Russet Mask

Part Eight

Nickysha opened her eyes into a vast world of silence and stillness. She body felt light and painless. Getting to her paws, she looked around in confusion. Where was she? Was she not hurt?

"Welcome," A voice resonated in Nickysha's ears. Spinning about, she struggled to find where is came from.

"Who are you," she called, "Why am I here?"

Then she spotted the misty figures at the edge of her vision. Whipping towards them, Nickysha watched as they formed into the shape of three cats.

Nickysha squinted as they padded closer. She gasped when she recognized them.

The oldest was a she-cat, her pelt laced with stars, was a lightly spotted brown. The small shape beside her resembled a kit with dark wood chip speckled fur.

The last she-cat, around Nickysha's age, was coffee brown with darker carob spots. She had a tan belly and a face with khaki brown stripes.

Nickysha felt a pit well up into her stomach. She recognized these cats. Two from her faintest memory.

She couldn't believe her eyes. Here, in front of her, was the spirit of her mother, brother, and Nymphaea.

Taking a step forward, Nickysha opened her mouth to say something, anything, but not before the reply came.

"Shhh," the soft voice as one only Nickysha heard in her dreams. Her mother took a pace forward, "Nickysha if you acknowledge that your here anymore, you will never be able to go back,"

But where am I, why.... why am I here?

The cat in front of her seemed to read her thoughts.

"Haven't you guessed," Nymphaea blinked pure white eyes at Nickysha, "You have passed on into the spirit realm.

Nickysha took a step back.

The spirit realm! Why are you here? I'm not going to be alone am I?

Next Nickysha brother stepped forward, the unnamed kit that she had spent her early days with, "Nymphaea joined us recently, after her pelt was taken for human pleasure,"

"Yes," Nickysha's mother hushed her kit, "but we aren't going to dwell on that,"

Her gaze settled on Nickysha, "You must go if you want to survive, this is all we will be able to tell you,"

But... But

Nickysha tried to call out as the spirits of her family faded. Their last whispers ringing in her ears.

"Go, find the one who beats in your heart," her mother pleaded.

"Thank you for giving the peace in my last moments," Nickysha's brother whispered.

"You had a full life to live, you will always have a family with you, dead and alive,"

Nickysha felt her eyes shimmering shut, the sparking world of the spirits fading from her mind as her own spirit settled back into the mortal world.