the stars aligned | 𝐚 𝐰𝐚𝐫𝐫𝐢𝐨𝐫 𝐜𝐚𝐭𝐬 𝐟𝐚𝐧𝐟𝐢𝐜𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧

Chapter 2

Echo was alone at the edge of a gorge.

She didn't know where she was. The area was familiar, but unfamiliar, and the moon sent dark shadows dancing around her. The sound of rushing was echoed around the clearing, broken only by the sound of paw steps behind her.

Echo was suddenly knocked to the ground by large paws. She flipped over onto her stomach and rose to her paws, hissing at her attacker. A grey-blue tom snarled back at her, his fur tinged silver in the moonlight.

He raised his paw and slashed at her, one claw catching on her muzzle and tearing her flesh. Echo felt a flash of pain and felt blood well out of the wound, dripping down her snout to stain the ground below her.

The tom snarled again and leapt at her, but this time Echo was ready. She dodged neatly out of the way, sending her opponent skidding to stop in the spot she had been moments before. He leapt at her again, spinning in mid air and landing squarely on her back. A trained fighter, Echo realised.

Claws dug into her back, sending a bolt of pain through her, but Echo ignored it. She rolled to the ground, trying to throw her attacker off but he held on tight.

She didn't notice the absence of one paw on her shoulder, didn't notice the shift of the tom's weight, until it was too late.

Sharp claws reached around her throat and yanked, ripping the skin and fur to create a gaping, jagged hole in her neck. Echo released a yowl as pain like nothing she'd felt before consumed her. Blood was gushing out of her throat as the tom shoved her away and leapt off her back. Her once-silver fur was stained red with blood.

The pain reduced to a dizzy numbness as Echo collapsed beside the drop to the gorge, gasping for breath. Darkness rushed into her vision, voices whispered to her, and everything faded away.

Echo woke shaking in her nest.

She drew in a long breath, relieved to find that she could breathe, and felt her throat with one paw. Still intact, no blood. Just a dream. But she knew better. In dreams she couldn't feel pain. Dreams never felt as real as that, in dreams she didn't have the foreboding sense of this is going to happen someday. She knew enough about visions and dreams to know that what she'd just seen was the future. Or a possible future. How could she avoid it?

Echo sat up and stretched, trying to shake off the memory of the vision. She wouldn't die, not like that. Not alone, on the edge of a gorge. She refused.

It was dawn, and the sun was rising, sending orange and pink streaks out across the sky. It helped chase away the terror she still felt from her dream and replace it with hope that this day would be better. She carefully stood and padded over to the entrance of the abandoned Twoleg den, sitting again to watch the sun crawl higher in the sky like a snail making its way slowly up a tree. It calmed her, reassuring her that her vision wouldn't happen, not if she could help it.

"Why are you up so early?"

Echo nearly jumped, thrown out of her thoughts back into the world, where Aquarius was sitting beside her, the sunrise turning his brown tabby pelt to gold.

"Oh," she stammered, unsure whether to tell the truth. "Bad dream — a cat attacked me."

Aquarius nodded thoughtfully. He knew about her visions, of course, but he didn't really understand how they worked. None of them did.

"Did I wake you?" Echo checked.

"No, I woke to watch the sunrise," he answered, flicking his tail. "I'm a bit late though." He was right. The sky was fading to blue, the sunrise over.

Echo wished she could see the Clan territories from here, but the walls of the den blocked them. She remembered what her mother said about morning patrols — maybe she could go see them.

A thought struck her. A trained fighter?

"Do you think the Clan cats are...violent?" Echo asked Aquarius hesitantly.

He shot her a puzzled look. "Probably? I mean, I've never met one."

"If they train their kits to fight, they probably are," Echo mused. Was that who killed her? A Clan cat?

"You could always ask Claire," Aquarius spoke unexpectedly.

Echo thought for a moment. Her mother refused to answer her questions about the Clans, but maybe she had filled the other cats in when she first came to the abandoned Twoleg den? Could any of them answer her questions about the Clan cats?

"How many Clans are there?" Echo tried, but Aquarius was shaking his head.

"I don't know," he answered, slight irritation lacing his tone.

Echo turned to stare at him. "Surely Claire told you something," she pleaded. "How many cats in each Clan? Do they...do they really train their kits to be vicious fighters?" Are all the stories Claire told true?

"Echo," Aquarius almost huffed, placing his tail on her shoulder. "I don't know. Claire didn't tell us anything — she didn't even tell Sylvester."

That settled it. Sylvester was Claire's brother; if she'd have told anyone, it would have been him. Echo growled in frustration and sat down. She couldn't tell if Aquarius was lying or not. He wouldn't be dishonest with her, would he? They were basically family, having lived together for so long.

"The others are waking," the brown tabby observed, and then he turned and padded away.

Echo watched him go, wondering if there was any way she could force her mother to tell her everything about the Clans...of a way to visit them. Why was Claire so secretive about Clan life? Had something horrible happened to her while she was there? Was that why she told the stories of mean warriors who sharpened their claws on bones?

Echo followed slowly after Aquarius, frowning slightly at the silver tabby shape of Claire stretching in her nest. What happened in the Clans that was so bad that Claire forbid anyone from going there?