The ant that got squashed [closed]

Padding through the forest, Antdrop let out a sigh. With the new cats in the clan and having been recently yelled at and humiliated, all the warrior wanted to do was get away from the buzzing clan. Those mousebrains; they were all fools. How dare they bring strange cats into the clan without thinking about their possible motives? What in StarClan's name was Crowstar thinking? Was he really willing to put his clan at risk just because they needed their help? Those traitors were exiled for a reason!

Filled with uncertainly and rage, the black tom walked to no where in particular, his paws crunching against the snow filled ground. Just a little while ago the forest had been covered with another light blanket of now and it was somewhat neat being one of the first cats to walk on the fluffy white powder. Through the thick layer of clouds, the sun was barely visible high in the sky although it wasn't nearly warm enough to melt Leafbare's grasp on the woods.

Hearing a twig snap, the tom stopped in his tracks and lifted his head, ears perked. With the fresh layer snow covering everything, it was hard for him to distinguish any scents an though he tried his best, the chilly breeze was also working against his disadvantage. "Hello?" the black tom meowed, his eyes narrowed as he looked around the pure white forest.

"H-Hey," Rabbitpaw's voice was soft and timid as she followed her father into the territory. He looked unwell, at least upset about something, and she wanted to help him if she could. She hated seeing him so... Well, not happy. It made her feel bad that he felt bad. Walking up to Antdrop shyly, she watched him with a timid curiosity. "How are you feeling?" she asked.

Hearing a familiar and soft voice, Antdrop turned around to see his daughter, Rabbitpaw. Sweet, innocent Rabbitpaw. Without even trying, a happy purr left his throat. No matter what mood he was in, he was always glad to see his beloved daughter. "I'm fine," he lied, not wanting to pass on his dreadful mood to the medicine cat apprentice. She was always so kind and caring, he could've never asked for a more wonderful kit.

Rabbitpaw wanted to believe him, but the way that he held himself screamed something different. As she got older, she was getting better at reading cats, but she never wanted to impose herself. Even in this situation, she wanted to just roll with his answer, but a nagging feeling told her to call him out on his lie. "Are you sure?" she asked instead, questioning him without being rude about it. Besides, she was genuinely concerned about his well-being. She wanted to make him happy. But there was still that nagging feeling... "You... You seem upset about something. I-Is it okay if I ask why?" Oh Starclan, she hoped he wouldn't get mad for asking. She knew her father and he treated her well, but she didn't want to let him down.

He was a fool in thinking that he would get away with an answer as simple as 'I'm fine.' Giving the apprentice a weak smile, he leaned forward and gave her a lick on the head. "I'm just upset with Crowstar's choices," the tom meowed, honestly not wanting to talk about his father. "That's all." Though leader, in Antdrop's mind, he could've made better choices when it came to the rogues and exiles but in the end, Crowstar was leader and the leader's word was law.

Hearing the sound of a bird chirping a little ways away, the black tom looked up to the Highpine in which they'd stopped at. Hm, it never hurt any cat to get some extra hunting in for the clan...

"I hate to leave you down here all alone, but the clan needs prey," he meowed and trotted towards the trees. Unsheathing his claws, Antdrop jumped on the bottom of it, digging his claws into the bark. Shimmying up the trunk, he was glad there were so many branches and hopped onto one, and then another, until he was making his way towards where the bird sat.

Rabbitpaw nodded as Antdrop explained his concerns. She understood why he felt the way that he did. She was concerned herself, but the cats they took in seemed to be doing okay, so the apprentice paid them no mind. She took comfort in his lick and pressed against him as he passed by her to start climbing the tree. She watched him in amazement as he scaled it so easily. This was actually the first time that she had seen any of the clan hunt, so she was curious as to how it was done. Honestly, there were times that she wished she could have had some apprentice training to help out more, but she was fine where she was. "Okay," she said simply, her big blue eyes staring at him as he did his work.

Jumping from branch to branch, the black tom was well hidden from the thick layer of pine needles. Digging his claws into another branch, Antdrop noticed how it was a bit icy compared to the others and took note to watch his step, especially now that the branches were getting thinner as he got higher.

Letting out a soft huff as he closed in on the bird, the warrior was only a couple branches bellow it and knew he had an easy shot straight to it. Though the branches were covered in snow, he assumed he'd be able to grab onto it with his claws and wasn't very worried.

Bunching up his hind legs, he flicked his tail back and forth in excitement, he waited a few moments, just in case. Just a little longer... springing up to the branch, he took the bird by surprise but it was too fast and fluttered away. Letting out a hiss anger at his unsuccessful kill, the tom had forgotten about making sure to dig his claws into the branch and within a split second, he slipped off the icy bark, unable to grab hold of it in time.

Rabbitpaw watched, enthralled at how he moved even in the ice. It was astounding. How she eagerly wanted to follow him up! Even as he climbed, she couldn't help but giggle as he wiggled and moved, suddenly a large amount of pride residing within her as she watched. That was her father! But suddenly, everything changed. As she watched him go for the bird, she was a little disappointed that he missed, but as he came back down, her heart stopped. As his paws slipped, Rabbitpaw let out a loud sharp gasp, her eyes growing wide as fear and terror filled her heart and made her stomach drop. All she could do was sit there and watch.

Letting out a yowl of surprised, the tom plunged towards the earth. Trying to dig his claws into branches that he past on the way down, his speed was too fast and his claws nearly scraped along the ice and bark, sending snow flying everywhere. Some small twigs hit his sides, sending pain through out his ribs. No! He would survive! He couldn't just die like this, there were so many loose ends too his life, how could he just die?

Before Antdrop was able to turn upright and fall as cats usually fell, his head hit a branch and with a sickening crack, the tom fell unconscious. Falling to the ground bellow, his body landed with a thud, sending a puff of snow up from the ground.

With his neck in an awkward position, the warrior laid on the forest floor, dead. He never thought it would've ended like this but apparently StarClan had other plans for him and those plans didn't include living this life. Withing a few moments, his spirit left the cold, lifeless body and ascended to the stars, leaving his daughter, family, and clan.

From the cloudy sky above, snow started to gracefully fall, clinging to the tom's black pelt as he lied peacefully where he'd fallen.

Today, SkyClan lost a warrior, a son, and a clan-mate. Although sometimes stubborn and unsocial, the tom's loyalties would forever lie with his clan, even if he had his doubts about their decisions.

"Antdrop!" Her voice sounded distant, even to herself, yet the shriek she created echoed through the trees. Everything suddenly began to move so slowly. As she watched, she could count every heartbeat, she felt like she could feel every snowflake that landed on her fur. Yet, the whole world fell silent as she stood frozen in the snow, helpless to Antdrop's fall as he writhed in the air trying to fix himself before his head hit a branch with a loud crack! Her eyes wide, she couldn't bring herself to look away as Antdrop quickly fell, his body sent into a spiral from the impact until he landed with a loud thud in the snow. This was impossible. There was no way that this just happened. He was okay. He had to be okay. He... He was Antdrop. He got through anything!

Silence enveloped her. Not a single sound stirred in the trees as Rabbitpaw stood there, waiting desperately for her father to stand up, shake off the snow and laugh it off as a big joke. No birds chirped, the wind didn't blow as if all of nature stopped to watch the moment unfold. As the medicine cat apprentice stared unblinking, she immediately gasped, finding herself holding her breath until near unconsciousness as she waited patiently for... for anything to happen. But nothing moved. Not even Antdrop. And after what felt like moons of standing there, Rabbitpaw finally built the courage to take the first step toward him. Instantly, the snow brought in a new feeling of cold. Never had she felt this before. The ice around her seemed to suck the life out of everything around it, leaving all, including herself, feeling dead.

"A-Antdrop?" She whispered, taking another step. Not once had she taken her eyes off of where he landed, terrified that if she even blinked, she would lose him the frozen tundra that was currently the territory.

"Antdrop, please..." Her voice grew into a murmur. Another step. His sleek black coat grew visible over the mound of snow that blocked her path. However, the only thing that stirred was a small breeze gently waving the tips of his fur this way and that.

"Please, father. You have to be okay..." It was a whimper now, a soft and panicked voice of a child. One more step. Slowly his body was becoming more clear in the snow, small snowflakes tangling into his fur as it fell gently upon them both.

Finally a few more steps. Each one sent fear through her heart and a chill down her spine that the snow could never dream of matching. Ears pressed hard against her head, she swallowed hard and forced herself to make it the rest of the way towards the tom. Of course, no matter how much she had thought about it on the way over to him, nothing had prepared her for the shock and the sorrow to follow of seeing her father lying dead upon the ground, blanketed in the delicate embrace of the leaf-bare surrounding them. Immediately, she crumpled to the ground, a loud wail erupting from deep in her chest as she saw the mangled mess that was Antdrop's neck. She knew he was dead. There was no bother checking.  Even though she had never experienced death before, she just... knew. The darkness in his eyes told her everything. The way that his body never moved and lay there like a mouse just after the hunt. And event though she knew, she couldn't help but deny it deep inside of herself. There had to be something she could do. She was the medicine cat apprentice after all. She couldn't leave him here! But as she tried to stand, she found herself falling right back into the snow, sending flurries all about them before she decided to crawl towards him.

"A-Ant...drop..." she cried uncontrollably. "Don't... Don't l-leave me like this. Don't do this to me! Y-You're all I have! I-I n-need you!" The wails were ugly as she finally managed to reach him, pressing her head deep into his side, feeling the small remains of warmth that radiated from his skin. "Y-You can't..." It didn't take long for her cries of desperation to weaken into soft sobs as she finally gave up trying. There was no use. There were no herbs that brought back the dead, no prayers that could save him. Antdrop had joined Starclan already, but she wasn't ready to let him go. She couldn't leave him but she had no energy to take him back to camp. Instead, she moved to where she curled up deep in the snow next to her father's body, tucking her head deep between her paws for warmth as she cried for his loss.

Breezewhisker meandered through the territory, trying to get ahold of his life. No matter where he tried to grasp it, it always seemed to keep barely out of reach. He thought he'd found it with Fawnsplash, his loving, perfect mate- how could he ask for anything more? He thought he'd found it with their beautiful kits, their family they'd built together. He thought he'd found it in service to SkyClan. And yet, it eluded him. As clear as Moonlit Creek, but as far as Silverpelt.

Stalking through the powdery white snow, the young warrior let out a sigh. Crowstar, his father, was a great leader. His Clanmates told him so. But as powerful as he was, the tom never seemed to see him as family. He loved Tinylegs; that much was clear. He doted on Poppysong. He'd adored Thornpaw, when his brother was alive. Breezewhisker winced at the memory of his blood brother. They had been so close as denmates.... And where had that gone?

His father tolerated Antdrop, for the most part, anyways. He knew that his half-brother's passionate outburst had not been well-received by their father and, while he wholeheartedly agreed with the tom, the challenge of SkyClan's leader definitely wasn't the best way to go about it. But he wished he'd had the courage to stand by his brother. In a way, that was Breezewhisker's fatal flaw- he was too quiet. He never aired his opinions. He was a... a coward.

Breezewhisker thought it was fine to take in the ShadowClan warriors, but something about Rippedpaw rubbed him the wrong way. What kind of cat abandoned their Clan? And for no good reason? Because of an unavoidable battle? The fact that Ashstar herself had declared the apprentice a coward spoke ill of him. And the worst part? The tom kissed up to Crowstar. Doted on him like he was StarClan's leader reborn. And Crowstar treated him like... Like a son. Loved him, this half-witted, mouse-brained, fox-hearted, disloyal, cross-Clan suck-up, like he'd never loved Breezewhisker, his real son. No, Crowstar had never had time for Breezewhisker. But he had time for this... this.... No words were bad enough.

Breezewhisker believed in StarClan, of course he did. So why did they let his family abandon him so?

As the gray tabby tom lashed his thin tail in anger, he heard a voice. Rabbitpaw? What was his niece doing out here? And why was her voice so full of grief, of pain? The young warrior's yellow eyes widened as he ran blindly towards where the she-cat's anguished sobs echoed through the trees. He stopped abruptly when he found the source of the screams.

Antdrop lay unmoving on the snowy ground, Rabbitpaw beside him, wailing her heart out.

Antdrop lay unmoving.

Antdrop.

"No," Breezewhisker murmured numbly, heart stopping. "Not Antdrop." He padded slowly closer, disbelieving, hoping against hope that the tom would bounce up suddenly, laughing at his joke. Antdrop. Not a chance. The black tom lay half-buried in the cold, unforgiving snow.

The pent-up tears of the past moons leaked out of his eyes. First dropping, then flowing, streaming, gushing. The rushed, hot and blinding, down his cheeks, streaking his fur. Antdrop. He wrapped his tail around Rabbitpaw, gripping her shoulders tightly. Antdrop. "StarClan, why?" he sobbed, glaring up at the sky through his tears. "How could you? How could you do this to me?! To us? This family is broken enough! Why him? Why now? You fox-hearts!" His wails rent through the silent forest.

....but nobody cared.

At first, Rabbitpaw ignore the new sound of paws crunching in the snow but it turned into a slight relief overtaken by grief. It was only when she felt a tail wrap around her did she finally look up, sorrow drowning her features as she stared up at Breezewhisker. Through blurred vision, she couldn't even think of anything to say as her chest heaved from the crying she was doing. Through his own struggle, Rabbitpaw couldn't help but feel awful more for the tom than herself over the loss of his brother. She wanted to be there for him but she felt helpless. She heard his own cries and his curses towards Starclan, but she couldn't do anything. Instead, she moved to where she leaned into Breezewhisker to both comfort him and herself as she tried to get over the shock of what had occurred.

"Breezewhisker..." she sobbed, trying to compose herself but it just wasn't working. No matter how hard she tried, she could not bring herself to keep it together. But as time went on, the more guilt began to set in her chest. There must have been something she could have done to keep this from happening!

"Breezewhisker, I'm... I'm so sorry! He was out here and-and I came to see if he was okay and... the bird! He fell... I-I mean... I, I..." She tried to finish speaking but the rest just came out as labored gasps as her head spun and her vision danced. "I-I tried... He hit his head and landed on the ground. I... I don't know what to do!" The final sentence came out as yet another loud wail as she buried herself deep into her uncle's fur.

Breezewhisker shook his head, trying to calm down enough to comfort the poor she-cat. "No, no, it's not your fault," he choked out. "Shhh. It's okay. It's okay, Rabbitpaw. Shhh. He's... He's in a b-better place now. It's not... Its not your fault. It's mine, if anything." He rubbed his tail up and down her shoulders. "I never told him," the tom murmured wildly. "I agreed with him, I supported his ideas but I was too much of a coward and I let him stand alone, let him get chastised by our excuse for a father. And now he'll never know and it's all my f-fault. I will never be a coward again!" His wet yellow eyes burned with fury. I will avenge you, Antdrop. Brother.

Padding through the lightly wooded territory with a small mouse hanging from his jaws, Tinylegs couldn't have been happier. Moonlight was going to have another litter soon, the clan was growing and thriving, and although there had been a bit of tension between some cats, that never ruined his cheerful spirit.

Making his way back to camp, the small tom trudged through the snow, becoming somewhat tired from the journey when a cat's wail rang out into the air. Being some distance from what ever had caused the sound, he could quite tell if it was a joyful wail or a agonizing one, but either way, he was going to find out. Quickly burying his prey, Tinylegs hurried to where he guessed the sound had come from and what he saw next was not expected.

Lying on the ground under the Highpine was a black pelted cat, his neck bent in an odd way. Rabbitpaw and Breezewhisker crouched over the body, both look just as equally shocked and mortified. Taking a step forward, the warrior stood a foxlength or two away from the others and taking a closer look at the face of the cat, he didn't want to believe it. No... it couldn't be him, h-he can't be dead!

"P-please don't tell me... i-is that A-antdrop?" the little tom stuttered, taking a step forward and not letting his gaze leave the cat's mangled body. It was obvious that the deceased cat was his brother, him being one of the only pure black cats in SkyClan, but even so, he didn't want to beleive it, it couldn't be true. How in StarClan's name this did happen? One moment the warrior had been bickering with Crowstar over a WindClan cat and the next... he was dead.

"What happened?" he mumbled, lifting his gaze from his brother and two the other two cats that seemed to be mourning.

"Please... don't blame yourself, Breezewhisker..." she managed between sniffles, trying to stifle her woes and calm down enough to actually make sense of what was going on. However, she looked up as soon as she heard more pawsteps. Immediately, her eyes locked onto Tinylegs and immediately, all she could do was gasp before her breath stuck in her throat. Her eyes widened as she saw her other uncle coming towards them. No, no please... Not you too! She had no idea what to say. For just a moment, she was calm and somewhat collected but seeing the other tom broke her down again. "Tinylegs... I-I'm so sorry! I tried, I... I really tried! He slipped and-and hit his head. H-He was hunting. There was a bird but... he landed weird. He was... was..." she paused, feeling all of her emotions rise into her throat, cutting of nearly all of her air. "I'm sorry..." Her apology came out as a whisper as she gasped for more air, her brain spinning.