Well this next chapter is long over-due. I'm really sorry for taking so long to determine where I wanted to take the story. It's just, too many possibilities, but I think I like what I finally established. Next time, I'll think about it before posting the first chapter. Here it is, I hope you enjoy it.
It was endless, she realized. The colors faded around her as her life force did, and blurred into a indiscernible mess. The darkness was endless.
Graywhisper was no stranger to death. She'd witnessed it, given it, and had finally experienced it. This time was different, though. The first time, she'd only lost her body. Now, Graywhisper could feel her fragile, tattered soul fall apart. That never-ending darkness enveloped her, taking Graywhisper from the world she'd known and into one no one had ever returned from.
Then, suddenly, the darkness she had thought would last forever, would be her Oblivion, melted away into forest. Graywhisper took in a sudden, blissful breath, and looked around her. She was standing in a dark clearing, lit by moonlight and countless stars. A breeze, warm and soft, ruffled her fur. The gray she-cat blinked in surprise, unable to complete the journey from a dangerous battle to a peaceful clearing. She looked at her pelt, thrilling in the deep shade of gray that had returned to it, and the feeling of being alive again.
What the she-cat couldn't really understand was how? How was she alive, and in possession of all her memories? Graywhisper had always theorized that once a cat died twice, they simply were born anew as a kit somewhere. It was apparent however, that this was not to be the case for her.
Which meant Graywhisper could be stuck in the middle of any situation, perhaps in possession of some other cat's body. Another cat that looked exactly like her . . . no. Graywhisper was sure that she was herself in this "third life". The she-cat felt very sure of this fact.
Well, she couldn't sit around and let things happen. Graywhisper tilted her head back and scented the air, wondering if there might be others nearby. She could detect a faint stench, meaning there were other cats nearby. Graywhisper sank into a crouch; whoever they were, she was not going to assume they were friendly. The gray she-cat slunk forward, passing into a clump of vegetation similar to the growth in ThunderClan's territory.
Abruptly, though, the wind shifted, flooding scents from ahead of her into her maw. There was a barely audible curse, and Graywhisper caught sight of amber eyes that hadn't been there before. The forest before her suddenly became a messy blur, swallowed by a dark shape, and Graywhisper was pressed back into the earth, pinned.
"Who are you, and what are you doing here?" Her attacker snarled, and Graywhisper remained silent, still shocked at the dark cat's incredible speed. The cat had her on her back, so she could clearly see him now in the bright moonlight. A pelt of black made him stand out starkly against the more grayish trees, but what really caught Graywhisper's attention were his eyes. Blazing twin orbs they were, an awe-inspiring shade of amber. They seemed to glow against his pitch-black pelt, and Graywhisper drank in the sight of him in wonder.
"Answer me!" Graywhisper could feel claws slide into her shoulders forcefully, punctuating the cat's urgency. She internally shook her self awake; now was not a time to be a daydreaming kit! As she reoriented herself, Graywhisper narrowed her eyes at the attacker. "I have no idea how I got here! Honestly, I thought I was dead!"
"Dead?" The amber-eyed tom looked confused, and Graywhisper shared in his confusion. Wasn't everyone here someone who'd died twice? The tom laughed bitterly then, and loosened his grip. "Ah, I think I know what you're talking about. It's just, we've haven't had a newcomer since I showed up."
"What do you mean?" Graywhisper asked, slowly getting to her paws as the tom let her up. He took a step back and gave her a sympathetic look.
"Most cats go . . . elsewhere." The tom frowned. "Maybe, I'll explain later." He looked over his shoulder nervously, and Graywhisper got the feeling she'd popped up in the middle of something. "Quickly, we have to go now!"
The black tom sprang forward past her, and Graywhisper, unable to discern any other possible choice in the matter, followed him. They darted into the forest, thick with strange plants and scents like nothing Graywhisper had ever seen. She did her best to dodge around the many obstacles, but she no longer held the agility and immateriality of her previously faded form. The black tom had quickly gotten ahead of her, and more space was opening up between them. Graywhisper was unable to understand how he managed to go fast without crashing into something. She put a burst of energy into her paws, determined not to lose him.
Suddenly, a strange scent filled Graywhisper's nostrils. Out of the corner of her eye, the gray she-cat thought she saw something bounding through the forest beside her. She couldn't afford to look, except in snatches. The gray she-cat resorted to focusing on her running, pounding into the earth with each stride. Somehow though, not even her greatest efforts were enough to keep ahead, and a heavy body crashed into her.
Graywhisper went sprawling into the earth for the second time, but now she could only turn her head to see her assailant. An orange tabby she-cat regarded her fiercely, and Graywhisper snarled. She got a hiss and a thwack to the head in answer.
A cry up ahead told Graywhisper that the amber-eyed tom had been intercepted. She looked up from the earth to see him fighting two other cats, one a burly, young-looking gray tom, and a long-furred white she-cat. The black tom proved to be an unusually crafty fighter, but so were the other two. Graywhisper grumbled internally upon finding that every cat here seemed incredibly fast and strong, making the shrewd Dark Forest she-cat look like a clumsy kittypet.
The scuffle was over in a matter of moments, the black tom defeated. The two cats quickly dragged him back to where Graywhisper's ginger captor held her firmly.
"What are we to do with them?" Muttered the gray tom aloud. He pushed the amber-eyed tom into the dirt, who struggled briefly before giving in.
"Take them back to camp and see what Sight wants to do with them," the ginger she-cat replied curtly. Graywhisper tilted her head to look back at the ginger she-cat, whose cool green eyes skimmed over her. They hold green fires like Leafcolor's did, only colder, Graywhisper thought. Something in her sighed at the thought of the tortoiseshell, and the gray she-cat bowed her head. What she would give to live again, rather than to be stuck in some kind of crazy after-life.
The three cats that had captured Graywhisper and the tom she was privately calling "Ambereyes" in her head were quickly joined by five others. Together, they marched Graywhisper and Ambereyes back to their camp. Graywhisper allowed herself to take in the sight of the moonlit forest. She was struck by how silent it was, quiet except for the cats who strode through the undergrowth. Graywhisper wondered if anything even lived here besides the cats.
Soon enough, the group approached a strange grove of trees. It appeared as if clusters of trees stood woven together, knit closely into one massive tree. These oddities all stood closely around each other in a ring, blocking the inside of the grove from sight. Graywhisper paused to look on in amazement before she was shoved forward roughly.
They moved around the ring until they camp to an area where the grove opened up into a gateway. Graywhisper looked round into it, and her eyes widened in amazement. A huge clearing, much bigger than Graywhisper had expected, lay within. The grove stretched around in a half-circle shape, before giving way to a stony slope. From the stone issued a sparkling waterfall that leapt down the face of the cleft before pooling out into a stream that ran across the clearing. Trees, huge trees, grew here, providing dens for the many cats living there. There were several sharing tongues over odd-looking prey, the existence of which disproved Graywhisper's theory that only cats lived here. Kits played with each other in the shade of a tree that had to be the nursery, and back by the waterfall, a glossy white she-cat perched. Graywhisper immediately got the feeling that this cat was the leader of this massive group, and sure enough, the patrol was steering she and Ambereyes towards her.
The white she-cat looked up as they approached and smiled sweetly. Graywhisper looked at her suspiciously, and then to the grim-faced warriors on either side of her. Something wasn't quite adding up.
"What have you brought me, Fox?" The white she-cat mewed, her gaze sliding over to the ginger she-cat that had tackled Graywhisper earlier.
"Two trespassers, Sight, most likely from the 'Oppressed'." Fox spat out the word "oppressed" as if it were something vile.
"May I see them?" Sight asked, craning her neck to discern the two cats who were not part of her group.
"Of course," Fox said, dipping her head. She shot a glare at the other cats, who parted to show Ambereyes and Graywhisper. The white she-cat stiffened upon the sight of Graywhisper's black-furred companion, and she bound down from her perch.
"You," she hissed, all of her pleasantness gone. The she-cat's blue eyes flashed dangerously, and Graywhisper's ears went back.
"Me," Ambereyes said simply, unfazed.
"You traitor!" Sight snarled, tail lashing. "I gave you everything; a shelter, a future, my trust! And what did you do?" She stalked forward menacingly, until she was a hair's breadth away from the tom. "You betrayed me!"
Ambereyes' ears flattened against his skull, and he growled low. "I betrayed you? You abandoned me, told me lies! How dare you suggest I'm the traitor?"
"Filth!" Sight hissed. "I could have given you a perfect life, but you listened to Willow instead. You deserve to suffer for your insolence!"
"Perfection isn't what this life is meant to be about, Sight!" The black tom said, shaking his head.
"That is where you are wrong once more, Ember," Sight said cooly. She turned to Fox, anger burning in her blue eyes. "Put him in one of the tunnels and have guards watching him at all times. I will have to ponder how he will be made an example of for a long time."
Fox dipped her head once more, and singled out two of the assembled cats; a silver tabby tom and a black and white she-cat. Together, they took Ambereyes, or rather, Ember, away. Graywhisper followed the trio with her eyes, watching as they took him along the cliff to where a tunnel opened up. With Ember going first, they all disappeared inside.
"Who are you?" Graywhisper looked round to see Sight staring intensely at her in confusion. She sensed the others were staring at her too, and a feeling of apprehension came over her.
"What is your name!" A flash of claws was all the warning Graywhisper got before she felt pain in the side of her face. Blood trickled down her face reminding her of her recent death. Graywhisper turned to glare at Sight, a low growl rising from within.
"I am . . . Gray," she stated simply. Something made her reluctant to give her full name to these strange cats.
"Gray?" Sight repeated, a funny expression crossing her face. "That's an . . . interesting coincidence. Why have I never seen you before, Gray?"
"I died only recently," Graywhisper explained simply. She refused to tell this cat everything, and still glared at her.
"A newcomer?" Sight exclaimed, surprised. "This forest hasn't had a newcomer since I came into power."
"What do you mean?" Graywhisper said testily, never very patient. She was growing increasingly frustrated with her lack of knowledge, and wasn't sure how she would receive it if Sight refused to explain.
"Well," Sight began slowly. A flicker of hesitation shone in her eyes, and Graywhisper could tell that, of course, this cat wasn't going to tell her anything. "This place is known simply as the Gray World, which is why I find your name interesting. It's the world between our first life and the unknown, Oblivion. Some cats don't go through this world, and pass on straight to Oblivion. We aren't exactly sure why. And if a cat does come here, sometimes they're born as a kit, and sometimes they appear as they did the day they died, except without the fatal affliction. Most that come are kits, but rarely there will be the latter, like you." Sight's eyes burned as she spoke the next words. "And like Ember."
Graywhisper frowned. "That's some of it, but there's still a lot more that I don't know." Internally, Graywhisper was clawing herself for admitting any kind of weakness, but she hoped to learn more before deciding whether or not to attempt an escape.
Sight smiled, the fire in her eyes fading. Her previous hostility towards the other she-cat melted away, replaced by a sweet, reassuring visage. "I see Ember hasn't had a chance to taint you with his lies. Come, we will talk more." She flicked her tail in dismissal of the other cats as she started walking towards the waterfall, calling back over her shoulder to the warriors, "See to it that you're fed!"
"Yes, Sight!" Fox barked, turning to lead her patrol over to where the fresh-kill pile had to be.
Graywhisper watched them depart, and then turned to look on as Sight made her way over to the waterfall. The white she-cat looked back at Graywhisper when she realized that she had yet to follow, and beckoned with a flick of her tail. Reluctantly, Graywhisper started forward, remembering how violently Sight's demeanor had changed upon seeing Ember. The white she-cat turned a sharp corner around the waterfall, and Graywhisper concluded there had to be a tunnel hidden behind the sheet of water.
The gray she-cat gingerly made her way around the heavy fall of water, letting her eyes adjust to the deepening darkness on the other side. A small deposit was revealed, big enough to comfortably accommodate a cat or two. Graywhisper could see that the place had already been furnished, a messy, used pile of moss off to one side and, further back, a natural well of water. Sight sat down in her bed of moss, curling up next to the well, and looking at Graywhisper pointedly.
"Well then, now that we are alone, you can ask away, Graywhisper," Sight purred, her eyes lighting up at Graywhisper's predictable shock.
The gray she-cat quickly composed herself after that one moment when she faltered, and stared at Sight in supposed confusion. "Who is this Graywhisper you speak of? My name is Gray."
"And it will remain that way," Sight said curtly, her purr cut off. She got up from the moss and strode around the edge of the pool. "You see, Gray, I have this structured society here in the Moon Forest, and I would like it to remain that way. The Gray World is meant as a haven where cats who have been neglected in their First Life have a chance to heal. After this process is complete, they moved on, into Oblivion. Or at least, as far as we know.
"However, there used to be no order in the Gray World, no structure or guideline. Cats roamed freely through the land, free of disease, heartache, two legs, and other predators. Prey was plentiful, and every day was glorious. And yet, conflict still rose up. Cats fought and died, and without being complete, they were simply reborn. No one can truly die here without being complete. So, what started as a grudge or a misunderstanding became full-scale wars. The Gray World's purpose was being lost, so I had to step in.
"I gathered a force of loyal followers who wanted peace as badly as I did, and together, we attempted to stamp down the violence. To our distress, the fights still continued. For every matter we settled, more appeared, and it looked like a lost cause." Sight continued to pace around the pool as she talked, before finally settling opposite of Graywhisper to look into its depths. "Then," she continued. "I found the Moon Forest. It was perfect, this place. Nestled in the mountains and thick with lush forest, this beautiful, remote forest was lost in a perpetual night, with only the moon and stars to show the way. Naturally, few cats resided here, so it was easy to take over the whole area and make it completely secure. Now, we can keep the rest of the world out, and everyone else in.
"Then, something I never had foreseen happened," Sight's eyes flashed dangerously once more. "A newcomer showed up. Of course, I welcomed Ember with pleasure, introducing him to the perfect life everyone has here. At first, he understood and accepted it, with vigor. He quickly rose up and gained a lot of respect in my group, and even I can say that he took great strides in helping this place become an even greater sanctuary."
Sight sighed, and looked up again. Graywhisper could see her eyes were clouded over with memory, and gray she-cat closed her own eyes, letting herself get lost in the past. Then, the white she-cat spoke again, startling Graywhisper back into focus with her words. "But that's enough of my past, Gray. Now, let's talk about yours."
The white she-cat's eyes seemed to hold a grave amount of sympathy, and Graywhisper tilted her head in confusion. "Why are you concerned with my past?"
"Everyone here has been wronged in their First Life in some way, but you, Graywhisper, took a different approach then most. I'm intrigued, I must say, and I also have to deal with another fact." Sight looked serious now, her eyes almost cold. "I'll suppose you're wondering why I've told you so much. Well, it's because you're a newcomer. If you aren't properly educated, you could pose a threat greater than anyone reborn as a kit with only snatches of First Life memories."
"Why would I pose a threat?" Graywhisper asked, her eyes narrowed.
"Like I said before, you remember everything about your past. You know what life was like before, and you are already set in your ways. You don't automatically feel the need to respect me or any authority here because you weren't raised in our ways." Sight's eyes flashed dangerously. "Most here would be destructive if they had their memories, and you and Ember are no different. Especially you."
Sight glanced down at the pool, and Graywhisper's eyes widened in shock when an image appeared in the pool: three cats becoming apprentices; a tortoiseshell, a gray she-cat, and a silver tabby. The tortoiseshell and silver tabby she-cats' eyes were shining with joy, but standing off to the side, the gray she-cat slumped her shoulders, largely ignored. "What—how?"
Sight smiles sickeningly. "Cats here have . . . enhanced abilities, some more extreme than others. I'm one of the stronger ones; I can see a cat's memories, and call up vivid images in water." She looked down, and the image changed. It showed the gray she-cat again as an apprentice training with the tortoiseshell. Both are sparring, when the gray she-cat manages to pin the tortoiseshell.
"I was always the better fighter," Graywhisper murmured.
The white she-cat across from her remained silent as another image replaced the second. Now, it showed the gray she-cat cowering while the tortoiseshell and another cat, a dark tabby, taunt her. Another image, the gray she-cat being comforted by the silver tabby. Then, the silver tabby dead, her body broken and bloody. The gray she-cat stands over her, mourning the dead cat while the tortoiseshell looks on in horror. The images begin to appear faster and faster to Graywhisper, and she takes a step back, moaning slightly.
"You have a dark past, Gray, and that's not even the worst of it." Sight's eyes were dark, and mournful. "It's what happens next as a result of your sister's death as well as many others'."
"I know," Graywhisper said quietly, not daring to look back at the pool.
"Which is exactly why you are so dangerous. Most cats would have killed you or exiled you with my foreknowledge, but I am kinder." Sight's voice was soft now, and assuring. "Come, and look in the pool again."
Reluctantly, Graywhisper turned, and looked down. The image was softer, happier. It showed two sisters, nuzzling each other happily. Then the gray she-cat hauling a rabbit back to camp, her eyes sparkling with triumph. The gray she-cat receiving her warrior name as the silver tabby got her medicine cat one. Another image showed the gray she-cat with a white tom with ginger spots, sharing some fresh-kill. Now, though, Sight began to show images Graywhisper wasn't familiar with. They weren't her memories, but the gray she-cat wished they were. It showed the same white and orange tom and gray she-cat with their tails twined, then the gray she-cat with kits. Next, it showed the gray she-cat being chosen as a deputy, and finally becoming leader of her clan. Images showed her the many deeds she could have completed as Graystar, saving her clan and watching her kits grow up to be great warriors.
"I can give the parts of your life that you love and cherish, and more," Sight whispered. "I may not be strong enough yet, but with every day I spend in the Gray World, my power begins to strengthen. Soon, I can make memories and fantasies come to life." She crept forward over the lip of the pool so that she held Graywhisper's hungry gaze firmly. "You can have a perfect life, Graywhisper. One where everyone will remember you, and you'll never fade."
She let that tantalizing statement sink in, and Graywhisper shivered with barely concealed desire. Sight purred, and flicked her tail. "All you have to do is join me, and with your prowess, we can get rid of Ember and his rebellion against my sanctuary."
So, tell me what you think, if you feel like reviewing. Do you think my characters are realistic, and Graywhisper's personality is consistent? Do you like the world I made, or do you think Sight shouldn't have explained so much to Graywhisper right away? Is this making enough sense? Please let me know.
Also, thanks for pointing out the mistakes in the last chapter. I tend to get sloppy when I try my best to churn out a chapter in one day (it literally takes hours for me to write 4,000-some words), and I miss some things. I corrected what was pointed out, I think. Don't hesitate to point out mistakes in any of my stories in the future.