Legacy (Book 1)

Chapter 5: First Glimpse

Chapter 5: First Glimpse

Rainstone yawned and rolled over, her flank pressing against Night's side. Early morning light filtered into the den from the entrance, pale and clean. She pricked her ears as she heard murmuring outside, curiosity pulsed through her paws, tugging at her to go see.

But she couldn't as long as Night was still asleep, her vague curiosity wasn't as strong as Night's claws. Besides, she could guess what they were talking about. This morning Pepper, Whisper, Cliff, and Tinge would become Trainees and she and Night would begin on their final assessment journey around the mountains.

Energy and excitement throbbed through her like her heartbeat and she could almost see the night sky and taste the stars on her tongue. Its so close in reach! Closing her eyes, she remembered her dream of inky black sky and dancing stars through the endless night.

Energy made her want to get up and dash around in a circle like a kit, but that would disturb Night and she'd get in trouble. Instead, she contented herself with an eccentric tail lash, avoiding Night's face of course.

She took a deep breath and closed her eyes, savoring the voice her mind replayed, like the fading echoes around the mountains that one can keep hearing for a long time. Listen to Song, watch the sky, never forget...

A moon after hearing it, she was still no closer to figuring it out, but it called her forward, gave her promise of something more, made her feel less alone... Again she listened to it, the smooth ancient rasp of the voice and the knowing lilt to the words, like the nostalgic tone of a very old cat.

"Rainstone?" Night mumbled, rolling onto his back and blinking sleepy amber eyes at her.

"Yes?" Rainstone murmured, nudging him gently, too excited to be anything more then slightly annoyed that she had to play nice with him.

"Are you ready to start today? An entire half-moon away from the cave..." Night mewed, a smirk playing on his face.

Rainstone heart fluttered like a trapped bird at the thought of leaving for a half-moon, not having any cat telling her what to do or what not to do... "I can hardly wait," she breathed with a purr, helping Night groom his pelt before the ceremony.

Even though it was hardly dawn, she could hear many cats out in the main cave already. Mudslide was the only other cat in the den, curled up in a tight ball, just a heap of dark brown tabby fur, with the splash of black on his paws.

Rainstone relaxed and purred, right now, with Night softly snoring as he started falling back to sleep and Mudslide looking so innocent, she could almost imagine they were all just happy in life. But that won't happen unless something changes...

Grooming her dark bluish gray fur down, she shook it out, catching the blue tinge at the edge of her vision as a stray ray of sunlight hit her. "Are you ready?" Crag asked, pocking his head into the den to stare at Night.

"Completely," Night responded with a nod, Crag nodded back, pride flashing in his eyes.

Rainstone followed Night out and he led her through the throng of cats to the front where Pepper and Whisper sat, Cliff and Tinge besides them with Sleet not far off. Rainstone frowned and leaned toward Pepper.

"What's Sleet doing here?" she murmured in his ear.

"Tinge will become his mate, she was too young when he became a Trainee, and he wanted to wait until she was six moons before she became his mate," Pepper murmured back, shooting a sharp glance at Sleet. "So that he could mate with her right off," he grumbled.

Rainstone shivered, she still felt much too young to mate, but the idea was less of a shock now that she was five moons. She stood a step behind Night, her head was still only to his shoulder so he blocked most of her view, but she studied Cliff and Tinge besides her, she hadn't seen them much before, only Cliff really.