Life 3:3

Snakepaw was forced to brush out the mess made in the medicine den as punishment for his actions during the ceremony. Overall, Snakepaw found this to be a rather light punishment, but one could call Snakepaw's sense of what is and is not light as skewed. This was largely due to Snakepaw's sense of time simply being different than any other apprentice's. Where as a tedious and time consuming task may be torturous for a fresh apprentice, Snakepaw did not mind them. He might even thank the one who gave him the task for allowing him some time to think.

It was while Snakepaw was cleaning up that Mudfur prompted a question. "I'm sure you've been to many Long Nights before. Have you ever gotten the chance to tell the opener story?"

Snakepaw briefly paused from what he was doing, taking in Mudfur's words. His pause ended just as abruptly as it began. "Admittedly no. The opener is reserved for medicine cats, and I'm actually only rarely a medicine cat. I just missed it when I was apprenticed to Brambleberry. Other times I've been here, I usually just get to put a short story out. So, no I haven't had that honor." Snakepaw answered.

"And if I gave you the chance, what story would you tell?" Mudfur baited, hoping to learn a bit more about Snakepaw, the forest's ghost.

Snakepaw turned away from his task, eyes now focused on Mudfur with obvious desire. "Tell me, how much do you and the clans still know about the five great families?" Snakepaw queried.

Mudfur tilted his head in thought. "Well, there was Lion, Leopard, Tiger, Panther, and I think Bobcat." Mudfur answered.

"And did you know that they directly link back to each clan? That's besides the point. Anyways, the big families weren't always unified. There were so many lesser families out there. It was a warzone. If I could, I'd tell the tale of what unified them, the sun fearing daughter of Panther, the sickly youth of Ocelot (a branch family of Leopard), and the furless lore keeper. I'll admit, it's a story quite personal to me, but I still don't want it forgotten." Snakepaw mewed.

Silence flooded the den as it was obvious that even mentioning the story was emotional to Snakepaw. Mudfur couldn't bring himself to break the silence. It was only when he began hearing the rhythmic sound of Snakepaw's tail brushing debris into piles on the floor did Mudfur allow himself to breath. Mudfur padded up to Snakepaw's side still sensing the apprentice's raw emotions.

"If you don't feel up to it, you can tell me the story, and I'll retell it." Mudfur mewed softly, hoping to relieve Snakepaw of the burden of telling the story before an audience.

"No. It's my story to tell. I will tell it… Just not right now. I need time to settle my feelings and psych myself up. I should be able to tell it by the Long Night." Snakepaw responded.

Mudfur briefly embraced Snakepaw, only vaguely familiar with how to comfort a young cat from helping raise Leopardfur. "Ok. Let me know if it becomes too much for you. I've still got a couple other stories I could tell if you back out. Then you could tell me in your own time, and I'd tell it the next Long Night." Mudfur consoled.

It was late by the time Snakepaw finished cleaning. Both Snakepaw and Mudfur curled up in their respective nests intending to dream the night away. It was not meant to be. Mudfur opened his eyes to see himself in the meadows of Starclan. With him was his strange apprentice Snakepaw, but Snakepaw looked older, maybe ten moons old. It wasn't all that surprising given Snakepaw's nature, but it certainly briefly threw Mudfur for a loop.

Mudfur saw the approaching Starclan cats. This dream was more lucid than when he usually received a vision from Starclan. Mudfur looked to the Starclan cats expectedly. What he did not expect is for an apprentice barely bigger than a kit to bowl Snakepaw over.

"Snakepaw!" Badgerpaw yowled while tackling his friend.

Snakepaw laughed as he rolled with the tackle. "Hey Badgerpaw. You seem happy to see me."

"Yeah, and you aren't dead this time! You're a medicine cat now right? That means you can visit me more." Badgerpaw cheered.

Snakepaw chuckled at Badgerpaw's assertion. "I'd love to visit you more, but connecting to the living is very hard for Starclan. It's why we receive visions over explanatory chats. I'm sorry I don't have time to play." Snakepaw apologized.

"Not to worry Snake. You're a very easy cat to establish a connection to. I'm sure you can guess why. From there, we were able to just share the dream over to Mudfur here. It's still taxing on Starclan's power, but we can afford to be more direct here." A silver tom with a Riverclan build and a slightly strange accent mewed.

"I'm sorry. Who are you?" Mudfur asked of the silver tom.

The tom smirked before giving his reply. "I'd think you of all cats would recognize me. Oh how it pains me that a cat of Riverclan could forget about me. It makes me want to fade away." The tom overdramatized.

"Knock it off Riverstar. You know it has been many lifetimes since you walked among the living. You should be happy they even remember your name." Snakepaw chided the tom, earning a laugh.

Mudfur reeled in shock. "Riverstar! I never thought I'd see you. You're a legend of Riverclan. What could possibly be going on to warrant your attention?" Mudfur asked with a measure of fear.

"Worry not Mudfur. I came simply because Snakepaw is a friend of both me and the other founders. Unfortunately, I do still come with a warning for you both. There will be two great disasters coming to Riverclan this Leafbare. One will be caused by the other. One day, snow will drown out even sight. You must prepare to resist this storm. Then, when New Leaf is on the horizon, the forgotten snow will melt, flooding the river. Be careful of the famine a flood would bring." Riverstar warned. Riverstar briefly seemed amused by a thought. "You know, that was so much easier to convey than making a vision. I wish we could just do this more. I mean, we had a vision ready with snow piling up into a flooded river, but there would be so much guesswork in what the dream meant. Although, it is a bit of a shame that we didn't get to use it. The medicine council worked hard on it only for me to give the answer directly."

Mudfur tilted his head questioningly, which Snakepaw caught. "The medicine council is a collection of medicine cats of old. They're the ones who design the omens and prophecies. Their goal is to minimize the amount of power Starclan needs to use to send one without losing the message itself. If you ever received a vague sign, it likely was one of them who made it believing you'd be able to puzzle it out. If only the clans hadn't needed to move from the lands of the Great Families. They were a wellspring of power Starclan could easily use to better manage their power. At least the Moonstone is a strong enough place of power to allow clear communications."

Mudfur was about to ask more, but he could feel the blackness of sleep pulling on him. This meeting must have been all Starclan was willing to give at the moment. Regardless, Mudfur memorized Riverstar's warning. A great snowstorm will hit, and the snow it made will flood the river in the thaw. He'd have to warn Crookedstar.