Mark of the Moon (MAGIC CAT ACADEMY STORY)

Friend

"Snow!"

"Dusk!"

The two young cats ran up to each other, purring. Snow's white pelt was more soaked than Dusk's. Dusk felt a surge of joy at seeing her best friend again. "It's you! I thought you died." Dusk tilted her head to glance at Snow.

"I thought you died!" She mumbled.

"Most of us saw the stampeding ghosts and used our magic to flee, but some didn't escape. I was so worried, the other new students declared that you had died, but I still looked for you anyway." Snow mewed. "And I knew I'd find you!" Sapphire watched them keenly but didn't attempt to stop their reunion.

"Snow, meet Sapphire. The ghosts think I'm her and are attacking me." Dusk flicked her tail at the huge she-cat.

"That is incorrect. You have the Mark of the Moon, and it is your fate they attack you." Snow looked shocked as Sapphire spoke.

"I thought he was joking when the dean announced the Mark of the Moon prophecy!" Snow shouted. Snow was still speaking when a bolt of lightning split the sky. Little pieces of light hung off of it like twigs. The crack was dove white, and it glowed as the clouds fought to keep the rosy pink dawn light from the damp earth. Thunder rumbled as the bolt faded.

"Our ancestors are angry! Snow, you don't believe your ancestors' words?" Sapphire growled.

"They aren't my ancestors! I came from Hailstone Island!" Snow protested, her mew weak. Dusk lived near Hailstone Island, but she never moved there because of all the chaos that happened. It was beautiful; in the summer, the woodlands were lush, and rodents wriggled under roots trying to find seeds. The shrubs were sun-dappled, and the virescent fields shined. In the winter, the fluffy snow blocked you from crunching leaves beneath your paws. Specks of snow fluttered down from the clouds, weighing on the bare branches of oak trees stretching into the sky. Once vibrant water was coated with an ice pelt, small cracks rippled through the ice when broken. "They're just dead cats!" Snow's yowl brought Dusk back to their conversation. "What are they going to do about it?" At that moment, rain bore down on Snow and Dusk, thumping the grass so viciously it was difficult to stand up. The wind started up, blowing the bitter rain into Snow's face. It took Dusk another lighting flash to realize, that the fur under her eyes wasn't wet. She lifted her face to the sky, and her ears were slapped back from pressure, but her ginger fur still blazed like fire despite the intense storm. Shade's words repeated in her mind: The greatest evil will awaken, shaking everything from the academy to beyond it to its roots. The only cat who can stop it is the cat with the Mark of the Moon. Dusk finally understood. I've been granted more power than anyone has before! It hadn't mattered as much when she learned she was the one. But now, she shuddered, knowing the responsibility weighing on her shoulders. For a moment, starry pelts surrounded them, nodding at Dusk. Dusk opened her mouth to taste the star-spangled air. A cold taste hit her tongue as she inhaled the empty aura.

"Someday, you will foretell a prophecy on your own. You'll get it, and you'll be afraid of what may come." Dusk cringed at one of the spirits quoting Moonlight. I'll foretell a prophecy? Me?

"Rose foretold a prophecy, and now you will. But you will no longer be a tiny kitten, then. Instead, you will be an adult cat, and the cat you foretell it for will carry the lives of millions of animals." Dusk was shaking with fear at the thought of so many animals, big and small, depending on one being. She looked around for Moonlight, but she didn't show.

"I'm proud of you, Dusk. I never expected you to be so critical in understanding the dead." Dusk was afraid her heart would stop at the voice she recognized. She turned to see an ebony-colored tom cat with a star-lined pelt staring into her soul.

"Berry! Is that you?" Dusk yowled, running up to greet her friend. As a toddler, Berry was Dusk's friend, but Berry caught a strange sickness and perished. Berry nuzzled Dusk. Dusk heard leaves swishing and whipped around to see Snow watching her, her jaws gaping wide open. Finally, the spirits cleared out, leaving Dusk to stand in the growing storm. Snow was crouching down; her coat was waterlogged.

"Can we please take shelter? You can bring dark blue gem girl; I don't care!" Snow yelled over the thunder. Dusk beckoned to Sapphire with her tail, and they followed Snow. Snow soon came across a bracken bush and squirmed under it, her tail quivering in pain. Dusk helped Sapphire under the bush, guilty creeping along her back as Sapphire squealed in pain when a thorn broke her skin. When they finally emerged, Dusk's eyes stretched wide as she saw Frog, Pumpkin, Owl, and Fluffy.

"Oh. This is awkward." Frog murmured. Pumpkin nodded.

"I told you she wasn't dead!" Snow boasted, rousing Owl from his sleep under an ivy bush. Owl grunted and tried to ignore Snow.

"Who's that?" Fluffy asked, pointing at Sapphire.

"She's the reason the ghosts are attacking me," Dusk explained.

"Ok, well then, I'll go wave my wand in funny shapes and hope ghosts disappear." Sapphire snarled, sheltering from the rain under a huge fallen branch. Dusk heard a rustle in the bushes. A ghost?