I'm going to stop making promies. Seriously, I physically can't write as fast now. But hey, quality is still my number one priorty here.
Thanks to the new follows and fav's: Moonshine90 (You are totally right in your review, thanks for the advice) and Bridgett Yang (And a good day to you!)
I cannot believe that I got this far. I really can't...
When did it all begin? Some crazy idea that I had that would make a good story, right? Holy heck did I take this way too far.
And yes, I have an obvious bias and appreciation for the young apprentce in this story, don't judge me.
A silver she-cat walked alone among a darkened grass with pawsteps that made no sound, as if she herself was unknowingly respecting the somber silence that surrounded her. In a strange way, the empty stretch of land all around the warrior seemed to be suppressing every sound that she could make, leaving the gentle swaying of the grass as the only company that the she-cat had at that moment. A few fox-lengths ahead of her, she could spot the watery surface of a small puddle, its surface lacking any sort of glimmer or sparkling reflection due to the lack of sunlight in the sky.
Without thinking too much about it, the she-cat headed in that direction with paws that seemed to be unsure if they felt tired or willing to walk for a thousand more fox-lengths, although neither option would get her any closer to escaping the place that she was trapped in. She took an apathetic look around her, glancing at the dull and endless moor covered in grey clouds with as much interest as one looks at a fly circling around fox-dung.
I would rather do that all day instead of having to spend another heartbeat here.
The silver warrior reached the pond of water and gazed at its cloudy surface. She squinted her eyes and focused on the waters as she thought of the lake territories, where she had lived before going to Starclan.
The clouds dissipated and she could see the entirety of the clan territories, like an owl gliding through the sky searching for night prey. She ordered her vision to sweep through Skyclan and Shadowclan territory, and the invisible owl directed its gaze towards the pine forest with a steady pace. The silver she-cat twitched her tail with impatience as the slow vision moved from one place to the other. Eventually, it reached the pine forest and travelled through the branches of the trees with swiftful ease, as if it knew what the she-cat was looking for all along. It suddenly stopped on its path and looked down at a group of cats that were walking through the forest.
Two black and white warriors walked side by side, the older one being guided by the younger one's tail. A few pawsteps ahead, a dark-grey she-cat moved quietly as she accompanied a pale-brown warrior and another grey she-cat. The three other cats gave their two companions enough space to speak to each other privately while leading them towards their destination.
The black-and-white she-cat that was being guided by her daughter was not very old. Just examining the lack of grey hairs and the glossiness of her pelt was enough to tell that she was still a young warrior, despite being a mother. However, at first glance she looked as if she was an elder. Her shoulders and head weighed down with such sorrow that it was easy to confuse it with just tiredness from an old age, and the way that she contrasted with her much younger daughter's straightened muscles only made the difference in age between the two seem more abysmal than what it actually was. The spirit that was watching them should know, as she had seen the she-cat grow from a tiny kit into a brave little fighter, and then into a strong warrior once her guardian had given her own life to save Violetpaw.
The silver warrior kept her gaze focused on the pool of water in front of her paws, knowing that if her concentration slipped away for even a heartbeat, the waters would cloud and the vision that she had over the she-cats would be lost.
By what she knew, Violetshine's daughter was leading her mother into a place where she would be safe from the fight that would come at dawn. That was a place that had belonged to Shadowclan before every clan had shifted their territories to fit Skyclan into the lake. According to what the other Starclan spirits had seen, weaker and eldest cats were being sent there, as well as the ones not brave enough to fight the ghosts of their corrupted kin.
I don't blame you for not wanting to fight Tree, Violetshine, but trying to eat deathberries…
She had seen from those same pools of water that Violetshine had regretted her desperate attempt to join her deceased mate. The idea of having the she-cat that the spirit had sacrificed herself for trying to take her own life was something that had shaken her to her core.
Without realizing, memories of the night in which the silver warrior had chosen to spare Violetpaw came back to her. The water filling her lungs. The vicious attacks from the many hostile cats that had surrounded her. The feeling of a merciless swipe making its way through her exposed throat. The relief of hearing the pawsteps of a young she-cat getting lost in the forest at a speed that no other cat would ever catch up to.
"Make this one count, Violetpaw!"
She had risked, and lost, her life for Violetshine and she had been on the brink of giving it up. Darktail's blue eyes had looked down at her before making a killing bite and she had gritted her teeth and hissed at him instead of cowering in fear, all because she had hope that Violetshine would live after that night. It had all almost been for nothing after what the Skyclan warrior had done. Whoever was manipulating Tree's mind, it had put Violetshine one pawstep away from death once again. Both Darktail and the impostor's voices were still fresh in her memory, as if the two fox-hearts were standing right beside her.
"Needletail?"
The silver warrior felt all of her fur stand on its end in a single heartbeat as she realized that the voice came from behind her back. Without being able to think, she turned around rapidly and threw a blind swipe with her unsheathed claws as she hissed to intimidate the voice.
A young tabby tom, which could have been of any color before being trapped in the moor, jumped backwards with a surprised yelp, his eyes wild with fear from the sudden attack from the she-cat.
"I'm sorry! I'm sorry!" He quickly breathed out as Needletail's claws sliced through one of his whiskers, cutting it in half. The tabby tom arched his back with his short pelt unwillingly bristled and looked at the silver warrior with both an apologetic and startled expression.
Needletail sighed as she sheathed her claws, recognizing that tom's voice immediately after getting used to hearing it talk over and over. "What do you want, Gorsepaw?"
"I just saw that you looked upset, and I thought that maybe you were watching something important on the water." The apprentice said with a mew that grew less hesitant with each word that he was saying. His posture began to relax as well, his pelt flattening up again with calm breaths.
The silver warrior glanced back at the pool of water to see that the vision of Violetshine and the other she-cats had already faded away, replaced by the reflection of the grey clouds that covered the entire sky of the endless moor.
"It was nothing, forget it," Needletail replied curtly as she took a step back from the pool.
"Oh, okay." Gorsepaw simply answered. He stood in his place in a rather awkward silence, unsure on what to say to the she-cat, until his eyes rested on the grass under his paws.
A glint of uncertainty briefly flashed on the tabby tom's eyes. "I… think you cut one of my whiskers off. Too bad it can't grow back as fast as the grass here."
With a quick move that Needletail didn't even manage to catch, Gorsepaw tore off a small patch of grass from the ground. The pieces were carried off with gentle swirls from a wind that none of the two cats could feel on their fur. In only a few heartbeats, the patch of grass grew back to its original length and size.
Needletail watched with uninterest as the cut grass got lost in the distance, barely glancing back at Gorsepaw when she spoke to him.
"It'll still grow back, don't be whiny."
"I wasn't being so…" The apprentice mumbled to himself before raising his head once again. "Did you hear about what happened in Thunderclan?"
"Yeah, what about it?"
"What about it?" Gorsepaw repeated with perplexity. "Dustpelt's plan worked! We're getting out of here!"
Needletail gritted her teeth when she heard the mention of the Thunderclan warrior's name.
"His plan was surely the best one to pick." She croaked bitterly as she turned around to walk away from the apprentice.
Yeah, I'm glad he had to leave and leave me trapped here.
"Wait, I didn't mean to say that!" The apprentice called out as his paws scrambled on the grass to follow the silver she-cat. Within a heartbeat, he was panting right next to her. "I just meant that-you know…"
Needletail glanced back at him without saying anything. The tom didn't lower his head in embarrassment, instead he seemed to be trying to work out how to apologize. Either way, the she-cat rolled her eyes and scoffed, indicating Gorsepaw that it was better to save the apologies.
That thoughtful look of Gorsepaw was something that almost every cat in Starclan had grown tired of already. Anyone knew that if that tom began to think of something really hard, he would probably speak for moons and moons about things that seemed to pop into his head out of nowhere. The last thing that Needletail wanted was an apology that would last until the day that she would disappear from memory.
Sure, he seemed to have some good theories on how to leave this place. Now, I'm sure he's just making stuff up to feel useful.
The tabby tom seemed to get the hint as he snapped his jaws shut. He slowed his pace and let the silver she-cat walk away from him with what looked to Needletail as disappointment. She ignored this as she walked past other pools of water where cats were sitting in small groups, all searching for kin or carefully trying to spot three young cats wandering through the forest in the search for a way to free them.
Dawn must be getting close for the clans. Whatever Dustpelt told those cats to do they better hurry it up.
From the corner of her eye, the silver warrior spotted a black tom sitting in front of one of the pools with his eyes looking intensely towards the water. Beside him, a black and grey kit was burying his head on his paws and trembling with fear. The older spirit was comforting him with gentle brushes of his tail while speaking with a mew heavy with sorrow for whatever he had seen.
"Flickerkit, don't be afraid."
"Will she go to the Dark Forest?" The kit asked with a murmur. "I don't want her to go there."
Without realizing, Needletail had stopped on her track and pricked her ears to focus on the two toms that were talking to each other.
"She realized her mistake, something that no Dark Forest cat ever did," The black tom answered, gazing down at the grey waters of the pool once again. He took a very deep breath as he lowered his head to lick the kit on his head's spiky fur. "Besides, she already has a punishment to live with for the rest of her life. There's no need to add another one when her time comes."
Flickerkit buried his head on the tom's fur, and in doing so he noticed Needletail staring at them. The she-cat turned around and continued her walk, knowing that asking what had happened would probably not be a good idea.
She kept walking forward aimlessly, trying to brush past the small crowds of cats that she encountered every few pawpsteps. Now that the leaders had decided that exploring the endless moor would literally take them nowhere, every cat in Starclan was now watching over the lake, witnessing everything that happened without any means to help their kin except for sometimes being lucky enough to communicate with them when close to their deaths.
At least it keeps us busy, I doubt that any of us wouldn't have gone insane without something to do.
While Needletail was lost in her own thoughts, another she-cat bumped into her body. The silver warrior took an annoyed step back as she glared at the spirit that had bumped into her.
"Hey, watch where you're going!" Needletail grunted.
The other she-cat, a pale-gray tabby, did not react at all to Needletail's complaints and simply brushed past her with hurried steps. She then walked up to a pool of water and locked her green gaze on it. Seeing her better, Needletail noticed that her pelt looked ruffled and that her shoulders were heavy, despite having no need to rest as a spirit.
To her dismay, Needletail felt the familiar scent of Gorsepaw beside her once again
"Hey, don't be so hard on her. That's Ferncloud," He whispered carefully, not wanting the tabby she-cat to hear him speaking. "Dustpelt's mate. She's been searching for him in the pools ever since he left this place. She must feel terrible."
I didn't really ask, Gorsepaw.
"I hope that Dustpelt is alright. I've seen Ashfur a couple of times, but I don't know where he is now. He must be hiding somewhere with Dustpelt to avoid the impostor after he betrayed him. Maybe they are outsi-"
"Alright, he's missing, I get it!" She answered with a frustrated sigh, hurrying her steps once again.
She had already heard enough about missing cats. First the cats that Darktail made dissapear when they tried to escape, killing them off or forcing them into exhile, like he did with Needletail's parents. Then, there were many of the cats in Starclan still hadn't been found in that moor. She specifically remembered a tortoiseshell she-cat calling the name "Rainwhisker" over and over, getting more and more desperate with each call. And now, Dustpelt and that mouse-brain that had let the impostor into Starclan's hunting grounds were both missing.
Yeah, but when I was missing, who bothered to care about it?
"Cats of Starclan!" A deep voice echoed through the moor. "It is time!"
The order caught every cat's attention. They turned their heads around as they saw a white tom standing on his black paws with his tail held high. His pelt was mostly unaffected after having its true colors stripped away from it, the only change in the white and black tones on his fur was that they looked as if they were covered in dust.
Despite that, his amber eyes shined bright with coldness as he slowly focused on all the spirits that he was addressing, which was enough to make any of them bow their heads slightly. Needletail instead held her chin high as she looked back at those eyes with a sense of admiration and pride for having belonged to Shadowclan, something that she had never felt when she had been alive.
He does look like the kind of leader that would have stomped on cats like Darktail as if they were a rotten berry.
"The living cats need us. Come to the Graypool, so that we can leave this cursed place as soon as the barrier is opened. We'll finally be free." Blackstar sheathed and unsheathed his claws with clear anticipation, despite his tone betraying no urgency. "And then, we'll finally get to punish that impostor."
As soon as I'm out of here, I'm going to find Tree and free him from the impostor. I'll tear his throat out while I'm at it as well.
Cats shared excited and hopeful mews with each other as they hurried in the direction of the only way out of that endless moor. Needletail felt the mass of colorless cats push her forwards, like a grey wave of water that forced her to move in its direction. She wiggled and squirmed her way to the side in an attempt to prevent more cats from stepping on her tail as they all rushed towards the Greypool that had been covered in ivy tendrils and thorny vines.
If you could all slow down for a moment, that would be great. It's not like the barrier is going to burst open as soon as you all get there.
Another cat bumped and tripped his way out of the crowd of cats, his tabby pelt ruffled in many directions. Once he managed to stand back on his paws, he darted off into the endless moor without looking back. Needletail followed the small tom with her gaze until she heard the voice of a she-cat call to him.
"Gorsepaw! Come back!"
What is that mouse-brain doing?
A dark and smoky cat stopped next to Needletail and looked back at the other she-cat that had called to the apprentice. "I'll go get him, Morningflower, don't worry."
She then looked at Needletail, "Come on." She said quickly as she beckoned her with her tail
"Who, me?"
"Yes, Needletail, you," She answered while rolling her eyes. "Help me fetch your friend before he gets lost."
"He's not my-"
"Come on!" The smoky she-cat miffed as she pushed Needletail forward.
Reluctantly, Needletail began to run in the direction where the young apprentice was heading, followed by the smoky she-cat. She briefly checked on the grass at her paws, seeing that the grass was swaying towards her left.
That means that I'm heading... wind-right?
In the distance, Gorsepaw kept running forwards without looking back. Needletail and the other she-cat were far from him, but they knew that the tom would eventually have to stop.
I'm not his mentor, I shouldn't be trying to bring him back!
"Where is he even going?" Needletail asked with an annoyed grunt.
"I don't know. I heard him mumble something and then he just ran away." The smoky spirit looked back at the shapes of the other Starclan cats, which became blurs and dots lost in the distance. When her head turned around once again, it lifted up as the she-cat noticed something.
"He stopped!" She called out as she hurried her steps towards Gorsepaw.
Needletail noticed this as well, and she followed the smoky she-cat with annoyance. All she had wanted was to get out of that place already and there she was, far from the only way to escape that barren and dull land.
The stress rose up to her throat as she approached the young tom, who was panting with exhaustion but still looking forwards, as if he wanted to keep running until he reached the end of that empty moor.
Before she could say anything, the smoky she-cat ran up to the apprentice. "Gorsepaw, are you alright?"
The tabby tom spun his head around in surprise to have those two cats behind him, as if he hadn't known that he was being followed. "Cinderpelt?" He asked as he nervously glanced behind the she-cat. "Firestar didn't follow you, right?"
"No," Needletail answered with a grunt. "You're lucky that we followed you here before you got lost."
"I knew where I was going," Gorsepaw muttered. "I just… I saw him running away and I needed to follow him."
"Follow whom?" Cinderpelt asked the tom.
Gorsepaw raised his tail and pointed to his front, staring into the endless moor with his green eyes.
"I saw him," He said with a voice that sounded both intrigued and intimidated by what he was pointing at.
Needletail turned her head in the direction of Gorsepaw's tail and noticed a shape in the distance. She had to squint her green eyes to get a better look, but she could clearly make out the spirit of another cat which had its back turned against her.
Who is that?
It was strange to see another cat so far from the place which was filled with the grey pools of water, especially after the former leaders' spirits had decided that sending exploration parties around the moor would be a useless effort to find a way out.
"Gorsepaw, who is that?" Cinderpelt whispered to the apprentice.
"I'm not sure, but I think that I've seen him before."
"And you ran all this way just to follow him?" Needletail asked with a low growl, disappointed and annoyed for having to be forced to chase the apprentice . She began to turn around with a swift swish of her silver tail. "Let's just go back with the others."
"Wait." Cinderpelt said slowly, her blue eyes narrowed when looking at the shape that sat down many fox-lengths ahead of her. "Can you hear that?"
Both younger cats pricked their ears, expecting them to be met with the imposing quietness of the moor. To their surprise, they began to hear something that came from the direction of the spirit sitting alone in the distance. The meows from the cart carried a strange and soothing rhythm, like a robin's call.
"He's… singing." Gorsepaw murmured in surprise. He began to walk in the direction of the spirit, invited by the melody that he could hear.
The other two she-cats soon followed the apprentice with tentative steps. The spirit was not one that Needletail could recognize by either his colorless pelt or his strange voice. The pattern on his fur did show that the spirit had once been a striped cat. The weak glow coming from the spirit's pelt made it stand out against the darker tones of the grass and clouds on the moor, and the closer that the silver she-cat got to the other cat, the more she realized that its body was also transparent, fading away from the memory of some living cat.
His melody took the form of words that the three other cats could make out. They sounded melancholic and somber, serene like the voice that soothes a kit in the nursery.
And when you shall die, fear not my darling
Sing my name, and I'll come for you
I'll be there, to hear your calling
You'll be with me, when your time's due.
The silver warrior twitched her whiskers, surprised by the words that she was hearing. The raspy voice that was singing belonged to a tom, but that spirit didn't seem to be from Starclan, otherwise the she-cat would have recognized him already. Despite that, the tone sounded familiar to her.
Where have I heard a singing voice before?
When the three curious cats were only a few pawsteps away from the tom, his signing came to a slow halt. He remained quiet, gazing into the dull horizon as if he was reflecting on something that the others could not understand.
The tom raised his tail, which had been calmly resting around his paws, and gently placed it on his right without looking back.
"Y'all can sit 'ere if you want," He said with a tone of voice that was foreign to the clan cats."I wouldn' mind."
Gorsepaw would have walked up and sat down next to the tom, but Cinderpelt blocked his path with her tail and shook her head, indicating him to stay in place.
Seeing that he could not get any closer, the apprentice instead talked to the spirit. "Who are you?" He asked with a hesitant mew.
"I dunno'," The tom replied with a small chuckle as he tucked his tail around his ghostly paws once again. "Reckon I finally forgot."
Alright, whoever this is, he is crazy.
"You… forgot your name?" Gorsepaw twitched his whiskers in surprise.
"Maybe, or maybe I don't want to remember it" He grunted as a reply, his head never moving. "That's why I'm fading away, after all."
The young tom opened his eyes wide and gasped slightly. He then lowered his gaze to look down at his paws, which surprised Needletail as she had expected that tom to begin overwhelming the other spirit with questions. Instead, he looked down in silence, pressing his paws against his belly for some reason.
Needletail took a careful step towards the tom. "What do you mean with that?"
"Some cat will be lucky enough to forget this old rat-heart." The tom raised one of his paws and licked it slowly. The she-cat could barely see the outline of that spirit's paw, and the rest seemed to not even be there. "Soon enough, my little Mirha…"
"You sang that name before…" Cinderpelt said slowly. "You're the one who knew about this place, right? The one who told us where we were."
"I think I was." He answered. "I've been 'ere for so long, I can barely remember. Apart from y'all Clanstar cats the last cat I had seen was one made of pure darkness and shadows."
The three clan cats raised their heads at the same time.
"You've met the impostor?" Gorsepaw asked while taking a hurried step towards the tom.
"The who?" He asked back with a twitch of his whiskers.
"That cat, the one made of shadows. He's been threatening our clans and was the one that trapped us here."
"Hmm, well he did seem crazier than an old horse..." The tom commented. "You say he's hurting your pals?"
"How did he get out of here?" Gorsepaw asked when he was standing only a pawstep away from the stripped spirit, "Did he tell you?"
"He said many strange things. Only thing I 'member is that he said this place was his to control, or that he could bend the moor to his will, I'm not sure."
Bend the moor to his will like with the ghosts of dead cats? Or that everything in this place would be his to control?
"Old flea-bag wished that I was forgotten, so that I wouldn't be in his control as well, whatever that meant."
Suddenly, the transparent spirit shot his head upwards, as if he was gazing up at the stars of the silverpelt, even though the entire sky was darkened with grey clouds. He then mumbled something to himself before turning around and looking at the three clan cats with a pair of glassy blue eyes.
"It seems like my time's up," He said slowly with a calm and serene voice. "Mirha died in her sleep, right next to her son. I dunno' how I know this, but I do."
"Wait, do you know how to get out of here?" Cinderpelt asked as the transparent shape of the spirit began to fade away like a vanishing light. "You know how to break the barrier?"
"Dunno' what you're talking about." He said without even blinking, his voice trailing off ever so slightly as he disappeared from his memory. "Never seen a way out of this place…"
Gorsepaw, who was standing in front of the tom, looked at him in the eyes and asked "Does it hurt… to fade away forever?"
The tom's stripped body had already vanished, with the only part of his spirit left being the outline that marked the shape of him. He looked down at the apprentice and sliced a patch of grass out of the ground in front of him. The old spirit then let the grass get carried away by the invisible wind, one that no cat could feel on their fur but that was still there, swirling the grass in that moor for all eternity.
"Just like that…" The vanishing spirit said as he closed his blue eyes.
In only a heartbeat, he was completely gone. His shape had faded away in front of the clan cat's eyes, and the only trace that remained of his existence was a small patch of grass that had been cut by the tom's claws. Almost instantly, that patch of grass grew back to match the height of the rest of the darkened grass on the ground.
None of the three cats knew what to say to each other, so they stayed in silence. Gorsepaw was standing still, looking at the place where the tom had been before fading away, and the apprentice looked at it as if he could make the spirit come back if he focused for long enough. Needletail simply looked back at the young tom, seeing his lowered shoulders and dropped head. Behind him, the grass stretched for several fox-lengths, and it was so familiar to the she-cat that she felt like she could see through Gorsepaw's body.
Wait… I can see it through him.
She squinted her eyes and realized that she could indeed see everything behind the young tom, that his body looked slightly transparent, like the many ghosts that were haunting the lake.
But, spirits in here don't look like that. Unless…
"Gorsepaw…" Needletail's voice trailed off, not knowing if telling the apprentice how she could see him after being witness of another cat disappearing would be a good idea.
The tom didn't need her to continue. He turned around and raised one of his front paws. The paw looked to be made of a barrier of mist, as it lacked almost any fur or physical features. It was just the transparent outline of his paw, and no other thing left.
Cinderpelt gave the apprentice a compassionate look. "You're-"
"I know..." He said with a heavy mew, sighting deeply as he lowered his head.
How old is his spirit…?
"But, your kin… Are none of them alive?" Cinderpelt asked.
"My two littermates died when they were kits, and they all…" He took a long pause, breathing in and out to bring himself to say what he was trying to say. "No cat remembers the names of dead kits... They're gone."
"Gorsepaw, I-"
"N-no, no. I'm fine," The tom raised his head and looked back at Cinderpelt with a strangely calm gaze. He didn't seem to be bothered by knowing that he was close to being forgotten, or at least, he didn't want to show it. Either way, his confident eyes surprised Needletail. He didn't fear his demise, instead he stood tall with his head raised up.
Why would a cat that has as little fear like him die?
She immediately knew the answer to that same question. A cat that doesn't fear to protect others or to face their end are the ones that are most likely to die.
I am one of those after all.
Needletail shook her head to push her own memories away. Feeling her own body trying to push itself into action, she spun around and placed herself in the wind-right direction. "Good. Then let's get you back with the others."
"Morningflower must be worried sick," Cinderpelt added as she gently placed her tail on Gorsepaw's small shoulders.
The three cats walked in the direction of where the Greypool and all of the other Starclan cats would be waiting. Needletail could hear Gorsepaw mumbling to himself behind her, and Cinderpelt did as well as she looked down at the young tom.
"Is everything alright?" She asked cautiously, probably expecting the apprentice to have a sort of outburst of fear for being vanished.
"I just don't get it…" Gorsepaw answered, more to himself than to the smoky she-cat beside him.
"Don't get what?"
"That spirit had no idea that there was a way out, but he says that he has been wandering this place for so long... How can you miss the only landmark in this place?"
Needletail looked back at the apprentice, surprised to not feel annoyed by one of his many questions. Gorsepaw hesitated when he saw the silver warrior look back at her, since he knew that not every cat in Starclan liked to hear him talk for too long. Maybe it was the pity that she felt for him, or maybe the question really intrigued her this time, but Needletail encouraged the tom to continue speaking with a brief nod.
His green eyes briefly shined with gratitude before they turned to the ground as the apprentice tried to think of a possible answer to his own question. "If cats are meant to be forgotten and to disappear in here, why would there be a way to leave this moor?"
Cinderpelt narrowed her blue eyes as she also tried to figure out where Gorsepaw was trying to go with his questions. "Maybe they are supposed to wander around here until they find the way out, like some sort of journey."
"But what would be the point then? Why would a place like this exist if any cat could just leave it by finding a pool of water?"
"We can't exactly walk out of here that easily," Needletail pointed out. "There's a barrier in the Greypool, remember?"
"Yeah, you're ri-" The tom's eyes suddenly opened wide and his breath got cut off.
"What? What is it?" Cinderpelt asked the tom, not wanting him to stop with his line of thought.
"Are there vines in any other place in this moor? You know, vines that look like the ones in the barrier."
"No… I don't think so." Needletail was now tilting her head to one side in confusion. Gorsepaw was definitely getting somewhere, but she still couldn't understand what exactly he was trying to process in his own head.
"So, what if those vines don't belong here?" He asked the she-cats in what sounded more like a realization. "Like the pools of water, or like us. What if someone placed them here?"
"But who would…" Needletail had begun saying, but she immediately remembered the words of the spirit that had faded away.
"He said this place was his to control, or that he could bend the moor to his will."
"Wait, are you saying that he was the one to place them?"
"Maybe..." Grosepaw answered with a mumble, trying to process his own thoughts in his head first. "Somehow, he could have been trapped here but found a way out, after he gained some control over it."
"If he had the power to weaken Starclan, it makes sense that he could manipulate an entire realm." Cinderpelt added as well, beginning to understand what the two other cats were theorizing.
"But why would he let us see the clans through the smaller pools or water?" Gorsepaw continued asking. "It doesn't make sense that he would let us try and save our kin."
Suddenly, a loud cry echoed in the endless moor, shattering the somber silence that had surrounded the three cats. Needletail's fur shot up, triggered by the ferocity of the screech. Beside her, Gorsepaw had jumped in place with his surprise and was now panting in a rythim that was as fast as a mouse's heart beating. Cinderpelt was looking around with wide eyes as she tried to find the origin of the loud cry.
"You all heard that as well, right?" She asked without looking back.
"Was that even a cat?" Gorsepaw's voice was trembling despite him trying to hide his fear.
As the three cats looked around them, the dark grass that grew under their paws began to stir as the breeze changed its direction. For once, they began to feel the wind of the endless moor against their fur. However, the wind wasn't swaying their fur like it gently did with the grass. It was thrashing the pelts of the clan spirits, making the three cats squint their eyes and gritt their teeth to resist the wind's roar.
The clouds in the sunless sky darkened until they looked completely black, which would have caught the spirits' attention had they not begun to hear yowls and screeches coming from the direction of the Greypool.
Both Needletail and Gorsepaw looked at each other with a mix of confusion and fear in their green eyes. The tabby tom's transparent paws were shaking slightly, but he was taking deep breaths to calm his senses.
Keep your head straight, Gorsepaw. We might need it now.
Cinderpelt began to run in the direction of the screams from the Starclan cats, heading straight towards those that were in need without thinking twice.
"We have to help them, follow me!" She ordered with a mew that left no room for hesitation.
The other two spirits followed the smoky she-cat as they ran forwards, having to rely solely on sounds for directions as the wind that swayed the grass had been altered.
As she and her companions got closer to the other Starclan cats, Needletail began to see a darkened cloud in the horizon. It was as colorless as any other thing in that moor, but to the silver she-cat it still looked unnatural, something sinister that should not be there.
The three cats ran past a secluded pool of water, not needing to use the vision of the living world that it would provide them. To their surpirse, the water bursted with a sudden splash and a gust of grey fog flew out of the pool.
Mist? What is going on here?!
"Foxleap! What's happening?" Cinderpelt called out to a Thunderclan tom that she and Gorsepaw got close to.
The tom wasn't alone, as all around him cats were running frantically in any direction that got them away from the mist. Foxleap was being pushed by the other cats as he looked around him with desperate eyes.
"Icecloud! Icecloud, where are you?!" He called out with a mew that was barely loud enough to be heard over the chaos all around him.
Both Cinderpelt and Gorsepaw tried to speak to the warrior as they approached him, but he was still too distracted trying to find someone else. Needletail, however, did not stop on her run and let her side collide with the tom to get his attention. Foxleap had to blink a few times to recover from the sudden impact before looking back at the silver warrior. Despite the annoying nature that Needletail knew that Foxleap had, the tom stayed paralized as the she-cat glared at him.
"Hey, mouse-brain! We're asking you what's happening."
Foxleap stopped looking at Needletail and spoke rapidly while looking around him. "I don't know! This fog just came out of nowhere and-"
He stopped when he spotted a white she-cat standing in front of the mist.
"Icecloud!" He cried out as he raced towards the white spirit. In only a heartbeat he had reached her and began to pull the she-cat away from the mist with his teeth.
To Needletail's surprise, the shape of a cat suddenly emerged from the fog. The grey darkness made it impossible to recognize which cat it was, and even the eyes of the cat were deeply covered by the fog that surrounded it. The cat grabbed Foxleap by his scurf and then yanked him towards him as if the warrior was as light as a kit.
Foxleap disappeared in the grey mist with a desperate scream of terror. Icecloud took a heartbeat to process this, but before she seemed able to think twice, the white warrior ran into the mist with her claws unsheathed in an attempt to rescue Foxleap. None of the two warriors emerged from the mist again.
It's attacking us?
"Back away!" Cinderpelt's voice snapped Needletail from her commotion as the smoky she-cat pushed both Gorsepaw and her away from a cloud of mist that was approaching them.
The three cats turned around and ran away from that fog, seeing more and more cats desperately trying to escape that faceless terror that was haunting them. The darkness in the sky and the roaring wind disoriented them all, and some of them ran right into the mist either by accident or even with calm steps. Some eyes opened wide with terror when they realized that they were being surrounded by the clouds of smoke, while others seemed filled with sorrow or happiness as they willingly entered the fog.
"Cats of Starclan, to me!" The deep voice of a former leader howled to be heard over the wind, and it was soon echoed by other voices of spirits calling to those that could hear them. Following the direction of the voices, Needletail could see a group of cats running together, guided at the front by a black-and-white tom and a muscular white tom with black paws.
Tallstar and… Blackstar!
"Over here!" Needletail told Gorsepaw and Cinderpelt as she turned to her right and headed towards the group of fleeing cats. Some of the other cats that had not been lost in the mist began to head in the direction of Blackstar and his group as well.
As if the grey fog could hear them, it began to twist itself in the direction of the fleeing cats, cutting off those that wanted to join them by trapping them with barriers. Needletail saw that the mist began to close in on her as two trails of the fume closed in on each other, a few heartbeats away from forming a wall in front of her.
"Faster!" She screamed to the others as she hurried on her steps, running as fast as her paws could possibly take her. Behind her, she could hear Gorsepaw catching up to her almost instantly with his light body and Windclan origins. She could only hope that Cinderpelt could be as fast.
"Come on!" She called to Cinderpelt, but she wasn't sure if the smoky she-cat had even heard that.
"We're gonna make it! We're gonna make it!" Gorsepaw mumbled under his breath, and his hope brought confidence to Needletail.
We're getting out of this!
Just as the two barriers of fog began to join, Needletail dashed forward and closed her eyes. For a heartbeat, she felt like everything else around her became completely quiet, as if she had disappeared from existence. She expected something to leap at her and pin her to the ground, maybe to even drag her deeper into the mist, but soon enough the sounds came back to her and she opened her eyes to see that she was on the other side.
She turned around and saw Gorsepaw jump out of the fog barrier. He coughed a few times, but he seemed to be alright. After a moment, he looked back at the mist with panic in his eyes.
"Cinderpelt!" He screamed as he stepped towards the grey fumes, which at that point had made a wall in which any cat would get lost.
The smoky she-cat didn't respond to Gorsepaw's call. The tom lowered his head, and as much as it pained Needletail to lose Cinderpelt so suddenly, she realized that she had to get Gorsepaw and herself away from that mist as she saw the fumes approaching them again.
"She'll find a way out!" She said quickly as she pulled the tabby tom away from the smoky clouds and turned in the direction of Blackstar's group. "We have to get out of here!"
Gorsepaw sighed, but he nodded and followed Needletail as they both ran towards the fleeing cats. More warriors joined them, but they were very few compared to the hundreds of cats that were part of Starclan.
When they reached Blackstar's group, her quickly acknowledged their presence with a nod when he turned around to look back at the cats following him. They were enough cats to make up a small clan, and he seemed satisfied to have led so many away from that place.
However, his expression changed when he turned around to look at the horizon, it broke his stern expression to show uncertainty, even fear. Every cat followed his gaze and shared gasps and shocked mews when they saw that, all around them, the image of the endless moor had been lost. They were completely surrounded by the grey mist, which was now slowly swirling in their direction from every side, as if it knew and relished on the fact that there was no escape for the spirits.
"Fox-dung!" Blackstar spat out loud as he tried to look for a way out. The only option that the cats had was to head back into the direction of the pools of water, since there was at least a chance that they could find a way to escape from another side.
"Follow me!" The former Shadowclan leader ordered, turning around to the surprise of many cats.
He knows what to do better than any of us.
"We're finding another way." Tallstar tried to explain to the confused cats as he also followed Blackstar into the very same place that they had tried to escape from.
Needletail followed the group of cats, trying to stay in the front of it so that she could see where she was headed. Beside her, Gorsepaw was as quiet as a mouse, his green gaze lost in deep thought.
He's probably thinking of Cinderpelt… I don't blame him.
The cats soon reached the point where the mist grew denser, and Blackstar indicated the cats to run around the border of the clouds of smoke.
"Stay at least three fox-lengths away from it!" Tallstar added with a commanding tone that was easily overshadowed by the former Shadowclan leader.
As they ran around in an attempt to find an open spot of land in the horizon, more cats that had managed to escape the swirling mist joined the group. A few of them spotted Leafpool standing close to the fog, looking at the shape of a cat in front of her; however, they ignored that sight and kept running forward in an attempt to save themselves.
To Needletail's surprise, Gorsepaw ran away from the group in the direction of Leafpool. The silver warrior hesitated for a few heartbeats as she saw Blackstar scoffing when seeing the Windclan apprentice separate himself from the group, but Needletail couldn't bring herself to leave her friend behind. With a deep breath, she turned around and followed Gorsepaw.
The young tabby-tom stood a few fox-lengths away from Leafpool, as the she-cat took careful steps away from the mist but still remained a tail-length from its border. Squinting her eyes, Needletail could see that the cat that was standing in the smoke barrier before Leafpool was none other than Firestar, as his eyes were emerald. The legendary leader was coughing as he breathed in the mist, but he appeared to be talking to his daughter as well.
"Please… Leafpool. Come with me." His voice sounded soothing and friendly, but the raspiness of it was clearly making the she-cat hesitate.
"Firestar…" She mumbled, her voice heavy with grief when seeing her father in such a defeated state. "Did you… manage to help Hollyleaf and the others?"
"It's safe in here… just take a deep breath."
"Firestar!" Gorsepaw screamed at the former leader, which snapped his gaze away from Leafpool.
"Gorsepaw…?" The tom looked at the apprentice for a long moment, as if he was remembering the tabby tom from a faraway time.
When he did that, Needletail noticed something strange in his eyes. Droplets of blood were falling from them, slowly traveling through his chin and landing on the darkened grass. His emerald eyes also seemed to be covered in a strange way, but not completely like a mindless ghost. The veins in his eyes had darkened to the point where they looked more as if they were ivy tendrils and vines that tried to bury the emerald glow of his gaze.
Did the mist do this to him?
"I'm sorry that you carried me for nothing," Gorsepaw said slowly. "It was out of my control, to die like that."
"Out of your control…" Firestar repeated, reflecting on those words. With a sharp twitch of his head, he looked back at Leafpool and closed his eyes as he rammed his weakened body into his daughter, pushing her back.
"Get away from me!" He cried out as pain seemed to overwhelm him. The tom was now trembling and shrinking himself like a kit as he grunted and groaned like a dying elder.
"I'm not leaving you-"
"Leafpool, please go!" He begged her, his eyes giving his mate a pleading look. He then purred to himself despite the pain that it clearly brought him. "I'm such a mouse-brain for trying to play hero... again. You don't need to say it."
The she-cat bit back her tongue as she took a deep breath, stepping away from the mist barrier as it completely engulfed Firestar. "You are no fool, father… Saving others is what you've always done."
She took a deep breath and looked back at the two younger cats. "Thanks Gorsepaw, and you too, Needlteail."
Needletail nodded at that comment and looked back at the direction that Blackstar's group had taken. To her dismay, the way had been blocked by even more mist, which the she-cat now knew that it would bring her a lot of pain if she were to be lost in it.
Now what do I do?
Knowing that she had no idea on how to escape or where to go, Needletail turned her head towards the Widnclan apprentice. "Gorsepaw, I want you to think as hard as you can on how to escape. Now!"
If there's any time that I need you to think, it's right now.
As she said this, more and more fog had begun to close in on the three cats, forcing them to run towards the few open spaces that they could see in front of them. During the entire run, Gorsepaw kept mumbling to himself, very few times saying something out loud.
All of a sudden, a few cats emerged from an open path. Leafpool recognized one of them as she quickly approached a black-furred she-cat.
"Hollyleaf, are you alright?" She asked her hastily, knowing that the fog was still rolling in behind all of the gathered cats.
"Good enough, thanks to Firestar," The warrior answered as she glanced back at the path that her group had taken, which had its end covered completely. That was not an optional route anymore. "Where is he?"
"In the mist." Was the only somber response that Leafpool gave the other.
We really don't have time to mourn now.
"Alright... Any ideas, Gorsepaw?" Needletail asked the apprentice, focusing on keeping the group moving forward.
"This path leads to the Greypool!" The tom exclaimed when he saw that a narrow stretch was opened in the mist, forming a path that led forward for several fox-lengths of distance.
Yellowfang, that she-cat that, Needletail thought, couldn't look young even as a spirit, gave the tom a perplexed look, "How on earth do you even-"
"The grass, the wind is just inverted, that's it! It should lead us there." Gorsepaw gazed at the swaying grass with narrowed eyes, clearly trying to focus as much as he could. "If we're next to the pools of water, then wind-right should take us to the Greypool."
"And what's the plan after that?" Hollyleaf asked, but when she saw that the mist was getting closer and closer and that Gorsepaw's path was probably the only route that they had, she added "Explain it on the way there."
"Everyone move!" Needletail ordered, and none of the cats doubted in heading through the path that the apprentice had pointed towards when they began to see dark shapes of cats behind the barrier of smoke that surrounded them.
The small patrol ran forward without looking back. The only thing that they could hear were the wind and the voice of Gorsepaw as he tried to explain his plan.
"So, the pools were a trap to keep us in one place so we wouldn't be dispersed. If we had been stuck wandering this place it would have been harder to surround us, plus this impostor wouldn't have a way to bring the mist-"
"Gorsepaw, we get it!" Needletail interrupted as she began to hear pawsteps that did not belong to the cats that were running behind her. "Can you cut to the Greypool part?"
"Right, sorry. So, if the impostor made the pools, he surely made the way out of this place. But he either couldn't get rid of it or needed it for later because he left it here and made a barrier-"
The yowl of a tom that had been running beside Hollyleaf drowned Gorsepaw's words. They heard the sound of him tripping on the ground and then they didn't hear him anymore as the mist probably catched up to him.
"Flametail! Fox-dung!" Yellowfang spat. "Can you save the nursery tales for later?! Just tell us your cursed plan!"
"The barrier was damaged on the other side, so that means that we can damage it from any side and it would be seen on the other. Whatever these vines are, they are connected to the Dark Forest, since that's where this pool leads to."
"And?!" Almost every cat asked at the same time.
"If Shadowsight and the others don't know what they are doing, then they might not even realize that they are looking at the barrier, since the Dark Forest must be filled with those kinds of vines."
"Look out!" Hollyleaf suddenly shouted.
Needletail turned her head to see a spirit jumping out of the mist to attack Leafpool, but with a powerful leap Hollyleaf managed to place herself between that attacker and the Thunderclan medicine cat. The black she-cat wrestled the spirit to the ground and forced it to stay in place. Leafpool looked back at her, but Hollyleaf narrowed her gaze with determination.
"Keep moving!" She said as the barrier of smoke engulfed her and the other spirit.
"Gorsepaw, how close are we?!" Needletail asked the tabby.
"Almost there, keep going!" He answered. "We need to damage the barrier as much as we can, so that Shadowsight can see and hear that we are here!"
"Wait, so you don't have a way out?!" One of the other cats that had followed them asked. "Why are we even following some Windclan apprentice if he'll lead us nowhere?"
"I'm trying my best, Loudbelly, alright?!" Gorsepaw snapped back at the tom.
"Is 'your best' leading us into a corner and waiting for this mist to take us?"
"You don't have to listen to him," Yellowfang retorted, "Run away, for all we care. How useful would a cat that decided to give up and die be to us?"
Well said, old sack of fleas...
"Have fun being controlled." Was the only bitter response that Loudbelly gave before darting off into an open passage between the mist, followed by the other tom, apart from Gorsepaw, left in the group.
"We could have needed extra paws…" Gorsepaw murmured out loud.
"Paws that are going to run away are of no help," Needletail answered. "Anything else that we need to do?"
"Shadowsight has to free us somehow, so I think that Dustpelt knew that this would happen. We only need to be noticed, and maybe he is already trying to open the barrier so we are helping him and the others."
"So, you're saying that we have no option but to not try to escape this mist at all?" Leafpool asked him.
"I don't think we have," Gorsepaw admitted. "I'm sorry."
"Don't be," Needletail told her friend. "Let's just get this over with."
Right as she said this, the silver she-cat saw the Greypool appear in her sight, only a few fox-lengths away. She hurried her run and within heartbeats she was standing right in front of the barrier made of vines and twisted roots. The other cats soon stood beside Needletail, and they all looked at the almost-indestructible vines with uncertainty.
Gorsepaw was the first one to jump on top of the barrier and begin to cut the thorns on it with his transparent paws.
"Make a mess! Make sure that it can be noticed!"
Every other she-cat nodded and followed the apprentice's instructions as they started to claw and tear as much as they could in the little time they had left. Needletail quickly glanced at the other cats, seeing that Leafpool and Yellowfang were both trying to tuck out thorns and dried leaves from the barrier while Gorsepaw worked with a much younger she-cat, an apprentice that Needletail couldn't recognize, in trying to tear out a bunch of disorganized vines. The apprentice looked at Gorsepaw with admiration as she tried her best to follow in his advice, probably surprised that a young cat like him could give an order to a cat like Yellowfang.
Yellowfang doesn't let her pride ruin her, I'll give her that. Good luck out there, Loudbelly.
Needletail crouched down and began to use her claws to slice a circle around a thin vine, trying to separate it from the others so that tucking it out would be easier. As she did this, she began to see that the mist was reaching them with its relentless advance.
"Keep going, there's no heading back now!" Yellowfang told the other cats.
Her voice was suddenly drowned as the mist engulfed her and Leafpool. Within heartbeats, it covered Gorsepaw and the other apprentice, who pressed herself against the tom with fear. Needletail saw that the mist was about to surround her as well, so she held her breath and continued clawing and raking at the vines with more desperation.
All around her, she began to hear voices. They sounded muffled, but very close, as if a cat was trying to whisper to her with his mouth closed.
"Needletail, it's safe." A voice that sounded like a darker version of Gorsepaw said to her. "You can breathe, it won't kill you again."
"Well, of course she's not going to breathe it in," Yellowfang added with a mocking tone on her croaky mew. "She's too scared to do so."
"Too scared to admit that she made a mistake."
That last voice didn't belong to a Starclan cat. It was the voice of a she-cat that Needletail had seen grow from a tiny kit into an apprentice, and then to a warrior from her spot in Starclan.
Violetshine…?
"Too scared to have it all be worth nothing."
That new voice, differing greatly from the last one, brought a shiver down Needletail's spine. One that she didn't even know if it was of fear or expectation for a fight.
Darktail!
Why could she hear them? It must have been the mist-no-it had to be the mist. She had to hold her breath and keep going.
"Take a breath and calm down."
"Take a breath and you'll get this done faster."
"Breathe in the pleasant scents of the mist."
"Breathe and let me into your mind."
"Breathe and let me take control."
"Breathe!"
A chorus of cats beckoned her to take a breath, but she held it. She didn't really need to breathe when being a ghost, but she still felt like she absolutely had to in order to survive. If she didn't breathe, she would die, she would disappear.
It's the mist, ignore it. Ignore it for your own sake.
Suddenly, a body hit her side, knocking her off her paws. Needletail raised her head as she scrambled up to see Gorsepaw looking back at her. His teeth were gritted and his head was twitching unnaturally, as if wanting to control itself but unable to. His green eyes had drops of blood pouring down from them, as the veins in them were marking their path across his gaze, he looked as if his eyes were trapped behind a barrier of vines.
Gorsepaw was giving her a forced grin, as if just the act of doing it was made with a lot of effort.
"That's good." The apprentice's voice sounded dragged and croaky, like a sick bird or a dying toad. "Let the mist in."
Without realizing, Needletail had opened her mouth. She closed it shut, but it was too late as she could feel herself running out of air and coughing. Even if she didn't try to breathe, the mist was pushing itself in without her being able to prevent it. Her mouth, her nose, even her ears were being flooded by those fumes as they reached her mind.
"Let go…"
Shut up!
"Take deep breaths…"
You won't take me!
"Let your mind relax"
You are not…
Everything began to look like a blur to Needletail. Her eyes felt heavy, and her throat felt dry. Gorsepaw was still in front of her, with the blood still dropping from his ivy-like covered eyes to the barrier under him.
"You'll belong to me."
Needletail noticed how, under the tom's paws, there was the small vine that she had tried to pull away from the barrier. If she could maybe pull hard enough, perhaps she could open a path. She could escape like Dustpelt did.
I should have been the one to escape!
"There's no escape now."
Desperate for a way out, Needletail collided against Gorsepaw's light body to send him flying backwards, which was easier than what she expected. She then crouched down and began pulling the vine away with her teeth. It pained her, it wasn't budging, but she kept going.
"Isn't it easier to just give up?"
As she tried to tear the vine away, Needletail felt teeth sinking into her legs to pull her away. More jaws than just one cat, maybe three, four, or five. Maybe Yellowfang, Leafpool, Gorsepaw and the other apprentice had already given up and were trying to make her give up as well.
"You have no friends left."
You're not getting me that easily!
She sank her teeth as hard as she could and let the other spirits pull with all of their might. The pain was unbearable, but she kept going. Her breath and muscles were tired, but she kept going. The mist could take hold of her mind, but she wouldn't let go until that vine was off the barrier.
"Let go!"
Then suddenly, as if the vine had felt pity for her desperate attempt at freedom, the pressure in Needletail's teeth loosened. She felt herself being dragged away from the barrier, with the thorns clinging to her silver fur. In her mouth, aside from a horrible burning sensation and some snapped teeth, she held a small vine that had been broken from the barrier. To her surprise, it didn't grow back.
"All of that, just for a small piece of the barrier?"
Needletail felt a slight tremble under her chest, as if the barrier was growling at her. Almost immediately after that, she heard another voice, one that was not dark or ominous. She heard the voice of a tom, which echoed from the other side of the barrier with a surprised mew.
"You saw that, right?"
"One of the vines, it's all dried up and broken." Another tom added with a mutter.
They saw it, they're here!
Knowing what it would cause, since she felt like she had nothing left in her lungs except for fog and mist, Needletail took a deep breath to speak to the voices.
"Please, set us free," She groaned as loudly as she could, and when she heard no reaction from the voices, she took an even deeper breath and shouted, "Set us free!"
"You'll only be free when you let go to me."
Then her limbs stopped responding to her, like if they fell asleep. Her voice stopped working, and her eyes felt swollen and tired. Needletail felt a liquid around her eyes, and she didn't need to see it to know that it was her own blood.
"Free from every thought, every worry, everything that ever held you down."
She closed her eyes, letting the mist engulf her body, her lungs and her mind, invited by the pleasant smell or the pine tree in Shadowclan that the fog reminded her off. She wanted it all gone, she didn't want to think, to worry, to control. All that Needletail wanted was to be free.
"Free at last, Needletail. Forever…"
Then, one final voice could be heard through the barrier. A young she-cat ordering the others.
"We have to destroy it."
They say that true freedom is something that doesn't exist, that's it's all just some sort of illusion made by the people controlling society in order to keep them all in place...
To that I say, "Trap those idiots in this hellhole for a month and let them compare their so called slavery to what we go through every day."