grow me a garden of roses

Rosepaw beamed like sunshine. "I'm glad!" she chirped. She was happy Whisperear liked the idea and that it was a good day. "Where shall we plant them?" she wondered. "I hope you don't mind digging a few little holes!" WindClan were born tunnellers, so the garden would turn out well! Rosepaw hoped she could see the tunnels open again one day. This day, however, was only just starting. "Batsong woke me up so early-" she broke into a yawn, with a cheeky grin at her other friend, "-so I wouldn't mind a nap either." Now that she thought about it, she blinked slowly, she was sleepy. By the time the flowers were planted, she wouldn't mind lying down in the sun with Whisperear. "What stories were you thinking of?" Rosepaw was sure the kits loved her friend's stories. Even if it was kittenish, she still loved stories too, especially happy ones. So, she asked, "Tell me something good?"

Whisperear's smile warmed Rosepaw to her core. Perhaps this was the perfect place between relaxation and activity for her friend? She quietly settled beside them to make a place for the flowers, careful to first follow Batsong's lead who knew the most about herbs and plants. "I think the holes need to be just deep enough for the roots... then, maybe it'd help to get the flowers some water to drink." There was always a stream very close to camp for elders, kits, and patients able to leave their nest to easily go to drink from. It would not be a good campsite without it.

"Mm, the only exciting things were as an apprentice for me too," Rosepaw agreed, "and none of it was fun." She grimaced. It must have been difficult in the Forest when the stars went out, for Whisperpaw and Batsong. She pressed a little closer. They all were together again now.

Her ears pricked with interest and she turned to look at Whisperear with a light shining in her single golden eye. "Dreams would make wonderful stories!" she agreed, "Because anything can happen in a dream..."

"I never saw all of the Garden where I found the cats who knew the way home," she recalled, "so the fields really felt endless. It was like if the flower field grew all over the Forest, between every tree from here to SkyClan. Even into the two-leg's place, making them all move away, until the dens crumbled and flowers grew over them and we used them for our own. Not only for WindClan's own, but shared with all the Clans until there were no borders. Only every cat together in endless fields of peace. Not only StarClan is like that, Whisperear," There was, strangely even to Rosepaw herself, an awe and a longing in her voice as she remembered her temporary home. "It was a real place on the earth. The Forest could be like that one day..." It could grow into a place so beautiful, Rosepaw was sure of it. She hoped she could live to see it.

"I'd love to see an endless pool of stars," she thought dreamily. "Though, I would be frightened to dive in and swim among them," she added. She was glad WindClan touching the endless sky was her home, and not any watery depths. "It would be terrifying, but beautiful."

"Like the middle of a town- the two-leg's places. I hope I never find myself there again. There were no stars in the sky back then... but in their very tall homes, taller than the tallest tree, was a view of the lights. There were so many, like they pulled all the stars out of the sky and trapped them all on the ground." Her eyes narrowed in suspicion that it was indeed where the disappeared stars had gone. Had the humans given the stars back to the wild like they had finally freed Rosepaw? Had they found some other way to light their homes? Despite everything, the humans had healed her, and she had a secret soft spot and hoped so.

Rosepaw smiled at the next image Whisperear's words formed in her mind. "I love rainbows as much as I love flowers!" she purred, which meant, a lot. "I imagine a night sky and a snowy land like we had when we were kits, and above, greens and violets rippling across the world. Oh, but in the day too, I hope I see a rainbow over the whole sky. I've never seen one so big... it would be beautiful!" Rosepaw's words flowed like the persistent wind over the moors. She was enjoying the bonding so much, she was talking her friends' ears off!

Whisperear's quiet smile encouraged Rosepaw as she rambled happily. She laughed along with them. "I didn't get to enjoy it as much because I longed to be home on the moor with you and Batsong and WindClan ~ but I suppose you're right... it was exciting!" She grinned.

"I'd love for you to see all of these places, too," she admitted. "The idea to plant flowers is from the Distant Garden. It's the centre of all life there," she explained. 

"Well, I was also thinking of the journey to find the coneflower, my favourite kit tale. We saw the patrol return with the herb, and now it grows in every part of the Forest, can you believe it?" Rosepaw really did love flowers...

"Medicine-cats are a little bit like the Garden-dwellers," Rosepaw mused. "Peaceful, intelligent, kind. But many things are done there: sparring, hunting, running, swimming, stalking in the night, climbing up the stone structures and flying through the trees, weaving through the tight spaces... like all the Forest Clans put together! There are as many dwelling in the Garden as at a Clan Gathering, maybe more... and in the Season of Blazing Sun, which it almost is now, there are all kinds of games for a whole day and a night!"

"I only played the games where we ran," Rosepaw admitted, "the other things are scary!"

She was wistful as she reminisced about those strange lands. "One day I'll show you all the places I've been," she promised. "I hope we all live long lives, but one far-away day we will run in the skies. We can travel as shooting stars!"

"The Garden-dwellers are guided to travel far by their ancestors," she explained. "One day I'd like to guide lost souls, Drifters, like I was." The idea of joining the Stars was cheerful, but... "I can look forward to something and hope it's a long time away, right?" She smiled.

"I said goodbye to my birth family when they crossed the sky as stars to try again to fight away the monsters... Everyone must have said some goodbyes while I was gone," she acknowledged, sadness creeping into her voice, though it was more so for Whisperear. She pressed close and comforting against her friend's side. "Who do you wish I could have met? Would you like to tell me about them?"