The starry figure curled their tail around Falconkit, soothing the scared child. The dreams had started only a moon ago, but they shook the kitten to his core. It was an unfamiliar scenario, and he didn’t know how to handle it. They spoke kindly to him, but were strangers, and every single time they appeared before him, Falconkit just wanted to wake up.
“Sweetheart, we will always be with you, even when you don’t realise we’re there.” The cat, feminine in voice yet terribly bulky and powerful in stature, spoke quietly. Their eyes pierced directly into his little heart, and he gulped. Falconkit could not speak; did not have the words to speak. Their dark, star filled pelt shimmered, and with one more flick of their tail, the kit’s world turned black.
The nursery was the most familiar location for Falconkit, even when he woke up in the middle of the night, screaming and terrified at the cats that entered his dreams. Leafstep shook her head as she bundled up her child into her fur, nursing him back to sleep. She did not know why her child was waking up in the middle of every night, screaming about cats with stars in their pelts, and never believed that she would.
--
In the moon leading up to his apprentice ceremony, Faconkit was blessed with fewer and fewer dreams of the sparkling cats. Though one early morning when he accidentally stumbled into the medicine den, they hit him harder than he’d ever experienced before.
“What are you doing in here, kit?” Aldertail, the medicine cat himself, snarled. Falconkit didn’t know how to react, screamed, and tried running away. A low-hanging branch placed in just the right spot knocked him out. Stars flooded his concussed state, and cat after cat whispered their encouragement for staying in the den. His head spun as they told him all the things he could do here, all the things he needed to do here. Light quickly flooded his vision and he woke up, Aldertail standing over him.
“S-sorry.” Falconkit stammered. The medicine cat rolled his eyes, but let the kit stay. “Do you know about the starry cats?” The question caught Aldertail off guard.
“You mean StarClan?” He raised an eyebrow, but Falconkit shook his head.
“I don’t know. They appear to me in my dreams.” His voice lowered. “They scare me.” Without missing a beat, Aldertail replied, caution dripping from every word. “They scare me too, kit.”
2. listening to stories (563/350)
“Aldertail, can you tell me a story?” Falconkit asked quietly, his head still spinning from the branch he had ran into. The medicine cat sighed, clearly annoyed, but with his den empty found no excuse to get him out of babysitting the child.
“Sure.” A fake smile and he curled up beside the kit. “What do you want a story about?” Seeing the pure excitement in Falconkit’s eyes eased the annoyance slightly.
“Have you ever been in a battle?” His eyes widened and his heart raced.
“To fight or to heal?”
“Both!”
Aldertail’s breath slowed as he tried to remember his happy place. “There was one, against PondClan, a few moons before you were born. Do you know who they are?”
The medicine cat watched as Falconkit’s brain whirled, trying to churn out the information buried within. “They’re to the north, right? Their leader is Brightstar and their deputy is Russethop!”
“That’s right.” Aldertail was almost shocked at how much this kit knew. “PondClan wanted to take over some of our territory, and thanks to a traitor inside their clan, we were alerted a few hours before the battle. Rockstar put cats on the front lines, and when PondClan came to fight, we were more than ready. The battle started early morning, and ended after sunhigh. It was…” Aldertail’s voice trailed off as he looked away.
“It was what?” Falconkit asked, willing the medicine cat to answer.
“Falconkit, has your mother talked about Barkwhisper?”
The kit nodded enthusiastically. “He was my uncle!” His excitement quickly dropped when he remembered what Leafstep had said. “He’s dead now, right?”
“Y-yes.” The words began to fail Aldertail, but he was determined to finish this story. “I was in love with him.” It was a secret he had never mentioned to anyone before, and the judgement he expected from the other cat was replaced with an awe radiating from every fibre of his being.
“Wow, so you would have been my uncle too!” The innocence from Falconkit made Aldertail feel much more comfortable than he thought he’d be.
“Maybe I would have been, if I’d told him.” Silence fell between them until the medicine cat remembered he was supposed to be telling a story. “Throughout the battle, I was cooped in the medicine den, healing any cats that had to venture back towards camp. Barkwhisper was one of those cats. He had a wound down his flank, but when I turned around to get some cobwebs, a PondClan cat had sliced his throat.” Pain flooded through every inch of his body. “The cat had started to run before I realised what had happened, but when I did, I chased them all the way back to their territory before I was able to attack them. Everyone stopped to watch us tumble through the grass, and eventually I was able to pin him down and…” Aldertail’s voice drifted off when he saw Falconkit’s face, shocked and terrified. “Oh, Falconkit, I’m sorry.” He dabbed at the tears in the kit’s eyes. “I forgot how young you are.”
Falconkit gulped and curled himself into Aldertail’s fur, a silent comfort. The kit was too fragile to be introduced to a story like that, and yet the words had escaped the medicine cat without much of a thought to who he was talking to. He hoped Falconkit would forget this interaction in time.
3. interested in healing/medicine (428/350 words)
Falconpaw had been cooped in the medicine den for two moons, dealing with the dream cats that terrorised him, before the idea of healing peaked his interest. Three cats entered the den one very early morning, just as Falconpaw was waking up. They looked battered and bruised, but Aldertail was nowhere to be found. “What happened?” the apprentice asked carefully.
“An eagle decided we’d be its breakfast.” Marshflower, an older she-cat answered. Falconpaw had seen her around camp, but never spoken to the grey point. She seemed nice. “But instead, it will be ours.” She laughed at her words, causing Falconpaw to smile.
“We got a bit cut up though. Where’s Aldertail?” The solidly built brown tabby Treefall mumbled, his voice gravelly and warn out. Falconpaw stammered as he tried to explain that he didn’t know, but the burly tom pushed through and into the den, and his companions did the same. He tried to tell them to stop, but they rummaged around, looking for the medicine cat.
Daisybloom, the third member of the wounded party, turned to face the younger cat. “C’mon dream cat, surely you know where he is?” The nickname of ‘dream cat’ sent shivers down his spine. He knew that his clan didn’t like him for his dreams, but it hurt. He shook his head, and she stalked towards him. “Listen, kid. We’re all in a bit of pain right now, and we know you can’t help us.” Daisybloom towered over him. “Tell us where-”
Her voice was cut off by a gasp from the medicine cat, who stood at the entrance to the den. The herbs he had in his mouth had fallen to the ground, and with a few harsh words, the three wounded sat and waited patiently for his assistance. “Falconpaw, can you pick those up and put them in the storeroom please?” Without a reply, the apprentice did as he was told. He was careful in moving them, and as he sorted them into the areas with the same leaves, not knowing their names.
As he sorted, he listened to the conversation unfolding in the main area of the den. The tone of all three cats had changed dramatically as Aldertail worked his magic. The herbs, aside from their physical healing properties, seemed to completely change their attitudes. In that one moment, Falconpaw knew that he wanted to learn about how to make cats like him, even if it was only for a moment, by bringing them peace and comfort. And the medicine den was the perfect place to learn.
numberrrr 4 (140 words or somfing)
“Falcondream, you’re a warrior now.” The medicine cat snarled. “Get out of the medicine den.” Aldertail flicked his tail impatiently as the other cat refused to move. “Am I not allowed to come and see you, Aldertail?” Falcondream spat. He was unsure of why the medicine cat was being so harsh towards him. “Am I bothering you by being here?” Anger flared in Aldertail’s eyes. “You are, actually. I have a job to do and you being here isn’t helping.” The new warrior looked around the den, taking careful note of the lack of any life inside. The clan was in high health; nobody was suffering, surprisingly, so Aldertail’s remark only sent anger surging through Falcondream’s body. He took a step towards the medicine cat. “I’m not blind, Aldertail. Plus I’m here to talk to you for a serious reason.”