Me: Hiya! My name is Tapix, AKA Jaywing. (I will use my warrior name later in the story, so you know…)
Pai: …Why am I here again?
Me: You have to do the disclaimer!!!
Pai: …AGAIN?!?! But I always do it…
Me: Yeah, that's because I luv ya! 3
Pai: …Sigh. Tapix/Jaywing does NOT own Tokyo Mew Mew, Warriors, or any of their characters and aspects. She does own –
Kish: -- her names, her story, her notebook in which she writes her stories, blah blah BLAH blah blah blah, and you. There.
Pai: She does NOT own me!!!!
Me: Awww you know that you want me to though, right? RIGHT?!?!
; )
MEW HOLLYLEAF
Chapter 1: Grief for Hollyleaf (No pun intended)
(I don't own the passage from Sunrise or Sunrise itself…)
"There was a patter of paws as she (Hollyleaf) turned and fled down the tunnel. Running forward, Jayfeather could hear the running of the river underground, pounding hungrily against the stone.
"'Hollyleaf, no!' he yowled. 'We can figure this out together –' A deafening rumble interrupted him; it went on and on. He pictured wet soil and rock raining down as the tunnel collapsed, crashing onto his sister, knocking her to the floor, crushing her, burying her…
"He darted forward. 'Hollyleaf!'
"Lionblaze charged into him, knocking him off his paws and pinning him down; Jayfeather writhed furiously underneath him. 'Let me up!' he screeched. 'We have to get her out!'
"'We can't help her,' Lionblaze growled. 'The tunnel has collapsed. There's no way we can follow her in.'
"Jayfeather lay still, panting, as the tumult of falling earth and stones died away. In the silence, Lionblaze stepped back and let him clamber to his paws. Hollyleaf had seen the tunnels as a way to escape her Clan and everything that had gone wrong. Except she hadn't escaped – not in the way she wanted.
"'It's over,' Lionblaze meowed, his voice shaking."
(~Page 314 of Warriors: Power of Three: Sunrise)
"No," Pepper cried. She just couldn't compute this… this… tragedy! "No!" she shrieked, more loudly this time. Tears of grief fell from her forest-green eyes and onto the page of her book, which happened to be Warriors: Power of Three: Sunrise (again, me no owny). Not even bothering to keep reading, Pepper slammed her book closed and bolted out of her room.
Racing down the stairs blindly, Pepper wailed, "Hollyleaf, no! You can't be dead!" Completely ignoring her parents' frantic yells of "Come back!", Pepper burst out of the front door of her house and ran down the street, tears blurring her sight.
Not even paying attention to where she was going, Pepper ran. She ran until she panted with exhaustion, and then ran some more. She ran, with the cold winter air burning her lungs and whipping into her eyes, making them water with pain as well as sorrow. She ran forever, or so it seemed, until her legs and arms burned, her head ached, and her tears had run dry. Still, she kept moving, until at last, aching all over and delirious with pain, fear, and misery, she could not run any more.
Finding a large space under a holly bush, Pepper collapsed and crawled into it. Seeping like a Clan cat, she thought, which reminder her of Hollyleaf. Heck, the whole bush reminder her of Hollyleaf. Hollyleaf had been her favorite cat out of all others in the Warriors books. They had been so alike: same forest-green eyes, same black hair… Just remembering this made Pepper start to sob again. "Damn it, Hollyleaf," she sobbed. "Why did you have to die?" And so, she cried herself to sleep.
Pepper's dreams were bright and confusing. First, she saw Hollyleaf running from Jayfeather and Lionblaze, then suddenly, she was Hollyleaf. Grief, fear, and anger soursed through her as her furry, black paws took her through a familiar forest that Pepper had never seen before.
Pepper/Hollyleaf ran until she had reached an abandoned fox den, which she stopped right outside of. Turning around, she spoke to Jayfeather and Lionblaze, but instead of saying the words from the book, Pepper/Hollyleaf hissed, "Don't try to follow me. StarClan has a job for me to do…" With that, she bolted down the fox hole and the dream changed.
Now, Pepper was soaring through the air (she was no longer Hollyleaf), not like a bird, but like someone was carrying her. She was in the arms of a dark man with purple-ish black hair black hair, pale skin, and a face covered in shadow. He looked down upon her (at least, his head was tilted in her direction), and a deep, smooth voice came from the shadows and spoke one word: Sleep. And that dream vanished, too.
Pepper suddenly saw a blinding flash of light in an all but dark dreamland. She found herself in a beautiful place, with trees in full leaf and bushes covered in blossoming flowers, ever though the outside world was a freezing land of deathly hell (also known as a "winter wonderland"). This is like StarClan, she thought. Then Pepper realized that she was naked, but it didn't bother her much, for without clothes, she felt that she fit into this place. It was more natural.
There was a rustling in the bushes. Pepper stared warily at the place that had moved. And from it emerged…
"H-Hollyleaf!" Pepper exclaimed, for so it was (or seemed). The little black cat approached her confidently, as if the had delt with humans all her life – or death.
"Mrroww," Hollyleaf mewed at Pepper. Padding closer, she meowed again.
"Come her, beloved," Pepper murmured lovingly. Holding her arms out as if to embrace Hollyleaf, Pepper crouched to the ground.
Green eyes shining, Hollyleaf (if it really was her) padded even closer. When she was about a fox-length from Pepper's outstretched arms, Hollyleaf bunched her hind muscles, as if to spring.
"Wh… What are you doing, Hollyleaf?" Pepper asked hesitantly, starting to stand warily, afraid of what Hollyleaf might do.
Suddenly, Hollyleaf lept at Pepper, front paws stretched forward, claws unsheathed. Before Pepper could react, the little black-furred cat hit her squarely in the chest, knocking her back into the grass. But instead of clawing her to shreds, Hollyleaf melted into Pepper, surrounding the surprised human in an orb of white light.
W-what? Pepper thought. She had never had a dream like this before. The orb disappeared, and Pepper found herself floating once again in the inescapable darkness. Her body was filled with a warm, fuzzy feeling. This is nice… she thought.
But her opinion change quickly. The warm feeling changed to a raging fire that seemed to eat away at her flesh. "Augh, help me!" she screamed, but the sound was lost to the shadows.
In addition to the burning, Peppers' body felt like it was going to be ripped in two. It was as if there were two horses pulling her in opposite directions (not a very pleasant thought). Shrieking in pain and fear, Pepper tried to hold herself together, with her right hand gripping her left shoulder and her left hand grabbing her right hip.
What Pepper did not realize was that her body was changing. It was shrinking, and black fur was starting to grow upon it. Pepper's already black hair started to shrink back into her skull until it was the length of the rapidly sprouting fu. Her ears elongated and grew upward, becoming the big, fluffy ears of a cat. From Pepper's lower back grew a long, back-furred tail, and her front and back feet became more angular, like those of a cat.
Just when Pepper thought that she was going to die from the pain, it ended as abruptly as it had come. The blackness pressed down upon her, but it was more comforting, more relaxing.
Out of nowhere a voice started calling to her. "Pepper… Wake up, Pepper…
Wake up…" The voice was the same one that had eminated from the dark man in her earlier dream. "Wake up… awaken…" The voice faded into the darkness, and slowly, Pepper aroused herself, free of her confusing dreams and the pain.
Or so she thought.
Me: Ahh, a cliffhanger! I just llooovve a good cliffie, right, Pai-kun? *Bats eyelashes*
Pai:…It brings a certain urge to read more, yes.
Me: Aww, lighten up once in a while!
Kish: *Is dying laughing*
Pai and Me: Aw, shut up, Kish…
; ) See ya soon!