AND I'M HOME && emberstar

[FLICKERFIRE]

Her last waking moments are full of delirium, agony, flies settling on open wounds, a forest drenched in blood, uncertainty.

Hope. Reassurance. She'd thought she'd seen Emberstar at the edge of her vision, approaching on kind and just paws. Ready to tell her she was ready to live on for ThunderClan. She could sustain her remaining lives for long enough to defend what was important to her.

When Flickerfire steps into the starlit forest of StarClan's territory, she's oddly at peace. ShadowClan does not know where she is, how she's died, why. She imagines Pitchstar's fury, Chilledgaze's disappointment, the apathy of her other Clanmates, and there's a stirring of longing in her belly. Is it against the rules to tell them what happened? Tell them goodbye?

She has full use of her limbs again. The unbearable pain of rended flesh, of exposed muscle and bone is gone, replaced by a strange, silvery numbness that tingles in every limb. She flexes her claws, and she still gets that satisfying plunge into soft earth beneath her.

But in StarClan, there is no hunger. There is no cold. She wanders, eyes wide and filled with naivete, taking every silver-lined leaf, every shadow-rooted tree in. She'd come across someone she knew, eventually -- Briarstar, maybe, or Spark-kit. Twilightfall. Moth. Someone.

Her paws do not ache as they would have in the corporeal world, but her heart does, and she slows to a crawl. Pitchstar doesn't know where she is. Siltpaw. Even Emberstar doesn't know she's here, lost in a strange, starry forest.

She exhales, lowering her head to her paws. She's alone. She hates to be alone.

@emberstar​

[ PENNED BY MARQUETTE ]​

​

 

[emberstar]

IT WENT FROM A SPARK TO AN OPEN FLAME ⋆⁺₊⋆ Her last waking moments are full of family, happiness, desperately whispered reassurances, last goodbyes to family, peace.

Emberstar did not expect to keep her scars, when she joined the stars. Those of her friends had faded when she had seen them. As if they had never known the horrors of the great battle. Meanwhile, her reminders of that dark day decorated her pelt like medals. It surprised her that she found comfort in that. Though she couldn't quite put words as to why it did.

Perhaps it was because, in Starclan, that old wound on her shoulder didn't ache anymore.

Not all her scars stayed though. The place Cinderfrost tore her stomach open was barren. A few of the lesser cuts and scrapes she had never given much attention to were missing. And, of course, the wounds the dogs tore into her were nowhere to be found.

She blinked. It was strange, to be fully aware of herself again. Her last moments had been spent barely hanging on, trying to get every moment with her clan that the stars would allow her. Her mind had been so hazy. Not anymore though.

Slowly, a grin spread across her face. She was going to see her friends again.

In an instant, she broke out into a run. Haku, Blinding Star, Blackmoon, Morningpaw, she was going to see them all again. Oh, what a wonderful gift Starclan was. She would never lose any of her friends again, not here. It was more than she could ever ask for. A laugh rippled through her. Even though she could not feel the ache of her wounds, she could still feel the breeze in her fur. It was perfect. This place was perfect.

Then Emberstar caught sight of a dark pelt through the trees.

And she skidded to a halt.

It hadn't been perfect, she realized, or it wouldn't have been able to get better like it just did. The strange, starry forest around her shone a little bit brighter as she saw the one cat she should have been looking for all along. "Flickerfire!" she called, bolting toward the other molly and threatening to knock her over in her attempt to nuzzle her.

Emberstar had been afraid - she admitted to herself, now that it was assuaged - that she might not see Flickerfire again. That somehow her love would leave her, go wherever her mother had gone. But she was here, she was here. All the world was right. ​