#alderrustle

[dawngen]

so... which is it? sir you cannot declare her helpful and then Not???

[dawngen]

"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.

Just sleeping in the morning sun.

[dawngen]

"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?!"

On swift paws, mobilized by renewed adrenaline, Boulderfrost was quickly shoving Brightpaw along with her head, trailed behind by Rimebright and Burnetstripe. From her den, Darkstar emerged, drowsy and confused.

"Hey, hey--"

Bounding across the camp after shaking off sleep, she caught up to Brightpaw and Boulderfrost, with Alderrustle likewise emerging from the medicine cats' den with sleep-bleary eyes.

"What happened?"

"We were out on patrol, when..."

Burnetstripe spoke up first, before hesitating, and Rimebright promptly chimed in, voice firm.

"An owl almost got her."

Boulderfrost's breath hitched.

"It dropped her before it could do anything else, but..."

Rimebright glanced over, and his gaze instantly became pitying. There was no way the claw-wounds on Brightpaw's face did not hurt terribly, and he doubted they would fade either. Yet, Brightpaw fluffed herself up, seemingly not yet feeling the pain of her cuts. Likely thanks to a good surge of adrenaline.

"But I survived! And I have the mark to prove it!"

Her tail flagged high, more proud than scared, and Boulderfrost merely stared, trembling in place.

"Excellent, good job young apprentice, now get in," Alderrustle grumbled, cutting in between the collective cats, "Story-telling can come after. Burnetstripe, please come and help me."

Straightening, newest warrior Burnetstripe quickly nodded and followed Alderrustle and Brightpaw into the den. Locked in place, Boulderfrost looked conflicted, eyes focusing on the ground.

"Hey..." Tail sweeping over her back, Darkstar glanced to Rimebright and nodded, signalling that he could leave. Bowing his head, he glanced one more time to the medicine cats' den before taking his leave, slinking off to retire to the warrior cats' den and let the rousing others know what happened.

"Alderrustle will take care of her."

"What if I lost her?"

Voice hitching, Boulderfrost cannot stop the flow of tears down fluffy cheeks as her shoulders hunch and head bowed.

"M-maybe she should come back to the nursery, maybe she isn't ready--"

"Hey. Hey. Look at me."

With watery eyes, Boulderfrost tentatively obeyed her leader's command. Expression soft, Darkstar studied Boulderfrost's fearful gaze.

"... It's going to be okay. She's resilient, you saw that for yourself. What will she think if she sees you upset?"

Boulderfrost's ears lowered, and she looked elsewhere.

"... She may think... she may lose her confidence."

"You told them they'd always be courageous and strong. Brightpaw demonstrated that tonight, despite how scary of a situation it was. You should be proud."

Boulderfrost, thinking for a beat, finally nodded. She should be proud, but it was so hard when she was thinking of all of the possible things that could have gone wrong.

"No more thinking." Headbutting Boulderfrost's shoulder, Darkstar pushed her to the medicine cats' den. "Go. I'm sure Brightpaw has a story to tell you."

Hesitating, Boulderfrost finally smiled, nodded, and quickly wiped her tears away with a paw as she padded on to join the other cats. Waiting until she fully vanished, Darkstar looked to Silverpelt, and shut her eyes.

"... Thank you, StarClan, for keeping Brightpaw safe."

[dawngen]

"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--"

Pushed me out of the way.

How could he do such a thing? He only had one, fragile life, while she could have taken it. It was her own foolishness, her own stupidity, that led to her prancing across the Thunderpath without even considering the dangers. Yet he had. He had seen the monster hurtling for her, and in a flash of a whisker, one life was traded for another.

She choked on the words, unable to handle the guilt tethered to them.

"I have nine lives, how could you--"

"And risk you losing one more lifetime with the clan?"

Voice a soft rasp, rattly from punctured lungs, Puddleleaf grew weaker by the minute, but he nudged his face gently against Darkstar's, coaxing her from his shoulder, and making him meet his hazel eyes.

"I'd do it again," he said, soft but firm, "Again and again. We... we can't change it, Darkstar. But I know... you're better off with the clan, than in my position."

She could see it, see how the light in his eyes was slowly dimming. Breathing growing more shallow, he was struggling to hold on, and desperately, she reached out her paws, pressing on some of the bleeding herself, as if her touch alone could heal him.

"Please--please don't go, Puddleleaf."

Eyes crinkling in a smile, Puddleleaf managed to shake his head.

"StarClan is calling me, and I'm okay with that. I... I'll get to see my family again, from HillClan. How lucky am I... getting to see my family, and I get to tell them about how I help start a whole new clan..."

Drifting away, try as Darkstar did to reach him, Puddleleaf was gone. His head gently settled upon the hard dirt by the Thunderpath they had taken him to, and Darkstar froze, feeling her blood stop in her veins.

"... Puddleleaf?"

A fresh wave of tears coursed down her cheeks. No longer did the tom cat breathe, yet, with eyes shut, he looked like he was having a beautiful dream. Locked in place, it was Alderrustle's gentle touch, a tail sweeping over her back, that stirred Darkstar back to reality.

"I'm sorry, Darkstar," Alderrustle murmured, "We did our best."

Jaw clenching, for a long, silent moment, Darkstar questioned herself, before finally, she bowed her head.

"... May he find peace with StarClan, and may he find joy in reuniting with HillClan in Silverpelt."

Thank you... thank you for everything, Puddleleaf. I'll make sure you're never forgotten.

[dawngen]

"We made it, Darkstar." With a voice full of bright, hope, and an underlying current of excitement, Boulderfrost, with tail slowly swaying, looks to her leader. Her sage-green eyes, once exhausted and burdened by their long journey from the Highlands they once called home, found new life, and at this sight, Darkstar, wearily, felt her own heart lift.

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."

[dawngen]

alderrustle lived to a good ~13 years. thank u alderrustle <3

[dawngen]

ok i am SO glad you guys are having fun but please for the love of god do not start a war with the other clans by being rude, thanks!

[dawngen]

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.

SLEETPAD. 70 moons, a cold and clinical medicine cat who was booted from his former clan due to his poor bedside manner. his former leader had not appreciated his cold behavior at the stillbirth of her kits.