Moth Flight's Vision/Chapter 6

Chapter Summary
Moth Flight's PoV


 * Moth Flight awakens to darkness. The air smells of stone and she feels cold rock under her paws. As she looks around, wondering where Spotted Fur is, she realizes she is in a cavern with a large rock in the middle and a hole in the ceiling.


 * She turns as she hears movement behind her and sees two cats emerge into the cavern from a tunnel. Moth Flight recognizes the long-furred she-cat from her previous dream, although she looks younger and healthier. The she-cat is accompanied by a gray tom. She calls out to them, but they do not hear her, and when she tries to touch the gray she-cat, her paw passes through. The gray tom speaks to the she-cat, but Moth Flight cannot hear anything.


 * The gray she-cat approaches the rock and crouches before it, gazing at the hole in the ceiling. Moth Flight sees that the moon is rising, and remarks at how beautiful the cavern is. Suddenly, light fills the cavern and Moth Flight closes her eyes against the blinding flash. She slowly opens her eyes, curious, to see the gray she-cat touch her nose to the stone. The cavern fills with starry cats, which Moth Flight recognizes as the spirit-cats that had met with the leaders at Fourtrees. Moth Flight eagerly searches their ranks for Gray Wing, but fails to see him.


 * A tom steps forward and touches his nose to the top of the gray she-cats head, who flinches with pain. Moth Flight attempts to speak to the spirit-cats, thinking that maybe dead cats could hear her, but they don't respond, even when she weaves through them. Another tom pads to the long-furred she-cats side and she flinches violently at his touch.


 * Feeling alone and small, Moth Flight wishes that they could hear her, and that she was back in her nest beside Spotted Fur. A flash of pale green catches her eye, and Moth Flight sees the green moth by the tunnel entrance. Excited, Moth Flight dodges around the starry cats and follows the moth once more, but finds herself awake in the nest under the hedge, Spotted Fur beside her.


 * Disappointed, Moth Flight searches the field for the moth, wondering where it was and why it would always disappear when she tried to find it. Realizing that her mission isn't supposed to be easy, Moth Flight gets to her paws and leaves the nest, determined to find the moth again. Dawn is starting to break over the moor, and she decides she must leave quickly before Spotted Fur wakes up.


 * But she hesitates, and turns back, prodding Spotted Fur with one paw. The tom grunts and lifts his head, and Moth Flight whispers that she has to go and apologizes, saying that this was her only chance. Spotted Fur mumbles that he's not going to eat anymore toads and falls back asleep. Guiltily, Moth Flight apologizes to him once more, expressing that she wished to see him again, before setting off toward Highstones, using a narrow brook to conceal her scent. She realizes that she must do what she is meant to do alone.