[TB] STARLIGHT - Chapter 1 (Patreon)

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Crowflight stood over his breakfast and watched all four Clans going about their first day in their new home.

Unfamiliar scents and sounds tickled his nose and ears, brought by the chilly wind blowing over the lake. He found himself unable to taste his blackbird as he looked down over the hills towards the water, his paws tingling with an eagerness to explore that was almost overpowering.

He knew every cat around him was feeling it, too – after their long, arduous journey through the mountains, no cat seemed capable of sitting still. The devastation and hopelessness of the old forest was long behind them, and ahead was nothing but new possibilities.

Crowflight wondered, not for the first time, if this was what the very first Clan cats thought when they had arrived in the old forest – they couldn’t have been there from the beginning, not in his mind.

They were all calling this patch of hills the “Arrival”. The word tickled Crowflight’s ear whenever he heard it. It’s a whole new world to name, to know, he thought, his dark blue gaze scanning the territories around the lake. His eyes rested on the moorland, which seemed to stretch on and on into forever. I hope we come up with better names than the ‘Arrival,’ though...

He forced himself to wolf down his blackbird. It tasted different than the birds of the old forest, more like the birds that he and the other chosen cats had caught on their journey to the lake. He felt a pang in his gut, finding himself missing that time. Their journey had been dangerous, yes, but it had been theirs. Now it was over and done, their prophecy fulfilled, as far as Crowflight knew. What lay ahead?

Crowflight figured he ought to be happy that the Clans would be going back to normal, but as he looked out over the sea of cats, he could name just as many from other Clans as he could his own. Would the Clans truly go back to the way things were? The old Crowflight might have been fine with that, but now...

His eye caught on Nightfrost, ThunderClan’s newest warrior. Crowflight’s heart stirred – the two of them had gotten their warrior names together, in the Tribe of Rushing Water’s mountain home, something that had to be unprecedented in the entire history of the four Clans and the Tribe. Tallstar and Tinystar had lauded them both as warriors of a new age of friendship among the Clans.

Could the Clans truly survive in this new land if things just went back to how they were before?

Crowflight shook his head. These aren’t thoughts a warrior should concern himself with, he told himself. Medicine cats and leaders and deputies are the ones who think about that stuff.

Yet as he looked at Nightfrost, and his sister Shadepaw, and Mistyfoot their Clanmate, and Stoneheart of ShadowClan - all cats from other Clans that he had gotten to know better than even most of his own Clanmates - he found his mind turning to the idea that perhaps they weren’t just normal warriors anymore; that they could never be again.

“Look at you, with your head in the clouds!” a voice beside him purred. Crowflight felt his mother’s muzzle touch his shoulder as Ashfoot approached. She meowed on, “The leaders are calling a meeting. We should join the others.”

Crowflight nodded, somewhat grateful for Ashfoot’s interference. He must’ve looked like a hare-brained kit, staring off at the lake like he didn’t know what water was! He flicked a stray feather from his paw before loping after his mother.

Among the scraggly bushes on the hillside, there was the stump of a tree that had fallen long ago – it was here that Tinystar, Leopardstar, Russetstar, and Mudclaw gathered. The stump, however, was not big enough for every leader – Russetstar sat at its roots, giving the other three space up top. Crowflight wondered if the prickly ShadowClan leader was alright with that.

He sat down beside his mother, and felt her pelt press close to him, as if she were afraid he might slip away. Crowflight had spent too long annoyed by that already – his mother had lost her mate in battle and two kits to sickness, and then had her only surviving kit go on a dangerous journey to unknown lands. He figured she was more than allowed to sit this close.

“No Tallstar,” murmured Ashfoot. Her eyes flashed with concern. “I thought he was feeling better...”

Crowflight felt his chest tighten. “I’m sure it was just the journey,” he whispered back. “It was hard on everyone.”

Ashfoot didn’t look convinced, and all around Crowflight’s ears seemed to pick up comments and chatter from cats outside of WindClan. Were they all talking about Tallstar’s sickness? Crowflight’s claws curled into the earth. Didn’t they know he was so old? That he was ill? Didn’t they have any empathy?

Crowflight hazarded a glance behind him. Tallstar had been laid down in a nearby thicket of gorse and hadn’t been moved since. He swallowed, turning his attention back to the Clan’s leadership. Mudclaw stood as strong and powerful as any of the Clan leaders, his head held high. This wasn’t the first time that he’d taken Tallstar’s place lately, and Crowflight knew it wouldn’t be the last.

Tallstar doesn’t have much farther to go, he thought grimly. We’ll be looking at Mudstar soon...

As the deputies of each Clan approached, Crowflight was somewhat glad that ThunderClan’s lack of representation was enough to change the tune of the crowd’s gossip. Blackfoot sat beside Russetstar, Tawnypelt settled below Leopardstar... Mudclaw was Tallstar’s deputy, so his place was fine when Tallstar was not around, but no cat stood beneath Tinystar, and that was just as noticeable as Tallstar’s absence – his deputy and mate, Sandstorm, had been kidnapped by Twolegs back in the old forest, during a mission to save cats captured from all four Clans. It was thanks to her that several cats had been able to return home, but it had come at the cost of her own freedom.

“Cats of all Clans!” called Tinystar. It was always a shock to hear such a powerful voice from such a small cat. “After moons of suffering and our long, arduous Great Journey... we have finally arrived at the lake.”

“Thank StarClan!” breathed a warrior in the crowd. They were shushed with a hiss from Dustpelt.

“We lost so much...” whimpered Ferncloud, a ThunderClan queen. Crowflight recalled that she had lost two of her kittens to the starvation back in the old forest, and was clinging to her third, Larchkit.

Beside her, Thornpaw nodded. The WindClan apprentice was sitting with Smokepaw, a young ShadowClan cat. His mother Duskflower had taken care of Thornpaw until she'd fallen off of a cliff in the mountains and was never seen again. The two apprentices had been inseparable ever since.

“It is time that we begin making our homes here,” Leopardstar meowed on. Her pale amber eyes raked over the gathered cats. “We must seek out suitable territories, and find places to make our camps.”

A ripple of excitement passed through the gathered cats. Crowflight couldn’t help but feel a little eager about it, too – who would be chosen for such an honor? Surely only the most senior warriors... He looked to Mudclaw, and found no hints in his former mentor’s steely gaze.

“We’ve decided to send one cat from each Clan to survey the land,” Tinystar explained. “The rest of us will hunt in the meantime, and gather our strength for the move.”

“Tell us who’s going, already!” cried Spiderpaw, one of ThunderClan’s apprentices. The leggy she-cat was looking up at Tinystar with shining, eager eyes, as if her leader were about to call her name.

Dustpelt cuffed his daughter around the ear. “Hush!” he hissed. “He’s getting to it!” Beside him, Cinderpelt, his mate, purred with amusement.

Russetstar’s eyes were sparkling when she meowed, “We leaders came to a consensus at dawn – it seemed only right that the cats chosen to bring us to this lake should be the ones to find our homes beside it. Stoneheart will be going for ShadowClan.”

Crowflight’s heart flipped. That means...

“Crowflight of WindClan will represent us,” Mudclaw meowed, dipping his head towards Crowflight’s position in the crowd.

Crowflight’s pelt prickled, and beside him Ashfoot purred, “Oh, what an honor!”

“Mistyfoot will go for ThunderClan,” Tinystar announced.

“For RiverClan, Tawnypelt will go,” Leopardstar said curtly, gesturing at her deputy with her tail.

Crowflight’s excitement was stamped down by that announcement, and the mood of the Clans as a whole grew a touch more somber. Feathertail had been RiverClan’s chosen cat, but she had finally gotten fed up with how unhappy she was in her Clan and chose to stay in the mountains with the Tribe cat she had fallen in love with on the journey, Brook Where Small Fish Swim.

Not only that, but her brother, Stormfur, had died on the chosen’s journey home from the lake, saving the Tribe from the vicious monster-cat Sharptooth. Even if Feathertail had stayed, RiverClan would still be mourning at least one of their warriors.

A golden cat – Crowflight dimly recalled his name as Root, a cat they had rescued from the Twolegs – piped up in the quiet: “Tawnypelt is definitely the best choice!”

The silence dragged, but it grew more awkward than somber. The golden tom seemed oblivious to it, his eyes fixated on the RiverClan deputy. Tawnypelt flicked her tail in what Crowflight assumed was bashfulness – or, perhaps it was gratitude, for giving that small distraction.

“What about us?” Nightfrost wondered. Tinystar’s son stood up in the crowd, his tail flicking back and forth. “Both Shadepaw and I went on the lake journey, too!”

“You weren’t chosen by StarClan,” Mudclaw countered, curling his lip.

Crowflight felt himself bristling. Ashfoot’s tail stroked his spine, willing him to calm down, but Crowflight was a mouselength away from snapping at his own deputy. They may not have been chosen, but they both journeyed with us all the same! It wouldn’t have been the same without them!

Tinystar’s pale eyes sparkled, though. “Very well, Nightfrost, you can go – think of it as your first warrior mission!” he purred.

Beside him, Leopardstar’s fur stood on end. “Two ThunderClan cats?! Ridiculous! If you think for a moment that this means you’ll get more territory than the rest of us...”

“I’ll make sure it’s all fair,” Tawnypelt soothed, looking up at her leader patiently. “Don’t worry. I don’t think it’ll cause any harm for Nightfrost to come along... These cats have a lot of experience navigating new territories.”

“What about me?” Shadepaw’s voice was sharp in the crowd. She was sat beside her brother, her dappled tail wound around her paws. “I can look for herbs as we go!” With a glance at Leopardstar, she added, “And medicine cats have no stake in boundaries...”

Crowflight’s heart hammered in his ears. Would she be able to come along? I hope so...

But Tinystar was shaking his head. “We need you here, Shadepaw,” he sighed. “I’m sorry. There are so many bruises and cuts from the journey, and we need every cat capable of taking these last steps.”

Crowflight did not miss Shadepaw’s expression of hurt and betrayal. But she backed down as gracefully as she could, not meeting any cat’s eye as she looked down at her paws. Crowflight wished he knew what to say to change Tinystar’s mind, but it wasn’t wise to test the ThunderClan leader’s temper – and he did have a point, much as Crowflight didn’t like it.

Mudclaw flicked his tail, and each of the chosen cats moved out from the crowd to meet at the base of the stump with Tawnypelt. Crowflight looked at Ashfoot, who nodded encouragingly, before he got to his paws to join them. Once again, he found himself sitting beside Mistyfoot and Stoneheart and Nightfrost, but the absence of so many of their group was obvious, and it pained him in a way he couldn’t describe.

Feathertail and Stormfur should be here, he thought bitterly. He could feel Shadepaw’s gaze on his back from within the crowd. You, too.

Did the others feel this way? Crowflight couldn’t tell. He’d always had a hard time with that. Mistyfoot was staring ahead, her blue eyes as determined as always. Stoneheart, her littermate, had the same cool, collected expression he always wore, though Crowflight would bet a rabbit’s foot that he’d endured a dozen worried mews from his mate, Rowanclaw. Nightfrost stood beside Mistyfoot, head held high, trying his best to copy his Clanmate, right down to the way his paws were placed; but the way the wind rattled his whiskers made his eyes light up in a way only Nightfrost’s could.

“The journey around the lake ought to take two days at most,” Russetstar meowed on, oblivious to what the chosen cats must be feeling. Her green gaze raked over each one of them. “We will expect you back by then.”

“We’ll return on time,” Mistyfoot promised, nodding to each leader in turn and then to Tinystar, whom she looked up to with that passionately adamant gaze. “We’ll find homes for all of us.”

“I know you will,” Tinystar murmured, his tail twisting.

“In the meantime, we deputies ought to organize a few patrols,” Mudclaw meowed. He leaped down from the stump, flicking his tail for Blackfoot to join him. “Can’t stay here long if we’ve made ourselves a camp in a fox’s nest...”

The jab at Tinystar was obvious, and Crowflight saw how Mistyfoot flinched at it. Before, if Mistyfoot were made anxious, Stormfur would have rushed to ease her worries – but there was no Stormfur here anymore: Not for her, not for any of them.

“Each of you knows what our Clans require,” Leopardstar meowed, ignoring Mudclaw’s jab. She crouched on the stump like she was about to strike at a piece of prey down below. “Be quick, and most importantly, be safe.”

“We shall,” Tawnypelt assured. She raised her dappled tail and set off, heading for the willows where the chosen cats had met Midnight the badger on their first trip.

Crowflight stifled a sigh. He was glad to be able to leave the forced tension of the temporary camp and feel the wind unstifled in his fur again. He didn’t get more than a few paces away, though, before Shadepaw stepped into the patrol’s way.

Tawnypelt rolled her eyes, clearly sensing that she was not necessary for whatever this was about to become. “I’ll be over there,” she sighed. The tortoiseshell she-cat walked off, heading for a patch of reeds just down the hill. She sat down there and began to groom herself.

“Be careful,” Shadepaw insisted when Tawnypelt was gone. She touched her nose to each of the chosen cats in turn. “Please, keep an eye out for any herbs or anything out of the ordinary, or foxes or badgers or...”

When it was his turn, Crowflight breathed in her scent, and wished again that she was coming, too. It doesn’t feel right, he thought, watching the young tortoiseshell step away. None of this feels right.

Nightfrost purred. “We’ll be fine, Shadepaw,” he insisted.

Stoneheart nodded, and licked the medicine cat apprentice around the ear. “We need to go, before Tawnypelt claws our tails off.”

Mistyfoot touched her nose to Shadepaw’s forehead. “We’ll tell you everything when we return.”

Shadepaw’s eyes lingered on Crowflight. “You’d better,” she breathed. She rubbed her muzzle against his, purring softly. She drew away quickly, and mewed, “Good luck!”

Crowflight sighed as she left, her dark, dappled shape heading for Brackenfur and the other medicine cats. There must have been a light scolding – Shadepaw's ears folded back, and her tail-tip twitched rapidly. Crowflight sighed. Would Brackenfur ever understand her?

“We should be going,” Mistyfoot meowed. “Come on.”

Reluctantly, Crowflight followed as the others made their way down the slope to Tawnypelt. The tortoiseshell she-cat shook out her pelt and took the lead, tail up, heading once again for the willows.

Crowflight sighed at that. He looked back over his shoulder again and saw the Clans going about their preparations. Falcontail was talking eagerly to Leopardstar about something, Mudclaw had Tornear and Webfoot by his side, Tiynstar was chatting with Dustpelt and Cloudtail, and Russetstar was heading out on a patrol with three of her own warriors.

Turning his head forward, Crowflight swallowed around a hard lump in his throat – the realization that this was the last journey he would be making with these cats that he had grown to love so much washed over him like a wave.

After this, it would all be over.