Housecleaning (solo)

The return home from Highstones was shorter than the trip there. Goldenstar eagerly anticipated getting home to sleep, mind wandering a little towards the words of her ancestors but mostly in the direction of the warmth of her nest. She and Dovefrost did not speak of the ceremony. It was her knowledge alone. Instead, they occasionally commented on the sunrise, the trip the medicine cats would soon make, the illness that tore through WindClan.

It was just after the dawn patrol left when they reached camp, nodding silently to the camp guards, and they went their separate ways. Goldenstar padded silently into the leafbare warriors’ den beneath the gorse wall. She slid into her nest with Silverlight, sinking deep into his warm fur and purring a sleepy greeting. Her sleep was deep and she dreamed she was playing hide-and-seek with Daisypaw in the flower fields on a warm greenleaf day.

At sunhigh she awoke to an empty den, though the warmth and scents of her Clanmates remained. She stretched the soreness from her limbs and exited the den, stepping into snow that helped jolt her to full wakefulness. Goldenstar ignored the rumbling in her belly and set her eyes on the Tallrock, considering her plan for the day before heading to the tunnel beneath it and scraping away the old nesting. It was empty and uncomfortably big. Goldenstar already knew she would be sleeping outside with her warriors when the weather was favorable once more.

After pulling her and Silverlight’s combined nest into the empty space, the new leader settled into it to survey her surroundings. Tangled roots poked through the sides of the tunnel. Old paw prints flattened the ground beneath her. It was nearly silent, with only the muffled voices of her Clanmates returning from patrols and sharing tongues floating into the den. She could get used to the quiet, she thought. Her next step needed to be planned out.