It was crazed. Dememted. Totally out of control. Everywhere was gone, nowhere was back, and nothing was ever going to be the same. The sun seemed weaker, the ground seemed stronger, the water seemed warmer, the air seemed cooler. It was upside down, backwards, nothing right. Nothing at all. It couldn't be punishment. It couldn't be. Something was different. The forest couldn't grieve. Neither could the river or the marshes or the plains. They couldn't grieve for this loss, this loss of humanity, gone until everything had died. Maybe everything had died. She didn't know. But she didn't know if she should hide. Everywhere she looked, the leaves were brown, the grass was yellow, the bark gray and the river shallow. the waterfall was merely a trickle that ran down dare clay and stone, and the forest was naught but a lake. Nothing would ever be the same.

Observed as closely as that, she never knew. A life full of herbs and combinations survived on observation. It wasn't stable. If everything died, then her life died. She would be gone, her soul torn, her heart tarnished unfixably. Unless there was more. There had to be. This couldn't be it all. Nothing was it all. Yes, it was some, but not all. There had to be some place, somewhere, that was alive and well, keeping these cats from being worn down until their pawpads were flat. The greenery was brownery now, and she went over to sniff it. Stale. Dead. Gross. Dangerous. Rotten berries dotted the dead leaves of the juniper bush that she wanted to be rewound so much.She sniffed around desperately. They were running low on herbs, there were only a leaf or two left for each type.

Then something caught Dappledpaw's eye. A bright purple berry, unlike any she had ever seen before. But when she reached out to touch it, her paw passed straight through it. It seemed to be sparkling. Then she saw another purple glint, and padded over to it. Another berry. She followed the trail of strange berries, finally finding herself in a clearing that she had never seen before. Juniper bushes lined the edges, and she bounded forward, picking many. Finally she had a collection of at least ten. She carried it in a dock leaf that seemed to appear there, and began to pad away from the clearing. But then a voice spoke "You will find what you need only if you look in the right places." As she left the clearing, she found herself lying on the ground beside the dead juniper bush, an empty dock leaf in her jaws. The berries were gone. She was trapped in a world of confusion.