Misty’s Path

WIP
Misty squirmed beside her restless siblings, all looking for a place to stop and suckle beside their mother’s belly. Misty pushed her way through her two brothers try find a place to rest at last. But, with their tiny claws, her brothers pushed her away. Misty fell back with a squeak before her mother swept her closer again with her soft gray tail. Misty mewled with delight as she settled down beside the brown lump of fur that was her brother.
Her brother pushed her aside again with a ferocious, high-pitched roar. Their mother shushed him and he fell silent again, but his barely-developed claws still sank into Misty’s delicate skin. Something stopped Misty from pushing back.
It was the will of a medicine cat.
~
CHAPTER ONE
Many moons had passed since Misty and her brother, Reed, had first entered the Earth. Now they were full-grown cats, and they had run away to a river with many willows cloaking it with their shadows. Fed were the willows that lay in a barricade of tall reeds and grass, and protected was the river by the strong thick roots of the willows.
Reed and Misty resided here, in a circle of willows just beyond the tall grass. The river kept these two cats fed with the fish that came every newleaf through leaf-fall, the voles that scuttled along the shores lined with smooth gray pebbles, and the pure water itself that would satisfy any thirst.
After running away, Reed and Misty had agreed to leave behind most of their past and family— including their poor brother Pebble, who had starved for his siblings— except for the stories that their mother told them.
She told of a great god and goddess, one evil and one good, one who ruled the willows and one who reigned the pines. She told of good spirits that inherited willow trees and protected the river so that their descendants could continue to drink pure water, and of bad spirits who inherited pine trees and littered the floor with their sticky sap and sharp needles.
”The great Willow Goddess, Rosepalm, rules the willows and judges a spirit when they die,” Reed and Misty’s mother had told them. “If the majority of their life has ended in good with few bad deeds, then they will inherit a home willow tree, their spirit allowing to jump between willows to visit friends and family or to watch over a living relative that is not near the home tree.”
”What if it was a bad spirit?” Misty had asked, ears pinned against her head.
Their mother leaned close, wrapping her tail protectively around her three kits. “As for the bad spirits, Rosepalm would punish them by sending them to the marshes to spend their eternity. And, though hopefully you’ll never have to visit one in your lifetimes and the only trees you’ll sleep under are willows, no cat likes being in a marsh. The place is half water— and not like a river or lake. The ground is mushy, and the water is dirty, and the needles of angry pine tree spirits litter the floor as if waiting for an innocent passerby to suffer by stepping upon them.”
It was in this point in the story that Misty had gazed around with wild, terrified eyes. “If you stay by the willows where you belong and where the good spirits can reach you,” their mother had reassured them, “then you’ll never be in danger of becoming a target for the terrible pine spirits. But if you venture into the greedy claws of the marsh, there is no promises that the good willow spirits will be able to see or defend you.”
”Defend us?” Reed would echo.
”Yes,” whispered their mother. “If you are beside a willow tree and the spirit that inhabits the tree is home, then they will appear beside you as a cat with great birds’ wings made of willow branches and a pale, ghostly outline, and they will defend you from danger or lead you to a fine place to rest.”
”How do you contact these spirits?” Pebble had asked.
”Mostly, the spirits come to you when they like, assuming they’re in their home tree,” their mother would say. “But, every full moon, the healers will gather around any body of water they can see, and the images of family, friends, or any other willow spirits who wish to speak to the cat will appear on the surface of the waters. If the cat is chosen for a special mission or to be highly addressed, then even Rosepalm Herself may appear.”
”Is it only the healers who can speak to the cats?” Misty asked. “What if non-healers want to speak to the willow spirits? And who are the healers anyway?”
”Every family should have a healer,” their mother had responded. “The healer knows how to heal other cats and use the herbs they find to heal their family. My mother taught me to heal, and I can pass it down on to one of you.” Her jade-colored eyes looked down particularly at Misty.
Misty gazed back joyfully, unaware that her mother was referring to her as the family’s next healer.
”And about your other questions,” Misty’s mother went on, “other cats can try to stare into water and see their ancestors, but it is only the family healer that can really see and speak to these willow tree spirits. If the spirits have a message for another member of the family, then they will tell the healer to pass it on to that member. The healer sees and interprets all the messages and warnings for the whole family.”
”Are healers chosen?” Pebble had asked.
”They are,” their mother responded. “The spirits will only appear to the cat that Rosepalm has chosen to be the family healer. Even if the cat knows nothing about herbs, then the spirits will teach them. Healers are chosen based on the potential level of wisdom and understanding of peace that the cat has.”
”What if no cat in the family has a potential to be very wise or understand peace?” Reed had asked.
”Then the family will fall prey to the evil pine spirits,” their mother said darkly. “You must all understand peace at least slightly and have a sense of when to fight and when to stay still, or else the spirits may not choose any of you.”
All three kits had looked horrified. “We’ll understand peace, Mama,” Misty promised on behalf of her brothers.
Now Misty was coming down to the water for a drink. She dipped her head to the river and lapped up the cool, refreshing water with rapid strokes of her long, once coarse tongue. Now her tongue was soft and hydrated as she pulled it back into her mouth.
But as she did so, she noticed ripples forming something in the water.
They formed the shape of a cat!
CHAPTER TWO