pafp LAST MAN STANDING — hawk attack

[BURNSTORM]

On the way between Thunder Clan and Sky Clan something had gone terribly wrong. Burnkit had been following diligently behind his other siblings, holding up the rest of their odd little troop as they all followed their father through the pines, on their way to his camp. Burnkit had stopped for what had only felt like seconds but must have been much longer. A leaf had caught his attention, and the ebony black tom had just needed to catch it. His claws hook on it as it dances to the forest floor and it sticks. He shakes his paw but the stubborn thing doesn’t want to come off! He swings himself in circles all while shaking his paw to rid himself of the unwanted passenger. Finally, it slides off his claws, returning to its original destination.

When he looks up, his family is gone.

“Hello?” He calls out, tails puffing out behind him, eyes wide with terror. He had never been on his own before, had never been separated from his brothers or sisters. He lets out a small whine and settles down close to the forest floor. His mama had told him, ‘Burnkit if you get lost just stay out and someone will find you’ and that was his plan. Just stay put till his dad came to find him.

Perhaps it is because the young tom is covering his eyes with his paws that he does not see the shadow that covers him, the talons that reach for him.

Suddenly, there is a sharp pain in his sides. The kit lets out a scream as claws dig into his ribs and lift. Wings beat above him and he is lifted off the ground. He looks up and sees a thing of nightmares. Razor sharp beak and small beady eyes. A hawk. He was getting carried off by a hawk. The tiny scrap of fur lashes out with claws unsheathed but he can’t catch the thing holding him, can’t thrash enough to free himself.

Terror turns his blood cold as he watches the ground get away from him.

Goodbye mom, dad, Fireflykit, Crescentkit, Howlkit he thinks as he squeezes his eyes shut.

// please wait for @Snowpaw
​

 

[Snowpath]

Sometimes he despises how pale his pelt is, it makes hiding in the trees a lot harder than it needed to be. Perched above the territory, upperbody hanging slightly from the thick branch he rested on, Snowpaw glanced around to make sure Deersong hadn't spotted him leave the camp. He liked his mentor fine, but she was a bit too nosy and was constantly asking him about his 'vibes' and why they were 'out of sync with the universe' or whatever. Maybe he just wanted to sulk in peace, maybe he just wanted to lay around and daydream without cats shooting him concerned glances. It wasn't that big of a deal.
The blue tom did his duties, he showed up for patrols he was meant to go on, he went out hunting when expected to, he (gag) cleaned the nursery and elder's den out on request. The nursery hadn't been this suffocating in a while, but with Blazestar's ThunderClan brats coming back and forth the clan was a lot louder and he found himself grimacing with every visit. Kittens. He'd been one once, but he didn't expect he'd ever want to have any himself, they were too loud. Bothersome. He wished they'd go away.

His ears prick upward, a flurry of motion catching his attention through the treelines and he finds himself clambering from his branch to the next entwining one of another tree like a scampering squirrel; golden eyes eagerly seeking the sound of the noise only to feel the wind shift from beneath him, the updraft of wings beating the earth and pushing upward. Snowpaw's liquid sun gaze widens, a dark shadow flits upward and time seems to move in slow motion for the briefest of moments. It all registers instantly, one after the other: Hawk, that's a kitten, that's one of Blazestar's kittens (he can't remember their names), the hawk is about to break through the canopy of the trees and take to the sky. Take to the sky...

Snowpaw doesn't like to think about his mortality, he throws caution to the wind at times but never steps paw across the line that so clearly seperates life and death; he's reckless but not stupid-the two do not correlate. Until now. It is clearly some degree of foolishness to do what he does next but he acts on impulse with an edge of rationale; he is not big enough to stop this hawk by just swiping at it, his limbs not long enough to hit it and his form not built to combat an animal so large but if something is not done then Burnkit is gone. He doesn't register himself dropping into a crouch as the avian moves upward, the branch bouncing slightly below him with enough spring he hopes to push him further than his outstretched legs can.

Snowpaw is flying. It's a brief, exhilirating moment and for a second he forgets why he is airborn, moving from the branch out into the openess of the sky, far above the ground; nothing can touch him here-he's a bird finally! A bird-! Reality snaps back into focus, he catches one of the hawks legs right before it can burst past him into the clouded expanse above. The sudden offset of weight causes the bird to twist, it kicks a talon'd foot and he blinks sharply as pain registers on the top of his head; blossoming red now blinding him but his teeth remain clenched into the bird of prey's limb until it finally lets Burnkit go to avoid plummeting back to the earth from the powdered apprentice battering at its legs. Snowpaw lets go, his forepaws folded and smothering the dark kitten against him as he bumps a branch that sends him rolling and then another before hitting the ground. If he knew those branches saved them from dropping right down, softening the blow with each pause and break from the drop downward then he might've complained less about the impact to the hard earth. It was fortunate, luck, pure StarClan interference that kept them both from being crumpled piles of flesh and bone in the dirt, but Snowpaw can only think about how everything hurts and how much he hates kittens before blacking out.


[Ooc: Injuries aren't life-threatening! Lot of bumps bruises, maybe a sprain, cut on the head from upper left eyebrow to behind the ear that's bleeding a lot but not actually that deep! Snowpaw is taking a nap.]
​

 

[Fireflyglow]

tracking while i wait for another to reply!

 

[grizzlyridge]

Grizzlyridge had never feared the skies. Cautious as he may be, the tomcat had learned to treasure the vantage points that not many others can reach. Perhaps that was what had endeared him so to SkyClan. They're as fearless as he had been, soaring high above in the ear-pop monsters. It was that which appealed to him, he thinks– not the vantages itself, but the fearlessness of it all. SkyClan was full of good beyond what anyone had seen. Rain took him in. Saved him, in a time when life had been difficult. It was kindness like that which spread through the clan. Some might say that it was poison. In a way, they might have been right. Kindness to one might damn another: that is what he sees now, through the parted trees so distantly. His quiet patrol was not so quiet after all. What would it be like, to fly as these small bodies do? He cannot make out the smaller of the two, but the larger...it is difficult to mistake that powdered pelt for anyone else.

His heart skips, and then it hammers. "Snowpaw!" the warrior shouts. The branch beneath his paws quivers with motion, and bark scrapes along the broad expanse of them as he skitters down headfirst. Without caution or concern for his own well-being, he throws himself towards the sound of crashing, falling. Chasing the scent of blooming copper. What he might find haunts him. Fearlessness fades to an aching panic. Then– and then it is silenced as he breaks through the foliage. "Snowpaw," he repeats, and then sees the small scrap of dark fur cradled up. Louder, stricken, "Burnkit?" Had anyone followed him? Would they show up as well? Someone should fetch Dawn, but Grizzlyridge cannot force himself to turn from them. The broad tom nudges both of them, searching for heat and life, the shifting of ribs with a breath. Something.

Anything.

☾  OOC NOTES INFORMATION ☽

• 
  ooc: it's late and i'm rusty, i'm SO sorry if i missed anything
• GRIZZLYRIDGE. world-weary warrior of skyclan.
  ──── uses he - him - his, may accept they - them - theirs.
  ──── about four years old.  a former pine group member.
  ──── homoromantic homosexual, but this may develop.
  
  a large, broad-shouldered highlander cat with lightly tufted curled ears and large paws made larger by extra toes. a solid seal point with only a small white marking on his muzzle and deep blue eyes.
• "speech"

​

 

[BLAZESTAR]

╭── ⋅ ⋅ ── ✩ ── ⋅ ⋅ ──╮​

While Grizzlyridge had been flinging himself through the branches arcing above SkyClan's territory, Blazestar had been content to patrol on the earth. The hulking pale leader has never taken to the trees like his Clanmates, never will, but beyond that, his wound from the fox is still healing. StarClan had done the hard work, but the line slashed through his throat is still red as the sunset, still pulses with every movement of his head, every time he opens his mouth to speak.

He spots the shape lying on the ground before Grizzlyridge was, but he's frozen at the sight of it and says nothing. The warrior drops to the forest floor and runs to the bodies.

Bodies.

There's a shape lying beside Snowpaw's blue and white patterned body, a little scrap of dark black fur. Blazestar's paws are heavy and numb as he stumbles toward them, sending pine needles flying like waves of river water. "Burnkit?" His voice is a terrified rasp. "No, no... no, not my son, not our son..." He sinks to his belly and begins to frantically lick his child's fur. His heart hammers with terror. "Go--go get Dawnglare, now!" He can feel a heartbeat. "Is -- is Snowpaw alive?" He barely manages to choke out.

// tag for @COSMOSPAW @butterflypaw @DAWNGLARE

- ,,​

​

 

[grizzlyridge]

His heart is pounding. That's all that he can hear behind his ears– a thump-thump-thump, even as Blazestar's words try and break through the wall of his fear. Breath swells up in his lungs and gusts back out to sweep against the barrier. This time it breaks free. The words flutter in, and he gathers them up all at once. Go. Go. Go! Grizzlyridge startles, the nose that he had pressed to Snowpaw's side jerking from the warm fur as he throws himself from the scene. "I don't–" His typical calm is gone. He had always been a witness of terrible things, the eye of the storm. Always, in the calm, he has aided others. Today, with the two youths spread out across the forest floor, he finds that he does not know what to say or how to process the situation. "Yes," Grizzly stammers out, because it must be the truth. Because he thinks he felt the shifting of ribs beneath his touch. "Yes, he has to be."

He steadies himself with another inhale. "Hold on," he says. To the leader or to the two lying on the floor, he cannot be certain. Still, he says it before turning towards their camp and breaking to a run.

☾  OOC NOTES INFORMATION ☽

• 
  ooc: —
• GRIZZLYRIDGE. world-weary warrior of skyclan.
  ──── uses he - him - his, may accept they - them - theirs.
  ──── about four years old.  a former pine group member.
  ──── homoromantic homosexual, but this may develop.
  
  a large, broad-shouldered highlander cat with lightly tufted curled ears and large paws made larger by extra toes. a solid seal point with only a small white marking on his muzzle and deep blue eyes.
• "speech"

​

 

[Fireflyglow]

WE'VE BEEN DOIN' ALL THIS LATE NIGHT TALKIN' ✧​

They were supposed to travel to dad's lands for the switching of turns, as usual- Fireflykit was always the head of the many kittens, stopping to count heads and make sure all of his little siblings were still with them. He'd just learned how to count, too! He was smart, he'd been told. He stops to count heads once more, patiently allowing him the time.

Morning, stinky Howl, Crescent... Four, including himself.

Fireflykit whips his head around then, as if waiting for Burnkit to burst through the bushes and announce that everyone needed to slow down. But nothing came, and Firefly feels weird. "Mama? Burnkit's not here." He announces to his starry night mother, blinking squinted blue eyes at the much bigger molly. Though, his worry is met with yowls of panic in the distance and cats dashing past them to meet it. Fireflykit feels his fur bush up as he watches his father race past them, and Fireflykit races after him.

Had something happened?

When he arrives, his sides are heaving and his eyes are wide despite the light above. He grimaces through the pain, shoving his way under warriors until he sees his father holding his baby brother; licking his fur as if he was trying to wake him up. This had been Firefly's first dance with seeing the possibility of Death's arrival, and he was terrified. The disgusting curiousity inside of him spoke to get closer, to see what a cat looked like when dead.

He lays upon the grass, on greens, and Fireflykit grimaces.

"Pops?" Fireflykit calls out to his father, worried- why was he so anxious? And then his head turns, and he sees Snowpaw on the ground as well. He hobbles over, sniffing at the dappled apprentice's ear; trying to make him uncomfortable enough to wake. They were just sleeping, both of them. "Pops, is Burnkit gonna die?" He asks softly, ears flat against his head. "Is bubba okay?" He squeaks now, the reality setting in- tears bubble to the surface, and he's quick to abandon Snowpaw in favor of curling up next to his baby brother. He copies his father, rasping his tongue opposite to his little brother's fur. He wanted to help.

@LITTLE WOLF @MORNINGKIT @CRESCENTKIT @Howlkit ​

 

[Howlfire]

After time spent in SkyClan with their father, the little family is returning to ThunderClan with their mother. Fairly tuckered out from the day's activities, Howlkit does not realise anything is wrong until Fireflykit points out Burnkit is missing. Dear Fireflykit, the oldest of the litter, and the over-protective brother of the bunch, much to Howlkit's occasional annoyance. Of course, it would be he to raise the alarm after checking to make sure everyone was following behind.

"Burnkit is probably just lagging behind," Howlkit says with a yawn. She isn't panicking yet not really seeing any reason to. Burnkit had just been there with them, if he really had lagged behind it wouldn't take him long to catch up. A prickle of panic finally works its way into her mind when they hear yelling in the distance followed by cats dashing past them. Howlkit raises a brow and looks to her mother for assurance. The next thing they know Fireflykit is dashing after the cats and so too are they. Little Wolf probably would have preferred her kits to stay away but where one goes they all go.

Howlkit arrives late to the scene, sides heaving from the sudden jolt of exercise. It takes her a moment to process the scene in front of her; Snowpaw on the ground, Burnkit too, her father shouting for help, and Fireflykit asking if their brother was going to die. The latter word is the only thing the young torbie really seems to hear, a frightening concept for a young child to think, and one which she unsurprisingly latches onto. "Dead?" She echoes her eldest brother, voice coming out as nothing more than a squeak at first. Howlkit starts to tremble and makes a whimpering sound before nuzzling up against the nearest cat to her for comfort in this situation.​

 

[BURNSTORM]

The ebony colored tom lets out a loud squeal of surprise as suddenly a gray and white form is barreling towards himself and the hawk, seconds later he feels himself free falling, the world going past him in a blur. Confusion and panic grip his brain in its icy clutches and he squeezes his eyes shut, preparing yet again to meet his end when he inevitably smacks into the ground. Fur swallows him whole though, paws wrap protectively around him and for a moment he almost feels safe, like he’s tucked against his fathers fluffy pelt or pressed into his mothers matching fur. Almost.

The illusion is broken when they hit the first branch. The wind is knocked from his chest but it does not end. The forest canopy and the cat beneath him break his fall as they go crashing to the ground. Everything goes black.

When wakes up there are faces peering over him, his mother and father, his siblings, concerned clan mates. He blinks up at them sleepily, it felt like he had just taken a nap. For a moment he is dazed, confused on where is at, what had happened. He vaguely thinks he hears his mother saying "Im sorry I’m so so sorry I thought he was right behind me", sees her turn and press her nose into his fathers fur barely choking back a sob. What does she have to be sorry for? He thinks, blinking up at them. He aches all over as he reaches up with a paw and pushes his nearest sibling. “Whatre you all crowded around looking at me for?” He asks, his voice still slightly slurred from his impromptu nap. He takes in each of the cats faces. Concerned scared angry then he turns and sees Snowpaw, on the ground nearbye, out cold and his own eyes fly open in alarm. Snowpaw had saved him! He couldn’t believe it. The black tom drags himself to the apprentices side, nudges him with his nose. “Snowpaw, Snowpaw!” He cries, desperately trying to shake the other cat awake. “Wake up, you have to wake up! You saved me! Wake up!” ​