#flurrypelt

[elementclangen]

The Next Generation

In honor of Moon 100, here's a drawing I made of all of the founders' children! Thank you so much for all the likes and support you've been giving this blog. I'm so glad that there are other people out there who are attached to these cats!

Anyways, here are the characters, from top to bottom and left to right:

Top Row: Chervilcry, Stonefreckle, Needlekit, and Frostkit

Second Row: Graypaw and Flurrypelt (Yes, their poses are supposed to mirror Stormrush and Bushmask's in the founders art post I made)

Third Row: Shardfrost, Yuccastar (willow), and Mountainpaw (I drew Mountainpaw how he looked in my head)

Bottom Row: Peakspots, Rosemaryquake, and Antlersky (I drew Rosemaryquake and Antlersky pretty young-they're more like Rosemarypaw and Antlerpaw here).

I have a couple more short stories in the works about some of these characters, so that will probably be the next non moon/sprite related thing you see.

[chaoschaos1]

Clangen has a hold on me so i present

ChaosClan antics

It definitely stays true to its name, I'll give it that.

alrighty, so we begin with

Buckstar as leader,

Whiskerlight as deputy,

Skymoth as medicine cat,

Thymedusk,

Springwave,

Sandysong,

Floodhorse,

Troutfur,

Flurrypatch,

and finally Fidgetfoot

I love them all.

Sandysong and Troutfur have a LOT of children. Like, fifteen kits.

Floodhorse and his mate Flurrypelt have ten kits, including Hawkfur who is my personal favourite of them.

Whiskerlight and Skymoth only had two kits, Murkthroat and Woodpelt.

Murkthroat is my precious baby, and now she is deputy while her mate, Hawkstar is the new leader after Buckstar and Whiskerstar both died.

Murkthroat and Hawkstar are my favourote cats, along with their transmasc son Dimwind, who is decidely my child.

A random kittypet named Echo joined the clan and I absolutely lost my mind, because Echo is the name of one my favourite ocs. The best part is, both Echos are enby and I didn't even need to change the cat for that to happen.

Their mate is Snipcall, an adorable medicine cat that has healed more of my cats than I can count.

Speaking of medicine cats, the best healer among them is a ginger cat named Garlic and I adore him. He's childish and I see him playing with the many, many kits every few timeskips.

In StarClan, as of writing this, there's thirteen cats, not counting the StarClan Guide, and sadly three are kits (Houndkit, Antkit and Floodkit) and one is an apprentice (Daypaw). Yeah, the vigil messages from the timeskips when they died killed me a little, because their parents are still alive and took a long time to recover afterwards.

On a lighter note, there's a kittypet named Crispy that joined the clan and I could not resist renaming her KrispyKreme, so that's fun.

[sootwhiskers]

name: flarescar (he/him)

past names: flarekit, flarepaw

allegiance: shadowclan (past: temporarily clanless)

rank: warrior (senior warrior)

parents: redthorn and echostream of shadowclan

siblings: none

mate: cardinalfeather of riverclan

children: turtlestream and cometshine of riverclan

other family:

grandson: patchkit of riverclan

granddaughters: otterkit and blossomkit of riverclan

unborn grandkits through turtlestream

apprentices: flurrypelt

story info under readmore (currently a wip)

DESIGN NOTES

one of my very first warriors ocs

scruffy man

canines always stick out

kind of hard to tell here but he’s pretty scrawny

flarepaw’s father was distant due to him actually being in love with a skyclan she-cat and not his mother, the shadowclan deputy. meanwhile his mother was busy with deputy duties, though she made more time for him than his father did. flarescar got over it enough to take a riverclan mate but he’s still kind of prickly in general. one of the cats to be chased out by foxstar and duskstar, but eventually he returned home.

[elementclangen]

Moon 120-Newleaf

Brightfalcon (163) is really struggling with her children’s deaths.  She won’t get up from her nest and just wants to lay around all day.  She’s old.  Maybe it would just be better if she went to sleep one day and didn’t wake up.  Why live when half her kits are dead?  Caterpillarmallow (70) is also struggling.  The combined stress of the war and the loss of her mate have left her with constant nightmares.  She can’t work, leaving the young Healers to fend for themselves, even though they, too, are grieving and  have lost siblings.  Graysong (33) feels like he should be more torn up over Flurrypelt and Antlersky’s deaths, but he just wasn’t that close to either of them.  And now he has Yellowcreek (47) as a mate and he’s busy replenishing the herb stores and healing injured cats.  He doesn’t really have time to grieve his littermate or older sister. There are also some tensions between Needlepelt (23) and Frostheart (23).  Frostheart is jealous that her sister gets to go on more patrols than her, since, as a Healer, she is less likely to be attacked by FurledClan.  Needlepelt notices that Frostheart is jealous, but, instead of talking to her sister, she gives bitter herbs to her father, who she knows Frostheart is close with. Meanwhile, Yuccastar (99) feels conflicted over the new Star-blessed cat in the Clan.  They enjoy spending time with Faiththrift (41), but feel like she doesn’t do anything useful on the battlefield and her powers are weaker than Yuccastar’s.  Chasingskip (32) is feeling a little closed in by the camp and his parents’ continued attention.  She just wants to have some time alone and ends up taking that out on Midgepurr (17).  

[elementclangen]

Moon 118-Leaf-bare

The combination of leaf-bare and the war is wearing on the Clan.  Brightfalcon (161) is devastated by the loss of her son, just a year after she lost Rosemaryquake.  She’s not sure she wants to go on in a world where her kits are dead.  Can’t she just go back in time to last leaf-bare, when they all were still alive?  The war with FurledClan has led to ElementClan having to adopt new routines.  Yuccastar (97) has their strongest wind-blessed cats flushing up drifts of snow on the borders and often puts Peakspots (102) on border patrols, so that any cats who remember Nightingaletree see her son is still out and fighting.  But after a border skirmish leaves him with a bad wound, he has to take a rest in the healer's den.  In his absence it doesn’t hurt to have Yellowcreek (45) do a little dark-cursed demonstration.  Just so they don’t forget who they’re dealing with.  Yuccastar has also recovered from greencough and came out as nonbinary, using she/they pronouns.  They seem to be having a bit of a mid-life crisis and doubting herself a lot more than they used to.  Meanwhile, Antlersky (76) is getting along with her brother, feeling the need to bond with her remaining siblings after Flurrypelt’s loss.  Meanwhile, the quadrangle cats are bonding.  Cressfreckle (34), Airclaw (60), and Graysong (31) had a nice talk while eating, and Cressfreckle purrs for a long time at one of Airclaw’s lame jokes.  However, Yellowcreek is taking some time by himself. The demonstrations haven’t helped Yellowcreek’s reputation with some of his clanmates.  He notices that cats like Bushmask (128) and Flinttooth (19) have been nervous around him lately.  He wishes they would just relax and that Yuccastar wouldn’t ask any more of him.  But he decides that he won’t stop using his powers to protect his Clan, if that’s what Yuccastar thinks is best.

[elementclangen]

Moon 117-Leaf-bare

There’s a lot happening in the Clan, between leaf-bare, the war, and the love quadrangle.  The war with FurledClan has made tensions high.  There have been several border skirmishes, but thankfully no battles.  Yet.  With the onset of leaf-bare, disease has come to the camp.  Both Gentle (104) and Yuccastar (96) have come down with it.  Caterpillarmallow (67) wishes that Graysong (30) would be more helpful in healing them, but he’s been using his powers to grow lavender instead.  Hey, Yellowcreek (30) said that he likes them!  Bushmask (127) decides to step in and is reminding Graysong how important his job is, such as through telling him about the various times Brightfalcon (160) had wished her powers were strong enough to heal others like Graysong can.  Graysong gets it.  But still.  Yellowcreek.  And there are some cats who still don’t like the dark-cursed cat, most notably Flinttooth (18), who Graysong overheads complaining about his friend.  How dare she!  Meanwhile, Faiththrift (38) uses her star-blessed powers to scare off an enemy patrol.  She thinks the Clan should throw a celebration in her honor.  Yuccastar is annoyed.  Sadly, on a patrol with Peakspots (36) , Flurrypelt (30) gets too close to twolegs and is crushed when one of them starts a monster unexpectedly.  Graysong feels bad that his brother died after they had grown so far apart.

Meta: Technically, Flurrypelt was just captured by twolegs and not killed. But the game treated it like he was dead and I treated it that way too, so I decided that he was killed instead of captured. He died anyways three moons later while lost.

[elementclangen]

Moon 115-Leaf-fall

Well, the Clan has solved one leg of the love quadrangle.  It’s actually the side that few cats expected to come first: Airclaw (57) and Cressfreckle (31).  Airclaw loves how Cressfreckle balances her out.  Where she can be impulsive and confrontational, he is calm and relaxed. Where she enjoys getting out of camp and going for a hunt, Cressfreckle would rather stay and watch over the kits.  She loves that about him.  And she’d be okay if he loved other cats too.  She knows she does. . .Yellowcreek (42) is a little shocked that his friend and crush now has a mate.  He has to go on a long walk, alone, at night to process it.  Meanwhile, Antlersky (73) is realizing that she’s now a senior warrior, and that younger cats are annoying.  Cressfreckle never does anything, and Frostheart (18) is always stealing the best prey.  Don’t these cats know respect!  Her mate, Caterpillarmallow (65) is much more appreciative of the young cats, especially  her fellow Healers.  Needlepelt (18) fought off a rogue while gathering herbs the other day.  And she’s not even a warrior!  Impressive.  Yellowcreek feels like he’s finally starting to find his place in the Clan.  He chatted with Yuccastar (94) (who he’s still a little afraid of-she is a murderer, afterall) and feels like he understands where she’s coming from better.  She’s afraid of losing power after gaining it.  It doesn’t excuse her murdering Rindlefish and Judaschaser, but it does explain some of it.  He’s definitely hesitant to expose her, though.  Flurrypelt (28) and Graysong (28) keep drifting farther apart.  The brothers used to do everything together, but now it feels like Graysong is closer with their sisters than he is with him.  And being the only water-blessed warrior, Flurrypelt feels out of place.  He can’t hear Bushmask (225), Frostheart and Antlersky as they whisper to each other over the wind and he can’t play ‘rockball’ with Brightfalcon (157) Graysong, Needlepelt.  He just doesn’t fit in with the rest of his family seems to have.

Meta: By 'few cats' I mean me. I did not see Cressfreckle x Airclaw coming. I thought it would be Yellowcreek and Cressfreckle who got together first, because they've had romantic like for each other the longest (since moon 98). But Cressfreckle and Airclaw are pretty cute together too.

[elementclangen]

Moon 112-Greenleaf

Flintpaw (13)  has finally been made a warrior!  She has been named Flinttooth, honoring her hard work.  And she has worked hard.  It felt like she was under a lot more pressure to perform well than Frostheart (15), who was made a warrior earlier, just because she was powerless.  It’s not fair.  And it means that she can’t afford to spend time with Yellowcreek (39), unlike the other cats her age. She even turns up her nose at a gift he gives her.  It’s bad for her reputation to be seen with a dark-cursed cat.  Now that they’re both in the elders’ den, Bushmask (122) and Brightfalcon (155) are enjoying spending more time together.  They even went on a nice moonlit stroll.  Their daughter, Antlersky (70), has been a little concerned lately about Moorleg’s (24) violent tendencies, especially how hard she’s been on her apprentice, Midgepaw (9).  She talks to her about it, and they gain a better understanding of each other.  Moorleg really just wants to protect the Clan and enable Midgepaw to do so as well.  Or so she tells Antlersky. . .Midgepaw himself feels like he’s been struggling lately.  His power level is just so low that he can’t do most of the exercises Moorleg gives him.  And she’s an intimidating mentor to work under. Meanwhile, Antlersky's mate is enjoying spending time with Antlersky’s family.  Caterpillarmallow (62) loves getting to know her nieces and nephews, even ones that she doesn’t work with, like Flurrypelt (25) and Frostheart. While on a patrol, Peakspots (81) finds a kittypet.  Who appears to be. . .glowing.  A star-blessed cat!  He brings the kittypet, who takes the name of Faiththrift (33), back to camp and presents her to Yuccastar (91) with excitement.  Yuccastar is. . .less than thrilled.  She just got rid of one star-blessed cat.  And now here’s another one!  At least she’s weaker than Yuccastar.  Although that look in her eyes says that she may be trouble. . .

[elementclangen]

Moon 111-Greenleaf

After serving the Clan for many moons, Bushmask (121) has decided that it’s time for a rest.  He thinks fondly of the Clan he knew when he was young, as well as the Clan he has come to know in his old age.  He remembers playing with his sister as apprentices, using his powers to hunt in cold leaf-bares, grieving the loss of his sister, falling in love with Brightfalcon (154), and raising their kits together.  He’s excited to spend the rest of his life in the Elders' den with her.  Cressfreckle (27)  has been spending time with Graysong (24) and Yellowcreek (38) lately.  He really enjoys the time he spends with the two of them.  And he’s glad to see that Graysong has been getting along with Yellowcreek, even remembering his favorite piece of prey.  Graysong’s brother, Flurrypelt (24), is not as big of a Yellowcreek fan.  He thinks the dark-cursed cat is weird and annoying. Graysong ignores his comments, even when Flurrypelt splashes him with water to try and get his attention.  Meanwhile, in the apprentice’s den, Flintpaw (12) still feels like she’s struggling in training.  She can’t even pass it off as being powerless-Pythonpaw (8) doesn’t have magic and he got praised by Yuccastar (90).  What is she doing wrong?  Frostheart (14) is feeling a bit separated from the rest of the Clan.  Their friendliness and constant nagging are just getting at her.  She wants to escape.  So she goes on a patrol, all by herself.  And meets up with a loner, an older she-cat named Swallowbelly (101) with an injured tail and a medium strength water blessing.  It’s nice for Flurrypelt and Chervilcry (90) to have another water-blessed cat in the Clan.  Maybe Chervilcry will even get some help with mediating!

[elementclangen]

Moon 108-Newleaf

With leaf-bare over, life in the Clan seems to be looking up.  Cats are recovering from the grief of losing Rosemaryquake, and Bushmask (118) has even been making an effort to get along with Yellowcreek (35).  His son seems to like the dark-cursed cat, so Bushmask can give him a chance.  Darkpetal (147) enjoys entertaining the kits by telling stories to them.    Flurrypelt (21) is also enjoying spending time with the kits.  He feels relaxed and happy around them.  Flintpaw (9) is less relaxed and happy. She’s still having a bit of a hard time with training.  She feels like she’s falling behind, and other cats are noticing.  Airclaw (50) offers to help, since her littermate, Sunjaw, was also powerless.  Somehow that doesn’t make Flintpaw feel better. Yuccastar (87) is watching as Judaschaser (129) seems to be gaining popularity in the Clan.  Cats like her and the young warriors look up to her.  More than they like and look up to Yuccastar.  That bothers her.  A lot.  She decides to do something about it.  She invites Judaschaser to follow her out on a patrol.  They head to a remote part of the territory, right on the border with another Clan, and Yuccastar attacks.  She lunges forward and, before Judaschaser can react with her magic, rips out her throat.  Yuccastar returns to camp, leaving Judaschaser’s bleeding body on a patch of snow. Yellowcreek had seen his former mentor leave camp with Judaschaser, and, knowing what she did to Rindlefish, decided to follow her.  He watches her murder Judaschaser while hiding in the bushes.

Meta: So, I'd been mediating Judaschaser and Yuccastar to hate each other, and both their dislike bars were completely full. With Judaschaser being an elder, I was worried she would die of natural causes before Yuccastar killed her, and I didn't want to wait too long and lose that story thread. So I manually killed Judaschaser and decided that Yuccastar had killed her. And that Yellowcreek, with his horrible luck, had seen it again. For story reasons.

[elementclangen]

Moon 107-Leaf-bare

Despite being an old lady, Judaschaser (128) is still an agile cat.  She manages to land on her feet nimbly after slipping on an icy rock.  The other cats account her dexterity to her star-blessed status.  Yuccastar (86) is jealous.  Bushmask (117) and Brightfalcon (150) have developed the kind of relationship that Brightfalcon didn’t have time to develop with Stormrush.  They go on walks, admire each other, and dote on their family.  Brightfalcon’s happy to have achieved this life for herself, in spite of everything she’s been through.  She does miss Rosemaryquake and Stormrush, but she still has the rest of her loved ones.  Speaking of whom, Graysong (20) has not been thrilled with how Yuccastar has been running things.  He’s even been complaining about her behind her back.  And she overheard.  Flurrypelt (20)  however, is a fan of Yuccastar.  He glares at Graysong, but his brother doesn't notice.  Pythonkit (4), who is stuck in the healer's den after he got frostbite from sneaking out of camp, has been watching Flintpaw’s (8) training.  He’s a little worried that his own training, as a powerless cat, will be difficult, and asks Flintpaw for advice.  She doesn’t have much for him.  It’s just hard.

[elementclangen]

Moon 104-Leaf-fall

After almost six moons, Yellowcreek (31) is out of the healer's den!  His broken leg healed up well, and he’s excited to leave camp again.  He thinks his leg took so long to heal because he didn’t use his powers on it, due to the whole ‘dark-cursed cats shouldn’t heal’ thing.  He just wants to be accepted by the Clan, but is starting to feel like he never will be.  He’s lonely.  Despite her hesitations about Yellowcreek, Yuccastar can’t help but admire his bravery.  She can appreciate a dark-cursed cat-Shadestar was her leader, after all. Now other Star-blessed cats on the other paw. . .Chervilcry (83) has noticed that the tension between Yuccastar (83) and Judaschaser (125) has been high lately, and asks Brightfalcon (147) for advice.  She was around when Shadestar and Nightingaletree hated each other.  How did she deal with two high-powered cats fighting?  Brightfalcon says that she just stayed out of it.  Her powers are weak enough that she couldn’t have made a difference.  Chervilcry sighs.  She doesn’t think there’s any cat powerful enough to get between them if they start fighting.    Rosemaryquake (62) feels uneasy around Moorleg (16).  She just gets this cold feeling whenever the young cat is around.  Is Moorleg up to something?  In the healer's den, Graysong (17)  is trying to bond with his little sister, Needlepaw (7).  He tells a secret about Flurrypelt (17) to her, and she tells him that Brightfalocn likes her better than him.  Whelp.  That bonding session didn’t go as planned.

[elementclangen]

Brightfalcon's Son's Adult Sprites and Flintkit's Sprite

Graypaw; Earth-blessed tom with a power-level of 80 (high); Sneaky, good mediator, and incredibly clairvoyant

Flurrypelt; Wind-blessed tom with a power level of 11 (very low); Responsible, fast as the wind, and a good mediator

Flintkit; Age 0 moons; Powerless she-kit; Troublesome

[elementclangen]

Moon 99-Greenleaf

After moons of stress and turmoil, the war with TulipClan has ended.  In theory it ended in a truce.  In reality, it ended with ElementClan ceding some contested territory.  They just didn’t have the strength to hold onto it.  Yuccastar (78) worries that other Clans will be more aggressive now and has told her warriors to make shows of strength on border patrols.  She also decided that Flurrypaw (12) is ready to be a warrior, naming him Flurrypelt in honor of his initiative.  A kittypet also dropped their kit off at the Clan. She is a charming little girl named Flintkit (0), although she is powerless. In the nursery, Brightfalcon (142) is feeling pretty content with her life.  She’s gotten to raise six beautiful children and can’t imagine her life without them, or either of her mates.  Her former nursery-mate, Chervilcry (78) is less happy. She confronts Yellowcreek  (26) about how much time he’s been spending around her daughter, and he explains that he means no harm to them.  She feels like she understands him better, but still doesn’t trust him.  Darkpetal (138) also had a chat with Yellowcreek that. . .did not go as well.  Yellowcreek likes the elder, but he's been pulling away from him lately.  The whole Clan is being very judgmental of him.  Airclaw (41) saw him miss an easy catch and has been teasing him about it ever since. Yellowcreek thinks this is her judging him, but she actually just enjoys seeing the faces he makes when she teases. Chasingpaw (11), as the only surviving member of Chervilcry and Stonefreckle’s (82) litter, is starting to feel cramped and uncomfortable in the apprentice’s den.  She misses her siblings and being in the den that Sandypaw also lived in is starting to wear on her.

[elementclangen]

Moon 105-Leaf-bare

Leaf-bare is off to a rough start for ElementClan.  Their most senior Healer, Rosemaryquake (63), perished from whitecough.  That is not a good omen for the coming moons.  Brightfalcon (148) wails when she sees the body of her daughter, still and cold in the clearing.  She sits vigil as grief fills her heart.  She keeps searching for tasks to do, cats to comfort, distractions against the hole in her heart, as she tries to keep the grief from consuming her.  She’s too old to outlive her kit.  When Bushmask (115) hears the news of Rosemaryquake’s death, he collapses to the ground with a gust of wind and wails as though his own life were ending.  As the vigil draws to a close, Flurrypelt (18) suggests that Bushmask should eat.  He refuses, not so much as shifting his vacant gaze.  He had come to love his adoptive daughter as his own.  He doesn’t know what he’ll do without her.  Caterpillarmallow (55) wails when she sees Rosemaryquake’s body.  She can’t believe that the cat she trained alongside is dead.  How can this be?  Antlersky (63) mourns the loss of the sister that was always by her side, even when her mothers weren’t. But there is a bright spot in both of their lives:  amidst their grief, Caterpillarmallow and Antlersky decide that they don’t want to risk losing each other without letting each other know how the feel. They confess their love for each other and become mates.  Flintpaw (6) has also become an apprentice.  To Cressfreckle (21), as expected.  They’re both powerless, so it seems like a good fit to Yuccastar (84).  Stonefreckle (88) is a little unsure over Yuccastar’s leadership.  He doesn’t think that her leadership style is what his mothers would have wanted.  He wonders what Peakspots (74) thinks.  Peakspots is too busy staring at said leader.  There is also new life in the Clan.  A former kittypet named Gentle (82) has joined with his three kits.  He is powerless, like his kit Pythonkit (2), but his oher two kits, Midgekit (2) and Timberkit (2), have weak wind-blessings.

[elementclangen]

Together Again Part Four: After the End

Trigger Warning: Death

Moons 105 to 119

She was asleep.

A change made her wake.

Well, it was less of a change and more of an absence.  An absence of the sound that had been by her side for longer than she could remember.  The sound that had been there when all others hadn’t.  The sound that had gone silent.

Rosemaryquake wasn’t coughing.

Antlersky strained her ears, channeling the wind through the warriors' den.  For the first time in a quarter moon, there was no coughing coming from the Healer’s den.  

She searched deeper, not caring when the gusts of wind woke up her denmates.  She searched for the inhale and exhale that had forever echoed in her ears, as familiar to her as her own.

It.

Wasn’t.

There.

She screamed into the void, desperate to fill it with sound.  Devastated when her scream was the only sound she heard.  Cats moved around her but she ignored them.

She ran to the clearing, the clearing where so many breathless bodies had lain.  Stormrush’s and Egretshell’s and now-

-her sister’s.

Caterpillarmallow looked up from where she had placed the limp, gray body.  Her eyes were tired as they met Antlersky’s desperate ones.  She shook her head.

Antlersky collapsed to the ground.

She stuffed her nose into the still, gray fur, listening and feeling and smelling for any signs of movement.

There were none.

Her sister was dead.

Rosemaryquake had reached her end.

And Antlersky was left to live in its wake.

~~~

A new day broke.

Rosemaryquake’s body was buried.

But Antlersky was still where her sister had left her.

Caterpillarmallow returned from seeing to the other sick cats and sat down next to her.  Antlersky listened to her breath.  It was steady.  Almost the exact same length inhale and exhale each time.  Antlersky loved its consistency.

She loved Caterpillarmallow’s consistency.

She loved Caterpillarmallow.

Antlersky’s own breath caught.  

She wouldn’t wait any longer.  She couldn’t.  There was no world where she risked losing that breath without even trying to keep it at her side.

So, still sitting in the clearing where her sister’s body had lain only hours before, she asked.

And Caterpillarmallow said yes.

After the end, they watched the day go by.

~~~

Somehow, life continued.

Antlersky supposed she shouldn’t be surprised.  It always had in the past.

The first moons were hard.  There was a canyon in her heart that could never be filled.

But, slowly, day by day, she got used to it.

She teased her half-brothers and sisters without resenting them for who they were not.

She watched out for Midgepaw when his mentor, Moorleg, was being too rough on him.  She swore to herself that no young cat would be as alone as she had felt, with no adults for support and only her sister by her side.

She leaned on Caterpillarmallow.  Her constant.  Her mate.  Her love.  Whose breath never faltered.  Who guided Graysong and Needlepelt in the Healer’s den.  Who made sure that Flurrypelt and Frostheart were always included.  Who made certain that Antlersky was at least civil towards her parents.

Life went on.  Life was good, although in a different way than before.

Until the end.

It happened in Leaf-bare, just like all the other tragedies in Antlersky’s life.  She was out for a walk, carefully listening and smelling for any prey on the wind.

Listening so carefully for them that she didn’t hear the snowbank give way beneath her.

That she only had time to inhale.

Before.

A brief flash of pain as the spikes pierced her body and everything went dark.

~~~

She opened her eyes.

For the first time in her life, the wind was silent.

Well, technically it was the first time after her life.

Because there were stars in her fur and an unfamiliar mountain in front of her that somehow felt like home.

Antlersky was dead.

She was surprised to find that she wasn’t devastated.  She hadn’t wished to die.  But now that she had she could accept reality without fighting it.

Maybe because. . .because. . .Stormrush would be there.  For the first time in many moons, she could see her mother.

But, more importantly. . .

A cat stepped out onto the mountaintop next to her.  A cat with starlit gray tabby fur and a pair of glowing moth wings behind her ear.

“I’ve missed you, Antlersky,” said Rosemaryquake.

Antlersky ran to her sister.  She leaned up against her and was surprised to find that they were both solid.  “I’ve missed you, too,” she whispered.

“I’m sorry I left you.”

“You had no choice,” Antlersky murmured.  It was true.  Brightfalcon had left her eldest daughters alone, even though she had still been alive.  Even though she could have chosen to try.  Antlersky hadn’t been able to forgive that.

With Rosemaryquake, there was nothing to forgive.

“We’re together now,” Antlersky meowed, “that’s all that matters.”

Rosemaryquake nodded and sat down beside her on the mountaintop, looking out at the endless stars.

They were together again.  Together, even after the end.