Chapter 8: Swallowing Darkness
Raindrop opened her eyes blearily. She gasped.
She was standing on a cliff, high in the mountains. The narrow rocky ledge beneath her gave way to a canyon of darkness that didn't appear to have an end. Above her stretched an endless dome of gray sky; huge birds were circling above her. A fierce cold wind howled like someone yowling in the canyon.
"Hey Raindrop!"
Raindrop whirled around and tipped dangerously. There on the ledge was another cat. But it was just a shadow. The shape of a cat was rippling, as if taking form. Behind her, hazy shadows like smoke were forming into more cats, and beneath them a ledge was rippling into existence. Part of her panicked brain registered that this had to be a dream, but Raindrop wasn't paying attention other brain right then.
"Raindrop! Lighten up!"
Raindrop stared at the cat behind her, squinting. She could almost make out who it was... Suddenly there was an echoing crack.
The ledge was breaking.
With a yowl, the cat behind her scrambled forward, clawing at the ledge where Raindrop stood, trying to stay on solid ground. But suddenly Raindrop couldn't move. She wanted to cry out, but she couldn't. She wanted to help her tribemate, but she couldn't. Raindrop wanted to save her, but she couldn't.
With a cry of terrible fear, Pounce tumbled into the darkness.
And the darkness will swallow...
She woke up with a jolt, the cry from her dream still ringing in her ears.
The tribe slept around her, their breathing like a light wind. The shallow crevice the gnarled tree grew in had served as their sleeping place that night, guards posted in shifts by the edges as the rain poured down. Lightning split the sky with a crackling thunderclap. Several cats jumped and awoke with yelps, and Windteller sat bolt upright beside her.
"What happened?" he gasped, looking around.
"Nothing," Raindrop replied quietly. The rain had stopped, but it sounded like another storm was coming. The dark clouds rising behind the mountains said as much. Raindrop stared into the distance, praying her dream was only a dream. Pounce couldn't die! Even if Raindrop wasn't speaking to her, she wasn't going to let the bouncy to-be die. And what had been the point of Pounce's figure being an only a silhouette? The distant thunder growled again.
Raindrop's mind wandered from possibility to possibility, meandering along the ideas that cluttered her mind. She was still thinking about the eagle the day before. Riding it for just a few heartbeats had been amazing, and though it had tried to kill that kit, and that the tribe had spent an unusually well-fed evening thanks to it, Raindrop couldn't help but feel a certain sense of gratitude towards it for that flight. She understood now. One of the lines in the prophecy had mentioned flying. She couldn't remember the exact words, but she remembered enough.
Suddenly her mind stumbled across a distracting idea: what if the vagueness of Pounce's figure had something to do with the way Raindrop saw her—maybe, maybe Raindrop didn't see Pounce as what she really was. Maybe she never could. Maybe, if this nightmare came true, she never would. Maybe she wouldn't see Pounce for who she was until it was too late.
Another thunderclap split the still air again, ringing ominously across the stone plateau like an echo of Raindrop's thoughts.
"Raindrop?"
Pounce peered tentatively around Raindrop's flank, looking anxious.
"What?" she asked, her voice harsher than she'd intended.
"Sorry," said Pounce, looking reproachful but with a note of sarcasm in her voice. "Didn't mean to disturb your deep thoughts. I just wanted to talk to you about your brother, but obviously you have much more important things to do."
Raindrop glared at her. "That's not what I said," she snapped, now angry herself. "Don't just assume what I'm going to say or do next because you think you know me, because you obviously don't!"
Pounce glared back. There was a time where she would have quelled under Raindrop's ferocious glare, but those days had long passed. Pounce was growing up, becoming her own spirit.
This realization hit Raindrop like a blow in the chest. With a suffocating feeling, she felt her hear sink. She didn't like growing up, not her, not anyone, because it always meant changes for the more serious and just changes in general. And if Pounce was growing up, that meant that Raindrop really didn't know her.
Pounce hissed softly and whipped around, stalking off to walk with Windteller and Eddy, leaving Raindrop alone, again.
Raindrop hoped with all her heart she was imagining the haziness of Pounce's outline.
The wind howled in the canyon below them. It seemed to stretch down for an eternity, gaping blackness that went on forever.
"HELP!"
The scream split the air, echoing in Raindrop's ears. Again, she watched Pounce's silhouette tumble into the unforgiving blackness without ever even taking form.
Raindrop awoke with a start, her heart still pounding, her ears still ringing.
The tribe was sleeping around her. They were sheltering in a shallow cave at the base of the mountains. They would begin the climb that day.
A huge canyon split the mountains apart, but it wasn't the one from her dream, to her relief, because it had a thundering river going through it.
A thin path twisted between the boulders and sheer walls of the mountain, and it was this trail they followed. It was a steep exhausting path, but the Tribe was accustomed to climbing trees to get around, so this was not too difficult... Only the pebbles that got stuck between their pads, the thin cold air of the approaching Winter, and the constant wind howling in their ears were bothersome...
...They were miserable.
Except Raindrop. After a long day of climbing, Raindrop was the only cat who was still full of energy. The wind so wild and free, the air so light and the ground so solid, and they were so close to the sky, Raindrop felt energy pumping through her, her heart lifting with every gust of wind, the clouds just above her ears...
She'd become a different cat. She too was growing up, but that horrible thought never occurred to her—she was too happy. This was just like flying, soaring here without wings... she was at peace, and this, she had decided, was where she would stay at peace. No wonder, in the Jungle, she had felt so awkward! This was where she belonged. This was amazing.
She forgot about her worries, her tribe's hardships, Windteller's anxiety, her surliness with Pounce, her nightmares, the long twisting path ahead of her that had nothing to do with the rocky trail she was climbing, the path she'd only glimpsed.
This is home, she thought, or it will be one day.
One day.
