Paradise (Songfic)

Part of the Songfic Series.

OA is Coldplay.

Enjoy!

Paradise
When she was just a girl

She expected the world

Hollypaw sat, her tail curled around her paws, staring at her two brothers. Her green eyes shone with confusion as they chatted, and she broke into their conversation with a protest.

"But...but that's against the warrior code!" Her brother, Jaypaw, who was a medicine cat, turned his steady, blind, ice-blue gaze onto his sister.

"Hollypaw," he said evenly. "The world doesn't follow the warrior code."

But it flew away from her reach, so

She ran away in her sleep

Hollypaw twitched, her black paws swiping at some invisible enemy. Her brothers slept in the two nests closest to hers, and were watching her with half-closed eyes. Jaypaw was more alert than his brother, but both were staring blankly at their sister.

"The world doesn't follow the warrior code," repeated Jaypaw.

"Why won't she believe it?" murmured Lionpaw sleepily. "Why won't she believe it?"

And dreamed of 

Para-para-paradise, para-para-paradise, para-para-paradise,

Every time she closed her eyes

Hollypaw sighed, curling around in her nest as she prepared to sleep again - and revisit her dream world.

The world where every cat followed the warrior code, down to each phrase, word, and letter. Where everyone followed the rules, and did as they were supposed to. Where Hollypaw was in paradise.

She looked forward to traveling to this StarClan-like world every time she closed her eyes. It was what she dragged herself out on patrol in the morning for, what she fruitlessly trained against Lionpaw for, what she listened to Jaypaw's irritable mutters for.

When she was just a girl

She expected the world

"The world should follow the warrior code," mumbled Hollypaw to her brothers. Jaypaw and Lionpaw exchanged an exasperated glance.

"You can't expect the world to follow something they don't know about," Jaypaw replied. Hollypaw huffed into silence, and Lionpaw let out a heavy sigh before rolling his eyes and retiring to the apprentices' den, where he would wait for his littermates to put in the final word, before sleep would envelop him.

But it flew away from her reach

And the bullets catch in her teeth

Lionpaw was uncomfortably aware of his sister's cold gaze on his pelt, but he brushed it away with a shudder, and settled down to eat the prey.

"That's from ShadowClan territory, isn't it?" Hollypaw growled into his ear as she sat beside him, flicking his ear with her tail. She watied impatiently for Lionpaw to answer, and when he didn't, she let out a soft snarl.

"The warrior code, Lionpaw!"

Life goes on it gets so heavy

The wheel breaks the butterfly

Hollypaw, now Hollyleaf, let out a yowl of frustration. The knowledge - the truth - was such a burden to her, that life seemed almost pointless. It was a heavy weight on her shoulders, and she couldn't bear it.

Lionblaze and Jayfeather knew the truth as well - about their parents - but they weren't as obsessed with the warrior code as their sister. They knew that their parents had broken the code, and that they had done it willingly, but the code wasn't as important to them as it was to their sister.

Every tear a waterfall

In the night, the stormy night, she'll close her eyes

In the night, the stormy night, away she'd fly

A tear dripped from Hollyleaf's green eyes. She'd revealed the truth to all of the Clans - and now she'd have to face the consequences.

Ashfur was already dead, and Hollyleaf was overcome with guilt. It was necessary, she was forced to remind herself, it was important...so he wouldn't tell.

Hollyleaf closed her eyes as she cast one last glance over her shoulder at her brothers.

And dreams of 

Para-para-paradise

Para-para-paradise

Para-para-paradise

Oh oh oh oh-oh oh oh-oh

Hollyleaf waited for the rocks to crush her - but no pain came. The rocks had sealed off the entrance, created a barricade between her and her siblings.

She was in complete darkness, with no sense of direction.

So she did the only thing she could think of. She went to sleep - to return to the dream world where everyone followed the warrior code. Where Leafpool and Crowfeather had never become mates and Leafpool had never had kits, and her parents, her true parents, had stayed apart.

She'd dream of 

Para-para-paradise

Para-para-paradise

Para-para-paradise

Oh oh oh oh oh oh-oh-oh-oh

Hollyleaf curled her fluffy back tail tightly around herself and shut her eyes, waiting for the world to come to her in her sleep.

This paradise could always soothe her - make her feel better, and provide a relief from reality, where everything was a messed up jumble of forbidden love, borders, conflicting Clans, and overall chaos.

If StarClan comes to me now, Hollyleaf thought, it would be a relief from all of this madness.

This could be 

Para-para-paradise

Para-para-paradise

Para-para-paradise

Hollyleaf exhaled, opening her eyes to see a pale, almost transperant, cat coming to her side.

"StarClan?" she mumbled blearily.

"No," soothed the cat. "Sleep."

Hollyleaf closed her eyes again, but this time she didn't need for the paradise world to come.

She was already in one.