Something was wrong. Glorycourage felt it in his bones. Nothing was wrong here in StarClan, no. Nothing was ever wrong here, because it was paradise and there was no reason for it to be. But still, he felt like something was... off. He should go check on his family, right? Glorycourage looked down to them. It was daytime... right. That wouldn't be useful to him at all. ...where was Gildedpaw? He recounted, and he saw one, two, three, four siblings. Four? There were five. He knew that there were five. Iridescentpaw, Sparklingpaw, Incandescentpaw, Gildedpaw... Opalescentdream. He recited their names over and over. So, why could he only see four? Glorycourage started to ask around in StarClan, asking the warriors who still listened to him after hundreds of unprecedented questions whether they'd seen her or not. They would look down with him, assuring that she'd be somewhere, and leave just as stumped as he'd been. Why couldn't anybody find her? ...oh no. Oh, no, no, no. It had taken a bit, but now Glorycourage knew where she was. Gildedpaw's body lay still in camp. How could this have happened? This wasn't supposed to happen. Glorycourage was supposed to be the only one here in StarClan -- Dama had given /him/ courage, how was anyone else meant to be up here? Well, Glorycourage certainly needed to make sure she wasn't alone and scared. He raced around through the starry fields, wailing Gildedpaw's name, and heads turned to look at him as he went, and then turned back to whatever they'd been on with a sigh. They knew it, grief. They knew it well, both in life and death. Even the dead mourned the lives of their newest members. But, still, for some reason, he hadn't been successful. She was here somewhere, Glorycourage knew that, where else would she be, but he couldn't find her no matter where he looked. He was terrified -- if he was terrified, how did she feel, all alone without him? ...a part of him was sure that he'd never see her again, never play with her, not even in a dream, never bury his nose in her soft feathers again. Glorycourage could not find Gildedpaw, and there were some circumstances where you had to just... give up. Glorycourage knew that. There wasn't a solution to everything. Not everything worked out. Instead, he decided to do what he could. If he couldn't be there to welcome her to his place among the stars, he would do what the living cats did... he'd watch the medicine cats sprinkle lavender over her body, watch his parents and remaining siblings give her a final lick on the cheek, watch as she was lowered into the ground, and watch the clanmates mutter about another apprentice gone too soon. Gildedpaw certainly wasn't the first, and wouldn't be the last, either. Glorycourage hoped that he could help all of those lost souls. And he held on to hope that someday, he'd greet Gildedpaw again, too. But as he watched her final ceremony from the stars, he couldn't help but notice something... When had she gotten so big? When had all of his siblings gotten so big? And... why hadn't he?
