w//atch me as i f//all

[soulcatcher]

Devastation.

That was the word that came to her mind first.

The entire camp was devastated.

"...Batty?"

Soulcatcher's whisper of a voice drifted through the camp. It rang past the scattered fresh-kill pile.

"Fortune?"

Her panic rose.

Where were her brothers...

Her black body was silhouetted against the night sky, the last glimps of sunset just fading out. Her amber eyes were wide with fear.

"Hello!"

The orphaned kit's soft voice was shrill with fear, fear for her Clan, fear for Kestrel, but most of all, fear for her brothers.

Just general fear.

[Battlecry]

<sub>"Are they all gone?" Came a voice, so soft and gentle. Sage eyes flicked over the camp, pain echoing in them. Lost, confusion, so many feelings swirling in her normally unemotional eyes.

She sat down, curling her tail over four kits, her four remaining kits. Fortunatly, it was a cool night, and they made the short journey home. She had to leave... It was too dangerous here. So many dead.

Her normally proud head sunk, her shoulder's sloped sadly, as if she no longer cared. She seemed to be gazing at something nobody else could see, listening to the unheard. She gave a sigh. Her last kit, the weakest, stumbled and cried. She flicked a reassuring tail over it, but she did not look up. Where was Crisp? Where was Kestrel, and Kanji, and everybody else she'd ever cared for...?

She gave a deep and solemn sigh, sheparding her four kits the last few steps to their first home, picking up the khaki and black calico, the smallest and weakest, and carried her back into the nursery. She didn't even look at the dead as she curled them around her, she didn't want to see their cold bodies, the dead son.. So alike his father. She curled her shaggy tail over them as if to reassure them they were safe, keeping close to the entrance, her sage eyes shining from the dark, despite their deep and heavy color.

[Yesss, I know kits can't /walk/, but.. This is a fictional Rp and I can't have her carry them, lawl.]</sub>

[Crisp]

"Bluerage!"

His desperate voice seemed to echo throughout the field between him and the camp. The short distance seemed like an entire universe.

When he finally shot through the entrance to the camp, his eyes shone with relief. She was fine.

And so were the four kits he had fathered.

"Bluerage..."

Crisp pushed on, those last few steps almost taking every single drop of energy he had left, and finally nuzzled his mate, and looked down at his new kits.

His new kits. He was a dad. Crisp entirely ignored Soulcatcher and her cries; he was concerned with his family only.

The unnamed black she-kit squirmed and cried.

Why had she come into the world at such a time?

[Battlecry]

<sub>Was she..

Dreaming?

Bluerage let her head give a tired rise, ears piqued. It couldn't be. Crisp was at war.

... How was he home?

She tried to focus her eyes as a figure entered the camp. Crisp.. She gave a tired mew to call him over, giving him a smile. She rubbed her head over his shoulder from where she lay. It was all she needed to pour her affection, her sorrow, her hate, her hurt, into that small show.

.. And then she lifted her tail to reveal the four kits. "Four of them.." She said carefully, lifting her gaze to look at the row of dead kits and cats. The middle was hauntingly familiar... She tore her eyes away to look at them, a new warmth filling up the deep hues, and she lay her head down as the four kits nuzzled deep into her belly.</sub>

[Onyxdart]

Checkmate, after trying to get the attention of anyone else to see to Kanji, had realized it wasn't going to happen just then. He went to see if there was anything he could do himself, having once or twice had to help himself. But he didn't know what to do.

He curled up next to the she-cat and waited for someone to appear and be helpful. He was still out of it, or it might have occurred to him to bother Kanashimi until she paid some attention and came to help. And apparently he also fell asleep, because he knew tie passed in between when he shut his eyes and when a kit's voice started shouting about if there was anyone around.

With a sigh, he levered himself up to his feet and tottered stiffly towards the voice, his eyes adjusting to the darkness as he went. He wasn't sure of this kit's name, but he thought it was, maybe, Soulcatcher.

"'S alright, there's a few of us left. Your Batty is somewhere around here... he was shouting about freshkill earlier," he said, noting that Crisp was back and the mother cat with her kits. He looked back towards Kanji, wondering if she was even still breathing. Then he looked around for Kanashimi again, apparently intent on his objective from much earlier.

[/center][/size]

Black ears flicked as Fortune heard his name being called. The panic in his sister's voice brought him to attention much faster than he would have thought. He'd been hiding, crouched low back in the Warrior's Den, hidden by their scent from the carnage that'd been wreaked outside. It'd been the first place he'd thought to run to when that other cat had attacked.

But now he came flying out of the den, and ran to his sister.
"Soulcatcher!" he shouted halfway there. In another three bounds, he was by his sister's side. He crashed into her just to show himself that she was really there, and proceeded to purr like a motorboat, clearly very relieved that she was okay.

"Where's Batty?" he asked, looking around, concerned for his slightly crazy brother. He purred again and buried his nose against his sister's shoulder.

[/size]

[Batty]

"Mother?"
The small voice came from the young tom who lay on his side near the edge of camp. His eyes stared at nothing.
"Mother? Where did you go?"

He suddenly rolled onto his stomach and jumped to his paws, a snarl plastered on his face and eyes narrowed into slits. "You left!" He snapped, voice raising in volume. "You left us! You bitch!" Then he suddenly sat back down, hanging his head. "I love you. Where are you, mother?"

Batty lifted a paw and began to groom his face, murmuring meaningless phrases between each lick. Then he stopped and looked around. Cats. There were cats. What were they doing here? He tilted his head to the side. They didn't belong here. Did they? He rose, and padded over to investigate.