Post by Shad on Oct 15, 2015 5:10:58 GMT
Raven
Raven woke as a soft chill passed over her, slipping down past her soft fur to feather over her skin, drawing her sharply into the world of wakefulness. She was in a forest. The trees glowed with a trickling inner light, making its way up the bark and glimmering brightly in the leaves. The grass beneath her paws was bright with a rainbow of colors that shifted in a sea of light as another ghostly wind made its way through the trees. This was a forest Raven was unfamiliar with. The trees were strange to her -she was not focusing on the fact that they, you know, glowed. Not yet. She would get to that later. ... Much later. One thing at a time. There where too many, all types that did not agree with each other. A birch tree was squished in between a stalk and a cypress. A massive cedar was cozied up to by a fig and an evergreen. Oddly enough, there were no oaks. Strange that the forest's creator, who seemed to have such an artistic flare, would leave out such an obvious piece.
Raven wondered what Star Clan wanted to see her for.
Oh please. Don't expect her to be surprised. The silver shecat had been a round the block a few times by now. She knew when a supernatural medium was trying to get in contact with her. Although, usually they were not quite this ostentatious about it. Geez. This whole set up screamed mystical consult. Back in the tribe, the most the Tribe of Moon Hunter's had ever given her were vague whispers, animal sounds, and feelings of one thing or another. Star Clan, by contrast, seemed to be much more blatant and straight forward, which was definitely something Raven could appreciate. She hated puzzles. The Tribe's messages had always made her brain hurt for weeks to come. What was so wrong with being straightforward, huh? Why couldn't spirits just pick up the proverbial telephone, shoot her a quick message, and have their voices heard that way? It would be so much easier! But, no. There has to be all this mysticism and smoke and mirrors and junk that make things ten times harder to understand but conformed to some crazy rules only the powers at be could understand. It was all phooey if you asked her. Fancy presentations and scary voices to make the mystical still seem mystical because, lets face it, you were more likely to take a warning seriously if it had all this massive show to it than if you had a dream one time about your long lost second cousin twice removed who had asthma and couldn't hurt a fly telling you doom was headed your way.
A trail of moonlight flowers miraculously bloomed before Raven as she rose to her paws, leading her off through the mystical forest, so aglow with life and vibrancy. It was pretty straight forward and obvious as to what she needed to do.
The shecat immediately started padding off in the other direction.
What? She was curious. Partly about these strange Starry Lands she had been brought to, and partly by how Star Clan reacted when someone blatantly disregarded whatever they wanted her to do. It was better to find these things out now, before the stakes were set, then later on down the path when the fate of the world was on her head or something like that. Raven did not have to wait for an answer. Almost immediately the bright glowing world dimmed to darkness. The sky had been a starless blue but now it turned a menacing black that pressed down all around the small silver shecat. Raven immediately turned around and started heading in the proper direction. The world returned to normal. Or as normal as bio-luminescent greenery could be.
Right. So. Star Clan has no sense of humor. Got it. Filing that one under Things Important To Remember When Interacting With Mystical Beings That Can Screw Around With Your Head.
Raven had been around the mythical block enough times to know you generally did not get told twice. If you did, especially with the more nasty spiritual beasties, it generally did not turn out well for you and you ended up with your fur turned orange or thinking you were a frog for three days and eating flies. (True Story. The Great Cat Ra had been decidedly unamused when he had revealed 'his great and glorious self' to Raven's mere mortal eyes and she had laughed herself silly when she saw his bald, buggy eyed figure sitting on a toadstool. Not one of her more diplomatic moments, truth be told.) The moral of the story though was to always be appropriately grovelling and playing nice with the Mystical, no matter how tiny or powerless it might be (even toadstool size could pack a whopper - or hopper as it had been in the silver shecat's case).
So Raven obediently followed the flowers.
Which led her to an oak tree. See? She knew there had to be one of those around her somewhere. What could she say? It was too iconic to skimp on and boy oh mighty they definitely had not skimped. This was, like, the oak tree to rule them all or something. It was the only tree that wasn't glowing but it certainly did not need something as old had as bio luminescence to get attention. Oh no. This thing go attention through sheer size. It was huge! It blotted out the sky with its massive army of leaves. Its branches were to heavy with them they bended back over the trunk to touch the forest floor, like curious limbs dipping down to brush the ground before the returned to their skyward ascent. Still, as amazing a work of botany as this was -and to a botantist such as herself she was dutifully amazed- it was nothing compared to what sat on its branches.
Okay. Definitely not tiny then.
The tree was filled to the brim with cats. There were tens, no- hundreds. There had to be hundreds. They were shimmery, glowing, star-lined creatures that stared down at the silver shecat's small frame with eyes that had spanned hundreds of moons. Some where older, with frayed stars and twinkled away dimly at the edges, slowly softening and fading with age. Most were clearly newer though. Their outlines were crisp and firm, their claws, fangs, and eyes all still sharp in all their sparkling glory.
"Welcome, Raven."
The voices spoke en mass and reverberated back through the air. Yowls, mews, hisses, roars, all of hundreds of voices both young and old crashed down on the shecat at once with those single words, making her shove her paws over her poor ears. Dang. Alright, alright, already. She got it okay? No need to break her eardrums. They wanted her to hear their message didn't they? Couldn't do that if she couldn't hear. Real smart this lot, weren't they?
"Uh, it's Ravenface, actually," she corrected when she ears finally stopped ringing.
"That is not the name you hold for yourself in your heart." the voices intoned once again. Seriously! Was it too much to ask for them to come with a volume dial? Really?
"Yeah, well, excuse me for not jumping straight into the follower pool," the shecat grumbled to herself.
The hundreds of eyes simply stared down at her, unmoving, unblinking. Freaks. Did they have nothing better to do with their after-lives? Alright. She was being bad and she knew it. How could she help it though? They were the ones being a bunch of stiffs! With their magical plants and giant tree and glowy-mysticy-I-know-your-heart-be-amazed-Oooooooo trash. Really, just how gullible did they think she was? She knew this routine, ghosties. She wasn't about to be knocked paw over tail for it. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So they had a lot of number on their side, she would give them that, but that hardly meant they were good caretakers! Hel-lo! It meant the exact opposite! It meant they were supreme fails if they had this many of their believers dying off like flies. Raven tried to make her brain shut up and kept an amazed smile plastered on her face as she tried to stifle the treacherous thoughts inside that would get her in hot water pretty fast with this crowd. Dang. If only Bolt was here. Her brother was good at being serious. He could-
A sleeping, muggy, black and white splashed shape started to form on the glowing grass beside her.
"No! No! I wasn't serious! I'll behave! Swearsies! Now put him back!"
The shape dissipated and Raven released a deep breath. She looked back at the hoard of faces, noticing some where smirking back at her now. Great. So Star Clan had a sense of humor, just the kind that ended up poorly for her. Joy.
"So what did you all wan-"
The forest and tree and cats all swirled away in a blur of colors and wind. Raven was standing in a field at dusk. Or maybe it was dawn. It was hard to get your bearings to be able to tell properly when you had just been shoved through a swirly-vortex thingy. Before her was a cedar tree, still young, not yet massive. To her left was a young cypress.
Alright. So. Trees. .... Great. .... Trees. .......... Trees. Ugh! This is no better than the Tribe! What the hell am I supposed to do with trees? We already live in them! What more do they want?
Two mice squeaking drew Raven's attention. The prey was... wrong though. It had deep black fur and glassy white eyes that looked around, unseeing. Raven took a step back. Whatever this was, she wanted no part in it. The mice ignored her, instead splitting as they left their hole. One to each tree. The mice fell dead and the tree roots lifted up to bury the prey.
Then everything went to pot because dang it these dreams can just never end in sunshines and rainbows now, can they?
The bark cracked on the Cedar, a line of red running up its trunk and its leaves withering. The Cypress fared no better as its bark turned black and yellow, sickly rot seeping into its bark. Raven heard the sound of the Cypress's might branches screaming and falling to the ground, cut off from the tree, dead. Dying. Rotting. -But she was held captive by the Cedar. The red sap ran down its trunk, thicker and thicker. It pooled at is roots and the tree's limbs groaned as if in agony. The red was slithering toward her now. Raven tried to back away but her paws felt stuck to the ground. She did not want to touch it. She did not know much about strange mouse-induced-red-sap but she knew enough to know she wanted to STAY THE HELL AWAY FROM IT! But she was trapped. And the sap was on her. It was sticky and hot and warm and oh holy holly. This wasn't sap. Nope. Not sap. Definitely not sap. This was blood. She was in a river of blood. Fresh, gooey, just out of a dying body, blood and it was in her fur. And on her paws. And all over the tree. And lapping against her skin and soaked into her pelt and it was blood. Blood. Blood. Blood. Raven screamed and tried to claw her way out. She reached out for the tree, clawing frantically. That's it. Star Clan was officially on her shit list because WHO THE HELL DID STUFF LIKE THIS?! WHAT THE FUCK WAS WRONG WITH THEM?! She had just been trying to sleep, minding her own business, when THEY up and dragged her into their jacked up magical forest of psycho crazy blood trees! Raven thrashed frantically, trying to escape up the tree's roots, but the blood was sticking to her, pulling at her fur with horrible, gasping sucking sounds. She ripped into the wood, pulling off chunks and pieces in her frantic bid to escape. A whole section of root came away and underneath, where the mouse had once been was, instead a cat. A cat with its fur boiled away and its skin ravaged by sores. Its sightless, fever-filled eyes opened and it turned to look at her and in it she saw what the cat had once been before the blood came up to swallow them both. Licking and sucking and biting at both creatures, one thrashing and screaming, the other too far gone to fight. In those blind eyes she saw the cat was-
"Firecloud!"
Raven's eyes shot open in shock and horror, a scream on the tip of her tongue but she quickly swallowed it back. Her skin was drenched in sweat. Her eyes searched the den wildly, but nothing had changed. The roots were warm and sturdy around her. Firecloud was peacefully sleeping in her nest, fur perfectly in tact. Raven was fine. Firecloud was fine. Everything was fine. The grey shecat let out a sigh of relief, but as her fear past, her fur bristled.
What a bunch of assholes! Seriously! What the hell was their problem?! Yeah. She was sure going to be all buddy-buddy with Star Clan after this! Ha! As if! Was that how they expected to get cats to believe in them? Sheer freak-out terror? Gah!
Raven was too angry to sleep now. She got up to check on Firecloud. The shecat had been here a few days now and started up a fever last night. A mild one. Raven was not concerned. When the seasons changed it was usual for a few cats to catch colds. It happened all the time. Still, it was nice to have someone to take care of finally. Being in a Healer in a Clan of healthy cats was unbearably boring. Not that she wanted anyone hurt, but would it be too much for them to get just a few tiny colds so she had something to do? Apparently so, but now she had Firecloud and it felt good to be working her trade again.
Raven looked down on the shecat in question. She put a paw gently to her forehead and frowned. The fever had gone up. She would need to get some wet moss for it and hopefully her brother would get her some feathers to pad the nest and keep the orange tabby warm if she asked. Maybe Starlingfur could even be recruited. Raven rested a reassuring paw on the sleeping Warrior's shoulder. It was just a mild cold. Nothing to worry about. Raven paused though as she felt something strange on the shecat's shoulder and Firecloud murmured a pained complaint in her sleep. Raven pulled her paw away, taking with it a fair chunk of weak fur, and revealing, underneath, an open, bleeding sore.
Now Raven screamed.