private 𝐎𝐑 𝐌𝐀𝐊𝐄 𝐎𝐍𝐄 ╱ 𝐏𝐑𝐈𝐕𝐀𝐓𝐄

[SUNNVAR]

The path to the Moonstone had been winding in more ways than one. To stand before it now, apart from Sootstar, apart from WindClan itself, it would seem — he feels at once very small as moonlight streams from the cavern's ceiling and upon the beacon of StarClan. Silver light is thrown about the dim room. The eyes that had slowly adjusted to night were bathed in brightness enough to make him squint. Yet even still, Sunstride does not shy away from its beckoning. Wolfsong had guided him this far. It is with only a glance towards him (seeking encouragement? understanding? some sign that he was doing what was right, not just for himself but for his clan?) that the auburn warrior takes his final steps forward. Power and warmth radiate from the stone. Its thrumming aura a reminder of home. Of the snow den he had carved four seasons ago; the nursery he had been raised in; playing about with Ellisif, his eye fully healed. Laughing as he cringed away from snow in his ears.

Cool, pale, but kind.
He can only hope that they remain as such.

It is not quite like falling asleep, to press his nose to the stone. He wonders, in a moment of terrible clarity, if this is how the dying feel before the world goes dark.

𝐄𝐀𝐂𝐇 𝐌𝐎𝐑𝐍𝐈𝐍𝐆 𝐌𝐘 𝐇𝐄𝐀𝐑𝐓  ╱╱ 𝐈𝐒 𝐀 𝐕𝐔𝐋𝐓𝐔𝐑𝐄 〚 11.22.2023 〛 —————«

• OOC. —
• 

  SUNSTRIDE. WINDCLAN DEPUTY & MOOR RUNNER.
  ——– HE – HIM – HIS ╱╱ 48+ MOONS OLD, ADULT.

  NPC x NPC, LONERS. MATE TO WOLFSONG; FATHER TO BEARPAW, SINGEDPAW, RIVEPAW, SUNLITPAW AND FEATHERPAW. MENTORING SCORCHPAW.
  
  TH ╱╱ LARGE CHOCOLATE ROSETTE TABBY, ICY EYES.

• "speech"

​

 

[BLAZESTAR]

StarClan’s forest trembles with fragrant, soft winds. Here, the air is unseasonably warm, damp with the taste of rain, laced with scuttling prey-scents. From the treeline, a pair of silver-blue eyes burn like descended stars; as Sunstride awakens, Blazestar detaches himself from the shadows and strides forward. His tail is lifted, his chin high; each step is elongated, easy. Gone is the ache from tired bones; there is a softness that has been returned to weathered features, re-gifted after moons of exhaustion. Moonlight gilds his fur, reflects in a powerful gaze—and when he speaks, it’s with StarClan’s authority, as though all of his warrior ancestors are lending their voices too.

“Sunstride.” He dips his head, tone carefully neutral. “Are you ready to receive the lives of a leader, even if you will not receive all nine?” He gazes back at a tom who had once been his enemy—his cerulean gaze is devoid of animosity, but so too is it devoid of warmth.

, ”​

​

 

[SUNNVAR]

If this is what death felt like, he will no longer think it such a terrible thing.

Waking up to their forests is like taking a breath for the very first time. It is as if living a memory he never knew that he had forgotten. His gaze sweeps around, desperate, seeking. There are eyes in the shadows that he once might have cowered from, yet in this moment he knows only that he is home. Either that, or it is a terrible dream. Terrible only because now that he has lived it once — to go back to the moors seems a terrifying ordeal. Terrible in that they may shun him now. He could be here to say his farewells to all that he had known. Had WindClan doomed itself in its search for strength and power? Had they denied themselves StarClan's light, and sought it out once more far too late?

Blazestar slips from the treeline. Though his fur glitters with stars and his limbs lift with painless ease, it is in every way the warrior that he had known at Gatherings and at war. Is this the truth of StarClan? That leaders not only speak with them, but live with them? Know them intimately? Is this the entirety of what Sootstar had abandoned?

His throat feels dry. He is a kit beneath his father; learning, yet not quite there. "Does StarClan not see me worthy of them all?" he questions. Despite his aching uncertainty, the words come out harsher than he had meant for them to.

𝐄𝐀𝐂𝐇 𝐌𝐎𝐑𝐍𝐈𝐍𝐆 𝐌𝐘 𝐇𝐄𝐀𝐑𝐓  ╱╱ 𝐈𝐒 𝐀 𝐕𝐔𝐋𝐓𝐔𝐑𝐄 〚 11.22.2023 〛 —————«

• OOC. —
• 

  SUNSTRIDE. WINDCLAN DEPUTY & MOOR RUNNER.
  ——– HE – HIM – HIS ╱╱ 48+ MOONS OLD, ADULT.

  NPC x NPC, LONERS. MATE TO WOLFSONG; FATHER TO BEARPAW, SINGEDPAW, RIVEPAW, SUNLITPAW AND FEATHERPAW. MENTORING SCORCHPAW.
  
  TH ╱╱ LARGE CHOCOLATE ROSETTE TABBY, ICY EYES.

• "speech"

​

 

[BLAZESTAR]

The warrior before him is scented with the moor, with recent battle, and he’s briefly reminded of his brutal end, of teeth snagging the flesh on the back of his neck. Blazestar regards Sunstride with round, twinkling eyes. Silence stretches between them for scattered heartbeats. “Does StarClan not see me worthy of them all?” The former SkyClan leader slowly shakes his head—left, right, center. “You will not receive all nine lives while Sootstar still lives,” he murmurs. His tail lowers, twitching against the silver-crusted clumps of grass behind him.

Quiet reigns. After several heartbeats, Blazestar mews, his tone softening, gentle: “You have a choice to make, now, don’t you?” Sunstride could tells Blazestar to proceed, and he would receive eight glittering lives, would be crowned Sunstar of the rolling moors, but he can see by the hesitance in the rosetted tabby’s pale gaze that the choice is grander than that.

, ”​

​

 

[SUNNVAR]

In the quiet that follows Blazestar's revelation, a moment that he should have known to expect, the warrior's head begins to hang low. A visitor upon this star-touched forest, it has not taken the weight of life from his shoulders. There was still much to worry for, still burdens that he must carry. Had he known that his troubles would spill to the other clans so horribly, would he have done anything differently? Would he have killed Harrierstripe, or the others that fled the moors? How much terror would they bring upon the clans now? How much harm could one cat bring? Sootstar is what stands between him and his leadership. Though it would be a lie to call him eager to take it, is this not what WindClan needed? A new life apart from her memory would wash this forest clean.

"And StarClan will not tell me of the path before me? What I must do?" he slowly confirms. Even if Blazestar knew what the stars would say, would he share it? The truth? Or would he simply wish her dead as many others certainly must? Perhaps that is why the wise ragdoll would remain silent.

𝐄𝐀𝐂𝐇 𝐌𝐎𝐑𝐍𝐈𝐍𝐆 𝐌𝐘 𝐇𝐄𝐀𝐑𝐓  ╱╱ 𝐈𝐒 𝐀 𝐕𝐔𝐋𝐓𝐔𝐑𝐄 〚 11.22.2023 〛 —————«

• OOC. —
• 

  SUNSTRIDE. WINDCLAN DEPUTY & MOOR RUNNER.
  ——– HE – HIM – HIS ╱╱ 48+ MOONS OLD, ADULT.

  NPC x NPC, LONERS. MATE TO WOLFSONG; FATHER TO BEARPAW, SINGEDPAW, RIVEPAW, SUNLITPAW AND FEATHERPAW. MENTORING SCORCHPAW.
  
  TH ╱╱ LARGE CHOCOLATE ROSETTE TABBY, ICY EYES.

• "speech"

​