✰Valiantkit of ShadowClan ✰ he/him ✰ “I think it’s gonna be a long, long time till touchdown brings me ‘round again” ✰ 2 moons ✰ link to bio: https://scratch.mit.edu/projects/1285010186/ ✰ ✰ Once upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered, weak and weary, Over many a quaint and curious volume of forgotten lore— While I nodded, nearly napping, suddenly there came a tapping, As of some one gently rapping, rapping at my chamber door. “’Tis some visitor,” I muttered, “tapping at my chamber door— Only this and nothing more.” ✰ > Clouds covered the stars, transforming the sky into a foggy black canopy, a dark ceiling beyond even the dark ceiling of the cave. The camp was lightless, save for hints of moonlight slithering from the gaps in the walls. > Soft voices echoed around the room as ShadowClan's residents toiled, thriving under the heavy veil of that which they were named after. A cool earthy scent came from outside. > Valiantkit sat curled up in his den. He had awoken during the day, just as the shadows began to grow long but the sun still blazed. The sunlight disturbed Valiantkit's sleep, stinging his eyes and blocking out the gentle stars. How long had Cherubimsong been gone for? It felt like seasons, though the cold of leaf-bare had never lessened. > One sunset, Valiantkit had awoken to find Cherubimsong gone. He didn't think much of it, but they day after that he was gone as well, and the day after that… > Valiantkit had grown worried. He crouched behind rocks, listening to strange voices speak of his father's absence. Speculating his fate. Was he dead? Captured? Simply abandoned his Clan? The shadow-cats chuckled a bit, whispering little imgladhesgones and ineverlikedhymnanyways. Valiantkit's hackles had raised as he heard them, breathing soft and sob-like. > Last night, Weaslestar had made the announcement. Cherubimsong was Gone. Presumed dead. Surmised a traitor. Valiantkit stood alone then. > As the sun sank down along with Valiantkit's hopes of sleeping, the news finally got to him. It slithered into his pelt like the moonlight shining into the cave. It crawled behind his sun-stinging, sleepy-stinging eyes and made its home around his throat. He broke down, sobbing like the tiny two-moon-old he was. This was not the voice of a valiant warrior. This was the voice of a little kit, crying in the corner of a nursery while the other kits watched with narrow eyes. > His cheery-voice said Cherubimsong was still alive, adventuring with forest-rabbits and taking a trip through the other Clans. > His dreary-voice stepped in. And why had Cherubimsong left? Cheery-voice grew quiet, making up another of her happy lies. > Dreary-voice spoke over her. It was clear why Cherubimsong had left: Valiantkit was a failure. Look at him, tears streaming down his face, crawled into the farthest, smallest corner of the nursery? He was better than this. > Cheery-voice agreed. He /was/ better than this. She wiped Valiantkit's eyes with a paw. Stop crying. > Valiantkit listened. He took a deep, slow breath, continuing to wipe away his tears. There were better things to do. > The voices outside whispered to one-another, calling Valiantkit to action. Leading him. Though there were cats all around him, Valiantkit felt alone. Had he ever felt so alone? Who, then, were the voices whispering outside the nursery? He looked out the entrance of the den and into the heart of the camp. ✰ Deep into that darkness peering, long I stood there wondering, fearing, Doubting, dreaming dreams no mortal ever dared to dream before; But the silence was unbroken, and the stillness gave no token, And the only word there spoken was the whispered word, “Lenore?” This I whispered, and an echo murmured back the word, “Lenore!”— Merely this and nothing more. ✰ > Valiantkit's breath quieted to a quiet whisper. The voices stilled too, or at least they grew farther away. Valiantkit was alone. He padded slowly towards the entrance. Out of the nursery. Into the night. His hackles rose up as the cold air whispered around him. > Valiantkit stepped into the camp, voices hushashushing nothings towards him. The sounds never met his ears. Their eyes never met his. He dared to believe his paws never met the ground either. What was this world? A silly, shadowy place where kits had no parents and questions had no answers? > A dark feeling of terror crept up his legs. It felt like cold, dark water; the kind of stuff a winter sky was made of. It wrapped around him and dampened his fur. He felt frozen, yet he still walked forward. He felt eyes watching him. Who else was there? The stars? > Were the stars watching him? Were they judging? > Was Cherubimsong with them? > "Hello?" Valiantkit whispered into the night with his quiet kit-voice. No-one heard him. Not even the shadow-cats, who walked beside him and whispered nothing in his ear. > He swore he heard a voice call out to him. Maybe it was an echo. Maybe it was a dream.
✰ Back into the chamber turning, all my soul within me burning ✰ > Valiantkit's blood ran cold. The sky-water was drowning him, pulling him down into icy terror. He swung himself around, his heartbeat screaming like cricket-song. He crept silently into the nursery and to a gash in the wall, where he stared out into the cold, starless night. > Many evenings Valiantkit had woken here, alongside Cherubimsong. In fact, as far back as he could remember, his parent had been there. There was no time before Cherubimsong. But now there was time after. Had he seen Cherry for the last time? > Valiantkit's throat closed up. The sky-water must have been choking him. No. He wouldn't cry. He was better than that. What would Cherubimsong do, if they were still-- if they were here? He thought about this, remembering how Cherubimsong had chilled its sadness into an icy hostility. Valiantkit swallowed down the lump in his throat. ✰ Then, methought, the air grew denser, perfumed from an unseen censer Swung by Seraphim whose foot-falls tinkled on the tufted floor. “Wretch,” I cried, “thy God hath lent thee—by these angels he hath sent thee Respite—respite and nepenthe from thy memories of Lenore; Quaff, oh quaff this kind nepenthe and forget this lost Lenore!” ✰ > The watery sadness in Valiantkit's soul began to freeze over, spikes of frost clawing at his insides. He bent down, a growl forming in his throat. His hackles stood out like icicles, his claws dug into stone. But still, the anger grew... ✰Leave my loneliness unbroken!—quit the bust above my door! Take thy beak from out my heart, and take thy form from off my door!” ✰ > Valiantkit shot forward with a his, paws closing around something, anything. He clawed at the darkness, slashing with all his might, but still it surrounded him. He kept fighting the shadows until he was too tired to continue. At last, he gave up, surrendering to the night. It settled around him and drank out his life, until he sat numbly in the center of the nursery. ✰ And his eyes have all the seeming of a demon’s that is dreaming, And the lamp-light o’er him streaming throws his shadow on the floor; And my soul from out that shadow that lies floating on the floor Shall be lifted—nevermore! ✰ > the end ✰ text in stars is from Edgar Allan Poe's "The Raven" ✰
