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The darkness of the night hid the two small figures as they scrambled up a tree on nimble paws.
One of them, a tom with tabby fur, turned round on a high fork and peered into the depths. "Nobody has noticed anything," he whispered. His bright eyes shone.
"Perfect," the she-cat replied just as quietly. "Then all we have to do is sneak past the night watch."
As they had climbed this tree so many times before, they knew its branches like the back of their paws, and so it was easy for the two young cats to slide down the other side of the trunk.
Shortly before reaching the ground, the tom stopped and checked the air thoroughly. Then he twitched the tip of his tail, signalling to his companion that the coast was clear.
As soon as their paws touched the ground, they dashed off, trying to put as much distance between themselves and the camp as quickly as possible.
"What if it was just a dream?" the tom asked thoughtfully as the camp disappeared far behind them.
The she-cat looked at him in amazement. "Just a dream? Never!" she contradicted. "Think about it. Apart from leaders and medicine cats, no cat gets a visit from StarClan. If they turn to a normal cat, it must be something urgent."
Still, the tom wasn't convinced. "I don't even know if I've dreamt of StarClan at all," he contradicted. "There were only cats I've never seen before, and they were mumbling something I didn't understand."
"Believe me," the she-cat meowed. "They were definitely from StarClan. They want something from you."
The tom shuddered. "I just wish I knew what it was."
The she-cat rubbed her muzzle against his comfortingly. "That's why I'm coming with you to StarClan's Peninsula."
Nevertheless, the oppressive feeling did not let go of him. On the contrary: it seemed to him that the closer they got to the lake, the more he worried about it.
It's not too late, he told himself. "We can still turn back if you want," he meowed to his companion and hoped fervently that she agreed with him.
"Are you crazy? No, we have to go there. We need answers."
StarClan would never turn to an apprentice. The tom's fur bristled. His Clanmate was exaggerating. Sometimes it just happened that one had strange dreams.
Then the lake appeared before them. Dark grey, almost black, the huge body of water lay before them. Far behind, beyond the other shore, was a strange forest - a place where no Clan cat had ever set paw.
Exhausted, the tom stopped right in front of the boundary line, while the she-cat ran over it without stopping and only halted at the shore of the lake. There she stood for a while in the shallow water that lapped at her paws and stared into the distance for a long time.
Only when the tom wandered up to her did she move again. "One day I want to know what lies beyond the lake," she murmured. "It can't be that we have to stay in one place forever." Her voice fell silent. Her eyes shone so full of longing that fear rose in the tom.
"You don't want to leave the Clan, do you?" Panic resonated in his voice. He wanted to say more, to list reasons why it wouldn't be worth leaving. But his throat was tight.
The she-cat avoided his gaze as she replied hesitantly, "Sometimes... I have the feeling that something is pulling me away, and sometimes it's so strong that I can't think of anything else."
The tom dropped his tail to the ground. He had noticed her restless behaviour for a few days now. They spent every moment together and he always recognised immediately how she was feeling and why.
But this time it was a mystery to him.
"Come on." The she-cat started to move. "We wanted to go to StarClan's Peninsula."
No, you wanted to go there. It made the tom uncomfortable to even be near a sacred place reserved only for leaders and medicine cats. He had no right to even enter the peninsula.
Apprentices don't dream of StarClan. He was sure of that.
The tom turned his head suspiciously in all directions as he followed his companion to be prepared for possible pursuers.
When he turned his gaze forwards again, he almost crashed into the she-cat. She had stopped in the middle of the path. Her eyes wide open and her body rigid, she stared at a point in front of them.
Worried, the tom slid to her side to see what was frightening her so much.
It can't be! Stunned, he couldn't take his eyes off the shadowy cat.
It was the cat he had been dreaming about, there was no doubt about it.
The cat fixed them both with its unnatural yellow gaze. It almost seemed as if that was the reason why they had fallen into a stupor.
