Chamrosh wrote:xxxxSealkit wiggled his tail vigorously, forelegs braced firmly against the dirt in front of him.
xxxx"Come on, Sealkit, you can get up here, you can do it! You can do it!” Squirrelkit encouraged. Her name did suit her in a way – she was a good climber, even if her running skills were too low to let her be a Squirreltail when she grew up. Ringkit nodded vigorously beside her.
xxxx"Go on, I can’t go until you go!” Dipperkit begged. “I want to practice climbing, and if we don’t hurry Heronstar’ll notice and we’ll get told off!”
xxxxThe kits had chosen to try climbing the tree at the back of their camp. It was dry now, but it had been raining for several days, and the branches were slippery. Heronstar had said it was dangerous. But the kits hadn’t wanted to wait. They’d be apprentices soon, and they wanted to get in some useful experiences so they could live up to the current apprentices.
xxxx"Geronimo!” Sealkit practically yelled (“Shush!”/"Shut it!”/"Quietly!”), as he pushed as hard as he could off the ground. His claws connected to the trunk of the tree, and his tail whipped below him, twitching wildly in the way he dubbed “dancing”. Slowly he scrabbled up, so that, without hesitation, due to her impatience, as soon as the spot was clear for her to make the same manoeuvre, Dipperkit followed after.
xxxxSealkit beamed widely as he reached the first branch, where his siblings sat. He could feel inside his chest almost like something was pushing his stomach forwards. But that was just pride. Probably? Sealkit thought it was just pride, as he was feeling it now, and he was proud now so… that just had to be part of feeling proud. He strutted along the wood, his tail still flicking wildly, and then placed himself beside Ringkit.
xxxxSealkit smelled the air, wondering if being above the flowers, up here where he was sure Starclan had to walk, the air would smell any cleaner.
xxxx"It smells weird up here. It’s like… it’s like a cross between Harrierpelt’s herbs and rabbit!.”
xxxxSquirrelkit giggled quietly.
xxxx"You’re so weird. It smells like dust after rain, and like trees, and like the wild-flowers down there! No herbs.”
xxxx"Yes!” Dipperkit cheered, and Sealkit opened his eyes (he’d closed them to smell better without meaning to) to see her paw curling over the bark near the trunk. Ringkit and Squirrelkit still shushed her, not wanting to be spotted while they’d only just got up there. “I like climbing a lot. I want Droseratail as my mentor, then I’ll learn how to climb really well!”
xxxx"You don’t get to choose who you go with, Dipperkit.” Ringkit said. “Heronstar chooses for you. If she thinks we need another good-climbing cat, then you might but, we have Droseratail and Chubtail already.”
xxxx"But when Chubtail retires, we’ll need another -tail cat – a Dippertail – and Chubtail’s ancient! There must have been no flowers here when he was born!”
xxxx"That’s really old, Dipperkit, I don’t think anyone’s old enough to be older than the flowers.” Squirrelkit said.
xxxx"Moraine said she remembers living somewhere without flowers.”
xxxx"Wow!”/"How old is she?”/"Maybe she used to be a Starclan cat ! from the very first clan, and she got reborn, and she was alive before there were any flowers!”
xxxx"That’s silly, Sealkit, there’s always been flowers.”
xxxx"Moraine said her old home used to be too rocky for proper flowers, and there were only flowers for a few days every year.”
xxxx"I’m glad Moraine doesn’t live there anymore, it must ! be really sad ! to live somewhere with no flowers.”
xxxxSquirrelkit leaned forward on the branch, her claws digging firmly into the bark. “What’s that weird noise you’re making, Sealkit? Can you teach me?”
xxxx"What ! weird noise?” The world was going blue. “I’m no- !”
---
xxxxSealkit slowly opened his eyes. It was very dark. He whipped his head around, trying to work out where he was. It must have been very cloudy, as there were no stars. Moonlight shone down through the branches, but somehow disapated against the mist at head height above him, so that there were no shadows on the ground. Or rather, everything was shadows.
xxxxSealkit slowly rolled onto his stomach, pulling his legs underneath him.
xxxxHe could smell something… wrong in the air.
xxxx"Ka wa wa wa wa!”
xxxx"Rawoooooooooooowawaoooooo! Ka wa wa!” That’s what the fox says.
xxxxSealkit shivered. He couldn’t smell any other Gustclan cats. He couldn’t smell any other cats at all!
xxxxThe other cats had said kits weren’t allowed out of the camp at all until they were apprentices. Was this why? Because the outside world was so horrible outside the stone walls the humans had built? That the only thing holding back the all-pervading mist was those little red stones? Were they magic? He couldn’t think of anything he had encountered that could hold anything against the mist.
xxxxIt felt damp against his fur, like something was pushing against him from all around him.
xxxxThere were footsteps! And from the same direction as those strange howls had come from.
xxxxSealkit’s eyes opened wide, and he whimpered, his legs refusing to move for a moment, before he screamed and ran!
xxxxBut he didn’t seem to be going anywhere, his feet just kept hitting the same spot of ground while the barking grew louder. He leaped towards one of the trees like he had earlier, only his claws slid down the bark, and wrenched backwards, and he screamed in pain. The bark was as hard as rock, with no purchases on it at all. It was smoother than the vertical water the humans had left for Gustclan’s camp.
xxxxThere was no way to escape…
xxxx"Ka wa wa wa wa wa! Ka wa wa! Ka wa wa wa wa wa wa wa wa wa!” That was definitely closer! So much closer he was sure that he’d be able to smell the thing’s breath soon.
xxxx"I don’t want to be freshkill! Anyone, help me!”
xxxxHis foot was trembling again, and he stared down at it, terrified of the treachery of his own body. There wasn’t anything to hide behind, but he couldn’t even look for it, because he knew that his paw wouldn’t let him step down on it in order to s-
xxxxNo! No, he could search. Sealkit picked his foot as high off the ground as he could manage, and then hopped, rabbit-like, looking for anything!
xxxxBut there wasn’t anything. There wasn’t anything, he couldn’t run, and he couldn’t climb, and if this were a nightmare, he’d have woken by now so- Heronstar must have banished him from Gustclan for disobeying orders, and that was why he’d been dumped here, out outside of camp, where everything was terrifying and Starclan themselves couldn’t see him!
xxxx"They can’t hurt you.” Came a torn-sounding voice, faintly, from the same direction as the monsters. It was distorted and harsh-sounding, like whatever had said it had suffered some sort of injury to its throat which was only now recovering.
xxxx"What do you mean? They’re right there! There’s no one to defend me, and I was never trained how, and I don’t know what to do! I can’t run, I can’t hide, Starclan save me!”
xxxxThe other kit pulled a slight face and lifted one paw, spinning it slowly for a moment, as if considering something, before placing it down firmly and giving a slight nod, her mind made.
xxxx"Alright, I was lying. They can hurt you. But not for long. What’s the use in eternally being hunted if it ends when you get caught?” The voice was getting louder, but it was so disfigured that Sealkit was sure its bearer couldn’t be safe to be around. They had to be deranged. They’d be dangerous, and there was nothing he could do to stop them. But it was better to- to die quickly…
xxxxTears started spilling out of Sealkit’s eyes as he actually comprehended what he thought he was facing.
xxxx"What do you mean “eternally being hunted”?” Sealkit’s voice quivered. Would he have to- to face those monsters his whole life? They had to be the monsters the warriors meant.
xxxx"Oh, you don’t have to worry about that.” Sealkit’s ears perked up. “You won’t be here for that long, and certainly not eternity.” Sealkit’s crying started to reduce, although his breathing was still definitely hitching and he couldn’t breath and the air was poison.
xxxxSealkit flopped onto his side, coughing horribly and wretching.
xxxxThe other cat seemed unaffected, now that she came into view.
xxxxAnd it was strange. She was smaller than him, and yet sounded battle hardened. She was... maybe half his age? Maybe a little more than that. But about that. She had brown tabby patches on mostly white fur. She looked a little like Ploverstripe, actually.
xxxx"I’ll look after you properly. You called for anyone, who could [color=transparent]‘help’ you, after all.”[/color]
xxxx"Thank you.”
xxxx"No, no, thank you.”
xxxxThere were piercing eyes in the darkness, staring out at Sealkit, and he bolted into the only available cover – behind the smaller kit. But the molly just stared back into the shadows.
xxxx"Wawawa!”/"Wewewe!” It sounded like… laughter? Could monsters laugh? And even if they could- what would they be laughing at?
xxxxAnd the monsters kept their distance. Whatever this kit could do, Sealkit was not complaining.
xxxx"Well?”
xxxx"Well what?”
xxxx"Aren’t you going to ask what this place is?”
xxxx"Um?” Sealkit wasn’t sure whether he was supposed to. He had a few bigger questions like “how can I get back” but he wasn’t sure anything else would get answered. He wasn't sure anything else could get answered. “Where is this?”
xxxxActually… that wasn’t a bad question. He’d never seen black mist before. His feet hadn’t been able to move. The trees were made of rock. Monsters stopped as a kit glared. But… most jarring… now that he thought about it, at least. The light from the stars was blocked, but not the light from the moon, or at least, not at the same places. Wherever they were, there just weren’t any stars, and he’d never heard that as a feature of being outside camp.
xxxx"I’ve been watching you, Sealkit. And you’ve finally come to me! You finally did it, but then, I knew you would since the day you were born, so it’s hardly a surprise. Welcome to the Dark Forest, Sealkit. You won’t be here long.”
---
xxxxSealkit fell backwards over the edge of the branch. Dipperkit had tried to catch him, but he had started flailing wildly by that point, and she didn’t even have the strength to hold him without that. His fur slipped through her claws, a few scant hairs staying trapped between her pads.
xxxxHe hit the ground head-first, his body making a horrible sound as it followed after, and flopped painfully to the side, his neck twisting at an angle beyond what Dipperkit could have ever managed. His back legs stopped flailing, along with his tail, but his front was still twitching, and the convulsions in his chest were powerful enough that his back legs were moving anyway. But even if his paws were connecting to the ground, the way they were moving – there was no possible way he could move forwards at all.
xxxxDipperkit gave her siblings one quick glance before screaming. And as soon as she screamed, Squirrelkit joined in too, only, somehow louder.
xxxx"Let me past, Dipperkit, let me past, maybe I can get Harrierpelt, maybe he can help!”
xxxxBut Dipperkit couldn’t move. She was left, stuck, staring at the remains of her brother. And – she could feel a broken, frozen lump in her chest where her heart should have been - she was sure those were just remains.
---
xxxx"I told him he couldn’t go climbing!” Harrierpelt practically screeched.
xxxxDroseratail shook his head.
xxxx"There’s no use scolding now, you need to get out there!”
xxxxHarrierpelt scowled fiercely at Droseratail, such that, had Droseratail not known he was a medicine cat and so bound to peace, he would have feared for his own life.
xxxxAnd then Harrierpelt was gone, a bundle of herbs in his mouth, faster than even Sparrowfoot ever seemed to manage, whipping through the nursery and out to the spot where he’d just been told that Sealkit had fallen.
xxxxAnd Droseratail, due to adrenaline and his own sharp hearing – he was a cat, after all – could hear exactly what they were saying.
xxxx"I told him he couldn’t go climbing!”
xxxx"He said that we all couldn’t climb!”
xxxx"And that’s better, is it?”
xxxx"Yes! We thought that was you being over-protective, we know how you’re friends with mummy, we thought she’d put you up to that, we didn’t think you meant him specifically.”
xxxx"But you should have known. M- Your brother was having fits and you couldn’t see the danger in taking him up somewhere where a fit could kill him.”
xxxxIt sounded a lot like Harrierpelt was fighting tears. And as he barrelled past where Droseratail still stood, bound to the spot, a moment later, Droseratail was sure Sealkit had been more than just the youngest son of a friend to Harrierpelt. He must have got very fond of the kits while caring for them so often.
xxxxDroseratail looked down between his paws. Dipperkit had said she’d wanted to be like him before. If he’d just discouraged her, maybe Sealkit would…
xxxxWell, he wasn’t dead yet, maybe he’d live. But…
xxxxHe wouldn’t be able to be a warrior. He wouldn’t be able to be a medicine cat. He’d have to go straight to being an elder. He’d had his whole life snatched away, just because Droseratail had set dangerous asperations for him.
xxxxAnd whatever anyone else said, he knew that to be true.
---
xxxx"But! Isn’t the Dark Forest the place where evil cats go when they die?”
xxxxSaddle"stream"’s claws clicked against the rock-hard-tree.
xxxx"I don’t know what determines it. But you have to have realised; if Starclan is caring, why would they send hardship on the clans? Why, why, why would they – unless they’re not sending them? But after some discussion on the rare and so extremely valued occasions that I met another cat here before – and it’s amazing, when your normal company is no one how refreshing the company of those, frankly, raving madcats is – I learned that there are some things Starclan can’t control. And if a medicine cat happens to be having multiple litters while lecturing his own kits on how medicine cats can’t – I love irony – it becomes a little bit easier to get the control I want. And now that I’ve done it once, it’ll be a lot easier the next time.”
xxxx"The next time?” Sealkit was getting less and less sure the longer they talked (and it must have been hours now) that he should spend time with her, but whenever he tried to leave, he found his paws couldn’t move, or, more terrifyingly still, they’d spasm in such a way as they’d lead him right back to where he’d been before he started.
xxxx"One down, seven to go.”
---
xxxxTroutpaw was grinning to herself all the way back to camp. Yes, she’d totally rocked it with that tom, she had a mate set for life and everything was looking good-
xxxxExcept the expressions on the camps’ guards’ faces.
xxxxTroutpaw looked up at her mentor to work out what she was meant to do. He shook his head gently.
xxxxFaces like that already meant it was past recovery.
[center]-----
xxxx"Who are you?” Sealkit demanded, frustrated with the lack of knowledge he had about his surroundings, and annoyed at himself that he was too scared to leave this obviously dangerous cat alone.
xxxx"You- you don’t know? Well, that’s dreadfully rude of you. I think that’s my new least favourite part of being dead.”xxxx"I haven’t actually been out of camp yet-"xxxx"Hah! I know.”xxxx"-so I haven’t exactly met every cat ever. You can’t expect me to remember everyone, can you?”xxxxThe molly tilted her head in the cat equivalent to a shrug.
“It’d’ve been nice if someone had mentioned me, and you’d’ve thought that someone would. But I guess- yeeees, Heronstone, of course she’s a stoic. Which sucks, you know? Forgotten by your own mother. That’s probably hmm, my joint least favourite part of being dead.” She twitched her shoulder muscles, puffing out her chest.
“I’m Saddlestream. Saddlestream now anyway, as I would have been, and then Saddlestar, if it hadn’t been for your bumbling buffoon of an older sister. Which is a pity now. I can’t show off Gustclan as a paragon for how a truly code-abiding clan should behave. I have to settle for letting someone else do it.”xxxxSealkit shivered, and tried to step away, but somehow his paws refused to move him further away from Safflestream.
“What do you mean? And why are you telling me this? You said I’d be going back, why couldn’t I just tell them there’s a dark forest cat scheming?”xxxx"The code was meant to make us strong, not de-claw us, firstly. And I never said you were going back did I?”xxxxSealkit’s stomach dropped.
xxxx"Then where am I going?”
xxxx"I don’t know. I honestly don’t care, in the long run at least. But in the short run, you’ll be my little helper.”
xxxx"I won’t.” Sealkit tried to say defiantly.
xxxxThe molly snorted.
xxxx"You’ll be my little helper or I’ll let the fox-beasts at you next time they come back.” Sealkit shrank back on himself, arching his back at the idea. As much as he hated Saddlestream, he was sure she’d gone so bonkers because of what was out there in the Dark Forest. “Right. Well, leaders need nine lives, and I’m not giving them. I don’t know if Starclan will, but if they don’t, I’d really rather have a back up plan. Do you know how many plans fail because there wasn’t a back up?" Sealkit shook his head very slowly, but Saddlestream didn't even pause to glance over to check his response. "I don’t either, but I bet it’s a ton. The biggest enemy of a good plan is the hope of a perfect one, and, yeah, the perfect plan is for me to not even have to do anything but, it’s not that hard to capitalise on what nature does anyway. I’d really rather be safe than sorry. And it gives me something to do for now as well, which, I personally prefer to the mind-numbing boredom that’s the best you can get here.” There was a tiny quiver of fear as Saddlestream said “best”. Boredom was indeed the best emotion anyone could feel in the Dark Forest. It was the least negative, at least.
xxxxSaddlestream looked at him, like there was an obvious response, even though Sealkit’s tongue was tied with his worry for his clan, and he couldn’t speak. She rolled her eyes, but clearly wasn’t too skilled at that, so her head bobbed back as well. “No ‘how’?”
xxxxSealkit shook his head slowly to say ‘no’, before realising that the only possible way he stood to be able to escape from what was planned for him was to learn more and outsmart. His shaking head slowly changed direction into a nod.
xxxx"Good boy. Right. I’ll show ya, come on.”
xxxxSealkit didn’t have much choice.
-----
xxxxBoulderdash refused to leave the body. She curled around her kit. He’d been cooling down when she’d started, but now he was her body temperature again. She licked him furiously. Myrtleclaw rested his head on her shoulder, trying to provide comfort, while Harrierpelt looked on, guilt seeming to pull his heart down through his ribs.
xxxxIt had to be an omen from Starclan. A punishment for his… his breaking the medicine cat’s honour-code.
xxxx"Boulderdash, he’s gone. No amount of grooming him will stop that.” Myrtleclaw urged. “You need to let him go. There’ll be a new star in the sky tonight for him, I promise. He’ll be with Starclan.”
xxxx"I-I can’, Myr’leclaw, I can’. I- I already los’ Elmki’, I… I wan’ed ta see ‘em all grow ta be strong warriors, and now, one of ‘em, 'e-" Boulderdash’s breathing hitched, and now he looked more closely, Myrtleclaw could see that Sealkit’s fur was wet with tears. “’e’ll never ge’ tha’ will ‘e?”
xxxx"He’ll be with his sister, Boulderdash. He’ll be fine. I promise you, he’ll be fine, someone will take care of him, up there. He was fantastic. There's no way that no one will be caring for him for your sake.” He sighed just a tiny bit. Sure, the kits weren’t technically his, but they felt like it. He was talking as much to reassure himself as his friend. “Maybe he’s watching over us now.” Myrtleclaw found he didn’t know what else to say that might help Boulderdash accept the reality of the loss of her son, so instead, he leaned in close against her fur, and stayed with her outside until she finally moved, several hours later. Boulderdash had only stopped crying as she had no more tears left.
---
xxxxThere was some sort of hollow in the dirt in front of Sealkit. He was tempted to say it was a pool of water, but most water was not a scummy yellow colour, and he’d never smelt water that strange before, nor water that slowly gave off vapours like that.
xxxx"It’s the only water around here, and it’s a long way to the right place.” Saddlestream said. Sealkit tried to back away. “Go on, drink. You’ll need it.”
xxxxThe pool seemed to shift closer to Sealkit.
xxxx"It’s either drink from the pool or die of thirst.” Sealkit shook his head very slowly.
xxxx"I don’t trust you. How do I know that you’re not lying, and there’s clean water just over there?” Sealkit nodded his head in one direction.
xxxx"You think there’d be a place to quench your thirst which tastes nice here? That’s part of the deal of this place. Constantly chased around by monsters, and there’s nothing to drink, so your mouth is punishing you, too.”
xxxxSealkit sighed. That made sense, he supposed, and if Saddlestream really did need him, then she was unlikely to kill him now. He bent his head to the water.
xxxxAnd as his tongue touched the water to lap some up, Sealkit simply dissolved.
xxxxNot from the site where his tongue made contact, but his whole body. He simply was no more.
xxxxBut the corner of Saddlestream’s mouth twitched upwards as she saw the change in the pool’s surface. The vapours rising off it were a tiny bit more distinct now.
xxxxShe’d probably have enough time to get herself a drink from the clean spring of water nearby before the foxes came after her again. She hadn’t wanted to look weak in front of her victim, but she was terrified of them too.
---
xxxxThere was no new star in the sky that night.
xxxxThe celestial bodies danced their usual steps, on a tune so slow and steady that a single pirhouette took 225 million years, and so deep and gentle that the sound of it sung the Earth to sleep each night, unchanged from the day before, with no new steps in the dance to compensate for any new dancers joining in.
xxxxAs far as they were concerned, Sealkit had never existed.
xxxxAnd Starclan would agree, though they would not have done the day before. They might have noticed that sometimes they wanted to add something onto a sentence, but the thought would escape them each time just before they could, and after a few moons, the ancestors had even forgotten the hints that they had forgotten something.
[Sealkit has died. May Starclan accept him into their ranks]
[Adoniscloud has joined Gustclan*]
[Tabitha becomes a full warrior]
[Knotfish and Narwhal become mates – no kits yet]
[Troutpaw and Martinwhisker, Pheasantpaw and Bugleclaw, Mosquitopaw and Shellcloud, Lobsterpaw and Lobeliafur, and Camberpaw and Merlindash train]
[Lionpaw and Osierfang, Ospreypaw and Clarystorm, Noctulepaw and Vendacethroat, and Saffronpaw and Firepath train]
[Droseratail, Cicelynose, and Tabbyfur go on patrol]
[Myrtleclaw, Pearstone, Sparrowfoot, Moraine, Ploverstripe, and Langoustinefang go hunting]
[Heronstar, Argusheart, and Knotfish go hunting]
[Boulderdash stays in camp to mind the kits; Teaselkit, Ringkit, Zinniakit, Dipperkit, and Squirrelkit]
[Harrierpelt stays in camp to mind his patients]
[Ringkit is apprented to Langoustinefang and becomes Ringpaw; Dipperkit is apprenticed to Droseratail and becomes Dipperpaw; Squirrelkit is apprenticed to Ploverstripe and becomes Squirrelpaw]
[Tabitha is promoted into a full warrior]
[Teaselkit and Zinniakit are not apprenticed yet]
[Nettleflower is on her third moon of gestation]
[Chubtail, Nettleflower, Barnfish, Aspenfoot, and Narwhal stay in camp]
[Gustclan consumes 1 big fish, 1 hare and 1 rabbit – 8 portions](*Though I’m actually going to write him joining next post because I got a bit carried away with Seal/Saddle)
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