Warriors:Into The Wild AU (2024 Rewrite)

Prologue

Roars like thunder boomed through the cave where the cats lived, startling the guards and causing the kits to wail in fear. The instant they smelled dogs, the cats left everything behind and fled for their lives.

A white she-cat and two toms ran for cover inside an old badger set, certain that the dogs wouldn't follow them inside, for it was too small to fit through and the ground too rocky for the canines to dig into.

Backing his mate all the way into the very end of the set, the black-patched tom turned and bared his teeth at the first dog snout that dared poke into the den, his long claws flashing in the low light and causing the dog to retreat in surprise and pain.

The white she-cat groaned and settled her kit-heavy belly on the ground, panting as the other tom, brown fur with white flecks, dug up the supplies he'd hid in the den for emergencies. He pushed herbs towards her muzzle, begging her to eat them.

"It'll be alright." he tried to reassure her, but she cut him off with a cry of pain.

"They're coming!" she shrieked, causing her mate's fur to fluff up in panic.

"What do we do, Thicket? It's too early for them to come!" the patched tom inquired in panic, the other looked frazzled.

"T-there's nothing we CAN do, Oak. I can make due though." Oak nodded and turned back to fighting the dogs' snouts, his light green eyes flashing with determination to keep the creatures away from his mate and kits.

The she-cat panted as Thicket felt along her belly, cursing the ancients for her luck. Her poor kits, to be born in a smelly old badger den, under siege by dogs and Twoleg monsters.

She could hear the roars as the monsters above ran over the stony mountain caves where the cats had lived, the racket so great that she couldn't hear Thicket's instructions, even though the tom was right beside her.

She didn't notice when the dogs stopped coming through, only when Oak yowled in panic as a thick something came into the hole and grabbed him by the neck. She could only watch in horror as her mate was dragged out of the badger set, yowling and fighting for his life.

Soon, a short, stout brown and white patched dog shimmied into the den, barking up a storm. Thicket swung his claws at the dog, though his fighting skills were severely out of practice.

The white she-cat got to her paws, swaying and waddling towards the entrance, Thicket right behind her and spitting at the dog, who circled to follow them. Once she was right in front of the entrance, the she-cat bolted out, tasting the dust of crushed rock on her tongue before she was caught by something and thrown into a strange cage.

When the silver vines locked in place before her eyes, she saw the bare and dark face of a Twoleg looking in at her, causing her back to arch in fright. She realized that it could see her swollen belly and hissed, causing the Twoleg's eyes to widen and it looked up from her to yowl in anger at another Twoleg.

Her blue eyes widened further when she saw Thicket in the grasp of the other Twoleg, the brown tom fighting wildly in his attempt to escape. Her cage was then passed to another Twoleg and she could no longer see Thicket, but she could hear the yowls of her friends and family as cage after cage of cats were placed into the back of a box-shaped monster.

However, her cage was not put with the others, but instead, she was placed in the front of the monster, in the lap of the Twoleg who now held it.

The vine-tangled entrance was facing the clear ice of the monster's head, allowing her a glimpse of the destruction of her home. The cave that she and all of the others had grown up in, had raised their families in, destroyed by Twoleg monsters.

She saw the fleeting shapes of other cats, but between the overwhelming stench of Twoleg monsters, dogscent and and the cats' fearscent, she couldn't tell who was who. The pain suddenly flared up as her belly tightened, and she realized with horror that her kits were going to be born soon.

The monster roared to life under her paws and the creature lurched forward, beginning its trek back to wherever it had come from. A yowl sounded from outside the ice pane of the monster's head, and she pressed as close to the vines as she dared to see what the sound was.

To her relief and horror, Oak was running alongside the monster.

"SKY!" he cried out when he saw her face behind the ice, trying to keep up with the monster.

"OAK!" Sky caterwauled in terror as her mate lost his footing on the dirt Thunderpath and stumbled, rolling down the hillside.

"SKY!"

{_-_}

The lighting was soft as Sky lay in her new nest in the cage where the Twolegs had taken her, the basket soft with pelts and smelling of Twolegs.

At her belly, three fluffy kits squirmed, a tom and two she-cats, all perfectly healthy. The white she-cat looked out the ice pane of the Twoleg den, her deep blue gaze wandering over the land outside.

In the distance, she saw a ridge where large birds were coming to rest for the night, and in the yard below, the green grass reflected the light of the full moon that hung overhead. She nodded sadly, when she saw those things, and curled her thick tail around her kits, taking care not to touch them with the dreadful pink collar that now hung from her neck.

She then looked around the room, where she saw a line of plants in pale tan stones set high along the wall, one of which was a briar bush, the light in the room making the vines shimmer as if it were frozen. She nodded again and bent down to groom her kits.

Sky knew that this was her life now, she couldn't go back. But what hurt the most was the fact that she knew nothing of the fates that had befallen her tribe; the fate of her mate, Oak, or of Thicket, her best friend.

The youngest kit squirmed and cried out for her, snapping Sky out of her misery. She groomed each of her kits in turn, bidding them good night before treating herself to one last look outside. She could be content with this arrangement, for now.

Thx for reading, and I hope to see you at the next chapter. Have a nice day!