"Are you going over what I taught you?" Proxima's voice had sounded over hidden chatter holes around the courtyard.

"Gravity keeps us on the ground, the world is a ring around the sun, and the twolegs rule thousands of other worlds beyond the sky." Mira had dryly repeated her day's lessons.

"They are called humans, not twolegs."

"You keep saying human, but what does that even mean? They walk on two legs instead of four. What else does that?"

"Perhaps I was wrong trying to correct your innate feline mannerisms." Proxima's voice had clicked out abruptly.

"I'm a cat. What did you expect?" Mira had mumbled after being certain Proxima had not been listening.

The young molly stopped to groom her fur. Nothing was out of place, but she wanted to try harder for Proxima. Mira lingered on the creatures who had built and abandoned the ringworld, conjuring images of the woven pelts they made to cover their hairless bodies, their flat faces hiding flatter teeth, the strange differences between their toms and mollies, and their massive two legs they built their whole world around. She sighed and resigned to her inner voice. They were too complicated. Proxima would at least have to get used to the word twoleg.

Mira walkd through the courtyard, keeping to the border of a thunderpath with a pair of silverpaths running through its center. She hopped onto a covered bench where twolegs would've waited for snake-monsters. A few moments went by and, to her kit-like squeals, a red and white striped snake-monster showed up. Mira wondered why Proxima didn't turn them off without twolegs to use them, but never brought it up because she loved riding them. She padded inside and laid in the middle of the floor. Chatter holes within uttered pre-recorded messages and displayed twoleg scribblings on its see-through top half. The doors closed and she was off in short order.

The snake-monster was see-through from the inside, letting Mira see where she was going without having to hop onto a seat. The ride was gentle since they only ever went as fast as she'd seen a twoleg run in videos. She pondered how they managed to avoid getting hit so easily. The only way to hear them was the monotone hum all twoleg mechanisms emitted and a gentle beep they made as they slid by. She never smelled anything but the sterile scent of "clean" she'd grown used to from the nests. Did other creatures know twoleg mechanisms weren't, in fact, actual monsters?

Mira let her mind wander to a name the tom had given her half a rotation ago, Star Covenant. It was an odd name since there were no stars in the sky and she hadn't met any other members, but she knew the direction he'd chased her away from was where they'd be. Despite his warning, their decision to kill chimeras on sight, she felt she could talk them out of it. With a name like that, they could answer for her strange dreams and hallucinations. At some point, her inquisitiveness would demand the risk.

A rumble knocked Mira from deep thought. "Proxima?" But no answer came. "Proxima, what's—"

Another great jolt threw her into a bracing pole. The snake-monster clamped to the ground, screeching to a halt, and thrust open its doors. Mira stumbled out, dazed by the wobbling ground, but her eyes widened at the sudden chaos around her. Trees planted around tall twoleg nests were ripped from their spots and fell across the thunderpath. The nests themselves wobbled like leaves in a breeze. Mira jolted back inside the snake-monster and demanded in vain it close its doors.

Crumbling stone and sparking wires clenched Mira's senses. Smoke and fire weren't far off. One of the nests collapsed atop the snake-monster and sent her darting under the seats. Some of its rubble fell right where she'd been lazily thinking just moments ago and blocked her escape. Mira couldn't even hear herself yelling for Proxima until the shaking stopped. She kept herself pushed against the seat until she was certain it was all over.

Her survival instincts fading, Mira touched her forehead and realized it was bleeding. She barely managed to shake the dust from her fur without falling over. Mira stumbled through a hole in the snake-monster's right exit and looked at it with thankful dismay it had been destroyed saving her life. Most of the twoleg structures were still standing, though. The same couldn't be said for the trees and light poles. Even the thunderpath itself had a shallow fissure tearing open its center.

Drones descended on the scene, several bathing the snake-monster in blue light and quickly finding Mira.

"Proxima?" Mira said.

"I am here," her caretaker responded from a heavy, chrome-clad security drone. There wasn't a hint of fear or relief in her voice, but the drone extended three mechanical arms to tend to her forehead.

"What happened? Everything just started shaking."

"A massive earthquake has shaken the entire ringworld simultaneously." A sticky patch on her forehead immediately soothed her dizziness and stopped the bleeding. But her fur anxiously prickled at the explanation. "That is not how earthquakes should happen. Matter of fact, an artificial world should not have natural seismic events at all."

"What are earthquakes supposed to be like?"

The spherical drone Proxima spoke from rolled away instead and helped another brace a twoleg nest with a crack running up its façade. More drones arrived on the scene to put out small fires and clear rubble from the thunderpath. Mira knew better than to disturb Proxima while she was thinking, as none of the drones had red lights to indicate her presence. A high-pitched whine stunned her to her belly and clicked off after a few heartbeats.

"The true extent of the damage may be worse than I feared." A disc-shaped drone painted with red stripes and a blue-red ring on its underside floated near Mira. "The earthquake knocked out the ringworld's global communication systems along with tens of thousands of drones. You may have heard a high-frequency whine. I can repair none of it."

"Oh. What does that mean for us?"

"For me, it means I cannot address the ringworld's inhabitants as I did when waking up the chimeras. For you, it means your training and lessons will soon be put to trial."

"I thought your training was just part of you raising me," Mira said, shifting her forepaws around. "I never really knew what running through obstacle courses or learning about twolegs would amount to?"

"I am only a slightly better substitute than a queen, but that is beside the point." Proxima's accent came through heavy, as it always did when explaining things. "Most chimeras are too unstable or unable to survive in the wild. I have ensured you are not one of them. But now, without the ability to coordinate or track the movements of those who are stable—"

"Isn't there a way to put the dangerous chimeras back?"

"Put them back?" The drone ushered Mira away from the now burning snake-monster as firefighting drones doused it in white mist. "What does that have to do with our predicament?"

"Half a rotation ago some of the, uh, stray cats were complaining about a big, four-winged crow attacking them. Some of them were killed by it. Shouldn't we stop that?"

"The majority of chimeras cannot survive in the wild and will perish over the course of the year. Birds especially, seeing as nothing should be able to fly more than a few meters. I will protect you from any nature does not claim, but wild animals will simply have to fend for themselves, as always."

Proxima's words left a sour taste in her mouth. Even though she never saw the chimera the orange tom had told her about, it was far from a natural occurrence. She sighed and dropped it for the time being. "What do I do, then?"

"You may be able to make up for the shortcomings of drones and computers, especially after what has happened. I have not figured out all the details, but we may be able to take full control of Skhul Terra. The ringworld should remain stable enough for twenty, maybe thirty more years—"

Mira's eyes widened. "Control the ringworld!?"

"Literally speaking, yes. The safest place for Skhul Terra to be is away from the Ajax black hole. For the time being, it seems most of the Cortex Revolutionary Sciences Park is intact. Return home so I can check more thoroughly for a concussion."

The drone sped down the thunderpath and none of the others had a red light. The chrome-clad security drone rolled behind Mira, though, as she turned the opposite direction. It gave her plenty of space, but its lumbering presence made her a bit uneasy. The young molly kept her pace slow, anyway, lost in thought about what had just happened and still a little dizzy. She had let her eyes wander between the damaged twoleg nests and the drones working to repair them.

But, between bouts of wandering and thought, Mira saw a bright flash from an alley between two tall nests. She bolted down it just as the last of it faded to find the body of a raccoon hit by falling rubble. A gray and white molly picking at the body hissed and fled at her arrival. The flash returned further down the alley to the right. Reaching that turn, the light became stable. It was from a cat—she couldn't tell if it was a tom or a molly. Glowing dots in its gray and white fur were identical to what she had seen earlier that rotation.

Mira had not been scared by it, nor it by her. The ghostly cat had reached out to her with a paw. Mira had reached for it, but the moment they touched it had disappeared. The dotted cat had stared straight at her with a desperate gaze before vanishing along with it. Mira had felt her heart pounding against her chest. She had thought the hallucinations couldn't interact with her specifically, let alone show any kind of emotion.

The starry cat's pain had lingered in a way that made her forget about the earthquake. Mira had now decided to disregard the orange tom's warning and visit the Star Covenant camp. She had to get answers for, and on behalf of, her visions.

O O O

The wind whistling against the sheer cliffs and grasses separating Mira from the ocean was all she wanted to hear. She sat near the edge and gazed at the perfectly still body of water. She imagined waves, like she'd seen in fountains, but massive and roaring. Enough to keep her from feeling as alone as she did. Rye sat next to her, changing between somber stillness and nervousness. It didn't take long for Mira to pick up on the behavior and rest her paw on hers. Mira remembered Farstrider's stories about this particular kit: wise and powerful beyond her years but still a kit.

Dee finally left the boulders and approached with a heavy sigh and a tired face. Rye dipped her head to Mira and padded towards the cave. She seemed happy just seeing the dog, watching her stars light his black fur—Mira didn't understand, only knowing about Rye's unique relationship with a pack of dogs in her lifetime.

"You don't mind?" Dee asked politely.

Mira motioned him to sit next to her, which he did. "Is she gone?"

"While she slept, with her siblings keeping her company. I'm sorry."

Mira didn't know if she wanted to sob, yell, or sleep her emotions away. She looked back at the cave just as the StarClan kit walked through its entrance, filling it with light she knew Striped Tail and Spot Belly wouldn't see. But she wondered if Lilii Borea could. Mira hoped they all could, and that it'd lead her to Faypaw, wherever he was. But, at the thought of her kit, her grief finally manifested. She buried her face in Dee's flank without so much as a peep. She kept herself there for several moments, waiting for something to free itself from her overburdened mind.

"I'm just so angry! How can memories be stolen so precisely that I can't even remember feeling like this for my kit? I've wanted a family for half my life. I knew Lilii Borea for a quarter-rotation! And it's like she's my…" Mira trailed off, crushing sadness extinguishing her fury. "My Stars. She just died and I'm mad at myself?"

"We grieve in our own way," Dee said, the monotone pep in his voice soothing her further.

"Well, not everyone has their memories erased."

"True. Does that make this easier for you?"

Mira shook her head. "Harder. Everything she knew about Faypaw is everything I know about him. Now it feels like I've lost him twice, and her with him."

Mira waited for Dee to say something, but instead he was staring aimlessly at the quiet ocean, his brown eyes low and the gray in his muzzle emphasized by the dark sky. For the first time in three rotations, he looked tired. She hoped talking about something else would make her feel better.

"Can I ask you something?" Mira said, regaining her composure.

Dee's ears perked up. "Of course."

"About what Vo said to you before we left?" The black lab tilted his head, but seemed to know what was coming. "You seemed angry with her, but I couldn't figure out why."

"So you did hear that? I assumed as much."

"I'm sorry for eavesdropping."

"No need to apologize… Actually, I think you can understand in a way only Kev has so far. If you don't mind a sad story?"

"After all you've done for me the last three rotations, I owe you so much more than an ear."

Despite his earlier statement, Mira spotted his tail wagging a bit. Dee took a deep breath, seemingly relishing the salty air the breeze brought mixing with the earthy scents of the outcropping. Mira set aside Lilii Borea's words and put her focus on Dee, inside and out.

"One night, the ringworld shook and destroyed the kennel I was born in and the drones who had fed me. I grew up among its ruins watching everyone leave. A cat stayed by my side, though. He convinced me not to be afraid of the ringworld and rely on my own senses. That made me feel better."

"He sounds like he could've been raised by twolegs. What was his name?"

"Subject. It was a twoleg word he learned whenever the kennel's drones fed him and assumed it was his name. We traveled for years together. He said he was looking for a pack of cats called StarClan where he could have an easy life. I was just glad to not be alone. But the ringworld is a harsh place. The day we met Vo, we were caught in a gravity lapse." Dee shook his head, strength returning to his face. "Subject didn't make it."

"I'm sorry to hear that," Mira said. The story painfully reminded her of Calat and his branchmates. "I know that feeling. I really do."

"He said he would change his name to whatever his new clan wanted, whenever he found them. He promised we'd find them together. I only learned after his death StarClan is really a belief among a particular group of cats. And I thought even that was just a rumor until Vo told me about them."

Mira stood and stretched, immediately bringing on aches from her day spent walking and running. Even the vibrations of her sleeves were unable to keep her upright and she thumped down a few steps later. Dee understood, having taken her on many walks to regain her strength, and propped her up to let her stretch her legs.

"Thanks. After I just said you've had to take care of me for a while, too."

"You're still recovering."

"Did Vo help you recover from the gravity lapse?"

Dee nodded. "I almost died trying to save Subject. But our travels left me with a lot more injuries than him. Vo did a lot for me. She even changed her name from Proxima-Moldoveanu, the full name the masters had given her, because I couldn't pronounce it. She wanted me to stay and keep her natural urges in check. I didn't know what that meant until she told me she was a chimera with a mind as sharp as the masters themselves."

Mira tried leaping atop a rock Dee's size, but her sleeves tripped her before she could jump. Her scowl was from more than just failing. "That sounds a lot like Proxima to me."

"No," Dee growled, but quickly checked his anger. He looked so ashamed Mira hurried him to keep going and take his mind from it. "Vo is beautiful, very smart, and nicer than she knows. I love her. But I'll never be smart enough for her to love me back. Not the way I want her to."

Determined to defy her sleeves, Mira dragged herself up several rocks to finally meet Dee at eye level. He still looked tired despite the strong face he put forward. He wasn't looking at her, instead gazing at the ocean through a pair of stone spires.

"That, I really know the feeling of," Mira said, staring at the shadow square keeping the sky dark. "Farstrider was afraid for a while I'd leave him over something like that."

"When I was recovering with Vo, I sought after that StarClan Subject wanted to find. I came across the same Star Covenant group who told Vo about it. I was happy he might've ended up there. Vo said so much time thinking about him was senseless, and that I had new obligations to put effort into."

"That's a terrible thing to say to someone!" Mira growled.

"I was so angry I attacked her. She could've killed me even if I was healthy, but chased me off instead. I was smitten. I wanted to go back the moment I fled. Three days later I did and we forgave each other right away. We never talked about it again after I got better."

"But every once in a while, it comes up?"

Dee nodded. "Never intentionally. She thinks grief is selfish." He pressed his paw into the dirt and looked at the imprint. "I never thought she believed that. She wouldn't have started a pack, where she knew we wouldn't be able to save everyone, if she had no empathy. I just don't understand why she says those things. It makes me think she's ashamed of being a dog. Or ashamed of needing me."

He trailed off, moving his mouth about to speak but never letting the words out. Eventually he gave up and backtracked a little for an unobstructed view of the ocean. Mira gently came down from the rock and sat next to him. She tried coming up with an answer, but her mind kept returning to Lilii Borea and Faypaw.

She'd never properly grieved her kit's death; At least, she'd forgotten if she had. His slow path to acceptance, with Subject and Vo, couldn't have been more different from her own situation. But Mira was glad Dee and Vo could find happiness in some way with each other and the pack they'd formed.

"I think Vo loves you back," Mira said. "If she can't get through life without you, she must."

Dee's suddenly wagging tail smacked her several times. "Sorry!" he whimpered, clamping his tail around his hind legs. "Sorry…. Thanks for listening."

Mira nodded and brushed against him, making his tail wag even more. Dee's ears perked up at the lynx siblings' approach. Both were mumbling to each other and seemed reluctant to even talk to them. Dee flexed his muscles as he stood, keeping his eyes on the tom especially.

"Calm down you stupid mutt," Spot Belly growled. "We're not going to try anything."

Striped Tail pointed at Dee. "You and that horse you brought can break roots from the tree behind our cave. She insisted on being buried to help it or something. I don't know what happens after that."

Mira nodded. "I'm sure I can convince Vo to let you come with us."

"Steep Paws told us to do that." Striped Tail shook her head but didn't dismiss the idea. "We'll think about it."

The lynx siblings hurried off. Mira and Dee kept their distance but followed. She didn't know exactly how they felt, but knew they were accepting it in their own way. It's why she wished they could see Rye's glow emanating from their cave. So they could see their sibling was never truly going to leave them.