Ashleap's Fall

Kindred

"Well?" I wake up in the warrior's den with Sparrowsong standing over me, thrusting his head into my face until our noses are almost touching. His fur is dyed red from the sun, which is already setting outside.

Right. The ceremony.

My ears flatten as I look upwards and murmur, "What?"

"You said you'd try to get the answers from one of your souls. I know I'm not usually excitable, but we all want the answers so we can put all the pieces in order as soon as possible." He seems terribly anxious, but my head still burns from staying up all night and even sleeping through the whole day has hardly quelled my desire to lay down in my comfortable new warrior den until leaffall.

"Let me up first." I say, struggling underneath him, and he unpins me, stepping away so that I can get to my paws and stretch as far as I can.

He waits quietly, tail flicking. Pensively, he gazes out at the rest of the camp, where the warriors are already filtering back in through the trees and Novablaze stands adamantly with his apprentice. She seems bewildered by how much attention the clan is paying both of them.

Quietly, I think about a young gray kit who was promised the position of deputy long ago by a cat who seemed to have all the answers. Now, I watch Novablaze and pity his position. I no longer have any desire to be deputy, much less leader.

"You're still asleep, aren't you?" Sparrowsong purrs, misinterpreting my silence. "I don't blame you. Most of us woke up about halfway through the day, and we were still exhausted. We would have woken you up too, but you were trembling in your sleep and muttering things and no one wanted to interfere."

"I was?" I say, feeling embarrassment stir in my chest. Hopefully I hadn't said anything too stupid. Lunarshine was a dangerous individual, after all.

Then again, after what I'd seen... it was hard not to sympathize with her.

"Yeah. Something about someone named Featherpaw. You were crying their name over and over again." he says. Lowering his ears, he adds, "What happened to them? Did they die?"

"Her. Lunarshine was in love with her, and then she killed herself." I tell him. I plan on not leaving a single detail out of the story. While I don't want to speak about my time as Ashleap (a story that may not be over yet, for all I know) after hiding it for so long, I regret not saying more about it when it started. I might have done things differently with their advice, but now there's no way I can bring myself to tell them.

"You said... Lunarshine is a she-cat, right?" Sparrowsong asks, confused.

"Yes."

"And Featherpaw?"

"Yes."

Sparrowsong doesn't go any further. Instead, he walks out of the den, turning for me to follow.

Grateful for his silence, I follow him through the camp to where the other newly made warriors are. Despite our new status, we're still clumped very firmly together. The bond the former apprentices share will never change, no matter what happens. It's reassuring.

"Thank StarClan you finally woke up. We had a bet with the other warriors that if you didn't stop meowing in your sleep, we'd have to throw you into the river so you wouldn't wake everyone in the camp up." Thistlepaw says, full of his usual snark.

Goldenfire cuffs him over the ear with one of her front paws. "Stop being so cheeky, Thistleheart. Nice to see you finally woke up, Rushcall."

"It's nice to finally be awake. I had no idea I overslept that much."