He opened his eyes and saw sky.
Not darkness, not unending grey clouds, but the night sky alive with stars. He got to his paws and coughed, his chest aching from where the branch had gone through it. But it was only moments before the pain faded, replaced by a calmness that ran from his muzzle down to his paws and tails. He knew instinctively that this was StarClan.
He choked. He couldn't be here - not after what he had done. It must have been a mistake. A trick.
"This is real," said a voice, as if it could read his mind. A dark ginger tom stood on the edge of the hollow, his fur alight with stars. "You're here for good."
"I don't deserve it."
"No, you don't. So you better start making reparations."
AUTHOR'S NOTE
Hey all!
Wow, I really don't know what to say. Looking back at the KotS author's note, apparently I expressed hope that this wouldn't take another three years to write (oops).
This trilogy has been a nine year journey - and that's very much my fault. There's no excuse for such a hiatus, but if there is one good thing, it was that it gave me a long time to figure out the end of this story, and a more experienced perspective to weave plot threads and complete character arcs and make sure that you get a satisfying final product.
To long-time readers, thank you so much for sticking with me! I hope you enjoyed every word of the last few chapters as much as I did. Dawncloud, Sootclaw, and Thickfur... these characters might just been in three books, but they've been out there (and in my head) for almost a decade and it was very emotional to conclude their story. To newer fans, thanks for giving these books a chance! I hope these characters impacted you as much as they have impacted me.
I decided to do time skip epilogues, and eventually their deaths, because I wanted to wrap up their stories and not fall in to the trap of having an unending number of sequels. There are likely still stories worth telling about the rest of their lives, their kits, and the Clans - but no more world-ending, mind-linking, supernatural war trilogies. Dawncloud and Sootstar have long, fulfilling lives. Not always happy, not always easy, but good, and surrounded by cats that they love.
That said, I'd still love to write a Falconswoop prequel which covers both his life in the Clans and his two afterlives. I've also started working on a stand-alone set in the far future of this now StarClan-less world. I'm also toying with the idea of doing a take on all the cliches associated with prophecy. So there may be more books to come, but probably just individual stories and not another trilogy, at least not right away. Plus I need to really make sure future projects are plotted in advance, because past me loved to add new characters and POVs and leave them for future me to try and resolve. I don't really know what past me had planned for the whole Falcon/Cherry and Limepaw plot... I guess that can be further explored in a prequel! Whoops.
jewels - thank you for leaving a review! It's so meaningful to receive feedback and hear how much you've enjoyed it! It is really important to me to have representation and tell LGBTQ stories (even if romance was never a focus of Fogpaw's arc) and it is something that I plan to keep exploring in future work! I was also really passionate about having a theme of redemption. I've spent years playing on the idea that StarClan is just as flawed as everyone else and that many of our villains have the potential for goodness left - but also that they have to work to earn their redemption, just like Thickfur had to not just apologize, but recognize his wrongs and show growth in order to become a partner for Dawncloud.
Also a big shout-out to everyone who has been a reviewer over the years! There are way too many to name but I want to give special thanks to: IronDirewolf, Aly, Blackish, Minatu, Coqui's Song, Frostfeather, monkeyCsaw, AnarchySpider, The Last Clan, Juniper1919, Alallio, Thistlethorn of ShadowClan, Scribe of the Owls, dragonFELL, and last but not least AdrianBerk0409, whose review was the push I needed to finally get this done!
And... wow... I don't really know how to sign this off. It's overwhelming to think that these will be the last words I write in this entire trilogy. So I guess I'll just say (for the last time):
Thanks for reading and please review!
- PurpleVNeck :)
