burning daylight

~~~

IT TOOK VIOLETPAW a few heartbeats to regain her bearings when she woke up. The first thing that popped into her mind was the voice on the beach.

She couldn't place her paw on it, but she had a feeling she'd heard it before. It belonged to a she-cat. Could that be the "she" that Ashbird had referred to?

And this cat, she was addressing Violetdust. Why would she be addressing Violetdust, and why would Violetpaw hear it?

The white she-cat groaned. Too many questions, and not enough answers. Instead, she turned her mind towards her body, slowly flexing a paw at a time to make sure everything is physically okay.

She was in the medicine den, a moss ball soaked with water laying besides her. The early dawn light was sneaking into the den through the entrance, beginning to light up the cave. In the corner, she could see Featherpool's silver pelt, curled up in her own nest. 

As Violetpaw leaned over to lap gratefully at the water, a shadow was suddenly cast into the den, announcing the arrival of a cat. The apprentice's head jerked over to the entrance, before her eyebrows raised in surprise; Ravendust.

Ravendust froze when he saw her awake, as though he'd been caught doing something he wasn't supposed to. In fact, it was Violetpaw who broke the silence.

"Ravendust," she mewed. "What are you doing here?" She couldn't help but tease, falling into the same banter they've always had. "Surely you're not here to visit me?"

At this, as though finally regaining his senses, he scoffed. "No. Of course not. You're out of your mind."

"Really." Violetpaw flicked her tail. "Then what are you doing here? And so early? You couldn't have gotten hurt so badly between last night and now that you couldn't wait until Featherpool was awake to get checked out, and unless you suddenly decided you'd like to pick up some apprentice jobs again, I can't imagine why you'd be in here for mouse bile."

Ravendust twitched his ears indignantly. "I'm here for water."

The water in the medicine was for sick patients and kits only. Every cat knew that.

Perhaps she was still drowsy from sleep, but for whatever reason, Violetpaw's mouth curled into a coy smile. "I think you're here to visit me."

"No," Ravendust snapped, "of course I'm not. Are you out of your mind?" And as if to prove that point, he stalked across the den to the small drip of water and began to lap.

"Careful, Ravendust," Violetpaw mewed, albeit amused, as she watched him, "visiting someone is only something cats would do if they're friends."

The black tom straightened. "We're not friends."

His voice woke Featherpool. The medicine cat roused, frowning a little in confusion as she took in the scene in front of her. "Ravendust. What are you doing here? And up, so early? I didn't know you were on the dawn patrol this morning."

He cleared his throat. "I'm not. I, er-"

"He's here for water," Violetpaw supplied, ignoring the glare Ravendust shot her way. 

Featherpool blinked dryly at Ravendust. "That water is typically for sick patients and kits only. There's a stream right by the camp if you're thirsty."

Ravendust twitched his pelt awkwardly. "Right. Of course. I knew that."

The silver she-cat shook her head, though it was clear she was more amused than annoyed. "Bye, Ravendust."

As the black tom took his leave, Featherpool pushed to her paws, turning her attention to Violetpaw now. 

"So, how are you feeling?"

"Oh, fine. Good." Violetpaw stared at her paws, feeling well embarrassed. "Have you ever had a patient who passed out from absolutely nothing before?"

"Well, I wouldn't say that your unconsciousness was caused by absolutely nothing," Featherpool mused. "You know, when Stormbird found you, he said that you were screaming Violetdust's name."

Violetpaw jerked back a little, surprised. "What?"

"As far as I'm aware, connection with StarClan was cut off the night Violetdust died." Featherpool crouched until she was eye-level with the apprentice. "Is there anything you would like to tell me, Violetpaw?"

The white she-cat's mouth felt dry. Should she tell Featherpool what she'd heard? But she didn't even know what it was; what if the medicine cat thought she was crazy?

"No," she answered at last, slowly.

Featherpool sighed. There was a clear tone of disappointment. "Very well. There's nothing physically wrong with you, so you may leave and continue with your training as early as right now if everything feels okay."

"Everything feels okay," Violetpaw mewed. 

"Off you go, then," Featherpool replied, gesturing to the medicine den's entrance with her tail.

A little shakily, the white she-cat pushed herself to her paws, and padded outside. 

Indeed, the sun was only beginning to rise. The camp seemed to be asleep. The dawn patrol had just left, Sunbounce wouldn't be up for hours, and Violetpaw felt jazzed, wide awake and full of energy. She wanted to visit the beach.

She knew she shouldn't, but there was something that called her to it. She'd been called Violetdust one too many times by the spirits for it to be a coincidence, and she wanted answers. The beach was where Violetdust died. The beach would have the answers.

When she reached the shore, however, she noticed that it wasn't empty like she expected. A black tom was sitting on the sand, watching the water lap over the land, and Violetpaw quickly recognized him as Stormbird. She suddenly remembered that Featherpool told her it was also Stormbird who found her; he seems to visit the beach a lot, then.

Violetpaw didn't know Stormbird well. He was Sweetpaw's mentor, Sunbounce had accused him many times of being Violetdust's murderer, but other than that, the white she-cat knew little of him. Shockingly, though, the sight of a warrior she wasn't close with didn't deter her from her mission. Rather, she padded right on over, as though her paws were leading her.

Stormbird glanced over at the sound of paws crunching against sand, and his face lifted in surprise. "What are you doing here? Shouldn't you be in the medicine den?"

Violetpaw shrugged in response, stopping a little bit away from him. "I woke up this morning, and Featherpool let me go." She paused, then continued. "She said you were the one who found me."

"Oh, yeah." Stormbird puffed out a breath then turned to look at the lake. "Yeah, I like to come here when I have free time. It, er..." He trails off. "It brings back memories."

Violetpaw thought back to her experiences with this lake, the most prominent of course being her and Ravendust running into the water to escape the SkyClan cats. She remembered how sure she was that the water wouldn't hurt them, that despite most cats' fear for swimming, that they would be fine.

Suddenly, the memory came back to her, as though something was unlocked.

Her and Stormbird playing in the lake. Well, it wasn't Violetpaw. A ginger-and-white she-cat splashing around in the waters with Stormbird. Violetdust. 

"You and Violetdust..." Violetpaw spoke slowly. "You two used to come here a lot, didn't you?"

Stormbird's head snapped towards her in shock. "How..." His green eyes were as wide as saucers. "How did you know that?"

Then, more and more memories started flooding back, racing in front of Violetpaw's eyes like a montage.

Becoming an apprentice then warrior with Sunbounce, scanning the crowd for her parents only to see Blossomsky and Russetfrost's dejected eyes.

Helping Swanfrost - Swanpaw at the time - come up with ways to approach Frostsky and then, when he became a warrior, talking with her long hours into the night about the gray tom.

Whispering, "We need to keep this a secret a little while longer," to Stormbird, and seeing the black tom's understanding eyes blinking back at her.

Honeykit's eyes, so full of life when they played around with the moss ball, slowly became clouded with sickness. When Violetkit visited her with her parents and Sunkit just days before her death, Honeykit had blinked her eyes open at them. Her eye color had finally developed to show one amber, one blue. 

Telling her friends she wanted to take a walk that night, then padding out of ThunderClan's camp after Stormbird.

The prophecy.

Violetpaw gasped as she took a step backwards, finally returning to the life she was in right now. Stormbird had stood up, and was now staring at her with concerned eyes. 

"Are you okay? How did you know about me and Violetdust?"

But Violetpaw couldn't give him her answer. She knew what it was, but she just didn't understand. How could that be?

I'm Violetdust.

~~~

yayyy she finally figured it out!! sorry this chapter might've been boring to you guys because there was nothing introduced that you didn't know already, but it was still important to have i think!

i really don't want her to have like a cinderpelt/cinderheart moment where cinderheart was like "i must be a medicine cat bc that's what cinderpelt was!!" that part wasn't super fun for me to read and i just don't want to write it, so i'm not going to do it haha

also!! please let me know if you guys think she would tell stormbird that she's violetdust or not. i'm pretty conflicted on that, i could go either way. like i feel like she could just blurt it out from shock but at the same time maybe she'll be strategic and keep it to herself? i don't know, let me know what you think!

as always, thank you for reading! and drink so much water i'm sick right now and i'm gulping water haha