Chapter 3: Waves and Dreams
I was falling through darkness, falling, falling...
I don't know for how long. Finally, the darkness resolved itself and became a tossing ocean, and I was swaying on the wooden half-bridges.
The waves suddenly swelled, dragging me down with them. I choked, gasping and coughing as the salty water filled my lungs and mouth. Spluttering, I felt something nudge my leg. Paddling furiously, I glanced down. A pair of sky-blue eyes stared back at me.
I jumped away in terror, my heart pounding in my throat again, and nearly went under the water again. Spitting out a mouthful of seawater, I paddled frantically for the surface, choking and panting. I turned in the waves, trying to see where the shore was without drowning, but it seemed to have vanished in the rising tide. A seagull screamed above me. I looked up and saw it diving straight towards me.
Panicking even worse, I tried to paddle away from the landing point I'd calculated from its current trajectory, squeezing my eyes shut. It landed in the ocean with no splash, pulling its wings in and settling on top of the water. It ruffled its feathers unconcernedly as I floundered beside it. It was a solid gray bird with an unpleasantly hooked beak. Then it turned and stared straight at me.
Its eyes were green, and its stern gaze seemed to suggest deep sorrow and deep wisdom. It cocked its head at me. Then it spoke.
"Pebblepaw," he said in a voice that was clearly male.
"Um..." I began eloquently, but I inhaled a bucketful of salt water and choked quite a bit before adding, "Yeah?"
"I have a message for you," he said. It was rather remarkable how little emotion his voice showed.
"Okay—" I said, spitting out another bucketful of seawater.
"From StarClan."
"Oh," I said in a wheezy voice, tipping my head back to avoid inhaling another mouthful.
"There are two," he said, "but soon there will be only one."
I felt a twinge inside me. That sounded unpleasantly familiar. "There are two," I said aloud to myself, trying to remember, "but soon there will be only one..."
"Repeat after me," said the seagull of eternal wisdom. "You are passing on the message."
"Okay..." I said blankly, paddling furiously and squeezing my eyes shut as another wave crashed over me. Spitting the water out, I squinted at him as he continued.
"There are two," he said again, "but soon there will be only one."
"There are two," I said obligingly, coughing the briny water out of my throat, "but soon there will be only one."
"Pebbles clattering on the blood river's shore beneath scampering paws..." he said. Suddenly my heart was beating a lot faster than usual. "One black paw will lash back... And find another... Even the brightest star hides secrets... And even distant mountain ridges can reach the stars... Even an accident can save the cats who need you most... Dark moonbeams light the fog..." Then I realized where I had heard those words before. And the blue eyes that had stared a me from underwater, a different pair of eyes than the seagull's, were the ones I'd seen on the dock before I'd been dragged underwater in my first dream. I opened my mouth and began to repeat after him.
"Pebbles clattering on the blood river's shore beneath scampering paws..." I said in a low, choked voice. "One black paw will lash... back... And find... another... Even the brightest star... hides secrets... And even distant mountain... ridges can reach... the stars... Even an accident... can save... the cats who need you... most... Dark... moonbeams... light the fog..." I said, coughing and clawing my way back to the surface.
The seagull dipped its head. "The only thing holding you back... is you."
I tipped my head back, panting with the effort. "The only thing holding you back..." I gasped, "Is you."
The seagull nodded. Then he vanished.
I gasped, and inhaled another bucketful of seawater. Choking, I felt the cold numbing my paws begin to travel up my legs, chilling me to the bone. Gagging and retching, I felt my lungs fill with saltwater. The cold water was dragging me down, down into the dark depths of the ocean. I paddled with all my strength, spitting and coughing, but I could feel my muscles beginning to seize up, and the cold was seeping into my chest...
A wave crashed over my head, and I was dragged under the dark ocean.
The blackness resolved itself suddenly. A single slit of pale light filtered through my eyelids. I snapped my eyes open.
I was in a small cavern with dark, damp, jagged walls and a single crack in the ceiling where watery sunlight was filtering through. A tom with long gray tabby fur and green eyes stared down at me. I turned my head, the strong smell of salt and plants filling my scent glands. This was obviously a sea cave, and I wondered if the tabby had found me by the beach, of if it had been a dream.
Then, with a jolt, I recognized the elderly tom hovering above me. He was the seagull!
I rolled my head sideways, and hunched in a corner was the familiar figure of a gray she-cat with sky-blue eyes—why was she familiar?
Her mouth fell open. So did mine.
I recognized her, too. She'd also been in my dream—she was the eyes under the water and on the foggy dock. Did she know what the prophecy meant?
"You!" I gasped.
