Ishaq and Mitternacht, originally titled The Cat Who Walked Alone, is a legend about Ishaq and Mitternacht, two cats of StarClan who walk the earth when great change is afoot.
Out of character, it was created by Silith, one of the CoSC Founders, on 29 December 2005.
It was edited at length by Kitsufox, another of the founders, on 9 December 2008.
It was edited again by Kitsufox on 29 December 2009 to improve the relationship of the story to other historical works.
Ishaq and Mitternacht
Shortly after the days when the Great Clans became the clans we live in today two cats arrived at Fourtrees during one of those early, tense gatherings when cats were first beginning to understand this new way of life and the new bodies StarClan had given them to escape from the Twolegs in. They called themselves Ishaq and Mitternacht. Ishaq was a wondrous silver cat, marked in daubs of gray like shadows. His movements, even in life, were as silent as an owl’s flight. Mitternacht, his mate, was a spry she-cat with a midnight coat of lusterless black and a pair of chilled glittering gold eyes.
These two strangers told a tale of how they had come from a place deep in the mountains where snow lived year round. These two said that they had been visited by four cats: One slim, spotted and swift. The second huge, fierce and striped. The third had been Sleek, Powerful, and spotted. The final one had be muscular, tawny and adorned with a mane. They said that they had been sent and told by these 4 cats, one a night for four consecutive nights, that they should come forth and would meet the cats who had once been the four spirits clanmates.
Ishaq and Mitternacht were sent away by Thunderstar, Windstar, Shadowstar, and Riverstar. The four leaders had talked and decided that these two cats could not possibly be what they said they were. Ishaq’s green eyes narrowed and he sighed heavily. He told them “I’m sorry you don’t believe, but the great cats that came to us said you would doubt. When you decide you believe send your deputies to the place where the sun goes to drown.” and then he left, his dark furred companion walking with. The cats who had been at the gathering muttered, telling stories about the cats who had never been proper great cats trying to lie and find ways to join clans and live as cats were meant to.
In the moon that came to pass following the gathering in which they had turned away Ishaq and Mitternacht the dreams started. A great striped tiger came to Thunderstar and told them “You have turned your back on the cats we have chosen to bring you the way to be a warrior”. A lean cheetah came to Windstar and told them “You have turned away from the cats we have chosen to teach you the way to live your life”. A sleek jaguar came to Riverstar and told them “You have cast away the cats we have chosen to show you the path to StarClan”. A majestic lion came to Shadowstar and told them “You have sent away the cats we have chosen to show you the way your new clans will survive.”
In shocked desperation the four leaders met at Highstones and while they were there the four great cats came again. They spoke in turns, telling the four leaders that a code for all cats of the clans would come to be, and it would begin through Ishaq and Mitternacht who were chosen for their pure spirits and their neutrality. They explained that they were born of the cats who had lived here long ago, a tribe of mighty Leopards whose kind had dispersed into the world because they had lacked the law to be held together. With this message firmly planted the leaders returned to their four clans and then sent forth their deputies to find the place Ishaq had bid them find. They were gone for a full moon, and returned fittingly to a gathering, bringing with them the verses of the first of the codes that would in later generations be joined by more explicit instructions for Mentors, Leaders and Medicine Cats.
To this day Ishaq and Mitternacht still return to the places of the clans. Their appearances are never casual and merely the sight of either of them can be a sigh of things to come. Warmhearted Ishaq’s friendly voice tends to speak of great wisdom, but never without a twist and a riddle to veil it. He alone is the herald of a great event for the one he has seen fit to visit. Mitternacht’s drifting eyes and dark words warn of strife. When the pair appears together it is a signal of great change. The pair does not walk the earthly realms lightly, alone or together, and serve to mark the greatest and most substantial of events.