The darkness that surrounds you cannot hurt you. It is the darkness in your heart that you should fear.

━─┉┈┈◈❖◈┈┈┉─━

When Maplepaw's eyelids fluttered open, she was unceremoniously greeted by the sun stabbing into her eyes. It shone with an almost intolerable splendour and Maplepaw scrunched up her muzzle and turned her head, seeing Speckledpatch weaving something and quietly singing to herself. It was a sweet, melodic sound, and from what Maplepaw could hear, it was a wordless tune. 

Speckledpatch stopped singing when she realised that Maplepaw was awake, turned to her and smiled slightly,

"Good. You're awake. We have many things to do today. Here, eat this." 

Maplepaw saw a minnow lying in front of her paws and gingerly took a delicate bite of it. 

"I promise you that there are no deathberries in the minnow," Speckledpatch meowed, not looking up from whatever she was doing. 

Maplepaw didn't complain and began devouring the minnow down, her manners completely lost in the wind. 

"What...what are you weaving?" Maplepaw asked, choking on the last bite of minnow as she forced it down her throat. 

"A flower crown," Speckledpatch answered. 

"What's that?" Maplepaw queried. 

"Basically a wreath of flowers which you can place on your head," Speckledpatch mewed back.

"Where are we?" Maplepaw asked, stretching slightly but was abruptly stopped by the screaming pain that pulsated from her back.

"My habitation. It's simple, I know, a mere dent in this meadow. But it's comfortable and I'm content. That's what matters the most," Speckledpatch answered, delicately snipping flowers off their stems. The flowers, Maplepaw saw, would dally in the faint breeze and then suddenly drop in the dead calm. They seemed to possess a life, in a certain way.

Maplepaw rolled her eyes and gave a yawn,

"What stories were you going to tell me today?"

Speckledpatch didn't speak until after she placed the wreath of flowers onto Maplepaw's head.

"Well, what do you think?"

Maplepaw looked at herself in a calm stream beside Speckledpatch's habitation. It took her everything to suppress a smile that was slowly creeping up her lips.

"I'll admit, it does look beautiful," Maplepaw purred, as she studied the ferns, flowers, leaves and buds that Speckledpatch had woven into the wreath.

Speckledpatch sat back and said,

"Now come here. I have many, many things to tell you, and I see something in you, young cat, that deserves this information."

Speckledpatch took a deep breath before she began,

"MistClan holds so many secrets, young Maplepaw, where shall I begin? Maybe let's start with your mother. Scorchflame, as you may have been told by Heatherstalk, was the most enigmatic and beautiful cat that ever existed in the four clans. I see that you take after her in your beauty-"

Maplepaw butted in,

"I'm not beautiful! They say I'm ugly and deformed!"

Speckledpatch chuckled for a long time before continuing,

"You have surface beauty, young one. Indeed you do. Any kit of Scorchflame must possess surface beauty. But everyone possesses a form of inner beauty too. Finding that is difficult, for not everyone can see it. As I was saying, Scorchflame was beautiful. I was her denmate, along with Heatherstalk and a few others. We were always in her shadow, overlooked and unattended to. It was the final straw for one of my littermates, Kestrelpaw, when Scorchflame was apprenticed to Echostar herself. That fateful night, she lured Scorchflame and one of Scorchflame's sisters, Pebblestream to the snake-rocks. It didn't end as how Kestrelpaw wanted it to go. Pebblestream was killed by the snakes instead and the Scorchflame said that she had to protect herself from a murderer and so Kestrelpaw. However, I do believe she intentionally pushed Kestrelpaw towards the snakes. Then, it was their warrior assessment. My brother, Tinycloud, was madly in love with Scorchflame, but Scorchflame despised him, so the only way she could get out of becoming mates with him was to make him fail his assessment. She intentionally drove away his prey when he was hunting and when he was paired up with her for sparring...she used her charisma and charm to make him fail. I left because I couldn't handle the pressure of being related to a cat, the only cat in the history of warriors, to fail their warrior assessment. Actually, allow me to rephrase that. The clan wouldn't tolerate me being amongst them, related to the cat that failed their warrior assessment. That and the fact I didn't wish to be penned up in MistClan forever."

Maplepaw listened, eyes widened and profoundly astounded by the sheer amounts of truth that was tumbling out of the brown tabby she-cat's mouth. She didn't know whether to believe it or not, but the tone of urgency behind it told her that it was worth believing.

"It's the ugly truth of your mother. And my sister. But young one, I think you deserve to know the truth of your past. Every cat does. It's a shame that not everyone is told about the past," Speckledpatch nervously looked at Maplepaw to see what she would say,

"Tinycloud was your brother?" was all the she could squeak out. She was speechless. Speckledpatch looked so different to the scrawny, permanently terrified tom.

Speckledpatch gave a curt nod before whispering, her voice faltering heavily,

"Tinycloud wasn't a bad warrior. Those around him forced him to be one. He wouldn't be accepted as anything else."

Maplepaw dropped the topic when she saw Speckledptach turn away, her eyes brimming with sorrow. It was uncomfortable for Maplepaw to see Speckledpatch disheartened. Despite her finding pleasure in seeing others in pain, Speckledpatch somehow prodded at her emotions. Her carefreeness did not deserve to feel such pain.

"Well then, uh, anything else?" Maplepaw stammered.

"Many more things, Maplepaw. Be patient though. Stories are such intricately woven things. One loose fibre can send the story off-track," Speckledpatch meowed.

[TIMESKIP]

Maplepaw... the voice whispered.

"What?" She mumbled sleepily. Speckledpatch had gone off to catch her some prey and wouldn't be back until close to sun-set.

"Who are you anyways?" Maplepaw snapped. She hated being constantly followed by this voice. It was extremely irksome to be spied on day-in, day-out.

If the voice did reply, Maplepaw didn't hear it. Her eyes had closed and she'd fallen into a deep sleep.

Maplepaw saw a dark, misty forest in front of her and was confused. 

Why am I in MistClan? Wait...this isn't MistClan, she panicked as she tried to find a way out.

Maplepaw ran to and fro, ignoring the blazing pain that snarled at her from her back. As she paused to catch her breath, an elegant calico slid out from between two trees and she mewed delicately, her amber eyes connecting with Maplepaw's,

"Hello, Maplepaw. I think it's time we finally met."

━─┉┈┈◈❖◈┈┈┉─━

Monsters are real. Ghosts are too. They live inside of us...and sometimes...they win.