an accidental guest... [p]

[squidz]

| BERRYSHINE |

small & nimble dark brown she-cat with darker flecks and light, leafy-green eyes | the collector | dreamwalker

[ riverclan medicine cat | she-cat | 12 moons | timid, kind, hardworking ]

—

Okay, so this whole dream thing was... sort of new to Berryshine. She'd been pulled into a few dreams now by Fawnlight, traversing the lands of StarClan as her actual body lay asleep. But having recently discovered the ability to consciously walk and think in dreams herself, meandering through the berry-bushed meadows of her mind, she was finally gathering the courage to try it out on someone else. Maybe on Cobwebfern first? At least if she accidentally startled someone, it'd be her best friend, instead of some warrior she didn't know as well. After all, if dreams let just about anything happen, she could at least try it, right?

As Berryshine dwelled on this, padding through the soft grasses mindlessly, she didn't even notice how her own dreamscape was becoming a bit... darker. Her consistent anxiety and unresolved issues of the past hung like clouds, shadowing much of the clear skies and green grasses she tried to upkeep. Clouding her, clouding her judgement... and now, clouding her ability to properly pull off something she didn't even know how to do in the first place.

Shaking her head, Berry willed herself to concentrate. C'mon... just try it! She squeezed her eyes shut, willing the image of Cob in her head, as if trying to manifest the cat in front of her. But it wasn't working... dangit. Frustration bubbled in her chest, as well as the insecurity that came with feeling incompetent. Why was everything getting darker now...?

Without even realizing it, the small brown she-cat had marched her way deeper into the shadier parts of her own head, to where the green grasses and soft sunlight faded into a darker, choking landscape that was being filled with gray clouds that shrouded her mind. All the while, she was still doing her hardest to summon somebody — anybody...? — now into her head. Stars, just something to show that she could pull this off; she tried to pull from her racing thoughts, too fast to really comprehend what she was thinking—

And that's when she felt a strange jolt, as if a transfer of energy had left her and done... something. Huh. Did it work?

The medicine cat didn't have a chance to figure it out. At once it was like everything around her darkened, swirling around and shrouding everything in a blanket of thick fog. She froze, eyes widening and darting around, a vain attempt to try and see anything. And stars... was it cold? She felt herself shivering, a great contrast to the warmth of the meadows she'd often traversed in her own dreamscape. There was a strange, chilling sensation that made her realize... maybe she wasn't in her own head anymore. Or, if she was, something had completely altered the state. Was that possible? That someone else's dream could overpower her own?

Fish-dung... never should've messed with stuff I don't know anything about.

But panic was rising in her chest, realizing she couldn't see anything, even as she kept walking and trying to find a clearer view. Nothing... nothing cleared, none of the fog thinned. And now she was getting the eerie sense that maybe she wasn't alone right now.

Breathing growing more rapid, Berryshine reached the point where she finally raised her voice, shaky and uncertain in the strange environment, unable to stand the idea of being silently watched any longer.

"U-Uh... hello?"

[ @alec - this post is a mess lmao lmk if i messed any details up and i'll fix it >:3 ]