Chapter I: Sam

My head is woozy, my hands and feet feel squashed, everything is sharp and unnaturally bright, and every heaving, rasping breath sounds so loud I can't stand it. The world is so detailed, so confusing. Where is Dean? And where is the motel room? The books, my computer? I feel warm, so I can only imagine that I have clothes.

"What are you doing here?" I spin around and jump to my feet, but it's almost like my knees are backwards, and I pitch forward, taking in a disgusting mouthful of moldy leaves. Whoever spoke sounds so strange, an accent I've never heard in all my time hunting demons and spirits, you name it. They laugh, it sounds like a cat meowing mixed with a scream, but with some note that I can sense it is amused.

"I'll get him!" I raised my head as a second voice boomed, making me want to cover my ears.

The first came again, and I gasped out loud as a cat leaped from a tree, slithering down the trunk with glinting claws. It was strange, but I could smell them. Wow, I could smell a stinky cat. Thing is, they weren't stinky, they were clean, and I could smell they were female, two cats. I felt blind, with only my inexplicably sharp nose and ears.

"You'll do no such thing, Sparkpelt! He can't even stand, he must be lost." I froze with fear. Usually I would leap to fight, but I knew that if I couldn't stand on my own too legs, then I couldn't fight. But then again, these were cats, and I could see them.

The ginger calico crouched in front of me, and it was chilling how affectionate her eyes were. Did she think that I was some hurt man, some thing she could help? Did she even know what a man was? She did call me emit /emafter all. Her ears were pricked towards me as if waiting for me to say something. When I didn't, she lowered her head and stared into my eyes, a blue so pale it almost looked silver. "What is your name?" she spoke so slowly and deliberately, like she was afraid I didn't know English. Wait... a cat knew English?! I had to get to Dean, something is happening, really happening. This isn't a dream, it is too vivid, even for a vision. And there is no death, nothing but me in the forest with cats.

There was only one natural thing for me to do. I felt blind and awkwardly moving, practically an alien!

I screamed as loud as I could, and I stopped suddenly as I heard the noise. It was not scream, but a wail like a wounded animal's. It only made me scream more, of course.

"Shut that thing up!"

"It isn't a thing Sparkpelt! Show some respect!"

"Until it shuts up, no way!"

I could hear their conversation, but I didn't care, not at all. This was insane, I tried to convince myself it was an insane dream, that Dean slipped something in my drink, anything that meant cats were not talking to me in the middle of a forest at midnight.

My scream became muffled as a furry fire colored paw clamped over my mouth. I tried to escape, and I managed to scramble away on my hands and knees, but everything felt wrong. Every foot touched to ground, not my knees. When I was up even like this I would be twice as tall, and yet I was only a few inches up.

Realization hit me in the chest like a bullet, or, better yet, a demon. The senses. The ability to understand them. Everything else. As I hit the ground, it all started to piece together.

"What in the name of StarClan- Cherryfall? Get him to the medicine den!"

Who was talking? What was StarClan, or a medicine den? Who was emCherryfall/em? A million questions, and yet I knew that no one could answer most of them, just like someone new to the supernatural. I was too wrapped up in my own thoughts to notice going though a clearing surrounded by long, waving grass, and into a small den made of some thorny plant.

So of course I was shocked when dropped onto a mess made of moss aand forest ferns. "Ouch!" I gasped, looking accusingly at my captors. I didn't try to escape, they were cats! What could they ever do? Tickle me?

I recognized the ginger calico, and the startlingly ginger cat who found me, but there were tree who were new to me. emGreat, captured by a clowder of cats with name like Cherryfall. I thought bitterly as they gazed at me I'm amazement and wonder. The smallest, a thin gray tabby tom, trotted forward with his teeth bared and glinting. He sniffed the air and stepped back.

"Twoleg scent!" he snarled with his lips drawn back. Okay, I could understand what twoleg might mean, human, of course, but I was too relieved.

"Yes!" I exclaimed, not knowing why I said it, and stopped dead. I didn't dare breath. It wasn't a word. It had been a emmew/em. I prayed I didn't faint again. And thankfully, I didn't. But I was still in the den, a cat, of all things. What could I possibly do? Look for Dean!

"Jayfeather, that's no kittypet." Cherryfall whispered, the cats clear blue eyes were locked onto me. "No collar mark. Nothong about him... Alderheart, get Bramblestar!" she ordered, and my terror increased. A huge clowder of cats! I was a cat now, blundering and useless, not used to this body or perperception, and I was their mouse.

Oh God, what's going to happen now?