SHADOW- Sleek black fur caught on brambles and thorns. Shadow was running. A huge thunderstorm was coming in only a few minutes. He could sense the rain about to pour down atop him. He needed to find shelter. One way there was a huge thunderpath though, and he could not cross it quickly enough. He only saw pines and thorns. “Perfect.” he growled to himself. “Just what I need. Caught in a thunderstorm in such… spiky territory.” He knew his only chance of finding shelter was fading. He only had a few moments before the sky opened up. Just as the rain started pouring down, he saw a grey stone in the distance. I wonder if I can hide under a rock like that. He thought to himself. His fur was wet, flat against his body. He was soaked. He ran towards the gray rock. The rock was only small, and not nearly enough to cover him, but there was a deep ravine next to it. He had no choice, as the rain was coming down too hard to see more than a tails-length ahead, so he leaped down into the ravine. It was smaller than it looked from above, but it was roomy enough for about five or so full grown cats. The rain was still dripping on his head, and he heard thunder crash as lightning lit up the sky, far above. He needed to find a ledge or something to cover himself. A stone was in the middle of the ravine, split clean in half. He stepped into it and the sounds of the storm vanished. He was very tired, he had spent all day on the move. He settled down to sleep. Shadow’s eyes snapped open, but he wasn’t in the dark stone crack anymore. The stone floor beneath his paws had turned into a swirling pool of liquid silver, reflecting a sky packed with thousands of blazing, cold stars. Five distinct paths of starlight spiraled out from the center of the pool, twisting and cracking like lightning. From the shadows of the stars, a chorus of whispering voices echoed all around him, loud as a roaring wind: "When the sweet scent sours and the shadow runs white, five paths shall twist in the dark of the night..." A blinding flash of white lightning struck the silver pool right at his feet. Shadow shrieked, jolting awake in the real world. He was back in the split stone of the ravine. The thunderstorm outside had cleared, and bright, mid-day sun was now streaming straight down into the ravine. Shadow was shivering, terrified, and furious at the weird dream. But as he stepped out of the stone crack to shake the sleep from his paws, he caught sight of his reflection in a rainwater puddle nearby. He froze, his heart slamming against his ribs. His beautiful, sleek black camouflage was completely gone. From his ears down to the tip of his tail, his fur had been bleached a blinding, ghostly snow-white, leaving only a few faint grey smudge marks on his forehead. Panic exploding in his chest, Shadow scrambled toward the puddle, frantically clawing and scrubbing his paws against his own chest, trying desperately to wash the white away with the muddy water. "No, no, no!" he growled under his breath, his amber eyes wide with fear. "Get off! Wash off!" Just then, the bushes at the top of the ravine rustled. A pair of bright, jewel-blue eyes peeked through the pine needles.
JEWELPAW- Jewelpaw wasn't supposed to be out here. In fact, her mentor had explicitly told her to stay near the camp clearing and practice her stalking technique on the soft pine needles. But practicing was boring, and more importantly, the elders had been talking about the strange scents drifting across the Thunderpath all morning. Jewelpaw’s curiosity had completely gotten the better of her. Besides, she had a much more urgent problem: she was starving, and the fresh-kill pile was currently stocked with nothing but thrushes and sparrows. Birds. She wrinkled her nose in disgust just thinking about the feathers. She would rather eat bitter herbs than swallow a single bite of a bird. So, she had slipped through the thorny camp barrier, darted silently past the border patrols, and made a run for the edge of the territory. She was hoping to find a plump, juicy mouse near the Thunderpath. Instead, as she crept through a thick patch of brambles near the Thunderpath, she heard a frantic, panicked splashing sound coming from the deep ravine across the Thunderpath. Curiosity flaring, Jewelpaw darted across the thunderpath the second there was a break in the Monsters. She expected to see a rogue trying to steal prey. She did not expect to see a cat having a total meltdown in a mud puddle. The white cat below was scrubbing at his own fur so hard he looked like he was trying to tear his skin off. He was growling, his amber eyes wide with a terrifying mix of fury and panic. But what made Jewelpaw freeze in absolute shock was the mud. As the mud splattered across the cat's snowy fur, it didn't look like a white cat getting dirty—it looked like a dark, shadowy cat was somehow trapped underneath a layer of ghost-white fur. Unable to help herself, Jewelpaw let out a sharp gasp. The bushes rustled loudly as she accidentally slipped on a loose pebble, tumbling forward out of the undergrowth. She scrambled to her feet at the bottom of the ravine, her fur fluffing up to twice its size out of pure awkwardness. She stared at the massive white rogue, her blue eyes wide. "Uh... hi?" Jewelpaw squeaked, her voice echoing loudly in the quiet hollow. "Are you... okay? You look like you're trying to scrape your own skin off. And... correct me if I'm wrong, but aren't rogues usually supposed to be good at hiding? You're kind of glowing like a StarClan warrior down here."
