THE STOLEN || OLD - being rewritten

Chapter 10 - { Moonhigh }

Come a litter closer,
Starry eyed stranger.

The trip back to camp had been mostly in silence. Darkpaw had been anxious for moonhigh when she was to meet Roanpaw at The White Willow. Her pelt had been prickling all the way home and though she knew Mosspelt could sense it, her mentor had refrained from saying anything other than giving her a few suspicious glances. The tortoiseshell apprentice supposed Mosspelt wanted her to say something but Darkpaw had remained silent; pondering her thoughts alone as she made her way back to camp with the rest of the BlazingClan warriors who had attended day two of the daylight gathering.

As her clanmates neared camp, Mosspelt touched her tail to Darkpaw's shoulder, stopping her as the vitiligo she-cat looked down at her apprentice.

"Darkpaw, I know something is on your mind. I hope you don't feel like you cant talk to me about it?" Her mentor mewed in a gentle voice.

Darkpaw's neck fur pickled with unease. "I think I'm just still on that adrenaline rush from the mock battles today." She mewed, knowing from the glint in Mosspelt's amber gaze that she didn't believe her, not even for a second.

Mosspelt drew in a deep breath before sighing. "Okay." She mewed at last in a breathy tone, watching Darkpaw pad into camp with no more than a troubled glare.

Padding over to the apprentices den, Darkpaw slunk inside. Creeping into her nest, the she-cat lay down. It took her a few moments to settle, and she could feel Sparrowpaw's wishful gaze resting on her in hope of some late night convocation; but she needed to sleep. Not just because of her moonhigh meeting with Roanpaw, but because she was exhausted. Fluffing out her spotted tortoiseshell pelt against the cold leaf-fall breeze, she shivered, parting her maw in a final yawn before slipping away into a dreamscape of sleep.

Frustratingly Darkpaw awoke sooner than she had liked. Rising to her paws, she gazed down, eyes widening with shock at the transparency of her paws. Gazing behind her, she observed her sleeping form. An icy claw dragged down her spine in the form of a blood curdling chill. Stepping out of her body, Darkpaw looked around. Everything was skewed, but only slightly. The trees moaned and groaned in the overhead forest as she abandoned camp and ventured out into the open territory. It was BlazingClan, yes, but it hardly felt like her home. Narrowing her eyes in the darkness, she watched as a figure vanished into the shadows.

Pricking her ears, she watched as the hauntingly familiar feline sauntered away. Carried eerily on the charcoal breeze was whispering of her name. Many different voices, faint and ebbing, calling her to them, warning and yearning in their words.

"Darkpaw."

The she-cat whipped back around, staring at nothing but blackness, as an endless tide of blood surged forward, nine felines standing illuminated by a red moon while cats drowned and flailed in the sea of blood. The blood poured into Darkpaw's mouth, filling her lungs as she awoke with a silent start, gasping for air.

Closing her eyes, she looked around as moonlight poured into the den, washing every sleeping form with a watery silver glow. Looking down at her paws, she sighed with relief to see that everything was back to normal. Padding out of the den, she looked up at the sky, the moon at its highest point already. Walking wearily over to Firenose who was on watch, she opened her mouth to speak.

"Just woke up from a nightmare. I think a run will clear my head and help me sleep." Darkpaw mewed, tail tip flicking back and forth anxiously.