Prologue
It was a clear night and the half-moon stood high upon the sky. Wafts of mist lied between the large pine trees, but the stars could easily be spotted beyond the ceiling of the forest. Somewhere in the distance, the call of an owl could be heard. The trees whispered in the calm wind and in the background there was the faint noise of a large river. On a small clearing in this wide and dark forest, there was a little campfire. And next to the campfire a cat sat in its flickering light, throwing long, dancing shadows into the darkness of the forest. His fur looked as black as the night in the dim glint of the fire but if you were to look closer you could see that it was actually a deep dark red, that would look like a fire itself if it was just bright enough. His name was Mitras.
He wasn’t by any means an old cat, but he seemed old. When you looked into his eyes you could see a trace of bitterness and sadness that is usually reserved for grandparents or great-grandparents. His left ear was torn and on his right cheek he had a small scar.
Out of the darkness between two pines, a second cat appeared and slowly entered the cone of light from the campfire. They agreed to spend the night together as neither of them minded a bit of company and there was always safety in numbers.
“So, what is your story then”, the second cat asked. “My story?” “Yes, everyone has a story to tell and you look like an especially promising story.” “The story of their life?” “Yes ... and no. Some tell the stories of others because they think their own lifes weren’t eventful enough. Some will lie a bit to make their story more interesting. I don’t mind this. A good story doesn’t have to be entirely true. A few little half-truths can make a story more entertaining.” “Why do I look, like I have a promising story to tell?” “You don’t meet many cats here these days. Much fewer staring lonely into a fire with sad, old eyes.” “OK then. Mhm ... where should I start?” After a few minutes of silence where only the crackling of the fire could be heard he, continued: “Then let us begin at the beginning, my origin:”
Chapter One: Origins
The origin reveals a lot about someone. If you hear that a cat is from the River Colony, you already know a lot about them. You know where they’ve lived their youth, you know what they’ve eaten, you know who they know and what they believe in. Some never leave their birthplace. Some wander around a bit, maybe travel to another colony and then return. Some move to another colony but you can always tell they have a different origin.
I am from nowhere.
Of course, I was born somewhere, but that’s not really important in my case. We were nomads and therefore I’ve travelled the world. I’ve seen it all. I wandered from the Linwood Forest to the Sunset Plains. I travelled along the Paradise Bay in the east and through the Misty Forest in the west. I climbed Highpeak to see the gate and swam in Lake Clearwater to hunt for prey. I met more people than I can count and I left them all behind. I can never rest.
Our group was led by my father Mani and before him by his father. Sometimes new cats joined us and sometimes they left. I wont go into detail about these occurences unless they directly affect me, as this is my story and tracking telling you about everyone I met would not only be confusing and distractful, but we would also take a couple of days if I were to precise. So, at any given time, we were maybe a dozen cats. Sometimes more, sometimes less. The group stopped whenever a queen gave birth to a new litter of kittens. The same happened when my mother gave birth to me. We currently crossed through the gentle hills in the north-west of the Silver Bay and were on our way towards the Forest Colony. My brother died that night to the cold harsh weather so only I survived. He never even had a name. But it wasn’t uncommon for young kittens to die at birth in the winter especially while travelling because there isn’t a lot of shelter in the open fields.
After about two weeks the group started moving again with me being carried partly by my father and mother. It took another week until I was able to walk alone for the whole day. We wandered through the high grasses and open fields of Rush Prairie and spring started to set in. There, while warm winds promised an early summer, my father gave me my first lesson in hunting.
On this particular day, I was able to spot a mouse. I crouched down and tried to slowly sneak up to it. Suddenly the mouse looked up, straight at me and started to run in the opposite direction. I chased it but it ran into its burrow before I was able to catch it. My father showed me afterwards where I had to stand relative to my prey and the wind so that it would not be able to smell me. That same day I made my first ever catch and never had a meal tasted that well. Urien another member of our group gave me more lessons in hunting and showed me where to find the most birds and mice. He taught me how to sneak so quietly, no mouse would be able to feel my steps until it was too late and how to use my surrounding to hide from alerted rabbits.
If we weren’t hunting, sleeping or having a break we were always moving. Of course, we weren’t as fast as a single cat could be, but a single, healthy cat wouldn’t have to watch out for the old or young. They would only have to hunt for themselves and could traverse territory that was just too difficult to move through for older and frail cats. Slowly but steadily, while the days were getting longer, our group wandered south. Unless necessary my father didn’t want to stop as our current destination was already visible on the horizon. Finally, we reached the Forest Colony.
Chapter Two: The Forest Colony
As we approached the colony I was intimidated. In my entire life, I’ve never seen so many cats. I haven’t even met anyone who didn’t travel with us. Most of my knowledge about the world and the colonies came from the stories Amna told in the evenings. She was the eldest in our group, had seen many places and could tell you a story just about anything and everything.
Here, however, I could only see strangers. No matter where I looked there were curious any prying eyes. The young, who had never seen any nomadic cats, watched in awe hiding between bushes and trees while still trying to catch sight of everything. For the adults, we were nothing new. They’ve seen nomads come and go since they were little kittens themselves. Still, they couldn’t resist watching as my father stepped up to Bluebell, their leader, and bowed down, paying his respect. Bluebell returned the gesture and welcomed my father and our group to the forest. He invited us to stay for as long as we wanted. Then he walked off with my father, questioning him about news from the other colonies.
My father had explained it to me beforehand. The colonies appreciated our coming almost always. Even in the winter when prey was bare a leader would never reject a group of nomads. We travelled around the world and are the easiest way to keep up to date about what was going on around the safe havens of the colonies. We were also the most trusted way to deliver messages to the cats or leaders of the other colonies.
After my father had talked to Bluebell he went around the colony delivering messages from friends or relatives who lived in other colonies or on their own in the wild. I accompanied him. Some immediately gave him a message to return or for an entirely different cat and many of the recipients thanked my father deeply and promised to return the favour one day. This is how I met Nodin.
He got a short message from a relative in the Plains Colony about a great-granduncle that died some time ago. But he didn’t seem shocked at all: “It was time for him already. I visited him ages ago, and he wasn’t even able to groom his own fur anymore. It’s a marvel that he lived on for so long.” Then he noticed me. My father introduced me and I timidly greeted him. “I could teach him some of my skills in return for your trouble”, he offered my father and me. “I’m quite good at tracking just about anything really.”
We accepted and the next morning I went to Nodin’s den again. Over the next couple of days, he trained with me and told me the many things he learned from years of experience. “In the end, it really comes down to what or who you want to find”, he said. “You'll need a different approach for every new situation. You will never find a fox searching only for footprints. They are just to fleet-footed. Think like what you want to find and you will prevail.” It was hard but after a few days of training, I was getting quite good at it. Then however, Nodin showed me how I could prevent being tracked myself. This was a simpler, but more tedious and most of the time dirty task.
I had to learn to squeeze myself trough shrubs without breaking any twigs and I had to roll myself in mushrooms to cover up my own scent. In the end, I got so good at covering up my tracks, that even Nodin had a hard time finding me again, if at all.
Chapter Three: See the Sea
One day during my training with Nodin he explained how I could bury the remains of my eaten prey without it being obvious to everyone who passed by, using leaves or pine needles, when he suddenly stopped talking. I waited patiently for him to continue, but he just stared into the distance. Not as if he spotted something of interest, more as if he remembered something from a past long ago. “What is it?”, I asked. “Have you ever been to the ocean?”, he answered my question with another one. “No, but my father told me about it. It is larger than I could imagine, he said.” “Would you like to go there?”, Nodin asked. “Now?” “Yes.”
It isn’t far from the Forest Colony to the sea and Nodin assured me that we could be back before it got truly dark even tough it was already getting evening. After a while of walking underneath the pine trees, I asked Nodin the obvious question: “Why?” Buried in thoughts he answered slowly: “Because you reminded me of something — or rather someone. I’ll tell you when we’re there.” And so we walked in silence through the open forest, while the low sun already lit it in an orange light. Soon I was able to smell the salt in the warm wind and from time to time I could hear the cry of a seagull.
Then we reached the sea. I was nothing like anything I’ve seen in my entire life. There was more water than I could have imagined and no end in sight. Even tough it was sunny day, it also was rather windy and the waves had at least the size of two cats when they crashed against the cliffs we were standing on. To our left, the cliffs continued and got even higher until no one would survive a fall hitting the water, but to our right, the cliffs shrunk and transitioned into a small, sandy beach.
Thus, we turned right and clambered down over the rough and bumpy stone that was ranked with moss and weeds. Upon reaching the beach I carefully approached the water. The waves weren’t as high here as they were over at the cliffs as they already broke further out in the ocean.
I grabbed a mouthful of water before I quickly spew it out and tried to get the salty taste of my tongue. Nodin, however, erupted in laughter. He knew of course that the water was undrinkable but already during my training, it became apparent that he thought I would learn the most from my own mistakes. (Once he told me to hide in a bush but didn’t warn me of the nettles. I wallowed on the ground for at least fifteen minutes to stop the stinging but from there on always checked checked for stinging plants before I sat down somewhere.) I glared at him but he simply laughed even louder.
“OK then. Keep laughing. But now I want to know why we’re here. Who did I remind you of?” He stopped and his face became serious. “You reminded me of my friend. That’s why I offered to train you. When I was younger, I was like you. I wanted to see the world and learn everything there is to learn. I was a great hunter, could track whoever I wanted and acquired every skill someone was willing to teach me. I did all of this together with my best friend from the earliest days of my childhood, Lando. He was like me, but more quick-tempered and rash, and together we got into more trouble in one year than most cats in their entire life, but we always managed to be victorious in the end. Together we trained here in the open fields of Rush Prairie and even travelled together to the Plains Colony as they are known to be the best fighters. There we heard of a legend. The legend of an ancient tribe. A group of cats that found the end to all disease and it is told that they have even cured ageing itself. They were supposed to live on the Frozen Isles far out in the ocean east of the Linwood Forest. Many who tried died in the harsh sea and I’ve never heard of someone who returned and is alive today.
Lando and I saw this as our ultimate test. The final challenge to become legends ourselves. We trained swimming for weeks in the ocean near the coast. We got better and better and until we were even able to swim a river upstream. Then we tried to cross the ocean. The sun stood high and there wasn’t a cloud to be seen that morning. The current was strong, but we would have trained enough to overcome it if it wasn’t for the storm. It hit us out of nowhere. I suggested turning around and to try again the next day but, stubborn as he was, Lando didn’t want to. We kept going but the storm was stronger than we both thought. There was as much water from above as there was from below. The wind turned the soft heaves of the water into deep valleys and steep mountains. Time and time again we were pushed under water and only returned with large effort back to the surface. Bolts of lightning flashed in the otherwise dark grey sky and blinded us again and again. Then I lost consciousness.
It was night when I awoke. I wasn’t far from the point where we started swimming. I searched on the whole beach. I walked miles upon miles up north and down south but I never even found his body. He died that night. I returned to the Forest Colony and haven’t left since.”
We stood in silence for a couple of minutes until I said: “I’m sorry.”
Chapter four: Farewell
Soon after I finished my training with Nodin we left the forest colony. The worst part of leaving was saying goodbye. The other members of our group were already used to farewells but for me, it was the first time and I realised that it would take a long time until I would see these cats again, if at all. I trained with Nodin a lot of the time and therefore I didn’t make a lot of other friends. My bond with Nodin, however, was stronger than I expected. We spent one last day together in the woods hunting and playing but the next morning I had to say goodbye. A few tears flowed that day, not only by me but many have made friends in the couple of weeks that we stayed.
In the end, however, we all set out for a new journey. Staying put for extended periods of time simply didn’t feel natural for us.
Everyone who wanted could have stayed and would be welcomed into their colony, Bluebell assured us. It wasn’t until a little later that I understood why.
And just like that we left the forest colony behind and started walking east. We walked until we reached the ocean not far from the point where Nodin and I went. The ocean was still intangible large but I wasn’t as shocked this time. From there on we followed the coast south. Every evening Amna told us a new story. She told us about the old gods, the wastelands and the trials.
It was the last evening before we reached the River Colony. We just heard a great story about an old rivalry between two clans that is said to have occurred in The Lost City, the same place where one of Oordeels trials took place. (To be fair, I think that Amna sometimes changed a few of the details to make her stories more thrilling.) After she finished the usual silence set in where everyone thought about the story, when Anna started speaking again: “I have decided. I will leave you when we arrive at the River Colony.” Whispers went through the group. I didn’t understand. “I am just too old to keep wandering around any longer. I am just burden at this point in my life and do not want it to be on all of you. Even though you would deny this fact, Mani, we are taking easier routes and we are making more breaks than necessary, just to accommodate for old me. That is why I decided to stay with the River Colony.” My father stepped up to her. “I would lie if I’d dispute what you said. We will all miss you and you will forever be in our hearts and our thoughts.”
This night I couldn’t sleep. At first, I just laid there in a small roost I build from moss that I carved from the rocky cliffs staring at the bright stars and wondered who would be the next one to go. In just a few weeks I lost both Nodin and Amna. Eventually, I would see Nodin again, probably, but Amna? Would she be still alive when we returned again to the River Colony? Finally, I was able to slip into a restless slumber. Nightmares plagued me. Nightmares about my parents getting older. I heard my father say the same words Amna said. I left my mother behind in an unknown place.
The next morning I awoke exhausted. We marched until noon. Then we arrived.
Chapter five: The River Colony
Our arrival at the River Colony was similar to when we first entered the Forest Colony, but at the same time, it was different. More cats looked grumpy and sceptical, but we were welcomed warmly nonetheless. My father went straight to Morwen, their leader, and after publicly declaring us their guests they walked of mumbling about something I couldn’t quite catch. The only thing I could hear over the mews of the other cats were the words ‘red eyes’. I made a mental note to ask my father about it later on.
The River Colony, as the name suggests, obviously lives right next to a river. To be exact they live in the delta of the river where it merges into the ocean and their camp is often flooded. They won’t move however, Amna explained to me that morning while we were still walking when I asked her to tell me more about our destination. They believe that the first signs of change could be seen within the ocean and could act as warning system for the Legendaries.
The legendaries are the survivors of the first trials that Oordeel hold. They then went on and rebuild the world as we know it today from the wastelands of before. Therefore they were especially interested if the world would decline again. From time to time we met some of them on our travels but they aren’t really relevant to my story until the second trials so I’ll skip most of my encounters with them.
Anyway, because the river cats thought to be able to see any changes first in the ocean they went on and stayed in their camp even though it was prone to floods especially in the spring when the ice and snow from the mountains are starting to smelt. Luckily for us, the thaw was long over and we didn’t have to deal with wet nests.
To distract myself about Amna leaving us I decided to walk through the colony. In the end, I returned to the river to drink some water. This time however I was more cautious and tipped the tip of my tongue in first to check if the water was salty. It wasn’t. While drinking, I observed the river cats. Some just bathed in the sun, others tried to catch some fish to eat. I’ve never eaten or caught a fish in my life back then, but it didn’t look too difficult. So I tried it myself.
The water was deep enough where I stood so that the fish swam right up to the shore. I waited for the correct moment. Then I reached into the water with my paw but couldn’t even touch the fish. Before my paw got close it twitched and shot away into the distance. No matter how often I tried, I could not catch one. Sometimes I touched them but the water made me slow and the fish never had any problem getting away.
The more I tried the more impatient I got. Then I tried to reach further down into the water than before. I lost my footing as the grass near the shore was wet and I fell into the water. Immediately the current pulled me away from the shoreline. I was pulled underwater briefly and returned to the surface coughing. I could only think of Nodin and Lando. Even though they were good swimmers, they couldn’t defeat the strength of the water. This would be my end. Then I felt a grip in my neck and was pulled out of the water.
Another cat, one of the fishers, had saved my life. “Do you even know how to swim, little one?”, I was asked by a black cat in fury. I could only shake my head. I must have looked pitiful sitting there, shaking with my wet fur as his eyes got warmer and he asked me who I was. Eventually, he suggested that I should learn to swim. He already had a student and I could join them in their training for the time of my stay if I wanted to.
That evening I asked my father about what I’d overheard at noon about the red eyes. He looked sad when he told me about the plague. He had tried to keep me away from the truth. That there was a plague out there and nobody knew what caused it, where it came from or how to cure it. He told me about the effects it had on cats, about the red eyes and how they died and returned, changed. The first occurrence was in the forest colony many months ago and since then many new cases of the disease had been reported.
He said: “I’d argue that it is better to say someone farewells and leave them behind than to see them return from the dead not even recognising you. It is always troublesome to lose someone close to you, Mitras. I know you always loved Amna’s stories but in the end, you will have to leave them behind. This is true for everyone but even more so for us. Our lives are coined by short encounters and brief friendships.”
Over the next couple of days while we stayed at the River Colony I trained with Lautris, the black cat that saved me the days before, and his student Adri, a young she-cat with a dark tortoiseshell and bright blue eyes. At first, Lautris didn’t even want to let me swim in the River or one of his calmer branches. I had to start in a small lake not far from the colony. As a matter of fact, this was probably a wise decision as I was far from being a natural at swimming.
I didn’t like the wetness and hated getting water into my eyes but I pushed through as I never wanted to feel as helpless as I did after I slipped into the river the first time. In the end, I was at least able to not drown when crossing the river.
Before we left, I needed to do one thing. I had to talk to Amna. For one, I wanted to tell her goodbye, but apart from that I also wanted to ask her about Nodin’s legend. The threat of the read plague hadn’t left my mind, or so I told myself. The truth was, that Nodin’s story had made me curious. An end to ageing. Amna would leave us because she got too old. One day my parents would be too old. Would I be able to leave them behind when the time came?
With that in mind, I entered Amna’s new den the evening before we departed. She already seemed to have settled in and had spent her time with other elderly from the River Colony.
“I have heard about this tribe,” she told me. “But I ... I can not remember anything apart from the things you already know. They are said to have cured every cure and some believe that they have cured the process of ageing. I do not set much store by this, however. I am sorry. I think I can not help you with your questions. Maybe Sybille knows anything else ... if she is still alive that is.”
“Sybille? Who is that? Does she live here as well?”
“No.” She made a small pause. “Did you ever wonder where I am from? I was not a nomad my whole life. Until three years ago, I've lived with a little tribe in the mountains next to the sunset plains. On a good day, you could see for miles on end the sunsets in the evenings...” Her gaze swept into the distance. “We would hunt rabbits on the fields and watch the shooting stars at night. Of course, these were still the times of the wastelands but we were a little, sheltered community so one would not notice all the bad things that happened in the world around us.
There, Sybille and I studied ancient legends. She is my sister. But then, three years ago, I left. I wanted to wander around the world and see the work of the legendaries myself. But Sybille did not want to leave. In her heart, she was always very attached to our home. Then I met your father and joined his group to travel around in a more comfortable fashion. I have not been back to my home since but as far as I know they still there. Right at the edge of the world.
Like I said. Sybille, if she is still alive, could maybe answer your questions.”
Chapter six: South or West
My father was not thrilled with my idea. I wanted to visit Amna’s old tribe. It would be my first adventure that I wanted to master alone. But my father didn’t want to let me go. He said it was too dangerous, that I could get lost or hurt myself on the way. In the end, it was my mother who managed to calm him down. She thought that not too much could go wrong when I wasn’t with the group for a short amount of time. Eventually, my father agreed that I could go. That is if I found someone who would accompany me.
That night I racked my brain on who to ask. At first, I thought that I could take Amna with me and bring her back home, maybe even reunite her with her sister so that could spend the rest of their lives together. But then I remembered that she decided to stay here. I remembered how well she already settled in and I didn’t think that my father would allow me to go with Amna, as taking an old and fragile cat with me on my journey defeated the entire point on why I was forced to take someone with me in the first place.
In the morning I asked Tamati. She was a young cat from our group with a single-coloured brown fur and was only a couple of months older than me. She immediately agreed on taking on this adventure with me. My father wasn’t enthusiastic about two cats that were still so little leaving together, but in the end he couldn’t really argue against me, as he had promised me the day before that I could go if I found a companion.
It was decided. My father, mother and the rest of the group would start travelling west following the river inland and through Paradise Valley all the way to the Plains Colony. All the while Tamati and I would start walking south-west along the edge of the Deadwood Marshes and then cross the mountains onto the Sunset Plains where we would start walking north-west until we reached Amna’s old home. From there on, we would start making our way through the mountains until we reach Lake Eden and could then follow the river upstream and take the same route the others took.
As there were only the two of us we would be able to travel faster than the others and so we would catch up with them at the Plains Colony at latest, maybe even before that.
With this plan, Tamati and I began our journey. On the same day we reached the marshes and started following its edge to the mountains in the distance. We had been lucky that it didn’t rain during our stay at the River Colony. Now however this was getting back at us. The marshes are harder to traverse after a lot of rain, but we didn’t want to get through them, just around. But when they start to dry they start to smell, badly. The wind wasn’t on our side either and instead carried the smell from all over the marches to us. With the mountains to our right, the smell had nowhere to go than into our noses and mouths. Eating was a misery. It made me rethink my want for an adventure pretty quickly but now I couldn’t go back. I wanted to show everyone that I was capable of taking care of myself. I wanted to prove myself and the stinky marches wouldn’t stop me from that.
Apart from the unbreathable air however our walk went smoothly. There was enough and easy to catch prey as it wasn’t used to getting chased. Nothing of intelligence lived here.
As easy as the way along the edge between the marshes on our left and the mountains on our right was, as difficult was traversing the mountain chain that was now between us and the Sunset Plains. The pathd were steep, the ground was sharp-edged and often enough we reached dead ends and had to walk back to take other routes.
We didn’t manage to overcome the mountains in one day and that night we slept on hard rock in a small cave. There was nothing to build a roost from and stone stole our body heat. As we were already high up in the mountain the night got freezing very quick and it was more than just unpleasant sleeping on the cold, hard rocks even though we warmed each other.
In return for our suffering, however, we were able to observe a beautiful sunrise. The sun arose between two mountain peaks and the snow covering them shone as if they were covered in diamonds. We watched in awe until the magic of the moment disappeared with the higher rising sun and it simply got too cold to continue just standing around.
On this day we reached the Sunset Plains. I don’t know how to describe it any better than an ocean of grass. As far as one could see, the plane continued until it touched the horizon. Even in the distance, there was no mountain to be seen. In gentle hills the grasslands stretched out below us while we started walking north-west along the mountains to our right constantly observing them in order to not miss the tribe of Amna’s sister.
It took us two days of walking to reach them but already on our first evening we could see with our own eyes why they were called the Sunset Plains and why Amna enthused about them as much as she did. There was nothing up to the horizon that could block our view and we could see the complete beauty of the sun. First it got orange and then red and then it quickly approached the horizon. Finally when the last glim of the sun disappeared and didn’t blind us any more we noticed a beautiful pink sky and the few clouds looked as if they were burning.
Then we found them. On a mountainside facing the plains, they had built their dens into the ground. There were maybe a dozen caves and double the number of cats.
The tribe didn’t welcome us as warmly as the colonies did at first. They weren’t used to visitors disrupting their otherwise very private life. Even though their home could easily be spotted from the distance, almost no cat ever travelled here to the end of the world. I don’t know about anyone who ever tried to cross the plains and returned and so we could only guess what was beyond. However, for the same reason, no one stranger ever came from the south and to the north, a nearly impenetrable mountain chain ensured that almost never any cats came here. When we told them about Amna however they quickly brought us to Sybille.
She was indeed still alive but she seemed even more fragile than Amna herself. I delivered her Amna’s regards and after I told her everything she wanted to know about how Amna’s life had been after she left the tribe (or at least everything I know) I asked her about the legend.
“Yes”, she said. “I know about it. But it is better if I show you.” With that, she slowly arose and walked out of her little cave. “You will have to help me. It’s been a long time since I last managed to reach the Cave of the Prophecies myself without any help.” And so we supported Sybille on our way up a small little path winding up the mountain. There was a small entrance to a cave that opened up inside to long wide tunnel. The ceiling and the ground were covered in what looked like dimly shining crystals. They produced just enough light to see the strange symbols and drawings on the walls. I couldn’t read them or understand the meaning of the drawings but Sybille seemed to be able to do just that as she was whispering while her head panned left and right as if she was on the search for something paticular as we slowly walked deeper into the mountain.
Finally, she stopped and said: “Here it is. The prophecy about the cure:
Fire, Ice, and Shadow unite,searching the cure through darkness and light;
across the water
saving each other,
apart they rise
together they fall,
finding surprise
at the end of all.“
“But ... what does it mean. How is this supposed to help me? This creates more questions than answers.”
“I know”, replied Sybille. “Prophecies aren’t meant to answer questions. They may give you a hint of what may happen, but in return you have to pay a cruel price. You have to realise that you cannot know the future.”
“What is this place?”, Tamati asked then.
“This place is older than any living cat. It has already existed before the first trials started before even the wasteland came into existence. Nobody knows exactly how old this cave is, who build it in the first place or who created the prophecies. We, this tribe, are the ’Guards of the Future’s Past’. We make sure that this place prevails trough time.”
“But what does it mean ’searching the cure through darkness and light’. This is more than unhelpful”, I said.
“I can’t tell you because I don’t know myself. You are fortunate enough that I can even read this text. Not many can, but Amna and I were taught as little children the meaning of a few of the signs and from there on we derived many more through studies that took years of our time.”
“Thank you”, Tamati said and with that, we left the Cave of the Prophecies behind and started our descent. We stayed for the night, watched one last beautiful sunset and then started our way through the mountains to Lake Eden where we would be able to follow the river and eventually catch up with the rest of the group. The tribe cats had described to us a path through the mountains that was impossible to find if you didn’t know it existed.
Chapter seven: The Valley
While Tamati and I had chatted for hours on end or played games during our way to the Sunset Plains, we now walked mostly in silence. We both thought about the prophecy and what it could mean. Nothing seemed to make sense. Three elements are said to unite and why would you ‘rise apart’ but ‘fall together’? Wasn’t teamwork always better than working alone? These were just some of the questions I and Tamati asked ourselves. In the end, we weren’t any wiser from our trip when we reached the lake than we were when we started our journey.
The lake was filled by a countless number of small streams that were coming from the mountains around it but right now the lake was small as the early summer already melted most of the snow from the mountain tops and it hadn’t rained for a long time now.
We followed the stream that normally emptied the lake but now was little more than a trickle of water. This stream then ended up in the same river that also runs through the River Colony further downstream and eventually reaches the ocean. We, however, turned left and wandered upriver through the narrow mountains in the hoped to catch up with rest as soon as possible.
I didn’t know what I expected Paradise Valley to be like, but it was beautiful. While before the mountains were close to one another and there was just a small path next to the river, the valley opened up widely. The river itself was winding itself through the valley. It was also a lot wider and calmer than before. The ground around it was out of large sandstone plates and many broad-leafed trees created shady gardens with red and blue flowers.
We wandered in awe through the valley when Tamati spotted another cat. We approached him. He was one of the legendaries. He told us about their plan. A new set of trials. A new way to become legendary. He told us to stay here if we wanted to participate and to spread to word if we didn’t.
I was intrigued. My thoughts about the prophecy had given me the idea that probably a group of legendaries was meant. The first line spoke of Fire, Ice, and Shadow. These were three of the elements that the legendaries could control so it only made sense if it meant them. I was a bit sad when I realized this. I had hoped that I could be the one. That there was a prophecy about me and that could find the cure for ageing. Back then it didn’t occur to me that it could also mean the cure for the red plague at all.
Tamati, however, wasn’t delighted by my plan. “The last time”, she said, “many cats died in the trials. Hundreds of them died and only a few truly became legendary.”
“But you know the stories. Amna told us about them. Helena and Oordeel killed all these cats. They are gone now. These are the trials of the legendaries. They wouldn’t kill anyone.”
I knew that I had to participate otherwise there was no way that I could be part of the prophecy. No way that I could become legendary. I couldn’t convince Tamati, so we went on to catch up with the rest of our group. She was going to tell my parents about my intention to participate in the new trials. I knew if I went myself, that he wouldn’t let me go again. And so I stayed in the valley. Waiting for the return of the legendaries and the coming of other participants.
To be continued with the start of Paradise Rising.