|
|
Post by FåwnFrøst on Mar 24, 2017 16:21:54 GMT -5
Chapter One
A prologue to war
"Shadowpaw." A voice hissed. "Wake up."
Shadowpaw jerked awake, almost hitting the other apprentice in the head. She hated waking up early; if she had her way she would probably sleep until sunhigh. And lately it seemed like she was always getting woken up too early but some cat or another. "Blossompaw! Don't do that!" She said, playfully swatting at the cream siamese's ears.
"Sorry!" Blossompaw said, skipping out of the den. "You don't want to be late for your third week of training, do you?" She teased, sticking her tongue out at Shadowpaw. "Yep, I'm sill counting." Shadowpaw's best friend had made it a game to see how long it took to become a warrior. So far she was at twenty-six days. I wonder what number she'll get to before she realizes that she can't count that far. Shadowpaw thought, jumping out of her nest and trotting out after her friend.
Both cats had become apprentices three weeks before, and had grown up together, though not in the same litter. Shadowpaw's mother, Feathernose, had had Shadowpaw the day after Blossompaw and her brother, Birchpaw, were born. Blossompaw's mentor and the clan's deputy, Blackmask, had invited Shadowpaw and Birchpaw to come training with them today. Shadowpaw's mother and her father, Cloudheart, were going to come watch to see how Shadowpaw had been improving. I can't have learned much, though, She thought, This is our sixth day of battle training, anyway! I still can barely beat Birchpaw, let alone stand a fair fight if my mentor wants to duel! Maybe we'll work in pairs.
"Wait up!" Shadowpaw said, bolting after her friend and into the rocky pine woods outside the camp. She jumped over rocks -- more like boulders, with how big they were, she didn't think you could call any of the large stones merely rocks -- and huge fallen logs and the slow, shallow stream outside the camp, when suddenly the ground dropped out from under her and she tumbled into the training hollow, a sandy crevice nestled in moss-covered stones and sweet-smelling pine trees.
"Ugh." She shook out her smokey black fur, now covered with the fine white sand, and looked up to see Blossompaw and Birchpaw laughing at her. "Not funny!" She spat, flattening her ears and moving to pounce at Blossompaw.
"Not so fast," A voice sounded from the other side of the hollow. "You can use that pent-up anger for our training today."
Shadowpaw sighed, already knowing before she turned around who the voice belonged to. "Of course, Mousestep." Shadowpaw's mentor was a burly brown tabby, with thick white paws and lynx-like ears. His power was a modest one, that to walk silently, which came in handy in situations like these -- to sneak up on his unassuming apprentice.
All of the older cats had powers; there was a ceremony about halfway through a cat's apprenticeship where an apprentice became a cadet, traveling up to the Fallen Star to receive their powers. It was rare, but some cats got their powers before the ceremony. JadeClan's leader, Creekstar, had gotten his early. And some cats didm' t get a power at all. Shadowpaw wasn't sure how the ceremony and journey worked, exactly, as all of the warriors and older apprentices were tight-lipped about it; most, they said, were told by Starclan what their powers entailed, but most chose not to share or were told not to by StarClan. Shadowpaw wasn't sure, as the older cats didn't tell. That said, Shadowpaw couldn't wait for her journey, and was just as eager as any apprentice to get her power. They could be anything: from powers like Mousestep's to an elemental power or even a rarer power like flying or controlling another cat's mind.
"Today we will simply have you fight with each other -- you will not be learning any new moves, but this is to assess how much talent you have for fighting." Mousestep nodded towards Blackmask, who had just walked up with Shadowpaw's mother and father, and sat down at the edge of the hollow to watch.
"Birchpaw, Shadowpaw, you may fight first."
Blossompaw looked mad that her sibling got to fight before she did, but she stepped out of the way as her brother flounced over to Shadowpaw. She prepared herself; Birchpaw always put up a fight, but she had been trying to come up with ways to beat him. "Ready to lose, Shadowpaw?" Without waiting for an answer, he pounced.
And Shadowpaw sidestepped. "Alas," She said, returning the banter and feigning a 'petty grown-up' voice, "It is you who will be losing." She didn't hesitate another moment, and ducked towards Birchpaw with her paw out, ready to trip him. Seeing what she was doing a split second before her paw could hit, he took a step back, making her lose her balance as he pounced once more.
Just what she wanted.
Shadowpaw flipped over on her back, shoving her black paws into Birchpaw's belly, hearing a loud oomph from where he landed. Wasting no time, she quickly pounced on top of him, declaring herself the winner. "Looks like I'll have to add another win to my collection," She said, though, truthfully, this was only the third time she'd actually beat him.
"Well done, Shadowpaw," Mousestep commented. Those two words felt like they were the best thing she'd heard from her mentor, who rarely had one word of praise for her efforts. Granted, most of that was because she usually didn't win. Blackmask looked less than enthused.
"Where did you learn that move, Shadowpaw?" He said, his blue eyes narrowing. "That's a warrior move."
Shadowpaw wasn't sure how to answer that. He was making it sound like she had done something wrong. "I made it up."
"You . . . made it up." Blackmask didn't seem any less suspicious.
"Yeah." She wasn't really lying. She had made that up. "I pretended like I was tripping him, because even if he didn't fall for my trick, I still would have tripped him and won."
Despite the deputy's obvious unamusement, Shadowpaw's mother was thrilled. "Good job, Shadowpaw! You're turning out to be just as good a warrior as your father!" Warmed by her mother's praise, Shadowpaw was happy to sit by her as Feathernose pulled her close. Her mother's soft, thick brown fur tickled her whiskers. Watching Birchpaw and Blossompaw try to fight, Shadowpaw was glad she hadn't been picked to fight with both of the siblings. What ensued involved a lot of scolding from Cloudheart about "no using claws," "don't draw blood," and "it's okay to want to kill your enemies, but you shouldn't really act on that."
After Mousestep deemed the training session to be over (Blossompaw had torn a claw trying to get Birchpaw) the group made their way back towards the camp, stopping halfway through for a short hunting session as Cloudheart, Blackmask, and Blossompaw continued through the tall pines.
"Don't flick your tail." Mousestep put a paw on Shadowpaw's tail tip, both their eyes on the oblivious mouse sitting at the roots of a thick oak. Shadowpaw tensed, creeping forward, trying her hardest not to move the dry pine needles and bronze-colored leaves under her paws. The mouse twitched, scurrying forward to eat another crumb off the forest floor, and Shadowpaw froze. I have to get this mouse. If -- no, when -- I do, it'll be my first catch! After a few silent moments, Mousestep spoke again. "Now."
Shadowpaw pounced, and the mouse shot off, but the she-cat was faster than her brown-furred prey, and she swiped a paw out to snag the mouse as it ran away. She managed to get her claws on the mouse, but it wriggled free and bolted towards a gap in the tree roots, disappearing down a hole. Shadowpaw flopped down on the leaf-covered ground. "I almost had it!"
"That was good for your first try," Mousestep said, nodding approvingly. Feathernose smiled at her daughter.
"You'll do better next time," She said, moving to congratulate Shadowpaw further, when suddenly, she froze. "Don't. Move." She hissed, getting into a defensive position, seemingly glaring at a patch of grass and bushes.
Shadowpaw shivered. Her mother's power was heightened senses, but she had never seen her use them except when they were playing hide-and-seek when Shadowpaw was a kit. It was kind of creepy to not hear something when someone was warning you it was there.
But, after what felt like hours, probably more like seconds, of straining to hear something -- anything -- Shadowpaw heard it. The sound of paws on pine needles, and a lot of them. She couldn't scent what clan they were from, but their paw steps sounded unfamiliar. Only after another minute or so of the foreign clan walking towards them did Shadowpaw finally catch a glimpse of one of the cats.
Garnetclan.
"Tornstar." Mousestep addressed the leader, a grey tabby tom with thick fur and amber eyes. "Why are you here?" He flicked his ears back, an unrestrained scowl crossing his usually emotionless face. "You have no business in our clan."
The tom only smiled. "Why, of course I do. I'm here to fight for your clan." He flicked his tail, his dark amber eyes turning towards Shadowpaw. "Ah, and apprentice. Send her back to camp, will you? I want this to be a fair fight. As you are, I see, vastly outnumbered." Several other Garnetclan cats stepped out of the shadows. "Go on, kit, what are you waiting for?"
Shadowpaw glared at him, her silver eyes flashing. "You won't take our clan." She hissed, then turned tail and bolted back to camp, hearing Tornstar yell for his warriors to attack as she fled.
A coward's move, She thought, Not that I could fight there anyway. Lost in her thoughts, she tripped over a log, scrambling right back up and bolting into camp.
"Blackmask! Creekstar!" She saw the cats perk up at their names, then come running over when they saw her terrified expression. "Garnetclan! They're attacking!"
Creekstar nodded, quickly rounding up a large patrol -- which wasn't hard; a lot of warriors had come to see what the commotion was -- and turning towards Shadowpaw. "Lead the way."
Still stunned and lost in her thoughts, Shadowpaw turned and ran into the tall pines once more, but their scent didn't smell as sweet as they usually did. It feels. . . Ominous. That's the word. Shaking her head to get rid of unneeded thoughts, she leapt over the boulders near where the battle was, stopping. "They're over there." She said, nodding towards the clearing where the sounds of battle could now be heard. Creekstar sent the warriors onward.
"Come fight, Shadowpaw. Blackmask tells me you're quite talented."
"No. . . I'm too young. I should go back to camp." She shuffled her paws. She wasn't sure she was prepared to fight, or even wanted to fight, though obviously she had put on quite a show if the leader was interested.
"Ah, modesty, a rare attribute in the young." Creekstar smiled. "Your talents are needed if Garnetclan is upon us."
Shadowpaw nodded, following her leader into the clearing, not prepared in the least for what she saw.
Utter. Chaos.
And that was probably an understatement.
Screeching cats fought like nothing she'd ever seen, all claws and teeth, and for a moment, Shadowpaw was frozen in fear. She didn't have to wait long, however, for her first taste of battle, because a huge cat had snuck up behind her.
"They're letting kits onto the battlefield now? Jadeclan has stooped to new lows," He hissed, getting ready to pounce. Just as before, Shadowpaw didn't hesitate. Right when the tom pounced, she ducked to the left, hooking her paw around his foreleg and pulling to the side. She only hoped she was strong enough to pull him down.
"I'm not a kit," She retorted.
He tumbled, dust coming up from where he landed, but he wouldn't let her pounce on him -- he jumped to his paws quickly, coming back at Shadowpaw with a look of malice in his eyes. "I see they've taught their kits to fight properly," He hissed preparing to swipe at her with his sharp claws, and just then, Feathernose tumbled into his side.
"Sorry, dear, he just looked like he was about to eat you," Feathernose said, turning back to the battle at hand, slashing the tom's shoulder. He hissed and ran off to find easier prey than a kit and her mother who could apparently fight back.
Shadowpaw was glad her mother had intervened. "Thanks, mother." She said, looking for another cat she could help fight as Feathernose ran off towards where a few warriors were getting beaten.
"Blossompaw!" Shadowpaw was surprised to see her friend fighting -- she hadn't heard Blackmask tell her she could fight. She rushed towards the other apprentice, who was fighting a fierce tortoiseshell she-cat. "Need some help?" Shadowpaw jumped to her friend's aid, slashing at her new opponent's ears.
"I just said I tore my claw so that Birchpaw would stop beating me in training." Blossompaw said, smiling at Shadowpaw as the pair drove the she-cat away. "Want to help me the rest of the battle? I could probably use it." Not waiting for an answer, Blossompaw bolted off in search of the next fight. Shadowpaw wasn't surprised. Of course she wouldn't want to be beaten. Blossompaw would rather cheat or quit than admit she lost.
Shadowpaw followed her friend as they ran towards the edge of the clearing to look for Shadowpaw's mother, almost making it before a huge behemoth of a cat jumped in front of them. What is it with huge cats attacking us? Do they attack smaller cats to make up for their low self esteems?
"Well, hello there, kits." The tabby actually smiled. It was kind of scary.
Blossompaw smiled right back. "Well, you're creepy, and we're not kits." She retorted, pouncing at him and clinging to his brown fur.
The tom, outraged, tried in vain for a few moments to claw her off -- Blossompaw had a grip like a viper. Shadowpaw swiped at his paws while he was distracted, and knocked him down, with Blossompaw barely managing to scramble off before he fell. Now scared that he would be beaten by a bunch of younger, scrawnier cats, he glared at them before bolting off.
"He's as dedicated to winning as you are, Blossompaw!" Shadowpaw said, still trying to find her mother in the sea of screeching and fighting cats.
Without warning, a loud yell broke out from the center of the clearing, and the battle gradually stopped, the clans separating behind their opposing leaders. By the time Creekstar and an angry Tornstar calmed the battle down enough to call it to a stop, Shadowpaw could see several members of Jadeclan had been seriously injured, and Garnetclan wasn't without their troubles. There were a few tense moments of Creekstar staring down Tornstar, but they finally spoke.
"This isn't over." It was Garnetclan's leader who spoke first, glaring at Shadowpaw's clan.
"I don't expect it to be." Creekstar countered, tail flicking, "But you've already caused us great loss in this one battle, Tornstar. Don't expect me to not bring this up at next week's gathering."
Tornstar only smiled, turning and leading his cats away through the forest. He stepped through the bushes, then, almost as an afterthought, "You just started a war."
Creekstar looked outraged. "No, it is you who started the battle." He said, "You who snuck up on our clan like we were a piece of prey. You who declared a battle for no reason. And you who caused an apprentice to lose her mother."
But Tornstar and his warriors were already gone.
And Creekstar's words were only just sinking in.
"WHAT?!" Shadowpaw said, whirling around and looking for her mother, spotting another warrior trying to carry her back to camp.
"Come on, Creekstar, we should get back to camp." Blackmask said, giving a sad look to Shadowpaw.
Blossompaw tried to comfort her friend, her usually pound less enthusiasm gone. "She's injured really bad," She said solemnly, resting her tail on Shadowpaw's shoulder as they made their way back to camp. "She. . . She might not make it, but Lynxtail is going to try her best to save her. I'm sorry, Shadowpaw."
"Don't be." Shadowpaw hissed, running back to camp. Why hadn't I heard her cry for help? Did she even say anything? It's my fault, I could have stopped her from this. I could have saved her!
Shadowpaw ignored her clan's condolences as she stalked towards the medicine cat's den.
"Mother!" She yelped, seeing her unconscious form lying in a nest. A huge gash ran from her shoulder to her belly, and it was already covered in cobwebs, but Shadowpaw could see they weren't working very well. Lynxtail could heal wounds faster than anyone, but though Shadowpaw trusted her medicine cat's abilities, her mother looked half-dead already.
"Shadowpaw, let me work." The medicine cat's cold voice swept through the den. "I'm trying to save her. but I can't do that if you're in the way. Go back to the apprentice's den."
Shadowpaw nodded, backing out of the den and into her father. She whirled around, an apology forming on her lips. "Father, I --"
"I'm sorry, Shadowpaw. I. . . I should have saved your mother." Shadowpaw was surprised to see her father was looking as remorseful as she was, when she remembered something.
"You weren't even at the battle! Where were you?" She hissed, her silver eyes narrowing.
Her father's black- and white-spotted pelt bristled. "I was, uh --" He was cut off by the Lynxtail shoving them out of the den entrance.
"Move, you bags of fur." She hissed, and it was hard to see exactly why she had chosen to be a medicine cat. "Or do you want her to die?"
Leaving the two cats standing there, stunned, Lynxtail trotted off to presumably get more herbs, ordering Beetlepaw, the medicine cat apprentice, to watch over Feathernose. Beetlepaw was an older apprentice, Shadowpaw knew, and had his power already, and could grow plants, a relatively common power among medicine cats, as it was mostly used for growing herbs quickly.
Shadowpaw shook herself out of her thoughts and turned to glare at her father before stalking back to the apprentice's den to sulk in her nest.
"Shadowpaw! I can't believe you got to fight in a real battl -- !" Blossompaw cut Birchpaw off with a shove, glaring at him with sharp green eyes.
"Shut up! She probably doesn't want to talk about it."
"But you got to . . ." Birchpaw was silenced with another glare from his sister. "Fine, then." He muttered, stalking off towards the fresh kill pile.
"Hey, Shadowpaw!" Blossompaw said as she hopped towards her friend, her excitement already back. "Want to come hunting with us? It might take your mind off. . . that."
Shadowpaw just shook her head, heading into the den and curling up into her mossy nest.
"Your loss!" She heard Blossompaw call as Shadowpaw closed her eyes, touching her nose to the feather her mother had found for her apprentice ceremony. A falcon feather, Feathernose had said, from up on the cliffs near the Fallen Star where apprentices would get their powers. Shadowpaw had worn it in her fur all day, as was customary for apprentices, and had bragged that it was better than Blossompaw and Birchpaw's blue jay feathers their father had gotten for them. Her mother probably wouldn't even be able to hunt with her anymore, if she did recover at all. That scratch would cripple her, even if it did heal.
She shook her head to get rid of the unwelcome thoughts, curling up tighter in her nest as she tried to drift into sleep, dark images and scary made-up realities littering her mind. After what seemed like -- and probably was, for the sky was starting to get dark -- hours, Shadowpaw decided enough was enough and got up and stretched her legs, claws digging into the soft moss at her paws.
She peeked out of the den, making sure nobody was watching her, and slipped out of the den, sneaking towards the medicine den to check on her mother.
Beetlepaw was sitting just outside the den, sorting herbs. He nodded towards the entrance when he saw her walking up. "Hi Shadowpaw. You can check on her if you want."
Shadowpaw was glad that the older apprentice let her in, and slipped through the crack in the rocks that was the entrance. Her mother was still in the same position as before, her check rising and falling in ragged, pained breaths, though the cobwebs were changed and fresh herbs layered on. "Mother?" She said, creeping forward and sitting down, curling her black tail around her paws. "Are you okay? I. . . I'm sorry I couldn't help you." She looked sadly at her mother, whose tortoiseshell coat made it look like she was melting into the shadows around her. She licked her mother's ear, which was when she noticed something. Her mother's ragged breaths were gone.
Feathernose had stopped breathing.
Chapter Two
Wishing gets you nothing
Shadowpaw stood on shaky paws, her whole body trembling. Mother. No, not Mother! No no no no no. Never Mother. This. . . It's all a bad dream, I'll go to my nest, go to sleep, and when I wake up this day will have restarted. This will never have happened. It's just a. . . a nightmare. It's not real --
"Shadowpaw! Are you okay?" Beetlepaw's soft voice echoed from behind her. She closed her mouth. She hadn't realized she had screamed. His eyes turned from her to her mother, and he froze. "Oh. I. . . I'm sorry." Shadowpaw could hear the heartbreak in his voice as strongly as it weighed in her own chest. Everyone had known and loved Feathernose. She shouldn't have . . . She couldn't even bring herself to admit her mother was gone, even in her thoughts.
"No." She whispered, barely perceptible, backing out of the den.
"Shadowpaw, wait!" Beetlepaw poked his head out after her, before running of to get Lynxtail.
"No." She said again, whirling around and running into the apprentice's den. She curled up in her nest, staring at a spot on her falcon feather, her silver eyes as wide as moons, unblinking. It's all a bad dream. A terrible nightmare. I'll fall asleep and it'll be okay. She's not. . . Mother's not. . . A terrible little voice in the back of her head decided to speak up right then. But you saw her. She wasn't breathing. You know that means she's --
The thought was broken off with a solemn Blossompaw trotting into the den, carrying a bundle of herbs. "Shadowpaw. . . Lynxtail said to eat these. To help with the shock." Her friend looked at her sadly. Shadowpaw had squeezed her eyes shut and pretended to be asleep. "They're holding a ceremony for her in a few hours. I know you're awake." Blossompaw sighed. "If you want to come hunting with us, you can. Birchpaw caught a rabbit, and he's showing off. I thought you might want to beat him at hunting."
Shadowpaw shook her head. "No, I'm fine." She said, turning her back to Blossompaw and staring at the wall.
"Hey! You're not fine, and I know you're pretending for us, but stop. You've been cooped up in here for hours, then finally came out, and now you're just going to hide out for the rest of the week, aren't you?" Blossompaw said, for once serious. "Come hunting, it'll take your mind off of your mother. Please?”
Shadowpaw didn't answer. She knew Blossompaw was right. Seeing that she wasn't going to get a reply, Blossompaw sighed and walked out of the den, tail touching the ground.
Look what I've done, She thought, Now Blossompaw's mad. All because of me. It's my fault. I should have saved mother. I wish I could have helped. Her thoughts continued on the same path, a whirlwind of blames and faults and the image of her injured mother circling around until she felt sick to her stomach. She looked out at the sky, which was covered in dark, swirling clouds and stray flickers of lightning. She counted the seconds between bursts of light and the thunderclaps, trying to drive away her dark ruminations and fall asleep.
I wish it were me. Was the last thing she thought before sleep finally overtook her.
"Cats of Jadeclan!" Creekstar's voice echoed through the camp, and Shadowpaw jerked awake. She hadn’t realized she had been sleeping. It was dark, as dark as the thundering clouds above her and the black shadows she wanted to hide in. She immediately longed for the soft embrace of dreamless sleep, but knew it was gone. She got up and stretched, her black paws digging into the soft moss of her nest. I woke up. It must have just been a nightmare.
"We are gathered her to mourn the loss of a mother, a friend, and a valued member of our clan."
It wasn't a bad dream, was it? This was, though. As Shadowpaw's head peeked over the crowd, she saw her mother's still form laying at the base of the leader's small cliff. Her mother's brown tortoiseshell pelt shone like gold in the dwindling moonlight, ceremonial lilies, carnations, and gladiolas littering the ground around her body. Her clan mates gave Shadowpaw a wide berth as she made her way to the front of the crowd, silver eyes locked on her mother as the leader continued with the ceremony.
"I ask StarClan to look upon this brave young warrior and deem her worthy to walk the ranks of their cats; so that though her life was cut short, Feathernose may still have a place to call home." Creekstar bowed his head along with the clan.
"Feathernose." They whispered, their voices blowing through the air like leaves in the wind, carrying her mother's soul to the heavens.
The clan dispersed, some breaking off from the group to whisper in Feathernose’s ear, words of thanks, of sorrow. Only her closest friends and family would spend the night under the moonlight with her.
"Cloudheart." Creekstar's voice echoed through the quiet camp. "I'd like to speak with you."
Shadowpaw looked up, and watched as her father's black and white pelt bristled, but he followed the leader into his den.
She padded softly over to her mother, her sweet pine-needle-y scent covered by the flowers around her. "Mother, this is all my fault." She whispered. There were no other cats around to hear her. "I wish it were me in your place."
Shadowpaw felt something bubble up inside her like a branch had just been moved from a blocked river. Anger, sorrow. A feeling of desolation. She sat next to her mother, silver eyes unblinking.
I wish I could have saved you. I wish I could go back and fix this, she thought, her head bowed over her mother's still form.
Then, suddenly, next to the other emotions, a deep, awful cold, worse than the most terrible leaf-bare, rose up inside her, like it had come only as a result of her profound emotions and pain.
Shadowpaw barely had a moment to think about it before her world was turned to black and white.
She stood in an unknown universe. Blinking away the spots in her eyes, she looked around. Black shapes tumbled around her, mixed with rivers of grey and white in between them. Shadowpaw looked at her paws, her heart skipping a beat as she realized that she too was made of this black mist.
Where am I? She thought, looking around with wide eyes. This place almost looks like the camp. Creepy. Is this StarClan? Did I die? If so, StarClan is pretty empty. What a way to spend the afterlife.
"Hey!" Shadowpaw called, her voice, which she had intended as a yell, coming out in almost a whisper, light as air, echoing in the emptiness. "Can anyone hear me? Help!" Her cries were met with empty silence, not a soul moving in the shadows under her paws.
She looked around once more, and was shocked to find that when she looked closely, she could tell it was the camp. It was like she could see only the shadows of everything, and the object casting them wasn't there, caught up in the swaths of grey. She could even see what would have been in the dens, and saw darker spots that must have been shadows of cats. She tried to imagine the camp in its place, and the similarities were uncanny. The shadows mapped out every detail, even -- she gasped -- her mother's shadow. Shivers ran up her spine worse than the cold that was permeating the area. Creepy.
She stretched a paw out over a patch of the black mist, where she assumed the bush by the entrance would be, hesitating at first. Then she stepped into the shadow, and immediately regretted it. Almost instantly, her stomach was flipped inside out, and she felt like she was being tumbled around in a river as her vision spun like a kaleidoscope.
And just as suddenly as she had come, she was outside of the shadowy world, back in camp, but next to the entrance instead of where she had knelt at her mother's body. Under the bush.
She blinked, surprised to find herself, although nauseous and cold, all in one piece from what appeared to be teleportation. No, wait . . .
It couldn't be.
Was this her power? Unleashed by her overwhelming despair? Shadowpaw had heard of powers being let free by extreme emotions, but in the stories it was only rage and anger that the villain got their power as a young apprentice. An apprentice wasn't supposed to have powers, not this young, at a moon into training. It was unheard of. Does this mean I'm evil, like in the stories? Only power-hungry cats ever got their gift this young.
A wave of dizziness overtook her, and she sank to her knees.
"Shadowpaw?" It was Beetlepaw. "Are you okay?" He rushed over to her, putting a paw on her shoulder. "Shadowpaw, why are you near the entrance?" She suddenly couldn't breathe, and the medicine apprentice's eyes widened. "Let's get you to the medicine den."
Shadowpaw shrugged Beetlepaw's paw off, squeezing her eyes shut. She looked for the shadow world again in her mind, and found it, faintly hearing Beetlepaw's voice in the background, sounding far-off: "Shadowpaw! Where did you go?" She thought he said. She looked for the medicine den, reached out a paw for the shadow. She opened her eyes, saw a horrified Lynxtail in the medicine den, and promptly collapsed.
Shadowkit wiggled closer to her mother's warmth, eyes squeezed shut after all the attention they had been getting.
"I can't believe she's opened her eyes already, though Lynxtail says it is a bit late for a Jadeclan kit." The soft voice of her mother sounded in her ears, and she found herself missing it. She knew this was only a memory. "But almost a week? I can't believe it's been that long already."
"I know." Cloudheart's voice was edged with pride for his only daughter, "And silver! Like your grandmother's."
Feathernose smiled. "They are. I wonder if she'll have her power as well -- my mother did always say shadowwalking was hereditary. It just skipped a few generations, I guess. And eye colors do seem to have a connection to powers, in most cases." Shadowkit blinked up at her mother. She knew this was when her mother would tell her a story.
"Cloudheart!" Her father was called out of the nursery for a patrol, she remembered.
"Let me tell you a story." Feathernose smiled at her daughter, blue eyes shining with adoration for her kit. *
"Yes!" Shadowkit had said, curling up at her mother's chest and looking up at her.
"Once upon a time, there were three sisters." Feathernose started. "These three sisters each had different colored eyes, one blue --"
"Like yours!" Shadowkit had interrupted.
"Yes." She smiled. "Let me finish, silly. One had blue eyes, one red, and one amber. These three sisters were the founders of our clans. JadeClan, GarnetClan, and AmberClan, respectively. Originally, these clans had been joined, but a terrible force broke them apart. It was a young apprentice, barely old enough to fight in battle, and he had been given his gift too early. A gift, most call it, but his was a curse. He could conjure fire as orange as his glowing eyes, and some said that he could burn cats to a crisp just by looking at them."
Shadowkit shuddered.
"Don't worry, my little shadow. It's just a legend, long since passed." Her mother's eyes shone with comfort, as bright and fierce as they were when she had leapt into her last battle. "This cat used his power to separate the clans, forming walls of fire where we now have our borders. He forced the leaders to fight each other by making them see things in the fire that weren't true, and divided our clans into what they are today, leaving only the sacred Fallen Star untouched in the middle of the valleys. There has since been a fear of cats with fire powers, as this young cat burned down almost the entire forest along with scorching the boulders by our border black."
Shadowkit blinked up at her mother. "Does that mean if I get my powers early that I'll be evil?" She had asked with wide silver eyes.
Her mother tilted her head. "You just have to use them right," she said.
And suddenly Shadowpaw's dream world shifted, the colors kaleidoscoping into the shadow world she had previously been in.
There was now a cat. Somehow, Shadowpaw could see it as if it were really there, not like the shadows there usually were. It was almost as if the cat had switched from color to black and white, and she could see that he -- she? -- was a tabby, but those were the only features she could discern from his or her face, other than a pair of unearthly, glowing orange eyes. A pool of soft white light stood between them.
"There was a mistake," His voice was odd, somehow, but she could tell that it was definitely male. "Step into the light before the evil overtakes you."
Before she knew what she was doing, Shadowpaw shook her head, stepping backwards away from the cat, and she slipped into a pool of blackness, dark as ink, and she was falling, falling, falling. . .
Chapter Three
Unanswered questions
Shadowpaw awoke to whispering. Her brain was too fuzzy and too muddled to make any sense of it, but she caught the words “power” and “dangerous.” She wasn’t entirely sure what was going on, as she had just woken up from a series of confusing dreams, but she hesitantly opened her eyes anyway.
Bright light assaulted her vision, reminding her of one of her dreams -- step into the light, he had said -- but the dream seemed like a cloud on a windy day; far away, and fading fast. She barely remembered it. Had she stepped into the light?
“Mother?” She said, her voice weak. Then she remembered, and emotion swept over her like a wave.
Before she could break down into tears again, Lynxtail was looking over her with a worried expression. Other than being angry, that was the only emotion Shadowpaw had ever seen her show. She tried to get up.
“Oh, no you don’t,” Lynxtail’s hard expression had returned to its rightful place, like it had only gone away for a little vacation. “You’re sitting right there until we figure out what to do with you.”
Shadowpaw was scared. Do they. . . Do they think I’m evil? That I’ll hurt them? That I’m too powerful for my own good? I don’t want to stay here. I want to go hunting with Blossompaw, train with the other apprentices, anything but stay here!
Lynxtail must have sensed her discomfort -- either that or it was clearly written all over her face. Most likely the latter. “Just for now. Later today we will take you to the Fallen Star. First, however, I have some questions to ask.”
Shadowpaw nodded, sitting up and curling her fluffy tail around her paws. To her surprise, her toes were white, the same color that all of the warriors and cadets with powers had. Did Starclan give these to me? She wondered, and looked at Lynxtail’s paws, which were also white. I wonder --
“Was there a cat?” Lynxtail’s question startled Shadowpaw from her thoughts.
Shadowpaw thought for a moment, trying to remember her half-forgotten dreams. “Yes. . . At least, in the first dream, there was. My mother.” She answered. The details of the second one were starting to get too far away, like she could touch them, but not enough to grab them.
“A second dream?” Lynxtail demanded.
Shadowpaw nodded, the details starting to come back to her, at least a little. “It was in a shadowy place, like. . .” She was having trouble explaining it, as she knew Lynxtail probably wouldn’t understand if she just said that place I go when I use my powers. “Like all you can see is the shadows of everything. When I use my power, that’s where I go.”
Lynxtail nodded, like this made perfect sense to her. What was Lynxtail’s power? Could she read minds? Was that how she knew the place? Could she see it in my mind? Shadowpaw didn’t know.
“Was this a grey cat? The color of ash?”
Suddenly, Shadowpaw’s dream was brought back to focus like a camera lense had been adjusted. “Yes, but everything there is black and white, so I don’t know if it was actually grey.” She paused, thinking. “His eyes stood out though. They were bright orange, like an ember.”
An unsettling expression flicked across Lynxtail’s face, something between fear and anger, but it disappeared so quick Shadowpaw wasn’t sure if she’d seen it.
“I see,” Lynxtail said, eyes narrowing. “I must go talk to Creekstar. You can go get something to eat, but do not leave the camp.”
Shadowpaw nodded, worried, watching as the medicine cat stalked out of the den and stomped her way through camp. Was something wrong? Had the cat she had seen in her dream been bad? Now that she remembered it, she realized that she hadn’t done as the cat had asked. She had tripped and fallen backwards, not into the pool of light, but into a dark pool as jet black as her pelt.
Halfway across camp to get a mouse to eat, she realized she wasn’t hungry anymore. She needed someone to talk to, someone who’d actually listen to her. Where’d Blossompaw run off to? Not still hunt --?
“Shadowpaw!” A mass of cream-colored fur barreled into Shadowpaw, knocking her off balance and sending her sprawling across the ground.
“Blossompaw,” Shadowpaw hissed, annoyed, struggling to get the siamese off of her. Found her.
Blossompaw laughed at her friend, sitting down and dropping a piece of fresh kill at her paws. “I heard you got your power. The whole clan is talking about it!” Her words came out in a rush, as if she had too much to say and too little time to say it. “But nobody knows what it is, because Creekstar and Lynxtail said that you have to go to the Fallen Star to be sure. And that can’t possibly be true, because Beetlepaw told Birchpaw about it! He said you can teleport! Will you show me? I’ve never seen a cat who can teleport!”
Shadowpaw, eyes wide at the amount of words that had come out of her friend’s mouth, nodded. “But you can’t tell anyone,” she whispered. Blossompaw nodded eagerly.
Closing her eyes, Shadowpaw reached for the world in her mind that was almost familiar, for some reason. When she opened her eyes again, she was there, and though the sounds in this world were muffled, she could hear Blossompaw's sharp gasp. She stepped carefully to a shadow behind Blossompaw and stuck her paw into it, and immediately felt nauseous as she was taken, as if from a strong gust of wind, from her spot in front of Blossompaw to a shadow just behind her.
"Shadowpaw? Where'd you --?" Blossompaw whirled around to find her friend sitting behind her as if she'd been there all day, and Shadowpaw was glad to see that her friend thought this was hilarious. If she had been in Blossompaw's place, she would have been scared out of her wits.
"Whoa!" Blossompaw shrieked. "That's so cool! How do you --"
"SHHH!" Shadowpaw hissed. "Not so loud."
Already some of her clanmates were staring at them, much to the dismay of Shadowpaw. The only thing I need is more cats to stare at me. At least this time it's not fake sympathetic glances.
The two apprentices moved their meal over to a spot by the apprentice's den, chatting about powers and gifts and what it was like to teleport. For a while, or the duration of their meal, at least, Shadowpaw almost felt normal. The past few days had been crazy, almost too much to bear. She was barely an apprentice, after all. She would be glad to go to the Fallen Star and train with her power. Just as she thought this, Lynxtail appeared as if on cue.
“Shadowpaw,” She said, dropping a bundle of leaves at her paws. “Eat these, and we shall be on our way.”
“We? Who else is going?”
“Beetlepaw, of course, and Creekstar has requested to come along as well.” Lynxtail watched as Shadowpaw swallowed the herbs. “Blossompaw, I hope you don’t get into any trouble.” She said with a wink at the other apprentice.
Shadowpaw threw her a confused glance and trotted after the medicine cat, who stopped by Creekstar’s den on the way to the entrance. Beetlepaw and the clan’s leader didn’t need to be told twice by Lynxtail, and followed her and Shadowpaw out into the pines.
The forest was just as Shadowpaw remembered it, still smelling the same, looking the same, and having the same nighttime chirps that accompanied so many forests. Time didn’t stop, she supposed, for the death of her mother. It didn’t stop for most things, as she’d learn later on, but kept marching along at even the worst times.
The group hiked up a stony path, the pines and moss falling away to reveal a mountain of pure rock, spare bits of tundra grass poking out between the boulders. The same yellowish grass blanketed the soft ground around the pile, and the clear almost-night sky was tinted pink with the setting sun. Snow-capped peaks stood on the horizon, and Shadowpaw wondered what lay beyond. But for now, the huge cave took up her attention.
“Our ancestors came to this great cave, just as their ancestors had before them. The leaders of the clans received their lives here, and many cadets received their powers at the foot of the Fallen Star. As such, I expect you to act with integrity as we traverse the caves, and to not touch anything.” She looked at Beetlepaw as she said the last line, who looked sheepish and shuffled his paws.
Shadowpaw nodded and followed them in, gasping at how much cooler it felt in the dark cave than out in the summer air.
“Save your breath, or you might suffocate,” Creekstar said sarcastically.
“Don’t joke!” Lynxtail hissed, her voice reverberating off the stone walls of the tunnel, and Creekstar laughed.
The quartet remained silent for the remainder of the walk, and as they trekked through the winding and suffocatingly dark tunnel, Shadowpaw felt like they had been in the cave for hours. The stone under her paws felt like it kept getting colder and colder as they walked, and just as she was about to call it quits and turn around, the tunnel widened, opening up to a huge cave. It was so big that Shadowpaw thought it must have been able to hold all of the clans combined, but what really took up the attention was a huge black stone in the middle of the cavern.
The Fallen Star glittered like its namesake, almost looking like a thousand galaxies in all its splendor. There was a crack in the cave’s ceiling, not quite a hole, but letting in the soft moonlight and causing the cavern to light up as it was reflected off the meteorite.
“Wow,” Shadowpaw said, having to blink to adjust her eyes to the light.
“If you think this is beautiful, wait until you reach Starclan!” Beetlepaw said, beaming. Lynxtail shushed him with a glance.
“Remember, you cannot tell anyone what you see here,” Lynxtail said, turning her attention to Shadowpaw. “Unless Starclan tells you to.”
Shadowpaw nodded, anxious already. So many cats have come here to receive their powers! I wonder what Starclan will tell me? What if it’s bad?
Creekstar, who had remained silent after his joking at the beginning of the trip, turned to Shadowpaw. “Touch your nose to the Fallen Star,” He said, crouching down and doing the same. Lynxtail and Beetlepaw followed, and Shadowpaw could tell, after a moment, that they had fallen asleep.
Here goes nothing, Shadowpaw thought, touching her own wet nose to the cold rock.
Almost immediately she was pulled in to. . . Somewhere. Starclan? She was at the top of a mountain, but it wasn’t cold, or windy. In fact, it almost felt warm. Sun shone down on her black pelt, but it wasn’t enough to whisk away the mist that blanketed the foot of the peak. A forest ringed the edges of the mountain, much like Jadeclan’s own pine forest. Caves littered the stone below her, but to get to any of them wouldn’t be a hard climb at all -- there was a gentle slope to the summit, more like a hill than the mountains Shadowpaw called home.
“Garnetclan is growing out of hand, Emberheart!” A voice said, and Shadowpaw turned to see two cats talking at one of the caves. She crept closer.
“You think I don’t know that?” The other cat, a grey and orange tortoiseshell and presumably Emberheart, was angry, and had stood up and started to pace. “Amberpelt, we’ve tried so hard. What if it is simply inevitable?”
“Don’t think like that! Not when we can change all of it with one cat!” Amberpelt was almost pleading.
“My great-granddaughter? No. Not when Fire --”
“Don’t say his name!” Amberpelt warned, eyes growing wide.
“Fine. Not when he has already gotten to her. It is probably too late already.” Emberheart said, stopping her pacing and sitting at the edge of the cave.
Shadowpaw tried to get closer to see what they were talking about, but a rock slipped under her paw, dropping down and sounding far too loud for comfort.
Amberpelt glared up to where Shadowpaw had ducked back out of sight. “Ruststripe, if that’s you eavesdropping again --”
“No.” Emberheart whispered something to Amberpelt, turning to the cliff above her. “You can come down here, Shadowpaw. We won’t bite.”
Shadowpaw poked her head over the edge of the cliff, glancing at the older cats warily as she leapt down beside them. Amberpelt, she could see now, must have been related to Emberheart, for they shared the same tortoiseshell patterns, though different colors.
“Shadowpaw, you’ve come here to get your power, yes?” Emberheart asked.
Shadowpaw shuffled her paws. “Not exactly. . . I already have my power. Lynxtail said you can tell me about it?”
The two cats before her exchanged shocked glances. “No wonder he was so interested in you,” Amberpelt said, seeming far away, like she was remembering something.
“Shadowwalking.” Emberheart guessed, and nodded at Shadowpaw’s surprised expression. “Same as me. You must learn to use it, Shadowpaw, familiarize yourself with that world inside your head. You will need it.”
"Who was interested in me?" Shadowpaw asked. "What will I need my power for?"
Amberpelt, seeming to have collected her thoughts, turned back to Shadowpaw. “No more questions. You're not supposed to be here,” she said, and Starclan started to grow fuzzy.
"Wait, no! What do you mean?" Shadowpaw tried to hang onto the dream, but it slipped from her grasp. The colors and the mountain all blurred together, and then she awoke, gasping, on the cold stone floor next to the Fallen Star.
|
|
Got a certain thread bookmarked and will be watching!
