Submission (#8863) Approved

Night had fallen a while ago, and all good little kittoms should have already long been home, curled up on a pillow and sleeping at good and appropriate kittom bedtimes. And as everyone knows, children who don’t take their proper rest will never grow any bigger! At least, that was what most of Dainsleif’s caretakers used to say, not that he really needed to grow that much more. And he probably was not a good, well-behaved kittom by any stretch of those words. He had in fact had, from early childhood, developed the tendency to escape out into the night under the noses of the adults to take to the twilight air. Really, he was too adventurous for his own good, and his unignorable curiosity always got the better of him.

The other kittoms in his co-litters loved to fib and tell tall tales. Sometimes they were based in truth, overheard from adults as they bantered and complained while dallying in what they thought were empty halls. Sometimes they were entirely nonsensical, born from the half-whimsy of innocence, and sometimes they were something in between. Usually the in-betweeners, Dainsleif had noticed, were the ones actually worth investigating. And many nights had he followed through, hoping to uncover some mystery of life that even the adults could not find.

And usually it was nothing. Fortunately, one could say, as the best outcome is usually for a kittom to remain at a safe distance from the strange and mysterious. But this newest happening, this rumor that queer lights were seen floating in the woods, was almost impossible for him to pass up. And so he found himself running down slopes and over streams, his imagination getting the better of him. Perhaps it’s ghosts! he thought to himself. That would be the most exciting outcome. He could go back afterwards to the other kittoms and tell them all about the ghost’s frightening appearance, and give them a good scare or two. Probably too excited by the prospect, he picked up the pace, mentally making notes of where to turn, and which trees to duck under. The chattering of his peers could be very difficult to understand, especially in the way of giving directions, but he knew this stretch of forest like the back of his wing. Navigating with expert ease, he quickly approached the supposed site of the phenomenon —

And whirled around in confusion at an empty meadow. “There’s nothing here?!” And it must have been the place, of that much he was sure. He paced around for a few moments, drawing circles with his body and falling deep in thought. He sat down, staring at the swirling night sky.

And then he saw it.

Well, 'saw'  was a way of putting it. But he felt it first. A strange undulation in the air, an echo of the breeze in the shape of something unseen in front of him, as if an object that once sat there had shed its warm skin and departed from the scene. He stared at the shadow that was left behind, trying to sense whatever secret hid within. After a time, his eyes adjusted, and then the sheen made itself visible.

It was a wave of light, appearing and disappearing in time with his heartbeat, or perhaps with the twinkling of the stars. It came out in strings, drifting here and there, falling apart all at once and then coalescing again into glowing streams. It was iridescent, like the surface of a bubble, but also dark, like the sheen of crow feathers. It came in violets and blues, and sometimes hints of a hue beyond, dark enough to match the night sky and frame it in its sinister glow. The light hung as if draped from a point a short ways above the ground, flowing downwards and upwards from it like a waterfall at a ledge of air. Walking tentatively towards it, Dainsleif found that the closer he got, the stronger the light seemed to appear, until his nose was on the verge of brushing against it. He lifted his paw to stir the air a bit, marveling at how the pieces of auroral light danced and twirled like feathers. Well, this was a new discovery! And after shuffling around the boundary for some time to ‘oo’ and ‘aa’ at its wonder, he came to the conclusion that it was not ghosts. Probably? Well, he was mostly sure.

He then remembered coming across some open books once while he was loitering at the library. He had read them with curiosity, but some of the words were too big and complicated to decipher. There was something about... a magical barrier? Or rather, a border? He tapped his chin with a claw. Yes, that, and... something about what could be found past it, something he vaguely remembered to be dangerous. And indeed, as he stared past the sheen overlong, looking far beyond the veil, a feeling of being ill-at-ease grew in his gut, first tingling the pit of his stomach, then traveling up along his spine to flutter confusedly in his ears.

Perhaps it was not a ghost, but something to be feared all the same. A strange energy began to envelope him, and he felt that the shadows in his periphery were strangely lengthening. A bit unsure of himself now, he backed up and nodded quickly. “Uh, that’s probably enough, I think..!” Spooked from whatever it was that he could not see, he quickly ran back the way he came.