CLOSED Dewdrop's Leader Ceremony

Dewdrop, deputy of DewClan, quietly ventured into the Moonfall. She was loathe to enter this place again so soon after discovering the bodies of the queens and kits that still lay deeper within the Moonfall. But she needed her nine lives. The battle was over and she had been told that it would be that that decided whether or not she would even receive them.
Lokistar was talking about Maplejay when she had said the battle would be the deciding factor, Dewdrop just knew it. And since no one had been able to find Maplejay, Dewdrop thought it was safe to assume that the she-cat was dead.
Dewdrop regretted Maplejay's death, even with their past disagreements, and that whole business of Maplejay rejecting the warrior code and all.

Dewdrop grimaced as she walked down through the darkness. Somewhere in the back of her throat she could taste blood on the air. She feared it was the scent of the dead that awaited her if she would only pass the place of dreaming by and continued further, but it could have been blood on herself she was smelling, or even lingering traces of the carnage outside seeping into the earth and into the Moonfall itself, reaching, reaching...
She shivered. I'm being childish, she chided herself. I have a task. I will be out of here soon enough...though not as soon as I would like. Dewdrop had not visited the Moonfall many times in time as a warrior of DewClan; the place felt as alien to her now as it always had, and the feeling was only made worse by the tragedies that had occurred that day, and the day before, and the day before that, and even further back than that.

All of these things Dewdrop had thought on the walk down, the walk into the chamber, the walk up to the dripping stalactites. At the true moment in time, her eyes were closing as she let the cool water wash over her face...

...

...

Dewdrop's eyes opened when she felt a sudden gust of wind in her face, blasting her whiskers back against her cheeks. When she looked around she could see thin mist covering the barely covered ground of a silver forest. When she looked up she could see, between bare branches of silvery trees, an endless starry sky.
A little smug smile appeared on her face. She curled her claws into the ground as a feeling of triumph and vindication swept through her.

"Dewdrop." The she-cat instantly turned her head in the direction of the voice. She half-expected it to be Lokistar again. But no, it was a different cat. A cat with a surprisingly soft voice, for all of his stockiness and gruff appearance. The cat was gray with burning eyes, and he brought with him the smell of cold air and pine.
"I recognize you," she told him. "You were DarkClan's leader...though I don't remember you name."
The tom smirked. "That's fine. I only know your name because someone told me. Wouldn't have known it otherwise."
Dewdrop stared at the tom for a moment and he stared back at her. Okay. He was okay.
"Are you here to give me my first life, or... I mean, you're from DarkClan. Is this normal?" Dewdrop felt uncertain.
The DarkClan leader shrugged. "I dunno." Well, that was comforting. "But that won't stop me." The tom padded up to her until they were face-to-face. "I'd just as soon get done before the others get here." He sighed, sounding exasperated at the thought of others showing up.
"Dewdrop, I am Thornstar, the previous leader of DarkClan." Oh. So that was his name. "I'll be honest. You, out of a lot of other cats, stick out to me. Not in a bad way either. When I was alive, I was betrayed by members of my Clan. My own deputy received lives from StarClan while I was still alive." He took a moment to look upset about it. "My Clan split in half. One side for me, the other side for my deputy, cats left, and I suppose this is starting to sound pretty familiar to you." He smirked. Dewdrop was surprised. She hadn't expected that something like this had been going on in some separate Clan. But anyway.
"So. Dewdrop, I give you your first life, so as to begin the process of becoming a Clan leader. With this life, I give you the gift of discernment. Use it to weed out disloyalty the moment it appears. And to judge each and every situation logically. And for the general well-being of your Clan." He looked like he could shrug in that moment but he looked very serious at the same time.
Thornstar touched his nose to Dewdrop's - he muttered "Brace yourself."
Dewdrop braced herself in compliance and suddenly she felt a rush of blazing cold course through her body, centering mostly in her mind and in the middle of her forehead. For a moment she could see all of the world from a place so high up in the sky she could scarcely believe it.
As soon as it had begun it had stopped. The gray tom had stepped away and he had taken to lurking in the silvery shadow - there he looked like a ghost.
Dewdrop sighed heavily, feeling tired and overwhelmed already...

...

Daystar appeared. He was there. Kinda suddenly. In front of her. It was surprising. She jerked back.
Daystar's whiskers twitched in amusement. "Hey," he said in a friendly tone of voice.
Dewdrop couldn't keep the smile off of her face. "Hello, Daystar!" She paused. "I guess this means you're really dead, huh." On the last word her voice dropped out as sadness bloomed in her chest, heavy and light and stifling and empty all at the same time, and altogether expected and unexpected.
Daystar smiled in return. "Yeah."
Dewdrop looked at him for a few seconds as she regained her composure. "...How are you?"
Daystar looked to the side then back at her. "Still upset about it. It wasn't very long ago. So, yeah. Pretty upset to be dead. Wish I had lived to see the Mudbloods die, and have our Clan be safe again. Heh. I wish I had lived." He looked past her, glaring at the ground.
Dewdrop could have only imagined how angry or sad he may have been, or how unfair he felt life must have been for him. So she gave him a moment, and Daystar took it.
Daystar snorted, seemingly unimpressed with his emotional outburst. "Dewdrop, you were a good deputy," he started abruptly. "You listened to what I had to say, and you followed orders, and you helped me keep our Clan together. I wish I had done better by you." Dewdrop was surprised to hear that, but he went on before she could say anything. "With this life I give you individualism." He stepped up and pressed his nose to hers. Dewdrop felt the life sweep through her and she had the faintest impression of being very unsatisfied with what life had presently offered her, and the desire to go seek her own future.
"You'll do better than me. I know you will. You care about DewClan, and you care about the warrior code. Remember this: never be afraid to do your own thing now and then. It'll lead you to new things." He smiled at her, and she returned it.

Daystar stepped back.

...

Frostsong crept from the bushes in front of Dewdrop. Her beautiful silver, tiger-striped pelt merged magically with the star struck surroundings around them. She closed in on Dewdrop, touching the Dewclan, soon to be, leader's nose affectionately before backing away and saying with the softness of the clouds:
"I am glad You able to stay strong after all this, you will make a great leader Dewdrop."

Dewdrop looked at her dead Clanmate with mixed feelings. Sure, she was here, but hey, she was DEAD. With the conflicting emotions pushed aside, Dewdrop stepped towards the queen. "Frostsong," she meowed, "Why? Why did you do it? Why did you abandon the code? Explain this to me."
Somewhere off in the silver shadows Daystar was somewhere listening. And maybe Thornstar was somewhere around there too - or not. He may have left, given his misanthropic tendencies.

Frostsong sighed softly, "Dewdrop, I stayed with Maplejay and the rest of Dewclan rather than leave with Daystar because I was sure that I would lose my life there. At least at the Bloodstones I lost my life in a justified way: defending the WHOLE clan from danger rather than losing it after jumping in for no good reason other than the words of my leader. When Maplejay fought to stay she sounded so logical, her escape plan made more sense than to go chasing the unknown. Daystar and I have come to terms with this, He admitted at that point he lacked Empathy for those who were scared."

The She-cat sat wrapping her tail neatly over her paws, "don't hate us for it. Nothing seemed to be making sense. When the Mudbloods used our camp and territory it seemed we were jumping straight into the fire when Daystar said we should take over Abyssclan..."

She looked up, lost in thought for a moment.
"So I'm going to give you the power of empathy, it will serve you well to understand the needs of your clan mates."

She leaned forward to meet the nose of Dewdrop.

Dewdrop leaned forward to accept the life. Empathy, eh? She could make it work.
As the life went into her she could feel some of Frostsong's reasoning behind remaining, in not following Daystar. She saw her opinion compared to one just as valid as her own, and she couldn't help but wonder if she could have advised Daystar differently, or she could have listened better to the others, if, if, if... She understood better, though she still stood alongside her morals.
Dewdrop nodded to Frostsong in acknowledgment.

"Do you know what it's like looking down on you lot and trying not to rip your fur out?" Came a voice behind Dewdrop. Is was rough and recognisable as the one and only Flowerfur.

The she-cat was sitting behind Dewdrop on a tall rock that glistened with sparkles from top to bottom. The She-cat smirked down at Dewdrop.

Dewdrop turned around and looked up at the she-cat. "Flowerfur. You jerk. Where have you been? When did you die? Why did you leave?" She looked up with a tilted head, a wry grin on her face.

"I left," she shrugged and proceeded to jump off the rock and stroll towards Dewdrop.

"Though I paid for it," she added. "I'm sorry, I thought with the Mudblood's joining in on our cosy little clan, I thought "Starclan, I cannot stay here". So I jumped the nest and had a good attempt at walking passed the Abyssclan territory to return to the City. It was nice, until our valiant leader went all crazy on us..."

She shrugged once more, "Uhh... Sorry Dewdrop, I know you were all cool on the Warrior code and stuff, and so was I but sharing my bed with those mangy cats and the idea of them killing my kits was more then I could handle. So I ditched base, though somehow ended up here."

Dewdrop mulled over that information and nodded. "Okay. I get that. And that's your deal. And I'm sorry that this happened to you, my friend." Though it was a little hard to feel entirely sad about it since she had mourned her friend moons back and now she was seeing her as though she was alive, so... It was a little confusing. "We got your kits back, you know...but Bramblepaw died. And now Tigerpaw is missing. We think he may be dead...Sorry." She felt rather responsible for both incidents, now that it was brought once again to the front of her mind, faced with their mother.

Flowerfur smiled softly, "rest your mind my good friend, both of my son's are with me now, we will go hunting later but now. I would like to give you foresight. It is something both myself and our old leader would have use well in the end of our lives."

She winked at Dewdrop. Coming forward to touch her old friend's nose.

Dewdrop briefly wondered if her dead friends learned all of these new words from the other dead cats. She just didn't know.
She was upset that Tigerpaw was actually dead, though. She made that point clear by making a distressed noise at the news. There we are then.
Dewdrop braced herself as she leaned forward to receive her next life. She could feel her eyes burning and before her she did not see Flowerfur, but instead many paths not yet taken, all of the possible steps and turns and possibilities that lay down each way, and what may have been required to take the first steps - and then it was gone.
Dewdrop exhaled a little shakily, but she steeled herself.

...

Cobaltshade, an old, old warrior of DewClan, appeared from the shadow. She brushed past Daystar with a acknowledging glance and approached Dewdrop. Cobaltshade was a spotted gray she-cat that exuded an air of mystery and strength, her dark amber eyes swimming depths of knowing and keen perception. Or so she seemed, anyway.
The she-cat came to stop in front of Dewdrop. "Hello, Dewdrop," she said loudly. "You do not know me, but I was once a part of DewClan, before it was disbanded. But I'll skip the backstory and get to business - I always hated unnecessary chatter." She shut her mouth and stepped even closer to Dewdrop, breathing the same air Dewdrop was breathing. "Dewdrop, with this life I give you boldness. Never ever let any cat ever speak over you or talk you down, or push you back unless you specifically let them, and never for any other reason than that." Cobaltshade pressed her dark nose to Dewdrop's, and Dewdrop suddenly had a vision of her own home, and there she could see herself perched atop a tree shouting at someone who stood before her. Though she did not know who it was, she knew that she would not back down for a single second, not even in the face of that cat's wrath, because she knew what she had to say was important.

Dewdrop opened her eyes and saw that the she-cat had not gone very far, like some of the others had. Instead, Cobaltshade stared at Dewdrop intensely from only a few pawsteps away. Dewdrop stared back at the mysterious she-cat, but found that Cobaltshade was immovable.
Some other time, then, Dewdrop thought.

...

Ravenswift was sitting away from them but came over after Cobaltshade, nodding briefly at the cat before he came and sat in front of Dewdrop.
"Hi," He said slowly, feeling nervous.

Dewdrop looked at Ravenswift. He had died first, and to him they had paid their respects first.
"Hello, Ravenswift," she replied. "Sorry we couldn't get to you in time." She regretted his death, even if he had sided with Maplejay. Though perhaps that didn't matter as much as it had before. Whether or not that was related to most every other cat that had joined Maplejay being dead now, she wasn't certain.

Ravenswift shrugged coming forward and touching her nose straight away, "I give you dependability," he whispered, pain and anguish in his tone.

Dewdrop closed her eyes and felt the fear and concern that another may have felt at being unable to approach her since they had doubts as to how she would respond. She would improve, she vowed. She would be the dependable cat that her Clan needed.
She opened her eyes as the effects of the life passed from her.

...

A greyish-white tom came forward, his eyes were friendly and calm. His tail was raised in pleasant greeting to the she-cat. "Dewdrop, I am happy to see you!"

Dewdrop's ears pricked up at the sound of Windblow's voice.
"Windblow," she meowed cheerfully. "It's good to see you again!" She watched him as he came up to her. "Ah - how have you been?"

"It's nice to move freely once again," he smiled softly.

"Running a clan is difficult, as deputies we were always under the shadow of our leader, though we both worked our hardest, the responsibility to keep the clan well structured is of up most importance."

He leaned forward and touched her knows, "The power to delegate is something I would love to share with you."

Dewdrop met him with enthusiasm. With his life she could see the organization it took to instruct a Clan, something she had begun to learn in her admittedly short time as Clan deputy. She hoped she could make the best of this life in her time as Clan leader.

...

Duskpaw, an apprentice who had perished in the great battle against the Mudbloods, approached Dewdrop from the silvery forest. On the way Thornstar had emitted an ill-natured growl when she passed too close, but she paid him no attention.
"Dewdrop," she meowed warmly when she stood before her. "I am glad to see you here. I know you will make a good leader for DewClan. I will give you your 8th life...With this life I give you friendship. Use it well to strengthen the bonds of your Clan, and to perhaps extend friendship beyond your borders." She reached forward to press noses to Dewdrop.
And Dewdrop accepted, though she was really wondering what the heckies had happened to Duskpaw that she was now speaking like a cat 19 times her age. What even.

With this life Dewdrop could feel echoes of her bond with her existing friends in DewClan, and the bonds she would yet form with the rest of her Clan, not only as leader, but their friend as well.
Dewdrop opened her eyes and found that Duskpaw was still looking at her warmly. Dewdrop took a wary step back. Duskpaw smiled knowingly and padded off to join the others after a respectful nod of her head.
What the heck was that???

Dewdrop shook off the creepy feeling she had gotten from Duskpaw and looked around at the 8 present cats. Who would come to give her her 9th? Or so she assumed that's how it would happen. She hadn't been trained about this or anything. Before yesterday she hadn't been too certain of StarClan's direct involvement with all of the Clans anyway. All of this had been a learning experience...

...

From the bushes appeared Mapplejay but her lower jaw was horribly disfigured, it was twisted unnaturally. By her side stepped Lokistar whose piercing blue surveyed Dewdrop steadily, her tail lowering slightly to touch the smaller she-cat next to her, as if comforting the cat.

Dewdrop recoiled slightly at the sight of Maplejay - and with the unexpected yet expected arrival of Lokistar. So, we meet again, she thought.
Dewdrop padded a few steps closer, looking between the two. She briefly wondered if Lokistar would be the one to give her her 9th life, but somehow she doubted it. Dewdrop's gaze settled on Maplejay. Well. This would be interesting.
Dewdrop kept silent and waited for the she-cats to get closer, to see what they had to say.