The Dawn Strikes

Chapter 1

It had been half a year since Dawn had been taken away, and she barely remembered it. She was happy with her twoleg for the most part until of course someone new had been invited into the home. They were awful, whenever he and Dawn were alone, as in her housefolk would be on vacation, he would barely feed her, care for her, or even give her attention.

Today was one of those days. Her twoleg was off on a vacation to some Florida, though Dawn could barely even pronounce that word in her own tongue, she didn't even know what it meant. She had just heard it over, and over, and over until her twoleg eventually went away. She had caught on to this little pattern. Her twoleg had been to many places. It confused her why her twoleg would leave every once and a while and not even act as though she had existed

Back to the man, he was staring her down right now as she ate dry food. And when she meant dry, she meant dry. It was stale like it was out for months and never used.

It had been odd, the way any of the food was tasting lately. She had been craving something else, and she almost had the name of it on the tip of her tongue, but she could not figure it out. She finished eating the dry food before padding over to her little bed. The twoleg was still glaring at her, but she huffed and ignored him, lying down. Maybe some well thought out rest would finally be worth it, having stayed up many days to mess with the twoleg man. Maybe that's why he hated her? Oh well, she practically scoffed as got comfortable in her bed, he deserved it.

The dream she had was... odd. She was in a starry forest, and she felt like she should recognize it, but she didn't. Dawn knew what was familiar though, the brown she-cat that sat in front of her.

"Hey!" She shouted at the cat, who had her back turned to her. The she-cat perked up, turning toward Dawn. 

"Ah... it's you again." she smiled at the younger, flicking her bushy tail. 

Dawn narrowed her eyes, "Who are you?" she inquired.

"Squirrelstar," she responded with a purr, watching Dawn with a curious look.

"Your name sounds like those weird cat's names... Nutpaw, Sharppaw... and Duskkit? What are those weird names, why do they have two parts," she stuck her tongue out, as though just saying their names put a bad taste in her mouth.

Squirrelstar approached Dawn, touching her nose gently to the other's, "You'll learn that in due time Dawn. Your answers are in the forest."

Dawn backed away as soon as Squirrelstar had touched noses with her, it felt like it the she-cat's nose was on fire. She felt dizzy too, as the world began to fall away from her, and yet the brown she-cat stared at her still, her face twisting. "Dawn ends only when the moon rises," she whispered, barely audible.

The pungent smell of dust filled Dawn's nose as she awoke. Of course, she was back in this stupid house. After all, she had only been dreaming. Yet the dream felt surreal. What was it that "Squirrelstar" had said? Dawn ends only when the moon rises. That didn't even make sense, isn't it dusk that ends when the moon rises?

Nonetheless, Dawn stood up and shook her fur out, glancing toward the open window. She clicked her tongue, that twoleg man never learns, my twoleg still hasn't replaced that net thing, he shouldn't leave it open.

Dawn jumped onto the Windowsill, staring out at the forest and lake in the distance, her eyes narrowed. 'Tis not my fault if my twoleg gets mad at him for letting me run away, she thought to herself, his fault for leaving the window open.

She jumped out of it, feeling her paws land neatly on the grass. Momma said to always listen to my dreams. That's what I'm going to do.

The grass felt soft beneath her paws as Dawn darted away from her home, a look of determination on her face as each stride guided her closer and closer to the forest.