A rugged she-cat with wings and gray, flaming eyes stepped out from behind a bush. "Well, well," she said, her voice dry as bark, "gotten yourself lost?"
"Uh... yeah. You have wings!" Willowpaw stared.
"Nice to meet you, too." The odd cat muttered. "Name's Moonstruck, and if you're smart, you won't ask any question, you'll follow instead.
Willowpaw gathered her prey, and padded after the red-pelt cat.
"Um... Sorry," Willowpaw's ears felt as though they were on fire; this time, she really was embarrassed. She chewed carefully, staring at the vole.
Moonstruck plodded on through the undergrowth, stopping suddenly and waiting.
"What're we waiting for?" Willowpaw mumbled.
"Your friend is running right towards us. Seems like he's panicking." She flicked her tail. "He'll be in a bit of shock when he bumps into me."
"How do you know that?" Willowpaw looked at her, "I can't hear a- oh, wait, no questions. Got it." She shut her mouth.
Willowpaw looked at him, "Y-you are?" She couldn't keep her tail from quivering slightly. It was as if it had a mind of its own.
If any cat could blush, she would have turned red. "Thank you. I've never felt this way about anyone before..." Willowpaw looked at her paws, sitting up.
Clamping a paw on top of his tail, the red cat meowed dryly, "Now, now, that's no way to greet the one cat who can get you out of this mess. Now, calm down, or you will get yourself even more lost." Her wings flapped once, then settled on her sides. Her gray eyes scrutinized him, the flames around them flickering.
Willowpaw poked her head out from behind her, "Aspenpaw! Dovepaw! Hey! Meet Moonstruck! She's gonna get us out of this mess!"
She leaned forward and touched his ear with her nose.
"Oh boy, we have a genius among us!" The cat muttered sarcastically. "We are going back to get your prey, then we go back to camp. Got it?"
Willowpaw skipped around her friends, "She knew you were coming when you were tree-lengths away! She's really awesome!"
"I couldn't hear you! But she did!" Willowpaw looked at Moonstruck, who was looking at her with a look of suspicion and, very faint, happiness.
Moonstruck shook herself. "Come on," she plodded along a ways, "your prey is this way."
"I know about the prey because I just do, you wouldn't understand. I'm here because I was supposed to be here, I'm Moonstruck, I have wings because it helps with my job, my eyes are on fire because of something that happened when I was young and stupid." She plodded on, her eyes blank, her head down. "Anything else?"
Willowpaw trotted along, listening intently, her mouth full of prey.
(XD Okay, bye!)
Noticing that he looked as though he wished he hadn't said anything, Moonstruck sighed, "Look, kid, it's not your fault. Sometimes, though, I get a little tired of having my life. I've got a job to do, I need to do it, and if I don't do it, things get all outta whack."
Willowpaw wished she could ask her what her job was, but her mouth was nearly as full as Aspenpaw's.
Moonstruck paused. "There's a bush over there. It's got bracken growing underneath it. I'll get moss, you guys arrange nests for yourselves." She disappeared into the undergrowth, "AND DON'T GET YOURSELVES LOST AGAIN!" was the last thing she yelled over her shoulder.
The next morning, Willowpaw woke with an odd sensation. This place was LIKE the apprentices den, but without the constant murmur of clan life around her...
The memories of the day before came back with a whoosh. The night was a blur of dividing up the bracken, and Moonstruck bringing back enough moss of satisfy all the elders. She didn't remember Moonstruck sleeping at all.
Moonstruck sat outside the bush, watching the sun slowly peek through the trees. Not noticing that the apprentices were awakening, she whispered,
"I've forgotten how beautiful light can be... season after season of living in darkness has blurred my memory..."
Moonstruck spun around, her eyes wide, as though afraid they had heard what she had said. She took a deep breath, and turned back around, facing the rising sun again. "Soon. Eat, then we'll be off again. You have to trust me." She glanced at them, "You have no choice."
Willowpaw glanced at Dovepaw, then shrugged, grabbing a mouse from her heap of prey.
Willowpaw looked up from the remains of her mouse, "Aren't you gonna eat, Moonstruck? There's plenty."
Moonstruck glanced at the prey, then back at the trees, "I don't eat."
"It's not part of my job." She answered, her tone giving nothing away.
What a job! Willowpaw thought, cocking her head at Moonstruck.
Flicking her tail, Moonstruck stood up, "Well, fine. We'll be moving." She plodded away at a slow, steady pace.
Willowpaw grabbed all her prey and trotted after her.
Moonstruck veered to the left, then stopped. "We're here."
Willowpaw looked around. "This isn't camp."
"It's your path. Follow it away from the rising sun, and you'll find the entrance of the camp." Moonstruck turned, heading in the other direction.
And, just as mysteriously as she had appeared, Moonstruck was gone.
"I wonder where she's going." Willowpaw mumbled around her prey.
Willowpaw waved her tail. "It's not out fault the forest is so big!" She then trotted out along the way Moonstruck had pointed out.
...
Meanwhile, a little ways away, Moonstruck watched the group set off again, hiding behind a bush. She sighed, then turned away. She closed her eyes for a moment, and when she opened them again, she was in the void. "The Void" was the thin area between the world of the living and the world of the dead. It was never ending, stretching away in all directions, endless blackness. A large, perfectly round stone floated nearby, and it moved closer to her. "Hello again. Come here often?" She meowed sarcastically to the stone. She then said to it the things she had said many times,
"I was banished here by StarClan because I have to control the strings of fate. I have to make sure cats that get lost find their way, and trees that squash cats fall. My job is not an easy one, especially when everyone thinks that the world would be better if I didn't do it." She turned to the stone, tears in her eyes, "To everyone out there, I'm a monster."
Willowpaw shrugged, "I dunno. Maybe StarClan sent someone to help us!" The thought made her feel special.
