Silent Shadows: Book Two - The River of Secrets

VII

Pain. Claws raking across his throat, knocking him from where his paws once stood on safe ground. He thought he felt death, a final feeling he'd only feel once. The one-time feeling that always found everyone, the feeling that could only be felt once, before assimilation to every other soul that'd never again see the world.

And yet, even after seeing his own throat slit, even after seeing his own body fall from the edge, he found himself walking in the black world. An empty dimension.

I'm still alive.

He knew he was alive. After all, he still existed right now. He was still here, wandering the wasteland of a world. His paws were still on the ground, carrying him into the darkness from a home he'd never see again.

But am I really, though?

He didn't even know what had happened. Fire had raged through everything and brought all of it to ash. The Clan he'd fought to protect, the family he'd fought to protect, all of it had fallen from his grip. All of it was gone forever. I was their ruler, right? I was their leader. I was supposed to prevent this.

Is this real? he pondered. He didn't believe this could've happened, the pure chaos that had happened before his eyes. Yet it didn't feel as if it'd happened. It didn't feel as if anything had ever happened, as if the surrounding visions of burnt trees and drifting ashes were an illusion. The endless plain of this world, it was all just a hologram of the sealed space in his skull. Am I real?

He couldn't think about that, not anymore. All he could do was stare upward at the black sky, black skies free of life, free of stars, of clouds. An infinite abyss watching down, what remained of the shattered blue sky. He was alive. Maybe he was, still standing here. All there was to do here was live. Maybe there was someone else out there.

Is there anyone else out there?

-

This wilderness was haunted by gloom's spirit. Time had shifted to paint nature black, while dusk lead the heavens into a deep blue, obscuring the world that would soon fall to silence. Daisyfoot sat amidst the grass, feeling so small and insignificant upon these vast hills that were completely open to the darkening sky.

How long had it been? Every time day's show came to an end, she'd been watching the sky for the moon. So far, she'd seen it wane from a full sphere of light to a wide oval. Not much time had passed. And yet it felt so long.

Him. The face crossed her mind again. Those deep blue eyes. Blue eyes she hated, with such burning passion. She'd left with an intention to earn her vengeance, to make him pay for his horrific acts. And yet, so far, nothing had been done. Simply wandering these hills and watching the moon.

The moon. It was invisible tonight, hidden away by a veil of clouds. A dark moon. Was there a dark side of the moon, hidden far away where she couldn't see? It was simply a sphere in the sky, something everyone could see yet didn't know what was. Were both sides of the moon the dark side?

Moon. Selene. Something...

"Hello."

Daisyfoot turned around, somehow feeling some sense of surprise that she wasn't surprised by the realization that she was not alone. Her company stood idle before her, as if he had somehow appeared from nowhere. Veiled in shadows, yet with an unmistakable identifier of a silver and black pelt and pale golden eyes. Sun and moon, sun and selene.

"Selenostar. You survived."

The dullness of surprise to her situation came off as strange to even herself. Here she was, having an enemy she'd believed was simply gone for moons, unmistakably standing before her. They stood equally idle, before her counterpart stepped towards her. The molly unsheathed her claws, immediately knowing what was about to happen and preparing for a fight. Only for a sudden realization to bring her spirit to the ground. Why should I want to fight him off? Don't I deserve to be killed? He's probably just getting vengeance.

"I...I hate Pebblestar as much as you do," she spoke. Why am I saying this, too? Am I just trying to manipulate him? I hate that tom. I truly do. Yet, now I'm only saying it to escape death.

"You do?" Selenostar continued. 

"I...do, yes," Daisyfoot replied. She simply spoke, simply allowing each word make its impact on reality. "If you want me to help you kill him, I can do so."

Selenostar didn't reply to her offer, yet neither did he react with violence. The tomcat was idle, once again. 

"If you do not believe me..." Daisyfoot could feel her care about reality slip between her claws. She would say anything right now, she thought. "You can kill me. You want him to die, too, don't you? I wish to help you, but if you can't find trust you may kill me and then kill him too."

There he was again, staring. A stare that her mind seemed to shift into a glare, she despised the way he looked on at her as if he were gazing into a hole to another world. Looking down upon an alternate reality with simply condescending disinterest.

"I am no longer a ruler, just a loner wandering the wilderness." There, he finally spoke. "You yourself. You are a Clan deputy, aren't you? You wouldn't be wandering these hills."

"No," Daisyfoot replied. "I'm not. Not anymore."

"Then this is partnership, not authority," Selenostar declared solemnly. "The ones I loved are gone. I'll...never see any of them again. And I know you were instrumental in the massacre." 

Daisyfoot's heart froze.

"But, you're probably my only hope of getting retaliation, aren't you? If someone is willing to help me make the world a better place, I guess I'll accept. Even...someone like you."  The two stood with both gazes met, silent as the cloth of fog hid the moon away for this meeting. 

"You are I, we're going to kill him and avenge everything that we lost."

"Together?"

"Together."