It's me, Moongazer! This time I'm bringing back ancient tales of the Clans, many forgotten for generations. Of course, they were all written by me! This is a legend, like a Warriors fairytale, so expect some impossible-sounding stuff.

This story is a side story to Daughter of the Stars. I've received a few questions as to the origins of my characters Star and Moon. Some more of my readers are probably wondering why they don't have Clan names, who they are, if they were in the original Warriors (the Star and Moon in my stories are completely mine, and not copied from anywhere), and more. This story should explain most of that. I had fun with it. :)

Remember to review!

Disclaimer: I do not own Warriors. All characters in this are not copied and are completely original and mine alone.


The Tale of the Moon and the Stars

Long, long ago, during a time when the Clans were great, feared, and led by powerful leaders, there were two young cats in Thunderclan, named Moonblaze and Starstream. Moonblaze and Starstream were mates, and loved each other very much. Life was happy for them. However, the leader of their Clan, Darkstar, was jealous. He had tried time and time again to get Starstream for his mate, but she shook him off like he was a dirty scrap of moss clinging to her black-and-white spotted pelt.

Darkstar was growing desperate-and corrupt. Finally, one day, he decided to send Moonblaze off on a fatal mission. When Moonblaze didn't come back, he reasoned, Starstream would fall in love with him instead.

But Starstream was smart. She knew Darkstar was after her, and she knew that one day he would attempt to kill her mate.

The day Darkstar called a Clan meeting and sent Moonblaze off, Starstream spoke up. She told the entire Clan about Darkstar's selfish motives, and expressed her fear that once Moonblaze went off, he would never return alive.

But the Clan didn't believe her. For them, her accusations against their leader seemed completely false and unfair. They thought that Darkstar was a kind, noble leader, with no hint of jealousy in his spirit. Only Moonblaze knew that his mate spoke the truth, and he stood up and supported her.

Darkstar grew angry with Starstream and Moonblaze. In a rage, he stripped them of their warrior names and banished them from the forest forever. Starstream and Moonblaze became Star and Moon, and they left the Clan they loved, never to return.

That was the day the moon and the stars vanished. No cat could tell how it happened, why it happened. The only explanation came from the medicine cats-that all but one of the spirits of Starclan had suddenly lost their homes and now wandered aimlessly around the sky. The moon grew lonely, and vanished too, leaving only a single star to light up the sky at night.

Suddenly, the woods grew more dangerous. Wild animals prowled freely, killing any cat unfortunate enough to be alone outside at night. The Clans shrank, and grew weak with fear and loss. Darkstar himself lost a life because of an owl, when he was alone and nowhere near his camp.

Star and Moon were in danger too. The small patch of forest outside of Clan territory, where they moved after their exile, was not safe. They took to hunting in the daytime, and hiding in the hollows of a tree at night, to be safe from the foxes and badgers and owls.

But one night, Star and Moon were careless. They had hunted and played all day, and had forgotten to hide in the tree before sunset. Now they were stranded outside, in the inky darkness that was difficult to see through, in danger of their lives and without a way to stay safe.

That fateful night, they were attacked by a badger. The great beast loomed out of the darkness and struck so suddenly that Star and Moon were frozen with surprise, and helpless.

The badger struck again, this time hitting Star. She let out a shriek and then lay still, breath getting slower and slower. The badger had killed her.

Moon was angrier than he had ever been, ever would be. He attacked the badger so fiercely, that he drove it away before Star stopped breathing.

When the badger had rambled away, lowing in pain, Moon huddled by his mate, trying desperately to revive her, even though he knew it was pointless. His love was dead.

Finally he gave up, and sat vigil for her, in the cold and dark, guarding Star's body.

At the point where it would have been moonhigh, if the moon was still in the sky, Moon felt a soft, loving presence. As he watched, Star's spirit rose from her body, along with her spots. Each white spot glowed with light, and rose, until Star's spirit stood in the middle of a glowing mass of stars. She looked young, strong, and healthy-just as she'd been before her life had been turned upside down.

Star purred, and touched her starry nose to Moon's head, before turning around and padding up into the sky. All the stars followed her, and as Moon watched, they returned to their rightful place in the sky.

It was then that Moon realized what he had lost.

With the loudest yowl any cat had ever heard, he caterwauled his love for Star up to the sky. It was heard all across the territory of the Clans, striking grief into all hearts, from the four Clans to the loners in the barn near Highstones.

The sound he let out was fierce and gentle, calm and agitated, loving and cold, all that Moon had ever felt poured into a single yowl, which flowed from him as a beam of light.

The light was so strong, so intense, that it traveled to the space where the moon once was-and started to fill it with light.

For a full half moon, every night, Moon wailed his love to the stars and the sky. And every night, bit by bit, the moon came back. And finally, at the end of that half moon, the moon was full again.

Then Moon's wails became different. He stopped caterwauling about his love, and instead yowled his grief to the stars. All those who heard him shivered at the change in his tone, so different, but no less intense.

His grief now flowed out of him in a torrent of black light. And every day, bit by bit, it covered some of the light of the moon, until at the end of another half moon, the moon was nowhere to be seen.

The pattern of his mournful keening continued for moons upon moons upon moons. The moon in the sky grew for half a moon, and shrank for half a moon, and continued on relentlessly. The wailing grew familiar to all the cats who could hear him, so familiar that they only heard it if they listened carefully for it.

And so Moon continued for the rest of his life, hunting and sleeping during the day, and yowling to the stars at night-until one night, his wails did not come, because Moon was dead. No cat noticed; so accustomed were they to hearing wails every night that his caterwauling was the sound of silence to them and the new quiet went unnoticed.

But Moon was happy, because as he died, his spirit rose, joining his beloved Star in their new home in the sky.

The moon never stopped going through the moon cycle again, for Moon had poured so much emotion into it that there was enough light to last for eternity.

And so ends the tale of the two lovers who restored the moon and the stars.


Hope you enjoyed that! Please review and leave some feedback for me. Thanks!