Heat Strokes [DEATH TOPIC]

Squirrelsong didn't mean to die.

It was a boiling Greenleaf sunhigh. Her long, thick fur had made it that from the moment she woke up, she was hot, her throat was parched, and was sweating hard, so much that her paw pads were coated in thick layers of sweat that left marks when she walked. But of course, there weren't any shade trees or reservoirs of water the ginger tabby can use to cool off, and she would have to walk all the way to the Gorge for water. It seemed worth it, though. After all, how bad could a little heat be?

But shortly Squirrelsong realized that it was bad. As she walked, exposed to the sun's harsh rays, her thick marbled fur trapped the heat between her hairs and her body. She felt her energy drain and she went from a mildly tired walk to stumbling. Squirrelsong thought that she couldn't go any further, and this time she was right.

Halfway to her location, she collapsed. Her limbs wavered under her weight and collapsed. Panic ensued. She needed to get to camp, but it was too far away, and so was the Gorge. A little part of her knew that she was going to die but also had hope she could get there somehow. Squirrelsong forced herself into a stand and tried to stumble back in the direction she came in, delirious and half-dead already.

Somehow, she made it, but unfortunately not in time. As she got to the camp entrance, barely deciphering the hollow with her yellow eyes, her sight blurred from the heat, her legs gave way again. Squirrelsong fell, the medicine cat's den just a couple foxlengths away. She tried to get up again, but her limbs didn't seem to work. There wasn't any way she could get someone's attention- she hadn't been able to speak since apprenticeship and all the other clan cats seemed to either be out of camp, napping in the shade, or had their backs turned to her. No one was there to help her. This is it, she thought as she closed her eyes. This is how I die, with no one there to help me.


And there she lay, only aware of the scorching heat, before she wasn't aware of anything at all.