I apologize if this is bad. (I wrote it in the notes app on my phone)
This is my first time ever seriously trying to write a story. It’s far from my normal content, but I guess I wanted to prove to myself that I can do more than just make low quality music, since I doubt that I’ll ever be good at drawing/painting.

For those who don’t know what Warriors is, it’s basically a VERY long book series about four ‘clans’ (think of them as neighboring countries) of cats who share a forest split evenly four ways (for the most part). These cats are extremely territorial. Some clans get along with the others, some cause trouble (ShadowClan) and some are just generally chaotic (ThunderClan).
Survivors, which I’m kind of crossing over into this (dogs and cats were generally enemies and unable to communicate in the Warriors universe, but I’m disregarding some of that) is basically a group of dogs attempting to survive in a post-apocalyptic climate, but not all that different otherwise.
I might be a bit too old for this series (I’m 17) but I honestly stopped reading it years ago, having read nearly every book at the time. Writing about it is different, right?


… right?? No? I’m just immature? Okay, fair enough.

Anyway, enough of my incessant talking, on with the actual story. Let me know what you think and whether I should continue this in the comments.

Chapter 1: (Many) Wrong Turns

“Damn it, Luke! Why did you choose the absolute WORST place to explore?”
Luke was wandering in the forest aimlessly, completely and entirely lost. He had not seen another living soul in days, aside from prey animals. Luke was a dog, a border collie to be exact. While he was originally supposed to be a family dog, that plan - along with him - was thrown out the window when it became apparent that one of the family members was allergic to his admittedly long coat of fur. He had survived, despite barely being old enough to be away from his mother, by sharing scraps with other neighborhood dogs until he eventually learned how to hunt for himself, albeit clumsily. As the other dogs who had taken pity on him either moved on or got picked up by animal control, he remained; too fast for animal control to catch, and too reclusive for his presence to remain in an area long enough to give them a chance. Unfortunately, they got wind of how cognizant he was of their motions, and began stalking his every move, determined to get him due to the amount of complaints he had accrued for simply walking through neighborhoods without a leash. Luke effectively had a bounty on his head, and this was why the forest seemed like a good relocation opportunity.

At least, it had a few days ago when he finally made the decision to leave.

Now, however, he was so desperate for interaction that he almost missed attempting to outpace the mammalian FBI. He had never gone more than a day without some sort of social aspect to his life before, and it was starting to take a toll on him. He lacked the ability to reverse his own actions, and was feeling more and more like he had made nothing but mistakes.
“Alright, Luke. Focus on the plan. Catch some food for yourself, and then turn your attention to trying to get the hell out of he-“
Luke paused mid-thought. A dark gray flash of fur fleeted by on a tree branch at the northern corner of his vision. As he looked up, he could surmise what it was.
A squirrel.
His mouth began watering almost before the creature’s species had even registered within his mind. He hadn’t eaten in nearly half a sun’s cycle, and was hoping that this would be his chance. He crept behind a bush to analyze the squirrel’s movement, his eyes trained upon a bunch of nuts on the floor. Sure enough, the squirrel appeared to be making its way down the tree trunk towards them. Whether it had left them there on purpose prior, or had genuinely just discovered them, Luke did not know or care. He placed all of his energy into remaining as still as possible. The squirrel finally wrapped up its careful descent, but just before Luke could spring from the bush, he caught wind of movement from another section of shrubbery across from him. Even from a distance, Luke’s sharp eyes could tell that this creature was roughly a full head shorter than him, but considerably larger than the squirrel was. Definitely not food.

Definitely competition, and possibly a threat as well.

As Luke was sitting stationary and attempting to decide his next move, the other animal relocated its own piece. It shot out of the bush, landed on top of the squirrel, and instantaneously killed it with a bite to the neck almost before it even had time to react. Even in the fairly dim light of dawn, Luke could clearly see what his adversary was now.

It was a cat.

To be continued, maybe.