| Lightningpaw |
Almond shaped eyes opened to darkness. This wasn't necessarily new. Ever since their stay at the Warren, light filtering through to her den in the dead of night was unheard of. It always took her eyes a moment to adjust, but there was something off before her pupils had dilated enough to take in her surroundings. The soft, sleeping sounds of her mentor were nowhere to be heard. Her nest felt... softer. Less substantial. Yet sturdier at the same time.
Confusion furrowing her brow, Lightningpaw looked down upon the ground beneath her only to see the endless cloudscape she had become familiar with in dreams and nightmares alike. Even when her friend, Featherfoot, or the stranger had come knocking about her dreams for a visit - a welcome respite from the nightmares that constantly plagued her - the cloudscape seemed to persist, ever lower than the starry sky beyond. Except... Where were the stars? Turning her head skyward as if to make sure, the lithe calico found her gaze met by nothing more than an empty, black, starless sky. A sense of unease began to creep on her, uncertainty clawing its way through her core. Not even in her most desolate and hopeless of nightmares had there been such an overbearing darkness surrounding her.
Her attention fully on the sky, movement close by startled the medicine cat apprentice, a flash of cream fur raising her hackles as she swiftly stood to a defensive position. Blue hues blinked furiously as they attempted to better see in the darkness, only to realize that slowly but surely light was coming through. Head turned to the heavens once more as a cold light washed over her, Lightningpaw's pupils narrowed, her mouth opening and closing as she stood at a loss for words. Something had struck at the emptiness above her. A gash, massive and caused by hate filled cat claws bled out in the dark sky, the blood from the wound slowly swirling and changing, turning from the deep red she'd seen far too many times to a bright, starry light that filled her with dread.
Taking a step backwards, the young molly felt another's pelt grazing her own, forcing her large ears flat upon her skull as she turned alert eyes around her once more. The bleeding starlight providing more than enough brightness to comfortably see in, Lightningpaw felt conflicted as her eyes landed on the single feline behind her, her sole companion amidst this strange dreamscape. He was a stranger, unknown to her entirely, yet eerily familiar all the same. His small framed, lithe body was white - had it not been cream just a second ago - a single, cinnamon brown patch coursing from his ear to his muzzle on the right side of his face. Sharp, yellow eyes stared at her, completely alien on the face that otherwise seemed so reminiscent of a hare brained tom she'd been well acquainted with since she was just a kit.
Opening her mouth to demand an explanation, ask for a name... anything, really, to help make sense of this odd dream, she was interrupted before she could make a sound. The tom took a step forward, confidence in his posture before he spoke, a hint of urgency allowing his words to come across as both warning and threat. Lightningpaw did not know which one it was. She doubted her mind would have been appeased by either answer, if she were to be honest. Her eyes widened all the same, however, as she heard words that had been spoken to her once more, a bolt of fear running down her spine as those sharp, yellow eyes met her untested blue.
"The Dark Forest is waiting. It preludes the fall..."
A Dark Strike [P]
