When The Moon Meets The Stars [Open After Ice Posts / Moonlight's Death Topic]

Moonlight was looking at the entrance of the cave they temporarily called home with glossy eyes. How long had she been fighting the infection that was soon taking hold of her? She no longer could remember. She found comfort on the interactions with her family, as well as determination to not let it win…yet, deep inside her, she knew very well this was a losing battle and she was only prolonging the inevitable.

Her head lazily moved to let her look at her leg and lower abdomen. They had been neatly wrapped by the medicine cats earlier, a procedure she had tried uselessly to ask them not to do as she felt they were wasting important herbs on her. Yet, Tinystar would hear none of it. If anything, she felt he was in greater denial than herself at this point.

Something in the back of her head encouraged her to try and move it, stand and walk again. She tried…nothing.

It had been several days by now that her leg had stopped responding and had gone numb. That last bit she honestly thanked StarClan for, the pain had become unbearable on the last few days she could kind of use it still, especially when they had to clean it. But now she was blessed not having to suffer from it anymore, even if she had to deal with the smell of carrion each time it was unwrapped. Part of her couldn’t believe she was becoming crowfood when she was still alive…

With a deep sigh she turned away, head between her front paws as she looked at the night sky. The stars started to dance before her eyes, the moon started to shine brighter than she could ever recall...

Her eyelids started to fall as right before her eyes, the stars started to take shapes. The faces of the kits and friends she had lost looking at her with comforting smiles. She was so lost looking at them she didn’t notice her heartbeat starting to become irregular, just like her breathing. Unknown to her, her body was finally losing the long fight and was starting to enter into the early stages of cardiac arrest as the infection finally dug its toxic necrotic claws on her heart.

Her strong body and determined mind were doing their absolute best…but it was clear she didn’t have long. Minutes at most…

With Moonlight having grown weaker and weaker with each passing sunrise, Tinystar hadn't left his mate's side. Curled up in a tight ball with his pelt pressed firmly against her, the little leader found himself growing restless as her condition worsened. The pungent stench of rotting flesh hardly complimented the damp, stifling smells of the cave, and while it made him gag each time the medicine cats looked at her leg, he didn't dare move. She'd stuck by his side all her life and he'd stood by her's in return. The two of them had been an inseparable couple and most likely one of the strongest, not to mention oldest, couples in all of SkyClan, and while he didn't want to even think of such a possibility, it was obvious that Moonlight's time with him was coming to an end.

Recalling all that they had been through together, it felt like only yesterday that he'd found her as a kit on SkyClan's border and taken her in. The two of them had become mates not long after that and began their journey together; creating a family, facing danger at the edges of the forest, supporting each other... they'd been through so much and he never thought it would end like this, in this place of all places...

Focusing on his mate's heartbeat, he listened as her breathing began to grow shallow and raspy, and lifting his head he rested it on her neck. Tears streamed down the small tom's face as he listened to his mate suffer in silence. It hurt him like claws to the side to see her in such a state and he prayed that she would find peace and rest soon.

"I l-love you," he choked, his throat tightening up as he tried not to sob. 'Please, don't leave me here... all alone,' he wanted to cry out. They'd been by each other's sides all their lives and now... there would be an emptiness beside him; a love that he could never share again; a hole that could never be filled.

As the Moon began to set on the horizon, and darkness began to swallow the cavern, Tinystar felt as if he would never see it rise again.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WTsmIbNku5g so many sad songs, here's one
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NALeI_SVNgE I could imagine this being her dying and going to StarClan? I can personally imagine each section of the song as her journey there aaahhhh

The voice of her mate echoed through her mind as Moonlight slipped in and out of consciousness, her head feeling as heavy as the largest tree in the forest as she lifted it to try and face her mate.

Surrounding the, she could see the starry pelts of those close to her that had joined the ranks of StarClan long before. They were waiting. She had fought very hard, for her family, for her kits…for Tinystar. It broke her heart to know her last great fight was one she was doomed to lose and, to top it all, far from home.

Her already cold nose gently touched Tinystar’s, much like an apprentice would do with their mentor in their ceremony, letting out a soft raspy purr “I love you too…I’ll always do. Remember…this is n-not a goodbye….just a…see y-you….later….” Her last words were barely audible as he head gave in to its weight, falling on top of her front paws with closed eyelids.

She shivered, her breathing becoming more forced…until she finally fell silent and her body relaxed. The heart on her chest no longer beating.

A new starry cat had joined the ones surrounded the two. Who looked down at the white leader before nuzzling his head gently “Many called you small in the past, doubting you for it. Too bad they couldn’t see that you have the biggest and purest heart any cat in the forest ever had…I know I did”.

With those words, Moonlight followed her friends and family to StarClan’s territories, her star appearing right above Tinystar. She might not be physically there anymore, but nothing would ever stop him from watching over him and being as close to him as she could.

Listening to her coarse voice as she spoke, he touched his mate's nose back, embracing her warmth one last time. "I'll never stop counting the sunrises till I see you again," Tinystar whispered softly before her body grew cold and stiff as she drew her last breath.

Taking a deep breath in, he closed his eyes, tears streaming down his white face. While Moonlight had left her earthly body, he could've sworn he felt her starry presence just before she ascended up to Silverpelt, which gave him even more faith in his ancestors. 'Till we meet again,' he thought to himself and looked up. If they were back in the forest, he would've been able to see the stars, but being in this StarClan-forsaken cave, all he saw was darkness.

Resting his head back down onto Moonlight's lifeless body, Tinystar curled his long tail around the edge of her as he began to sob. While others might have tried to hold back such emotions, he didn't care what the surrounding cats thought of him. His heart ached as if someone's paw was squeezing it and all he wanted to do was be with her again... and for a moment it felt as if he was on his way to StarClan himself. If only.

From now on till the day in which he would fall, Tinystar would never stop chasing after the distant, twinkling moonlight, no matter how many times it disappeared under the sun's shadow, for he could never stop appreciating something so breathtaking.