It seemed that he was called to StarClan a lot lately these last few moons. It was kind of weird going to sleep, expecting to be tormented by nightmares but waking up in a sea of stars instead. Still a bit jarring compared to his usual dreams. Oh well, he’d get used to it maybe.

This time, he was met with the appearance of a large grey tom, one that he’d almost forgotten what he looked like during his time in the realm of the living. ”Cinder… blaze?” he called, mouth hanging open in shock.

His eyes started to grow misty as he looked at the tom in front of him. He looked… Good. A stark contrast to the battered, broken, and bleeding body he had watched Dawnstar throw down in the clearing all of those moons ago. The body that he wailed over, swearing revenge against the twolegs in retribution for his deceased mentor. The body that haunted him over the last several moons. Before him was a cat that he never thought he’d see whole again, much less visited in a dream.

He couldn’t believe it, his beloved mentor whom he spent so long working hard for, hoping to make him proud up in StarClan was right in front of him. He couldn’t help his voice from cracking with his next words, still uncertain if his eyes were seeing correctly.

”Is that… you…?”

Darkfall blinked, dumbfounded. Both by the tom’s expression and by his words. Was that a smile that he saw on Cinderblaze’s face? Of course, he’d seen the former deputy smile before, however, those times were very few and far between while he’d been alive.

And he was proud of him…? Darkfall had spent much of his time in the living world attempting to make his former mentor proud, but he never imagined that he already accomplished what he thought would be a Herculean task. After all, Cinderblaze had been a deputy, and Darkfall had gone missing in search of his first apprentice and had to work that much harder to get himself into a position to become an Enforcer. All the moons being tormented by nightmares, told he wasn’t good enough, or that he was a failure were for nothing.

Cinderblaze was proud.

For most of his life, Darkfall didn’t have a dad. Hell, he didn’t find out that the current deputy, Vulturefang, was his father until long after the tom joined just before he became a warrior. Now, he may not have been too extraordinarily close to the tom in their brief time together, nor did he truly know what a father was supposed to be like, but in his early moons he had looked up to the deceased tom in a way quite like how a son would look up to their father.

Cinderblaze had been more of a father to him than his own (whether intentional or not), and though he never really expressed as much to him, hearing those words… “I’m proud of you” struck something deep within him and he was no longer able to hold back the tears that began flowing. Walking up to the tom, he smiled softly and touched his forehead to Cinderblaze’s.

”I’ve missed you,” he whispered silently, a soft sob making its way into his voice ”I've missed you so much.”

Pulling away, he wiped his eyes with a paw before grinning at the older tom. ”My bad, that was kind of lame wasn’t it?” he said with a light laugh. Ahh, it was great to finally get that out. He had needed some kind of closure after Cinderblaze’s death, and this was as good as any.

”Life has been an adventure,” he admitted before gesturing to the slight cut in his left ear ”I’ve still got that nick in my ear from our first training bout.”

”Oh! I became an Enforcer too! Not quite deputy yet, but gotta start somewhere, right? Oh! And I have a mate, she’s just lovely. The current medicine cat, Larkfire. She was an enforcer too — before me, but she’s great. I think you’d like her,” he purred proudly. He left out the incident that left her blind or her name change, but that could come later.

”Oh and I’m a father now! I have three lovely daughters — if you count Sleepykit, and two sons. Larky is pregnant again I think. I’m a little nervous because the last time she uhh… almost died, but hopefully everything will be okay this time around.” he admitted. He was kind of hoping to hold off on having kits with his mate after the traumatic experience of her last time kitting, but he’d make sure everything went smoothly this time.

”Oh and I- wait, I’m probably talking too much, sorry.” Darkfall remembered that Cinderblaze hadn’t been much for words during his life, but He just couldn’t help himself! He might have grown significantly larger, approaching the size of the clan’s huge leader, but he was still a kid at heart sometimes.

He was just really happy right now, more than he could express with simple words.