☾ ₊°⊹ “ the moon's wane ” ─ a srp

Instructions

cw // sickness, non-violent death °⊹ ₊°⊹ ☾ ₊°⊹ She was... fading. She could feel the breath leaving her lungs, the walls closing in on her. Crescentdusk squeezed her eyes shut in dismay. There wasn't much of a view regardless, the medicine den blurring before her very eyes as if an ominous fog had overcome the den. Even the distinct smells of herbs that she'd known all her life seemed to be fading with her, floating away into the sky with everything else, save for the biting cold that urged her to keep warm, but the she-cat had no strength to curl inwards or make any effort whatsoever to conserve her heat. The bi-coloured molly's mind was racing, contradicting her limp body that would no longer follow her commands. She lay there, helpless, the voices of her clanmates that were once cacophonous noises haunting her from outside of the den now fading into quiet. And with that, the world fell into a tranquil shroud of silence. Her heart stopped racing. The cold ceased altogether. And instead, her body felt an empowering rush of warmth like never before. Something in the ThunderClan warrior made the corners of her mouth turn upwards. She was smiling. Perhaps it was the irony of it all, or how she'd come full circle from her kithood. Crescentdusk was never one to laugh or even smirk in a solemn moment, but then again, she wasn't particularly feeling herself at the moment. Besides, what had she left to lose? The black-and-white molly was at rock bottom, and the only way to go was up. At least, that was what her sister Sunkindle always said in desperate times. Sunkindle. Her family. Crescentdusk had taken so much for granted in her youth. Her Clan, the territory, but most importantly, her sister. In retrospect, it was strikingly ironic. It had taken Sunkindle's death for her to truly /know/ just how much that friendship had meant to her. To both of them. It hadn't seemed amusing at all back then, but now, the situation was almost laughable. Because now... She was going home. "Home is where the heart is," the blue-eyed molly had always been told. And her heart was, and had always been, with her family. If that place was StarClan, then so be it. When no one else was there, her sister stood beside her until the very end. Even her parents, who had given her nothing but trouble and unreachable expectations since the beginning, would have been proud of her. Because those expectations, those expectations that had seemed so impossible and unjust then, were peculiarly minor things now. Playing and socializing with the other kits. Performing perfectly during apprentice training. Proving that she was a loyal warrior. Proving that she was good enough. Her whole life, Crescentdusk had felt the need to prove. To prove that she was successful, to prove that she was loyal, to /prove/ that she was worth it. Now, the molly had nothing left to prove. She'd /proved/ everything that she'd ever wanted to. The molly had fulfilled her purpose in life, and it didn't matter if it wasn't how everyone thought the she-cat would live it. Because that was how /she/ wanted to live it, and the warrior had wanted nothing more than that since the moment she'd opened her eyes. Crescentdusk could feel herself being whisked away from the confines of the medicine den and up, up, up as though she were floating, sleeping on a nest of clouds whilst finally free from her worries. Her time in ThunderClan was over, and she was surprised to not lament her departure, but instead hopefully await her arrival in StarClan with high spirits. A sense of acceptance and peace washed over the she-cat as her surroundings faded before her, the flurries of snowflakes outside of the den ceasing to fall, floating away into the unknown. The unknown. Her next destination. No matter what happened from there, no matter what awaited her beyond ThunderClan, Crescentdusk knew one thing above all, and that was... She was free.