The Roaring Winds

Chapter Twelve: Dreamscape

Chapter Twelve: Dreamscape

Starlight pierced into Rosepaw's blank dreamscape. The world that was once only filled with inky blackness now shimmered with the twinkle of lights from the skies above. Her emerald green eyes widened at the sight, and they now glowed unnaturally. Her curly tail raised in delight.

    My first vision! Rosepaw's heart echoed in her ears at the thought. Her paws kneaded into the ground beneath her in anticipation. She looked down at her white paws to suddenly see grass beneath her paws. Rosepaw admired it for a quick moment. The grass stems were something she'd never see in ShadowClan, where all the grass was sunken down by peat, moss, and mud. The stems carried a thin glisten to them, perhaps from some starry dew or a light sprinkle of rain.

She raised her head to see that she was on an empty plain. There were long stretches of grass all around her with the occasional pond of water here and there. The sky colors were mute, hidden behind a thick stream of clouds. There were steep, numerous hills off in one direction, plenty of streams and reeds in another, a dense, mixed forest hidden by undergrowth, and the pine forests were shielded behind a layer of mysterious mist.

Her ear twitched. This must be StarClan's territory. She thought to herself. It seemed to have a very similar layout to the territories that the living Clans resided in. Perhaps, it brought out a sense of reassurance and joy in the eyes of new StarClan cats.

Rosepaw decided to test out the terrain. She raised a forepaw and a whisp of wind brushed against it. She set down her paw and felt the coolness of the ground beneath her. Her steps were experimental and hesitant, and uncertainty had blossomed within her. Her whiskers trembled faintly.

She glanced around at the bleak environment she had appeared in. The land did not seem to resemble anything she had ever seen in the living Clans. There was no heather on the grass, and the grass was as green and lush as what could be observed in ThunderClan. There was no real dampness to the grass either. So, it must be neutral ground in some sense. Though, of course, there were no territories in StarClan.

Her ears flattened as she noticed that no cats had shown themselves to her. She was all alone with this odd, semi-familiar place that she had never stepped foot in before. Coldness seeped underneath her pelt and she shivered, which caused her to instinctively ruffle up her thick, ginger-and-white tabby pelt.

"You don't belong here," The dark voice in her mind was still present, despite her being in such a bright place.

Why have you decided to torment me, now of all times? Rosepaw asked the voice as her tail lashed at the spiky grass behind her. A sudden flare of anger bubbled in her chest. She was sick of the voice that always stuck with her, no matter what she did.

"Why not torment you? There's no reason for me to leave you alone," Rosepaw could internally imagine that the voice would shrug their shoulders with their words.

I'm in StarClan. I just need to wait for someone to show up. I can handle the quiet, you know. Rosepaw growled in her mind. She thought of a pair of dark copper eyes that would gleam back at her.

"Can you? You couldn't stand the quiet as a kit. You felt, oh, so upset whenever you were trapped being mute, for you couldn't talk to anymore. You would simply roam the camp and slink past all the dens. Your eyes would always get big and glossy whenever anyone would walk by you and never acknowledge your presence. And, has much really changed since then? Most cats will stick walk past you. They don't really come to you for their injuries–they actually want to talk to Oakstump, you know, the actual medicine cat. We both know that all friendships end badly too, so don't even bother with Frostpelt."