FACES FROM MY PAST RETURN // little wolf

[HOWLINGSTAR]

// @LITTLE WOLF

The days and nights within the ShadowClan medicine den blend together as Howlingstar's symptoms worsen. She spends most her days curled up in a mossy nest, waking only long enough to lap at water and, when she can stomach it, get down a small meal. The rest of her time is spent in blissful sleep, chasing prey through the bountiful forest or watching the clan's kits play. In sleep, she doesn't feel the tightness of her lungs or the nausea when she thinks about needing to eat. The bitter herbs that stain her tongue are not placed at her nose here. She is free.

But this dream is different, she notices immediately. When she opens her eyes, she is not in ThunderClan's forest, but is bathed in starlight in a woodland unfamiliar to her. She gazes around with wonder, at the lush greenery that drapes the trees and ground. It's certainly not her territory, that she knows, but the scents and scenery could do enough to trick her. She draws in a deep breath and begins to meander through the forest, eyes scanning the treetops until a snapping twig alerts her that she's not alone.

Green eyes fall onto a patch of undergrowth, waiting expectantly to see who or what is there.​

 

[LITTLE WOLF]

The undergrowth parts for her, more easily in death than it ever has in life. No branches pull at her fur, no thorns prick her paw pads. At her feet star glimmer, winking in and out of existence just like in the night sky she has often looked to on the darkest of evenings. Her ebony pelt, too, is dusted in starshine but everything else is still her. Her small frame, littered with the same scars she had held throughout her life, her green eyes tinged with just the faintest hint of sadness.

This meeting was a melancholy one. She knows that her mother would not exactly be thrilled to have her walking in her dreams no longer as Little Wolf of ThunderClan but Little Wolf of StarClan instead. What mother ever desired to see their children walking the endless skies before them? She had felt that pain when Morningpaw had passed, had watched her mother go through it with her brother, Graystorm, and now she would have to look into those eyes and see her pain and her grief and know that she would not be there in life to guide her through it.

"Ma.." she speaks softly, as if speaking too loud would wake the brown tabby from this dream and then they would never get a proper goodbye. She is grateful to have been given this opportunity at all, she would never dream of wasting it.

She wants to run to Howlingstar like she is a kit again, wants to bury her nose into her shoulder fur and beg her to make everything better, but Little Wolf knows it is a foolish hope, that she needed to be strong too. "I'm sorry" for not making it. She waits, frozen in place, holding her breath for the brown tabbies reaction to seeing her here.

​

 

[HOWLINGSTAR]

She isn't sure who she had been expecting, but this hadn't been it. That lithe ebony body slips into the small clearing with stars dancing at her heels and Howlingstar can only stare for a moment, not comprehending. I'm just dreaming of my daughter, She thinks at first, rationalizing it all. But this isn't like her other dreams. Deep down, she knows where she is, and seeing her glittering pelt only reminds her of the StarClanners who had given her her lives. "Little Wolf?" She croaks softly, head tilting slightly to the side with disbelief. Her eyes scrunch up with confusion, and it's only when her daughter says she is sorry that she begins to feel her heart pound.

"Why, love?" She quietly mews, stepping closer, but there is hesitation in her steps. She will play into her little fantasy a little longer. This is just a dream. Only a dream. It could not possibly be anything else. "Why are you sorry? Come," She beckons her closer, like the she-cat is a kit again and she is going to wrap her up in her tail to comfort her.​