Author's Note: Wow! Real quick update. :)
Anyways thanks for your reviews. Haven't really got anything to say about this chap, except for th fact it was really fun to write. Enjoy. XD
Burning Sky
Chapter Two:
Light burnt down from the sky and onto the grass. I could feel the sun's heat on my face, and my whole body ached like I'd just run through a patch of stinging nettles backwards. Slowly, my eyes fluttered open: it was around midday. There was a loud crashing noise in the distance, and I identified it as the sound of rushing water.
I felt tired, but it wasn't the same kind you felt when you'd just woken up. My whole body screamed with physical exhaustion; every time I attempted to move my muscles refused to budge.
I groaned, and finally forced myself to roll over onto my side. What happened? I thought, groggily. I couldn't remember anything. My mind had gone completely blank. All I could recall was being in the park, and then-
The park! Suddenly, it all came back to me. The fight with Dom, taking the shortcut, and the strange flashing lights I'd seen behind the bush. I still had no idea what had taken place, let alone where I was now, and for one thing, I certainly didn't remember the park looking like this.
I was lying on a bed of frosty green grass. The light of the sun had melted most of the ice that seemed to have magically appeared over night, but I could tell that I was no longer in the park. The trees surrounding me were much taller, and the undergrowth considerably more thick and dense. How the hell I'd managed to move from where I was originally remained a mystery.
I shifted myself up into a sitting position and looked up at the sky. There wasn't a cloud in sight, but for some reason, I got the sense that I was being... watched. Not by anything alive, but by some divine entity, that was silently laughing at me from above, because I was missing something glaringly obvious.
I shook my head, frustrated about my apparent predicament and then looked down at my feet.
Or should I say, paws?
To my horror, I saw that instead of skin, my whole body was clad in thick, jet-black fur! It covered everything, all the way up to my face, and upon flexing my paws I found that some sharp, pointed claws appeared. My breathing levels increased. Panic flowed freely through my body. What the fuck!? I thought.
I jumped up and looked over my back, discovering I could turn my head nearly all the way round. A bushy, almost spiky tail, writhed around on the floor like an angered snake. My eyes widened to the size of moons, before finally becoming to rest on a muddy puddle beside a tree. Without thinking, I dashed over to it in order to look at my reflection.
I had been completely transformed into a cat.
For a moment I didn't know what to do. I couldn't get the image of the cat that stared back at me out of my head. My black fur was darker than night, and my cold, icy blue eyes sent shivers down even my own spine! I had a lithe but muscular frame, that somehow managed to reflect my own human build, and as soon as the realisation of what had happened kicked in, I felt an irrational sense of calmness.
That didn't mean I was devoid of questions.
But before I had time to even consider the possibilities of what could have done this, I heard a loud, screeching cry echo through the air.
I instinctively froze. The scream set my teeth on edge: it was one of fear, fury and guilt all packed into one. It was coming from the same direction that I heard the rushing water from earlier.
And then the cry was followed by another. An another. Until they all joined together into a caterwaul of ferocious rage. For some reason, the shouts seemed to provoke an odd feeling inside me. One of sadness, but also, a strange kind of joy. I felt something pull me towards the cries; without even knowing what was going on, I was gripped with an unanswered certainty that a cat was in trouble.
And I was determined to help.
It was madness to run straight towards the noises. After all, it could have been dangerous. I could have been killed. But then again, I always had a habit of getting myself into trouble as a human, and without knowing it, I was getting myself into a big hole of it now.
As I neared the source, the violent screams only grew intensity and volume until I was sure that whatever was going on, it had to be some kind of fight. At first, it felt unnatural to be moving around as a cat, but soon, I built up a kind of rhythm. Back paws forward, front paws back. Back paws forward, front paws back.
Finally, the forest broke away from me, until I reached a clearing beside a huge, exceedingly loud gorge. A waterfall crashed down the cliff face, spilling white foam up into the atmosphere. I looked around wildly, searching for the fight that I was certain I would find.
And sure enough, I found it.
The battle was so ferocious that I was sure I could see a thin layer of blood staining the grass. Cats rolled around, biting and snarling and scratching. Some were dangerously close to the edge: I knew that this would only end in someone falling over the precipice and into the gorge.
I had no idea who was fighting who and what was had caused so many felines to get involved, but I couldn't shake off the strange feeling that this scene felt strangely familiar, like I was experiencing a bizarrely real bout of déjà vu.
Suddenly, there was a scream that rose higher and louder above the other cries of the battle. I looked on to see a small, light ginger she-cat with emerald green eyes being held down by a big brawny tom cat. She was clearly struggling, but she fought on bravely. I admired her courage for taking on a cat that had to be twice her size, but I also knew she was fighting a lost cause. He was beating her out of sheer strength and power.
But I could also see he had no intention of letting her go. He was pushing the female further and further back, until she was backed up against the edge of the gorge, with nowhere to go. Even from a distance, I could see the worry flash in her eyes. And the intent in her enemy's.
The cat needed help, and even though she was a cat who I didn't even know, I wasn't just about to let her die.
Quickly, I dashed forward with a burst of pace towards the tom, fuelled by my own fear and confusion about my own situation. As I closed in on them, she noticed my approach, and her eyes widened with relief that a cat was coming to her rescue.
And without knowing exactly what I was going to do, or how I was going to defend myself, I bowled straight into the tomcat, allowing the female to crawl away. He hissed in fury, and took a swipe at my head, but I used the momentum of my attack against him. We rolled over away from the edge, and even though I had the upper hand I knew his size would soon begin to dominate me like it had the other cat. I had to finish him off quickly.
I had him pinned down, but he was fighting back ferociously with strange movements I didn't really know how to stop, and I was beginning to tire. He had more stamina, and soon he broke through my defence, unleashing a powerful blow to my face. Blood flowed freely from my cheek like a fountain, and out of sheer instinct I tried something that only a human would do.
I punched him in the face.
It was a strange thing to attempt, considering we were cats, and it felt strange just using my paw (when I had a perfectly good set of claws to hurt him with) but miraculously, it seemed to work! The tom wasn't expecting it at all, and recoiled in shock, but the punch hadn't wounded him. He was merely dazed.
Quickly, I stretched forward and kicked him right where it hurt, which, again, he probably hadn't been expecting. After all, the attack was so human, but it worked equally well. The tom doubled up in pain and groaned agonisingly; I knew I had won the scuffle.
Suddenly, a huge weight came crashing down on my head. I saw stars enter my vision, and I turned around to see a cat standing over me, both shocked and... thankful?
And then everything faded into black.
'Who is he?'
'Where did he come from?'
'Did he hurt you?'
'No, he saved my life!'
Strange voices echoed in my eardrums as I started to regain consciousness. There was heavy feeling in my skull, followed by stinging pain. Whoever had knocked me out must've hit me pretty hard.
I blinked, before allowing light to flood back into my gaze. I hissed when I realised it was the second time I'd been unconscious today, but whatever frown I had was quickly wiped off my face when I saw what I was confronted by.
Oh shit.
Standing above me were about six cats. They smelt strongly of ferns and bracken- the kind of smells you associated with the forest in the middle of spring. There was nothing welcoming about the way they were looking at me though- most of them were clearly apprehensive, but most of all I disliked the hostile look the largest of the six was giving me. He was bigger than the tom I'd fought. A lot bigger, and apparently had some kind of deforming claw disease. They were huge! One of his fore claws was the size of a small knife. I shivered.
But I did recognise one of the cats. It was the small ginger female that I'd helped earlier; she was the only one who didn't look like she wanted to kill me. Instead, her eyes held a look of bewilderment.
Hesitantly, I tried to pull myself up, only to fight a strong weight pushing down on my shoulder. I glanced upwards to see another ginger cat. He was larger than the female, but was clearly younger. Either way, I would have preferred to fight the girl.
'Is he RiverClan?' A careful voice asked (or should I say meowed?). It came from a gray tabby with amber eyes that was standing beside my captor. I tilted my head to one-side. Once again, I was struck by the thought that these cats seemed familiar.
Mr-deformed-claws answered him. 'Of course he's not RiverClan, you mousebrain.' He spat, in a deep, gravelly voice. 'Use your nose. He's clearly a loner.'
'Why did you help our apprentice?' The ginger cat said. I looked round, and realising he was actually addressing me this time.
'Oh I dunno, maybe because she was about to die?' I said sarcastically, in my usual cold tone. All six of them seemed surprised by my aggressiveness. 'Now are you going to get the fuck off me, or I going to have to get you off myself?'
'Watch your tongue loner.' The sixth cat retorted angrily, this time a she-cat.
'Make me,' I grumbled under my breath, before shoving the ginger's paw off my shoulder and dusting myself off. He growled, but I ignored him-
Wait a second.
Did they say- did they just say, RiverClan?
And then the realisation struck me. These cats looked exactly characters from the Warriors series! The ginger one was Fireheart, the grey one was Greystripe, the one I'd helped was Sandstorm, or soon to be Sandstorm anyway, and the other two were Tigerclaw and Willowpelt.
For a moment I was absolutely speechless. After all, surely this wasn't possible. The whole thing was completely ridiculous! First of all, waking up as a cat, secondly, meeting the fictional characters from my favourite books? My mind just refused to accept that it could possibly be real. It's a dream, I thought, it must be a dream.
But I didn't have anytime to ponder on the thought, because the cat I now knew to be Tigerclaw was questioning me again. 'What's your name?' He said, slowly and threateningly. His claws flashed in the bright sunlight.
'Why should I tell you?' I asked.
Tigerclaw gritted his teeth. 'Are you sure you'd escape alive if you tried to take on six cats?' He paused to let his words sink in. 'I'll as you again: what's your name?'
I opened my mouth, and was just about to tell him that my name was Jack, before hesitating for a moment. Even though they couldn't be real, I didn't want to tell them my human name. They'd think I was a kittypet, and since they seemed to have decided on the fact that I was a loner, I'd need to give them a loner-ish sounding name.
So I said the first one that came into my head. 'Rook,' I replied, stiffly.
Rook was the name of the first ever Warriors character I created. Strangely enough, he had a similar appearance to what I looked like now, as well as an icy voice, which I'd based upon my own. Even though it was a lie, I knew that I would remember the name and was used to saying it, so much so that it seemed to persuade Tigerclaw that I had in fact told him the truth.
Tigerclaw looked prepared to speak again, but this time, I cut in. 'Who knocked me out?' I asked, bluntly.
'I did.' I turned around to see that it was Fireheart speaking. For a moment, I wondered if I should have spoken a little bit more politely to the cat that would be the saviour of the Clans. 'I wasn't just about to let you escape without finding out why you decided to help us.'
'I didn't help you!' I snapped, before getting back up to my paws. Instantaneously, the other patrol members closed in, sending me an unspoken warning. 'I had no intention of helping you.'
'You saved Sandpaw's life!'
'Only because you weren't doing a very good job of it yourself.' I said.
This time, Fireheart stayed quiet. As a matter of fact, so did the rest of the cats.
Encouraged by the fact they had no answer to this, I pressed on. 'Besides, like I said earlier, I wasn't just going to let an innocent cat die.'
For just a moment, I was thrown back into the past. I recalled the screaming and shouting of the night dad left.
'No one deserves to die.' I whispered, sullenly.
Silence.
Suddenly, I was shot back into the present, and became aware of the other cats once more. Annoyed at myself for showing emotion, I shook myself angrily and turned away. 'Now if you'll excuse me,' I said, abruptly, 'I'd appreciate it if you let me go now.'
I moved forward to leave the circe of cats surrounding me, but quickly, Greystripe moved forward to block my path. I hissed at him, but he unsheathed his claws, warning me off.
'Stop.' Tigerclaw's commanding voice echoed, and he moved inbetween me and Greystripe, pushing us apart. 'No Greystripe,' he said, surprisingly calmly. 'Let him go.'
I looked at Tigerclaw in surprise, as did the rest of the patrol. 'But Tigerclaw,' Willowpelt exclaimed, 'we should take him to Bluestar! He's an intrud-'
'No need.' Tigerclaw dismissed the idea confidently. 'He's an intruder, yes, and he will leave our territory now.' He gave me a hard stare on this one, as if to say, or else. 'But apart from that, he can go.'
I couldn't help feeling suspicious. This was not the kind of Tigerclaw that was described in the books- he was always itching for a fight, and desperate to attack intruders, and he most certainly wasn't one to let a loner go. Yet here he was, doing just that.
More evidence that this is a dream, I thought, almost gleefully. Dreams are usually unconnected, and they don't make sense. Tigerclaw would never let me go if this was real.
Even so, I wasn't going to allow him to think twice about it. Quickly, I padded through the gap Tigerclaw had created and away into the forest. On the way through, my eyes connected for the first time with those of Sandpaw. I wondered if she would thank me, but she didn't. All she did was look away, as if embarrassed.
Ungrateful bitch, I thought, before slipping away into the bushes.
But as soon as they disappeared from sight, and I was certain they wouldn't be able to hear me, I stopped walking and sat down, finally allowing myself to rest. My head still hurt from when I'd been knocked unconscious. I reached forward with my paw and pressed it against the side of my head: it was slightly bloody.
I can't believe that I just had a conversation with Fireheart! I thought. And Tigerclaw, and Greystripe, and Sandpaw! I had never dreamed about something like this before.
I sighed, mostly out of accpetance than anything.
I couldn't keep telling myself that this was a dream. It was stupid, trying to convince myself something was fake when it was undoubtedly real. I didn't want to accept it- no one would. How would you react if you woke one morning and found out that you'd been transformed into a cat, and then you suddenly found yourself meeting characters from your favourite books? You'd think it wasn't real as well.
And yet here I was.
The first thing that crossed my mind was a thought about home. About my mom, as much as I disliked her, and even about Sally! Did they care that I was gone? Did they even know I was gone? Did they still think that I was coming home?
What if they thought I was dead?
My head hurt from all the painful questions, so I tried to ignore them, but they just kept ringing at the back of my mind. After awhile, I decided to try and get some sleep. Mull it over, and then concentrate on the bigger things in the morning. I was hungry as well. Desperately hungry. How was I going to survive as a cat?
All the exhaustion and excitement was beginning to catch up with me. I curled up into a ball, using my fur for insulation, and fell asleep felling lost abandoned and alone.
And with the thought that I was falling asleep no longer as a human, but as a cat.
