Maze of Darkness: Hear Me Now
Chapter 4: Valos
I feel the spirit, the very essence of those voices bring me closer. They pull my own paws, the journey effortless. The twisting tunnels seem to evaporate, pulling me through the maze without myself having any say. There is no point in struggling, these enchanting voices that string together this woven song are too strong. Moon's voice disappears farther and farther from my ears, and my thoughts. There is no turning back now.
Feeling the tunnel walls, I navigate myself. Already a map of this place and everywhere I have been has slowly sketched itself into my head. Every time I reflect on it, there is this odd feeling that blankets my mind and flows between the empty spaces. The pit of vanished thoughts spits out something that is vaguely familiar. It is hard to explain, a light feeling spreading through my heart and my mind turning soft. It is comforting, but annoying. Now every time I look at the map, I am clumsy, while my mind needs to be sharp.
Soon the song has scattered. Panic rises as it stops, pulling my paws forward. I am careful to duck my head in, but the pain is slowly pulling over my scalp. Paws pelting across the stone, I struggle to squeeze around, the tunnel getting tighter. Finally, the clutch unleashes, and I stumble into a cavern.
Luminescent mosses glow softly overhead, pulsing vibrant blue lights. Arched walls slope to my sides, the ceiling disappearing in the shadowed darkness. I sit, amazed, while catching my breath. After what must have been sunrises, my eyes can adjust to such a magnificent brightness again. A breath surges out my lungs, heavy. Something doesn't seem right. Is this too amazing? The voices seem to have vanished altogether now, the nothingness of it larger than the lightest note had ever been.
I step forward lightly, careful on my paws, but something stops me. There are whispers in this cavern, slithering down the walls and dripping like water around me. Altogether, it is a bit soothing. I close my eyes, losing myself in the sound. Until the owners of those voices reappear, I may as well wait here.
The sound of water speeds up, swelling and rushing around me. My muscles tense a little, though not a drop of water reaches my pelt. Surrounding me, the roar grows. It sounds familiar, but I cannot tell from what. Have I experienced this before? I look as deep into my memory as I can, but nothing is clear. A haze has taken over my mind, and not a scrap of remembrance is available through this veil of mist and fear.
I try to relax, letting the tenseness in my body uncoil. Lifting my head slightly, is breath in the sweet scent. Then a single drop looses itself from its hiding place, tumbling neatly through the air. There is a small plop as it hits my nose. I shake my head frantically, opening my eyes to see nothing by the trail of murky water rushing from the cavern's edges and towards my paws.
Frantically glancing around, it appears that the entrance that I came through is blocked off, a wall of falling water building itself thicker by the minute. I shuffle my paws, bracing myself for what I know is coming.
Warm droplets of water swarm over my paws, crawling slowly upward. I focus on nothing, standing completely vulnerable in this moment. My whiskers twitch as they are sprinkled with the tickling droplets. I breath in deeply, embracing the moment. If anything wants to kill me now, whether it be the forces or nature or a blood thirsty member of this game, let them take me in this moment of peace.
Suddenly, something jerks me to the side. Claws, something sharp against my neck. Everything is a blurry rush before my eyes, a dizzying flurry of white and red, silhouetted in the bioluminescent plants. I swerve my head around, but the pain buckles my legs beneath me. Once again, those lights dart across my vision, leaving their odd blue tracks behind, but I shake them away.
The grasp in my neck clenches tighter, but it doesn't hurt. Like being a kit again, the ground falls out from beneath me as I am lifted. Purtred breath runs down my back, reaching my maw. The fur front my neck to the tip of my tail spikes up, but it is pointless. Whatever is carrying me tries to be ginger with his or her grip, but I as yanked furiously back and forth down the cavern. I seal my eyes shut, to avoid watching the world as it bounces up and down.
Stumbling, my guide slows, then the breath freezes in my lungs as we plunge through the wall of water. For a moment, I am drowned alive, the frozen water and air in my body numbing my senses. The world has disappeared, only the cold, silent darkness for more than the solid moment I was hoping for.
Then, the lights come back, eyes forcing themselves open. Panting sounds echo from all around, almost like the drowning torrent of water. My one eye still is fogged up, but the other sees as clearly as ever. I cast my gaze around the cave where we have stopped. A thin trickle of water gurgles over my paws, droplets from my wet pelt joining the stream.
In the faint light, I can make out four other shapes, all cats. Two of the are dappled shadows, patched together in many shades of gray. One is glancing straight at me, eyes perfect round orbs of green. The other is turned away, tense and ready to continue. Craning my neck around, I see the cat who was carrying me now, up close. It is a tom, I can tell b the scent, with gray-tinged fur by what I can see, and dull orange eyes. But the last cat is the one that really catches my attention.
Her fur is pure white, as if untouched by the darkness and dirt of this place. She is larger than I, certainly past her apprentice years, with many muscles showing from under her sleek pelt. With her head raised high enough to catch a gleam of light in her eyes, I can see not only the bright golden color, but years of wisdom. I sit in awe of this amazing she-cat, until she looks directly at me, her gaze piercing though my soul and freezing every loose end.
The questions where am I? and who are you? melt in my head, coming out in a mess of thoughts that never finished. "Who am I? I mean, what are you?"
I see her exhale, shoulders relaxing and she moves towards me in a few elegant strides. "Memory loss, I knew it. If they put you in here, you would have had a sharper mind than to go in there. Lucky for you we were on patrol." Her body paces around me, tail curling and uncurling.
"But who are you? Can you explain? There, there's this fog and-"
She looks at me, as if sizing me up. Moon said something about being chosen to go here. Was this cat chosen because of a strong mind? She looks as wise as she does beautiful. "Amnesia, it must be. You must have had your memory lost after you got here, it looks like. Of course, you seem only seven moons. They keep sending them in younger. Soon enough they will send newborn kits into this death trap." She mumbled something under her breath that I can't understand, but I don't ask. There is no need to seem weaker than I already am.
"You look pretty bad," she continues. "That head can't feel good, and there is something in your eye too, so no wonder it is foggy." Something in my eye? I feel the beginnings of a panic attack surging through me, but I try to push it down. "Lets get him back to the camp," she tells the tom who was carrying me before.
The tom grunts a reply, pulling a paw over his ears to clean them before grabbing me again. As gentle as he tries to be, his fangs sting a little in my scruff, almost matching with the throbbing pain from my head.
"Wait!" I yell. The she-cat stops and turns to me. "You never told me your name!"
She stifles a laugh, staring straight at me. "Names me nothing in this game, that is why so many are changed. Before I was sent here, my father called me Lightpaw. But like many, I renamed myself. Call me Valos."
With a flourish, Valos takes the lead again, the other two cats falling in beside her as we move slowly downhill. "My name is Furzepaw." I try to introduce myself. She doesn't look my way, but I can tell she is listening from how her ears tilt towards me.
"Fine name," she purrs, paws skimming the ground. "But is it you?"
I let the question dance across my mind. If many cats change their names, this place must have another force, the power of control and thought that moves a cat, that makes them change. Lightpaw sounds beautiful, but a Clan name is nothing if there is no Clan to go to. What is in a name that makes it special.
My mother always said she named me after furze, an unusual name for a normal plant. She wanted me to be great, to prove even a normal gorse bush can be a flame to start something new. Even ashes of dead forests can construct new life. The world is miraculous, and there is more here than will ever meet the senses.
I have that power now.
