Moth Flight's Vision/Chapter 23

Moth Flight's PoV

 * Pebble Heart wakes Moth Flight up, asking her if she is okay. She starts to respond and he relaxes, saying that he was worried she would sleep for days under the effects of the poppy seeds. Moth Flight is confused by her surroundings for a second, then realizes where she is. She says that Micah is dead, hoping that she had dreamed it, but Pebble Heart looks at her sympathetically and gives her a ball of dripping moss to drink from. She laps up the water and Pebble Heart tells her that there is food for her as well. Moth Flight refuses, saying that if she doesn't eat she'll join Micah in StarClan. Pebble Heart is shocked and tells her that she must stay alive and that she is important tot he Clans. She asks him if Micah wasn't important as well, and he responds that there must be a reason he's with them.


 * Moth Flight snorts, bitterly echoing words about his destiny. She goes on to ask if StarClan wants her to be lonely, since they won't even stop haunting her dreams. Intrigued, Pebble Heart asks her what she means and Moth Flight responds that she sees them do a ceremony over and over again with different cats. When he tries to ask her for more information, Moth Flight tells him that there's no reason for her to care and to stop trying to make her feel better. Pebble Heart tells her he is curious about her dreams and asks her to describe it exactly. Moth Flight crossly tells him how she sees two cats enter the Moonstone cavern and one of them touches their nose the stone. She explains that the starry cats come and several touch the cat and it looks like it hurts, but the cat doesn't flinch and looks stronger toward the end. Pebble Heart asks her if it is always a tom, and she replies that one had been a she-cat and she had also seen the she-cat die and come back to life. He wonders what sort of gift StarClan could give a living cat and Moth Flight responds that she doesn't think she'd want it. To take her mind off of Micah, Pebble Heart suggests she visit Juniper Branch with him, but Moth Flight refuses and goes back to sleep.


 * She finds herself in a wide meadow full of murky fog. Moth Flight sees Micah through the fog and calls out his name, but he doesn't respond. She catches up to him and tries to cut in front of him, but he walks through her as if she was made of mist.


 * Moth Flight jerks awake to find Sun Shadow sitting next to her nest. She asks him if he wants his nest back, but he tells her that he came to take her hunting. Moth Flight replies that she has never hunted in the pine forest before. Sun Shadow tells her that there is stretch with hardly any undergrowth that they could find frogs in, and she replies that she's tasted toad before and didn't like it. He leads her out into the clearing, where Tall Shadow calls out to her to ask her if she is okay. Sun Shadow explains that they were going out hunting and the two cats leave the camp. Moth Flight jumps over a log and scratches her belly on a twig. Sun Shadow tells her Pebble Heart should look at it but she just mentions she could put horsetail and dock on it if they find any.


 * After a while, Sun Shadow pauses in a ditch and turns to her. He explains that he felt lost after leaving the mountains and arriving in the forest. He was away from kin and his travelling companion had died shortly after they arrived. Sun Shadow had felt like he was trapped under ice and that nobody seemed to understand him. Moth Flight is doubtful at first that he would understand, but as he goes on she thinks he might. She asks him if he still felt that way, and Sun Shadow says that he loves the forest and his Clanmates feel like kin now. He adds that he feels like he's gained more than he lost. Moth Flight wonders if she will ever feel that way.


 * Sun Shadow spots a frog and has Moth Flight try to catch it. Moth Flight stalks up to the frog, but when it leaps away it jumps in several different directions and Sun Shadow steps in to catch it. Sun Shadow says she looks like a kit chasing its tail, purring, and Moth Flight purrs back. However, the purr dies in her throat and she feels guilty for purring so soon after Micah's death. The cats make their way back to camp in silence. Sun Shadow and Tall Shadow try to get Moth Flight to eat the frog, but she refuses and goes back into her nest to curl up and sleep.