Chapter 5 Willowpath (edited)

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   Cold, empty, and alone. All around her was vast darkness, no matter where she ran, no matter where she looked, it was all empty. She was completely alone, she couldn't cry out for help because she didn't know how to talk. The young Tuxedo cat was shrouded in complete and total isolation. At first Willowpath ran around frantically, searching, listening, for someone, anyone around her. But in the end she couldn't ever find anyone. She always collapsed crying before passing out and waking up to search again. But, by now she had given up, she had succumbed to the darkness and let it consume her. Soon mist had come up to the emptiness, it kept her company in a way.
   But there was someone with her, someone who always stayed a bit out of sight. Willowpath never knew it was there, whatever it was. But it was always watching her studying her, trying to understand her. It was shrouded in mist never taking it's eyes off of Willowpath,  but in it's eyes there was not hatred or evil, there was just confusion and wariness, as if it were scared of approaching the cat, scared what would happen if they interacted with her. But wherever she went the unknown being followed her, trying to understand her.  Willowpath did all she could to pass the time, reminiscing about her life, but she was almost out of good memories, she thought she had been there for a few hours but she wasn't sure. 
   The being felt pity for the cat, all alone without a guide, but that's because no one called out to her and got a response. Only a few have tried, because they felt pity for the young one as well as the being did. That was the way here, until you get a response stay out of their sight, so that you didn't scare anyone. But there was something different with this cat, it seemed like she couldn't understand when she was being called to, they didn't even know if she could hear them. The being watching Willowpath started to feel like they should break the fundamental rule because they started to feel like the cat was deaf.
   They heard a call from outside their vision, the call was familiar. The calls were never words, for some here could never understand the words of other. The mist around oneself increased with your own despair, the tuxedo cat's mist was starting to become to thick to see her. The being replied with a welcoming call, then heard a rustle and saw a familiar face "Oh hello Jagd" the being said facing a large dog with brown markings, "Your tail's still a stump I see" Jagd growled at the being's comment "Iriim! You know exactly why my tail's a stump! It's because of those stupid upwalkers!" They stumbled backward "Calm down Jagd I was just trying to make you laugh-" They turned to the mist surrounding the cat "Jagd have you tried to call out to her?" Iriim asked their pointy ears lying more flat, Iriim's coat was a beautiful deep red surrounded by orange before it fades to black in many large patches.
   They sighed "I dont understand, does she not understand our greeting call, or is she trying to run to find us? She never responds to the calls though like other new ones, an-" The fox was cut off "Iriim you forgot to wait for my response you daft whelp!" Growled Jagd "Sorry Jagd I wasn't thinking it's just... I'm starting to think that the cat is deaf, I dnt want to break the rules but I feel I must go up to her and speak to her to get her to understand where she is."  Jagd gasped "But foxes and dogs can not speak the tongue of cats! And even if we could we cant just break the only fundamental rule of this place! What if we fade like the others did?" Iriim bowed their head "I'm sorry Jagd I wasn't thinking, never mind that have you seen Paltu?" Jagd nodded "Yeah I have, she seemed curious about a different new arrival, it's also a cat, he seemed adamant about finding a way to leave this place so she's been walking with him. He also had asked about finding prey here, he will soon learn that you cant eat anything else here, nor harm anyone else." 
   Jagd shrugged "She is around 14 toad hops the way I came." Jagd laughed "It's hard to see how far you come when your traveling around here." Iriim looked thoughtful for a moment swishing his bushy tail "Hey Jagd, maybe you could go bring Paltu and her new friend over here, I feel it may be a good thing if we get the two cats to talk, it may help them both settle down." Jagd huffed "So you want me to be your messenger? Iriim if we ever get out of here you are going to hunt for me for a 3 whole light cycles!" Snarled Jagd but she sighed "But I'll do it Iriim, see you in the unknown later." And she stalked off, Iriim imagined his little sister, well they aren't blood siblings as Iriim was a cross and Paltu was a marble, but they helped her when she first came to this place and they have had a sibling bond ever since. Iriim took in a deep breath, and slowly approached the cat, making sure she could hear them, when they reached her side they nosed the cat. 
   Willowpath panicked and fluffed out her fur, she was going to die out here, but before she could flee the fox put a paw on her stomach. But when Willowpath tried to scratch it there was some sort of force that blocked her from hurting the fox, she looked at it's mouth, the fox was talking to her she found familiar words "Safe... cat... Sorry if... scared you." she flattened her ears and mouthed "Who are you? Where is this place?" the fox looked confused then a look of understanding crossed its face "No hear, but read lips?" It asked in basic tongue and she nodded, the fox smiled "Me Iriim, who you?" it removed it's paw from her chest "I sorry." It mouthed to her "It's fine, me Willowpath." the fox smiled "Hello Willowpath, my friend bringing another cat with them to over here, she dog but she nice." Willowpath let out a sigh of relief, she saw Iriim look over into the distance them back at her "Friend brought cat, I'll tell them you." She saw them say something that included her name, lots of warriors names were in common tongue because both the prefix and the suffix were included in the language. She turned her head to see a huge black and brown dog bringing a fox with pretty black white and gray fur and a cat with black and brown fur their eyes locked and a moment of understanding was taken. They needed to leave this place, but they had friends to help them. She sighed with relief and mouthed to the cat "I am Willowpath who are you?" The tom had a hard time understanding what she was saying but replied with "I am Dusk, hello Willowpath... that was your name right?" She nodded and smiled "I read your lips, you read mine and that's how we speak." The tom nodded, it was a way for them to understand each other. Iriim turned back to Willowpath "This place, you wanted to learn, well me tell you, welcome to the Dark space. It is vast emptiness filled with creatures, no hurt others, you cant. Sometimes shimmers of light take creatures, some fade. But those who leave from that, they are never heard from again"




So if you are confused about the Dark space, or about this chapter in general let me fill you in. So Willowpath being in a state of well practically dead has been taken into her consciousness, but it's not her consciousness she is wandering she is half dead and in this universe that is a dangerous thing, not from the fact that she is going to die since there are medicine cats, but because you mind can wander, and in doing so for these animals and many others trapped in the Dark space their minds wandered into a state of darkness, and then their spirits wandered as well. So in the Dark space you can not get hurt and you cant hurt others, you dont need to eat since you still have a physical body. But for those like Dusk who is most likely fine, his mind wandered with his spirit in his sleep, putting him into a coma like state. The shimmers were most likely Starclan and the fading was... well fading. Yes I know I just had a dog two foxes and two cats become friends and I will fight you over it, It's my book and if you hate it it's already written and published so oh well. And one last thing, the 'common tongue' is not a different language, technically in this story it's just words that mean the same thing and are spoken the same in all languages (and dogs and foxes can speak to each other normally because they are relative species.) This wont become like a fantasy book about magic. To sum it up
TLDR; The Dark space is a holding place for spirits that are trapped out of their bodies for some reason

(And if comments are weird and dont line up with the chapter part, it's because the same story parts for the original chapters, well I'm editing those and writing on them again, so this would have been the original chapter 4)

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