Thunder tumbled above then, as if the sky was growling in anger.
The rain grew heavier, smacking down onto the cat's pelts and the wind tried to rip them off their paws, but Echo dug her claws into the ground, trying to stop herself from trembling. Gone. It's all gone. She shut her eyes and held back a wail of grief. It's all gone. The nest she slept in, the entrance where she watched the sunrises, the corner that mice occasionally hid in, the scattered Twoleg rubbish her mother had used to teach her to hunt...
Her eyes snapped open. Her mother. Claire and Aquarius was still in there. She fought back the images of her mother and friend gasping for air as the flames consumed them. Why hadn't her visions warned her about this?
She jolted forward, almost tripping over her own paws. Echo balanced herself and started running, straight into the abandoned Twoleg den, straight into the flames and smoke and unbearable heat.
"Echo!" a voice cried out, but it was muffled by the roar of the fire and howling wind above.
Echo looked around, panicked. She couldn't see them, she couldn't see them, she couldn't see...with a groan, a piece of wood from the roof of the den fell and landed with a thump on her paw. Echo yowled in pain as the heat from the charcoaled wood burnt her paw. She hissed and jumped back, only for her tail to catch on a sharp piece of burnt wood and rip her flesh. She let out another pained yelp, but the thick smoke fought it's way down her throat and into her lungs. She coughed and staggered backwards.
Her pelt felt like it was burning — no, it practically was burning in the intense heat. She couldn't breathe through the smoke, she couldn't see Claire or Aquarius, she couldn't even see her own paws in front of her. She gasped for breath as the flames reached her, licking hungrily at her pelt, singing her fur slightly.
"Echo!" the voice called again, louder this time.
"Echo! Over here!" Was that Cloudy? It was hard to tell over the all the noise.
Echo blinked to try and get the smoke out of her eyes. Her tail stung and her paws screamed with pain as she took a step forward, dodging around a pile of burning wood. She finally spotted a figure a few tail-lengths away from her, fur fluffed up in alarm. Claire? Or Sylvester?
She staggered towards them. Another burning piece of the roof fell towards her, and she jumped forwards, narrowly missing be set on fire. Her throat burned, blood roared in her ears. She half wanted to lie down and let the flames consume her.
"Echo, just a few more steps!" That was definitely Claire's worried meow. Echo stretched her body forward, and felt teeth latch onto her paws. She bit back another yelp of pain as her mother dragged her forwards, out of the flames and into the darkness beyond.
She emerged out into the rain, but this time the she welcomed the splattering water. It soothed her sore body and eased the pain on her burnt paws.
She close her smoke-filled eyes and allowed herself to be dragged into the forest and under a bush. Someone pressed soaked moss up against her mouth and she drank it thankfully.
"Echo? Are you alright?" Cloudy's timid voice asked from nearby.
Echo blinked her eyes open. Claire was beside her, licking the dried mud from her singed fur. Sylvester and Aquarius were crouching not far away and watching her with wide eyes.
Cloudy pushed more wet moss under her nose, and she lapped it up gratefully. Her throat was still sore, but at least it didn't feel like it was on fire. She winced as she remembered her body had almost been on fire not to long ago.
"Are you alright?" Claire asked her, concern visible in her sage eyes.
Echo nodded. She didn't want to try and speak because her throat was sore and her head ached a little.
"Good, because what in the Clans were you thinking?" Claire burst out, her face transforming in a sneer. "Going into the fire like that? You could have died!"
Echo felt a wave of anger rise up inside her. "I thought you were inside!" she snapped, and flinched. Speaking felt like claws slashing at the inside of her throat. She coughed to try and get the smoke out.
"Didn't you see Aquarius and I running towards you?" Claire went on, almost hissing. "How could you be so mouse-brained?"
Echo looked away. "I thought I was saving you," she mumbled.
Claire sighed and bent forward to lick Echo's head. "I'm sorry. I was so scared when I realised you were in there," she admitted. "Don't ever do that again."
Echo nodded guiltily. Claire curled around her kit and began washing her again.
It was still raining hard, the wind still fiercely throwing the trees around while the sky tumbled loudly. Echo shivered, trying to get the memory of being trapped in the fire out of her head. Why didn't my visions show me this? Had she been betrayed by her own power?
In the distance she could hear a loud noise over the weather, like an annoying bird, followed by slams and the sound of Twolegs calling nonsense to each other. Alarm shot through her. What if they found the group of cats and turned them into kittypets?
Sylvester padded over and inspected Echo's cut tail grimly. "Twolegs had arrived in big red monsters," he reported. "They seem to be putting the fire out. Our home is gone, though. We'll have to live somewhere else."
Cloudy let out a small wail of grief. "But we have nowhere else to go!"
"Echo isn't fit to travel," Claire added. "And there isn't anywhere nearby suitable for us."
Sylvester frowned in concentration. "I don't know," he admitted solemnly. "It's late — let's get some rest and think about it in the morning."
The group agreed and curled up around Echo, too tired and shaken by recent events to care about the mud and rain spattering down onto them. Echo wished she could go back to yesterday, when the sun was shining and her home was still intact. She wished her visions were actually useful. She wished she was somewhere warm and safe.
Claire licked her head softly. "Sleep, darling. We'll be okay."
Echo wished she could believe her.
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A/N
I apologise for not updating, I got a little bored of writing this but I'm motivated now :D
Sorry for the short chapters as well. Thank you for reading this story it means a lot to me :')
And yeah they're about to go to the Clans!! (Spoiler alert)
- Poppy <3
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the stars aligned | 𝐚 𝐰𝐚𝐫𝐫𝐢𝐨𝐫 𝐜𝐚𝐭𝐬 𝐟𝐚𝐧𝐟𝐢𝐜𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧
Fanfiction"I had a vision, where someone in your Clan killed me." . Echo is a cat who can see the future. Sometimes her visions are useful, but they never seem to warn her about the important things. After her home burns down, Echo travels to RiverClan where...
