The sky was stained violet and gold with the last light of sunset and the trees were dark outlines against that painted backdrop. The forest rang with the last birdsongs before the birds fell silent until dawn. Around her the cats of The Hollow gathered in small groups, the worried chatter rising around her like smoke, a mere impression of sound.
In front of her, in a puddle of water and her own crimson blood, Maple lay still and silent. Her eyes stared into space, the light forever gone from them. Shadecloud found herself wondering why nobody had closed them out of respect.
She leaned forward and brushed them shut as she'd seen Laurelheart do in the center of camp many times before. If it hadn't been for the gaping wounds the calico she cat could have been sleeping.
Shadecloud touched her nose to Maple's sodden pelt, trying to catch a last trace of her scent. The sunshine and leaf smell was gone, replaced entirely by the heavy scent of death. Wet fur, decaying leaves, the stagnant pond water and the stench of blood.
Slowly she became aware of something warm and soft beside her, shielding her from the chill that had crept into the air as the sun went down. The misty form of her shadow was curled at her side, the fuzzy outline of it's muzzle resting on Maple's body as though it too was paying its respects.
A wave of exhaustion washed over her, she was tired, so impossibly tired. Her limbs felt like stone and quiet voices of her clanmates and the warmth of her shadow lulled her into a doze, she felt spent and beyond tears or grief.
She was drifting on the edge of sleep when a loud cry jerked her awake, in a heartbeat the shadow dissipated from her side and the growing chill in the air bit at her pelt. She didn't notice it though; her attention was fixed on Shadow.
The tom was standing at the entrance to the clearing, he looked shaken and his pelt was torn and bloody. His face was a mask of grief and his golden eyes were fixed on Maple's body and the ragged wounds torn into her fur.
With another strangled cry he bounded the few paces to her side and collapsed, pressing his face into her pelt. From where she lay Shadecloud could hear the strangled sobs that racked his body.
Frost was by his side in heartbeats with Lotus at his heels, the white tom lay down one one side of Shadow and Lotus sat on the other. For several long moments they stayed like that, silent in their sorrow and love, and Shadecloud remembered, irrelevantly, that they had been friends since kithood.
Lotus gently lowered her head and began to clean the still bleeding wound on Shadow's flank, smoothing the matted fur with gentle motions.
Feeling that she was intruding on a somehow intimate moment Shadecloud rose to her paws, touching her nose to Maple's pelt in a final farewell.
When she reached her den she cast a last look back at the clearing where the final rays of the sun illuminated the still forms of Lotus, Frost and Shadow beside Maple's body.
Shadecloud slept in fits and starts, her dreams confused fragments of memory interwoven with the musing of her own mind. She was falling from a great height, somewhere in the distance Hollyfrost was screaming. Then it was Maple screaming, pleading for help as she was torn to shreds by some invisible attacker. Suddenly all was peaceful, Shadecloud was home in the camp, surrounded by her clanmates sharing tongues and basking in the sun. She turned as someone called her name and Hollyfrost was standing in the entrance to the nursery, a pair of kits at her paws. One of them bounced up to her, and Shadecloud found herself looking down into a pair of startlingly green eyes that slowly dimmed and glazed over until they were cloudy with death.
She woke with a start, those dead green eyes burned into her mind as she sat, shaking, in her den. It was full night now, the moon was high and full in the sky and the clearing was almost deserted. Standing by Maple's body was a pale tabby she cat who looked up as Shadecloud stirred, gazing at her with blazing purple eyes.
Ghost dropped her gaze and bounded away, disappearing into the darkness beyond the Hollow without a sound.
Shadecloud returned to her nest but sleep refused to take her, she lay awake for what seemed like hours, staring at Lotus's empty nest and the sliver of sky she could see.
After an interminable amount of time she stood and padded into the clearing, the cool night air blew over her pelt and the moon cast shadows around the clearing.
She caught her breath as one of the shadows detached itself and solidified, forming a tom with golden eyes and mottled grey fur. Shadow stepped away from the darkness to stand beside Shadecloud, managing a sad half-smile at her shock.
"I guess you've never seen me do that before." He said wryly.
She shook her head, wondering if she should say something about Maple but deciding against it. "No, I haven't."
He looked up at the sky, "My father could control the darkness, he used to pull me out of it when I was young and I'd been up to some mischief."
She nodded, taken aback by the story and unsure what to make of his suddenly friendly attitude.
"I could never control it, only become it." He said, one of his paws melding seamlessly into the shadow cast by Shadecloud's form.
As his paw regained its solid form Shadecloud's shadow melted away from the ground to stand beside her, looking somehow disgruntled at the intrusion.
"Ah, sorry." He apologized dipping his head to the misty form. Its purple eyes narrowed and Shadecloud nudged it, surprised to find that it was almost solid.
He looked at it in silence for a heartbeat before speaking again. "So this is your curse huh? You really are one of us, aren't you."
"You mean your family?" She asked.
"The Smoke lineage. Cursed to be part of the shadows by sky knows who thousands of seasons ago. You and I, we are children of darkness."
It seemed a strange parting but before Shadecloud could respond he disappeared into the dark once again, leaving her alone with her shadow and the echo of his words.
The Smoke lineage, children of darkness.
The words hung in the air like clouds before a storm. They were dark clouds indeed and heavy with a promise; that when the storm came it would leave nothing unscathed.