The Forgotten Sibling

Chapter 2

The journey to Peace was surprisingly... well, peaceful.

After she had been killed, Riley felt her spirit rise out of her body. When she looked down at herself, she was once again transparent, glowing with a white light.

Now what do I do? she thought. I usually would ask Jhaufyther for advice, but...

It suddenly occurred to her that Jhaufyther was gone. A few days before she came to consciousness again, she felt the rumbling underneath her. For a while, she thought that it was a regular earthquake.

Now that she was awake, she realized with sadness that Jhaufyther left.

Oh, Jhaufyther. Why did you have to leave?

A white light shone down from the sky, the Blue Forest glowing brightly. She felt herself floating up into the sky. As she traveled, she saw a few winged people flying around in the clouds, cloud animals slowly wandering by, and a few birds who seemed like they got lost and were now flying around in confusion.

The clouds parted, and Riley saw the familiar sparkling white marble floor below her. As she slowly drifted down, she saw a familiar pelt out of the corner of her eye. Haphmoun was sitting in her bed, her blue gaze resting on hers. "Hello, Riley!" she said brightly.

"Hey, Haphmoun," she replied, smiling. "It's been a while."

"It has," she agreed as Riley came up to her for a hug. Riley was grateful for warmth after sitting in a cold body for so long.

"Looks like you got something new," Haphmoun said, flicking her tail.

Riley looked down and saw that she was wearing pure white clothes: a hoodie, some pants, and even her shoes. They were exactly the opposite of her clothes on earth.

"Never noticed that," she admitted.

"You've been here before, so I don't need to introduce you." Haphmoun got up and walked toward her. "Straight ahead is your room. The accomodations are already set for you, and ask me for anything."

Riley just realized that Haphmoun was transparent. Well, not totally, but she could see through her. "Are you... fading?"

Haphmoun looked away. "I'm not. After Jhaufyther left, I just felt like I couldn't do anything else. So I laid down and decided to be in his place through my consciousness to get a reminder of him."

Now that Riley thought about it, Jhaufyther's disappearance made a lot of Catwings-all the Tribes actually-feel sad. He did do a lot of them, she thought.

"I'm so sorry," she said softly.

Haphmoun nodded. "Thank you. I hope he comes back."

With that said, she walked off toward the palace, leaving behind silvery stars.

Riley sighed and turned around to explore more when she saw a girl standing not too far away from her. She was wearing a white t-shirt with white ripped jeans, and a long, white tail resting on the ground. Behind her, two large white wings with blue spots rose above her. Despite her intimidating appearance, there was nothing but warmth and friendliness in her eyes.

"It's not often a human arrives here," she said. Her voice was clear, and it had an echoey quality to it.

"It isn't?"

The girl laughed. "You're Riley, right? Jhaufyther told me that he befriended a human. I can see why he became friends with you."

Riley wasn't stupid. She knew that there were some humans from long ago that Jhaufyther helped go to the sky. This girl was one of them, but Riley forgot what race she was from.