Leafpaw's Starclan Dream

Beechface glanced up briefly from sorting herbs, narrowed gaze watching the rising moon for a moment before turning back to the herbs. Tansy there, poppy seeds over there, Juniper, Feverfaw...

Her ear flicked towards the entrance of the den impatiently. An apprentice was set to be dreaming of Starclan tonight, though she'd already been staying in the medicine den recently. Leafpaw. Beechface had treated her bruised ribs before from an ill-advised "spar" with her dolt of a littermate. Aside from her sleeping in the den still, she didn't see much of Leafpaw as the apprentice was back to doing light training and Beechface had her own duties to attend to. She wondered how Leafpaw's training was going otherwise. She hadn't shown up with any injuries recently, so Beechface could only hope that the apprentice hadn't been getting into trouble.

The moon continued to rise, and Beechface lifted her head from the herbs, offering Leafpaw's form a small smile. She moved to check the apprentice over, as if checking on her mostly-healed injuries before flicking her tail and pointing the apprentice back towards her nest.

"Go lay down." She mewed softly.

Leafpaw approached the medicine den with a twinge of severity. What could the ancestors tell her? She had been battered and broken by the very cat who became deputy. A deep boil of rage festered underneath the surface. She took in a deep breath, letting it go, and approached Beechface.

"Good to see you again," she replied. "At least this time, I'm not all beat up." She made a sly toothy grin at her self-deprecating humor and padded towards a nest.

She stretched her paws before curling up into a ball, reminiscent of kit days...

Leafpaw startled, surrounded by stars. They were like falling snow, dotting the skies, grasses, and trees. The air felt like home. Her senses were overwhelmed with the smells of starry prey skittering about, and it was as if time itself stood still. For that moment, she forgot about the Asylum, about Dawnhawk, about all of it. StarClan was a different kind of beauty, not an earthly beauty, not one she was anticipating.

"Hello?" Leafpaw called, kicking herself for disturbing the sounds of water gently trickling through the grasses. She looked onward towards the horizon, hoping that a cat would find her.

The late evening sky, an ethereal simmering smudge of silky colors perpetually wreathing against the luscious backdrop of the endlessly unfolding forests, was laden with little specks of twinkling light- some seeming to slip forward from their place within the strange sky, plummeting forward to rain down against the sweet-smelling foliage in a manner similar to that of rain.  Thick foliage and undergrowth, rich with life and heavy under the newfound weight of budding bulbs and flowers, trembled softly in the faint breeze that crept through the ghostly forest- bringing with it the taste of all things warm and inviting. For several moments, it seemed as though Leafpaw's echoing voice was the only immediately response to her inquiry, with only the gentle tremble of undergrowth whistling softly in playful response to the temporary visitor's sudden appearance among the not-quite-there lands.

A silky flourish of starlight rippled suddenly against the flank of Leafpaw, a strange trembling and warping of the limited light as something seemed to simply... appear out of thing air alongside her. The iridescent flecks of gleaming white light quaked as they hung heavily in the air for a momentary heartbeat, before sharply contracting and pulling inward; the little bits and broken pieces of refractory light gently stitching themselves back into the orderly outline of a cat, warm ruddy reds and beguiling tans bleeding out into the familiar shape of a dusky coat. A slender forepaw reached out to carefully prod the gentle groove between the warped curve of Leafpaw's ribcage, a playful bid for the attention of the young molly.

"You're a tad bit young and scruffy to be here, don't you think?" Elmcloud rumbled out, sharp amber gaze gleaming out from his delicate lines of his face as he rose to his full height, "Are you certain that your Medicine Cat didn't mean to send you back to bed in the Nursery?"

"Whoa!" She startled when the older tom jabbed her in the rib cage.

Leafpaw registered his comment and raised her hackles. "Don't you have some kits to torment? Is this the best that StarClan has to offer?"

"And for your information, I'm 13 moons old. Thank you very much!"

She swished her tail back and forth, infuriated.

"I'm sure napping in starlight and watching us crumble to chaos is just hilarious to you," she seethed, thrashing her tail. "The cat that nearly sent me here is now deputy, what were you all thinking? Has Wolfstar lost his mice? Are you all just snacking on birds and laughing it up? I don't think it's funny!"

Even in StarClan, she felt her living mother's voice in her head about their ancestors. Be respectful.

Leafpaw took a deep breath and added, "Okay, old geezer, I guess that wasn't fair of me. But seriously? What do you have to tell me? Is this ever going to get better?"

"Tormenting kits?" Elmcloud echoed back, low droll of his raspy voice setting the silvery flecks of starlight whirling around the bickering pair trembling with a newfound, quavering movement, "What do you think I'm currently doing?"

Reaching out with a prodding forepaw to gently box the rounded curve of Leafpaw's twitching ear, the ruddy-furred tom's slender features remained carefully awash with the purposeful undercurrents of a carefully crafted mask of aloofness, knowing gleam in the gaze hardly noticeable among the deterring warning signs. Weight carefully pitching back upon the natural strength of his hindlegs, the ghostly SkyClan Warrior was quick to drop his haunches on the familiar seating of a webbing of roots, movements practiced and eased. Watching as the residual anger bled forth from the tense little shape of Leafpaw, Elmcloud continued to peer closely at the little she-cat as deference blossomed in the immediate aftermath of her morose inquiry. "You know, I've often wondered the same thing. Will it ever get better, or is life a continuous cycle of grief shared between kin?

Sharp jut of the chin tilting skyward as Elmcloud turned his gaze up and away from the prickly young Leafpaw, the starry tom's sharp amber gaze seemed trained upon some unknown point in the endlessly unfolding horizon- almost as though searching for some lost, unknowable being. It was strange to think of all the skies he had walked, all the strange lands he had ranged to when following Firflower and his little family. How long ago that already was, countless seasons cycling through with little caring. "I've had many lifetimes to think on this question, and I think I've found one truth to be certain: suffering is not unique. Our lives may all be different, but we all share the same shades of tragedy. I've witnessed cats sell themselves to the Dark Forest to try and save their kin from annihilation, I've seen parents forced to kill their children to save others, I've seen war and suffering and grief."

Chin dropping back down and twisting to redirect his undivided attention on Leafpaw, Elmcloud's low voice was quiet and steady, rife with a conviction that only a lifetime of experience and hardships could truly bring, "I even saw a cat, with blood and flesh as ordinary as you and I, kill the sun to wage war on those he deemed to be wrong. But you know what else I lived to see? The return of the sun, the change of the seasons; fresh wounds heal to nothing more than old scars, I saw my friends and loved ones grow to be old and fat and content." Gently rounded tip of the tail neatly curling around his forepaws, the starry SkyClanner's sharp gaze remained fixed upon Leafpaw. "It is easy to find yourself lost without the moon and see nothing but the darkness, but you must always have faith in the sun rising. Place faith in those you love, and you will always find the dawn."