Clayclan

Life 1 - Spirit of Adventure

 

"Say hi to everyone for me would you?"

With his last foggy trace of thought, Resinstar tried to promise Claywhistle he would but the pull of sleep was too powerful. His eyes fluttered shut and darkness overwhelmed him long enough for the leader to begin to fear he had died. But then the world opened up around him in a terrific flash of light andResinstar found himself in a forest of stardust trees. He couldn't keep from gaping in awe at his surroundings, at the leaves that appeared to be spun of pure light and the still-grass, caught in-between moments and silent under his paws. "Hello?" he mewed, "Anybody there?" Giggles answered his query. Resinstar's gaze flashed over to where two kittens tussled by a translucent river. He approached them as they rolled over each other on the sandy bank. "Hello?" At his meow the two kits broke apart and gazed up at him with twin grins. The red one opened her mouth as if to speak, but no words came out.

"You must be Resinstar," came a wizened voice from behind the tom. "Sorry I took so long, even here I don't move as fast as I used to." The mottled brown tabby who owned the voice gave Resinstar an easy grin, settling down besides the pair of kits who beamed up at him, chattering noiselessly but with clear excitement. "I see. Well you two had better go fetch your father and the rest of us. The sooner we're all here the sooner you can bombard this poor tom with questions." Resinstar noticed the fatherly affection that crossed the brown tom's face as the two fluffy tabbies scampered off, mixed with something else he couldn't place. "So this is Starclan?" he queried, startling the old cat out of his thoughts. "Oh yes. I'm sorry, you must be very confused. I'm Speckledbeetle- I lived in Beechclan for a time. And those two were Snapperkit and Chicorykit." Though he nodded as if he understood, questions burned at Resinstar's tongue. Speckledbeetle somehow picked up on this and gestured for him to go ahead and ask. "I'm sorry, but if this is Starclan, why are you still old? And why are the kits silent?" The tom had always pictured Starclan as perfect from what Claywhistle had described, but this clearly wasn't. Maybe it was because everything here was so unusually bright that the imperfections were clearly illuminated. "I'm afraid you'll find that some things even death cannot fix, and silence is one of the more prevalent problems among us Beechclanners." Resinstar shifted uncomfortably, reminded of Claywhistle's constant warnings about how things were not as they seemed. He really didn't want to hear more on that subject, especially not if the wrongness had spread to Starclan. That could never be good. "But ah, this isn't what you need to hear. Not yet anyways. You're here for you lives aren't you?"

As Resinstar nodded, he realized with a start that a whole group of cats had come up behind him. This whole silent thing was going from kind of cool to pretty creepy fast. One of the older cats, white and tan tom, was seemingly apologizing for their lateness. He cast a pointed look at Snapperkit and Chircorykit. Speckledbeetle gave a small smile and told them to sit down, introducing them all to Resinstar. "Now remember this isn't a chit-chat visit-" This struck Resinstar as ironic. "-it's a ceremony. I know you all are missing friends and family, and we will figure that out, but for right now don't scare our guest away." The gathered cats all nodded solemnly, though one pure-white tom looked antsy as he agreed.

"I'm first!" squeaked a kit, a little bigger than the other two but still too small to be dead. "I'm Yarrowstar the brave! Haha just kidding, I'm only Yarrowkit. But I am really brave." The dark brown shecat looked a little droopy at still being just a kit, but she recovered quickly. "Maybe you can be a brave leader for me.Resinstar the brave, how does that sound?" This was clearly a big honor by the way Yarrowkit puffed out her chest and the way her tone got suddenly very cautious and serious, as if each word were a precious piece of glass that she didn't want to drop. "That sounds wonderful," Resinstar mumbled, smiling down at the little cat. "Good! Well then, Resinstar the brave, with this life I give you a spirit for adventure. A drive to see the world in a new way everyday and the courage to go explore it!" Yarrowkit leaned forwards and touched noses with Resinstar's dipped head. As soon as she did a fierce energy raged through the leader. It was warm and it was fast and it was in no way safe. He felt as though he could race through a thousand forests at the speed of the sun and yet still notice the shape and color of every single leaf. It was not a gentle gift and it left him winded, like his mind had left his body sky-lengths behind and still had not returned, but it was beautiful. "Thank you," he managed to gasp, "It's wonderful." "Use it wisely," the kit warned, and then swiftly stepped back among her fellow Starclan cats, a grin breaking across her face.

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Life 2 - Observance

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"I'm next then," Speckledbeetle mewed warmly, giving Yarrowkit an approving nod before stepping forward to face Resinstar. "Adventuring is good to expand the mind and soul, but don't forget to look inwards Resinstar. Your greatest gifts and worst fears are more often besides your nest than across the border." A shiver ran down the leader's spine even before Speckledbeetle touched noses with him. Try as he had recently to ignore it, Claywhistle's warning just kept running through his head. They hadn't discussed it openly since the day his friend's eyes had grown hazy and unfocused and fearful cries to watch for green-eyed devils had spewed from his maw. Resinstar didn't want to think about it and yet he had to didn't he? "Speckledbeetle, do you know about Claywhistle's warning? Or where all the Beechclan cats are? I-" The elder's look grew dark and he shook his head. "A case for another time Resinstar. We don't know enough to tell you anything concrete yet. But know you and Claywhistle are not in immediate danger. We'll figure it out," he promised. Resinstar nodded, at least somewhat placated by the old tom's words. 

And even if he wasn't entirely convinced, Speckledbeetle didn't give him enough time to voice more of his doubts. "With this life I give you observance. To look within your clan, your cats, and even yourself so that you may know how to help them." The mottled tom reached up to touch his nose to Resinstar's but this time the energy that surged through him was calmer, less aimless and excited. Compared to what he had felt from Yarrowkit, in this life Resinstar felt downright slow, and instead of racing through forests he found himself wandering his own. The leaves were not as bright nor as green but he knew them, he understood the way they bent to the sun and what it meant when cicadas began to quiet. And in the same way he knew other cats, the droop of their whiskers or the gleam in their eye. Hundreds of faces he had never seen before, chattering in a language he didn't understand and yet Resinstar could pick out each individual murmer and know who voiced it. When the energy finally left him he felt nearly as overwhelmed as when Yarrowkit presented her life but in a more grounded way. "T-thank you."Speckledbeetle smiled at him, again fatherly with a tinge of something else. Now Resinstar could recognize it, though he wasn't sure he wanted to. Melancholy. "Use it wisely." Wit that Speckledbeetle stepped back into the line and someone else spoke. A previously silent Starclan cat.

"Finally."