Warriors: What Is There To Do?

Chapter 8- The Sun Makes Me Confused

The rest of the night was spent with her new friends. Driftpaw, as bossy as she was, made Splitpaw laugh, and at the end of the day, that's all that mattered to her; she didn't care if she was with the most annoying she-cat in Shadowclan, Driftpaw didn't flinch, she didn't judge, and she didn't mention how Splitpaw looked.

Bonepaw, Moonpaw, and Bravepaw were all typical toms. They joked about her, and although it stung, how they called her 'Splitface' as a joke, she still smiled through it. Bonepaw, in fact, didn't speak much at all, always standing beside her and looking at her with a strange face.

She still couldn't put a name on the expression.

She went to sleep that night warm. She was surrounded by fluffy bodies, all pressing against her in the cool night. Leaf-bare was almost upon them, and she could smell something in the air... something sharp and exciting. It made her lungs swell, and at the same time it made them sting from the whole thing. The smell made her look forward to leaf bare, as long as she had her friends to stick by her.

Her dreams were muddled, like trying to look at the sun through the puffy clouds which made the sky dark and cold.

Like looking at her face that first time, oh so long ago.

She was in the Riverclan Nursery again. The sky was black and full of stars, but the sun was shining, sending no warmth but still making Splitpaw's eyes hurt when she glanced at it. The clearing was full of noise, but there was no source, from what her eyes told her. The place was empty. She looked up at the sun again, and it had a face. It was wearing an expression just like Bonepaw had that night. Strange.

She wondered if the sun always looked like that, or if was just another stupid dream. She steps forward again and her paw lands in a puddle. She looks down, and is unable to see herself. The puddle shows a starry sky, an expression-wearing sun... and nothing else.

Another thing is that her paw is missing.

She looks down at it, worried but not quite concerned. So what if she couldn't see her paw? It's not like... oh okay, now her whole foreleg was in the water, and she had to awkwardly crouch to be comfortable. The puddle doesn't ripple, even when she blows on it. Frowning, she licks it, and is greeted with the taste of blood. Ew! Since when did puddles taste like that?!

She didn't have a cut in her mouth; it was definitely coming from the puddle. Her chest is now sinking into the water, and the sun is now smirking at her. Splitpaw suddenly had the feeling that whatever would happen to her once her head went under would not be good. She struggled to get free, only making it worse. Her chin is flooded with the bile taste as she whips her head back and forth, only realizing too late that that made her completely sink under.

She can't breathe. Her head hurts. She thrashes around, and all she can clearly see is that expression, oh, that expression that she didn't know the name to. Oh, how she was starting to hate that expression.

"Splitpaw...."

"Splitpaw!"

"Splitpaw wake up! You're thrashing more than a fish does out of water!"

"...Sorry, Bravepaw."

"It's okay, you mouse-brain, just stop!"

"Okay..."

...

"...Hey, Bravepaw?"

"What, Splitpaw!"

"Does the sun have a face?"