A Swift Death

Creak.

It all happened so fast. The movement, the fall, and the...

The ticked tabby's breath was stolen from him as he collapsed to the ground, a heavy weight putting pressure on his weak, fragile and elderly bones. His spine crumbled with an agonising snap.

The ticked tabby tom groaned, his long tail twitching in pain. He was crushed beneath a fallen tree. He could feel his senses closing in around him. His blind gaze searched a blank emptiness, his scarred eyes simply scanning a dark void.

Voices blurred around him. Shrieks echoed through the air tight with tension.

"Briarpaw!" a queen's voice sounded, although it sounded slurred and faint.

The tabby tom could detect that another cat, younger, was crushed beneath the tree.

"I... I can't feel my legs..."

"Longtail?"

"Oh my StarClan, he's not breathing!"

"Longtail, no... This is all my fault..."

"Briarpaw! Can you hear me?"

"It's me, Bumblepaw!"

Longtail couldn't even manage a final whisper as shadows closed around him and his thoughts ebbed away into nothingness, a sweet nothing taking over him, engulfing his body whole like a hungry snake.

Longtail was a cracked bird's egg, losing consciousness fast and spilling out all of its contents. The old tom could feel his senses slipping away.

Eventually the voices faded away. Eventually the elder couldn't think anymore.

His eyes reopened. Colours and new sights flashed before him. He could see again, at last! Stars swirled around him, and Longtail glowed with gratitude. He glanced down at his paws, and he too, realised that his body was coated in a starry sheen, tiny lights woven gently into every strand of ruddy fur.

A slender black and white form stepped forward. Yellow eyes flared with appreciation and warm welcoming. He was young and small, and the cat Longtail had wanted to see more than anyone else.

His apprentice. Well, former apprentice, that was.

"Swiftpaw!" Longtail cried out in joy.

The tabby never saw his apprentice's StarClan form, only his very determined living one and heavily wounded dead one. The bicolour tom looked even younger and more energised if that was even possible for the tom.

"Hello," Swiftpaw purred. "Welcome to StarClan. Would you like me to walk you there?"