#spidershade

Toadnettle made himself small, recoiling at his words and rejection. "You're right-" he stammered, unable to reach Gullstar's gaze. "I-- I just thought that maybe--"

The medicine cat was cut off but Gullstar's angry hiss. The leader narrowed his eyes and stepped closer toward him. Toadnettle's heart was threatening to pound through his ribcage. He knew there was a risk of rejection, sure. But perhaps he just never considered that the aggression, coolness, and honour of StarClan that made him love Gullstar in the first place was the very reason they would never be together.

"You didn't think at all." Gullstar growled at him, echoing Toadnettle's thoughts. "Leave. Get out of my den, and go to your healer's gathering. Perhaps StarClan can talk some sense into you. "

"Right!" the medicine cat yelped. Toadnettle scrambled out of the den, the adrenaline and humiliation burning in his stomach. His heartbeat drowned out every other sound in the forest as he ran toward the Moonsprings.

Spidershade brushed past the ferns that guarded the Moonsprings and was greeted by the familiar sight and somewhat garlicky scent of Asterleaf, but her friend seem concerned.

"Oh, thank StarClan you're here, Spidershade!" Asterleaf mewled, licking her head in greeting. They peered over her shoulder, and pulled back, the worried expression coming back to their face.

"Toadnettle isn't with you?"

"No, why would he be?"

There was a brief pause as Spidershade assessed the situation. Nearly always she was the last to arrive to the Half-Moon Gathering on account of FogClan's territory being furthest away.

"Perhaps he's just running late." Asterleaf said quietly, staring into the ferns.

"Right. Lets wait for him a bit longer."

And the two medicine cats waited, huddled together by the Moonsprings. They remained as quiet as warriors on vigil as they listened for their third, with only the sound breaking their silence being the gentle trickling of the water. The moon gently drifted through the sky and Spidershade was growing more and more nervous.

"I'm sorry Asterleaf, I can't wait for him any longer." she said, standing up slowly to face her Moonpool. "I'm afraid we'll have to commune with StarClan now, before the moon passes the treeline. We can go to SnagClan to check on him later."

"R-right..." Asterleaf pinned their ears back, hesitantly heading toward their pool. "Hopefully he's just sick with a Leaf-fall greencough or something..."

The standoffish nature of the Clan cats wasn't shocking to Blair. She lived near the docks for most of her life, of course she asked the other wharf cats what the yowling every full moon at the Firetree was about. They filled young Blair's head with stories of the ritualistic, sky worshiping cats, who organized like wolves, and would mercilessly slaughter you, and line their nests with your pelts if you ventured over to their cove....

And the imagery of that stuck with him ever since, and he found himself dreaming every night of wolf-like cats prowling through the shores and coming together every moon to ensure their territory would remain theirs for eons...

So far, Blair was disappointed.

Of course, she was relieved to see that the den she was placed in wasn't made of the fur of curious wharf kittens, and that their food stores weren't cannibalistic, but delightfully fish based.

But he was expecting dozens of wolf-hearted cats, viciously organized and ruling this cove with heavy claws. Instead he found a tiny colony of anxious and distrustful cats, glaring at him from their hiding points among the shipwreck they used as a camp.

Spidershade huffed in annoyance, and started applying a paste to Blair's claw-wounds. He hissed in pain, suddenly drawn from his thoughts. Something told him that the old molly definitely applied it with less gentleness than she normally would.

"Bleakpaw." Spidershade growled again, her tail twitching in annoyance. "How do you know that name? You're very young. I'd say he passed before you were born."

Blair hummed quietly, resting her head upon her paws. "I never saw a cat like him before, not even in my dreams. Stars sparkled in his pelt and glistened around his every step."

Even still, Blair could imagine Bleakpaw so vividly. His shimmering, shaggy fur with legs too long for his body, and his youthful stride as he showed Blair in her dreams over and over, the path to the Firetree and the boundary of FogClan's land.

Still wished he would have shown her the badger den.

"He appeared to me in my dreams and told me to come here. Every single night for moons.... I don't know why. I'm sorry he's dead though. Seemed like a lovely cat."