Nightpaw's Moonstone Journey

Nightpaw had hardly slept since learning that her trip to the Moonstone was happening soon, which could have meant anything from a day to the next moon- fate had shone kindly upon her, and while she wasn't quite awake when Fawnshine called her- rather in a bit of a dreamlike haze, possibly due to skipping out on so much sleep- the familiar sound of the medicine cat's voice got her attention immediately. "I'm up!" Then, remembering that other cats were trying to sleep, she murmured an apology to her disturbed denmates before exiting the apprentice's den.

It felt like so long ago that she'd been apprenticed, the first of her siblings to receive a mentor.

(She wondered, with a glance to where Hornetpaw was sleeping, if she would be the last to become a warrior. It wasn't a competition- not anymore at least, with Eggdrop a medicine cat, Hornetpaw being Hornetpaw, and the others dead.)

She was approaching the end of her apprenticeship, and the beginning of her life as a warrior; this was the first real milestone. After this, there was really just her assessment- something she didn't really have many, if any, concerns about, being a skilled hunter and a decent fighter- and waiting for Minnowstar, Mottlerose, and Dayquill to decide that she was ready to move forward.

The end of one thing, and the start of another.

Though it was bittersweet, there was a small smile on her face. "I'm ready to go, Fawnshine."

I think I'm ready to move forward.

"I understand," the apprentice nodded as Fawnshine instructed her to stay close. There was something haunting about it, she thought- a tunnel of darkness, like living shadow, that burst into light when they entered the Moonstone's chamber. "...It's beautiful," she murmured, awestruck by its brilliance. The moonlight lit up the cavern in a way she couldn't have dreamed.

And at last, it was time to go to hers. "Thank you, Fawnshine."

She touched her nose to the stone, eye-to-eye with its brilliance before she allowed them to close and sleep to overtake her. The sight of the Moonstone and its beauty was something she would always carry with her, she was sure.

Hopefully, she would be able to say the same about the wisdom of her ancestors.

Burningwolf stood in front of the apprentice as she came into focus. Her glaringly orange pelt was only dimmed by the stars in which she was made of. It was odd, one could say, to see her in front of this ThunderClan cat. In life, she had no relations to the clan besides being neighbors. However, in the afterlife there were no clans, only cats in need of guidance.

"Good evening, Nightpaw." The she-cat said warmly, as a tiny bundle of gold peeked around her paws, his eyes wide with wonder as he stared up at the apprentice. "How do you feel like things are going so far?" She dipped her head, urging the young one to speak.

Nightpaw hoped that her disappointment wasn't too obvious to the StarClan cat- she'd really hoped to see her sister one last time, or maybe one of her brothers. She didn't know the starlit cat before her, but dipped her head respectfully nonetheless. "It's hard to say... Things will be fine one day, but awful the next. It's taken me so long to get this far... For a while, I thought I wouldn't make it here. That I'd be an apprentice forever."

Part of her wanted to maintain the facade of confidence, but she was sure StarClan knew more than the living. They could see through her, so there was no point in hiding now.

The apprentice shook her head. "I wanted to be great. Someone whose name they would remember for generations to come! And... I still want that. But I don't know how to get there from here. One of my sisters is a medicine cat, the other is dead. My only living brother won't give me the time of day. What am I supposed to do?"

Though she stood in an act of ceremony, following in the footsteps of countless cats before her, she felt hopelessly lost and alone in that moment. An honesty she hadn't expected from herself.

"How do I become the cat I want to be, the one I want to see in my reflection?"

Burningwolf mused for a second before flicking her tail and starting. "The biggest thing for you to realize is that living for a legacy won't get you anywhere. When I was a young warrior, I received a dream from a StarClan cat begging me to help them get justice against Tinystar, SkyClan's leader at the time. They had killed him in camp for his father's crimes." Burningwolf swallowed and continued on.

"So I led a trial. I found Tinystar guilty and made him step down as leader temporarily as well as executing him and taking a life for the life he unfairly took.... My point of all of this, have you ever heard of this story? It was unprecedented, not done before or since. The story of a great legacy? But time forgets you. You see, you have no control who lives, who dies, and who tells your story." Her voice was somber, and her eyes shown with a sense of begging the young cat to understand.

"So in order to become the cat you want to be, you need to really sit down and think about what really is the cat you want to be and what's important to you. Legacies are not real. But what's real is how you feel living your life. What matters is your family, your clan, in the here and now and the next day- not moons from now when it's too late and you've passed. Touch the cats now, not the ones in the future. That's a real legacy, and that's a cat to be proud of to see in the reflection."

She stood, her pelt disappearing slowly as it faded into the stars around her. She gave a final nod before she was gone.