#~badgerkit

Bouncemist was standing on the cliff edge. At his side, Blizzardfawn stood. Well… no. A much younger Blizzardfawn, still lanky and all fluff, was breathing heavily beside him, eyes wide and staring at the same thing his own were fixed on. Pepsichirp’s body, impaled on a spike in the ravine, limbs askew and icy cold, so cold that frost was nipping at his paws even this far up.

Wait. No, this… this was wrong.

The scene morphed, stone slipping out from beneath him, tearing out a claw as he thrashed wildly and spun, seeing his mother’s stern face over him as he plummeted to the rocks to join Pepsichirp—

He landed with a thud, shockwaves of force vibrating up his legs making them feel about as strong as pond slime. Ragged breaths tore out of his teeth, standing over a cat’s body he didn’t recognize. Pale fur shimmered beautifully in a light breeze, hiding the deathly stillness that laid heavy atop her. At her belly squirmed two kits, one dark gray with a single white ear and one lighter with little white paws. Bouncemist let out another sob as he blinked and now it was Pepsichirp, little Hazel and Badger reaching out tiny claws to her as her glassy eyes gazed at them. No, no— he snatched the kittens away from their dead mother as her fur began to fall out, skin melting off the bones, overtaken by mushrooms and rot—

Bouncemist bit off a scream as his eyes flew open. His flank heaved, the hot night air feeling stuffy and suffocating in this tiny den. Badgerkit shifted in his sleep, still snoring softly, but Bouncemist frantically swung his head around, looking for the other two kits that were meant to be here. Gone, gone!

Carefully extricating himself from his nest so as not to disturb Badgerkit, waves of worry rolling off of him, Bouncemist practically ran out of the nursery. The air was cooler out here, but he still felt hot and itchy.

“Bounce? What’s wrong?” A voice broke through his panic. He twisted to see Blizzardfawn (older now, older, just like him) staring at him, sitting on the edge of the old twoleg nest’s wooden outcrop. She appeared to be in the middle of sharing tongues with Skykestrel, who was wrapped around her, also staring at him with her tongue comically poking out of her mouth.

Bouncemist froze, unable for a second to reconcile this version of his sister with the one from his dreams. He blinked a few times, forcing himself to take a deep breath for the first time since awakening.

Blizzardfawn gave him a slow, calming blink. “If you’re looking for Hazelkit and Antlerkit, they’re out there,” she meowed softly, gesturing with her tail in the direction of the herb garden, “I think they were looking at stars or something.” A hint of amusement reached her eyes as she said it, Skykestrel letting out a little mrrp of laughter, and Bouncemist finally let out the breath that had been going stale in his lungs. Indeed, when he cast a glance over to the herb garden, he saw Hazelkit’s peculiar split tail poking straight up over the edge, and Antlerkit’s much smaller ears bobbing as though he were prancing about.

“Thank the stars…” he sighed, spine sagging. Skykestrel hummed, returning to her work of cleaning behind Blizzardfawn’s ears, but Blizzard stared at him for a second longer. He couldn’t bring himself to meet her eyes still. Urgh. Something deep within him pulled taut and tried to force his head upward, but…