaustion.

"Thank-"

"Thank Voidflicker."

Sagepaw is cut off by the she-cat next to him. Once so sensible, Sagepaw now looks at her as a fox-hearted mouse-brain. The tom's head swivels around, his eyes blinking rapidly. It is Scarletpaw. Sagepaw recoils from the she-cat, shock rippling through him like the icy cold of the water.

"You think I'd save you? Willingly? Voidflicker sent me to find you and your siblings. Where are they?" Scarletpaw's voice is cold and emotionless as she rises, pelt dripping. She twitches her whiskers, letting the water dribble off of the strands. "Actually, now that I think of it, why would I save them? After you pushed Tansypaw?"

Sagepaw freezes, and not only because of the water. "He fell."

As if on cue the water feels noticeably warmer. The fire roars, spitting and thrashing at the liquid. Sagepaw hisses as the fire almost licks his tail. The water's little ripples rage as Sagepaw quickly lunges through the water in a panic.

"No, he didn't. You killed him. Oh, you thought no one saw? Well I did. You killed him." Scarletpaw's voice is laden with anger.

"I did what I had to," Sagepaw's own voice quivers. But he knows that's not right. Is it? It can't be. Real warriors don't kill. Do they? No. But Tansypaw was going to kill him. Wasn't he? Either way, Sagepaw is only trying to convince himself. He did what he had to.

"You had to kill my brother? Give me one reason. One reason why I shouldn't throw you into that fire," Scarletpaw nods at the raging orange. Sagepaw flinches.

I haven't lived yet, Sagepaw thinks desperately, but that isn't good enough. Because Tansypaw didn't. He lived his life as a seven moon old kit. That isn't right. So what other reasons, that aren't stupid, aren't kit-like, aren't selfish or rude, does Sagepaw have? Only one, one desperate reason.

"Voidflicker told you not to," Sagepaw whimpers pathetically, "I'll find my siblings by myself, but what have they done wrong?"

Scarletpaw purses her lips, eyes darting from the fire to Sagepaw. The tom braces himself, alert and ready. He is standing now, teeth bared against each other. Scarletpaw finally breathes, looking annoyed and broken all at once.

"Fine. Find your siblings."

Sagepaw breathes too. A breath of relief, pure joy. He nods tensely to Scarletpaw, before shooting out of the river with muddy water sticking to his pelt.

~~~

Flickerpaw's POV

Flickerpaw coughs, feeling his lungs seize up with his wheezes. The thick, black, smoke covering everything and everyone. Ivykit sticks stubbornly to his side, Smoothpaw to his left, and Aloestar in front of them all. Ivykit is two moons younger than Flickerpaw, five moons old, but it seems like she doesn't deserve the title of kit. She is mature, somewhat snappy, and demanding towards Flickerpaw.

Riverclan trudges behind the Thunderclan cats, though Flickerpaw doesn't quite know why. They say they can help everyone get to the river, but why bring the kits and queens? It makes no sense to Flickerpaw.

"Podcall, keep up!" A black she-cat that blends in with the thick smoke calls back. In response she gets a rough and painful sounding cough. Flickerpaw mirrors it with his own.

"Flickerpaw," Aloestar turns, eyes worried, "have you seen little Echokit? He was falling behind and-"

"He's here," Smoothpaw stops her brisk trot, which almost looks like a canter, to grab a little bluish kit. He mewls sleepily, eyes closing. His little cough is pitiful and sad. Flickerpaw breaks into a slight run.

"Mom-" Flickerpaw stops to scold himself. He's not a kit anymore. "Aloestar. Me and Smoothpaw could run up with the kits, and sit with them in the river." Flickerpaw hopes no cat hears the panic in his voice, because every cat is so calm. But not Flickerpaw. Is that wrong?

"I mean...sure, I guess. Try to see if you can find Sagepaw," Aloestar's eyes flash with something unreadable, "and, I guess, Snapstar."

Flickerpaw doesn't question her hesitation. They are seven moons old. There is a raging fire, though it does seem to be a good way away. It's just the smoke, causing relentless coughing and burning eyes. But too much inhaled smoke for the little ones and...

Flickerpaw scoops up a weak little bundle of fur, a tortoiseshell, who'd long stopped walking. Her breaths are shallow and weak, and her eyes barely crack open when she is moved from the hot ground into Flickerpaw's jaws. The tom can't help but feel she won't make it.

"Why are we letting apprentices take my kits?" the queen's evil glare sends shivers, even in the relentless heat, through Flickerpaw. Aloestar answers for him.

"They're the fastest. Blossomkit is weak. Do you want her t-"

"No," the queen answers quickly, angrily, "but you can't just take my kits away. I'll bring them myself. I'll-"

"Let them go," Turtlesplash, leader of Riverclan, warns, "They're Snapstar's young." Flickerpaw feels an describable jolt of pain at the words. Snapstar's young? Barely. Does he even care for any cat but himself?

And Sagepaw.

Smoothpaw and Flickerpaw weave around Aloestar holding the little kits. Echokit mews in protest, looking grumpy. Blossomkit is silent and still. Flickerpaw fears the worst.

A little body, a head shorter than Flickerpaw, glares from in front of the two. Two other miniature warriors slip to the little one's side. Smoothpaw stops, casting a confused look at the tiny cats.

Ivykit's little blue eyes glare up at the two, her glower so intense it might have been her kits the siblings were taking away. The two toms mean mug the two, but they look silly and goofy. Ivykit does not. She looks ready to bite. Flickerpaw almost laughs. Where are these three's parents?

"I'm coming with you." Not a question. A statement. The nerve!

"No," Smoothpaw says sternly, glowering back. A statement too. Ivykit has met her match.

"Yes," the two toms answer in sync, like Ivykit's little minions. Cleftkit grins a goofy grin, which he quickly stomps in favor of another glare. Whitekit's eyes remain hard, demanding.

"No."

"Yes."

"No."

"Yes!"

Ivykit looks effectively annoyed. And bratty. Flickerpaw doesn't have time for this.

"Listen, Ivykit," Smoothpaw spits impatiently, "Do you know what is at my paws-" The she-cat pauses to nod at the little slumped kit she'd placed down earlier. "A kit. And what's in Flickerpaw's- it's a dying kit. And behind us? A huge fire. So move or I'll kick you."

Ivykit huffs, though her expression hardens much more, into a somewhat serious mask. "I'm a kit too."

Her voice is small, sad, but somehow sincere.

The she-kit's brothers droop sadly, their eyes downward, pitiful. "Us too. We're not warriors yet."

The three leave quietly, tails downward. Smoothpaw picks up her kits, speaking no more. Flickerpaw isn't in the mood either.

They sprint, creeping low to escape from the smoke. Flickerpaw can't feel Blossomkit jerk, or squirm, or mew, or even cough anymore. But he feels her heart beat, fast and terrified. Just like his.

The fire's roar is more audible near the river. Flickerpaw can't find out why, until he does.

His eyes flick up towards the river, heart filling with relief for a few seconds. But that's it. A few seconds. A few seconds before Flickerpaw sees red. Red and orange, intertwined in a fiery wall, eating up the brush on the other side of the river.

Relief bleeds into panic, panic into pain, emotional anguish, as Blossomkit completely stills.

As her breaths are no longer audible.