Warrior Fan Story - Freckled Pool's Dream

Prologue

It was nighttime. The grass glittered with moonlight and a gentle frost had begun to settle over the trees. Everything was silent, and the occasional scurry of a mouse or scamper of a squirrel was muted by the silence of the night.

A patch of ferns quivered and a beautiful cream tabby she-cat with stars in her sleek fur slid from the fronds. As she walked across the frosty ground, she made not a sound. She was graceful, and dipped her head to touch her nose to a wilting rose on the ground. The flower burst back to life, glittering with starlight.

Following her came a blue-grey tom, his soft blue eyes searching the clearing he and his companion had stepped into.

The she-cat hopped neatly up onto a tall rock in the center of the clearing surrounded by underbrush and trees, and padded smoothly to the top. The tom followed, making his way up the boulder much less gracefully.

"I'll never forget how much more beautiful this place is than StarClan," murmured the tabby she-cat, resting her head against the tom.

The tom nodded gently, smiling softly at his mate. "I know why you miss this place, Blossoming Daisy. StarClan is the same every day. Down here, you can feel the cold wind in your fur like you were alive again."

Blossoming Daisy nodded, her eyes sparkling with the stars gracing the two with their prescence. "You know me too well, Rippling Lake."

The blue tom chuckled. "We are mates."

"Forever and more," Blossoming Daisy purred, curling her tail around her paws.

Rippling Lake turned his attention to the sky, where the stars glittered brightly. He knew now what those stars meant to his Clan and their neighbors. They were the spirits of their ancestors, their families and friends that had been lost to time.

And now he was one of them.

"Doesn't it ever concern you that we will never see our children again, Blossoming Daisy?" asked Rippling Lake softly, turning to look at his mate.

Blossoming Daisy blinked, confused. "We see them every day."

"It's not the same. We cannot speak to them like family anymore." Rippling Lake cast a sad look at the patch of forest where SwiftClan had made their home. Seeing the familiar oak tree stretching above the rest of the forest made his heart ache, and he flicked his tail and looked down at his glittering paws.

"Poppy Pelt has taken better care of them than I ever could have," Blossoming Daisy said regretfully. "They will never know me as their real mother."

"Poppy Pelt is no mouse-brain," Rippling Lake reassured her, licking her cheek. "She told our kits of us, and they are aware that Poppy Pelt is their adoptive mother."

Blossoming Daisy nodded and said nothing, instead letting her gaze wander across the forest.

"One day they will be with us again, Blossoming Daisy," Rippling Lake meowed quietly, sliding out his claws and gripping the rock as a raccoon scampered across the grass in front of them, before he remembered that it couldn't see them. 

An owl hooted, and Rippling Lake twitched his ear. Owls had always bothered him ever since one carried away his brother when they were kits, even if the birds were out of sight. Blossoming Daisy pressed her pelt against his  as the owl cried out again, and Rippling Lake relaxed against her, comforted.

The two sat there for what felt like hours before Rippling Lake rose to his paws. "We should be getting back. Wandering Birch will get angry at us again if we're not back soon. You know how she is."

"She always was a bit prickly, wasn't she?" Blossoming Daisy purred.

Rippling Lake pressed his pelt against his mate, and Blossoming Daisy leaned into him. A gust of wind tossed around them and tore their transparent bodies into pieces, tossing their fur into the wind until all that remained were the stars.

Hurrah for Rippling Lake and Blossoming Daisy. Poor couple, so loving of their kits.