#alderrustle

"Oh, StarClan..."

Darkstar's heart squeezed. While she knew Alderrustle had begun to speak often of preparing the clan for his inevitable departure as his joints ached more and more with every moon and his paws grew slower, she liked to pretend. Pretend that every clan member was immune to the inevitability of death. As time passed, she ignored the signs of Alderrustle's fading energy, and played make-believe that all was well.

"Did you leave to spare my feelings?" softly she asked to the unmoving bundle of fur. Just outside of camp, curled up in the roots of a maple tree, she could pretend that Alderrustle left to take a nap in the sunshine, enjoying the peace and quiet. With eyes shut and nose buried into his belly, he looked at peace.

Somehow, it made her heart ache that much more.

"Thank you for everything, Alderrustle." He had done so much for HillClan, and in spite of having every right to stay behind to attend to their fallen clan members who could not make the journey, he made the painful choice to move on. Even if those lost souls insisted they be left behind, so that others may live, it did not mean he suffered any less for it.

He had come not only to support their clan, but to give guidance to this new leader. With invaluable wisdom and StarClan's guiding paw helping him, this journey may have been impossible, and these past moons nowhere near as easy.

Even when knowing his time was coming, he still thought of others first, leaving camp to avoid having to make anyone suffer the grief of saving goodbye.

But...

"But, as much as it would have hurt, I wish I could have been with you in your final moments," Darkstar whispered, and slowly sunk to the ground. Feeling like a kit again, she slowly shifted until she was nestled against Alderrustle's still-warm body. The sunshine soaking into his dappled ginger fur imitated life, and when she shut her eyes, she could pretend he was still there.

"Where is she?! Brightpaw, Brightpaw!"

Ripping through the patrol like an unyielding hurricane, Boulderfrost was an unstoppable force as she sought out her daughter. In her frenzy, she practically knocked the returning warriors off of their paws, until a voice broke through her panic.

"I'm here, Boulderfrost--it's... it's okay!"

Heart plummeting straight to her paws, Boulderfrost froze colder than the most chilling of leafbare ice. Shyly peeking out from being Rimebright, Brightpaw's sandy fur was colored a horrid shade of damp red. Open claw wounds marking down her face weep down onto the dirt trail into camp, and then and there, Boulderfrost thought she may die.

"Where's Alderrustle?!"

"It's okay." "You--you shouldn't be the one saying that." Foolish, foolish, foolish! At her insistence, they had gone to this treacherous place. Perhaps her ego was growing too much, or maybe she, with her newly given nine lives, felt convinced she, and by extension her clan, were invincible. So over-eager to see the hunting grounds beyond the Thunderpath, she had thought that, given how quiet it had been these last few moons, it no longer was haunted by monsters.

Oh, how wrong she was.

Darkstar pressed her nose into the soft fur of Puddleleaf's shoulder, gently shaking from barely suppressed sobs. She couldn't bear to look at his broken, bleeding body as Alderrustle did his best to staunch the bleeding in spite of knowing it was a lost cause.

She especially could not look Puddleleaf in the eye. How could he look so... at peace, when he was about to be taken from them?

"I'm so sorry, Puddleleaf," Darkstar wept, fur damp with her tears. "I was so stupid, I thought it was safe, and I didn't even hear the monster coming, and you--you--"

The moons their journey took had been long, arduous, and painful. Never had she foreseen that they would be chased out by clans they had once shared tongues with, communed in harmony at moonlit gatherings... But, there was little dwelling on the past. The future was now, and it was bright, hopeful.

Glancing back, from her vantage point atop the hill leading down to their new camp, she watched as the remaining numbers of their clan followed. So many precious lives lost--friends and family alike, gone in a flash of teeth and claw over dwindling resources. Broken as they were, she had hope. Hope that this new land would mend the still-open wounds they were all healing from.

"HillClan will thrive here, I'm sure of it," Boulderfrost continued, her tail swaying in excitement. The new leaf breeze was soft, gently flowing through their fur. As Darkstar diligently watched, Oatkit tumbled through the plush, dense grass of the forest grotto with Puddleleaf swiftly rounding back to nudge her back to her feet, encouraging her onward to join her sister, Duskkit.

Further back yet, Elmstripe and Rimebright laughed and joked, while Burnetpaw, the clan's sole apprentice, tried to jump in with her own quips. When no one paid her much mind, she conceded defeat, dropping back to join her mentor, Lightstripe, and the slow-moving medicine cat, Alderrustle.

"... No."

At her correction, Boulderfrost froze, then looked back to Darkstar in confusion, brow furrowing.

"HillClan is no more," said Darkstar, her voice decisive and firm. She had thought of this long and hard, ever since they left their ravaged camp to salvage what remains of their clan were left. "HillClan... It died with Thrushstar, and everyone who died trying to keep our territory. Their legacy lives on, but, we'll never be the same."

Burnetpaw, after a quick bow of acknowledgement to her leader, bounded past into the heart of the grotto, yelling in giddy excitement as she verbally mapped out where each den should go, and her thrill to have her own bed to sleep in every night. Apologetic, Lightstripe murmured for Darkstar's forgiveness for his apprentice's wild antics as he quickly trotted onward to rein her in.

But that infectious excitement only lifted Darkstar's spirits that much more, her tail flagging high, feeling the wind pick up at her back.

"This is DawnClan," she declared, "for our humble clan will represent a new beginning. May the fallen stars of HillClan look upon us favorably."

DARKSTAR. 75 moons, a fierce and devoted leader and one of the clan founders.

BOULDERFROST. 64 moons, a quick-witted deputy and oneo f the clan founders. retired at 137 moons.

OATBRIGHT. 78 moons, a shameless and quick-witted tabby-tom recently promoted to deputy.

ALDERRUSTLE. 137 moons, a calm and patient medicine cat. deceased: passed of natural causes.

PETUNIADAPPLE. 52 moons, an intelligent and ambitious medicine cat. a rogue who offered his medicinal skills in exchange for shelter.

GRAYFADE. 23 moons, a newly inducted medicine cat with a faithful heart and quick-wit. brought to the clan by her kittypet father, who also joined.