Maze of Darkness; Hear Me Now

Chapter One: The Game

This is a life non other would really live. Try learning to navigate a hundred tunnels for nearly no reason. StarClan knows this was a mouse-brained idea, but we still do it. They send me into this labyrinth for a reason, of which I may never return. I must find my way to the last piece with only enemies around me. It is even worse than you would think. They don't put me here to find prey, or uncover hidden enemies. Let me tell you this. Everything is a game.

I drop to the hard-packed earth of the tunnel floor. I know where I am. Everything in my brain falls into an instant map of where I am going. It has always been this way. A calculating mind like this is why apprentices like me are sent into the tunnels. We are here to complete this unnecessary game of darkness and mind. Some never see the light of the sun again. Some cats never come out of the caves and tunnels, this endless night of no stars.

Shivers rack my small body. One moon ago I became an apprentice, one moon ago I ruined my life by letting them know my intelligence. For my kit days, I could watch from the nursery, that little hole under the ferns, and see a few select apprentices dive in here for whatever they would do. How I miss the innocence of being a kit. Back then, even while in fear, we could be safe at our mother's side. I miss mother most of all here, he kind words and rhythmic tongue strokes calming me. But that will no longer happen as long as I am a chosen one.

"Furzepaw?" I hear a voice softly mew, almost like the cooing of a dove. My ear prick, eyes focus, and mouth open to take in every detail of the other cat, but a guess would even work fine. It is one of the other chosen apprentices, a newer one. Though I am bad a remembering names of most of the Clan, her's sticks out.

"I'm here," I grunt, lifting myself to my paws. There is just enough room around me to sit up, tail tucked at my paws. "What is it, Moonpaw?" I ask, words sliding off my tongue. She is like a sister to me after all those moons playing secretly behind the nursery. Even though it isn't frowned upon, the queens worry that we are more likely to be sent to our doom down her if we are found playing. Simple things can lead to under destruction.

Moonpaw, or Moon as I like to call her, is lithe and gray, with bright yellow eyes. Down here, however, none of that matters. Until we find what we are looking for, the last piece to the game, we will all remain shadows, dark with glowing eyes if we find a dash of light. Down here, we sometimes find glowing plants, like mosses or mushrooms, that glow with a faint light. Beyond these, there is no such thing. Some say you can be driven mad down here after only so long.

Moon brushed me lightly with her tail. "Where do you think we are?"

I close my eyes, the map I formed of the tunnels so far appearing in my mind. "We can't be too far from the exit, back at camp. But if we return without that final piece, they exile us. The best way would be to go deeper." I gesture to the emptiness that seems to fill the space behind me with my tail. I see a small, shifting silhouette as Moon dips her head.

I turn around, squeezing through the gap in the rocks and soil. Moon grabs my tail softly in her jaws so she doesn't get lost. This has been our strategy for while now, so that we can stay together, in hopes of both our us getting out alive. This entire time we have been here, even as I have lost track of the days, I haven't seen any other cats, besides Moonpaw that is. When we went in, our leader, Hailstar, send us each a sunrise apart so that the game would be challenging. I'm not sure why we can't go together, but this isn't made to be fair.

I'm lucky to have Moon at all. There were three apprentices, each after a month of training, that went into the maze. Before, I rained in a large group alongside six others. Then Moon, myself, and Tigerpaw were sent in. Tigerpaw is strong, he will have made it pretty far by now. He might have even found some of the older members to the labyrinth.

See, every four moons, Our leader Hailstar and his deputy take all the apprentices that show potential in their ability to think, and drop them down the hole into the tunnels. I watched this happen twice as a kit, each time a few scared apprentices falling down while Hailstar and a few others chanted.

"Darkest, deepest, secrets bring. From the earth, you shall redeem. From new dawn, new life be one. Now to the land of no sun. Good luck to you; let the game be won."

It is an incredibly simple rhyme, even I can figure that out. But as the elders' tales go, there is often more to a prophecy than the words spoken. Every time a new apprentice enters the game it is spoken, and soon everyone has it memorized by heart.

I feel Moon shiver violently behind me, and wince and she grasps me tail harder. "We should stop here," I mew to her. She releases her grip and sits up. Her fur, not only sodden from the dripping water and whatever she had done last time she disappeared, but spiked up. I lean over, and smooth down the ragged fur on her shoulder.

"Sorry," she says, collecting herself up. Both of us know I didn't stop from either of us being tired. Every move we make can throw us off course of the escape. We need to stop to keep our strength up without getting weary, while locating where we are and which way to turn. I also stop because I know how nervous Moon can get.

Above this prison of endless night, the Clan was not exactly a great life. Even while mother loved me, most of the other cats were dark-hearted and harsh. Mentors commonly mistreated apprentices, that is, if the apprentices weren't chosen for the same fate as mine.

The way kits are chosen is unknown to many of us, but I have an idea about how it is done. For example, my way of thinking and planning stuck out, even as a kit. Tigerpaw, the other one who came in a day before me, was sharp and agile, with a different sense of how to approach battles and hunting. I have no idea how Moon was chosen. She was always a little frail, and kind-hearted. A gentle soul like her shouldn't be in these games.

Moon lays on her side, licking a sore pad of a paw. I close my eyes, trying to enhance my other senses. We will need prey soon. I cannot tell time here, but it has been around an entire day since I have eaten. I don't know about Moon, since we have lost and found each other a few times from the days we began, but prey will do her good.

"I am going to find some prey," I grunt, hearing the soft echo of bat wings and mouse paws from a connecting tunnel. This could be my last chance to hunt for awhile, and I better take it. Moon stays where she is, her gaze on my pelt. I know how much she relies on me, Moon herself only having a mere half moon of training before the game begun.

"Call to me if you are lost," she meows, trying to sound smooth, but I can smell her strong fear scent through her words.

I slink into the wider tunnel, staying close to the wall. Stories have been told where cats have gone crazy from being here too long, and have attacked young apprentices. When I was only a moon old, I hear talk from outside from a warrior that had returned. Stuck in the nursery, I couldn't tell who was speaking, but I knew they were important. The calm, despite being scared, voice had sketched a story in his mind as the cat's companion had been attacked by one of these warriors. It was a violent death, apparently, but time has worn down my memory so I can only remember the awe that filled me. It was a tale unlike any I had heard before, or since, that day. NO other cats have escaped the games since then.

Kits can be stupid like that, seeing things as 'cool' and 'awesome'. If I knew how terrible this place was as a kit, I would have hid my thoughts. I would have never ended up here. But now I am lost, hidden away in this maze of darkness.

The small, scratching of claws on stone alerts me of close prey. After a few days down here, I have learned the easiest ways to hunt, even if they aren't the best. First I have to narrow down onto the unknowing target, and either stalk it than pounce, or corner it. Of course, only a mouse-brain would corner a rat or even the occasional bat in these caves. One infected bit would kill you easily, without any herbs here to heal.

I creep cautiously forward until the taste of the rodent flesh is almost dancing across my maw. I can sense it is near, a mouse, its scrawny sides heaving as it squeaks out in astonishment. Even stalking the best I can, echos of my footsteps still vibrate painfully loud in the silence. At last, releasing the breath I had tried to hold, I leap forward with all the strength I can in this tunnel. This is my first mistake.

The thin tunnel crashes against my head, white lights swirling across my vision and an explosion of pain swelled across my head. The sparks that had appeared soon grew, flames of blinding white searing across my eyes and burning into my mind. I see only the image of a clear, blue stone, light piercing through my eyelids. Then everything falls through, into the darkness of unconsciousness. Farther into the maze.

Sorry for being short, but I had a new idea and NEEDED to get it written. Things here will get more exciting, it promise! Now quick, review! I will update soon. Thank you to everyone who is reading this :D Graymist will return soon!