Like Blood Upon The Snow

[Abyssopelagic]

Coldamber watches from her little space in StarClan as Lostspark is finally retired as Medicine Cat, and Mossfreckle is named the sole Medicine Cat, in addition to the announcement that he's chosen an apprentice for himself.
She should be happy that ShadowClan has proven to have moved past the tradition of leaving their apprentices without training. It should be something that made her smile.
Instead, it was just another reminder that Elmshadow was gone. She couldn't pinpoint when the grumpy little marsh stomper had gotten under her skin, and stole a piece of her affection, but it was undeniable that his absence affected her.
Even now, even so long after he'd died. She hadn't seen him in the Dark Forest, where he sweared to her he belonged.
Where was he, then?
Was it possible for a soul to simply disappear, to never reach the land of their Ancestors?
The idea didn't sit well with her. It made her feel weighed down, as if she was being crushed beneath something she couldn't begin to fathom.

It was a long time before she could bring herself to poke around Mossfreckle's herb storage. While she was could see that Lostspark had passed on a portion of her knowledge, she found that the new Medicine Cat's stores to be lacking things she knew very well that his mentor had learned.
It seemed they were not entirely past the shackles of the past.
That was fine. She'd simply do what she always did, and would take it up on herself to fill out Mossfreckle's résume.
She was finding that her distaste for Lostspark was increasing beyond just the knowledge that she squandered something that the WindClan healer would have killed for. (And she would have to exist with the fact it contributed heavily to why she had been so hesitant to visit Mossfreckle even before now)

Coldamber took a deep breath, and pushed aside her sorrow, her hatred, and everything that would hold her back. She needed to be unfettered by her emotions for this, or she might just shatter as she had with Lightningstorm. She couldn't afford to let her feelings get the better of her again.
With a clear mind, she sought out Mossfreckle's tether to the living world, and forged her connection to him. She contemplated the apprentice for a moment.... And realized she couldn't even remember their name properly. (Grackle, gorse, grouse.... It was... Something similar wasn't it?)
Instead, she remained latched to the brown tabby, waited a moment to secure her connection, and then gently pulled him into StarClan's embrace.


[ @ellie ]
//The title is stolen from a Hozier song, and was originally intended for a dream with Lostspark, and I love it too much to just never use it\\

[ellie]

｡ﾟﾟ･｡･ﾟﾟ｡
ﾟ。 Mossfreckle (ShC)
　ﾟ･｡･ﾟ they/he ~ medicine cat

❦ Weariness coursed through the herbalist’s lanky freckled form as he trodded through the lush curtain of the lichen that shrouded his herb scented haven from the bleakness of the world that resided all but a whiskers length away - a harsh reality that stood starkly like the blazing sun that set momentarily fires within his mossy hues as his pupils contracted against its harsh light - but the bright orb now hung heaving in the ever dimming watercolour sky, small stars winking to life which each stroke of golden and pinkish tones, each rich purple and deepening blue, angular star marked head threatened to dip beneath the fatigue of a day well spent but Mossfreckle only held it higher in spite of that. Lanky form strode in tired graceful manoeuvres - it was mechanical and absentminded - the delicate ease of monotony setting him on a beeline towards his down and moss nest settled almost paranoidly close to the stoney, cracked walls which crevices housed his vast array of knowledge within particular organised stockade. White tipped paws landed in soft thuds as the medicine cat leapt over the babbling rivulet that cascaded from the wall and trickled through the middle of the den in an idle flow, fatigue soon turned to dreamlike drifting as Mossfreckle curled within the mossy tumble and snuggled against the wall, feathery tail flicking over his nose completing the spotted tabby bundle - the already small tom becoming no more than a petite ball that rose and fell with each evening and slowing breath as he was lulled into a necessary sleep, too tired to allow his star hewn mind to reel and wonder in an unending muddled tête-à-tête of delusions and reality.

❦ Shadowclan’s herbalist was no stranger to looming in the dreams of others, was no stranger to others stumbling in desperation into the shadowed conifer plains of his dreamscapes, the click click click of strange claws clattering against the dark, slick stones of his minds abysmal voids - the hazed lightless scapes that the lone souls seemed to wind up in - but this was something fundamentally different… so familiar… yet so utterly different. Petite, white tipped paws padded on cloudy grounds as mossy hues flitted in awe of the heavenly metaphysical realms, he was no more than a lone oriental form finding his way beneath a new sky of stars, twinkling above him was the soft light of a thousand long dead felines, above him was not stark star streaked voids of his own starry mind but something pure almost effervescent, a tether on his heart and soul pulling him home. Starclan… his body still lived but he had been called home - if only for a moment - this was a beckoning, a lamented requiem, a decedent dream rather than the bitter nightmare of his last prophetic reciprocity. Like a silvery moth draw to the glowing, glistening moon Mossfreckle’s paws moved in confident strides towards the source of the tether that had ripped him from his mind and placed him among his archaic kin… home… he should have been amongst them but Starclan had granted him his life for a price… a blessing… or was it a curse… the toms large ears perked forward and his angular head shook to rid his starry mind which still resided in him even though he had long sense departed its whispering confines… home… mossy hues settled gently into the gaze of a lone soul, body dipped respectfully as he peered up through heavy lashes in polite anticipation that tickled his silken pelt as he waited for the molly to speak her part.

{ @Abyssopelagic ~ Coldamber // thank you for your patience }