The young molly had had enough of it. The poking, the pulling of her short, black fur, the way mechanical arms coldly grabbed everything that could be grabbed. And they had constantly stopped her from scratching a pair of tiny scars on her neck. "How much longer is this going to take?" Mira had whined through a yawn. "It's too early in the morning for this."

"Physicals are done when they are done." Proxima's voice had been perfectly clear over the well-lit den's chatter holes. "Stop squirming. You are not a kitten."

"I don't have to be a kit for this to be—" The mechanical arms suspended her with as few holds as they could manage while worm-like appendages strobed light across her body. "Hey! I'm just as much a molly as I was last time!"

Neither Proxima nor the mechanical arms acknowledged her embarrassed hiss and showed no signs of putting her down anytime soon. Her only reprieve was the privacy of the egg-white, windowless walls. Mira was reminded of the same rough handling she received from drones shortly after being awoken, her first memory. It was just as annoying then, too, but this time seemed more intentional and thorough.

What Mira had learned from her three rotations of life was the precise control Proxima had over most things twoleg. Her guardian had constantly noted cats were incapable of learning even a fraction of her knowledge. She assumed the colored lights flashing between her legs were fake eyes seeing deeper than any living thing ever could. She could even see it on the projected screen floating next to her. The weave of her muscles and how they moved, even when she was being restrained. The way her heart pumped strong and her chest rose and fell, how her bones kept stiff while her body could twist like a falling leaf. Information no ordinary cat would've seen or grasped. It was a little unnerving to see herself so intricately and incoherently, but trusted Proxima knew exactly what she was looking for.

"I feel fine," Mira said, her restrained legs growing sore. "Haven't you found whatever you're looking for yet?"

"This will hurt," Proxima said.

Seven of the mechanical arms surrounded Mira and produced sharp needles. Before she could hiss or swat them away, they jabbed her deep in different places. One arm grabbed her muzzle and pierced to the base of her skull. Mira didn't even have time to yelp before the pain stopped, thankfully. The arms left with several small vials of her blood.

"What was that?" Mira growled, but not too angrily. "Your needles touched my bones!"

"Aside from those bone marrow samples, I had to change the permissions in your tracking chip. It will let you open doors on your own outside of this facility."

The young molly's eyes lit up, all forgiven. "You mean… it's time!?"

"Soon. My theory proves more correct with each passing week." The arms returned to the spider-like drone on a ceiling full of them. The holographic screen remained, however, with even more intricate models of the young molly on display. "Among other reasons, this examination was to test your chimeric trait, the Catus-Panthera-sapiens blood, for any harmful side effects. On the contrary, you are far more resistant to all forms of disease, infection, poison and venom, radiation, and even aging than your birth certificate stated. You are free of birth defects and will be free of ailments like arthritis late into your life. Consider yourself the luckiest cat alive."

"I understood…" Mira paused to think of how many words she recognized against her excitement for leaving, "most of that. It all still seems impossible."

"Cryogenic storage and parent-less births are possible. What should not be is the fact that you inherited your species' terminology for objects even without a childhood. That is impossible."

"Must be my sharp mind," Mira joked, recognizing the irritation in Proxima's voice. "I am over two-hundred years old."

"You mean over two-hundred months," Proxima said apathetically. Mira licked her chest in mocking embarrassment. "I suppose whether you say rotations or twoleg is not important. I have also decided to finalize your true age. You are certainly not a newborn kitten or ten years old. Seven months for the age your artificial maturing was ceased in cryostasis plus the three you have been awake for puts you at ten months, six days, thirteen hours old."

"That makes sense." Mira's fur ruffled between the embarrassment of asking and the slight fear of questioning her more intelligent guardian. "By the way, why did you have to use that flashing-light-thing on me? And everywhere at that?"

"I needed to compare a line of information in your birth certificate contradicting my own findings. It is related to a chimera's ability to reproduce."

"Oh. I guess I don't need to worry about that." But Mira didn't believe that. She was aware of all the abstraction Proxima used to ensure she understood what she needed to, but this was too close to her to ignore. Even if it was something she hadn't immediately thought or cared about, she remembered the cats she had come to know over her three rotations of life and thought, one day, she might want what they had. "Actually, what did you find out—"

The scent of blood shot Mira's fur up before realizing her nose was bleeding. Her head had also grown unusually light. Before she could call Proxima, a tremor shook the den. Proxima had said the earthquakes had stopped, but she braced herself for a more violent shake. Instead, she felt the weight of her own fur vanish. A vibrating hum made Mira grab her head. It felt like it was floating away from her body and hurt in a dizzying way.

"I think something's wrong with me?" Mira eked, her voice mysteriously muffled. "Proxima?"

Mira tried to grasp the sensation, but a new one took hold: weightlessness. Her claws instinctively gripped the table best they could. Silver tools and see-through flasks began to float. The holographic screen Proxima displayed her insides on flickered off, the device projecting it floating up with everything else. Mira's eyes widened when the see-through objects shattered against the ceiling and scattered shards about. Her claws lost grip and she floated up to meet them.

"Help!" Mira wailed.

Just in time, A drone burst through the doors with a large tank of crystal-clear water in tow. It was already off the ground, so the much smaller drone positioned it right under Mira without much effort. Before her back could graze the shards, an arm from the ceiling grabbed her and shoved her into the tank.

"Wait, I can't swim! I can't—"

A lid slammed down and locked Mira in. The water floated to the top of the tank with her, leaving her unable to breathe. Her heart pounded against her chest just as her head throbbed her to dizziness. She couldn't understand Proxima's voice while submerged. It was painful for Mira to keep her eyes open. She hadn't had time to take a breath and began swallowing water. But the tank kept the crystal-like shards from impaling her.

Just as fast as everything rose, it came crashing down. The water was tinted red from her bloody nose, but she was panicking more as she struggled to surface. Even with her weight returning, the water was too deep to tread. Finally, the lid popped open and a mechanical arm lifted her from the tank and onto the table. Mira threw up water after the arm massaged her chest and helped her stand.

"Proxima?" Mira coughed.

There was still no answer. Sparks and monotone static permeated the den while an emergency alarm blared something in twoleg-speak. The den's white walls were ruined by the torrent of objects rising and crashing down. One side had even caught fire, presumably what the alarm was about. Mira leapt from the table and carefully padded between the crystal-like shards, eager to escape yet another immediate danger. Hallway after hallway was strewn with broken objects and had cracks in their walls. She didn't trust the place to be standing for much longer. The see-through sliding doors forming the front entrance had shattered and she carefully walked through their debris.

Mira never thought she could be relieved to see the boring hazel sky, still sunless and unphased. But everything else around her was. The twoleg nest she had been in was one of several in a semi-circle and one of the few still standing. Three were on fire, drones spraying limited bursts of white foam on them. One was flattened completely. Mira shuttered at the thought it could've been hers. All the vegetation decorating the walkways was at least disturbed. The trees withstood it but their leaves and branches were a shredded mess.

"Proxima?" Mira shouted, shaking the rest of the water from her fur. "Proxima?"

"Are you unharmed?" A flat, disc-shaped drone floated from the roof of a structure and bathed her with a familiar blue light.

Mira nodded, still in awe of the destruction. "What was that!?"

"A theory proven correct, unfortunately." The shake in Proxima's voice was enough to scare Mira more than her near-death experience—she'd never heard any kind of emotion from her, ever. "Much of this place will burn before noon."

Mira scented the weird smells from the burning structures and upturned dirt. Then, she caught the scent of her own blood, again, from her nose. She touched it and looked between it and the trees. Suddenly, Proxima's warning became a lot more dire.

"Calat!" Mira took off to her left and darted over the broken bushes as fast as her legs would take her. She barely caught the dull hum of Proxima's drone as it struggled to navigate the debris. Her heart pounded against her chest with a new fear. What she had experienced with Proxima's help almost killed her. The Star Covenant cats never had it.

It took Mira less time than she ever remembered to reach their garden camp. All the bushes and undergrowth they hid away in was torn to shreds. The great oak, the garden's centerpiece, was snapped in half like a twig. The stench of blood flooding her nose made her heart sink. Mira hurried into the garden and tripped on a stone that formed part of a twoleg-built path. A tom lay underneath with the back of his neck crushed by its weight.

It was the first dead cat Mira had ever seen. His eyes were wide open, tongue jammed outside of his mouth, blood oozing down his face. He wasn't the one she was looking for, but it made her belly churn. His blue fur was barely recognizable and shredded to nothing. Mira remembered speaking to him and his mate less than a rotation ago. She shuttered thinking about his mate, and hoped Calat had at least fared better.

Mira inspected the area, even the outside of the bordering twoleg nests, and found six more. A torbie molly, the blue tom's mate, was laying in the bushes close to the rock, paw stretched out for where she probably heard his final gasps. Mira carefully dragged their bodies to an open plot of grass. Her fur became a mess of sticky blood and fresh soil, the contradictory scents mocking her heart. These cats had been her only companions in a place of disinterested strays and soulless drones. But one was unaccounted for. The one she wanted to find most.

Mira closed her eyes tight, trying to get a sign from one of her visions or desperately induce a dream. Anything to find the orange-furred tom. A huff against the crackling of fire and distant alarms answered her. It was halfway between a cough and a call for help, but Mira took to it and immediately located the final member of the branch.

"Oh, no. Calat! Please stay with me…." Mira's voice trailed off.

"Mira…?" The young tom was covered by shredded undergrowth. "Mira."

Strength seemed to return to Calat's voice after he opened his eyes. Mira carefully but quickly cleared the brambles and leaves from his body. His blood surrounded him as if he'd been slammed to the ground by a horrible force. The three claw marks on his thigh were indistinguishable from other lesions. When Mira lifted his shoulder he moaned in pain. His left flank was ruined and his belly had been sliced open. But Calat let her hold him, both knowing it wouldn't make a difference.

"Proxima can fix this, I'm…" Mira wouldn't allow herself to finish.

"StarClan themselves couldn't fix this," Calat moaned.

The face Mira had been smitten with was weaker than it had any right to be. His green eyes, however, still put her at ease. She felt her ears grow hot when he held her paw, both briefly forgetting their situation. He was waiting for her to say something, which she recalled almost like instinct with how long she'd been holding it in.

"Proxima woke me up to help her fix the ringworld," Mira said. "She's told me that my whole life. Now we're going to do it. I don't even know how I can help someone as impressive as her, but she needs me. And I'll answer."

The tom brushed a bloody paw overtop her head. "But still—" he stopped to hack up blood. Mira didn't care it sprayed in her face and leaned close so he could speak softer. "What have you decided? What do you want to do for yourself?"

"For myself?" He nodded, energy fading from his neck as he did. Mira propped him up further so they could continue staring into each other's eyes. "I want to help the visions I've been having."

"I believe the Stars are calling to you. I don't know what for."

"I only know what you and the others told me about them. But I know they need help. They've never felt like they were okay."

"Whether you come to believe in StarClan or not, I believe your goals are noble. So long as they're truly your own. I wish we could've done so together." Calat coughed up more blood, but away from her this time. His eyes looked past her, though. Mira turned around to see Proxima's drone hovering near the group of dead cats and scanning them with blue light. "Can I ask one selfish request of you?"

Mira nodded. "Anything."

"Have my branchmates buried. They wouldn't want to be food for that chimera who eradicated the other Star Covenant groups."

Mira nodded sheepishly. "Travel gently." She didn't think about the words that came from her mouth, but she knew they would put him at ease.

And they did. The orange tabby gently closed his eyes and waited for the inevitable, Mira oblivious to the struggle he was putting up to speak with her. She listened to Calat's final gnarled breaths for what felt like the whole morning. It took mere moments for his body to grow cold, drained of its blood and strength. She held the tom for a while longer before carefully dragging his body with the other seven.

"Moving him would have been impossible without killing him," Proxima said over the drone's chatter holes. "But was he not one of these cats who attacked you?"

Mira shook her head. "He was different."

"An intimate partner, perhaps? Though I noticed nothing of the sort during your examination?"

"No," the young molly growled. "Why would you think that?"

"You are unspayed, and will remain so. I just assume you take care of your urges while I am not watching."

Mira knew Proxima wouldn't understand, but it wasn't something she could. She was smitten with the tom a few rotations her senior the moment she lay eyes on him. Calat was the first tom she'd ever met, after all. And she liked to imagine he felt the same way about her. But the infatuation wasn't as strong as the respect she had for his curiosity and how he kept his own branchmates just as curious. He never feared her for being a chimera and was the first to listen when she talked of her strange visions. He had saved her life and even turned his branch's opinion around on her. Calat was the foundation for the answers she sought and the path she felt destined for.

"He wasn't a mate," Mira sighed, gently brushing his cold face while letting reality set in. "We didn't talk about stuff like that."

"Very well." Proxima's drone projected a blue-tinted image of the ringworld on the ground. Mira was glad to have a reason to look away from the mangled bodies. "My theory proves correct. Centrifugal and gravitational force is no longer enough to overcome Ajax's pull due to the damage from the global earthquake last month. For brief moments, and in select areas, Skhul Terra's engines fail and allow the black hole to pull everything towards it."

Mira sat in front of the drone, looking at the ringworld's green and blue curvature extending far away and upward. "So, we all become weightless and then heavy again."

"It is far more complex than that, but yes, essentially. If this happens too many times and for too long, I fear Skhul Terra will destroy enough of itself to be consumed by Ajax. There would be no hope of survival for anyone." The image of the ringworld lit up with red dots and lines that only further confused Mira. "Communication nodes, command centers, and spaceports have more security clearance than I could give myself. Under my control, I could find a way to move the ringworld itself away from Ajax. Drones may not enter these places, but you can."

"It's so many," Mira whispered.

"I will be guiding your every step. It starts with the nearby maglev station."

"The what?"

"Devices that can move many people great distances in short order. Like the tram you like to ride, but much bigger and faster. Some of these lines were undamaged by the earthquake and their speed will be essential without flight. You would die of old age before crossing even half of Skhul Terra on foot."

None of those words put Mira at ease, but she couldn't contain the excitement she felt for finally seeing everything the ringworld had to offer and everything Proxima had told her about. But it was just for a moment. Calat's words had been hopeful, but his death just happened and sapped the excitement she momentarily felt. Still, she knew what she had to do to truly say goodbye.

"I need to bury them," Mira said, sounding as much like a demand as she could muster.

"Who? Them? The ones who attacked you and—"

"Yes." Mira demanded, for the first time. She never wished to disobey Proxima, but she wouldn't budge on the matter as she walked over to the orange tom's body. "It was his last request."

"I heard it. I just did not know if you would fulfill it. Very well. I will dig a hole. Or, perhaps, one for each?"

Mira nodded. The drone was still for several moments. Other disc-shaped drones began clearing the brambles and trees that once made up the Star Covenant camp. An imposing spherical drone painted in bright red and yellow stripes and as tall as a twoleg flattened the rest. Mira carefully dug her own hole, just one by the time the drones had finished digging the other seven, and rested Calat's body in it. But she felt at ease when she began covering it.

Mira hoped they were exactly where they wanted to be. She hadn't been fully convinced of their faith, not with Proxima constantly brushing it off, but she knew she would be, somehow. There was nobility and sense in Proxima's daunting task, but, deep down, she now had her own. She would help her visions and dreams, even if she didn't know how or exactly what they were.

"We must prepare to leave immediately," Proxima said. "You should sleep the rest of the morning while I look over some data from this place."

"We're leaving now?" Mira was surprised, but without Calat or the Star Covenant cats, she didn't feel as connected to her home as she thought.

"In about four hours or so. Too many damage control drones were lost in the gravity lapse. The entire Cortex BioLab will burn to the ground over the next few days, and the rest of the Revolutionary Sciences Park along with it."

A path along what once were smooth sidewalks lit up and had beckoned to Mira. Proxima had turned the emergency sirens off, leaving her with the crackling of growing fires and busy hums of the drones. The garden was reduced to eight lumps of dirt and the remains of the oak tree. Mira rested a paw where she buried Calat and hoped he could, somehow, know he would never be forgotten.

Mira had been unable to feel she could let go of him, or her home, in full. But, when she had reminisced on that one happy night she shared with the Star Covenant cats, she had let herself wonder of all the things she would see on her journey. Mira had stood and followed the blinking lights along the sidewalk. With a goal to call her own and Proxima at her side, Mira had felt invincible.

O O O

No matter how fast she pounded her legs, no matter what direction she darted in, it caught her. The same nameless, faceless cat that'd been haunting her dreams for moons always caught up to her in the end. She always woke up when it pounced, but this time it simply rested atop her back like a playfighting kit. She didn't want to say the little cat's name, even though she knew it. It seemed too happy and carefree to have ever felt like a part of her. At least, a part of her that hadn't been lost.

Mira's nest of pastel, woven-pelt blankets was a mess. But it was better than waking up to them soiled or bloody from her wounds like when she first arrived. The skylight had determined she was awake and opened itself up to the morning sky. Fresh grass and a warm but pungent scent wafted into the dark den. Mira welcomed it, her only comfort in a nest with no other furnishings besides a twoleg seat and a brown box.

A dark-red drone lay dormant next to her nest. Mira pressed the button atop it and immediately heard familiar shuffling outside. A large dog made his way through the rest of the twoleg nest and into her den, sliding doors opening on his arrival.

"Good morning," he said excitedly before the doors fully parted.

Mira had met dogs before and knew perfect wolf-speak, but she'd never been around them as long as this. He was relatively large with a short, black coat that wasn't as deep as hers, but the details of his profile were nonetheless lost in it. Even with ample light, he tripped over the drone and fell at Mira's side with a great thump.

"Not again," he mumbled, his voice staying monotone. "Sorry."

Mira shook her head and looked towards a tall mirror near the door. "It's always okay, Dee. I know you have a hard time seeing stuff like this."

Next to the blankets were four gray sleeves with a cross weave on their outsides. Aside from the red bands at each end and the magnetic latching she couldn't think of a use for, they looked exactly like the ones she'd always had. Mira gently grabbed the sleeves with her mouth and dragged herself by the chin and shoulders towards Dee.

His ears flopped up in panic. "You don't have to do that. Allow me."

She gently unsheathed her claws to grip him while he slowly rose and approached the mirror, turning to the side after glancing over himself. Her fight with Dombaystar left her with plenty of new scars, the most prominent being a deep one under her eye, a ring of furless scars around her right forepaw, and another gnarled one around the back of her neck. The tip of her right ear was missing, as was a bottom fang, and the fur on her slightly crooked nose. She sighed, pushing the dog's shoulder to move him on.

"Hey, you're still pretty," the black dog yapped.

"Mm," Mira hummed.

He took the hint she didn't want to linger on it and walked through the parted doors. Mira always had to push Farstrider from her mind when she looked in the mirror. She never found herself ugly with the scars of a journey older than their relationship, but did feel guilty he'd have to live with her new ones. It took her the whole time she had spent recovering to remind herself Farstrider would love her all the same, and that she'd never want to let him go.

The final set of doors parted for Dee as he carried Mira outside. She winced a little at the brighter-than-usual morning light beaming across the hazel sky, making it appear like sunset instead. The hazel was oddly less vibrant, with the nearby ocean the cause. The beach was always out of sight directly from the twoleg nest. Dee lingered on the motionless, blue waters the moment they peeked over the sheer cliff the property lay near.

"Beautiful view, as always," Dee said.

Mira gave it another glance. The sand had irritated her wounds when she first arrived, but wanted to give it another chance now that they'd scarred over. The salty air was the freshest she'd ever smelled and the breeze vibrated like the farm the hill cats lived on. It was the most positive thought she'd latched onto since being dropped off.

As Dee walked through a gate to the property, she spotted another familiar silhouette: a black and brown dog much larger than Dee and far more sharply angled. She sat alone at the edge of the highest cliff right before it tapered down. Mira focused on the red eyes staring straight at her.

Dee gave a welcoming bark towards her. "Don't mind Vo. She's just brooding, as usual. She's not demanding a miracle. None of us are."

Vo's red eyes only looked away after the black dog did, too, returning to watching the ocean. As they descended the sloping trail, more of the cliffside beach came into view. The sheer drop had subsided to a steep hill. She spotted a pair of massive sets of bones along the shore, each belonging to creatures of the sea bigger than the whole twoleg property.

"Shame about the tides," Dee yapped. "I heard from Vo whales were such majestic giants. We watched old footage of one on a screen, once."

"You've told me this," Mira said without irritation.

"Right, sorry," the dog whimpered. "I can always ask Vo about more things. She knows everything. I think."

"You've been stuck taking care of me these last three rotations." Now, Mira's voice was wrapped in a guilty sigh.

"Three rotations shouldn't be enough time to recover from the injuries you had. You've done amazing!"

"You and the automated drones did it. I just moped around, unable to stand, and talk, no hunting, dragging myself around—"

"Urinating on my back and scratching both of us awake?" Dee said mockingly while pointing to light nicks on his graying muzzle. Then his ears shot up. "Oh! I never even asked—"

"No! Stars, no." Mira growled with more embarrassment than anger. "I've been using the litterbox in my den for a while, now. With and without my sleeves."

"That's the spirit." Satisfied she sounded better, Dee continued his gentle dally. "Looks like Kev's flock wants to watch. I can shoo them away if you want."

"I can't hide away forever," Mira said. "Besides, the pack has seen it all. I couldn't humiliate myself further if I tried."

Her eyes returned to the whale skeletons. Small birds jumped between them. Many perched on the tallest bones with a large, blue bird with a yellow belly on its skull. But her attention was taken when the dog suddenly stopped and turned them around.

"Did I just see something?" Dee whispered.

"Did you?" Mira whispered back.

"I don't know? Oh well."

But Mira did see something: a geriatric cat with ragged blue fur and a mean disposition was perched on a fence post. Her green eyes did seem to expect a miracle. The stars in her pelt glowed against the morning light as she vanished in a patch of tall grass. Mira had been seeing her for months, her shrewd but deeply caring attitude preventing her from languishing too long. Though, with all she'd heard from Fleetheart, she'd hoped Panzer shared at least some of the bubbly young molly's traits. They couldn't have been more opposite.

Mira gripped the thickest of Dee's neck fur as they descended a sharp drop. He was almost too gentle when he carried her, but she always appreciated the extra time it gave her to wake up and take in her surroundings. The ringworld's horizon extended far east, sloping up and disappearing into the sky as it always had. But, now to the west, lay the hundreds of pieces of the Shattered District. The rest of the ringworld extending past it was even more out of view than when it was east. She always pushed away the dark thoughts it brought up. By the time she reached the beach, she was focused on the task at hand.

"Good morning, Dee." A yellow and blue macaw gracelessly floated to the ground. Mira loved how beautifully the golden undersides of his wings contrasted their deep blue tops and his blue back. The old bird clicked his massive, curved beak as he landed roughly. "You too, Mira."

"Kev." Dee walked next to the whale bones and gently slid Mira into the sand.

"The lynx siblings haven't been around since you chased the brother off," Kev brushed the patch of green fluff on his head down. "You don't have to guard her anymore. And Mira, you didn't put those on this morning, like we discussed yesterday?"

Mira shook her head, nudging her sleeves towards the old macaw. Dee left her side to give her some space.

"Did they learn any cat-speak these last three rotations?" Dee asked, glancing at the diverse flock of small birds perched on the whale bones.

"Not one word," Kev croaked, fluffing a wing at them. "Just the wolf-speak, and only that because Vo threatened to eat them if they didn't."

Dee shook her head. "No, no. She threatened to throw them in the ocean. She doesn't like the taste of bird. Too many feathers to pick out."

A smile crept along Mira's face. She knew Dee and Kev were teasing. But the flock seemed smarter than that. She had no idea what they were chattering about, but it was clear they were laughing at Kev instead. He simply waved a wing at them when he realized this, which only made them laugh harder.

"Mira," Kev squawked. "If you can stand, I'll catch one of those little troublemakers for you. I know how much cats love bird."

The perched flock quieted and looked at Mira, not in fear but with encouragement. Dee and Kev were standing near the bones, giving Mira an unbroken look at the tideless ocean. It was time. Mira took a deep breath, and it seemed someone answered her quiet call for strength. Panzer appeared before her and stood strong and regal, even at her age. But her scowl persisted, as if she had no faith in her. She hoped to prove the sour old molly wrong.

Mira took another deep breath and focused on her legs. She put all her strength into her shoulders and willed her forelegs to push her up. The perched flock encouraged her with excited chirps she wasn't paying attention to. The rubbing of the wind, the churning sand beneath her trembling paws, all lost against her concentration. Mira pushed up until she could see the StarClan molly's knee without looking up. Her pads broke into a harsh sweat, but it was tolerable compared to the pain in her hind legs as she willed them to stand. There was barely any feeling in all four, like they were fighting her. A ripple of pain shot from her neck to her stumpy tail. Mira yelped so loud even Vo took notice from her far away perch.

Dee was quickly sniffing her over. "Where does it hurt? What's broken?"

"Nothing," Mira growled, panting on her side and staring into Panzer's eyes. "It was just pain. I don't think I can do this again."

Dee and Kev exchanged worried looks. The old macaw began helping Mira into her leg sleeves while Dee continued checking her.

"We can try again in a quarter-rotation?" Dee said. "I'm sure they'll be strong enough then."

"I was warned of this," Mira said, bracing for the dull but quick pain the sleeves caused to adjust. "Regardless of winning or losing to Dombaystar, I was told those special braces would ruin my legs. I'm lucky I can even move with them."

Kev nodded. "I understand. Just let me know if that bothers you. I'm here to talk."

Mira looked at Kev's wings, knowing he was referring to his, and all birds of the ringworld, being permanently grounded. She'd come to enjoy his personal anecdotes of life when the twolegs were still around. "Thanks."

"Not sure why Proxima didn't choose robotic legs," Dee went on, giving her space. "You'd be jumping and running all over the place with those. I've—"

He was silenced by a harsh look from Kev. His ears perked up and he whimpered, turning away from the senior molly. "Sorry. I'm not supposed to bring her up."

Mira shook her head. "I told you, I can't hide away forever. Proxima didn't replace my legs when I was first crippled, either, because she didn't want me reliant on her. But that doesn't mean I'll just let her disappear on me."

"She offers you a way home but no way to talk to you about it," Dee growled. "I can see why Vo never liked her."

Mira looked towards a large sign near the beach's entrance. Of the several twoleg-speak lines, one had a picture resembling a snake-monster, her way home. Proxima would take her back to the hill cats without a word. She pushed the thoughts of curling up in a nest of soft grass with Farstrider from her mind. They were replaced with the old StarClan molly who nodded her head contently in front of her. Mira smiled back; at nothing to the others.

"I'm glad to see you feeling better," Dee said.

"By the way, thanks for what you said earlier," Mira said as she brushed one of her scars. "I needed that."

Dee's erratic tail-wagging tossed sand into Kev's feathers and made him squawk repeatedly in vain to stop. The smaller birds humorously laughed at him again. "Bah, that damned tail," he mumbled, brushing his feathers clean. "Watch where you swing it."

"Sorry, I can't. But sorry." Mira chuckled right along with the birds. "If Mira's happy, I'm happy."

The flock stayed perched while Kev climbed up Dee's shoulders. "Take me to food. I know those horses kicked the caution into them a while ago, but that's no reason for those yappers to always find the worst seeds. Coming, Mira?"

"I'll catch up," Mira said. "I want to talk to Vo about something."

The pair nodded and walked up the sharp incline. Mira was left alone with the small birds and her own thoughts. And, no matter what she thought about, one stayed with her more than anything else she'd thought, said, or done since waking up every day for the last three rotations: Faypaw. The name of the kit she never remembered having, never remembered raising, and never remembered losing. She could bury everything else in the back of her mind, but not him.

"I'm ready to learn about him," Mira said to the StarClan cat, still in front of her.

"About time," Panzer grumbled.

"Thank you, Panzer." Mira dipped her head. "Without you, this would've been—"

"Yeah, yeah." Panzer brushed her ethereal tail through the sand. "Don't waste the time I spent with you. I expect a fully-restored StarClan. I don't like forgetting things. Makes me feel senile…. Also, promise me something?"

Mira nodded and leaned closer.

"Make that monkey-or-whatever listen to you next time she shows herself. From what I've heard from you and the slobber-less mutt, she doesn't deserve anything you've done for her."

Panzer walked towards the beach, her tail rudely phasing through Mira's head as she turned away. Mira felt it may be the last time she met the shrew but encouraging medicine cat and knew she'd regret saying nothing in case she couldn't restore StarClan.

"I met Fleetheart during my travels," Mira said.

Panzer didn't turn around. "Oh yeah?"

"She misses you."

"Hmm." Mira could barely hear a purr from the ancient cat's throat. "She finds you again, tell her to quit fawning. I'm not going anywhere anytime soon. Now leave me be, kittypet-thing. You have work to do."

Panzer continued padding towards the ocean, stopping short of getting into the water but resting at its perfectly still edge. Mira glanced at the birds to find them staring intriguingly at her conversation with seemingly nothing. If Kev was right about their refusal to learn her language, they hadn't understood a word.

"Cats can speak to the dead, you know," Mira whispered loudly in wolf-speak so they would understand. "But don't tell anyone, or else—" She bore her fangs and loosed a throaty growl, making the flock shutter and scatter to the further set of whale bones.

Mira chuckled and immediately started for the top of the cliff, not wanting her good mood to go to waste. It was hard to walk, even a little, but she was strong enough to do so, now. She knew what Vo was upset about and just how she could help.