Private StarClan the first time you felt alive [StarClan Dream]

[Thornstar]

He worried more than he ever did, worried that he was in the wrong, that he should concede to Sable's demands because perhaps he was NOT the cat most worthy to lead. Perhaps he could not even begin to hope to do so but deep down he knew that even despite his own shaking confidence that Sable of all cats was not the right choice. The colony needed a cat with more empathy, he could not tell if this was a mere bid for power or if Sable genuinely thought he was the best option but that he even had support at all shook the brown tom's confidence to the core. If any other cat had challenged him so openly, he might have considered compromise, but there was something of the tuxedo that set his fur prickling and no amount of playing peacekeeper from Juniper would settle it down.

Hawthorne lifted his head slowly, the warmth of Serpent at his side fading into a cold chill as a crisp wind rolled over him and set every hair on his body standing on end. His mismatched eyes opened to a white expanse before him, at first sending his heart plummeting to his stomach thinking it was snow until his eyes began to focus. It was flowers. White, glittering, covering every surface of ground before him and stretching off into the distant night sky. He was no longer in his nest with his mate, that much he knew, but where he was he had no idea. The lynx point stepped forward slowly, lifting his paws over shimmering petals that kicked off shining dust with every single step he took. He walked, for how long he didn't know, until he spotted a figure sitting perched alongside a tree that almost seemed to spring into existence when get got close enough. His throat clenched anxiously, he lowered his head as every cautious movement forward brought him closer to what he now realized was another cat but she looked strange, almost ethereal. Her pelt rippled with a shimmer of light not quite dissimilar to the flowers they stood in, she was entirely unfamiliar to him but there was something in her gaze as she turned in his direction that made him think that she knew who HE was even if he did not know her.
"Hello? I...where am I? Who are you?" And how did he get back?

 

[COFFEESTAR]

The stars were as empty as when she had been here last, tattered remains of the starscape stretch out before her and echo the life it once held. The trees of what used to make SkyClans home call to her now that she has taken a more permanent residence, and she took place beside it. Admiring the etches of claw marks into sturdy bark, preaching the lives upon lives spent scaling this tree.

Coffeestar lifted a paw, placing it over the imprint of her ancestors, fitting her claws into the sockets they left behind, and sighed. There was hope.

"Oh, finally, a visitor." Rumbled the molly's purr as she looked to Hawthorne, as though she hadn't called for his company herself. She looked over the tabby now as he came closer, warmth in her shimmery gaze.

"Please, don't be frightened. This is a place of peace." Coffeestar's voice echoed in the open space. He reminded her much of her dear Dovecloud. Only wanting the best for his people- she would guide him to do just that.

"I am Coffeestar, and I've brought you to the place of our ancient ancestors- StarClan." Her fluffy tail gestured to the endlessness surrounding them, as if the emptiness was to hold something far more grand than what it appeared.

A heavy sigh fell from her chest as if she held the weight of her words within it. "Your father's colony is not the first to roam our forest, and we see the troubles and infighting brewing before you. The defector- Sable- he does not hold the honor Fray instilled in you. He lurks in the darkness, the shadows have swallowed him, I fear."

 

[Thornstar]

There is a kindness in the older molly's eyes and a softness to her tone that makes him lower his hackles and lift his head. He does not remember much of his own mother, died too young when he was still a mewling kit, but he remembers her warmth, he remembers the feeling of being safe and in every word this chocolate tabby says he finds himself relaxing and going back to that moment when he was small and sheltered against a warm body, where troubles had not reached him and his only concern was when next he'd wake from his nap to nurse. Hawthorne exhales slowly, approaching closer to stand alongside her by the tree and gaze upon its ancient bark stripped in places where cat claws once bore deeply. She introduces herself and his nose wrinkles involuntarily - what kind of name was Coffeestar? What was a Coffee? Star he recognized and that part seemed fitting given they seem to be standing in what amounted to a field of them from the shimmer and glow alone.

"StarClan? I've never heard of them before, is this..." There is something in the way she says 'ancient ancestors' that makes him wonder if he had not actually died in his sleep. Was he in the past? Had he died and this was the afterlife? It was a lot to take in all at once but when she says his father's name he stiffens suddenly. How does she know him? He'd never met her in his life and he was always at Fray's side until... "Is this where cats go when they die?" He asks suddenly, mouth dry and word's strained, "Is my father here?" and furthermore, "Why am I here? How do you know about us, about what's happening?" A thousand questions spiral in his head, roll out of control as he struggles to maintain his calm.

 

[COFFEESTAR]

The solemn crease that cut into her expression softened at the tom's insistence for questions. Coffeestar knows she should not be so surprised to hear them, but they are so kit-like. He's still just a boy. She thinks, looking past him for just a moment. Hawthorne will find himself to appreciate the finality that Fray's death had given him. Had the stars touched the colony sooner, he would have seen it coil around the old man's throat and choke his last breath more than once.

"You have many questions, I know, but I do not have much time with you." Coffeestar warned carefully. "The workings of the stars are far more... complex. I have not walked with Fray, his soul may wander elsewhere, in another place. But that is not why you are here, Hawthorne. I've come to say the lives you wish to protect are at risk. Your truce holds no weight in Sable's paws, he seeks to usurp you when the moon has lost its light."

Coffeestar rest her tail against his side, a wispy sensation of soft fur underneath the starry shimmer. "You must focus on what you have prepared for. I won't be a stranger, but they need you now. Your colony is counting on you." The dark tabby pressed her nose to his ear, her parting words a fading echo to his rising consciousness.