Prompt: I just died! He thought to himself. What happened? What do I do now?

Hawkstar looked up at the sky, unable to draw the will to move. He knew it was a hopeless effort to try and escape this fate. A huge chunk of molten rock appeared above him, falling towards him at a dizzying rate. He closed his eyes and dropped his head, mouth falling open in one last utterance of forgiveness.

"I'm sorry."

When nothing happened after a few moments, he opened his eyes and looked up.

Nothing.

He looked to the left of him, and jumped upon seeing the still smoking rock inches away from his body. Had it missed him? How was he not feeling anything from the heat? All around him, the ground was hot and scuffed, grass burned and scarred from the flames.

Hawkstar remembered his medicine cat telling him that sometimes, when a cat had very severe injuries, in the first few moments after they received those injuries, they felt no pain. Was that it? He looked down, only to jump and yell again.

His body, previously a pretty golden brown, was now a shinier golden covered with a silvery film and misty stars. His paws were floating a few mouse-lengths above the ground, and as he looked, were disappearing from sight every few heartbeats. Most alarming, however, was that now that he looked, he could see a dirty golden brown form beneath the rock. He could only draw one conclusion.

I just died! He thought to himself. What happened? What do I do now? He had honestly never considered what life was like afterwards. Wasn't he supposed to be in StarClan, living the rest of his days in the prey-rich peaceful grounds of paradise? What was he doing here, wandering through this hell?

Hawkstar padded forward, noting with a small corner of his subconsciousness that though he wasn't touching the ground, he still had to avoid things like rocks that littered the floor. All around him cats were falling to the ground, some crushed under rocks, others succumbing to flame, and still others taken down by fighting cats, murdered where they stood for no reason.

Yet none of them were standing here as he was. Perhaps they were invisible? But Hawkstar had a horrible suspicion as to why he was still there.

"I have to fix this." He spoke. His words caused his shoulders to buckle as if something heavy had covered him, and yet his mind cleared from the heaviness that had filled him from when he was a leader.

"Yes you do." The voice said. Hawkstar snarled, dropping into a fighting stance and slashing out at the voice behind him.

"Only when you have witnessed the rebirth of these Clans will you be able to finally rest in peace." The voice continued to intone, unperturbed. "You are not the only leader faced with this ultimatum. Each of your fellow leaders died here today, and each will be made to wander alone until you can help fix these Clans and make them great as they once were." Hawkstar shook, his fur standing on end. The voice had come from nowhere. No other cat was near him.

"Fix it, Hawkstar! Do your true duty as a leader!" The deep voice thundered. Hawkstar was left stunned in the following silence.

"Fix what?" He yelled out, suddenly irritated. "I did nothing wrong!" The frustrated tom flicked his tail, stomping towards his Clan's territory and ignoring the death around him.

~~

It took Hawkstar thirteen moons to realize that his only saving grace would be to see Frostfire and her band of cats survive. Hawkstar had watched and waited day after day, wandering through all the territories in search of something to fix (as the mysterious StarClan cat had put it) and until Frostfire, a previous member of his Clan, had led a group into the land, he had been lost. Now he was quite aware of what the cat had meant, but he still didn't know what to do.

She had appeared suddenly, one random day on the third moon of his punishment, leading a small group of cats through the territory. Hawkstar recognized Talonheart, his old deputy, in her entourage and he questioned how he had been so sneaky with his deception.

They had stayed for two full days, travelling through each territory and commenting on the state of the ground and land. Upon realizing that the land was not fit to live on for the next while, they picked up and left. Hawkstar, longing for the presence of another cat, made to follow them, yet something stopped him from crossing out of the border of the four territories.

"How am I supposed to help cats who are alive if I am dead? I'm just a ghost! How do you expect me to help Frostfire at all?" He wailed to the skies one day from his perch on the Clan's highrock. For some odd reason, it had escaped damage and remained mostly unscathed. That could not be said for the rest of the camp, which was covered in pumice and shiny obsidian rock.

"Also, what makes you think the Clans can live here? Everything is DEAD." He shouted. He was hungry, annoyed, and tired of this limbo. If there was something that he could do to help them, he was more than willing to do so.

But as always, there was no answer. After that first day, the cat in the stars simply refused to answer him. So he was left with a horrible frustration and the overwhelming urge to hit something - but of course, his paws touched nothing, so hitting anything only hurt himself.

After that tantrum, he calmed down much more. Hawkstar waited with bated breath for the next time he would see Frostfire. He spent much of his time wandering over all the territories, memorizing the location of every rock, every prey-spot, places with shelter, and eventually he established a set location between his territory and the edge of LakeClan's largest lake.

He observed as, day after day, moss began to grow over the rocks, turning the blackened territory to a new pleasant green. Trees were regaining their strength, and prey was quick to return to the territory. During this observation, he thought back on what he did during his life, what he would tell some cat to remember him by, and he realized that he could think of nothing good. His life had been a waste, and he had caused so much pain for others. So he thought, and watched, and in his own way, began to mature in thought.

Finally, as moss and lichen engulfed the last of the black stones, Frostfire appeared again, this time leading a much larger group of cats. They settled on the outskirts of the territory as Frostfire took another band of cats to search the area.

Hawkstar followed her as she broke off from the group to explore the old ThornClan camp. It's thick vine barriers were strong as ever and the thorns on the territory were flourishing and wild, but she was still able to navigate into the heart of the camp with relative ease.

Hawkstar followed her across the clearing to where she was standing, examining the remains of the medicine cat den. As he approached, he noticed her fur stand on end. She continued to speak to herself looking to the bright sky and praying for help.

"Give me a sign! Falconstar, tell me how I can lead these cats!" Hawkstar snorted behind her, his old pessimism pushing through.

"Good luck with that! They never respond to our pleas, and they never have!" He snorted. To his immense shock, Frostfire whirled around, teeth bared and eyes fiery. When she saw who it was, she stopped short.

"Hawkstar? They sent you? Of all the cats that were available, they sent you to help me?" Hawkstar's jaw dropped open.

"You can see me?" Frostfire nodded, taking in his ethereal state.

"What are you doing here? How can you help me?" She prompted. The spritely young she-cat had always stood out to him. He should have realized that she would one day lead cats from his reign. Hawkstar padded closer to her and plopped down. She followed suit, oddly comfortable with the fact that she could see a ghostly cat.

"I think StarClan is giving me a chance to explain something to you. You're also the first cat I've spoken to in half a moon, so I'm taking this chance for what it is..."

Hawkstar spoke for hours, describing the events of the battle and other moments leading up to it. Frostfire appropriately questioned everything, watching him with fascination. He even had to stop his speech for a moment when she swiped a paw through the air around him with the excuse of wanting to see how ghostly he truly was. ('You look different from Falconstar did when he visited me. More... dirty, I think' she said, to which he responded with a low growl.)

"So now I'm stuck here, trying to figure out how to help you. So what is your problem, and how can I help you fix it?" He asked. Frostfire didn't answer, staring behind him. Hawkstar turned to see Talonheart padding towards them.

"Frostfire, are you ok? You've been sitting here for a long time." Hawkstar tilted his head when he noticed that only Frostfire could see him.

"Yes. I'll come back in a few seconds, you go on ahead." Talonheart nodded, padding away. Hawkstar fell into pace besides Frostfire, who adopted a slow walk towards the entrance of the camp.

"Well my biggest problem right now is finding a good place to stay on this territory. We... overstayed our welcome on the land where we were staying previously, so we had to come back early."

For the first time during those long months, Hawkstar purred.

"I think I can help you with that."

This is actually a snippet of the future of what will occur in my short story Wake of Fire. When I saw the prompt, my thoughts flew straight to the bloodbath that I had created within that story, and after confirming with Fire, I used one of the dead cats for this fic. It was a wonderful and open prompt, and it also let me dive deeper into my short story, which I WILL be continuing very soon.