Darkstar sat with his nose pointed towards the sky.
The eerie gloom that fell over Duskclan's camp on overcast nights was unsettling to the cats beneath the embracing pines. In the warriors den, by whose entrance he loitered, tails twitched and flanks heaved in nameless nightmares of endless horrors. The clouds above, layered and bulging in their secrets, allowed no illumination from the blessed moon to filter through onto the light starved Earth below. Fadinglight, the clan's medicine cat, joined his leader in observation of their inferiors.
"Starclan does not look upon us tonight, Darkstar."
"Can you see?"
"Nothing but empty shadow." The aging cat turned his gaze back to his den. "Even my refuge glares at me in this dark night." Darkstar sighed deeply, his massive chest inflating with his weariness.
"Perhaps that black of night is all that lies ahead."
"Cheer yourself, friend," Fadinglight mewed, flicking the leader's tail with his own. "Dusk passes to moonhigh as moonhigh brightens to dawn. Change is Starclan's blessing. No night can last forever." The medicine cat forced his aching bones back to their feet, his awkward, shuffling gait taking him to his den without another word to Darkstar.
The big, black tom sighed again, feeling the coming storm press on his bones with its might.
"No night can last forever," he murmured to himself, padding quietly back to the split rock which was his resting place. "Even this one." Darkstar took one last look at the threatening sky before entering the cool, thick embrace of his shelter.