ARPG WRITING CENTRAL

[TheSongOfTheStars]

Rise Fall Event

534 words

Night after night the dream returned, rending Nightlily a sleepless wreck and the other cats were starting to notice. She was pretty certain Ottercatch and Mousetoes were going to tell Wildeyes about her nightmare and Nightlily really couldn't have that. She had to handle this herself.
After the many times of being trapped in the dreamland, Nightlily had realized that it took place in Songclan's territory, near a cave.
She didn't know what else to do.
But maybe this hadn't been the best choice, she thought as she stared down the maw of the cave opening into the darkness. It was impenetrable.
Come child come.
No she was just imagine that because she was tired, the cave wasn't talking to her and the shadows were not beckoning.
Nightlily took a deep breath to steady herself, then set paw into the cave.
An energy hit her in the chest like a wall of water smashing into her and at the same time it yanked her forwards, drawing her deeper into the cave even as she dug her claws into the stone.
No! She tried to scream as the voice howled in delight. Several more sharp yanks and Nightlily's head cracked against the low roof and
She was trapped in the dreamland again, only the once blazing star filled sky was now dripping crimson and before her stood the voice.
It was almost real and almost a shadow, mangy and skeletal and eyes like broken suns that flickered from a red that matched the sky to the green of a normal cat, but they were dripping no matter the color.
"Foolish kitten!" the voice boomed and it was everywhere and everything, within and without Nightlily.
No, no, Nightlily thrashed and kicked and bit and she couldn't even move.

Let me go! Let me go! Help! Help!
She couldn't escape by herself and without thinking started to call out, even though the voice had drained her own breath.
As abruptly as a lightening strike the pressure vanished and Nightlily could feel her own body. The voice shrieked in rage but it sounded distant and continued to fade.
The blood red stars dimmed until they faded entirely and it was dark again.
Two yellow lights flickered and blinked and for a second Nightlily thought it was her own reflection and her own eyes.
All you had to do was ask me for help child.
There was a new voice, but this one soft and gentle and kind.
"I didn't know," Nightlily spoke into the dream world and to the empty cave.
Its alright, you do know. But she will not bother you any more.
"Thank...thank you," Nightlily called even as she felt the dreamland fade.
Of course... my child.
---
Nightlily awoke and shot to her feet, only to bump her already aching head. But this time it was the wood ceiling of the healers log den.
"Careful!" Graystorm says and Nightlily could cry, she's so glad to see him.
"You've been out for a while," the tabby says "What were you doing in that cave?"
She laughed and sat back down and tears begin to fall "Dreamwalking."
"You mean sleep walking."
She laughed again and didn't correct him.

[TheSongOfTheStars]

Rise Songclan
349
Foundlings were common. Maybe she was abandoned by an overburdened mother who saw her as a runt unlikely to survive.
Maybe she wandered out of a temporary den raised up by rogue parents, maybe her family was killed by foxes, maybe she was snatched by a bird and dropped back to earth. Maybe she had been carried out by humans and dumped, an unwanted pet.
No matter the way or the why, the tiny kitten with eyes just beginning to peek open was found by the Songclan patrol beneath the ancient, withered bush.
Firefly saw her first, sharp blue eyes picking brown fur from brown earth and the shape of the kit from the detritus and she slid through the dappled sun shadows and gingerly brushed her paw against the child's head.
It struggled to lift its head and a piteous sob broke from its raw throat, eyes still sealed shut.
Firefly fought a sudden surge of nervousness that had swelled at the first note of the child's cry and turned towards the rest of the patrol "Sandclaw!"
Songclan's second threaded his way to her side and sniffed at the wailing kit.
"Take her," he ordered quietly "I'll call Firebee and Wolfblaze back in and we'll search the are for her family."
Firefly nodded and Sandclaw slipped away, leaving her with the child.
Firefly was only with her for a few moments before the rest of the patrol returned.
"Nothing," Firebee announced, her voice much too loud in the silence that had fallen "No one."
"It's like she popped out of the ground like a little plant," Wolfblaze commented and Firefly rolled her eyes.
"We'll take her back then," Sandclaw declared, his voice much quieter "Have Morningblaze look her over and see if there are any volunteers to care for her."
The other cats nodded, but none of them moved to carry the kit.
Sandclaw internalized a sigh and caught the fragile child by the scruff of her thin neck.
There was a new addition to Songclan.
The path of fate had swung its head in a new direction.

[TheSongOfTheStars]

Mountains
Warrior Quest
274 words
Kipper was... really lost.
He'd only meant to take a bit of a wander into woods but the forest had swallowed him up and he had trekked for days now trying to find his way home.
He had managed to scrounge up a few things to eat, caught a lizard and downed it, chewed on some grass, but his stomach was gapingly empty still.
His only real hope was to continue plowing forwards and hope that blind luck favored him with a route back home.
Lady fortune was not so kind as to lead him to his safe bed and air conditioned house. No, she took him deeper into the wilderness and placed him at the foot of a great tree, starving and exhausted.
Kipper collapsed at the roots and curled in on himself, waiting to be found or starvation to claim him.
He was certain it would be death that would end his hunger.
But it was not to be.
There was a rustle. Kipper didn't look up. He couldn't have fought off a predator even if he had been full and healthy.
"Sweet stars above," A cat's voice rang out "You look absolutely awful."
Kipper raised his head feebly to see a reddish tom with sharp green eyes looking down at him.
"Who...?" he croaked, unable to finish the sentence.
"I'm Starbite," the tom said in a conversational tone "You must be Kipper. Well, for now. Once I've got you all trained up to be a warrior I'm sure we can find you a much more interesting name."
"Wh..what?" Kipper blinked in confusion.
"You're a cat of Darkclan now!" Starbite grinned "Congratulations!"

[TheSongOfTheStars]

Mountains
Warrior Quest
200
Skycoin does not understand his leader at all. He's still not convinced he's still not Kipper and not sure why he hasn't just up and left Darkclan and struck out back to home. He's certainty capable of surviving on his own now. Starbite isn't a bad teacher.
Starbite isn't a bad anything actually, and Skycoin wonders if that's one of the reasons he's stayed.
Starbite has something to him that Skycoin had never encountered, a purpose, and it intrigues the new warrior.
If anything Starbite definitely likes Skycoin, he's obviously and openly proud that his 'apprentice' managed to 'grow' into such a fine warrior under his tutelage.
Maybe its the fulfillment of someone who believes in him, maybe it the way he feels a part of something there in Darkclan, maybe its something deeper and greater than either of those, something to do with the stars that gleam and glimmer in the pools of the cave.
Either way, despite the lack of knowing the reason for his staying, Skycoin stays, growing more content with the ways of clan life and living beneath the leadership of Starbite.
He supposes he's friends with the odd cat, in fact he hopes he is.

[TheSongOfTheStars]

Hunter's Woods

355 words (300 xp)

The howls of the alarms echoed through Xandris’s non sleep, drifting like tetherless phantoms through his suspended animation so that when he finally began to come back to himself and the ringing of long since silent alarms faded, he found the quiet strange. Slowly he grew more and more aware of his surroundings, the numbness from the stasis fading from his limbs and faintly he heard the hiss of the door unsealing.
With a groan of effort the captain of the HOD opened his eyes to see his own face distorted in the reflection of the frost coated glass. He doesn't want to move, but there's a "beeping" and that's never a good sign, so blearily, he hooked his fingers along the edges of the door and he pushed it outwards and stepped out of the chamber, his body aching.
It took the tabby a few minutes to catch his breath and for the room to stop spinning.
This wasn't right, short term stasis was not supposed to do this to a person, but his mind hadn't cleared enough for him to grasp what was going on.
Xandris tried running over the last few moments of wakefulness. The hull had been compromised, a virus had spread through the crew, the environmental scrubbers could clear the virus, everyone went into stasis while the virus was cleared.
It was only supposed to be for a week.
As the fog cleared from his vision Xandris looked around. The cryochamber designated for the captain was located directly outside of the bridge, in the event that while the crew was in stasis and there was an emergency, the captain could be awoken and deal with the issue right away. Still feeling strangely heavy Xandris dragged himself to the entrance to the bridge, expecting the doors to part for him. He ended up staring for far to long at the unmoving metal doors.
"Computer open the doors to the bridge," he barked as he realized they weren't going to part.
"The bridge has been sealed."
"Why?"
"An atmospheric breach has been detected."
Xandris felt like crawling back into the cryochamber "Brilliant."

[TheSongOfTheStars]

Valley of Kings
Store Prompt S6

502 words

It was a big ship and not at all meant to be crewed by a two lionesses and a cub. Between the two of them, Seeks Finds and Bright Stranger barely could keep the Valiant moving through the void of space. Every waking moment was spent either tending to the fickle engines or at the helm guiding the ship and trying to wrangle the very broken navigation system.
On a good day Bright Stranger went to sleep with every muscle aching and her eyes twitching from trying to parse through too many error messages.
On bad days she didn't sleep at all.
Today was shaping up to be a rather good day. Nothing had broken, the burn she'd gotten from an overheated pipe was healing nicely, and she had a moment of peace to spare as she ate lunch alongside her captain and fellow "crewmate".
Bird Cry couldn't do much and more often was in the way than not and caused a disproportionate amount of problems to her small size, but the cub's antics were a welcome relief from the emptiness of hollow routine that space travel brought.
Right now the little girl had her cup balanced on her head and was giggling as she tried to tease a smile out of the exhausted Seeks Finds.
The best that the starship captain could manage was a weary crinkling of her eyes and lips but it was enough to delight the cub and she fell over squealing in laughter.
For a moment, Bright Stranger felt almost peaceful.
That peaceful sense was shattered seconds later however as an alarm, one that Bright had never heard before, one that had Seeks on her feet before Bright had a chance to catch her breath, and out the doors just as Bright was standing up.
"Captain!" She shouted after the other lioness as she bolted down the corridor, red alert lights flashing in dizzy darkness around her.
"Captain what is going on!?"
Seeks Finds didn't reply, possibly because of the shrieking of the alarms.
The ship shuddered beneath her feet and Bright felt a wave of fear wash over her as she tried to imagine what could cause a ship so huge to shake like that.
"Captain!" she shouted again, louder, as she rounded the corner and saw the doors to the bridge sliding shut.
She came up to the doors but they did not part for her "Captain! Seeks Finds!"
Through the viewing portal Seeks Finds face came into view "Bright Stranger, go back and get Bird Cry and take her down to the escape pod bay."
"Captain-!"
"That was an order!" Seeks Finds snarled, her anger at Bright's hesitance clear even through the heavy glass "Go now!"
Bright Stranger stood there a second longer, still confused and openly scared, too startled to even try to hide her fear.
Then the ship shuddered again and the alarms cut off, only to be replaced by the shrill screech that indicated a hull breach.
Bright turned and ran.

[TheSongOfTheStars]

Valley of Kings
Store Prompt S6

512 words
Seeks finds stood at the helm, watching as the light indicating that an escape pod had launched. Bird Cry and Seeks Finds would be alright.
She stood, focused on the comfort that little blinking light gave her as the raiders tore into her ship. As the alarms shrieked and howled, as metal screeched and feet pounded down the halls.
She stood, waiting, as they forced open the doors, she stood, prepared for the shock, but still crying out in pain as the current hit her body.
She sank to her knees, then to the floor, but never fully lost consciousness. Her vision was dim, hearing muffled, and her voice caught. But she could still feel.
So she was aware when they cuffed her, as they destroyed the helm, the bridge, as they drug her down the halls and back to their own ship.
She was aware of it all, she just could not do anything about it.
Numb tingling pain began to spread to her extremities as they let her fall to the floor of the raiders' bridge with a thump.
Slowly her senses began to return with buzzing clarity and with a struggled she climbed back to her feet, fighting to keep her balance with her arms twisted behind her back. She blinked several times, trying to clear her bleary vision, and slowly the bridge came into focus.
It wasn't what she expected.
Sure, the ship was a conglomeration of technology stolen from other spacefarers, the raiders around her where huge and hulking, their weapons primed.
But the lion standing in front of her was not who she had expected to see.
This was not the broad shouldered, grizzled and scarred pirate with beads and braids in his mane that had slaughtered her previous crew.
This... this skinny creature with hands and feet too big for his thin long arms and legs and the most forced scowl plastered across his round face was... a child.
She'd been captured by a child.
"I-," he started to speak and Seeks finds had to restrained a snort of disbelief at just how high pitched his voice was "I am Captain Victorionis Exxandrath Tolorette of the Kij House. I am the scourge of the Centrillian system! Terror of the XII trade routes! I demand your surrender or you face my wrath!"
Seeks lifted an eyebrow and leaned back on her heel "I'm sorry."
"You should be!"
"Are you supposed to be scary?" she tilted her head to one side "Your intimidation game needs work bud."
He made a sound of strangled offense and took a full step back as if she had struct him a blow "You dare scoff at me!?"
"Yeah, Victor," Seeks couldn't have sounded more bored, she might have rolled her eyes if she had been inclined "I am afraid there is a lot to scoff at."
He curled his lip up and stalked closer to her, crossing his arms over his chest "Bold words for a prisoner!"
She shrugged "Maybe, but your words are far bolder, considering you're half my weight."

[TheSongOfTheStars]

Valley of Kings
Store Prompt S6


533 words
Bright Stranger wrestled with the escape pod's controls, trying to keep the unruly little craft from going into a death roll as it went tearing through the blank gaseous cloud that had killed both flight stabilizers and navigation.
When the technical difficulties had first started and Bright Stranger and Bird cry had been tossed around the tiny enclosed space like a pair of socks prone to bleeding, Bird cry had screamed and screamed. Out of fear, out of pain, possibly out of general confusion, then, startlingly abruptly, the little cub had gone quiet after a particularly jarring roll of the ship. Bright Stranger dared not remove her eyes from the view screen for the terror that even a second's lapse of concentration could mean their destruction. She called the cub's name a few times but there was no response. Bright Stranger desperately hoped that her young companion had just braced herself in a corner and gone silent out of terror and wasn't seriously injured or worse.
The escape pod began to rattle like it was being put through a shredder and out the window Bright Stranger could see the dust and gas beginning to twist.
Her heart dropped into her stomach as the funnel began to suck the tiny craft in.
It was a pseudo wormhole, often called a gulper, but more accurately it could be called a small space craft's worst nightmare.
It didn't have a distinct opening or end. Or middle.
They popped up out of unstable conditions, like the one the two lions were currently embroiled in, and proceeded to make said conditions even less stable.
A gulper tended to do exactly that. Swallow a ship, drag it through subspace, then if its atoms were still all bound together in relatively the same pattern and not rearranged entirely, which was and extremely lucky and entirely unlikely outcome, the gulper would spit you back out again. Possibly in the general area were it had pulled you in. More often somewhere totally random and quite possibly as dangerous as the gulper itself had been.
But it was too late, the wild torrents of broken and warped space had pulled them in.
There was nothing left for Bright Stranger to do, other than clutch at the control console and try to keep it from going belly up.
Her effort was valiant, but only lasted a handful of seconds before a violent buckle kicked the controls out of her grip and flung her to the floor.
She landed on her back and found herself stuck, unable to get her feet back under her due to the pitching and rolling of the pod.
Somehow, over the roaring of the gulper and the pod about to come chattering into pieces, Bright Stranger caught the faintest sound of the smallest squeak and managed to pinpoint Bird cry's location amidst the tumult. It was no small feat to ninja her way over to the cub, but at the price of several more cuts and bruises Bright Stranger managed to scoop up Bird cry and wedge the both of them between the wall and a seat.
Then all they could do was cling to each other for dear life.

[TheSongOfTheStars]

Valley of Kings
Store Prompt S6

503 words
Bright Stranger awoke to a loud ringing all around her.
Her first thought was that it was an alarm. Something or another on the Valiant had broken yet again.
But, oddly enough, Bright Stranger felt none of the panic she usually would have as she was pulled from sleep straight into an emergency. Her limbs felt like lead and her will to move felt like oozing mud, she could barely form a single coherent thought out of all the wisps floating in her head. Surely the captain could handle it.
Only...only no she couldn't, because Seeks finds wasn't with them, and they weren't on the Valiant, so...
The ringing decreased down to a mere annoying buzz as Bright Stranger sat up and have her head a bit of a shake.
She looked around, dazed and groggy. It took several moments for the bleariness to clear and for her eyes to focus but it was becoming imminently clear that she was no longer wedged in a corner of the escape pod. Nor had Seeks finds done the impossible and returned them to the safety to the Valiant.
In fact it was quite possible she was dead.
The room was immaculate, minimalistic and every surface was comprised of a pearly gleaming substance. There didn't seem to be a single sharp edge in the pale room.
"Hello?"
Bright Stranger called out quietly as she slid off the medical bed. She winced a little at the tightness of her muscles as she stretched, but she was nowhere as banged up and broken as she reckoned she had ought to be.
"Hi," a tiny voice peeped. A familiar voice.
Bright Stranger leaned to peer beneath one of the medical beds to find Bird cry peeking back at her.
"Hey there you," Bright Stranger held her paw out and Bird Cry took it, letting the older lioness pull her out from beneath the bed "You all good?"
"Yeah," Bird cry squeezed Bright Stranger's paw "Arms came out of the walls and fixed me. They fixed you too."
"Arms?"
Bird cry nodded.
"Out of the walls, huh?" Bright Stranger looked around at the polished, seemingly solid walls, then on an impulse drew one of her claws across her palm, drawing a thin streak of blood.
There came from unseen place a quiet beep, as if a sensor had been activated. Then there was a whir of delicate machinery and a panel split and folded back from the nearest wall, a robotic arm extended and swiveled towards Bright Stranger's hand.
Bright Stranger held her palm up and and the arm passed over it several times with a regenerator until the cut was no longer visible.
Then it retracted and the wall folded back up neatly with no sign of any seams or cracks.
"See, arms."
"A fully automated medical bay," Bright Stranger inspected her paw, closing and opening it several times to find no pain whatsoever "Incredibly convenient. I wonder if this whole place is just robots and senors and ai?"

[TheSongOfTheStars]

Valley of Kings
Store Prompt S6

506 words
"Hello? Hello?" Bright Stranger's voice echoed out through the halls and returned in an empty mocking.
"Maybe it's just robots and arms," Bird cry suggested from her perch on the lioness's shoulders.
"Maybe," Bright Stranger sighed as she rounded another corner to find another seemingly endless hall of polished pearl "But why in the Dark Mist System would a bunch of robots pick up a pair of castaways?"
"Dunno," Bird cry pulled at Bright Stranger's ears, kicking her feet in boredom "What do robots and arms eat? I'm hungry."
"I don't know, but I doubt you'd like whatever it is they need for fuel."
"Like rocks."
Bright Stranger laughed a little "Yeah, like rocks."
There was a whine of gears and suddenly, from apparently nowhere, a drone popped up.
"Uhh, hi there," Bright Stranger crouched down to look at the little robot as it balanced on a single little wheel "You here to tell me what's going on?"
The little bot tilted its rectangular head up towards Bright Stranger and there was the buzz of lens as camera eyes focused on her.
"Hi."
"Beep!"
"He likes you," Bird cry informed Bright Stranger.
"Does he?"
"Mmhm," Bird cry slid down off Bright Stranger's shoulder and walked up to the drone. It beeped again as she patted it on the head "He says he's my friend!"
"You can understand all that?"
Bird cry bobbed her head and the drone spat out a string of binary then rolled forwards a few feet, then turned and looked back at them, chirping and beeping more.
"He wants us to follow him," Bird cry said "He says his mom is going to tell us what is going on."
"His mom?"
Bird cry shrugged and trotted after the little drone "That's just what he said."
"Okay." Well whoever was behind whatever was going on definitely did not seem to mean them any harm and it didn't seem like they were any danger.
It was several more minutes of treading through the pearly rose halls before they came to a door and Bright Stranger was seriously wondering just how big the ship they were on was and why it didn't appear to have lifts or elevators or heck, even stairs.
But she didn't have time to keep on wondering as the door slide open with a gentle whoosh to reveal a command deck.
With a trill the drone rolled on in and Bird cry and Bright Stranger trailed in after, taking in the room.
It was mostly reinforced glass, giving the impression they'd stepped directly out into the void of space, surrounded by a trillion distant stars.
For a moment the two lions just stared. There was no near stars, so all the near distance was just dark and empty, yet the warm glow of the lights made it seem far less blank than it really was.
The drone chirped as it rolled across the deck to the feet of a lioness draped in white clothing.
"Hello," she greeted them "I am Vapors form."