Warriors: What A Nightmare

Chapter four-Nightpaw

"She's always so annoying, and today she just snapped and attacked me, unprovoked," Nightpaw lied, looking at his paws. He was a bad liar, and always started to heat up when he did. "I fought back, but she surprised me, and overpowered me."

"Sounds like she's got anger management problems," Jenga meowed thoughtfully. "I have a friend who lives in the stable with me, he's got some anger issues, but I know how to calm him down."

What's a stable? Nightpaw thought to himself.

"How?" he asked the Horseplace cat.

"I reassure him that he'll always have me as a friend, right by his side. A friend always helps," she told him. "Maybe you should try being friendlier to your Clan-mate."

"She'd claw my ears if I tried that," Nightpaw mewed. He knew Jenga was right, and that Flowerpaw never would've hated him if he was kind.

"Just talk to her," Jenga meowed kindly, he eyes full of sympathy.

"Jenga!" a voice called out. A stocky white long haired tom padded up to the two of them, eyeing Jenga sternly. "You should head inside now, the sun is going down."

Nightpaw looked up to the sky and saw that the white tom was right; the sun had started to sink and the sky was powdered with pink and purple.

"I need to go as well," Nightpaw told Jenga hurriedly, wondering if his Clan was worrying about him.

"Who's this?" the tom asked.

"This is Nightpaw," Jenga meowed, her eyes lighting up. "He's not a threat, I promise." She turned to look at Nightpaw. "This is my friend, Yeti," she told him.

Yeti looked at Nightpaw through squinted eyes, dipped his head, then turned and started padding back to Horseplace, flicking Jenga's flank in signal for her to follow.

"Bye, Nightpaw!" she called out to him as she trotted after Yeti.

"Bye!" he replied. He stood by the shore, alone. A warm glow melted his heart. Jenga was such a welcoming cat, and her fur looked so soft and smelled so sweet. She seemed around the same age as himself, and he wondered whether she'd ever want to see him again.

No, I need to get back to WindClan, he told himself, shaking the image of the brown spotted cat from his mind.

He raced across the moorland and up the slope and hurtled into camp just as the sun disappeared. There was still a hint of light, but most of it was gone, and the camp was mostly in darkness. He could see the glowing eyes of his Clan-mates, and quickly looked away when his amber eyes locked with Flowerpaw's soft yellow gaze. In the dim light, he could just make out Cherrypaw's and Pigeonpaw's shapes sitting in either side of golden-brown tabby.

As he padded deeper into camp, more eyes became fixed in him. He could feel their judgmental gazes burning into his pelt, and he hunched his shoulders and lowered his head. Tiredness gripped him, and sleep dragged at his paws. He ignored all of the Clan glaring at him and trudged over to his nest.

He curled up in his moss-lined nest, and let sleep pull him away from his Clan. He felt a paw brush his nose, and he flicked it away, fighting the urge to scream at Flowerpaw who was probably trying to get a reaction from him. The paw tapped his nose again. And again.

He got up to his paws in a flash, his fur bristling and teeth bared, but bundled backwards in shock as he saw the starry figure in front of him.

"StarClan?" he breathed. "Am I dead?"

"No," the cat told him. It was a tom with a light brown tabby pelt, and stars glistening in his pelt and green eyes. Nightpaw finally recognised the unmistakable scent on the StarClan tom's pelt; herbs. "I'm Nettlecoat," the tabby tom told him. "Maplefur told me to come talk to you when you reached the worst point between you and Flowerpaw."

"Of course she did! Maplefur meddles with everything!" Nightpaw exclaimed.

"Well it's my turn to meddle now," Nettlecoat chuckled, and stepped closer to Nightpaw so that their noses were nearly touching. The StarClan medicine cat reached up and placed his nose on Nightpaw's head, and suddenly heat pulsed through his body.

A tingle rushed up his spine, and his legs started to wobble. Pain gripped his head, then coursed through the rest of his body. He yowled as loud as he could, and fell to the ground. His tail quivered in pain, and suddenly a white light flashed around him.

"What's happening?!" he cried.

"What needs to happen," Nettlecoat replied.

The light swirled around Nightpaw for a few more moments, before it pooled into his eyes and blinded him completely. Darkness surrounded him, and he jolted awake.

The moon shone in the sky above Nightpaw, and he cringed as Flowerpaw's scent filled his nose. He placed his head back on his paws and tried to fall asleep again, still confused by his dream. Then realisation hit him like lightning. Flowerpaw slept as far away from him as she could, so how could he smell her? He lifted his head and shock pulsed through him as he tasted Flowerpaw's scent on his nest, and noticed her fur clinging to it as well.

He sat up in a jolt and stared down at his paws as the moon washed over the clearing. He fought back a scream when he saw that his paws, instead of being their usual black, were golden-brown. He sniffed at his fur, and Flowerpaw's scent filled his nose.

I'm Flowerpaw?! How?!

He looked across Cherrypaw and Pigeonpaw and saw himself sleeping in his own nest.

Is that Flowerpaw? Have we...no, we couldn't. Did we switch bodies?

He needed to find out, so he hopped out of his, well, Flowerpaw's nest, and padded over to himself. He could see that the other him was twitching and convulsing, then went still. He leaned down and grabbed his double's scruff, and roughly hauled him out of the camp and threw the imposter behind a bush. The other him composed himself and fear and shock pooled in their eyes.

"What is going on?!" Nightpaw asked, his voice sounding just like Flowerpaw's voice.