Out for a Walk in the Dark

[Eelstreak]

Deep shadows cloaked the trees as the dappled she-cat walked out of the camp, wrapping them in eerie layers of secrecy. Here and there lightning flashed from a distant storm, casting sinuous shadows around the camp: a tom bending his head close to a she-cat; a lone kit stalking along; a hedge; a lean, graceful paw reaching upward. All was quiet, except for the occasional burst of a disturbed frog or insect's hum or the low roll of voices from all around. As the air rapidly cooled and darkness fell, gray mist swirled amid the deepening shadows. Shrewspots had often been out in the night but she had never before felt the undercurrent of fear as she did now. She rounded a curve and could make out the hazy outline of a tilting beech tree, wrapped in low fog. Lightning flashed and a dark figure emerged from the shadows. So dense was the fog that the figure looked like a sooty phantom issuing forth into the night. Shrewspots gasped and flung herself into the shadows. She tried to quiet her heart, beating rapidly like a trapped bird's. She didn't know why she was afraid. She felt as if the mist had invaded her mind, too, making things shift and change form.

[~All I Need]

[shadow=orange,left,300]

Magmakit
Orange eyes like two phantom beacons in the darkness, Magmakit made his way to where Shrewspots was cowering. Mist hugged at his feet and form like a child would at its mother's hand. He looked like a orange shadow, formless but still an entity. Magmakit stalked up right to where Shrewspots was and stared until lightning flashed through the sky again, making both he and the ShadowClan medicine cat glimmer for a moment.
"Follow me," he whispered and set off eastward, towards the coming storm.

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[Eelstreak]

With an inward shudder, Shrewspots followed the kit. The night was playing havoc with her mind, robbing her of her wit and reason. There was inside her a strange sense, compelling her to follow the kit. But she was a full grown she-cat, a medicine cat with strong ties to StarClan. She had no reason to fear the night, or the coming storm. Shrewspots shook herself and bent her head to Magmakit's ear. "Whence do we go?" she asked the kit quietly.

[~All I Need]

[shadow=orange,left,300]Magmakit
A smile flitted across Magmakit's face for an instant, revealing his long white teeth. Every nerve ending in his body was alive with an electric current, making his fur stand on end on his shoulders and his skin crawl with anticipation. Step two was almost complete. If he could convince Shrewspots to let him be her apprentice, then maybe he would be able to have a deeper connection to StarClan and his dead mother. Maybe he would gain the knowledge of the prophecy he heard the instant he was born. Maybe...
"Thou question the place I bring you to? It is the resting place of Fireice, the dead cat whom is my mother. Last night, in a dream I had, she asked of thyself to send you there to commune with her. Hark, we are almost there," he whispered.
Fireice's burial spot was right near the edge of ShadowClan territory, right where she was spotted after she left for a time and decided to come back after a long journey to the Sun-drown Place. Tanshadow had told Magmakit and his siblings countless times of how Fireice had fought many dangers and come back, hanging on to a thread of her life.
"Yes," he hissed below his breath. "The time to know is here."

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[Eelstreak]

Shrewspots' fur felt like it was standing on end. She was a medicine cat, accustomed to walking among the stars and communing with the dead. But this... This was enigmatic. This was textbook enigmatic. "You walk in dreams with your mother?" The spotted she-cat bent and touched her nose to the earth. Then she turned and looked at the young cat. "That is a rare gift, Magmakit. A rare gift indeed."

[~All I Need]

"Together, two hearts can watch a sunset together without a care in this miserable world.'

[shadow=orange,left,300]Magmakit

The undisturbed ground, only showing the faint signs of a burial here, was soft on Magmakit's warm paws. His fur was alive with an internal fire that emanated a glow and a pleasant heat. That was one of the reasons of his name. The internal fire that was unnatural under his skin. He never felt the bitter seeping sensation deep in your bones called cold or the moisture that clung to his beautiful pelt.
"That is a rare gift, Magmakit. A rare gift indeed."
Looking at the dappled she-cat, he spoke: "Yes. A rare gift that is only passed on to cats who are important in the story that is prewritten for the cats of the Clans. An empty story waiting to be filled with the pawprints of the great. Now...Lay here, over her grave. Don't fret, she will speak to you in your dreams. Good luck." His voice grew quieter and wavered on the last two words and hung in the air for a moment as his orange color dimmed and disappeared all together.
"Fireice will tell you everything..."

[/center][/size][/shadow]

[Eelstreak]

To sleep...

Cold wind blew over the gravesite, chilling Shrewspots to the bone. She took a slow breath and lay carefully over the soft earth under which Fireice lay shrouded in the sleep of death. The stars of Silverpelt shined brightly above her, but she could not see them. The sky was blanketed by clouds and mist. It was a night for surreal things, and this was the most surreal of all. Following a kit out to this place and actually lying over his dead mother's grave was, admittedly, rather crazy. But Shrewspots had a sense that this was important. It was something she should do. As she lay there, eyes closed and breathing deepening, she wondered vaguely if Fireice would really come to her, and if so, what would she say? She thought about this for awhile more, than drifted into the realm of sleep despite the cold wind blowing around her.

...perchance to dream

[~All I Need]

[shadow=red,left,300]Fireice

So long...
I have been gone for so long...
What has become of my precious children? Of my beloved mate, Tanshadow?
Is there no chance of stopping this from happening...?
Fireice started as she felt the prescence of another cat. It was odd to feel such a prescence in such a place. She wasn't at fourtrees or highstones... Was she? She was only patrolling the borders of the quiet ShadowClan terra. Ever since she died, Fireice had been wandering the land she came to love, the place she had come to know as home. Even after life. It was a dim and dull place, though. Not StarClan or anywhere else. She suffered nightmares while awake. She never slept. She couldn't see beyond ShadowClan. All fog and fear from there on. Every time she tried to step away from here, something would pull her with a wrenching gravitational force back to her gravesite. It was always the same.
She was not a StarClan cat. You could be assured of that.
But Fireice had never committed any crimes in her life. She was a fairly nice soul for a ShadowClan cat. Oh, that's right, she thought bitterly. I'm a kittypet. Ignoring her thoughts of darkness, Fireice turned expectantly to look for Magmakit. The only link to her past life. The only link to her children and Tanshadow. But she gasped in astonishment as she recognized Shrewspots, the medicine cat of ShadowClan. Fireice felt a little spite towards this cat because she wasn't there at the time of her children's birth, leading to her death.
"Well, what do we have here, Shrewspots? How in the world did you end up here where even the light of StarClan doesn't reach?"

[/shadow]

[Eelstreak]

Shrewspots heard the careful pawsteps approaching and thought at first that Magmakit was returning. But then she remembered. Fireice. She was dreaming. Shrewspots carefully opened her eyes and took everything in. The faint moonlight shone onto Fireice's ghostly pelt, highlighting her bones and fur.

Rising from her place and walking slowly toward the other she-cat, the dappled medicine cat did not stop until she was close enough to Fireice to see her clearly without intruding into her personal bubble.

"Greetings, Fireice. Your child led me here to speak with you, but the reason is unknown to me."

Shrewspots kept her words polite, formal and to the point. Fireice's tone was tinged with spite and Shrewspots did not want to antagonize the dead.

[~All I Need]

[shadow=red,left,300]Fireice

Fireice's face was closed and cold as Shewspots approached her. The fur on the back of her neck bristled as Shrewspots scent cloaked her. It was alive and fresh. Fireice loathed that. Oh, how she wished she were alive! To not be in such a forsaken place such as this. Only the subject of one of her children broke through the ice with a firey strength. Fireice inwardly laughed at that thought. Just like you, Fireice? So cold until the fire burns through, eh?
"Was it Magmakit? Oh, how I wish to see him and his brother and sister." she whispered quietly. Her voice dripped with unfathomable sadness. It pierced the heart with a wrenching empathy that was unable to help.
Her eyes--darker than the thunderclouds that ravaged the living world this time of year--became serious and stared coldly at Shrewspots.
"I know why he brought you here," she murmured.
"It's because I have a dangerous prophecy to tell you of."

[/size][/shadow]

[Eelstreak]

Shrewspots looked back over her shoulder in the direction Magmakit had disappeared. "I don't understand why he left before you could see him or speak to him," she mewed. Then her tufted ears caught the word prophecy and her gaze turned on Fireice with renewed interest. "A prophecy? But you're not-" She glanced at the cloud-covered sky. She flushed beneath her fur and looked back at the dead she-cat. Perhaps it would be best not to shove it in her face that she did not walk with StarClan. "Never mind," she covered hastily. "What prophecy did you come to share with me, Fireice?"

[~All I Need]

[shadow=red,left,200]

Fire`*ice*`

Fireice's eyes narrowed in resent as she took in Shrewspots. I could have been medicine cat if it weren't for her. I would still be alive if it weren't for Shrewspots. The orange star on her forehead glowed brightly as she padded forward to put her face right in front of Shrewspots. "Listen. Just because I'm here in this StarClan forsaken place doesn't mean I'm not deaf. Blind, not deaf. But at least I can see here." She paused for a minute and the words came out, strong and ominous:
"Three of four bloods will hold power unimaginable
But not strong enough to foresee the coming of unspeakable evil
Two sides of evil will battle for the three while the good stand back, helpless
And the light of StarClan will be put to the test in these three of four bloods
But power will destroy the purity of one, love will corrupt the second, and the burden of these two will be put on the last."
Her blue eye and green eye cleared and Fireice's gaze rested on Shrewspots. "Now, I want you to take my son as your apprentice. Teach him to speak and listen to StarClan. They will guide his paws away from his dark future. The one of power, Cavernkit..." She sighed in agony and shook her head. "I have seen what will become of him... And it is dreadful... Make sure he is watched over very carefully... And Dawnkit... Make sure she knows she's not alone being blind... I'm watching over her..." Fireice's radiant form was starting to disappear. "...I'm watching over...all...of them..." And she turned and walked away into the mist. This was where the beginning of the end started.

[/center][/size][/shadow]

[Eelstreak]

Shrewspots gasped and awoke. She sat up slowly and stretched, her bones weary from sleep. She gazed up at the stars, clearly visible now, wondering what Fireice's prophecy could mean. Cold wind blew over her, chilling the spotted she-cat to the bone. It was almost moonrise. She must have been sleeping for a long time. She shook herself. The stars shone brightly above her, silently watching her with ancient eyes. She looked up and simply enjoyed the view before her of an undiscovered mystery. Much like herself. She loved this time of night. The view of the shadow-dimmed forest before her was rare and she was lucky enough to catch this glimpse now. She gave a smile, baring her teeth at the oncoming night. Then she turned and made her way back to the camp. Tomorrow, she had a lot to tell the kits of Fireice.

[~All I Need]

[[Oooohhh, nice job.]]

[shadow=orange,left,200]

/\Magmakit/\

The feeling of cold chilled him to the bones and he opened his eyes wearily. The feeling of Dawnkit's and Cavernkit's bodies against him calmed the nerves that upset his stomach. Quivering from nose to tail-tip, he stretch luxuriously and padded out into the moonlit clearing to sit down and look at the moon. The memory of the other night played in his mind over and over again. How he had met Scorpion, his goddess. His Aphrodite...
Magmakit sighed in bliss. Soon, after he carried out his duties to the prophecy, he will run away with his love. He will leave behind the wars, the bloodshed, all of his past... He didn't ask to be like this. But, he had to admit the idea of power such as what he was told about...
"Oh, how the moon reminisces in the sky above. Oh, how it cries out to us mortals as it suffers the deaths it watches and the horrors that take place. We can see its agony, for it doesn't blind us as does the Sun. Moon, screaming moon..."[/color][/center][/shadow][/size]

[Eelstreak]

OOC: Shall we move to the Med. Den to work out Magmapaw as Med. App.?

[~All I Need]

[Sure.]

[Eelstreak]

TO: Apprenticeship