Hard Work Pt. 2
Mothkit followed the two cats, and quickly found herself falling alongside Ember. The she-cat, while she had been intense during training, had been so friendly that she seemed easily more approachable than the dark storm of a cat that Alder seemed to be. "Sooo…" She murmured, "Are you another member of the Clans? Or are you a rogue? Or a kittypet?"
To her surprise, Ember's eyes flashed with a slight bit of alarm, "I'm sorry, Moth, but we're simply not allowed to give information about where we're from. I'm sorry if Sen neglected to mention it, but we simply are a separate cat here in the forest." At Mothkit's downtrodden expression, Ember's expression softened, and she whispered, "I prefer it to be that way though, as should you in the long run. There are no ties to the past weighing us down. We are as we are meant to be here in The Silver Forest. Your slate is clean here. In the meantime, however, refrain from asking others this question." She gave Mothkit's cheek a lick, her eyes flashing warmth.
"But…" Mothkit protested, "I don't understand. Why? What does keeping secrets like that have to do with protecting time? Why is it a rule?"
Ember blinked, clearly unsure of how to respond. She opened her mouth and closed it again, frowning. She appeared to have come up with some form of an acceptable answer when a voice from her other side startled her, growling, "We're all here for one reason only. We all have one cause. We are all here to protect Time, and that's all." She turned to see Alder glaring at her with a sort of simple fury. It was as if she was a bug in his view. She almost felt unworthy under his strong gaze. She squirmed again, moving a bit closer to Ember.
"Just imagine this," Ember murmured into her ear, "Let's say two cats are complete rivals. They've hated each other their whole lives. They would never be able to work with each other no matter if it meant life or death. Would you want these two cats working together in order to protect a single thing? I doubt it. We are given new bodies so as to almost give us a new soul. It allows us to shed our worldly personality and lose our worlds flaws in exchange for something almost transcendent. As we grow older here in the forest we grow as spirits. This is why there are rarely any kits here. They have not yet grown to form a personality truly of their own, so they have nothing to base their growth from. The older you are, the easier it is to separate what's real here versus what is real in our normal lives. One of the biggest challenges for you, Moth, will be realizing that the ways of the Silver Forest and of your world are different, and they cannot comingle."
Mothkit stared at Ember, her eyes wide open. She had not expected Ember to speak such words of wisdom. It was as if someone else had been speaking. "You sound like Sen…" She mewed in awe, her fur prickling.
"It's always interesting when she goes off into one of her spirit talks," Alder mewed teasingly, his eyes almost seeming to actually have emotion in them. Mothkit blinked, surprised. It almost sounded as if he was being a tad bit friendly. Where had that come from? Perhaps he was friends with Ember. That would make a modicum of sense, although she was still miffed over how dismissive he was of Mothkit.
Ember chuckled, "Whatever you say, furball, you know what I'm saying would be true for you too if you didn't have such a hard shell around you." The two cats certainly seemed to be friends of some sort. Maybe Mothkit could get Alder to soften up towards her a little by becoming friends with Ember?
"I found it interesting!" Mothkit mewed with a kit-like exuberance, almost immediately feeling a bit embarrassed. She would need to act and sound more mature while in this body. She had to act above her age.
She was certain that one of Ember or Alder would tease her for it, but neither of them did. Ember's only reaction was to brush her tail along Mothkit's flank and smile. Alder was muttering to himself, but when Mothkit glanced in his direction again, he appeared to have a bit of a twinkle of amusement in his eyes. It still made Mothkit a bit mad. She didn't want to be the cute thing everyone laughed at, she wanted to be a legitimate part of the conversations her new…Group-mates would inevitably attempt to have with her. She could certainly do it. She wasn't that immature. At least not for her age.
Sighing, Mothkit continued walking alongside the two cats, absorbing her surroundings. It was incredibly peaceful. Whatever wild creatures there were felt content with leaving the three of them alone. Perhaps the nearby spirits sensed the power flowing between them. Perhaps they simply knew of Sen and deliberately avoided them. She shook her head, wondering on. She felt that she would never fully understand The Silver Forest, no matter how much of her life she spent trying to. The realm was an enigma protected by a group of enigmas, with enigmatic loners apparently secretly living around, or at least, that appeared to be the case with Sage.
She noticed Ember moving out of the corner of her eye and saw her reaching up to whisper to her, "I'm sorry for how Alder acted today. He's very…dedicated. To be completely honest, I don't think he has the greatest…real world…living situation. Be patient with him, he'll come around to you if you show him you are willing to take all of this seriously."
"What are you two muttering about?" Alder mewed sharply, rolling his eyes at the two of them, "I hope you're at least teaching her something." Mothkit frowned. What could be going on in Alder's other life to make him so…She couldn't think of a word to describe it, but she felt like he certainly wasn't anywhere near as old as he tried to act. Maybe…Maybe he was just scared for some reason? Scared of what though? There didn't appear to be any crack in his stoic expression as of now. Perhaps she was just reading too much into it. That had to be it.
"You know me Alder," Ember stuck her tongue out at the tom, "I'm truly a giver of life lessons. It's still a shame you didn't follow my advice to mind your own business every once in a while." While her words were playful, there was a bit of a warning in her eyes that even the young Mothkit could recognize. Wisely, Alder did not respond, but simply harrumphed and kept walking forward, his eyes glittering in annoyance. Ember purred softly and added softly, "He's a soft kitten at heart, just like me and you, Moth. Just don't say it to his face or he'll try to prove you wrong."
Moth stared after Alder as they walked behind him. She was going to get closer to him. It was a sort of a curiosity within her that she was finding hard to deny. No matter how much Sen and his followers looked down on it, she needed to figure out what Alder's problem was.
Suddenly, Alder stopped, his nose high in the air, his mouth open. The tom's eyes were filled with a sudden alarm the likes of which Mothkit had never seen before, "Bear!" Alder exclaimed, looking back at Ember and Mothkit, "Run!" He took off and ran straight forward, probably towards the camp. Mothkit looked around confused, until she spotted a massive silhouette in the distance, a mighty rumble beginning to make itself apparent with each step of the bear.
The trio ran as fast as possible, until the landscape began feeling familiar to Mothkit. They were just outside of the camp. They all stopped, breathing heavily. "What was that thing?" Mothkit exclaimed breathlessly.
Ember quickly wheezed a response, "That was a bear spirit. They are very rare, and are almost always spotted at a distance. They typically only watch, but I've heard rumors that in their minds lie an impenetrable wall, so tough that even Sen can't break through," She took another big breath, "We are told to never face one, no matter the circumstance. We don't know what they want, but we don't want to find out. Hopefully you never come face to face with one."
Mothkit shivered, looking at the forest around them. The Silver Forest was crazier than she could have ever imagined, but she liked it. It felt…right to be here. Perhaps she truly was meant to be here. Maybe it had something to do with this Typhos thing.
All she knew was that she was going to do her best to protect Time, no matter what that entailed. That seemed to be the big idea of The Silver Forest.
However, it all left no room for Sage. Who was he? How did Sen not know about him? Why did he live separately from Sen's group? Why had he taken such an interest in her in her original visits?
Maybe once she grew strong enough, she could seek him out, but for now, she was exhausted. Hopefully she could go back and get some sleep. She'd need to act the part of a typical kit, wouldn't she? She couldn't act abnormal, no matter how much she itched to show others her powers.
She was unique, and she knew it. Now she just had to live with it.