Daydream

Chapter 2

Graypaw padded through the gorse tunnel into camp, just back from learning the territory— all borders and everything! It would have been awesome if it wasn't for the dog that scared him like foxdung—despite being tied—and embarrassed him in front of Lionheart. Like really, why.

But that wasn't important though; the important thing was that he heard about new apprentices in all clans! Nice opponents, he wished.

Anyways...

He was so hungry he could eat a badger, so he probably should get going or else the fresh kill pile would be gone. He could sense it, in his stomach. Well... maybe that was just hunger.

So he devoured a magpie as fast as he could. Now plump and tired, he headed to the apprentice's den. He could SWEAR the mossbed was calling him! And who was he to refuse?

So he curled in there, the moss was soooo soft....

—————✩₊˚.⋆☾⋆⁺₊✧————

"HEY!" A voice woke Graypaw out of his sleep. There was a bright orange tom standing over him, but Graypaw was too sleepy to think that maybe he should fight. Instead, he turned on the cold stone to find a comfortable position—

Wait. Cold... stone...?

Then he snapped, getting up like he had a spring on his back, crashing into the orange tom in consequence.

"Ack!" The orange cat hissed, landing on his back and almost falling from the—Graypaw realized—big rock they were standing on.

"Oh StarClan! I'm SO sorry! A-are you okay?" Graypaw stammered, suddenly realizing that cat could have died if he fell from the rock. Graypaw could tell, it was like 200 badgers tall!

"Ugh..."

A soft grunt made him turn to where that strange orange cat lay.

"I'm okay," he meowed. "I think I'm just going to get a bruise with this," he said, mumbling the last part.

Graypaw felt a rush of guilt wash over him. Nice! He had just spoiled his meeting with an apprentice who probably just tried to be nice! AWESOME. ESPLENDID. BEAUTIFUL.

"I...I'm sorry, really," Graypaw told him. "I was just surprised to not be in my mossbed, or in my camp."

The cat turned his neck to look at him and let out a sigh. "It's okay, no worries. I was surprised about that too, but more surprised to find a strange cat beside me, so I tried to wake you up," he said calmly. "But that's not so important; the important thing is... Where are we?"

Graypaw gazed around the clearing. There were four HUMONGOUS trees growing in a circle, making the clearing feel comfortable and safe. Then there was this BIG rock; the bottom could fit like 4-6 cats. Really, this place was SICK!

And familiar somehow....

"Sunningrocks?" he asked, more to himself.

"No, there's just one rock here," the other cat answered.

"Hmmmm..." There was something familiar; he knew that something here...

"Fourtrees?!" The orange cat almost yelped, and Graypaw gasped. "It's true! It's just how the other warriors described it!"

"Yeah! No way!" He turned to Graypaw. "C'mon, let's explore—uh..."

He paused. Graypaw realized he hadn't told him his name. "I'm Graypaw!" he said, grabbing the orange tom's paw. "Nice to meet you, gentleman."

The other cat chuckled. "Nice to meet you. My name's Firepaw."

Graypaw let go of Firepaw's paw and turned to run. "Then let's explore, Firepaw!"

They ran through all the clearing, which was big enough to home hundreds of cats. There were low branches, sunny spots, and cozy patches of grass. They were just going to look at some flowers when a rustling startled them.

They both looked in that direction. It was a small, lithe black cat, eyes wide with fear and back arched in a hiss. He looked as startled as they were.

"W-who are you?!" he screamed. "Where are we?"

Graypaw exchanged a worried look with Firepaw.

"It's okay, we are apprentices. He is Firepaw and I'm Graypaw. What's your name?" Graypaw asked, trying to distract the black cat from whatever was scaring him that much.

"M-my name is Ravenpaw," he said, trembling. "Is t-this a dream?" he asked.

"Well... I think it is," said Firepaw. "But you two are real, right?"

Graypaw nodded. Ravenpaw looked confused.

"Maybe it's like a shared dream!" Ravenpaw squealed. Firepaw hummed. "Maybe, that would make sense."

"Yeah," Graypaw said, then turned to face Ravenpaw. "We were just exploring! Wanna come?"

There was a flicker of fear in Ravenpaw's eyes before he hesitantly answered, "O-okay, that sounds good."

Then again, they smelled the flowers, they chased each other, they shared tongues...

But everything has an end.

"I feel sleepy," said Firepaw.

Ravenpaw and Graypaw mumbled a "me too."

Graypaw looked up. The sky was turning a pale purple. He had never seen the sky like that.

Ravenpaw yawned. "Hey, what about we sleep?"

Firepaw nodded and beckoned Graypaw with his tail. "Hey, c'mon, let's sleep," he said softly.

Graypaw curled with them.

Graypaw gazed at the stars. They looked ten times more beautiful.

And he woke up.