The snow has stopped now. My paws crunch on through the desolate cold, though I can hardly feel a thing. Even my paws no longer tingle with sensation as I lift my paw above the snow only to press it back down into it again, a steady precession that leads nowhere.

The world is empty and silent. Wherever I've ended up, it's peaceful. Is this where I'm meant to spend eternity, damned to nothingness for crimes I didn't commit?

A familiar face is visible on the horizon. The snow crunches beneath my paws as I run to her, halting abruptly before Knottedstar. She purrs. "It's nice to see you here, Rushcall."

"Where is 'here'?" I ask.
"You know about StarClan. You've seen the tangled web of your own memories. You've experienced our own world on your own terms. This is none of those." She shakes her head. "Right now, we are in between worlds, on our way to cross over. Unfortunately, you and I are headed in different directions."

"Why are you here?" I ask, shivering slightly.

"These old bones weren't meant for the cold." she sighs. Her breath freezes in the air, a thin white trail from her throat. "I'll see you soon, Rushcall, but for now, you need to wake up."

Snow falls around me, a perfect storm of pure white, and I cry out for Knottedstar like an abandoned kit until my throat is raw and-

"Knottedstar!" I cry, opening my eyes as I sits bolt upright. As I do so, my head slams into Novablaze's.

"Rushcall!" he yells, stumbling back. "Oh, StarClan, that really hurt."
"Novablaze!" I say, trying to get up only to find my legs are like jelly. "You're okay!"
He lowers his head. "It's not Novablaze anymore."

My eyes widen. "She's really dead?"
He nods solemnly.

"What happened?!" I insist.

Goldenfire walks into the den, Sparrowsong at her side. His eyes light up when he sees me awake and he presses his head against my neck, purring loudly. "You're alright. Rushcall, what in StarClan's name happened to you?"

I shake my head. "You'd never believe it. I've just been... away a little while. That's all you need to know."

"That's not an answer!" Sparrowsong hisses. "You've been out for three days. Novablaze was worried you wouldn't wake up at all. We were really worried about you!"
I nod. Despite the severity of the situation, I hardly feel any tension at all. Instead, I feel like some weight has been lifted from my chest, something indescribably heavy which has taken flight and left me alone.

I probe the backs of my mind and find that there's no one there, no voice in my head and no foreign presence grabbing at my consciousness. The only thing left is a story that needs telling, and I'd be more than happy to tell it.

"Alright." I say, turning to my anxious friends. "I can tell you everything. It's a long story, but it starts a long time ago with a cat named Ashleap and her charming mate, Pyrewing..."

***

No one saw Knottedstar when she died, but her body was apparently dragged to camp by a cat the color of pitch, a cat who looked remarkably like a fox.

Rumor has it that she had gone into the tunnels to make amends with an old friend.

Others say that she was desperately trying to atone for her mistakes.

Fewer still insist she was praying for the life of her wayward apprentice.

***

When the snow melts, Novastar and I go into the tunnels. No one has gone down there since Knottedstar, so naturally we're apprehensive, but there's some things I need to see just to reassure myself that it's over.

The darkness is just as terrifying as it was beforehand, but his presence is much more of a comfort than Lunarshine's knowledge or Ashleap's intuition. Having a flesh-and-blood companion helps in ways I never could have imagined before... and yet I'm still panicking. Every pawstep we take corresponds to a heartbeat. He speeds up and my heart begins racing like a hare running away from a hunting patrol. He slows down as we finish our ascent and it freezes.

"Hello? Night terrors sent from beyond the Dark Forest? I've come to kill you in order to appease my mate!" Novastar calls into the darkness.

"We aren't mates!" I hiss back playfully.

"Are you sure?" he says. "You'd think by the amount of time we spend together that we were a couple. I'm sure Sparrowsong would love to have an uncle for his kits."

"You're already their uncle on one side." I point out. "Goldenfire would be terribly angry if she knew you forgot you were siblings. She knew that leader would go to your head."

"Yes, yes, I know. One side is good enough... but why not make it both?"

"You're insufferable." I say, but his teasing eyes have already gotten the best of me. My fear has disappeared like dew on a day in greenleaf. "Can we go?"

He nods and we stalk the corridors together. Despite how often we flinch, nothing in the darkness seems to stir. In fact, all of the tunnels are remarkably empty. I sniff the air to only smell Novastar's fur, take a glance into the darkness to find that no one else has ventured here and not a pawstep remains planted in the ground.

"It's never been so quiet." I whisper breathlessly.

"It's kind of creepy. Sometimes I wonder how tunnelkeepers stand it." Novastar interjects.
"Well, since you haven't appointed a new one yet..." I say.
"I don't think we need one." Novastar meows firmly.

"Why not?" The mere suggestion is brash and reckless. After what happened the last time when we went without one, he wants to do it again? He's told me on multiple occasions he was just waiting for a sign, but this?

He snaps me out of my thoughts quickly, barely noticing the disturbed expression on my face. "Can't you see? The spirits are resting. Whatever happened here, whatever spirits once roamed these tunnels, they've finally been put to rest." He looks deep into my eyes, his own brown disks vibrant even in the tunnels. They remind me so much of the ones I gave up moons ago, though I no longer long for that cat. Ever since Ashleap and Lunarshine left me, my dreams have been silent and my life has been consistently normal.

Noting my silence, he adds, "Do you think it was your dream?"
"The tunnels became haunted after Ashleap fell down here." I say. "It's plausible. For all we know... it could have been Knottedstar." I want so badly to believe she died for something.

"It's finally over, regardless." Novastar says.

"So this is the end." I say.

"No," he replies. "It's the beginning. Our beginning."

I press my fur into his. "I like that."
"Me too."

He takes a step and murmurs, "We're here."

Sunlight shines in through a faraway opening, dying the world and our own pelts gold as light stretches to meet darkness. Down below our paws, golden flowers grow in and around two interwoven skeletons. The moon stretches over the sun and Lunarshine is finally with Ashleap for all eternity, the two of them united in death.

The world is still and my head is silent.

Then quietly, perfectly, he turns around and the world starts again.

So do we.