Dogbark
He/Him
__
Cool, soft grass was flattened underpaw as Dogbark ran over the endless meadow that was StarClan, his young, never tiring body stretching and relaxing with each bound. Despite his seemingly jovial actions, Dogbark was bored as Hell. Everything in StarClan was so fake and padded, there weren’t even any thorns or sharp stones hidden in the mud, it was like he was a kit in the nursery again, protected from everything that could potentially hurt him, but cut-off from the world because of it.
He stopped running after a bit and paused by the oh-so-familiar mirrored lake that he’d swam out of upon entering StarClan. He glared into the perfectly reflective surface, hating it for existing, for barring him from his beloved clan and clanmates. He hated it here.
The only solace Dogbark had found during these endless afternoons was dream walking and visiting the cats he used to walk among with as much life as they had. When dream walking, Dogbark felt like he was alive again.
He sighed, pulling his paws under him and staring through the large pool of water and into the depths of his own mind, trying to remember what it felt like to be hurt, to feel pain, to be alive. It was getting harder and harder with each passing day. Each day he felt the suffocating dopamine of StarClan cracking at his mind, trying to make him into the same careless wanderer as his ancestors before him now were.
After shaking his head to get hopeless thoughts out of his mind, Dogbark closed his eyes and let his head flop onto his paws, trying to think of someone he could try to talk to.
Suddenly, a former interaction he’d had when alive struck him, and he quickly began to think the names over and over, his ears flicked back as his eyelids trembled with the effort to stay closed.
Soon, he felt himself standing with his paws on solid, gritty earth, and he let his eyes flash open, small tears glistened in the corners.
ThunderClan camp stretched out before him like it had been the day he had changed the lives of two of his clanmates, and the pale dawn light was a perfect echo of that morning’s backlighting.
He padded forwards at a swift pace, his paws trembling with anticipation. When he reached the Warriors Den, Dogbark paused, taking a few steadying breaths before he entered.
Upon entry, Dogbark’s eyes immediately flicked to the singular occupant, and he marched forwards, tapping the cat on the shoulder, trying not to let the emotion clogging his throat trickle into his words,
“Sundust,” He murmured,
“Sundust, wake up, I want to talk to you in the clearing.”
That said, he exited the den and jogged over to the Apprentices Den, entering quickly and finding the apprentice that he’d also been thinking of,
“Rosepaw,” He whispered, tapping her on the shoulder as well,
“Meet me and Sundust in the clearing.”
He then exited the den and sat in the clearing, tapping his scar-free tail on the dusty, familiar ground that had been trodden into place by generations of ThunderClan paws. He missed being alive so much, he missed his clan so much, he missed his clanmates so much. Hopefully his dream appearance wouldn’t startle his clanmates so much that either of them woke up, that would defeat the whole purpose of his visit.
[ @
Naiad @
Shade. I got perms for a joint dream, so I decided to recreate the morning he told them they were to be Med Cat and Med Cat App! ]
An Echo of Ourselves
