"Just come back soon!" Nyx's mother calls.
"Okay! I will!" Nyx shouts back.
Nyx cheerfully ran through the woods, not caring how many twigs she snapped or the rustles she made. She did this all the time. It felt good, plus she could be out with nature, free to dream and say anything.
She was herself.
The wild called to her. It always has.
So did the shadows that soundlessly slipped through bushes and Nyx saw pouncing.
Nyx had dreams about cats with stars in their fur, radiating warmth and frosty cold at the same time, whispering something inaudible, incoherent.
Her pale, silvery blonde hair flew behind her and Nyx hears a faraway yowl. She halts and stiffens, her muscles burning from the sprint.
That sounded like a cat!
She dashed toward the noise cautiously, slowing to a tiptoe. There, standing in front of her on lush, soft blades of grass, was a cat.
One with a pale gray coat and white splotches. He has stars in his fur, and he looked like delicate sculpture of frost.
He stared at her with blue eyes, ones that reminded Nyx so much of the ocean.
"Who are you?" Nyx whispered.
"You can see me." The cat didn't seem surprised, in fact he betrayed not a hint of emotion.
"Who are you?" Nyx demanded, a little louder.
"My name is Cloudstar. And I was sent to tell you that without you in the Clans many cats may die. And you will soon."
Nyx's eyes widened. "I meet a strange cat that seems to be suspiciously from the sky and he tells me I'm going to die?"
Another cat, a black one, appeared. "Yes, unfortunately. Look down at this." She opened something like a portal that showed a pine forest, a wooded forest, a moor and a river. "This might be in jeopardy, and without you your friend will die."
"And who are you?" Nyx asks.
"Shadowstar." The black cat replies simply.
Nyx blinks, and Shadowstar and Cloudstar speak in unison. "Tread carefully and heed your choices, for they'll affect those who live, Needlekit,"
And the figures shimmered, shadows obscuring them as the cats disappeared into nothing, as if they never existed.
Who's Needlekit?
Nyx pondered this question at dinnertime, her eyes suddenly haunted and dull.
"Did something happen in the woodland, honey?" Nyx's mom probes.
"Nothing. Just the usual." Nyx mumbled around a mouthful of chicken.
Skyler, Nyx's nine year old younger sister stared at her for a while then resumed eating. She always had a connection that gave Skyler a sense of what was going on. Though she was creepy at some times, Nyx loved her dearly. She decided to return the stare.
Nyx finished eating, loaded her dish in the dishwasher and retired to her bed, inwardly wailing, Why? And what does it mean?
The blaring of a fire alarm woke Nyx, and she saw an orange light outside her bedroom door.
Fire!
Nyx shrieked and stumbled out of bed. "Skyler! Mom! Dad! There's a fire!"
"I'm perfectly aware of that!" Skyler hollers back, yet Nyx couldn't ignore the fear in her voice.
Nyx ran to her bathroom and threw messy handfuls of water from her sink onto the carpet and floor, attempting to hold the flames to buy her and Skyler a little time.
I'm coming!
Nyx, gasping staggered to Skyler's room. White-hot pain shot through her leg and Nyx bit back a shriek. Her leg has been scorched and now her pace has been reduced to a limp. Smoke rose in the air and suffocated her.
"Skyler!" Nyx yelled, her lit up by flames. "Come on! And stay low!"
Skyler, her face pale and fearful, gave a subdued nod and took Nyx's hot hand. The fire alarms screamed in Nyx's ears, its repetition becoming deafening.
The fire was spreading to Skyler's room. Nyx gripped her sister as tight as she could and leapt over the flames, the smoke biting into her lungs and scorching her eyes, Nyx's bare feet singed in the process. She bit back a cry and tried to ignore her stinging feet.
"Hold on. Hold on." Nyx growls in desperation. Her face were sticky with tears.
Suddenly Skyler wails, "It's a dead end!"
Nyx gasps. Skyler was right. They were trapped between a wall of flames and her window.
Opening her window as wide as possible, Nyx gasped, hungrily drinking the fresh air. Smoke began to fill her room and the fire got closer.
Nyx closes her eyes and grips Skyler tightly.
Then she leapt out the window.
I'm dying.
And Nyx waited for gravity to smash her against the asphalt, and when it did, pain shot through her body and Nyx tumbled and her arms were skinned. She could only hope that Skyler survived.
Nyx's final breath of life was exhaled, and she died, Skyler clutched in her arms.
The fire caused the house to be reduced to ashes and smoke, the Fire Department coming shortly after.
Nyx, though dead, Skyler was dazed but mostly unharmed, besides a scattering of bruises and deep scrapes.
When the Fire department and Skyler's parents found Nyx's body, the Fire Department tried to console the parents while they pull the body away.
But no one knew Nyx was somewhere else.
She was...
Reincarnated.
Nyx was racing through the stars, being pulled in every direction. It didn't hurt, and when she looked down at her once-scraped hands, they were perfectly formed and starry.
Suddenly she skidded and ended on a grassy clearing.
"I told you." Cloudstar stares down at Nyx- or whoever she was with sparkling blue eyes.
Nyx stared down at her hands again. She yelps when silver-gray paws show themselves.
"I'm a cat?"
Cloudstar gazes at Nyx. "Go well, Needletail. We're giving you a second chance."
With that, the scenery shimmered into darkness, and when Nyx looks at where Cloudstar was, he wasn't there.
Suddenly Nyx was being pulled downward. A purple and blue cylinder formed around her and she became more lifelike. Nyx began to feel pain and suddenly-
Darkness.
"W-who am I?"
You are Needletail, and you live with ShadowClan.
And so begins the life of Needlekit.
She still knew what she was before she became this body. Yet she could never bring herself to say it. A good thing. Needlekit could only remember the basics, she didn't know where she came from of her previous name.
Needlekit was practically the same thing she was when she was Nyx, her pale blonde hair becoming a silver-gray pelt, and the same bright green eyes. Even her personality was the same, although she became more lonely and isolated. All her littermates died. And the apprentices became wild, stubborn and impulsive, as did she.
I thought I had a purpose in life.
Needletail lunged at Violetpaw with her claws sheathed, aware of Darktail's glare burning the back of her head.
Needletail was bluffing. "Run! Now! Make this count, Violetpaw!" She gasps, knowing that will be her last glimpse of her friend.
Violetpaw's eyes widen and she dashed out of sight.
Needletail sighs with relief and closes her eyes. "Do it." She growls through gritted teeth.
Opening her eyes to a slit, Needletail watches Darktail pounce at her and plunge her head underwater. She goes limp and allows herself to sink.
Groaning Needletail could imagine Darktail's smirk, though that became a mere fragment of her imagination as darkness enfolded her.
Then Needletail was free from her heavy body. Free like she used to be, running in the woods. And she remembered her name, after all these moons.
My name was Nyx. And I belonged with my family. I've learned. Now my name is Needletail, and my heart belongs to the ones I love. Forever.
Needletail's shimmering figure floated to the sky, to the stars, to where she will live her life unless deranged StarClan cats reincarnate her again.
"Welcome." Cloudstar dips his head. "I knew you needed a second chance. You died as you did before, protecting those closest to you."
"Thank you." A blonde girl stood in front of Nyx, her eyes shimmering with happiness.
"Skyler," Needletail- or Nyx whispered. In front of her stood Nyx's dear sister, shimmering. Nyx was changed to her human form. She runs toward Skyler and embraces her, tears rolling down her cheeks.
"I thought I'd never see you again!" Nyx chokes.
"Neither did I," Skyler says.
Nyx closes her eyes. This is her life.
And nothing will ruin it.
I'm pretty sure Needletail in StarClan wasn't proven- yet. Please review!
Happy Halloween!