Legacy: Timeless (Book 2)

Chapter 2: Past Memories

Chapter 2: Past Memories

"Look! Look! Over here! Look at all this water!" Scorch watched distractedly as one of her mirages, an older cat and a younger cat, seemingly seeing the ocean for the first time, squealed and jumped in the shallow water along the shore.

She blinked, letting the mirage fall away as she felt a sick pit in her stomach. A moon had passed since she'd realized her mirages weren't real. No answers had turned up, but more questions had aroused. What in the world was she seeing?! That was still the biggest one.

For a while, she'd tried seeing if she just saw what she wished, but when she wished to see anything specifically, such as a mother and her kits, she would get something totally different. What's more, every cat seemed to be doing something in particular, an action or a purpose that she didn't know.

If they were figments of her imaginations, shouldn't she at least know what they were doing? But one question led to another, and she wondered why she only saw them when she focused on the sensation of the world. When the rush of the ocean swept her away or the sensation of the sunlight drowned her out, that was when she saw it.

But she had given up on trying figuring it out by herself, and she kept wishing to see this, 'Song,' cat again and demand some answers. She looked over the shore now for the black cat, but only saw the gray sky along with the gray waves, rain being promised by the breeze that was more wet-laden than usual.

She was alone on the shore with her mother sleeping in the den after staring up at the night sky for hours last night. And her father had gone hunting again before the storm hit. So, for the moment, she was alone as she stared around without a thought or motive in her head.

Can't something interesting happen?! I want to do something! I need something to do outside of survival! A greater purpose! But she couldn't think of anything, what was there outside of survival?

That was all her parents thought about, the next meal and a safe home. Weren't they interested in anything past their whiskers? She scraped a paw in the sand as she listened to the cry of seagulls overhead. This place was full of life, constantly changing and moving, so why did she feel stuck between the sky and earth?

She looked around and her eyes strayed to the clifftops and the thin, strangely trail that her father took to get to the top. I've always wanted to go up there... I'm sure it's not as dangerous as mom and dad say it is. With guilty excitement, she scampered to the trail, climbing to the den and then continuing on where she usually stopped.

She panted as she struggled up the sand that slid her backward with every step until she wondered if she was even advancing. Finally her front black paw hit the top hard ground and she pulled herself up, rolling on her back to catch her breath as she stared up at the spinning gray sky.

Once recovered, she jumped to her paws and looked out over the beach that was now far below her with the den a small bump in the steep cliffs. Then her eyes trailed and she looked at the ocean, churning gray water stretched on for as far as she could see, a repeating pattern that changed slightly with every roll of the waves.

"Wow..." she breathed; it seemed so much more magnificent when it was below her. Tearing her gaze away, she turned her head away from the sharp wind of the ocean to see where she was. The ground was sandy, but had a firm feeling she wasn't used to, and the pale color gradually turned to brown stumped with green as it stretched away from the clifftop.

Out in the furthest distance was a dark haze, as if shadows sat there thick and rich. A few stunted rocks sat around, but the ground was relatively bare and lonesome. It didn't feel as lively as she'd thought it would, was the world all so bare and desolate?