Sandclan's Destiny Book 3: Blackout

Chapter 3: Dream of a World

Dustkit found herself in an alien forest, wandering around on the crisp bleak ground, underneath the moonlight. She, at first, mistook this for the darkness of the nursery at night, and searched her paw around for her mother's warmness. In finding nothing but vast space around her, sharp thorns and tendrils that grabbed at her in hostility, and an orange moon above her head, she squealed in terror. Her heart began to race and she ran around the clearing, through brushes, only to find herself bursting through more strange clearings and groves that she could not place any familiarity to.

"Anyone?" She called out. "SandClan, where are you?" It didn't look like the camp, but she didn't really know what the camp looked like anyway. "Bigstar?" She stopped and sat and began to grow nervous. "Where is everyone!?" She thought about trying to find them and she thought about staying where she was. She thought about yelling for them and she thought about keeping silent. She didn't know who could be out there. She didn't want to know.

She remained in the dark. Bigstar once told her and her littermates, she remembered, 'if you ever get lost, stay put! Someone will find you. If you hear a noise, don't run. Just stay put.' 

She put that tip from her mother behind her as she began to wander again as nobody came to rescue her. She heard a noise, an echoing snap, followed by rustling in the trees. She couldn't help herself- suddenly she was running, sprinting, until she tripped on her own paws and began to tumble down a hill. She tumbled and rolled, and with each time her head resurfaced from the ground, she saw darkness coming closer to her. She noticed that the tops of the trees that were once at the bottom of that hill were rising quickly now. They swallowed her up.

She landed hard. She shook out her pelt, squinting inquisitively into the darkness,"Bigstar? Autumnkit, Icekit, are you in there?" 

She heard voices. She almost called out to them, thinking they were her clanmates, but their voices were unlike any she has heard around camp. 

"We can easily destroy it." A stern voice said.

"Three of you go, then, when it is time!" A dictating voice called angrily, rough and even more stern than the last. It was the loudest as well, Dustkit realized, as the voices talked back and forth, with more than three speakers surely. She had no clue what they were saying after those couple sentences, for their voices became so distant and mingled. She assumed they were leaving.

"You might not want to get closer." A small voice mewed behind Dustkit. She turned, seeing a small she-cat hunched, another kit. "If you do, they might find you. They might attack you and kill you and make you go to the Darkforest forever."

Dustkit backed up, "What? Who are you?"

"I'm a StarClanner."

"Your pelt isn't.. starry." She argued nervously, remembering the tales.

"That's because we're in the Darkforest!" She giggled, "Our pelts are only 'starry' when we exit." Her tail lashed to the darkness shortly beyond, "But please, heed my warning. You were sent here to listen, not to enter. You might do that later..."

"Sent by who, and why?" Dustkit narrowed her bright ingenuous eyes, suddenly more afraid. "I want to go home!"

"By StarClan and to listen." She clarified in a bothered tone. Unlike Dustkit, this kit's blue pelt wasn't bristling in fear.

Dustkit began to hiss, but the cat had already disappeared. In fact, so did the sky. And the ground. The world was melting until surrounding her was purely black. She grew scared and her head swung around wildly. She squeaked aloud as all she saw was darkness.

"Dustkit?" A gentle voice asked. It was Bigstar.

Her eyes burst open as she stared into her mother's fresh green eyes. "Bigstar!" She rolled up and sat. Cougarfang was there as well.

"The border is secure, Bigstar." The deputy nodded, his yellow eyes gleaming.

Dustkit was in awe. The deputy! She should be astonished that her very own mother is the leader, but instead she found it surprising when the deputy came to visit. Dustkit was distracted by her dream though, which she considered to be just a nightmare. She felt the inclination to tell her mother, but she did not want to interrupt the deputy and make a fool of herself in front of him.

Autumnkit and Icekit were the opposite, however. Autumnkit batted his tail playfully while Icekit padded around his legs, sniffing him. "Do you have kits?" Autumnkit asked him.

"Do I have kits?" He chuckled, "No, they're all grown up!"

Autumnkit looked over his legs and squealed, "Where? They're all grown up already? How old are you?"

"Autumnkit! Be polite." Bigstar scolded. Cougarfang on the other hand just stood there chuckling.

Autumnkit went to muttering and sulking into the elder's den, disappearing in the rushes. Dustkit sat and turned her attention to Icekit. He was biting at Cougarfang's tail but the deputy kept lashing it, Icekit's jaws snapping at mid-air until he grew angry and tackled the deputy's paw.

Dustkit was about to reveal her dream again, but decided against it. It was just a silly nightmare. Silly nightmare.

*~*~*

She awoke in the same world again. Stifling back her surprise, she stood, frozen. She knew she'd wake up, all she had to do was remember she was dreaming. She had fallen asleep the sunset after Cougarfang's visit and already she was back. However, as she was basked in blackness, she could finally make out more voices.

"When is the next half-moon?" A voice. Dustkit saw tabby paws with that voice, and faintly saw yellow eyes.

Dustkit edged closer, in the thorns now. Good noble warriors don't kill kits. I'm okay if they catch me. They won't catch me though! I'm a good hider, Autumnkit can never find me. She crouched within the murky thorns, her pelt blending in. She got stabbed by the prickles but she ignored them as she pushed herself deeper onto the ground. I am here to listen. Then they'll let me go.

"Soon. Soon. Be patient, Thornstripes."

"And when it happens.. Well, you four recite the plan. Go, away, back into that cave and practice. We don't want any failure. It's six or seven, take and give, against you four, and as well trained as you are, you might be thrown from the precipice."

"No they won't." A low voice snapped. "Deathblaze, you mouse-brain, what do you take me for? I trained these cats perfectly."

"Perfection doesn't exist in a world of StarClan."

Dustkit felt the world slipping from underneath her. The darkness grew, swallowed her, ate her until in her entire world only existed a black darkness. She grew scared again but this time she couldn't breathe. She yowled but she could not hear herself. She tried to move, only to feel constricted. She tried to see something only to vision the black ahead of her.

She gasped in fresh air.

"Dustkit! Have you been having nightmares?" Bigstar nuzzled her kit. Autumnkit and Icekit played, clumsily, and the sun was at its peak in the sky.

"Sort of.. Yeah.." She was hyperventilating now.

"Fine. I'll go tell Sunspots to bring you thyme." 

What was that? She thought as her mother departed from the nursery quietly. Am I going to die?