with the stars as our guide...

[Luminous]

Saturn

The silver shine of the nearly full moon bathed the Crag with light, a small amount of it reaching into the Crown's den and settling to rest over the kit's grey fur. Two weeks or so had passed since Saturn found him, and though he seemed to have partially gotten over the shock of seeing... well, who she could only assume to be their mother... die, he had not spoken. She had even tried leaving him with Mumble overnight hoping that he would speak to someone with her warm eyes. Like maybe he didn't speak when she was around because he had seen her kill the fox?
But her cautious hope had been in vain; he had not said anything to anyone else either.

Stars, she would need to figure out what to do with him. If he would just talk to her, she could at least check if he had other family around or if that spotted she-cat had been the only relative. And after that, she could either try and find his family if they existed, or pick a Keeper to watch over him. So far he had only slept here to avoid her having to leave him near Blood's experimental mind or answer a Keeper's questions about her bringing in a random, mute child no one had seen before.

...
but...
Copper eyes glanced down at him again.
Saturn had never had kits. Not even a mate. Or a (proper) crush. She had been an older sibling more than once now and she in her role as Crown had needed to act as a parent to a few younger cats when their own parents would not. But, yeah, never kits... so why did she have the feeling that she would prefer to have this one sleeping in her nest rather than a random Keeper's?

She let out a soft sigh before carefully adjusting herself in the nest and letting her eyes close. This was stupid. These feelings were stupid. She would think about it tomorrow instead, not now.


@dino. @taillow

[dino.]

Goosefury had told himself he would avoid interfering with his Clan up until the point it became necessary. They needed to handle this themselves, without input from StarClan, or they wouldn't learn. His absence was a necessity.

But then there was the kit. A child, freshly born, who had had no part in the wars waged between the Clans. If Goosefury was going to intervene, it would be just once, just for this, to help a RiverClan kit find their way home.

This group, this cat, was foreign to him. He didn't care enough about them to attempt to observe them - the distance between his skies and theirs made things foggy, anyway. So trying to will himself into this outsider's dream took too much effort, and the thing that leashed him to her consciousness was weak at best.

The edges of the dream were semi-corporeal and waved in and out of view, like it was being swallowed by a black tide. Only the damp, peaty ground beneath them remained solid, but Goosefury knew it was only a matter of time before that gave out, too. His gray paws appeared first, and then the rest of him followed. His single green eye, locked onto Saturn with a piercing intensity, shone brighter than any other part of him.

"This kit you watch over isn't yours to keep." His voice echoed as if it were bouncing off of barren cave walls, though it still held a distinctive sense of authority. "He belongs to RiverClan. You need to return him."

[ @Luminous ]

[Luminous]

Saturn
(1/2 post on spiritual encounter purrks used)

She had fallen asleep. Like without noticing. She must have, because she blinked and suddenly the den bathed in light, and someone was standing infornt of her. Grey paws almost right in front of her muzzle, and the Crown jolted up and scrambled back a step, meeting the green eyes- eh, eye of the cat. "What the- how- who the hell are you??" And why was he hecking glowing?!

No, this wasn't normal, nothing like this had ever happened to her before-
Except that it had.
Thoughts scrambled and her mind still clawing to find its purchase, the memory of her Crown ceremony resurfaced. A spirit had descended, proving that it was not just her eyes playing tricks on her when it completed the X over her shoulder. But while it had shone the same way this cat did... the spirit who had come to her had been a feline... this one was an individual. It had features, scars, and individual characteristics.
"... you're a spirit, arent you?"
'Of course not, because, normal cats can appear out of nowhere, be half see-through and glow'.

She shook out her fur, waking herself up properly before looking at him again. "Not yours to keep." "Yeah I know I know, I just need to figure out who- Riverclan? The newcomers?" Saturn had not spoken to them but had gotten word that a new group had settled down not far from here and had even caught their scent a few times. "I mean, checks out." They had appeared a bit before she found the kit, so ok, it wasn't hard to believe.

Silence filled her den once more and Saturn's copper gaze turned down towards the sleeping kit (ok it was actually slowly waking up, sleeping with a big glowing cat beside you was difficult). "I know..." She had been delusional for thinking she could just pick up a random kit from the forest and expect it to stay with her - even if this wasn't exactly how she had expected with to play out.

She heaved a sigh as she rose up and gently roused the kit to its paws. "I know." Better to get it over with then. When a spirit appears in your den and tells you to return a child, you listen ok, even if Saturn wasn't sure this was one of her spirits. Stalling would only make it more painful, and maybe it would be easiest to return the kit while the spirit was still here. Maybe it could give her some good luck or something.

*****************

She had grabbed a bite to eat and tried to get the kit to eat a bit as well (it finally did) before picking it up and beginning the track towards the border. Honestly, Saturn wasn't too sure how exactly this would go, like she couldn't exactly go waltzing into Riverclan, even if she had their child.

Well, they were at the border now, so her time to think was sort of up. Placing down the kit at the border, she quickly took a walk around the area to make sure that there was not even the hit of fox scent around, but there wasn't. Owls rarely came this high up in the mountains and the hawks and whatnot that she'd seen around hadn't been here. "Should be safe then."

@dino.