— BRIGHTWISH ♓︎
Tags: Open | Mentions: Cinderfrost, MoonClan
When Brightwish’s eyes opened, the first thing he registered was darkness.
He had to be dreaming, judging from the light feeling of his paws as he moved them (a feeling he was quite used to), but it made his surroundings no less eerie. Just as he had been in consciousness, he was shaking, his small body curling into itself, and the words of the strange cat still rung in his ears.
Find the twelve which have the power to save your beloved clan, it had said.
Do not fear, it had said, and Brightwish gave a half-terrified, half-amused huff at that—how was he supposed to
not fear? Right now, he was alone. MoonClan was gone. To Brightwish, there were few things more frightening.
Brightwish perked up his ears, trying in vain to hear anything around him. For a heartbeat, there was only silence—and then Brightwish heard something. A trickling sound, not unlike the rivers and pond he was so familiar with. Water? He looked around, head desperately swiveling back and forth, and finally his eyes fell upon the only source of light in this sprawling blackness: A pond.
Without a second thought, Brightwish padded up to its surface and peered into it. Instead of his own reflection, he came face-to-face with a pair of fish, partially submerged in the water. The two fish swam in opposite directions, chasing each other in dizzying circles. They looked similar enough to those MoonClan took as prey, save for the slight glow emanating from them and the odd symbols on their scaly bodies.
Brightwish leaned back on his haunches and simply watched, tail swishing. Not a moment later, Brightwish found himself doubled over as an immense swell of noise and emotion filled his head.
It was like thousands of yowls echoing throughout the mountains. Feelings and thoughts overwhelmed Brightwish, washing over him like waves, each too strong and fleeting for him to hold onto any one in particular. He hissed through clenched teeth. Unsheathed claws scraped against the nothingness beneath him. Any thought he might have had was drowned out by the sheer force of it all.
Just as suddenly as it had come on, the sensation dissipated, leaving Brightwish blinking spots from his vision as he stared once more down at the pond and the fish within it. He was left with a single thought, a dual-voiced and omnipresent whisper of which he could understand the words but not the meaning. Everything paused for a heartbeat, and then Brightwish’s stomach plummeted as he began to fall.
How it was happening, he didn’t know, but he could feel the nonexistent ground give way to send him hurtling down.
His paws flailed out to get a hold on something, anything, but the dream was already fading, a bright white glow beginning to fill his vision. And then, with a gasp, Brightwish snapped awake.
His heart was still pounding in his chest, a distant rumbling still in his ears. But he could feel the hard earth beneath him. His vision was blurry, but he could barely make out the shapes of cats around him—they had to be his clanmates, the ones who’d stood around him as the strange cat of the moon had given its proclamation. Only one was moving, a silver pelt that he recognized. With gritted teeth, he struggled to raise his head and regain feeling in his paws, trying desperately to help.
— MAPLEFALL ♒︎
Tags: Open | Mentions: MoonClan
The sun beamed down on Maplefall, bright and warm, as she laid beneath it. Something prickled at the back of her thoughts, a suggestion that she was perhaps forgetting something. She dismissed it—so rarely did she allow herself to rest that sometimes she forgot what it felt like.
A paw batted at her nose. Maplefall sniffed and knocked it away with her tail.
“Not now, Bramblekit,” she mumbled, resting her head further against her foreleg. Another paw swatted her swishing tail, and Maplefall’s mouth twisted downward.
“You too, Robinkit? Honestly, you two—can’t a cat get a night’s worth of rest around here?”As soon as the words left her mouth, Maplefall froze. This couldn’t be right. Her kits were warriors by now—lanky, clumsy warriors, from what she’d seen, but warriors nonetheless. And when was the last time she’d even spoken to either of them beyond a quick
do you hear that or
good catch? Multiple things were wrong here, which could only mean one thing: This wasn’t real.
Dreams had never been all too thrilling for Maplefall, and it was with a twinge in her chest that she recognized this as one. The warmth of the sun faded, leaving her with a cold numbness. She took a breath and forced herself to open her eyes.
She was lying down, but she wasn’t napping in the sun—nor was she anywhere else in MoonClan territory. No, what Maplefall could see in all directions was… the sky. The night sky, dark but alight with stars. Her tail flicked with agitation as she glanced down at herself. Now, though, she could remember: The flash of light. Her clanmates around her, but so few of them, and none she was all that close to. The moon twisting into a cat who had spoken to them.
The Twelve Zodiacs are your only hope to save your clan. Whatever
that meant.
Maplefall stood. There was no weight beneath her paws, something that likely wasn’t as unsettling as it should have been. After a heartbeat, though, she could feel water start trickling over them.
Jolting backward, Maplefall stared down in surprise—only to find her paws clean, and nothing even approaching water in sight. This was… odd, even by her standards. She narrowed her eyes and glanced around, searching for something, anything beyond the starry void she found herself floating in; and after a moment, her wish was granted when her gaze fell upon a starry cat in the distance, overlooking a stream into which more water was flowing from above.
As soon as Maplefall saw the cat, it lifted its head and turned toward her. An indescribable feeling of warmth radiated between them. Maplefall opened her mouth, but before she could speak, the vision of the cat dissipated into mist, naught but the water below it remaining.
Then true darkness overtook her vision, and Maplefall let out a final hiss as she was thrust into alertness, her eyes squeezed shut and real sunlight hot on her pelt. Her claws shot out to instinctively scrape against the ground, and her wild eyes scraped against her surroundings, finding the forms of her clanmates.
“What,” she spat out, the only thing that came to mind,
“was that?”
