Just a warning; this story contains mentions rape and such. Don't like it, don't read it.
Brighter in the Dark.
Summery, an Introduction, and a Back Story.
"Hope burns brightest in the dark." I've heard this a thousand or more times. It's strange how this piece of information that is branded on my heart has effected me and how fait has made it the theme of my life. It's amazing in every way, but I've heard it so much that it just seemed ordinary. Like a fact that everyone knows and lives by. Strangely enough, not everyone knows this little proverb and not everyone who knows it takes it as a fact. Actually, I was shocked when I had to preach this to my friends and enemies for the first time.
Mine is a story that is not about me on my own, but about how those around me have saved me. Mine is a story of hope, heartache, capture, broken wings, and the cats who repaired them. It is how I faced up to each little triumph and each large disaster on my long journey home. It is how I became lost in the first place.
How did I become lost? I fell down the mountain into the valley below. Afterwards I was imprisoned and everything was taken away from me but hope. I was kept in a cave with three other cats, each so different that it is hard to believe that be brought out the best in each other. I can't say more, for that would give away the story, wouldn't it?
My story actually begins with my mother's tale. I am her daughter, her blood. She have birth to me and stories of her filled my youth. Therefore, I am like her in almost every way.
First thing you must know about my mother is that was, above all else, a dreamer. She had plans for her Tribe that she wished she could have put into practice herself, but her destiny got in the way. She was never put into a position of power by the Stoneteller or the Tribe of Endless Hunting. She was destined to remain a prey-hunter From this position she could do very little to better her Tribe and bring them out from the dark ages.
She was a smart cat. Smarter than I, smarter then Stoneteller, and surely smarter then Mist that Swallows the Mountain, Stoneteller's to-be. Mother would tail Stoneteller all the time, asking him questions that she knew he could answer. Why? Because she knew that if she had him feel intelligent (something that Mist never did) that he would take a greater liking to her than his current to-be and maybe 'twist destiny' a little.
He never did such a thing of course, but my mother was hard headed as could be and kept on flattering him. She was also a famous chatter box, a trait I am happy I didn't get from her. She talked to everybody and everything that stood still long enough, including herself. During one of these conversations, Mist overheard her plans about flattering Stoneteller and taking his position of power.
Of course, her plans were destroyed at that point and the Tribe's little dreamer no longer had an echo of a chance to become a Stoneteller and help her Tribe mates. She was almost cast out of the Tribe and spent long hours hunting on her own.
Lots of loners and rouges traveled though the mountains in those days. Most were honest enough. Hard working cats that could barely survive but would still help a pretty little she-cat hunt and give her the prey that they caught. Some of these were not as friendly.
On one of her lone hunting trips, Mother met one of these, who was called Silent. Silent was described to me as 'faster than a valley snake and three times for clever.' Of course he was out of place in the mountain, for it is too cold for snakes.
Mother thought the same thing, but it didn't alarm her as it would have me. In fact, she was very trusting of the stranger.
Here I must explain that Mother was a beautiful cat. Her fur was golden and her eyes were pale green. It is said that her smile still lights up the mountains in the darkest of nights. I think that Silent agreed with this. He claimed to be lost and cold, so she took him to a cave close by. He charmed her and made her talk. She was weak of mind and told him everything. Her hopes, her crushed dreams, her deepest, darkest secrets. He took it all in like a sponge and poured out sympathy to her. And, in one night, seduced her.
I still think it was rape. He took complete advantage of her weak minded state and left before she even awoke the next morning.
She went back to her Tribe, telling them that she was just lost for the night. They didn't care. For the next moon she cried every night over of her lost 'love.' If she wasn't depressed before, she was than. No cat comforted her, no cat cared.
Soon she found that she was carrying Silent's kits. Still to this day no one knows if she was happy or angry about it. When Stoneteller told her, she just nodded and walked away.
For the rest of her pregnancy she fought her urge to hunt and to speak. She remained quiet and ate very little, not wanting to be trouble to a Tribe she was sure that she had already ruined by simply not saving. She became paranoid and thought that everything that was whispered around the cave was about her. It drove her mad.
She went into labor during the hottest moon of freed-water. She didn't want Stoneteller's help, for she was convinced that he hated her and was going to kill her kits. She raced outside and have birth behind the large rock beside the pool.
After hours of labor that lasted into the night, she gave birth to me and my brother. She knew she was going to die, she had been sick for days and refused to say anything about it to Stoneteller in fear that he would refuse to treat her, or, even worse, treat her in spite of himself.
She turned her head to the sky and the first thing she saw was moon. Than, she uttered a phrase that the Tribe of Endless Hunting has spelled out for Stoneteller in the shadows of the cave for moons. "You two are the only ones that remain of my line. All you have is each other. Your names shall reflect this. You, little one, shall be Shadow Cast by Moon and you Moon That Lights the Mountain." So we were named. I am known as Moon and my brother Shadow.
After that, my mother called out of help. Her call echoed across the mountain, bringing Stoneteller to her side in an instant. She didn't want to live and refused treatment. Mother died by the pool that night.
That is when I took over. I am my mother's second chance.
Well that was a mess. Sounds like I just threw it together. Well, it's just an intro, maybe, just maybe, I'll get better.