Starlightlynxes: Stars in the Sky #1: Twilight

~Chapter 4~

"River! River, wake up!" Someone was shaking River with a cold paw. She tried pushing whoever it was away. Her head hurt terribly. Her first thought was, Where am I? Her second thought was, Why does my head hurt? Then it all came rushing back to her like a wave. Her eyes snapped open. She saw above her Dawn, and above Dawn's concerned face, a bramble and thorn den roof.

"Thank goodness you're awake!" It was Dawn who had been shaking her. "You are okay, right? You've been sleeping for three days."

Three days? What? River coughed. "Yeah, I think I'm okay. Where are we?"

"The wolves brought us here after you hit that rock."

River stood up, head pounding. She looked around. They were in a den made out of bramble bushes and thorns. Her stomach growled, but she ignored it. She didn't know what was going to happen to them, but at least they were both still alive.

. . .

Starlight couldn't sleep for two reasons. She couldn't stop thinking about River and Dawn. It had been three days since they had gone missing. Her, Storm and Hawk had gone to that clearing every night to talk, but they figured out nothing. And second, Starlight had been born with a secret. She had never told anyone.

Her secret had something to do with her ear tufts. Like Storm had pointed out a few days earlier, they were much longer than any other lynx's ever were.

Her secret was this: she could hear things that others couldn't. Constantly the whispering of voices echoed in the air, and no other lynx seemed to be able to hear them. There were days when the whispers would get so quiet, that Star could hardly hear them at all, then there were the days- and nights- when they got so loud that it distracted her from almost everything else, and caused her to not be able to sleep, no matter how hard she tried.  Since she was a kitten, she couldn't actually make out what they were saying, no matter how loud they got. But for the last three days, they had been so loud that she could make out a few words that sent tingles through her body.

"Starlight?" It was Ivy, not a whisper.

"Yes?" Star sat up and whispered, not wanting to wake up the other sleeping trainees.

"What's on your mind?" She asked. "You've been tossing and turning for the last three nights. I hardly get any sleep at all."

"Umm..." Star wasn't sure.

"You can tell me." Ivy whispered. "I can keep a secret."

"I don't know..." Star thought for a moment. It wouldn't be the end of the world if she doesn't believe me... but what if she tells any other lynx? Me, Storm and Hawk would be lunatics to them. I'm sorry, Ivy, but it's too risky. Maybe once we find out more?

"I don't think I can tell you." She mewed quietly.

"O- okay." Ivy looked distraught.

"Sorry. I would tell you, but I can't." Ivy sighed and lay back down, leaving Starlight staring at the starlit sky, listening to the whispers of the lynxes no one except her knew existed.

. . .

The next day it was raining. Storm shook her fur and stretched. Spring is almost here! She thought. It wasn't raining very hard, and as Storm went to the prey pile the rain had already changed to a slight sprinkle, and the clouds started moving on.

Last night she'd heard Starlight tossing and turning all night, and Ivy had asked why. Storm agreed. It was getting annoying. No sleep.

She grabbed two mice and finished one in a few seconds, then was about to eat the second one but was interrupted by a meow.

"Storm!" It was Hawk. He came running over, but stopped, grabbed a thrush and ate it quickly.

She purred in amusement as he licked his lips, and one of the feathers got stuck to his nose, then he shook his head. "What?" Storm asked once he pulled it off and watched it fall to the ground, then stepped on it, claws unsheathed.

"Umm..." He seemed to have forgotten, but then lowered his voice. "Come to the clearing." He whispered. "Starlight needs us."

"Okay, I'm coming."

She watched Hawk walk to the camp entrance and go out. She bit into her last mouse.

"What took you so long?" Starlight asked Storm when she entered the clearing. Storm shook the snow off her pelt and hopped over to the other two lynxes and sat down.

"I had to finish my mouse." Storm apologized. "I was hungry. I normally get hungry when I'm up all night for three nights in a row because of a certain trainee who doesn't stop moving around at night."

"Sorry. I think..." Star broke off for a moment as if deciding something. Storm looked around. All the blood had been covered over by new snow ages ago. I wonder if it was raining where River and Dawn are?

"When should we try to rescue River and Dawn?" Hawk's question broke her out of her thoughts.

"Once we know where they are." Star replied.

Storm thought for a moment. Oh. That should be easy. She stepped forward. "I think I know."