"Oh, /she/ isn't very nice..." Nectpaw stood, surrounded by nothing but perpetual darkness. "I heard /she/ tried to attack a Mossclan cat at the border!" Her eyes flickered to the side, trying to locate the whispers. What was going on? "Oh, don't talk to /her/, she's just going to tell you to go away." Were they talking about her? No, they couldn't! She had never done anything, she didn't deserve to be tortured by what other cats thought of her! "/She/ would be willing to murder each and every one of us to get what /she/ wants!" That wasn't true! Or... Was it? No. It wasn't. These cats weren't real. If she couldn't see them, it was nothing she had to worry about. It was just a- "Nectar!" She turned around, finally seeing a cat. And they were calling her by her name! She got closer, trying to figure out who it was... they seemed familiar... "Lullabypaw!" She cried out the name, and dashed towards her, burying her head into her sister's long, soft fur. "I've missed you so much." she muttered, "You have to help me! All these cats think I'm horrible!" "Oh, Nectarpaw... Don't worry. You are." Nectar took a step back. Her sister... what? She... she believed this? Was she so horrible that even her kind, loving sister had turned against her? She looked up into her eyes, vision blurry. That wasn't Lullabypaw. That was a soulless recreation of Lullabypaw. Her eyes were empty, lost their usual warmth. She took a step back, and another, and another, until it turned into a sprint. She kept on going, not turning back to see the bodyless voices and the soulless shell of her sister. The tears were flowing properly now, and she was struggling to make out the shapes of her own paws. "You cannot run from us..." Nectarpaw bit her tongue to hold back a scream as she found herself in the apprentices' den. It was nothing but one of the nightmares that had been following her this moon. She was safe. She closed her eyes again, trying to go back to sleep, but the whispers wouldn't leave her head. She had to get away from the dream, as far away as possible. She got to her paws, and padded quietly out of the den. It started as a sort of amble, but slowly sped up until she was sprinting across the territory, and collapsed down in front of the river. She panted, throat heaving, legs aching. Those... Creatures weren't real. They couldn't hurt her. She kept on sobbing, trying to force the tears back down. What if someone saw her like this? An hour passed, and Nectarpaw was still not in any better shape. She had to do something, so the voices weren't talking about /her/ anymore. Her. Her. Her. What if... She didn't have to be /her/ anymore? She could be... Him. Them. But that didn't sound right. /He/ wasn't a /them/. Nectarpaw stood, pronounless, for a few seconds. What were the other options? She cast her mind back, going through every cat she knew. /They/ knew what they wanted, but the pronounless cat didn't. Perhaps the stronger cats had gone through this too. Like Pigeonstar. No, vey weren't around anymore. Wait. Vey. Something different! Something even Nectarpaw could do. Something... New. They. They was the pronoun that was furthest away from /her/ that Nectarpaw still could be. Pigeonstar changed the first letter. ... /Zey/ could do that too. Zey got up, and blinked away zeir tears. Zey felt... different. Awakened. Like the chains that had locked zem up for all of zeir apprenticeship had finally broken. Zey, for the first time this moon, smiled. Zey were finally free. [ERP]
