Murkypaw's Starclan Dream

ooc; thrown in mc den to keep things similar but would take place in her den

As the young Shadowclan she-cat drifted into sleep, she was blessed with something supremely dreamlike and peaceful. It was a start contrast to the recent events that had befallen the clan. A starry landscape appeared, speckled with what appeared to be stardust. Otherworldly marshlands greeted Murkypaw. There were no pelted-foes lurking in the shadows nor enemies sleeping near their dens. For a brief moment, the dream territory allowed the Asylum occupation to be forgotten. Here there was peace and the wisdom of Starclan that waited to be bestowed upon her.

Murkypaw had gone to sleep like normal, but as her eyes blinked open she froze. The sleepy expression faded in an instant as her eyes widened, taking in her surroundings in shock and surprise. What had happened? She had never seen this part of the marshes before. Where was she? How had she gotten here? Had one of the Asylum cats taken her and left her here? How had she not been awakened, if that was the case? As she looked around, she realized that the marshes were... Different. Completely different, really. Standing up and peeking closer at the grasses and brush around her, she realized there were stars glistening among them. Her breath caught, had they been attacked? She knew it was a mistake to let those rogues walk among camp, but they were outnumbered, and Flintstar had agreed to their terms, and now they had killed her and StarClan new how many others in their nests. Claws extending into the soggy ground beneath her paws, she couldn't help but be in awe. It felt so real, so tangible - but there was so much she still wanted to do. She hadn't even received her warrior name! Her ears pinned to her head as she let out a long sigh, raking her claws once over the star-studded ground. It just wasn't fair.

Pawsteps sounded behind her, and she whirled around, fur puffed out to look as big as she could get. She didn't recognize the cat in front of her, but he had stars in his pelt and smelled of ShadowClan. He must also be in StarClan. Perhaps he was here to explain what had happened and why.

The star-pelted tom smiled broadly as soon as he saw the apprentice. As soon as she spotted him, he took a breath and immediately began speaking.

"Hey there!" his voice was bright and quick, and his eyes were twinkling with starlight. "I'm Marshcloud. I was a ShadowClan warrior when I was alive...which wasn't all too long ago, I guess. Now I'm here from StarClan to talk with you for a while, give you some advice, seeing as you're probably going to be warrior soon and, well, that's a lot of responsibility, and advice is always a good thing, yeah? I have to admit, I'm pretty excited to be here. This is my first time doing something like this! I look forward to offering some wisdom to you. It's funny-- I always thought of "wisdom" being something only elders really had, and I'm not all that old...though in fairness, I guess I am dead. Anyway! Enough about me. We should talk about you, Murkypaw,"

The StarClanner suddenly stopped talking and his expression dropped slightly.

"Oh, erm...you are Murkypaw, right...? I guess I probably should've check on that first...it'd be...kind of embarrassing if I showed up in the wrong cat's dream,"

The tom spoke quickly, without even a moment's hesitation, and Murkypaw was slightly taken aback. Marshcloud, he said his name was... She tucked that information away as he continued to speak. He was here to give her advice? She would be a warrior soon? She thought she was dead. Was she not? She blinked as he continued to speak, her head spinning slightly. Suddenly, the StarClan cat stopped, and seemed to deflate a bit. She looked at him curiously as he asked if she was Murkypaw, and she looked him up and down before nodding. "Hi, Marshcloud. Yes, I'm Murkypaw. You're in the right place, wherever this place is... So, what you were saying earlier, about me becoming a warrior soon. I'm not dead?" She asked the somewhat morbid with a straight face, staring at the tom intently.

"Oh, thank goodness!" the fluffy white and brown tom said, glad he had not in fact wandered into the wrong apprentice's dream.

"Oh, no, no!" he laughed as she asked her question. "Don't worry-- I'm dead, but you're alive and safe. Well...'safe' being a relative term considering the current, uh, situation,"

He sighed slightly, and a slight melancholy seemed to creep its way into his eyes.

"You know, I lived through some tricky situations myself. When I was a young apprentice, ShadowClan was exiled from our territory for a while. Then we went to war when I was a young warrior...and then there was the whole thing with the Righteous Few...and after living through all that, you know what ended up doing me in? ...Myself, really. I let myself get so stuck on this particular idea of what the world was...of what good was...and when things got hard, when my values came under assault, I just fell apart. I stopped sleeping, stopped being able to focus...I mean, focusing was never my strong suit, but, you know...anyway, I ended up getting hit by a Monster in a fit of sleep-deprived hallucination," the starry warrior tried to force some lightness, a tone of self-deprecation into his voice, but it was clear that it was all hard for him to talk about.

"So if I can offer you one piece of advice, Murkypaw? If there's one thing I know to be true? Don't let yourself get stuck in your own head. Take a step back from your thoughts sometimes. Don't become your own worst enemy,"

He smiled earnestly at the apprentice.

"Sorry-- I've never done this before, but I hope that's worth something,"

Relief washed over the she-cat, and she had a moment of revelation. So this was what would have happened if she could have been taken to the Moonstone.... Relaxing quickly now, Murkypaw settled to listen to the tom intently. She blinked as he finished his tale, and she hesitated. "I'm... Sorry to hear that. It sounds awful." she mewed, lowering her head respectfully as he spoke of his own death. As she lifted her gaze again, he continued. Nodding, she took his advice to heart. "I understand, I think. I'll do my best, thank you, Marshcloud." She mewed, offering him a small smile.