The world was so loud.

There was just so much out there.

Dovewing didn't experience this all too often. At home, she could just focus her senses around her and fall asleep to her clanmates' breathing and heartbeats. Here, she could do that but not really. Jayfeather and Lionblaze were here and they were a massive comfort but their silent sleeping noises were dwarfed by the rest of the world.

Some places she recognized. She could hear the roar of the tribe's waterfall. She could hear Briarlight waking up early to sort herbs. She could hear the lake she visited as an apprentice to unclog the dam as well. She could hear Tigerheart shifting in his nest. Midnight was awake and on the move, not that she could tell where. But she could also hear so much more than that.

She could hear monsters. So many monsters. They were everywhere, she realized. All over the world. Thunderpaths stretched everywhere and some of them were filled to the brim with monsters. Loud, loud monsters. Monsters that roared with hunger at every step. Monsters that shot across thunderpaths like angry foxes with a rabbit in their sights. And there weren't just thunderpath monsters. There were monsters that swam in the massive, endless lake she saw at the sun-drown place. There monsters that dug deep into the dirt, massive claws tearing the earth apart. There were even monsters that patrolled the skies. Somehow, they were impossibly louder.

And twolegs. There were so many of them too in their twolegplaces and lives she couldn't hope to understand. They wandered around with a purpose she couldn't make sense of and they did the oddest things that just made so much noise. Their twoleg things in their nests made periodic noises, some ticking and some chirping, and they often gathered together outside their nests to make noise. Sometimes they'd just yell, others they'd blow into shiny twoleg things that made their breaths even louder, or they'd tell their twoleg things to make noise for them. It was just so bizzare.

Even then, the twolegs weren't the loudest things. There were so many birds. She enjoyed listening to birds sing but not when their songs were all jumbled up with each other and everything else in the world. And insects. There were so many insects. It made her skin crawl. They weren't even that loud but there were so many of them, more than she'd ever realized. And the noise they made was so constant. Almost like birds but nothing about them was beautiful. The beats of the wings countless insects across the world became a constant background noise to all the chaos on the surface.

Not everything was so foreign though. She could hear forest animals like herself and cats… There were so many cats and somehow that was worse because she could understand what they were doing. Hunting, sunning, sharing tongues, kitting, even dying… Dovewing could understand all of it and being aware of it all at once was just so overwhelming.

Some cats she didn't understand though. They were so far, not that distance mattered to her powers. It was almost like… they were on another plane. Was she listening to Silverpelt? StarClan, or perhaps Jayfeather's starry friends who wandered beyond StarClan's gaze? Maybe even the Dark Forest? She could hear them hunting, fighting, sharing tongues… Just like the living. Were they really that different? Save the gentle hum separating their world from her own, they sounded the same.

There were so many of them. How many were there? Why were they so loud?

She woke at dawn, just as the sun began to peak over the horizon, and she was slammed with light. She tried to turn away from it which helped a bit but the sound… She couldn't escape the sound. It was everywhere and it was so constant. She flattened her ears, trying to block it out, but that did nothing to ward off the flood of information to her mind. Her ears didn't hurt, not really, but her mind was working overtime to comprehend it all. She just couldn't handle it all.

So she lay there. She wasn't sure how long but Jayfeather and Lionblaze were still sleeping so it couldn't have been too long but it felt like an eternity. Dovewing was actually kind of grateful that they weren't awake yet. While she was sure Jayfeather could help, she didn't know if she could handle the attention or even just the movement in her immediate surroundings. She didn't even know if she'd be able to hear Jayfeather if he tried to talk her through this and if the light was overwhelming, she didn't think she'd be able to handle being touched either.

Her consciousness was lost in the sea of noise and scrambling efforts to really listen to it all. Listening and hearing were two different things and not for the first time, she wished her power was the former. Maybe then she could turn it off and just relax.

Eventually, she fought through the noise long enough to find her mind again and she could start trying to calm down on her own. Finding enough awareness of her own body to make sure she was breathing was difficult but once she did, she felt a lot better. Not quite perfect but better. The chaos was still present in her mind but at least she knew where she was and the sound began.

She began at the edges, filtering out the noise and drawing her range of focus closer and closer. Slowly, the twolegplaces and forests began ebbing out of her mind. The birds and insects' noise began to fade and the storm in her mind began to settle into something far calmer. She was far from okay but it was a start.

The world bled away and became much smaller. It was still massive, the world made so much natural sound, but it was a bit more bearable. The world didn't feel like endless paths of overlapping lives. It was calmer. Like the waves at the sun-drown place and the breeze in the trees. And slowly, it became less than even that.

She could feel Lionblaze and Jayfeather starting to wake around her but her range wasn't quite narrow enough to be back in control quite yet. She didn't think she could move if she tried. But she was close. Oh, so close. The noises were less of a storming jumble now. She could almost pick up voices from the midst.

A rooster crowed.

"Oi! Ravenpaw! Get the little ones! It's dawn and you know what that means!"

"How are you so awake this early, Barley? Wait like any sane cat until sunhigh to go mousing."

"Ravenpaw!" Dovewing gasped aloud, her own voice sounding foreign to her ears. "Barley!"

Jayfeather and Lionblaze were awake in an instant but Dovewing wasn't quite grounded yet. She could feel her body lying on that dirt beside them but she felt disconnected, like she wasn't quite there. Her ears were still trained on the barn.

"Nope! Come on you three! Out of your nests!"

"Let us sleep. The twolegs aren't in their nest. Let us relax a bit."

"Can you hear them?" Jayfeather demanded, taking a few steps toward Dovewing's stiff form. Lionblaze stopped him.

"It doesn't look like she's fully awake yet. Give her a few heartbeats, Jayfeather."

Jayfeather took a step back, grumbling, and Dovewing was thankful. Slowly, she stirred and all her self-awareness came rushing back to her in a massive, relieving wave.

She was hesitant to get up though. She hadn't realized it but her muscles were stiff and aching. Moving shot jolts of sharp pain up her neck and back. She was very slow to lift her head and even slower to get her paws under her. "Thank you."

Lionblaze looked a bit confused but nodded. "What did you hear? Are we close?"

Dovewing nodded, shaking out her pelt. "Yeah. We'll be at the barn in no time."

Lionblaze wasn't sure how he felt about going to strangers for help but Jayfeather, for once, was optimistic so he wasn't going to question his judgment. Besides, even if this didn't work out, at least they were near the old forest. They could give it a look just for the sake of it if they wanted. Without duties or schedules, they had the freedom to do as they pleased and they included detours.

The barn was in view before long and Lionblaze felt his body tense. He wasn't nervous but he'd have to admit he was wary. Jayfeaher said almost nothing about these cats and Lionblaze could barely recall the stories about them that he'd heard as a kit from Brambleclaw. He knew they were friendly cats but after the recent events of the past, he wasn't too keen on trusting anyone anytime soon.

The barn didn't look to be anything particularly outstanding. He'd been barns before. The first time, it had been exciting but now he was just tired. Twolegs usually left cats alone at barns. He hoped that was the case here. They were a long way from home so he couldn't really be sure. Though he supposed it wouldn't be the end of the world if a twoleg brought him into their nest...

Lionblaze took the lead as the three padded toward the barn. He stuck his head through the door cautiously and peered in to get an idea of the present danger but, to his annoyance, Jayfeather and Dovewing walked right past them. Sensors, both of them, so that was understandable but Lionblaze wasn't thrilled by their carelessness.

"Barley?" Jayfeather called, voice echoing on the wooden walls. "Ravenpaw?"

Lionblaze heard soft pawsteps and he stiffened only to see a grey and ginger pair of faces peer out from behind a brick of hay. He could faintly hear whispering but he couldn't make out what they were saying. He glanced at Dovewing, hoping she was listening in. Her ears were pricked but she still looked a bit out of it so he wasn't sure.

"We know you're there," Jayfeather said, vaguely looking in the pair's direction but it was clear he didn't know exactly where they were.

"Jay, that's not Ravenpaw and Barley," Lionblaze told him quietly.

Jayfeather tilted his head ever so slightly and swished his tail. "This is their barn, right?"

"It is," the grey cat said, stepping out from behind the hay with the ginger she-cat close behind. "I'm Riley and this is my sister Bella. Ravenpaw and Barley are looking after us but they're not here right now. Why are you looking for them?"

"Um…" Lionblaze trailed off. What was he supposed to say? Even he wasn't certain why they were here. Jayfeather was the one with the plan, not him, but before the blind tabby could answer, a second pair of cats stepped into the barn.

"Riley, Bella, get behind me," a black and white tom ordered, clearly alarmed, as he shot across the barn to get between the two young cats and the ex-ThunderClan cats.

The other cat, a dark black tom, was just a step behind him. Baring his teeth threateningly, he positioned himself defensively in front of the others. "Who are you? What are you doing here?"

Lionblaze braced himself to fight but Dovewing lifted her tail in surrender and Jayfeather took a step forward. "Are you two Ravenpaw and Barley?"

The two toms exchanged a glance and nodded.

"We're from ThunderClan and, by the stars, have we got a story for you."

Explaining things to Ravenpaw and Barley was a lot more difficult than Jayfeather expected but it wasn't anything they couldn't handle. Explaining why they were driven out of the clan without scaring them off was a challenge but now it was night time and Jayfeather had to say it went well. The conflict wasn't completely resolved- they still hadn't asked for their help yet- but Jayfeather had a feeling he could sleep tonight without unease.

He couldn't say if he was right or not because when he opened his eyes, he could see.

Being able to see in his dreams wasn't as jarring as it used to be. He didn't even know if he ever found it odd but he had to say he enjoyed it. It was nice having the thing deprived from him for so long.

But normally dreams were hazy. Being this self-aware in a dream only meant one thing.

"Hello?" Jayfeather called out, looking around. He seemed to be in a clearing in a forest he didn't recognize. He frowned. "This isn't StarClan's hunting grounds."

"No, it's not," a voice said from behind him and Jayfeather nearly jumped. "But you're a long way from home as well, young one."

Jayfeather turned to see four starry-pelted cats standing behind him, three she-cats and a tom. He didn't recognize them. "Who are you?"

"I'm Shadepelt," a dark grey she-cat said before waving her plumy tail to gesture at the other three. "These cats are Loudbelly, Speckletail, and Frostfur. We're here to offer StarClan's guidance."

"Pass," Jayfeather said, wrinkling his muzzle and turning away. He waved his tail dismissively. "Did you follow me here? Because if you did, you can go home now. I don't need StarClan's guidance."

The four cats exchanged a glance. To Jayfeather's surprise, Speckletail slapped Loudbelly in the face with her tail.

"I told you we should've waited before talking to him," she hissed sharply and it took everything Jayfeather had in him not to laugh. Just a moment ago, he'd almost been intimidated but now the cas just looked like an unruly group of elders.

"How was I supposed to know he'd turn us down?" Loudbelly complained. "I just said he was a clan cat! It's our job to look over clan cats!"

"Maybe something happened to StarClan," Frostfur said worriedly. "Why else would he be all the way out here?"

Jayfeather stared at them for a few heartbeats, mind swirling with confusion. He waved his tail to get their attention. "Okay, stop. Back up. I'm confused. Who are you again?"

Frostfur stepped forward, dipping her head to the medicine cat. "Our apologies. I'm sure you're surprised to see your ancestors this far away from home. You see, when the clans left on the Great Journey, the four of us stayed behind."

"What?" Anger and shock shot through Jayfeather's pelt. "They abandoned you?"

"No," Loudbelly assured him quickly. "Not that."

"We were old," Frostfur explained. "We chose to stay behind but when we died… Well, we're still here."

"Why'd you stay?" Jayfeather asked. He knew it wasn't difficult for StarClan cats to travel. He'd seen in Firestar's dreams that SkyClan's StarClan left with them. Surely these four could rejoin StarClan in watching over the lake.

Frostfur shrugged. "We don't know the way. Oh, I'm sure we could find our way but we wanted to watch over a few cats around here just a little bit longer."

"So you haven't spoken to the rest of StarClan in awhile," Jayfeather confirmed.

"No. Why? Is something wrong?"

Jayfeather sat down, contemplating whether or not to tell these cats what happened. On one paw, they were StarClan and he didn't want to even think about StarClan. On the other paw, they hadn't done anything wrong yet and the three could use the help.

He thought for a few heartbeats, the StarClan warriors patiently waiting for him, before he spoke. "My… My faith and loyalty to StarClan has always been rocky. You see, I was born blind. When I realized that I wouldn't be able to be the cat I wanted, I was angry at StarClan for making me like this. I don't really mind being blind anymore- it's all I know- but I didn't understand why StarClan would…"

He trailed off and swallowed. He was getting a few sympathetic stares and he couldn't stand that. Normally, he could just sense them but he hated being able to see them even more. Still, he couldn't keep the words from tumbling out of his mouth.

"I became a medicine cat. It's my job to talk to StarClan and I'm fine with that but StarClan is just so… StarClan isn't what I thought it was. When I was an apprentice, I found out I lived another life, one before StarClan. StarClan doesn't really seem like much compared to the Ancients. And then there's the prophecy."

"Prophecy?" some cat echoed but Jayfeather couldn't tell who. He was too busy staring at his paws.

"A long time ago, Firestar received a prophecy that three cats would be born with the power of the stars in their paws to save the clans." Jayfeather swallowed. "StarClan hid so much for me and they're trying to guide my pawsteps or whatever but sometimes it just feels like they're trying to control my power and what I do with it. I mean… The power of the stars? I'm greater than StarClan. But when it comes to it, all of us are just cats. They're dead and I'm alive, neither of us know any better than the other."

"And…?"

"And even though I know all that," Jayfeather said quietly, like a kit admitting a secret, "I still see them as my guardians. I still want them to watch over me and protect me. I know it's silly and I'm a grown cat but to know they have the power to protect me and then just… not. They could've stopped the clans from driving us out but they didn't. And I don't think I can forgive them for that."

Shadepelt and Frostfur exchanged a glance but Jayfeather barely saw it. Speckletail stepped forward and drew her tail around Jayfeather's shoulders in a motherly way that Jayfeather hadn't realized he missed so much. "Thank you for sharing that with us, Jayfeather. I can't imagine how difficult that was. I promise you… I promise you we will watch over you always. Even if we have to fight all of StarClan to do it."

Emotion surged in Jayfeather's chest and he buried his muzzle into her shoulder fur. He suddenly felt very, very small. At first, he wanted to pull away and shoulder away those feelings but he found he didn't care. He needed this.

"Thank you," he choked out. "Thank you so much."

Author's Note: So the day I wrote Dovewing's part, I had an anxiety attack and for unrelated reasons, I read a bit about sensory overload. I enjoy focusing on how exactly the three's powers work and those two things made it a bit easier to get the words to come.

Also, yes. I know that in the timeline Riley and Bella probably haven't been born yet but we're ignoring that because I want them to be there.

I'm thinking (*cough* planning but will probably lose motivation for soon) about writing a story about the cats who stayed behind in this forest… Also I learned that Frostfur is Brightheart, Cinderheart, Brackenfur, and Thornclaw's mother. What the heck is up with that? I didn't know they were littermates! I knew Cinderpelt and Brackenfur were but not Brightheart and Thornclaw. 3/4 survived until the most recent arc. That is like the best track record out of any family in the series.

Edited 4/3/2021: Added a bit to Dovewing and Lionblaze's sections.