Nightmares

When Gecko was just a kit, she had been plagued by nightmares - most of which involved her family. Ranging anywhere from a fight with her mother to one of her littermates caught in a raging fire, they appeared nearly every night until she'd nearly caved into giving up sleep as much as she possibly could. Some were realistic, and would just happen to come true nights to moons later - not a surprise; disputing prey with her mother was normal. But the ones that never came true tended to be reoccurring, and very vivid down to the detail each time. It was unpleasant, to say the least.

Eventually, she'd taken to sleeping away from her family, off in the bushes - when she was old enough to stop fretting about foxes hiding in the bushes. And she found the more she slept away from her family... the less terrifying the nightmares became. She began venturing further and further away, sleeping around bends and up trees as the screams of her dreamland sisters faded and her sleep finally became peaceful. Eventually, the nightmares were gone completely.

Figuring it had just been a weird kittenhood phase, she'd moved her nest back next to her family - she'd only left in the first place so she'd stop kicking and shifting and waking them up in the night. But now that her dreams were over, they could all get a good night's sleep. She'd curled in with her sister, Beetle, and shut her eyes contentedly.

The screaming and harsh blazes were sharp and instant. A nightmare - a recurring one, and one of the worst ones. Fire everywhere, heat pulsing, a hiss of pain...

Gecko woke with a sharp gasp. The nightmares... they weren't gone after all.

She cast a weary glance over the sleeping lumps of her family. Perhaps... it was time for her to go.

And so she'd gone - the next night, after spending a little more time together. She'd intended to say goodbye, but each time she looked into her littermates' faces, she just... she just couldn't do it. In the end, she'd slipped into the night without a word.

And ever since, she'd very rarely had a nightmare. These days... the only nightmare Gecko has is the lingering fear she may have to face her family again someday. And if she does...

Her old nightmares just might come true.