Into The Sky | 5 Taken, 1 Fallen. | Ch 2

Tabitha’s eyes opened slowly to a field of soft, glowing grass under an endless sky full of stars. The air was cool and still, but there was no sound just silence wrapped around her like a heavy cloak.

She tried to move her mouth, to say something, but no sound came out. She felt the familiar quiet she’d carried all her life, the silence that came with being deaf.

Suddenly, footsteps approached quietly behind her. A tom with dark fur and bright golden eyes appeared, watching her carefully.

“You’re quiet,” he said softly. “Are you trying to say something?”

Tabitha turned toward him but stayed silent.

He studied her for a moment and then asked, “Are you deaf?”

She nodded slightly.

The tom nodded back and gently placed a paw on her ears. Warmth spread through her fur, and suddenly, sounds came rushing in the whisper of the wind, the rustling grass, even her own breath.

Her eyes widened in surprise. “I can hear?” she whispered. “Yes... I can hear.”

He smiled gently. “Good. I’m Nightflare. How did you end up here?”

Tabitha took a deep breath and began quietly, “I was an outside kittypet. I lived near a girl named Alaina. She cared for me and my sisters — Snickers, Sabina, Aurora, and the others. I loved them so much. I still do. We would roam the yard and sometimes get into the garden.”

Nightflare listened closely. “That sounds like a hard life.”

“It was,” Tabitha said softly. “We pooped in the garden too much, and Alaina’s father and her brother Audie were tired of us. When they came for me, I fought back. I bit Alaina’s father, but he pinned me down by the porch and... he killed me. They caught the others and put them in tubs, last I saw.”

Nightflare’s expression was serious but calm. “That’s why you’re here now.”

Tabitha looked down, then back up at the stars. “Yes. But my sisters are still out there. They’re alone and scared. I want to help them.”

Nightflare nodded. “Then maybe we can do something about that. Together.”

Tabitha met his eyes, feeling a new strength. “Together.” 

Tabitha’s eyes traced the faint shapes near the twoleg place, the spot where Alaina still cared for the others.

“They’re still there,” she said, voice steady. “Sassy and her kits. Forest, Pete, and Stary. They’re apprentices now. Growing up fast, but still untrained. Kitkate’s kits. Fadekit, Lintkit, Shadowkit, Tabkit, and Stormkit still kits. All of them vulnerable.”

Nightflare’s gaze was sharp. “So the young ones are still stuck, but not ready for what’s coming.”

“No,” Tabitha agreed. “They don’t know what’s coming. And they won’t be ready unless someone shows them how to survive.”

He shifted closer. “You think you can be that someone?”

She looked at him, eyes fierce. “I have to be.”

Nightflare nodded once. “Then we make sure they get the chance. No more waiting.”

The two of them stood under the endless sky, the weight of what needed to happen settling between them. A Clan to protect those still caught in the world below, that was their new mission. 

The night around them stretched wide and quiet, the stars blinking softly like distant eyes watching. Tabitha shifted her paws against the cool grass, thinking about the cats still stuck in the twoleg place the ones she loved and needed to protect.

“We need to warn them,” she said, voice low but steady. “They don’t know what’s coming, and they need to be ready.”

Nightflare nodded. “A dream, maybe. Something they can feel, a warning in their sleep.”

Tabitha closed her eyes, reaching deep inside herself, pulling at the threads that connected her to the world below. It was like stretching a thin silver web fragile but real.

She sent out the thread, searching for the cats she knew Sassy, Kitkate, and the others feeling their restless spirits as they slept.

A flicker of movement, a pulse. She grabbed hold of it and pushed a sharp image into the dream shadows creeping, danger coming, and the need to run, to hide, to fight.

Nightflare watched her, eyes narrowing. “Good. They’ll wake up scared, but it’s better than being caught off guard.”

Tabitha nodded, a small spark of hope warming her. “We have to keep doing this. Guide them until they can stand on their own.”

He smiled faintly. “You’re ready for this, Tabitha. You’re stronger than you think.”

She looked out over the stars, already reaching for the next connection  a new mission burning in her chest.

“We’ll build a Clan for them,” she said quietly. “One that lasts.”

Nightflare’s tail flicked once. “One step at a time.”

Down below, under the soft moonlight, the cats still with Alaina stirred in their sleep.

Sassy lay curled near a patch of tall grass, her breathing uneven. Forest, Pete, and Stary, her apprentices, shifted restlessly nearby, paws twitching in the dirt.

Kitkate’s kits—Fadekit, Lintkit, Shadowkit, Tabkit, and Stormkit—rested close by, still young and vulnerable in their small forms.

Suddenly, a shadow slipped into their dreams—a cold, creeping darkness that pressed on their minds like a warning.

Sassy’s eyes snapped open, heart pounding. Her apprentices stirred too, blinking up at the quiet night.

“What’s wrong?” Pete whispered, voice tense.

“We need to be ready,” Sassy said quietly, muscles tensing. “Something’s coming.”

The others awoke around her, all feeling the same urgent pull—something beyond their world was reaching out, telling them to prepare.

Outside, the night held its breath, waiting for what would come next.