2As The World Caves In - Write about two characters sharing a moment together before they die. They know they're going to die and there's no escaping it. How do they react?
Nightwish had never been a light sleeper. In fact, it is almost impossible to wake her up if it isn't by her body's own accord. She could sleep through the apocalypse, her clanmates once joked, in a different time.
It's the reason why she never sleeps these days.
Tonight, when her eyes are drooping with sleep and she is finally starting to relax after there have been no attacks for days, she hears familiar noises: the loud footsteps of large animals, uneven and slow, getting closer and closer. She could hear the cracking of branches and rustling of trees, as if whoever coming is bumping into everything in their path. She knows exactly who they are.
She nudges her companion harshly. After a few jabs, he wakes up blearily and groans as he looks at the dark sky. He rolls onto his feet moments later and asks, "Are they here?"
Nightwish nods grimly and he sighs, as if resigned to his fate. "We have to leave before they find us," she says, already turning in the opposite direction as the noises. She makes it to the other side of the clearing before she looks over her shoulder and realizes that he isn't following her. "Blizzardpelt!" she yells hurriedly. "Come on!"
He stands still, relaxed, as if he didn't hear the footsteps or her calling to him. They were going to die if they waited here any longer. She stalks back to the middle of the clearing and snarls in his face, "Are you trying to get us killed? Stop standing here and follow me!"
He looks at her with pitying eyes, as if she's the one who's crazy, as if she couldn't see reason. "I'm tired of this kind of life, Nightwish. What are we even doing?"
"We're surviving." The footsteps were getting louder and louder and she could hear their low growls, probably thinking about how she and Blizzardpelt were going to be their next meal. They're going to die and it's going to be all Blizzardpelt's fault and she can't breathe—
"What's the point?" he asks, like there has to be a reason she wants to live. Their heads both jerk towards the trees as they hear a crash and a few yelps. That would give them a few more seconds to escape, she thinks, if Blizzardpelt would actually move.
"Are you seriously asking me what the point of surviving is—" she starts hotly, but he raises his voice to speak over her. "Nightwish. Do you really want to spend your life in fear, hiding from whatever those things are? We don't have anything to eat. We barely have water. You don't sleep because you're too afraid of them attacking us in the night. Why are we prolonging our deaths?"
"You don't know, we—we might find something! We might be able to shake them off our trail!" Even as she says the words, she knows they aren't true. She knows, deep down inside of her, that Blizzardpelt is right. They're going to die out here. They were already dead the moment the dogs had first found their clan, all those moons ago.
His voice is soft when he replies. "You don't believe that any more than I do." She wants to be angry at him. She wants to scream her voice hoarse and tell him that she'll leave without him if he really wants to die that badly. But she doesn't, because he's always right and he never gets mad at her when she's being willfully stupid and she can't hate him for that. But she desperately wants to.
"I know." She lets herself fall to the ground and looks up at him with tired eyes. The fight has drained out of her. She just wants to get this over with.
"Dying isn't a bad thing," he reminds her gently. She knows that. She knows that StarClan exists and that the rest of her clanmates are all there. She knows that being there would be infinitely better than living here, but she's scared and she doesn't know why.
"You won't be alone," he tells her. "I'll always be with you, even after death." He smiles at her. The tightness in her chest loosens and she can breathe properly again. If he's always right, he has to be right about this too, so she believes him.
He sits down beside her and she leans into his shoulder. The dogs are going to be here soon, but she doesn't feel as terrified when she's curled around him. She closes her eyes and waits. He rests his head on top of hers and whispers, "I'll see you soon."