Curled up, almost wedged amongst the hay bales, Merry slept sound as he always had. Comforted in his cradle of wheat, it prickled his skin when caught in his fur, but that familiarity was welcome. It reminded him of his home, the comforts of a barn that held him dear and watched him grow from a youngster. It was safe. It was home. In that home he was able to sleep deep and content, waking him would take a lash of thunder or the roar of a tractor approaching.
This was why the thump of paws into his side, stirring him awake, led his mind to remain blurry. His eyes parted open, looking up to see his dear friend Hollow looking frantic, she spoke but in his state he couldn't quite tell what she was saying.
"Wh- What's all the rush for Hollow- What's the matt- er..." He breathed before his mind tuned into the chaos evolving around, cats yowling and shouting to kin and friends alike.
All at once Merry stood faster than his mind could comprehend, his mind going foggier by the second as it dawned on him how smokey the loft was, how. How
hot it'd become. The tom coughed, acrid smoke filling his mouth and nose with a whine. His eyes began to water from the discomfort of it all, staring to his friend with bleary eyes and panic on the edge of each word,
"Get outside. Grab folks from the entrance but whatever ya' do don't come back in. Ya' hear me. I'll meetcha outside I promise but get yerself to safety." He essentially demanded, he'd helped Hollow all those moons ago, they'd kept an eye on each other all this time and he wasn't about to lose a friend to a freak accident, but he wasn't about to leave himself yet, the sounds of panicked yowling not too far from them both. He headbutted Hollow's side, urging her to leave.
"Please. Go. I'll meetcha outside."
He had faith she would listen as there was no time to waste, he didn't know shit about how to handle a fire, but like hell, he was gonna leave a cat to panic and suffer up here if he could so help it. For a moment, he hesitated, Sparrow and Chick, Starling and Coyote. Were the youngsters safe, too? Meadow and her family? He swallowed hard. The barn was full of cats with the same willpower as him to save the others; they would be okay. They
had to be. Sparrow and Coyote were a smart pair; they'd figure something out.
Shaking that moment of hesitation, he bound through the smoke, trying not to breathe as much as usual as he bolted through whisps of smoke with fire licking the wood all around. This place, their
home was doomed. At least the cats could be saved. That fire only seemed to grow as the cat's yowls grew closer, his blood running cold, a beacon of reality that cleared his mind for a moment. A reddish tail and flailing paws trapped half under a hay bale that was flickering light with fire, as was the poor soul himself. The cat seemed in a frenzy, digging under the hay; he needed to get them out and fast.
Steadying his thundering chest, the tom launched atop the hay bale, wincing as the heat from the fire licked his paws, it grew along the hay with little resistance and he had to act fast if his plan were to work. Digging claws into the bale and anchoring himself against the barn wall, Merry began to heave some of the hay off the cat. His skinny form wasn't all too useful, especially as the fire nipped at his fur; the gut-wrenching scent of burned fur and flesh permeated the air. It was enough to find the strength to turn the smaller bale enough to give the poor cat an out from under the hay. But that burned flesh, the horrendous sight of a cat burning before his eyes, beyond his own sense, he grabbed the yowling thing, no younger than he was, by the scruff and dragged them from the corner; he squirmed and cried, yowling in pain. The fire, raging and cruel, grasped and clawed at his fur, the hay that once clung to the strands of his fur burning like nothing. He was just barely able to keep any smoulders or cinders from setting alight his own fur as he dragged the other cat just far enough from the fire.
"Shit..." He breathed before coughing with a gag. The scent of burning flesh was enough to have made him sick if he wasn't in such an awful dilemma already. He had no strength to drag a cat his own size out of the barn, but he could try his damnest to save them. Some old sack, a heavy material but empty and abandoned, lay mostly untouched by the fire, which threatened to catch up with them both. Patting out the smouldering corner, he threw it over the poor cat's tail. Thank fuck, it was just enough to suffocate the fire, but the damage was more than done to the tom - Cherrie - he recognised him now.
The smoke clogged his vision as he stared at the other cat, he couldn't drag him down the loft, they were the same size and like fuck he had the strength for it. Merry adverted his gaze from the garish wounds the other would likely end up with, staring at him with a plea.
"Get outta here, ya' hear me. I'll an' follow ya' out; there's cats outside they can help ya' lad. But ya' gotta go-" His words interupped by a cough erupting from his lungs, the smoke started to get to him at that point.
"Get out, you'll die if ya' don't." The tom wheezed, realising the irony of it all; he'd die too if he weren't careful.
But knowing when to stop wasn't something he was capable of.
"ANYONE STILL UP HERE?" He cried out. Tears pricked his eyes, taking the weight from one paw to another; he'd scorched them amidst the rescue attempt, eye flickering to the tom, hoping he'd take his advice. But his gaze didn't stay still. Ice and Holly slept in the hay loft, too. Had they gotten out? Who else panicked and trapped themselves?
'Please God tell me Goldy got out...' The thought raced past, his chest aching, what would he do if Goldy didn't survive...
"Goldy... GOLDY?" The tom cried out, like a kitten left alone, he couldn't lose Goldy too, not now. Not like this...
-
@Hollow / @Lassie
@CHERRIE / @rhosmari I hope this is okay !!! feel free to bonk me if i went too fast with anything but wanted to help cherrie :3
-
Merry
✦—Barncat | 25 Moons
✦—He/Him
✦—"SPEECH", 'THOUGHTS', ATTACK
✦—A skinny, tortoiseshell cat with bright green eyes and pelt speckled with hay.
#9D6E46
Hello and welcome to Purrgatory! We are an 18+ Warrior Cat Roleplay set in an AU where the clans were unable to leave the forest territories and perished!
It has been 100 or more years since then, the clans of the forest are but distant memories to any cats still alive, stories passed down to kits of strangely named wild warriors and leaders with nine lives but the time of the clans is upon us once more and the stars shine yet again.
✿ Petal
