Entering for #2112Username: craig?
Dog Name: Parkpaw
Gender: Female
Clan: https://toyhou.se/Almondclans/characters/folder:2415695Age: 8 moons
Prompt:“Don’t you think it’s odd?”
Parkpaw blinked up at her denmate, tilting her head nervously. “What’s weird?”
Sheeppaw scoffed, “The weird number of cats who’ve lost their memory sprouting up all over the city.” Pausing, he brought his face closer to her face. “Don’t you think that’s just a little ODD?”, he pressed.
Parkpaw wagged her tail anxiously. “I don’t know... maybe? We’re just apprentices, maybe this is just... normal. Cats might just lose their memory all the time.”
“Are you stupid?” Came the scoff of Squashpaw. “You’ve been in the clan just as long as the rest of us, has anyone here lost their memory yet?!”
Parkpaw flinched at her denmate’s harsh words- she knew she didn’t mean much by it, she often used insults very liberally, including towards her friends and family. “...No, but...”
“Guys, we should sleep,” came the yawn of Marshpaw. “It’s already lights out time, and I want us to be really well rested for tomorrow.”
Right. Tomorrow. Tomorrow was her, Marshpaw, and Sheeppaw’s first day outside alone. After two months of training, their mentors finally trusted them all to be able to adventure on their own. They were going to head to the park- She just hoped that Twoleg kit that was always there on the swings wouldn’t tug on her ears this time- She knew it was just a kit, but it hurt.
Sheeppaw rolled his eyes and began to crouch. “Of course you’d say that,” he suddenly pounced on his brother bowling him over and starting to wrestle playfully. “All you wanna do is sleep, you furbrain!”
“No,” Parkpaw said sheepishly, “I think he’s right. We should go to bed.”
The white tom looked up towards her in disappointment. “Oh come on, Parkpaw! Don’t you wanna-”
“Apprentices!”
The group of four nearly leapt into the air, nervous laughter finding it’s place in Parkpaw’s throat as Toastedoats looked at them, trying to give his best “I’m not mad, just disappointed” look.
“Sorry Toastedoats,” Parkpaw whimpered, tucking her tail and beginning to curl up in her nest. “We were just about to go to sleep, but-”
Sheeppaw coughed loudly and crawled back to his own nest. “Yeah, we were just about to sleep. You can go back to whatever ‘important’ thing you were doing before you bothered us.”
Toastedoats winced at the insult, before shaking his head and trying to look composed. “Very well. Remember, tomorrow is a big day for you three. You should get some rest.”
As he took one last glance at the apprentices, Marshpaw cast a smug look at his brother. “Told ya we should get some sleep~.”
Sheeppaw let out an exaggerated sigh, rolling over on his back to sleep. “Yeah yeah, whatever. You act like agreeing with that stick in the mud is a good thing.”
Parkpaw smiled to herself and wagged her tail at the joke, hearing Squashpaw suppress a purr of her own.
But as she tried to drift off to sleep, Sheeppaw’s earlier words rang in her ear.
“Don’t you think it’s odd....?”----
In her dream, she was surrounded by twolegs.
Or at least, she thought she was.
She couldn’t so much see them, so much as sense their presence.
Around her, they were whispering in their strange twoleg tongue, sounding fearful and confused. It was far different then the normal voices she heard from them- either cooing at her, or screeching and shouting in rage. She heard sobs intermixed with heavy breathing, fast whispering combined amongst stressed voices rising that hid their fear with anger. She herself was frozen in fear, frantically looking around, trying to figure out what was going on.
Then the screeching started.
Horrible, ear piercing twoleg screeching, gradually getting drowned out- no, not drowned out,
replaced by yowls of agony.
As the yowls died down, slowly the void it left was filled with quiet, fearful whispers.
“Where I am?”
“Who am I?”
“What happened?”
“What’s going on?”
“Where’s my family?! My wife, my kids!”
“What’s happened to me!”
The whispers grew louder, more intense, scared, trying to claw their way out.
Though she could no longer sense the twolegs, there was something in their place, things that were smaller.
She didn’t have time to process what they were before a figure emerged out of the darkness, making it’s way directly to her.
She tried to shrink back as much as possible, stepping backwards in fear but stopping in horror as she realized her paws were
intersecting the whispering shapes around her. Trembling like a leaf, tailed tucked between her legs, she let out a loud whimpering yelp.
“Who are you?! What’s going on?! Where am I?!”
Suddenly, the shape had a definite form, and she was staring right into the hollow, blank eyes of...
Cashewclaw...?
Caught off guard, Parkpaw’s mouth hung open, but before she could say anything, the young oracle pressed her forehead directly against hers.
“Don’t you think it’s odd....?”---
Parkpaw let out a terrified yelp, jolting herself awake.
Her denmates were gathering around her in worry, Squashpaw’s face lighting up in relief as Parkpaw slowly took deep breaths to calm herself.
“Is everything okay?” Squashpaw mewed, licking over the dog apprentice’s ear. “You were having a nightmare.”
“I... I...” Should she tell them what she saw...? She didn’t want to scare them, but... “It’s okay,” she gave Squashpaw’s face a reassuring lick, “I don’t remember what it was about.”
Marshpaw hummed thoughtfully. “I always forget my dreams too. But that must have been some nightmare, huh?”
“...Yeah.” Parkpaw said, voice light as a feather. “Must have been.”
---
On their outing, Parkpaw noticed something odd, and she stiffened.
“Is something wrong, Parkpaw?”
She stared at the empty swingset anxiously, before shaking her head and turning to face the two brothers.
“There’s... just something I think is
odd.”
