Prompt 1 wrote:Not all things that are bright are good. The words echoed as Silverpaw watched the starry forest around her dissolve into something darker. Suddenly, she watched a bright ginger cat baring its claws towards a bright cream cat. The two were locked in a tussle until the ominous barking rose from the shadows. The cream she-cat leaped back, out of reach, with a satisfied smile. All around her, dogs came charging forward. Cats came surging from the forest behind the ginger tom, who yowled in dismay as he watched the large dogs snatch each cat in their jaws. Silverpaw stood among these poor cats, feeling as though she would be carried away in the jaws of a dog at any moment. Silverpaw watched in horror as the ginger tom, distracted by a dog, was attacked by the cream she-cat. She took him by surprise, slashing where he would lose blood the fastest. As the tom fell to the ground, the she-cat towered over him, a large dog panting next to her.
"I will be the only bright cat left in the forest." The cream she-cat declared.
In a rush, Silverpaw roused from sleep, still feeling the panic of her dream despite encountering over and over the past moon.
"Are you alright?" Eftpaw asked, nudging Silverpaw with a paw. Silverpaw stared at Eftpaw, bewildered. For a moment, it looked as if a dog's jaws were about to wrap around her neck, but now they were gone. Silverpaw shook it off as she stood up.
"I'm fine." She responded with smile, ignoring the sound of a dog breathing heavily nearby. The scent of dog breath hung heavy in the air, but Eftpaw didn't seem to smell it. Silverpaw wasn't surprised. She'd been seeing, hearing, and smelling signs of dogs for a moon with absolutely no one else catching a whiff. She was starting to think she was going crazy. What could Starclan possibly be trying to tell her this time?
Silverpaw stepped out of the apprentices' den and nearly ran into Brilliantpaw. The sight of his bright, ginger fur made her recoil as she recalled the cat from her dream being killed. She tried not to imagine Brilliantpaw with blood on his pelt as she averted her gaze and stepped around him.
Silverpaw hurried her pawsteps across camp as she felt the warmth of dog breath on her heels. Dear Starclan, when will you leave me be?
Prompt two: Describe how your cat is responding and what they are doing about it. You may accompany your writing with one drawn scene.
Prompt 2 wrote:Silverpaw couldn't take it anyway. She reached her breaking point today when, on hunting patrol, she swore she saw a dog coming after Polliwog from the trees and Silverpaw tackled her to the ground in an attempt to save her. Everyone had freaked, Silverpeak was especially mad. At this point, Silverpaw realized she just couldn't do it anymore. These dreams and visions were interfering with nearly every moment of her day. She needed to talk to someone, she needed to do something.
Silverpaw eyed Bravefern nervously as she paced around camp. She couldn't talk to Brightclan's medicine cat about this. If she knew Silverpaw was getting visions from Starclan, she would force her to be a medicine cat. Silverpaw absolutely didn't want to be a medicine cat. So confiding in Bravefern was out of the question. Silverpaw's gaze flitted to the leader's den and Duststar came out. She couldn't tell him either. He'd probably have the same idea or want to consult with Bravefern.
Other than those two, there weren't many cats in Brightclan who knew about Starclan visions. Luckily, Silverpaw's own mentor, Mothdust, was one of the few cats who had experienced a vision before. In fact, Mothdust experienced frequent visions from more than Starclan. This made some think he was quite weird, but Silverpaw respected his easygoing approach to his visions. She couldn't be sure he wouldn't say something to Duststar or Bravefern about her vision, but she knew he would at least hear her out and try to help her before making her talk to anyone.
Silverpaw found her mentor picking some plantain leaves to help Bravefern just outside of camp. A pale moth sat perched between his shoulder blades, though he didn't seem to notice. He did, however, notice Silverpaw's approaching pawsteps and sat back to greet her, setting his pile of plantain leaves beside him.
"Do you need something, Silverpaw?" He asked. "I hadn't planned on taking you out for training until sunhigh when prey is lazy, but if you want to start early..."
"That's not it." Silverpaw interrupted nervously. "I just wanted to ask you about visions."
"Visions?" Mothdust asked her, his eyes widening a bit. Silverpaw nodded with gloom.
"How can you tell what you're supposed to interpret from them?" She asked, picturing the flashes of dogs that seemed to frequent her line of sight constantly.
"Well, usually I can't interpret them easily." Mothdust answered carefully. "Sometimes I can't interpret them at all, but other times there will be something that stands out consistently. Is that the case for you?" He implored. Silverpaw nodded. Clearly, the dog visions she was having constantly were of importance. Her skin prickled with irritation and fear. If they really had dogs to worry about, everyone could be in danger.
"I think I need to speak with Duststar." Silverpaw told her mentor, fur rising on her spine. All of Brightclan could be in danger.
Prompt three: Explain what the dream is signifying/what it means for your cat/the clan. No drawn extra.
Prompt 3 wrote:The dream that had been troubling Silverpaw for so long was actually a distorted flashback of events that happened to the Old Brightclan. In the distorted version, Gladiolus brought the pack of dogs that destroyed every cat in Brightclan while Gladiolus towered over them in victory. Truthfully, the dogs only killed about half of the Old Brightclan while the other half fled to the safety of the trees and Brightstar sacrificed himself saving his sister, Brave. Starclan distorted the dreams to make them even more bleak to incite enough fear in Silverpaw that she would take action. When that didn't work, Starclan started sending the visions that affected her even when she was awake.
The dreams refer to Gladiolus' spirit in the dark forest, growing stronger and seeking to destroy the current, rebuilt Brightclan, even from death. The visions are to warn Silverpaw of the method Gladiolus plans to use to destroy Brightclan. She wants to send dogs to destroy the clan as she nearly did in life. Gladiolus has been entering the dreams of dogs from the dark forest and communicating with them, trying to direct them to Brightclan.
This hasn't worked very well since most of the current dogs in the area are content, lazy dogs owned by twolegs. There is, however, one dog that still has a thirst for violence passed down from his ancestors. If action isn't taken, the dog will soon arrive and cause the same chaos as the dogs in the past.
Prompt four: Who is the villain? What do they want? What do they look like? What's important to know about them? You may draw a reference for your villain or use free lineart.
Prompt 4 wrote:Gladiolus was the large cream she-cat's name now, but it hadn't always been that way. She, like all the other cats she knew of, was born on the cold and dirty streets of Twolegplace. None of the street cats there had pretty or even nice names. Her name was Sludge. Her brother's name was Murk and her sister's name was Grime. All the street cats had names like this.
Life in Twolegplace was hard. Parents didn't really stick around and teach their young life skills. The moment Sludge and her siblings were weaned, their mother kicked them out of her makeshift den. There was rarely fresh prey to be found in the streets of Twolegplace. Instead, the three of them scavenged through twoleg trash to find most of their food.
Their dens changed frequently and there were many dangers to be encountered. From twolegs to dogs to other cats, the three of them constantly felt like they were always running. But they were always together. At least at first. As they grew older, they each developed their own skills. Murk became great at consulting with other cats. These skills often gained them allies and resources, making their lives easier. Grime became one of the best fighters in Twolegplace, defending Murk and Sludge from any and all potential threats, she was fearless. Meanwhile, Sludge developed a different set of skills. All of her lurking among the alleyways had brought her into frequent contact with dogs. While most of the dogs wanted her dead, she did meet a few who were peaceful and, over time, learned their language. She wasn't sure any other cat knew how to talk to dogs.
With their newfound skills, the three cats began to flourish, fearing almost nothing in Twolegplace, apart from the threat of hunger and the twolegs themselves. The three of them could have ruled the cats and dogs of Twolegplace together. However, that all changed when a forest cat arrived. Before the cat's appearance, Sludge and her siblings didn't even know there was a forest, or cats that could live in it. This strange cat regaled Murk and Grime with stories of the forest and they became entranced. It didn't take long for the two of them to decide to leave Twolegplace and live in the forest. They changed their names to Bright and Brave and they gathered as many cats as they could convince to go. They tried to convince Sludge too, but Sludge was furious. They'd worked hard and gained everything here and they just wanted to change their names and run away? They wanted to give it all up? No, Sludge would not flee this life with them.
The day came that Bright and Brave left and Sludge stayed behind. Life was much harder without her siblings but Sludge managed survive. She found that over time, her anger and hate towards the siblings that left her had grown more and more. Meanwhile, she built up her allies in the form of the street dogs of Twolegplace.
The day finally came that Sludge decided to take away her siblings' new home. Sludge had grown quite big, covered in fluffy cream and white fur, with bright yellow eyes, she was just as bright as her brother and sister if not more so. Sludge bore the scars of skirmishes with multiple dogs when their communication had gone wrong. Sludge was finally ready to be reunited with her siblings, she even gave herself a new name to celebrate the occasion: Gladiolus. A pretty, flowery name, as optimistic as her siblings' names.
Gladiolus wasn't surprised when her siblings rejected her. They had changed and she had changed and her intentions were to hurt them from the beginning. Gladiolus brought her pack of dogs to the forest to destroy Brightclan. They were very effective, but Gladiolus got too cocky. The dogs turned against her and she was destroyed along with Brightclan. Now, from death, Bright and Brave had managed to rebuild Brightclan. Not only that, Brave had been granted new life in Brightclan. Meanwhile, Gladiolus was forced to stalk among the underbrush of the dark forest, no chance at new life. There was some things she could do though. She could still enter the dreams of cats and dogs alike. There was still a chance for Gladiolus to destroy Brightclan and her sister Brave's new incarnation while she was at it...
Prompt five: Wrap everything up neatly. How did your cat make the dreams stop? How did they overcome? What happened to the villain? What was the outcome? You may accompany your writing with one drawn scene.
Prompt five wrote:After a long discussion with Duststar, Bravefern, and Mothdust, they all came to the conclusion that Brightclan was in danger from dogs. Silverpaw's visions had made that clear. Duststar gave Silverpaw a small history lesson on the origins of Brightclan and the Calamity that had befallen the Old Brightclan. Now, somehow, dogs were a danger to Brightclan again. Silverpaw wasn't entirely sure how the evil cat, Gladiolus, played in this, but she must be controlling dogs again somehow.
The problem was, how could they possibly prepare for dogs? They could arrive at any time. Luckily dogs were both loud and smelly. Most of the cats of Brightclan would be able to detect one before it got to camp. But that didn't mean they could get everyone to safety on time.
With the help of Vervainstrike, they formulated a plan. Cats would be posted in the branches of some of the trees in Brightclan territory to watch for signs of a dog at all times. Even at night. They would have no choice but to fight the dogs, however many there were. With some of the elders, as well as Petunianose with her kits in the nursery, not all of Brightclan could climb trees to safety, unfortunately. So Vervainstrike, being the best fighter in Brightclan, organized a battle patrol of sorts. She put herself and Dragonfly at the head of the patrol. They were best equipped to attack the dog head on as both of them had experience fighting dogs in the past. Silverpeak and Skimmerwing would attack from the sides, being fast and good at dodging, while Raventuft would attack from behind since she was an excellent fighter, but Vervainstrike didn't want to put her in too much danger because she was an elder after all.
Silverpaw volunteered for as many tree watch shifts as she could. She couldn't do them alone, since her visions got in the way of detecting an actual dog presence, but she was good at moving through the branches of the trees and she knew she could yowl very loudly as well. Besides, Silverpaw had to do something besides sit back the whole time.
It happened on a night that Silverpaw was watching from the trees, hunkered down beside Ptarmiganfern, who wasn't much good in a fight, but was very observant. The stench of dog bathed Silverpaw's nose stronger than usual.
"Do you smell it too?" Silverpaw asked Ptarmiganfern, who nodded in response. Silverpaw let out a shrill yowl as the sound of thundering pawsteps grew louder. She knew she was, not only warning the clan, but attracting the dog's attention as well. The pawsteps changed direction, coming right for their tree. Silverpaw's hackles rose as a large dog came crashing through the brush and it barked as it barreled to the tree. There was no way the dog could get them here, but it was still terrifying to see the real dog drooling and snapping just below them. Silverpaw couldn't help but be relieved that there was just one dog and not a whole pack, like her dreams of the past.
Yowling came from the trees as Vervainstrike and Dragonfly ran at the dog as planned, attacking it from the front. The dog snapped at their striking paws and necks but they dodged expertly and the cats attacking from the other sides began to distract the dog. The dog seemed to be confused, trying to snap at everything at once. For a moment, it seemed as if the cats' victory was imminent until the dog, striking blindly, snatched Dragonfly by the leg and started shaking him violently. Dragonfly let out a screech as a loud pop sounded. If the dog held him in his teeth much longer, he would surely die. With a screech of fury, Silverpaw flung herself from the branch and landed on the dog, square on the back. The dog let out a yelp of surprise as it buckled under her weight and dropped Dragonfly. Ptarmiganfern swooped in to help Dragonfly away from the fight and to safety. Meanwhile, the battle patrol closed in on the felled dog and attacked its most vulnerable parts. Soon, the dog had been defeated and the cats were victorious. They all had a few scrapes and bruises and Dragonfly's leg had been popped out of the socket, but Silverpaw felt her senses clear as she was finally free of the visions. They did it! They were finally safe from danger.
They all traveled back to camp, thrilled to report their victory. Silverpaw stopped as Mothdust came through the camp entrance to meet them. Silverpaw held back a purr, excited to tell her mentor how it went, but her mood dissolved when she saw how clouded Mothdust's eyes were. When he talked, it was in voice not his own.
"You must feel so proud, defeating my companion." Silverpaw recognized the rough voice of the she-cat from her dreams. Gladiolus. "Don't worry, I'll find another way to destroy you." Mothdust shook his head, shaking off the vision, suddenly looking woozy. Silverpaw and Vervainstrike rushed to catch him before he fell. Silverpaw's blood felt cold. New danger was just around the corner.
