To be o.n.e. with the *stars [Med. Cat Gathering]

[c e d a r *]

Cedarclaw began to stir. Nothing unusual. Nothing bad, no warnings, but her apprentice Mudpaw, was still soundly sleeping at the edge of the pool. Cedarclaw merely placed her head on her tan paws, and kept her blues eyes open, thoughts stirring inside of her head. It was a natural instinct to worry. You're the first up. Nothing from the ranks of the Stars, and yet, your apprentice is still soundly asleep.

Cedarclaw gently closed her eyelids, her breathing becoming rhythmic. She listened to the sounds of the outside world, the stillness, the occasional slight gust of wind ruffling her fur. She couldn't sleep. Didn't want to sleep. Needed sleep. She sighed once more, and she began to go through different herbs in her mind. A game of hers.

'Plenty of mallow. Need more yarrow. Catmint is a definite need. I have poppyseeds, but could always use more, I have all the dock and marigold I need, I need more feverfew and coltsfoot, what with Leaf-bare going on, I can never be too sure...' her thoughts drifted off from there, to images of her clan life so far.

The arrival in camp, her being given Mudpaw, her training with the apprentice, and her apprentices willing to learn. All were happy memories, none lost, some yet to come. They all came so sudden, so fast, random bursts of her still small life floating through her mind. It all set a shiver down her body, but she opened her eyes, feeling warm, and well, the memories lightning her worried mood.

[Fernear!]

The StarClan warrior nodded and flicked her tail to signal the apprentice to follow her. Mudpaw's voice was reassuring, it had calmed Aldertail. She wasn't as worried about having grudges from the current ranks of the forest as she had been earlier. Picking up paw after paw she was now a few horse lengths away from the Moonpool. With glowing eyes she looked back to see if the apprentice was following, and a moment later she began to move into the pine forest that ShadowClan called home.

Aldertail had been here, in StarClan's forest, while Tigerstar had risen and fallen, she had also been here during the destruction of the forest. She had watched it from start to finish. Her eyes had witness the transformation of wood into hard, winding thunderpaths, thunderpaths that were as commonly used as the moss in cats' dens. She had been born in the forest moons before Bluestar was, she had lived through many ambition-thirsty cats' reign. Though this doesn't connect very strongly to the dream, Aldertail has seen some events that have a small amount of relation to what may happen. But now, this event was not in StarClans paws, it is in the paws of the three.

"Come, Mudpaw." She whispered as she neared the clearing.

Her cold paws wisped across patches of dead grass and snow. The snow was white, thankfully, for there had been times that snow appeared grey or brown with grit. Aldertail sat down in the centre of the clearing and watched the apprentice. The moonshine glowed down on her starry pelt, making her body illuminate amongst the clean snow around her.

"Watch, Mudpaw. Watch the moon.."

At this moment the illusion of the moon fading in and out of states began. After a minute the moon had disappeared becoming a new moon. This had yet to come in the forest below. Lying around the place of the moon were three stars. None of which were being touched by another star.

"Three stars will shine on a night when there is no moon."

And at that, Aldertail was gone.

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[mudmask]

Mudpaw picked up her paws, suddenly light as air, and followed Aldertail. Shadowclan scent filled her nose, and she felt almost scared of being found by Thunderclan's neighbors. Every so often she had to douse the nervous flame inside her stomach by reminding herself that she was here in a dream, with a cat from Starclan. She wasn't to be harmed. Suddenly, snow was mixed in with the landscape, and she stepped into the powdery substance lightly. Light snow had fallen, but mostly in flurries. The forest had yet to see this much.

Finally, she seemed to have reached the destination her ancestor had planned. Turning her head to the stars, she saw the moon, going through its phases until she saw it no more. Three stars bordered the outline of where it once stood. Her eye filled with awestruck wonder as she heard the prophecy, 'Three stars will shine on a night with no moon...' The apprentice turned to ask what the prophecy meant, but Aldertail had disappeared. her eyes widened, and she tried to call to her ancestor, but instead, a voice that wasn't hers whispered, "Three stars will shine on a night with no moon..."

Mudpaw was once again swept off her feet, and thrown through the air. The last thing she saw of the Shadowclan territory was Silverpelt gleaming above her. Eyes snapping open, the apprentice withdrew her muzzle from the water, her mind swirling with the images she had just seen. The moon, Shadowclan, Aldertail, the stars... Getting up, she saw the cats of other clans still with their muzzles in the pool, except Cedarclaw.

Mudpaw approached her mentor and whispered, "What do you think it means?" She had assumed every cat had the same dream, but maybe with a different cat. Seeing her mentors expression, she didn't know if she'd even had a dream. Shouldn't she share it with the rest of them? Aldertail had told her she could. Her eyes filled with fear and she asked, "Are medicine cats supposed to share their dreams? Aldertail told me I could share the dream with whomever I wished."

[c e d a r *]

"Dream?" Cedarclaw merely asked, confusion probing in her deep blue orbs. "You had a dream?" she asked, mostly ecstatic for her apprentice, but then again, slightly disappointed. She didn't have a dream. "No, I didn't have a dream," the she-cat whispered to her apprentice, trying not to raise her voice in happiness. "But if you'd like to explain it to me while we wait for the others, I'm all ears," she purred, her eyes shining.

Trying to stay quiet, she inched closer to Mudpaw, waiting for the story. "I think we may want to explain it with the others, once they begin to stir, if Aldertail told you that you could." Cedarclaw started, her eyes thoughtful. "I don't want to sit here and try and figure it out by myself, with you, when we could have more help on our paws, and I right?" she asked quietly.

The worry she had been feeling had soon gone from her mind, as she strained all of her attention to go to Mudpaw. I wonder, does it affect all four clans? She thought to herself. If it doesn't should we alert the others? I guess I'll have to wait and see, and ask what Mudpaw would like to do, Cedarclaw thought to herself, then silently scolding herself for her thoughts trailing off. She'd ask questions later.

Now was a time for listening.

[mudmask]

She didn’t have a dream? Mudpaw was slightly shocked at this news, but quickly answered her eager mentor. She took a deep breath and lowered her voice, eyes shining with excitement. “Aldertail, a beautiful she-cat came to me and took me to Shadowclan territory. We sat in a clearing together, and she told me to watch the moon. It was changing shape really fast, and in no time at all, full moon had passed and it was already new moon! The moon completely disappeared, and three stars were surrounding the outline of where the moon once stood. Then Aldertail told me, ‘Three stars will shine on a night with no moon!”

She paused and drew in a breath, letting Cedarclaw think. Then she added, “I think it’s got to happen in Shadowclan, but I don’t understand, there are always stars in the sky on no moon.” A puzzled expression crossed her face, and she realized, If the prophecy was meant for Shadowclan, wouldn’t the Shadowclan medicine cat see it? Why would she be the one to have a dream? If Cedarclaw didn’t have a dream, there was a chance that Darksoul didn’t either, so why would she be the only one to see it?

Questions swirled around her head, and she looked at Cedarclaw confidently and mewed, “We should tell the others, I think that they should know, because there were no signs of it relating to Thunderclan.” A worried expression crossed her face as she pondered, What if she was wrong? What if she was wrong? What if she was giving out the clans secrets? Her face crinkled up and she imagined the fate of the clans in her paws. Stop exaggerating! The fate of the clans isn’t in your paws, is it?

[c e d a r *]

Cedarclaw took in the information slowly, nodding and looking thoughtful. Everything her apprentice said to her, made her feel so proud. She was right in every way. "I agree with everything you say, although I still cannot quite figure out why she mentioned three stars. Maybe it has something to do about.." she paused and took a breath, pondering her thoughts, gathering them together. "Maybe it has something to do with three Shadowclan cats? If she took you into Shadowclan territory, it seems like the only reasonable explanation," she meowed.

"We definitely need to tell Darksoul, but it's up to her whether or not she wants the others to know about it, I'm just curious to see why you were chosen and given the dream, and not Darksoul," she meowed, a puzzled expression looming over her face. "I'm glad you think like this, Mudpaw," she meowed. "Maybe this is why you were going to be a medicine cat, because you can think like this, so intricately, so deep," she meowed quietly.

"I wonder, do you think it will happen this next no moon?" she inquired, scanning her eyes across the lightening horizon. She sighed, and narrowed her eyes in thought. "And why a Thunderclan medicine cat apprentice?" she asked aloud. "This is going to take a lot of thinking. I'm just curious to see if this is bad for our clan, or good..." she meowed, tilting her head toward the left.

"I'm proud to have you as my apprentice," Cedarclaw purred, her blue eyes shining. "Although sometimes, I wish I wasn't always so curious, so full of questions. I can never be too sure if I'm delving into a subject I'm not needed in," she whispered, a small laugh escaping her lips.