Thread:FutureImaginativeAuthor/@comment-39691797-20190612231747

The crescent moon glinted in the starry sky as the cats gathered in a deadly silence around a small, limp body strained with claw marks, dripping with her own blood. Her eyes stared into the starry sky, a reflection of the curtain of night shining back into her horribly unblinking eyes.

The cats around her muttered in terror, blinking back at the burning sensations in their eyes. Four she-cats stood around her, the crowd of cats behind them: Cherrystar, Icestar, Turtlestar, and Oakstar leaned over their dead mother. The four sisters each licked away some of the blood still pooling around her, their eyes sharing the same grief-stricken gaze.

Cherrystar, most alike to their mother, Pineshade, took a shaking step back, her breath heaving with unspeakable sadness. She looked up at Turtlestar, shaking her head. "There... There isn't anything we could do..."

Turtlestar nodded, sitting up. "She must be in StarClan receiving welcomes by now," she mewed, looking over her shoulder to sweep her gaze past the cats assembled behind her. "I believe... I believe mother shall be buried properly by now..." Her voice trailed away and she swept her tail along her mother's spine.

Oakstar touched her nose to Pineshade's cold one and sat back on her haunches as well, sweeping her tail neatly over her paws, her ears flattened. "She was old. She lived a fulfilling life and was helpful to all the clans. I cannot believe I ever was furious with her giving us up. Nothing could make me angry with her. Nothing could make me stop loving her..."

Icestar lay beside her mother still as her sisters watched her. She brought her long, white-and-gray tabby tail around her mother and rested her chin on her mother's head. "She should be buried here, in this clearing, now. StarClan can see her resting place clearly, as the trees leave this opening in the canopy." She went silent, her mouth opening and closing. She licked at Pineshade's matted fur lovingly. "I believe we shall start?" 