Foam slips into a cave during a storm and receives nine lives from a mysterious, starry cat.
Notes: Part of the Cats of Foggy Coast series.
Foam followed the glittering trail of pawprints, his eyes shimmering all the same. When he finally arrived at the beach, he was panting, the long fur around his paws filled with wet sand. "Why have you brought me here?" Foam cried out to the ocean. All he heard in response was the loud, crashing waves of the ocean.
A large wave, larger than the rest, came barreling towards the shoreline. Foam bristled, his fur spiked like a porcupine's quills. His head snapsped around wildly as he looked for cover. There! His wide yellow eyes locked onto a wide crevice in the rocky cliff he had descended; it was just big enough for him to squeeze into. Foam dashed for the crevice, his heart pounding with every step. He couldn't tell if the approaching wave or the blood running in his ears was louder.
He dove into the hole in the cliff, momentum and panic driving him forward. Further and further he padded away from the open air, even after he was sure the wave could not reach him. Sure enough, Foam heard the crashing of water, but did not feel anything except the dampness already present both in his fur and in the cave air. As he padded along, he felt a breeze tickle his whiskers. That must be a way out. Foam thought, quickening his pace. The tunnel he had ran into had widened considerably, enough that he could comfortable run.
Breaking out of the other side, Foam discovered he had not come out to open air, but a bigger cave, with smaller dead-ends branching off here and there. The breeze continued, pulling Foam's attention towards another tunnel. He'd follow it later. For now, he was getting tired. The adrenaline coursing through him had finally worn off, and every pawstep felt like a million boulders were weighing him down. Foam curled up in an indent in the cave floor and fell asleep...
Upon waking, he was no longer in the cave in which he fell asleep. Stretched out ahead of him was a glittering, starry ocean, its waves rolling peacefully along. The sand beneath his paws shimmered, Foam standing underneath a blanket of stars so thick that it was like a snowstorm high above him. As Foam stood, staring out over the glimmering ocean, his curled ears flicked in the direction of approaching pawsteps. He turned, coming face to face with a starry calico molly.
"The sea's edge protects what the depths devour." the molly said, her eyes seemingly staring past Foam instead of at it.
"What does that mean?" Foam asked. He received no response. The calico molly began to walk towards him. "I give you this these lives for protection. Use it to defend your Clan and those who dwell within it. Your old name is no more; you will now be known as 'Foamstar'." As she passed through him, Foam... No, Foamstar... felt as if his fur were on fire. He could feel the motherly of a thousand mollies defending their kits, their hearts beating loud enough in his ears to make him dizzy.
And then, all at once, it was over. The calico molly faded into nothingness, and Foamstar was alone. As he turned back to the ocean, his heart sank. The oceans that were once calm behind him had become angry and roiling. He wanted to run and hide like he had done in the cave, but his paws were stuck to the ground. Unable to move, Foamstar was helpless as a tall, imposing wave surged towards the shoreline - and him.
Right before the wave crashed into him, he jolted awake in the cave once again. "The sea's edge protects what the depths devour..." Foamstar thought as he shook his fur out. It wouldn't stop spinning around in his head, like an angry bee that'd been stepped on. He followed the air current he'd felt before he'd fallen asleep, the breeze still strong enough to move his whiskers.
He finally broke into open air, taking a breath and replacing the stale cave air in his lungs with fresh air. The once cloudy sky was breaking apart, showing patches of sunlight. Noticing he was within jumping distance of the ground, he took a leap and landed once again onto the sandy shore. The ocean was calm again, showing no signs of the rough waters that plagued the sea earlier.
"The sea's edge protects what the depths devour..."
