[Willowfern]

“Well, are you going to do it, or what?” Blackshiver asked, her eyes narrowed at Silverbark. Little details like her eye color were fading, now, and Dogbark found that they seemed to fluctuate like a river. One moment they were blue, another they were green.
The sky was a robin’s egg blue this morning, and the birds tittered in the trees like gossiping queens. The sun played over the water, giving it a sparkling, shiny appearance. The air was comfortably warm, and Dogbark felt like he could just sit here, enjoying this moment forever. Alas, he could not.
“What do you mean?” Silverbark asked, his paws sinking into the bank of the sunkissed creek. He was watching his distorted reflection in the water, his handsome features marred. It was especially ripply around his muzzle.
“You know you want to jump in,” She purred, shoving him lightly in the shoulder as she referred to the snowmelt-swelled creek, “You know how to swim,” She pointed out as Silverbark opened his mouth to argue.
“I… can’t,” Dogbark meowed, breaking the flow of the dream. Blackshiver’s mouth hung agape as she watched him, a look of horror on her face. Dogbark felt the blood begin to trickle across his maw.
There was a lag in the dream, and if Dogbark had any knowledge of twoleg video games, he might have referred to such a lag as a glitch, but he had no such metaknowledge. Dogbark took one last glance around the pretty setting as Blackshiver spoke again. This time, her cheerful tone was gone.
“Why?” She hissed as the dream shuddered into a dream-version of the dark forest. There was a pond in front of them, stars reflected in its surface, though the sky was void of any such wonders. Blackshiver stood and charged at him, blood dripping from the gash in her throat, “What are you, a baby?”
Dogbark loathed the dark forest version of his sister that his subconscious mind dreamt up, but he knew that is wasn’t actually her. In fact, he was absolutely sure that it was just his negative thoughts taking form. Though, in a dream, he didn’t know that, and he was terrified.
“No,” He meowed softly, his pupils turning to slits as he backed away from his sister, “I-I’m not a baby, I just don’t want to.”
Blackshiver’s hackles sprung up, and her claws unsheathed as she glared at her brother with eyes blazing with hate,
“You want to get back home, don’t you, stupid? It’s the only way, unavoidable! You’re just scared.”
Dogbark glanced at the shimmering pool. He gulped, fear welling up inside of him.
“But I don’t know if I can, Blackshiver,” He whispered, his heart pounding, his blood roaring in his ears, “I really don’t know if I’m brave enough to try.”
“You are a baby, Silverbark,” Her tone was dark, dangerous, “You’re not worthy of being a StarClan warrior. You belong in the dark forest! With me!” She lets out a bitter laugh as she advances forwards, “Admit it!”
“No! I’m not like you at all, the dark forest is for killers!”
But Blackshiver doesn’t reply. Instead, she leaps at Dogbark, claws extended as she rips out his throat.
_

Dogbark shuddered awake, clutching his throat, and his head smashed against the underside of the rock that he slept beneath, but he felt no pain, only the force of the impact. Cursed StarClan safety nets.
The StarClan sky was bright as always, and the grass, a luscious blue-green, tickled Dogbark’s paws as he stood up and walked to the edge of the pond, where he splashed some water on his face to fully awaken himself and shake away any scraps of the nightmare.
Dogbark hated dreaming, he had thought that, after death, one would cease to dream, but that was apparently not the case. He sighed, he would just have to deal with it.
The nightmare was fading now, and Dogbark scarcely remembered what had made it a nightmare in the first place. But the one thing he did remember…
Dogbark’s eyes flicked to the pond’s surface before he looked away again.
Stupid nightmares, He thought to himself, glaring at nothing in particular ahead of him, Making me paranoid about literal Heaven! Figures. I can’t catch a break even when dead. I should probably just stop sleeping. I don’t need to, anyway.
Dogbark frowned as he looked about himself. It seemed like no one had bothered to wander into Dogbark’s little slice of stomping grounds, so he had no one to talk to. He grumbled.
The main problem with StarClan was fighting boredom when your family doesn’t care about you, and that was rather difficult.
So, Dogbark decided he’d go to the forest and find himself something tasty to eat. Sure, it was always super easy to catch all the fat prey that wandered the forest, but sometimes Dogbark could find a particularly wily piece of prey, and it would provide him with enough of a chase to satisfy his needs in the moment.
The forest was beautiful, but Dogbark payed it no mind. He wasn’t in the mood for admiring the scenery. He never really was, but that was totally besides the point.
Dogbark found himself wandering further than he usually trekked, propelled by some invisible force. Dogbark let it lead him, though, as he had nothing to do, and he wasn’t worried about anything hurting him in these starry forests. He padded down a well-worn trail until he reached a cave that seemed to just radiate StarClan energy. Dogbark’s oddly scar-free muzzle scrunched up.
Why do I need to go in there? He wondered, pausing a couple tail-lengths from the cave entrance, his tail whipping from side to side as he studied the cave, Well… I suppose there’s only one way to find out…
Dogbark padded into the cave and followed a winding path until he reached a cavern, and his breath hitched in his throat. In front of him were six cats, most of which he recognized, though a couple of them were strangers to him.
He realized quickly where he was, the Starcave. He must have come in through a StarClan-exclusive back entrance.
Medicine cats, He thought, It must be the half-moon meeting… but why am I here, and not a better representing member of StarClan? A dead ThunderClan deputy who didn’t make much of a splash when alive is not the best cat to meet with the medicine cats. But, whatever. Who was Dogbark to argue with the forces of life and death (and, apparently, who showed up for the little shiny rock parties.)?
Speaking of who showed up to little shiny rock parties… Cinderpaw was there as the sixth member of the medicine cat squad, yet she didn’t settle at the rock like the others. Hm, was she a guard, Dogbark wondered? Or was she just… there? Did she have something she wanted? Did she just want to visit the sacred place?
Dogbark felt something like a spiritual tapping on the shoulder, so he was just about to pull them all into a communal dream (excluding Cinderpaw, as she was neither touching the stone nor a medicine cat.), when Cinderpaw started kind of freaking out.
This, Dogbark wanted to watch.
She seemed to be crying out to Cindersky, which was fine by Dogbark, she was the better of ThunderClan’s past leadership after all. She was lashing out at StarClan, saying that they never chose Eveningstar, him (ouch, but true. Though, he wondered why Aspenstar wasn’t mentioned.), or… Roseraven? Dogbark was a bit confused, he’d been out of the loop for a moment or so, what had happened with Roseraven?
Anyway, when she had finished, Dogbark expected that to be that, but what he saw next was… bad. Cinderpaw sank her claws into the sacred stone, and Dogbark couldn’t even blame her. He was just as angry at StarClan for letting bad things happen to his clan. So, as Cinderpaw slumped against the stone, Dogbark drew the medicine cats into a dream. He’d keep Cinderpaw’s little secret for the time time he was meeting with the medicine cats. He wasn’t a snitch. Besides, Cinderpaw’s deed would be known when the medicine cats awoke.
StarClan’s hunting grounds were insufferably bright compared to the darkness of the Starcave, and Dogbark found himself blinking in the sunlight as he awaited further instruction from whatever driving force had been commanding him earlier. He found his eyes drawn to young Cowpaw, and a moment of realization settled on him.
Naming ceremony, He thought, I’m in charge of Cowpaw’s naming ceremony. I can’t screw this up, then.
Dogbark stepped forward, his heart (Do StarClan cats have hearts?) pounding in a rhythm of “Don’t screw up. Don’t screw up. Don’t screw the hell up!”. His eyes momentarily flicked to meet Sundust’s, and he resisted the urge to say something to ThunderClan’s medicine cat as he opened his mouth facing Cowpaw.
“I, Dogbark, Warrior of StarClan, call upon my warrior ancestors to look down on this apprentice. He has trained hard to understand the ways of a medicine cat, and with your help he will serve his Clan for many moons,” So far so good. The words just seemed to be flowing from him at this point, “Cowpaw, do you promise to uphold the ways of a medicine cat, to stand apart from rivalry between Clan and Clan and to protect all cats equally, even at the cost of your life?”
Dogbark paused for a moment, giving Cowpaw a moment to respond in whatever way he really wished, as long as it meant “I do”.
“Then by the powers of StarClan I give you your true name as a medicine cat. Cowpaw,” This would be the last time anyone addressed Cowpaw as an apprentice, Dogbark realized with a swell of warmth in his chest, “From this moment on you will be known as…” Dogbark almost felt the blood drain from his face. What was Cowpaw’s new name supposed to be? He’d never chosen someone’s name before, he realized.
Suddenly, as if someone was speaking in his ear, he heard the name clear as day, and he continued on with the ceremony,
“…Cowtuft! StarClan honors your kindness, trustworthiness, and empathy, and we welcome you as a full medicine cat of WindClan.”
Okay, whew, that was over. Dogbark had never felt so high-anxiety since the days of pretty much both his and Aspenstar’s deaths. He was happy to have been given the honor of doing this, but he was glad it was over, just because he’d been so afraid of messing up.
“Congratulations, Cowtuft,” He meowed, breaking the elusive StarClan profile for a moment to warmly touch Cowtuft’s forehead with his nose, “You’re going to be an amazing medicine cat.”
Dogbark drew back his nose, and was just about to turn to Sundust and ask him how ThunderClan was faring, he even got so far as to start with “How is-“ when something like an odd chill went up his spine. He shivered. Something was wrong.

@x ghostie @naiad @daenerys @Ravensong @TheNyanCatMinecart @littlelove
(Surprise number two electric boogaloo.)