Jasminefur was padding through the beginning parts of WindClan´s territory, recently having departed the camp as he was assigned on a small hunting trip on his own. There were two new litters of kits, one new litter and one with a few moons of age, and they needed feeding--at least, Jasminefur felt, that this task wasn´t on the humiliating level of some of the other fetching tasks he was given. There was dignity in feeding growing, needy kits.
He wasn´t that far into the territory yet, so he wasn´t going out of his way to scent the air; this left him surprised as a rather noticeable, pungent scent began trailing from downwind towards him, alerting him to something that definitely was not prey. He pretty quickly recognized it--he had been on patrols that had found stale scents like it--but this was far from stale scents, and it made his fur stand up on its edges.
Jasminefur hissed quietly at the recognizable scent of dog--yet he could tell from the strength of the scent that was flowing towards him that this was more than just one. It seemed some twoleg had decided to take a trip with several dogs, and that was bad news for WindClan. They were way too close to the camp for any cat´s comfort.
The young warrior decided that this was something much more important than catching a couple pieces of prey, even if it was to feed the kits. This was a sort of danger that threatened all of them, and the prey was going to be there at sunset, while the dogs could wander farther in at any moment. He turned about, started to double back to his clan as the scent of dog continued lingering in his nostrils, a rank stench he didn´t enjoy at all. It was setting his nerves on end, and filled him with fear that the dogs might stumble on the camp before he had the chance to warn his clanmates. Oh, Fox-dung...Please let them pad in some other direction. Don´t let them...
His fear turned to horror as he drew closer to the innermost territory and the camp. The opposite of what he had been praying for occurred as he closed the distance--the scent wasn´t growing more distant, or even maintaining an equal strength--no, it was stronger. It was growing stronger with every step of his paws, and his already quickly beating heart was giving way to pounding the closer he got. He couldn´t be too late, right? StarClan wouldn´t let that happen?
Jasminefur´s steps were filled with a determination that wasn´t normal for him; he knew he needed to get back immediately, and his sprint was accelerated with adrenaline that would put him in contest with the elite warriors of his clan in agility.
His terror passed to something that was indescribable when he drew closer to the camp. Mixed sounds of terrified and desperate yowls intermingled with ferociously loud barking of dogs, and Jasminefur had to hold back a small sob as he realized he had failed to get there before the dogs could. Pelting the last distance between him and the camp, he bolted through the entrance and skidded to a halt, trying to take in what was happening.
He couldn´t count the number of dogs in the camp; they were so many. The next thing he noted was that there were three cats around the opposite edges of camp, pieces of fresh-kill nearby, while the cats lay splayed in thick pools of blood. He went stiff as he took in the motionless forms of some of his clanmates, even the merciless, gleeful barking of the dogs not being enough to move him. He tried desperately to find the forms of his mother, or his father, or Rosepelt among the fallen, but he couldn´t tell from so far away and with so much fighting and barking.
¨Jasminefur!¨ There was a cry from another direction, a bit muffled, but certainly filled with relief, as much as could be expressed in a situation like this. Finally, he broke from his paralysis, and turned to see his mother pelting towards him, with a scrap of fur in her jaws that he quickly recognized as Fernkit. The kit was only one of three of the older litter, and he tried not to linger on where the other two kits of the litter were. ¨Mom!¨He cried out. Thank StarClan you´re okay! I heard a-and...Where´s Rosepelt?! Is she-¨
Jasminefur barely saw the dog out of the corner of his vision. He tried to jump back in reflex, but he quickly realized he wasn´t the target when the dog´s teeth closed around his mother´s lower neck, causing a shocked cry of pain from his mother, and the kit in her maw to drop to the floor at her paws. The two of them went tumbling a short distance, hooked to one another, and Jasminefur yowled in horror as he saw a small trickling trail of blood that followed them.
Though he had been frozen since entering the camp, paralysis and terror temporarily left him as he saw his mother pinned beneath the dog, an overwhelming instinct to help her overpowering the terror filling his every muscle. He flung himself at the dog with a yowl more of fear than bravery, finding himself on its lower back. He quickly drug his unsheathed claws from its shoulders down its sides to the midpoint of its pelt, causing a horrible howl from the beast. He had to cling on for his life as the dog reared up in pain, trying to fling him off.
He felt his claws beginning to slip when, finally, he heard the yowl of another cat. With relief he briefly saw the flash of another dark brown cat flying towards the dog, and the next thing he knew, the dog was howling in pain once more, only this time it sounded weaker, like it didnt have the energy to summon the same raged cry as before.
Jasminefur didn´t waste time as the dog fell back to the ground, hopping off of its back as the creature tried to hurry away, stumbling a few tail lengths and falling onto its side, where it continued to heave heavy breaths. Not seeing any particular wounds besides the one he inflicted, Jasminefur could only assume, based on the blood forming at the dog´s head, that Dusktail had dealt it a pretty fatal blow. He turned to thank the warrior, but when he did so the cat was already yowling and throwing herself at another dog. Oh, StarClan...Thank goodness she was here.
Panic shot back into his mind as he realized that Dusktail had helped save his mom, but that she could have a pretty serious wound that needed treating. He rushed towards her, planting himself down at her side without checking for any impending threats; thankfully, no dog planted its teeth into his own teeth. ¨Mom! Are you okay? I thought that you might have-¨
Dead, greyed versions of her ice blue eyes stared back up at him. She lie on her side, but her head was turned upwards, supported by one of her legs, looking straight at him as if only moments ago she had seen where he was. Now, she was dead. He didn´t blink, and he didn´t breath, prevented by the grey voids making contact with him.
¨M-m-m-mom?¨ He whimpered, not moving yet as his legs slowly started to shake. In one quick movement, he dived forward, pressing against her shoulder to push her upwards with his muzzle, but she fell limply back to the ground as soon as he pulled away.
Jasminefur choked on a sobbing breath as she thudded back to the floor of the camp, and he lost sound of the barking and fearful yowling around him as he remembered seeing the dog, and realized if he had leaped for the dog instead of only thinking about himself and leaping out of the way, his mother would likely be fleeing the camp with Fernkit in tow.
Culpability was crawling through every hair on his pelt as he stared, frozen and transfixed by the dead gaze of his mother, when he felt a shaking against his leg that startled him out of it briefly. "P-please p-protect me, J-Jasminefur!" The tiny wail sounded from beneath him, snapping Jasminefur cruelly back to their reality as she begged him to keep the dogs from getting her. As his gaze lingered on the corpse of his mother, he saw the look in her eyes only moments ago as she pelted towards him with the kit in tow, and he knew she had only had one desire...to get the kit to safety.
Though he probably didn´t have time to waste, he glanced around the camp. With the horrified gasp, he realized that, despite the four or five dogs lying on the floor of the camp, there were more than twice as many cats lying dead or close to it, and he couldn´t hold back sobs from escaping his eyes. As liquid started to pour from his eyes, and he lamented that he was about to abandon the little remainder of his clan, he reached down wordlessly and secured Fernkit by the scruff in his jaws, and he pelted forward to the exit of the bloody battleground.
His gaze turned back quickly as he pelted through the entrance, and as he realized no dog was following him, his gaze traveled straight back to the leader´s den. For just a moment, he saw the leader, Wrenstar, staring at him with an ice cold stare, and Jasminefur screeched to a halt. He thought for a few moments that the leader was focused on him, judging his abandonment of his clanmates, but soon he realized something was off.
The cat was cloud-white, just like Wrenstar, but he was far less fluffy--and then, looking for a few more seconds, Jasminefur could see that this cat had a bloody paw planted firmly down on the head of another, much fluffier, cloud-white cat. Jasminefur sucked in a breath as he realized that Wrenstar was lying, dead or dying, under another cats paws while dogs assailed the camp. As his gaze returned to the cat he realized was a stranger to WindClan, his horror was clear on his face. Who in StarClan´s name are you? Why had they attacked the leader?
After sharing gazes for a pawful of moments, the cloudy cat padded away and slipped out of sight, and Jasminefur didn´t let himself waste anymore time. He turned tail and began pelting through the WindClan territory, picking a direction without thinking much about where exactly it was--anywhere but there.
He had traveled only a sparse 20 seconds or so before he heard the frenzied barking of a dog emerging from the camp, and he let out a curse towards himself for letting himself waste so much time staring at a strange white cat. He was slowed slightly by carrying Fernkit, but he was trying incredibly hard to pelt away at his maximum capability. His mom wanted to get this kit to safety. If he couldn´t do that...
As he bolted through the territory, he was continuously aware that the dog was closing the distance between them. Horrid cold sweat and a rapidly beating heart were making him aware that it was only so long before he made a mistake or the dog caught him, and that he wasn´t very likely to make it out of this. He really, really didn´t want to die, but...he didn´t see StarClan giving him a way out of this.
Just as he was giving up hope, he began crossing into a thin treeline, sparsely dispersed and gradually growing more frequent. ¨Fernkit! You have to...!¨ He desperately mewled into the kit´s fur, as she was wailing at the sound of the closely approaching dog. ¨You need to run as soon as you´re on the ground, okay?! You find a...small hole....or big bush...and you...you hide...!¨ He was growing breathless as he tried yowling into the kit´s ears what to do as he pelted through the early parts of the tree-filled ThunderClan territory.
Then, with oen final effort, Jasminefur threw Fernkit as hard as he could, trying to aim her into the air so she had time to get her tiny paws beneath her before she hit the ground. Not waiting to see if he had any success with the throw, Jasminefur gave a full turn about, ready to face the dog and buy the kit any time she could to get to some semblance of safety.
However, at his full pelt speed, he skidded to a halt as he turned about, needing a couple seconds to stop his momentum and charge into the dog. He was ready to bravely tackle the creature, but he wasn´t thinking about the time to turn about and charge into the creature, and the time he was stopped in place was enough for the dog to overtake him.
He felt massive paws trampling over his underbelly and his head as the creature barreled over them and sent them both tumbling away. The young warrior had every piece of oxygen blown out from him, and he struggled to even open his eyes as his head spinned so heavily that he wondered for a moment what had even happened.
Then, while his head still spinned, he realized he had failed to even buy more than a few seconds for little Fernkit. I failed WindClan. I failed you, Fernkit. And I failed you, Mom. I´m so sorry. As he summarized his final, worst failings, he tried to move his legs, to push himself up, but his legs weren´t responding to him yet, as he finally starting sucking in breaths again. The dog certainly was going to recover before him. Leave it to me...to die so pathetically.