ᴇᴘɪʟᴏɢᴜᴇ - ᴏᴡʟᴍᴏᴏɴ'ꜱ ᴅᴇᴀᴛʜ

Instructions

The first thing she notices is that her heartbeat doesn't change. Of course, she has no heartbeat. But the pounding in her head, the rush of blood and ringing in her ears, that's there. The second thing she notices is that Starclan is too bright. She stands in a field of shimmering, tranclucent grass. Whatever fake dew that hangs onto it's blades cling onto her fur like warm slime. Another thing, it's too quiet here. Just over an hour ago she was surrounded by the sound of rain, steadily drumming into her fur and waterlogging her feathers. Just over 45 minutes ago she had first heard a faint rumbling over the rain, the cracking of the tunnel, the sudden collapse of rocks and boulders and piercing pain. Just over 10 minutes ago, she'd been surrounded by claws scraping on stone, the sound of sobbing, the scraping noise of her own rapid, shallow breathing, hushed, heartfelt whispers she couldn't hear over the numbness in her brain. And now she was here, in a field of flowers, under a sky with blinding stars. Watching her, mocking her. And Owlmoon began to cry. Her eyes are beginning to sting, her lungs burning tin the same sensation of back in the cave. Broken, gasping hiccups fill the otherwise silent fields. Noise doesn't travel far. She's furious. At herself, at starclan. Because she had done the same thing Jasminesong had done to her, all those moons ago. Twee had left the people she loved. Lune had thrown away her future, her life. And it was her own foolish fault. She could have been stronger, could've survived. But no. She would never fly alongside Equinoxpaw, never see the stars fall with Silvanberrypaw, or travel around the shores with Starlingpaw. Never for her to call her children's names as they became warriors. Never for her to lay beside her sister in the elders den, telling stories and laughing at themselves. Never for her to see her father and Snuggs be happy again, to live in a clan that did not distrust them. Never for her to brush wings with a cat she thought of as a mate. No, there was no future for her. There wasn't Jasminesong. Or her birth mother, or their siblings. And there was no moon here. Only the soft shine of a thousand twinkling eyes, gazing apon her crestfallen figure.

Notes & Credits