Life 2:3

Dawn's light peeked into the opening of Windclan's refugee camp. Tallstar, awakened by this sudden brightness, briefly considered going back to sleep given how his full belly encouraged his drowsiness. Just a day ago, Tallstar had pondered making the exact same choice but for entirely different reasons. The starvation of his clan left many unwilling to move and waste whatever energy they'd have for the day. How strange it was how much one day could change things. While the cats of Windclan were still scrawny and overall malnourished, they looked alive. Cats were active and interacting again. There was an air of hope. At the center of it all was the self appointed apprentice, who seemed to be in the throes of a nightmare.

Tallstar, worried about the strange apprentice, quickly made his way over and gave him a nudge. Snakepaw, still not awakened, somehow scrambled to his paws and called out, "Snowtuft don't!" before somehow running headfirst into a wall.

Snakepaw, now awakened by having headbutted a wall, shook himself out of his daze. "Oof. It's always that dream too. You'd think after I'd have gotten over it thirty lives later, but I guess it's as eternal as me." Snakepaw muttered within earshot of Tallstar. Tallstar said nothing as his apprentice took some time for correct his fur that had been mussed up by his conflict with the wall.

Tallstar sat down by Snakepaw, looking at him with concern. "Are you alright?" Tallstar asked.

"Yeah. Just a bit of a headache." Snakepaw answered, waving off Tallstar's concern.

"That's not what I was asking about. You had what appeared to be a nasty dream. Do you want to talk about it?" Tallstar queried gently.

"Wasn't really a dream. More of a memory. Maybe a generation or two after the founding of the clans, I had a mentor in Shadowclan. I wasn't all there in the head, and my mentor decided to help me. I wanted out of my cycle. He convinced me to enjoy what I had for now and try and break the cycle. We weren't good cats. We did awful, horrible things. It was my idea to possibly do something so unspeakably evil that whatever heavens there were would smite me on sight. He aided me. I'd hoped that would have been enough, but I was scared of waking up again in the cycle. He gave me one last ditch effort to free me. He hoped that, even if my body remained in the cycle, he could destroy my mind, granting me freedom. I can sadly say both our efforts failed. When I come back, my wounds mostly heal. This also happens to include mental damage, as I soon found out. My mentor gave up everything for me, being damned to the Darkforest for what all we did, and I can never forgive myself for doing that to him. If he'd never met me…" Snakepaw quietly ranted, clearly caught up in the emotion of his memories.

Tallstar was silent, considering what all he just learned. The one who had saved Windclan the day before had just told him that he'd committed terrible acts enough to be ousted from Starclan. How could he even address that? But then a thought came to Tallstar. Snakepaw wasn't just remorseful for committing those acts but for dragging another cat into it. While a normal cat wouldn't have the time to repent for a crime so severe, Snakepaw had many lifetimes. If his nature now gave any indications, Snakepaw had long since repented for his dark deeds. More importantly, the cat who sat before Tallstar needed consoling. He may be hundreds if not thousands of moons old, but he still had the emotional state of a kit.

"Tell me Snakepaw. Would your mentor from so long ago want to see you like this? Would they really hate you for what they did? To me, it sounds like they really cared for you. They wanted to free you, going so far as to damn themselves. A cat like that is a rarity, and if I could know anything about them, then I know they'd be proud to see that you turned yourself around. They wanted you to find happiness." Tallstar mewed, letting the emotional apprentice snuggle up against him.

"You really think so?" Snakepaw asked, sniffling between words.

With a gentle smile, Tallstar answered. "I know so. Now, let's go out and catch some prey. Maybe you can teach me something about the early ages of Windclan."

"Yeah. That sounds good." Snakepaw answered, following Tallstar out of the camp. Suddenly, a bright smile lit up Snakepaw's face. "Ooh! I thought of something you might find interesting. You ever wondered why Windclan even began digging whereas other clans never did?"

"The thought did pass through my mind when I was an apprentice." Tallstar answered.

"Well, that's because early Windclan wasn't as fast as we are now. Catching hares when you don't have the endurance or speed to run them down is hard. There were still some cats who could do it, but others got clever. They'd pair up and try and run the hare or rabbit right into the other cat. It worked some of the time, but we aren't all lucky enough to get a pelt that blends into the grass. It was then that one cat got super lucky. They rested in a dip made from a boulder being shifted. The chasing cat managed to run the hare right to them since they were concealed by the dip. From then on, Windclan cats began digging dips into the plains, allowing them to conceal themselves. Digging tunnels just evolved form there, with some of the dip diggers testing their luck with digging rabbits out of their burrows." Snakepaw cheerfully explained.

Now that Tallstar thought of it, he knew of some of these dips Snakepaw was mentioning. In fact, they were considered one of the great mysteries of Windclan. How was it that on perfectly flat land, there'd be strange dips in terrain without any evidence signs like a dry riverbed to explain it. Windclan, before they'd been driven off the territory, still used those dips as good points to wait for a rabbit to appear. Tallstar couldn't help but glance down at his own paws. These wide paws he so often used for running, what else could they do? He lightly grazed the ground, feeling the dirt shift as he moved it. A tiny furrow, something barely noticeable, and yet it could be expanded into something much grander, something that could last. Even without tunnelers in the current age of Windclan, their efforts and legacy could be seen today. They'd long ago departed the living world, but they left means for Tallstar and the rest of Windclan, their legacy, to thrive. Maybe moving a little dirt wasn't so bad. As long as Windclan kept their sense of unity, maybe they could expand the legacy as well.