The Ancient Star

Mistedsong. Wake up, Mistedsong. The voice was faint, yet stern, like a cool mountain wind. After a monte hgt, a cat slowly began to appear. His long coat was the brightest white, made even more brilliant by the starlight shining in his paws. The only color on him was a pair of green eyes that seemed ancient, despite the youthful appearance. He waited patiently for the medicine cat to react to his summons.

Tired green eyes blinked open with a yawn that split his mouth as wide as it would physically go before it closed with a clack. Mistedsong could have sworn that someone had called his name, and he was admittedly more than a little bit disgruntled to have been woken during one of his few times of rest. He blinked, and he almost let his eyes stay closed before he heard it again, and jumped to his paws. He knew  the voice of a StarClan cat-- their voices don't come from any particular direction when they speak to living cats. His eyes focused properly on the gathering starlight in front of him. "H-Hello?" he meowed hesitantly, voice full of surprise. It was not a cat he recognized, and there were not many cats currently in StarClan that he had not met yet, and they were all of other Clans.

"Hello, Mistedsong," the starry cat said. "We haven't spoken before. I am Iceclaw. I was the leader of a group of cats far in the mountains, though I died long before any cat you know was born," the tom explained. His voice was strong and unwavering. This was a cat who knew how to command others... but that wasn't why he had come. "I need your help."

The medicine cat blinked in surprise-- he was familiar with the mountain tribes, and that they were the origin of the Clans, but not aware that they had ascended to StarClan, too- or maybe they had their own place. Either way, the tom was not particularly sure what to make of it at that very moment. "Of.. of course! What can I do for you?" he replied, mentally shaking the last of the sleep from his brain. Mistedsong could very much tell that this cat had been a leader just by his overall disposition, and it made him even more curious what sort of help he needed from a disabled medicine cat. It was likely because he couldn't talk to cats without a strong connection to StarClan, he realized after a moment.

"I'm sure you're aware that the spirits of cats can sometimes come back within the bodies of another. The one you call Icepaw... he is my reincarnation. His eyes are different for a reason. His green eye is not his own, it is mine. I have been trying to reach him, but I fear his own spirit is closed off to me. He needs to be told, but if it's not done carefully... it could break him. That is why I need your help." Iceclaw stood and pointed an ear behind him, as if listening for something.

Mistedsong's ears laid flat in abject shock. "I was actually.. not aware of that," he said dumbly, having to remind himself to close his mouth. "This is admittedly a lot to process," he said with a soul-deep sigh, shaking out his pelt to bring himself back to the task at hand. "Why does Icepaw need to know, and how do you suppose I tell him without ruining his sense of identity?" the medicine cat inquired. He did not even remotely know how to navigate this, but he could imagine that it would be incredibly distressing to hear that your personality is not entirely your own.

"He must be told because without me, he is incomplete. We are separate, and yet we are two parts of the same whole. Here may be hiding it well, but I doubt he hasn't noticed." Iceclaw looked at the mist at his paws, trying to think of goes rp explain it more simply. "Ah, think of it this way. The sun and moon, you can't have one without the other. They are part of the same cycle. As for how you tell him, I will leave that in your paws. He may be my reincarnation and have a part of my spirit, but he has his own spirit as well. I'm sure you'll find a way to tell him. Once he accepts everything, I should be able to talk to him."

The medicine cat nodded, racking his brain for how to approach this with Icepaw. "I will do my best," he told the starry cat, voice resolute. "Is there anything else I should know?" Mistedsong asked, making sure he had as much of the big picture as he could get. Perhaps he would speak with Breezebranch first on how best to speak with the apprentice, as his adoptive mother.

"Yes," Iceclaw answered, though he was looking behind him again. His forest green eyes turned back to Mistedsong more intense than before, if that was even possible. "If Icepaw isn't told or doesn't accept what he is by the time he's a warrior, he'll die soon after. A body cannot live without a whole spirit for long and his time is running out. He is his own cat, but even more so, he is me. He is my second chance. I hope to see you again, but I have to go now. I'm putting my faith in you. Our life is in your paws, Mistedsong." With his final words, the ghostly white tom fade into the mist. For a brief moment, the only thing left visible was a pair of green eyes before they too disappeared.

A chill ran down the grey tom's spine, leaving his hackles raised in his wake. "I.. I understand," he meowed solemnly, the true gravity of the situation filling his chest with the cold burn of anxiety. As the white tom disappeared before him, Mistedsong all but collapsed where he stood, burying his muzzle in his paws for a moment just to get his mind in order. This was not going to be easily dealt with. A cat could die if he was not careful, and the Clan was already socially torn after the Smoke debacle. The death of another integral member would be devastating.

Mistedsong got to his paws once more, a fresh weariness in his bones despite the relatively restful sleep he had just gotten. His paws met cold, dew-damp dirt as he trotted out of his den into the chill of newleaf morning. The medicine cat's green eyes followed the activities of the camp for a few moments, watching the apprentices gossip and warriors going about their duties. A puff of air left his white muzzle as he sighed, before his eyes landed upon the cat he was searching for. He padded to the other end of camp, approaching Breezebranch where she had been grooming herself. "Breezebranch? Could I speak to you in my den for a moment?" Mistedsong mewed softly, hoping not to catch the attention of one of her seemingly endless amount of kits around the camp.

"Mistedsong? What seems to be wrong? Oh, hold on dear-- Smallpaw, please inform Briarshine I'll have to cancel our stroll. Tomorrow, yes? Afterwards Silverstar ordered the apprentices to arrange sparring groups, so don't take to long, lovely-- Alright, what was it you needed, Mistedsong?" She mewed, pausing as she addressed Smallpaw, the son of her best friend. He scampered off the do as she said, giving a respectful nod and small 'mrrow' of affection. Afterwards she turned back to the medicine cat, gaze curious.

The tone of voice was unmistakably. He spoke quietly. Mistedsong didn't normal try to speak quietly around camp, especially around herself; there was no point, as she almost always had her kits or Briarshine or Smallpaw beside her. This was not good news. Something was wrong with her kits. Immediately, she got up, hurrying to follow the medicine cat.

"Mistedsong, which of them is hurt? Is it Lilypaw, or Swiftpaw? They've spent too much time around that rogue. Did Lionflame, Maplepaw, or Brindlepaw get hurt during dawn patrol? Hawkflight said everything was fine. What of Acornpaw? Sorrelwing took Mudpaw and Icepaw along with Acornpaw for training. Did they encounter a fox? Where are they?" Breezebranch demanded, motherly instincts kicking in as she listed off a barrage of questions, all related to the state of wellbeing of her kits.

Mistedsong chuckled openly at the barrage of questions-- Breezebranch's motherly instincts never fail. "Calm down, Breezebranch. None of them are hurt." While he did not think to add a 'yet' to the sentence, he had a feeling it was implied nonetheless. "This is going to sound really crazy, though, so bear with me a moment."

The medicine cat paced the length of his den, trying to figure out how to phrase what he had barely begun to understand himself. "I was just visited by a cat from StarClan-- or maybe not even StarClan per se, I think he said he was a tribe cat? He was called Iceclaw, and he said that--" He paused, trying to decide how to word things delicately before giving up entirely.

Mistedsong huffed a curse, too stressed to care about pretenses. "Icepaw is his reincarnation, and is still spiritually closed off to his past life. Iceclaw said that if he goes on much longer without having access to his full soul, he will not live long past being named a warrior." He scrubbed at his green eyes with a paw, trying and failing to rub the weariness from them. "He said it's up to me to tell Icepaw, and that if done incorrectly it could break him, and I don't know how to even begin to broach the concept and I figured maybe you would have some insight?" he finished meekly, fully aware of how absolutely bee-brained he sounded.

Breezebranch was silent a moment, before looking Mistedsong in the eyes, green meeting green. Her gaze held a fierce seriousness, sprinkled determination, and perhaps even hints of stubbornness? "Ice has never been a normal kit. The first day, when Silverstar called upon StarClan to accept him into the Clan, he said he was up there. In Fourtrees, when I found him, he spoke of odd creatures and a cat named Whitefeather." She explained, glancing down.

"Shortly after my litter was born, Ice..Icepaw ran off. When I found him he was on the ground in pain. He said he'd a vision of a frozen star. He.. I was worried, but he seemed fine, I know I should have come to you, but I couldn't risk Silverstar throwing him out if it was a bad omen.. Not after Mdumas- Mudpaw and the others had bonded so well with him. He's always been different, but that's what I've always and will always love about him.."

She trailed off, and she didn't seem surprised. Perhaps it was a mother's intuition or just the relief of her kit being... Healthy? "Maybe it's best if I tell him.. I just- he- he's my son, Mistedsong. He'll take it better fro-" SHe stopped mid-sentence as a realization hit her, her eyes widened.

"Wait.. You said he won't live much longer past his warrior ceremony? No! No, no, no, no, NO! He WON'T suffer the same fate as Spottedoak! I WON'T LET HIM!" Any composure the she-cat had was lost in the dust as she realized she may just lose her precious, precious son. Tears spilled, lips curled, fur ruffled, claws unsheathed, Breezebranch would have looked like she came out of a war, if only blood smeared her pelt.

The medicine cat narrowed his eyes. "Bad omen or not, I wouldn't let Silverstar throw a cat out of the clan who's done nothing wrong," he huffed. "But I understand the concern." He nodded as he listened to her, but shook his head at her suggestion. "I don't think that's the best idea-- Iceclaw said it should be me. I was thinking of telling Icepaw when I take him on his Moonstone journey."

Mistedsong flinched back reflexively at Breezebranch's outburst. "C-Calm down!" he all but yelped, "I don't want to incite panic and other cats might hear you," he meowed with a stressed sigh. "I fear for his safety and that's why I wanted your help in the first place-- you know him much better than I do."