Moonlight

The fragment

Ayla looked at the fragment. It was battered and fragile, so she wrote down the message on another piece of paper. The story wasn't complete at all because some of the text was missing or faded. Enough reasons for it to be hard to make sense of the strange words. 

River watched the civilians doing their thing in the village Colonia Agrippina. He always liked to have an overview of the world he knew. He smiled. 'Boo!' he heard from behind. River jumped up because he was scared, but when he touched the ground again he realized it was Black Panther, a fully black cat with yellow eyes. 'Stop scaring me like that!' he laughed. Black Panther giggled. 'Why? It's too funny!' he said. 'By the way, it's gonna rain, and the humans gave us food.' After River had followed Black Panther to where Goldstripe, a white and yellow striped cat, was already eating some fish, Black Panther grabbed a fish too, and started eating it. The fish this time were herring. When the three were done eating, River decided to say what he had thought about. 'So, I was thinking that maybe I'm not the only kittencorn. There has to be more.' 'So?' Goldstripe didn't seem to care. 'So maybe I must find them. Working as a team is more efficient than just working alone. We have to protect the humans,' River had said, before he realized his friends wouldn't like it. 'You're leaving!?' Black Panther said shocked. 'Well, yeah, it's my destiny.' Black Panther became very sad. 'You are gonna come back, right?' he asked hopefully. 'Maybe, I don't know. Maybe I'll be back after a month, maybe after hundreds of years.'

A few days later, River had decided. It was raining cats and dogs that morning, but River couldn't wait any longer. The sun wasn't able to light up the path because the sky was full of clouds. River said goodbye to his friends and started to follow the river. He walked through a thin layer of water that the rain had caused. He had no track of time, and no idea for how long he was walking. In the evening, the clouds were fortunately going away and River could see properly again. He saw a nice cave to rest in, and heard some mice running around. After a quick hunt and dinner, he fell asleep immediately. But because he was sleeping, he didn't hear footsteps that were getting closer...

'Wake up, sleepyhead!' someone said. River woke up immediately. While he was still in shock, he saw that it was in the middle of the night. River couldn't see the thing that stood in front of him, because the moon was shining some light in River's eyes. 'Who are you?!' River said, while he felt that his hair was rising. He had already realized that the thing in front of him could actually see in the dark. The thing didn't answer. Instead he said: 'Wait a minute... You're one too?!' River didn't know what it ment, so he wasn't talking back, while the thing ran around River. 'Do you have powers as well?' It knew that River couldn't see it, so it stood in light that came from a glowing stone.

'I can't believe you found me!' Shadow, a black kittencorn, said. 'Well, actually, you're the one that found me,' River said. 'By the way, what are night powers?' River had asked that because he was curious and because Shadow had told that he had those. 'I can see in the dark and disappear in the night, but the strongest part is that I can blind people and animals.' 'Cool.' The two kittencorns had slept for a few more hours after they met, and Shadow had agreed that they had to find the other kittencorns. Now they continued the journey. The kittencorns had talked the whole day, until they saw something behind one of the hills. 'What is that?' Shadow said. Now they saw it. It was Rome, with kittencorns. A lot of them. River and Shadow approached one of the kittencorns, a red and orange striped kittencorn, who was obviously the boss of them. She isn't just beautiful, she is nice too, River and Shadow thought, at the same time, after telling where they came from. But before anyone could say anything else, the kittencorns heard a strange noise, coming from the lake.

There was a ginormous monster in the lake. The monster was threatening the civilians. 'Let's fight that thing!' River said. 'But we can't swim!' the others responded, all at the same time. 'Then I'll go alone. Stay here!' River ran to the monster and attacked. The monster was a sea snake, RIver saw. The last meters he had to run on the water, before he was above the monster. The snake made a splash out of the water, but River didn't care if he became wet. He was a water kittencorn after all. River decided to sink into the lake, to the bottom. After he felt the bottom of the lake below his paws, he saw that the snake followed him. River attacked. Because he knew that sea snakes can't live without water, he used his powers to remove the water at the point the snake was. While the snake was looking surprised, it slowly disappeared for good.

River recognized the village he had always lived in. Black Panther immediately saw him and ran towards him. 'Did you find them?' Black Panther asked. Sadly River wanted to join the other kittencorns, for humanity. 'Yes I did. I'm just here to say goodbye. Forever.'

'What in the world is a "kittencorn"? Ayla asked herself after reading the story. 'And what powers? What were they doing in Rome?' She couldn't answer these questions. At least, not yet, Ayla thought. 

Thank you for reading, and have a nice day :D