⤖ MEMORYMERIT: a new adventure ✽

The eve had passed. That terrible night when fires had erupted, when death had smoldered on the breeze. The night of the Great Calamity.

Even so, Memorymerit's thundering heart refused to still. Refused to accept that she was already safe.

She had long yearned for novelty, but this … this was on a different level altogether. A strange, smooth surface beneath her paws rather than warm desert sand. A constant breeze, the sharp scent of salt and brine. The cries of unfamiliar seabirds, which some of her Clanmates had already made meals of. Most of all, the disorienting swaying motion of the ship, which, during the first few hours, had tossed her across the deck like a tumbleweed in the wind.

Midday had arrived, as was evident by the sun's warmth on her back, and she exhaled, clinging to the deck with what traction she had. The sun she was used to. The open wind as well …

Memorymerit breathed. The tension in her shoulders, finding comfort in the chatter and murmurs of her Clanmates. Her heart beat as long as theirs did.

And she allowed herself to smile. She smiled as she had moons ago as a kit, in her early days as a RiverClan cat. She smiled as she had during her apprenticeship, during her time as a mentor. She smiled as she had after coming to the conclusion that she could pick herself up again, prove herself to be as strong as those around her thought she was.

Star-crossed crusader. That was the title she had given herself. A wanderer of the dunes, always ready with a laugh or a grin.

Last night had been a cataclysm. But after every calamity came rebirth. Progress. Healing.

Memorymerit summoned her recollections of her old home. The camp of hidden oases, the sanctuary where life had flourished despite the harsh desert sun. The dunes crisscrossed with streams.

She left that home behind knowing that something new lay ahead. New lands, new lives, new friends.

Another adventure, after many moons stuck in her daily routine. She grinned, tipping her head backward, facing the sky.