Emberpaw's Moonstone Journey

Leopardclaw gentle placed the bundle of traveling herbs hanging from his jaws onto the ground at his paws, before calling into the apprentice's den; "Emberpaw!  It's time to leave!"  Today he would be taking one of Specklefang's apprentices to the Moonstone.  He remembered the day when the young she-cat had given up her kittypet name of Ruby to join the clan with the name Emberpaw; she had come a long way since then, and even though the deputy hadn't interacted with her that much, he was quite proud.  He knew firsthand how hard it was for an outsider to find their place in the clan.

Emberpaw purred in excitement as she heard her name called into the apprentice's den, and in her excitement as she ran outside she very nearly barreled into the deputy, stopping just short of doing so. "Oh! I'm sorry, Leopardclaw," she apologized. She eyed the herbs on the ground with curiosity. "Do we have to eat those?"

Leopardclaw flinched slightly as a ginger ball of fur pelted full speed directly at him, and was grateful that she managed to stop just in time; the golden deputy didn't feel like being pushed down into the snow today.  With an amused twitch of his black-tipped ears, he accept her apology with a reassuring blink, and nodded.  "Yes, they're traveling herbs.  They will give you strength and endurance for the journey, and quell your hunger."  Thank StarClan Honeyspark managed to stock up on these before the snows struck...

"Well, alright..." Emberpaw murmured, hesitantly taking a bite of the herbs. "...Ack!" That was quite possibly the worst thing she had ever tasted. Well, if she had to eat them, she may as well try and finish them as quickly as possible. She did so, wanting to get the taste out of her mouth as quickly as possible, but almost immediately found that she regretted it. "How is it possible for something to taste that terrible?"

Leopardclaw's whiskers twitched, slightly amused, slightly sympathetic.  He too had to force down those disgusting herbs every time he took an apprentice out on this journey, and he regretted to say he had not yet become numb to their flavor, and he didn't know if he ever would.  "Gross as they may be, you'll be grateful for them once we leave clan territory.  Come on."  With a flick of his ringed tail tip, the golden spotted deputy trotted across the clearing to the camp entrance, and ducked out into the forest, frequently checking over his shoulder to make sure Emberpaw was keeping up alright.

"If you say so," Emberpaw said quietly, her tone doubtful. She followed after the deputy, trying her best to keep up.

After a long walk across the WindClan moors, a maze of Twoleg territory, and the barren fields of unclaimed land, Leopardclaw and Emberpaw had finally scaled their way up Highstones, to where Mothermouth lay ahead of them.  A gaping black hole in the cliffside, the place held an air of foreboding...along with the temptation of mystery.  Once the sun had fallen below the treeline, Leopardclaw flicked his tail to call Emberpaw to his side, approaching the tunnel entrance.  Placing one paw into the darkness, he looked down at the ginger tabby she-cat and asked; "Are you ready?"

'No,' her mind told her, quite clearly. But when she opened her mouth to speak, the words that came out were far different. "I think so." 'As much as I could ever hope to be, anyway,' her thoughts rang out again. What if StarClan didn't want to speak to her at all? Still. She couldn't dwell on that right now. If that happened... She would just have to hope it didn't.

Leopardclaw nodded, and lead the way silently deep down the long, twisting tunnel.  Rigid stone walls rose up around them on both sides, and the air steadily began to grow colder and colder the deeper they ascended into the earth.  Leopardclaw - who had made this trip many times before - knew the way like the back of his paw, and walked confidently through the darkness.  He knew though, that this setting was very disorienting for the first time, and walked close enough to Emberpaw so she could easily sense his presence, a clear indicatior that they were heading in the right direction.  Soon enough, the tunnel began to widen out, and a faint light shone ahead.  They entered the cave of the Moonstone, a large cavern with a small hole in the roof that allowed starlight to flicker into view.  In the center of the cave stood the Moonstone, for now just containing a few lone sparkles.

Leopardclaw seated himself and gazed up at the patch of night sky above, and soon enough the moon because to float into view.  In a vivid flash of bright white light, the Moonstone burst to life, glittering with a beautiful, unearthly essence.  The ThunderClan deputy stepped forward, and spoke lowly to the young she-cat before him; "Emberpaw, it is time for you to meet with StarClan. Step forward and touch your nose to the Moonstone; may sleep take you quickly."  Stepping back, he sat down and watched, prepared for a night of patient waiting.

Emberpaw stepped forward cautiously, regarding the Moonstone with reverence. She hesitated for a moment to touch her nose to it, but did so and let sleep claim her. The place that greeted her was unfamiliar, but it was strikingly beautiful.

(short post, keyboard hates me)

Emberpaw stood in a field of tall, lush grass. Lovely wildflowers dotted the plains, their tender faces turned towards the moon and bright flashes of light- firefiles -danced slowly among the grass, their light echoed in the sky above, which stretched impossibly vast. Silverpelt, in all it's glory, kept all of Starclan well-lit, even during the night. It was as if, instead of darkness, Emberpaw had been enveloped in gentle shades of blue, purple, and periwinkle. Almost everything in the Starlit Plains seemed pleasantly muted.
Almost.
The grass rustled nearby, and out stepped a striking young tom. He was thin and agile, but it was easy to tell that his long legs were strong, his muscles hardened from his moons spent on the moors. His long thick fur was a pure white, cleaner and fresher than snow. His ears and tail were orange, but the most noticeable thing about this Starclan cat were his eyes. One of them was a deep olive green, flecked with gold, but the other was a bright blue, clearer than the sky itself.
The tom was Emberpaw's age, but the way he held himself was kinglike and although he was just barely taller than the Thunderclan apprentice, he seemed to be looking down on her.

"I go by many names." His voice was soft and thin, the only thing that betrayed his age. "When I lived in Windclan, they called me Gingerpaw. As a rouge, I was Ginger. But now..." He took a small step forward, smiling gently. "My name is Gingerheart. A name given to me by the stars themselves. You may call me whatever you wish."
The fluffy tom winked in a friendly manner.
"Now tell me, Emberpaw. Why are you here?"

"Gingerheart..." she whispered softly, observing the striking tom that greeted her.

"I... I believe I am here because it's where I'm supposed to be. Beyond that, I can't say. ...But you know, don't you? I don't feel like I belong, even though ThunderClan is my home... I was... I was afraid StarClan wouldn't even want to speak to me. But... Here you are. You must know something, or you wouldn't have come to speak to me, right...?"

Gingerheart sat quietly while the she-cat spoke, his peculiar eyes wide and innocent. Once Emberpaw fell silent, he paused for a moment and considered the orange Thunderclanner, a faint smile on his maw.
After a moment he spoke again, meeting her gaze with his own.
"I suppose I should say what you want to hear." His voice, sweet as ever, now had a hint of laughter in it. "But... no. Forgive me, my dear. I'm afraid I can't sugar-coat things any longer." The apprentice-sized Starclanner walked silently towards Emberpaw and sat down beside her, resting his bottlebrush tail on her shoulder comfortingly.
"I've watched you grow, little one. I watched you leave Twolegplace, and I watched as you journeyed into the unknown simply because there was the slimmest chance that the stories your unfortunate mother told you were true. In short, my dear, I am just as intrigued by you as you are by me."
While he spoke he stared ahead, but Emberpaw could tell that Gingerheart's mind was elsewhere, perhaps remembering his days as a Windclanner.
The white tom paused for a moment before continuing. "It's no coincidence that I was the one to speak with you tonight. As a matter of fact, there were a few of us who wanted to talk to you; In many ways, you remind us of ourselves. However, I was the only one that had watched you from the very beginning."
"Oh yes, you caused quite a stir when you arrived in the Forest, love." He smiled, remembering the day he had been proven right.
"Nobody believed you would make it. Nobody, that is, except me. The other Starclan cats are so ridiculous, it's nearly driven me mad. Eveything they say has to be some silly riddle, and nearly every prophecy they share with the Clans relate to possibly the most amusing made-up thing in the entire world: destiny.
You say that it's your destiny to join Thunderclan, hm?" He chuckled softly, his eyes closing and his whiskers twitching.
"Destiny, my love, is nothing more than our imaginations. A story we whisper to ourselves in the dark of night, a way to convince ourselves that what we're doing has a purpose."

He turned his head gracefully, his curious eyes snapping open and meeting Emberpaw's once more.
"You feel like an outcast, dearie, because of your origins. And in many ways, you are an outcast. You're different- born in Twolegplace, far away from the five clans and the forest. But why should your differences make you any more an outcast than anyone else? In life, nobody belongs. That's the whole point of it all."
He slowly got to his feet and padded a few steps away. His pelt was becoming fainter somehow, and faint stars seemed to shine through him.
"The one thing about you that shocked nearly all of Starclan, Emberpaw, was your sheer determination to live in Thunderclan.
At any time during your training, you could've decided that the Clans weren't for you. You could've returned to the Twolegplace, but for some reason, you stayed. You chose Thunderclan as your new Home. And that simple choice, love, means you deserve to live in Thunderclan as much as any pure-blooded warrior."
The landscape was fading quickly, and soon it was just Emberpaw and Gingerheart standing in a huge, dark emptiness. Gingerheart approached the apprentice and nuzzled her before stepping back with a large smile plastered on his maw.
"Everyone feels out of place. It's a fact of life. It's your choices, however, that determine if you truly belong or not. So let me ask you once more: Why are you here, Emberpaw?"

Emberpaw jolted awake beside the Moonstone. The faint, heavy scent of ginger and the sweet smell of the moor hung on her fur.

Emberpaw soaked in the words the other cat told her - he had watched her, all this time? She had a thousand questions, each as unlikely to be answered as the last, and not a single one could leave her throat before she woke beside the moonstone. Two soft words did, however, escape as she did. "Thank you..."

She had a feeling that conversation, one-sided as it was, would stay with her for the rest of her life. A reassurance. She did belong, because she chose to belong.

"Leopardclaw?" she called over quietly, looking to the deputy. "I think I'm ready to go home."