automatic shots

[frosty]

ooc. Just because I have nothing to do on this lovely Sunday afternoon, I've decided to go on killing spree. Stay tuned for more deaths as the day progresses. :3 Expect drama and sappy-ness and angst.

bic. Pollenpaw awoke to the scent of death filling her little pink nose. Wincing, her light green eyes fluttered opened. She felt anxious, and a deep pit of despair yawned in her tummy. For a heartbeat, she thought she would awaken in StarClan's hunting grounds to some horrible prophecy, warning PineClan of war or sickness. But no, the yellow tabby realized she had waken up in her nest, just outside of Bluestorm's den. Her heart hammered in her chest as she slightly shifted, terrified to move.

Her uncle Darkheart often slept with her at night, curling her gray-black pelt around her body. Pollenpaw loved when he came to sleep in her nest because he was her father's brother. Last night, the medicine cat apprentice had been lulled to sleep by her uncle's soft breathing. This morning, she had awakened to coldness all around her, which was strange because Darkheart had thick, warm fur. But his prescence was missing this morning.

Lifitng her head, Pollenpaw looked around. She knew Darkheart wasn't on the dawn patrol, otherwise he would've slept in the warriors den to make sure he didn't bother his neice when he left. Confused, Pollenpaw rose from her nest without performing her daily ritual of grooming herself. She was too distracted to worry about her pelt anyways.

Padding around a clump of ferns, Pollenpaw stopped dead in her tracks when she lay eyes on what the fringed leaves concealed. There, laying in the shadows, was her uncle's night pelted body. The little tabby let out an anguished yowl, rushing over to Darkheart and covering him with licks. She nudged him again and again, first with her paws and then with her muzzle. When he didn't stir, she collapsed next to him, letting out a bone-chilling wail.

No, no, no... He couldn't be dead! There was no way... There were no symptoms... He was a perfectly healthy warrior... Then, Pollenpaw was swept away, back in time, to relive a scene from her past...

Pollenkit rounded the nursery, padding at Leopardspots' heels. Her mother had a look of sadness shadowing her face. Pollenkit didn't understand. Her mother was such a happy cat all the time. She had never seen Leopardspots so upset about anything before. She didn't even think her mother noticed she was there. Leopardspots seemed... detached. Her movements seemed automatic, and there was a blank look in her eyes.

She headed towards the center of camp, where a cluster of warriors and apprentices were gathered around something. Pollenkit was too short to see, but she saw the crowd part to let her mother walk through. There was a great golden heap of fur, laying motionless. Pollenkit choked. Brackenstorm!

Her father couldn't be dead! Pollenkit scampered out from behind Leopardspots' forelegs and darted to her father's side. She cried and cried, pushing her nose into Brackenstorm's fur. How could he be dead? He didn't come to say good morning to her yet! He didn't bring her breakfast yet! He didn't say how much he loved her today yet! Wailing her little head off, Pollenkit shrieked when some cat picked her up by her scruff and walked her back to the nursery to leave Leopardspots alone. Twisting around furiously, she saw it was her uncle Darkheart.

He told her he'd always be there for her, and that he'd always protect her. He promised.

He promised. He promised. He promised...

Pollenpaw winced, closing her eyes. Her uncle had broke his promise, and he was off to walk the spiral path of stars in the sky. Would Brackenstorm come to fetch him? Burying her face in his blackish fur, she tried to inhale some trace of his scent but all she smelled was death. Not just death, sudden death. There were no wounds or blood or infections or disease. With a pang as sharp as a claw, Pollenpaw remembered what the old medicine cat diagnosed Brackenstorm's death with.

Capathy... Something... Cardiomyopathy!

Grief butchered her heart as Pollenpaw lay there, whimpering and greiving for her dead uncle, the last kin she had alive.