Warriors - Burnt Skies

Chapter 1

Nightpaw ran, adrenaline guiding her paws forward. She could hear the sound of the monster churning up the moorland behind her, and the shriek of a cat as they fell victim to it's merciless paws. No cat should have to die like that, without anybody able to sit vigil for them. But there wasn't time. If  Nightpaw didn't hurry up, she'd be next.

She nearly slipped as the ground started to rapidly dip into the hollow known as Fourtrees. But there wasn't four trees there anymore. Flames flickered at the edges of the branches, engulfing the leaves as if they had never been there in the first place. Twolegs stood around the trees, watching in glee as ThunderClan's territory, the forest, went up in flames.

ShadowClan and RiverClan weren't doing much better either. They obviously couldn't set RiverClan territory on fire - it was too wet - but they did send similar monsters that they had sent to WindClan to churn up the ground there as well. As for ShadowClan, well that was turning into an orange and grey haze as it was being eating up by even more flames.

Nightpaw backed into the hollow, danger approaching from all sides. She felt her black tail brush against something behind her. The Great Rock. She gulped. It was the end.

Her life was too short to end this soon but, if it was StarClan's wish to take her along with all the other Clan cats, then so be it. But she had a feeling that StarClan didn't want this. Nightpaw had always been told that StarClan were the mighty ancestors that lived in the sky and saved the Clan cats on numerous occasions. So why would they want the Clans to be wiped out? A thought suddenly struck her. StarClan can't control Twolegs. And it's Twolegs who are doing this. She hissed, narrowing her eyes at the oddly shaped creatures who had the power of fire. She wouldn't go down without a fight.

Nightpaw bunched her muscles underneath her, preparing herself for her last run, her last fight that she was ever going to have. She froze when she heard something behind her.

"Psst, over here!" She spotted the source of the noise: a calico tom perched on top of the Great Rock.

"There is literally no point in being quiet!" Nightpaw yowled back over the sound of the monsters. "The Twolegs are too mouse brained to notice us anyway!"

The calico tom didn't seem to have an answer to that.

"Well I'm going to show these Twolegs the almighty power of WindClan because I'm going to die anyway, so I might as well do it on my own terms," she growled, flexing her claws as she prepared to go again.

"Hold on. Wouldn't it be a better idea to escape? Then you at least have a better chance of living," the tom pointed out. "It's not like you're going to do much damage anyway - you're only an apprentice."

Nightpaw inwardly sighed. He had a good point about that last part - what could an apprentice do?

"You're one to talk - you look like an apprentice as well," she snapped back.

"We could escape and actually survive," he meowed back, his voice fading as the monsters started closing in.

"Escape where?" Nightpaw shot back before plunging into battle.

She launched herself at the nearest Twolegs, knocking the strange fire maker out of it's paw. It landed in ThunderClan territory, but there was nothing that wasn't ablaze already. The Twoleg was frozen for a few seconds, clearly unable to register the fact that a cat had just jumped on it out of nowhere. It quickly recovered though, grabbing her pelt and flinging it threw the air.

Nightpaw landed amongst the flames of ThunderClan territory, which were still persistently going. Her leg felt sore, but not broken, and she saw the fire coming closer. The black she cat sprang up as a nearby leaf burst into flames. She had her paw on that only a few moments ago. She scanned the forest, looking for a gap in the fire. There was only one, and it led to the hollow that used to be Fourtrees. It looked like she had to go into battle again.

She sprang forward just as the flames closed behind her and located the Twoleg that had flung her over there in the first place. Her leg gave a little twinge of pain but she ignored it. She was out to get her revenge and was going to get it. Nightpaw jumped up, not as high as she would have liked due to her injured leg, and dragged her claws down the Twoleg's back, hearing a satisfying howl of pain.

She dropped back onto her paws, the pain in her leg a lot more intense than it was been before. And her vision was .. blurrier. She shook her head, trying to clear her thoughts. Her vision probably just seemed blurry because of all the smoke clouding her vision.

The Twoleg tried to grab her again with it's large paw, but she was prepared this time. She jumped over it, giving it a quick bite and looking for where she should hit next. Nightpaw wasn't prepared for the fact that it could use both paws at once with ease and she was roughly shook by the other Twoleg paw.

The Twoleg lifted her up so that she was eye level with it. It looked angry. It was shaking her around and shouting something that she didn't understand. Suddenly, she was flying through the air and the last thing she felt was her head make contact with the Great Rock.