#the only clan that i think would have trouble doing that is riverclan

[pigeonclaw]

There's so much tension in Squirrelflight's Hope that's kind of interesting to read, but I'm constantly distracted from the narrative by just.... Why...? Why don't the Clans just expand their borders a little further from the lake? Every time a POV character goes outside their territory it's noted that there's tons of space that way. It's such an easy solution????

#the only clan that i think would have trouble doing that is riverclan #their territory is kinda boxed in between the lake + windclan + a road + twolegplace #but everybody else? #thunderclan and windclan especially. just? go further out??? #crowfeather had to walk all night in his SE to find any roads or towns so clearly the land next to windclan is free to hunt on #the protags in po3/oots wandered all over the place beyond thunderclan and shadowclan so clearly there's room there too #I'm also constantly distracted by the authors i guess forgetting that theres a forest on windclan territory #they keep saying that it's moorland as soon as you cross the border stream. uh no?? #i guess consistency isn't something i expect from this series but this level of nonsense makes every cat look so incompetent

[bonefall]

Now we've got all six of em, can I just say that CRIPES ALMIGHTY the titles for a starless clan suck major ass! Both separately AND as a group!!

I Do Not Rewrite Arcs Until They Are Done BUT DO YOU WANNA HEAR MY WIP RENAMES SO FAR

Remember: Don't get too attached yet, the only one I can say with certainty will show up somewhere is the title of Book 4.

ARC RENAME: A Starless Clan -> A Prayer Unanswered

The original name is really good but I'm getting a vibe that the theme of the rework is going to be... when love isn't enough.

It's about how some things can't get better. It's about how all the kindness in the world couldn't get Bramblestar to turn around as a leader. It's about how Heartstar might have had good intentions, but occupation never works out in the end. It's Nightheart's relationship to his family being salvageable, not because they don't all want to fix it, but because his life has worked out best with distance from them.

So, Prayers Unanswered is both about the religious part of how RiverClan doesn't have a leader and can't get in proper touch with StarClan, but it's also about every other wish that hasn't come true.

River -> Starcrossed One of the VERY large changes I'm considering is actually massively reducing Nightheart's POV. I'm thinking of doing this, not because I dislike him, but because I think it might actually be a better story if the audience is guessing as to his intentions just as much as the other characters are. So, until he's ACTUALLY needed later, his chapters are short and sparse. So Starcrossed would be about setting up the troubles of the Clans, especially the parts of the conflicts I want to highlight more in BB. It would be setting up the rule changes for "starcrossed lovers" (lmao) but also the brewing anger that the cats have towards code changes... and StarClan, if I do decide to keep the newest revelations and work them in better, in hindsight.

Sky -> Fracture There's a phrase in my head that is so interesting to me that I need to do something with it. "Only frozen water can fracture." I want to make the RiverClan situation worse than in-canon. First of all, there's going to be identifiable groups this time which begin to scramble for power. Instead of having the cats just... forget how to do the chores they've done their whole lives, the Clan is splitting up into factions. This is why they won't be able to win against Heartstar later, when she decides to take drastic measures. They're not fighting like a Clan; they're fighting like a bunch of disorganized teams. There should also be a bunch of needless injuries, maybe even a border aggression that lead to a death, before Heartstar barges in. I also want to make this a bigger part of the story, Erins willing. Too much time was spent on the Catnip Patrol, imo, we're going to have ANOTHER big trip and I don't want this one to eat up so much time. Rowankit is also still going to die; and maybe a couple of elders around the Lake too.

Shadow -> Snakes and Turnclaws Berryheart's hate movement has been too tame, from canon books 1 - 4 as of the time of writing. It's ridiculous that they haven't even injured anyone in the Battle Cat series. I saved Antfur from the previous arc so that she can die here. We've been seeing the Anti-Turnclaw movement rise from the first book, so now with Nightheart's boldness leading him to a place where he will be unsafe, we need to see his rusty butt in actual danger. I'm even thinking that, instead of Nightheart failing his task on purpose, Sunbeam makes him fail by stopping him from getting killed. I need to know the ending of ASC first though, because I MIGHT be having Berryheart getting her exile here. Whatever kills Antfur is either deniable enough that she's able to squeak by while Sunbeam quietly leaves (refusing to accuse her mother of anything publicly) OR it's so obvious that Heartstar casts her out on the spot. Meanwhile, we see the OTHER half of ShadowClan's conflict as RiverClan finally unites... against them, as their common enemy. Task failed successfully, Heartsy

Thunder -> The Source of the River I'm still unspeakably proud of this outline. There's so much I want to do here. She's going to come back with a DND party and I'm hoping that all of them end up in RiverClan with her; INCLUDING Nightheart. I want the fact that he accompanied Frostpaw to actually be the final straw for him. While he's away, Sunbeam is acclimating to ThunderClan and falling in love with her new home. There are parts she misses about ShadowClan, but as she's adopted by Sparkpelt, taken as a secondary apprentice by the deputy, smiled upon by Squirrelstar after she pressures Bramblestar to abdicate... this starts to feel like this is where she belongs. And that's too hard for Nightheart to ever come back to. "You come to the source of the river, and are vexed that you do not find the water that is flowing downstream" dude.... man. That's what BB's about. Change. I also really want Nightheart to choose HIS OWN NAME by the end of this series-- so at some point in this book he should finally admit "Nightheart" wasn't his choice either. (I'm thinking Deltastep. Because his journey with Frostpaw begins at the southern delta of my reworked map.)

And I haven't done them for Book 5 or Book 6 yet, especially since I might end up condensing them or chopping them up to put into the other books.

I do know I'm really love to play with the idea of a starless sky for one of the last books though, I may or may not keep Splashtail's lack of faith in StarClan (hate the Evil Atheist thing they keep doing), but the idea of a "Pitch-Black Star" absolute fucks as symbolism, ngl. Maybe something like "A Gap in the Stars" or "Constellation's Void" or "The Stolen Star"

Also also also I'm having Curlfeather come back as a Dark Forest Demon for at LEAST one scene.

I don't give a good goddamn if they don't go to the Dark Forest or not. ONE weird coincidence that could totally have been Just Good Luck but was actually Curlfeather. Let Her Drown Splashtail, she deserves it. Let her be a malevolent spirit who protects her baby. RiverClan can whine all it wants about Mothwing who ooo doesn't believe in God, Frostpaw's got a demon. Cry about it

Also I hope Frostpaw becomes leader because I'll make it go hard

#Mapleshade here like ''haha i will continue my curse on the appledusk bloodline'' #And Curlfeather looms behind her like ''dont.'' #BB!ASC #better bones au #ASC Spoilers

[twilights-800-cats]

<< Chapter 23 || Chapter 24 || Chapter 25 || From the Beginning || Patreon & Ko-Fi >>

Chapter 24

“Mothwing, where are we going?” Shadepool asked.

Night blanketed the hills in a dark cloak of shadow, and the stars were just beginning to appear. The waning moon was still at the tops of the leafless willow trees, its pale light not yet reaching the lake territories.

“You'll see!” Mothwing insisted. The tip of her tail twitched. “Hurry!”

After Nightfrost had left with the herbs, Mothwing had led Shadepool across the stream that bordered her den and out into RiverClan territory. They were walking towards a small patch of woodland situated behind RiverClan's camp, though there was some empty, hilly space between them.

The golden she-cat was moving at a good clip, and Shadepool panted, struggling to keep up after walking an entire day already. Her legs burned. Was there a reason for Mothwing's hurried pace?

Shadepool felt for Nightfrost. She guessed he and Mackarelshine had made their way into ShadowClan territory from the barest scent of pine in her nose that almost made her sneeze. Hopefully, they wouldn't be held up by a patrol or, worse, attacked by whatever was bothering ShadowClan. Nightfrost sent her a pulse of confidence, and Shadepool had to take it for what it was.

To distract herself, she asked Mothwing, “So, how are things in RiverClan?”

“We're doing fine,” Mothwing reported. She paused to sniff at a bush, pushing up its branches to check beneath it. Shadepool caught the faintest scent of mint. Mothwing marked the area with a brush of her muzzle and continued onward.

Shadepool blinked at Mothwing's dappled backside. Was that all she was going to get for an answer? Worry prickled at her pelt. What was Mothwing's hurry?

“Have you thought of taking on an apprentice?” Shadepool asked, putting on speed to try and catch up.

She reached Mothwing's shoulder as the golden she-cat answered: “I've an idea who to choose. I just haven't asked her, yet.”

Her? “Who?”

“Willowkit, Mosspelt's daughter,” Mothwing explained. “You remember her, right? She's been very helpful here and there with little tasks. She even pulled a thorn out of Tumblekit's paw the other day!”

Shadepool pricked her ears in surprise. Most kits would balk at a task like that! She purred in her throat, “That's amazing! She sounds perfect.”

“She might be,” Mothwing agreed. Her gaze focused ahead, and Shadepool saw something flicker there. Mothwing's voice went quiet, and she mewed, “I just hope I can be a good teacher.”

“I'm sure you will be,” Shadepool assured. She flicked her tail against Mothwing's flank and added, “If there's anything you need, you know you can ask me!”

Mothwing's whiskers twitched. Shadepool was troubled, but she sensed that Mothwing wouldn’t open up more if she were pried at, so she left it alone for now.

They made it to the woods as the moon climbed the sky. Mothwing slowed her pace, measuring her pawsteps carefully. Shadepool mimicked her as best as she could, ears pricked and nose sharp for danger in this unfamiliar territory.

Soon enough they came face to face with a sight that Shadepool hadn't expected - a Twoleg fence. The wooden slats stood straight and short, their stark whiteness absorbing the moonlight. There were large gaps between the slats, just big enough for a cat to fit through - from the scent of it, Mothwing had come here more than once.

Shadepool's pelt prickled with unease. The last time the Clans encountered Twolegs, they were destroying the forest and kidnapping cats, including Shadepool's mother. The warrior code cautioned against interacting with Twolegs in general. Why had Mothwing brought her here?

As if sensing Shadepool's worries, Mothwing lifted her tail. She meowed, “It's a small Twolegplace - way smaller than the one in the old forest. There are only a couple of dens and the Twolegs I've seen move slowly and have gray fur. I think they're elders. And I haven't encountered any dogs.”

Shadepool's heart beat fast, regardless. Twolegs were unpredictable no matter the type. “You get your herbs from here?” she guessed.

Mothwing's eyes flashed. “I do,” she meowed, her tone cautious, “but believe me, Shadepool - you've never seen anything like this!”

Shadepool swallowed. Mothwing was putting a lot of faith and trust in her to bring her here, and Shadepool had to return it - it was far too late now to turn back. She nodded at the golden she-cat, and Mothwing's posture relaxed.

Gesturing with her tail to follow, Mothwing slipped between one of the gaps in the fence, fitting through with ease. On the other side, she sniffed the air, then nodded to Shadepool that it was safe.

Shadepool took a deep, bracing breath and, thankful that she could lean on Nightfrost for extra strength, she slid between the slats.

On the other side was a Twoleg yard, treeless and open to the sky. There were as many Twoleg things that Shadepool had no name for as there were ones she did, and the cloying smell of Twoleg was overwhelming from every angle.

Up ahead was the Twoleg nest itself - Mothwing was right; it was smaller than the ones in the old forest. It was long and flat, like it was settled in a hunter's crouch, its walls made of many small, red-colored stones. There was a smaller white nest just next to it.

Mothwing sniffed some more, then nodded for Shadepool to keep following her. Shadepool's pelt prickled as Mothwing led her towards the white nest.

“I don't know what they call this place,” Mothwing mewed, “but wait till you see what's inside!”

They came up close, and suddenly Shadepool understood - she didn't need to go inside to tell that this nest was full of plants. The smell of earth and growing things was overwhelming, so thick she could barely breathe. She tried to look inside, but the white walls, while somewhat transparent, were clouded and difficult to see through.

Mothwing glanced back at her, eyes gleaming knowingly. “Over here,” she hissed.

Mothwing rounded a corner to the broad side of the white nest. Shadepool followed and saw that Mothwing was already poised to leap - there were several large objects stacked up against the side of the nest, almost forming steps like the ones to the Highledge. They seemed sturdy, too - large boxes made of wood similar to the fence.

Shadepool followed the steps up with her eyes and saw they led to a gap near the very top of the nest. She shivered, uncertain.

Shadepool admired Mothwing's fearlessness as she leaped onto one of the objects. Shadepool followed slowly, and Mothwing was patient with her as they clambered to the top. The steps were sturdy and unmoving, and Shadepool sniffed one - she lifted her muzzle, shocked.

“Dirt!” she mewed. “They're full of dirt!”

Mothwing nodded, her eyes gleaming.

They continued up and up until they were both positioned just at the dark gap Shadepool had seen from below. She realized it was an open window, and not just that - the entire nest was made of windows! The smell of plants just about bowled her over, but even more surprising was the warmth she felt wafting out from the opening. It felt like stepping into the gap would be like falling into the height of greenleaf.

“Look down,” Mothwing purred.

Shadepool obeyed, her night-sight flickering as she leaned into the gloom. Her head spun - inside the windowed nest were rows upon rows upon rows of plants, some she had never seen before and others she recognized instantly. They were growing strong and green, as if leafbare hadn't touched them for an instant. Shadepool’s whiskers trembled in shock.

“I found it while trying to find some herbs in the Twoleg gardens,” Mothwing explained, ducking her head in beside Shadepool. “I saw one of the old Twolegs coming out with a whole thyme plant in their hands, and I just had to check it out!”

Shadepool just couldn't believe it. She had thought the garden she discovered in the old Twoleg nest on ThunderClan territory was something great. This dwarfed that discovery entirely!

“I can't take too much, obviously,” Mothwing went on, “and I can't always get in here, but there's just about everything down there, aside from a few things like catmint. I don't think a Twoleg will grow that unless they need it for their kittypets.”

Shadepool had to pull her head out. The cold of the night was shocking compared to the heady warmth of the windowed nest. Shadepool struggled for words. “This is just... Mothwing, it's so spectacular!”

“I know, right?!” Mothwing purred. “We might never run out of herbs again!”

The idea was incredibly comforting - but something concerning prickled at the back of Shadepool's mind: “Does Leopardstar know about this?”

Mothwing frowned. She seemed to understand what Shadepool was getting at. In a calm, collected voice, she stated, “I will never, ever allow Leopardstar or any other cat to keep me from helping others in need.”

Shadepool swallowed. The conviction in Mothwing's voice was strong, and Shadepool admired that so much. That Mothwing would defy not just her leader but her mother to help others made her an amazing medicine cat.

I hope she knows that.

“Mothwing!”

Shadepool stiffened, shocked to hear another voice break into the cool, quiet newleaf night. An unfamiliar scent, stronger than all the others, crossed her nose, and Shadepool looked down the Twoleg objects to its source - a lean golden tabby cat that she did not recognize.

“Hello, Root,” Mothwing responded, calm as ever.

“Root?” Shadepool hissed in question.

Mothwing nodded. “Remember? He came with us on the Journey,” she explained. “He's Tawnypelt's mate.”

It clicked, then, and Shadepool recalled the loner. He was the father of Tawnypelt's second litter and had been captured by Twolegs just before the Clans had left the forest. After being freed, he followed his mate and kits across the mountains. Shadepool hadn't thought of him too much the entire time, nor had she questioned what had happened to him once they'd settled at the lake.

Root didn't seem perturbed by Shadepool's ignorance or presence as she and Mothwing picked their way down to the ground. The golden tom gave her a nod, then turned to Mothwing, his gaze all business.

“It's time,” he said.

Mothwing sighed. “I know. Let's go.”

Shadepool looked between them, confused. Suddenly, the air seemed tense, like thin ice stretched over a river. One pawstep wrong, and it would crack.

“What's going on?” Shadepool asked.

Root narrowed his eyes at her. “Mothwing hasn't told you yet?”

“I haven't had time,” Mothwing impressed, flicking her tail in a mild irritation. To Shadepool, she explained, “I wanted you to see the window nest, but there's something else.” Her gaze became intense. “The real reason you're out here tonight.”

Shadepool tilted her head, confused. “What...?”

Root's eyes were like chips of ice. “Follow us.”

———————————————————

Once more, Shadepool was trailing after Mothwing, though now it was with the addition of Root. It was an entirely different energy - Mothwing had walked with a spring in her step as they snuck away from RiverClan camp. Now, her ears were twitching in different directions, and Root periodically stopped to breathe in the air, as if they were concerned about being followed.

It was silent, and Shadepool had a creeping feeling that they were doing something they shouldn't.

But I’m here now, she told herself, taking a steadying breath. I trust Mothwing. She knows what she’s doing.

They left the Twolegplace as moonhigh set in and followed the woods along the edge of RiverClan territory. Huge willow boughs rasped in the night, and Shadepool, utterly unfamiliar with the sound, had to fight not to jump. Worst of all, Mothwing's and Root's wariness only seemed to increase the closer they came to the Arrival, which made Shadepool flex her claws anxiously.

She felt Nightfrost's awareness drift over to her, far away now that he was back in ThunderClan camp. She couldn't communicate with him outright, but she did send the impression that she wasn't alone and that she was okay, even if she seemed rattled. It didn't settle him, but she knew he couldn't come after her now.

StarClan, let this be safe... she prayed.

As moonhigh broke, Shadepool heard the sound of water. They came out of the woods onto the bank of a river that Shadepool recognized - it was the one that made RiverClan's border with the Arrival, and, if followed upstream, led to the sun-drown-place.

Root and Mothwing easily crossed and waited for her as Shadepool splashed her way ungracefully through the ice-cold water. They gave her little time to shake off the excess before heading across the bare hills towards the old tree stumps that the Clan had used as a camp when they had come to the lake.

Shadepool followed, her limbs screaming for rest and her belly howling for a meal. It took all her willpower not to complain.

Finally, they stopped at the crest of a tall slope, half-hidden by a cluster of scraggly, leafless bushes. From here, Shadepool could see almost the entire lake, lit white by the moon. Exhausted, she sat on her haunches when she saw Root and Mothwing do the same.

“What are we doing here?” Shadepool asked, finally. She looked between Root and Mothwing and mewed, “Surely you can tell me now!”

Root and Mothwing shared another look. The golden tom raised his chin and explained, finally: “Mothwing and I have been working together these past moons to keep RiverClan safe.”

Shadepool tilted her head, confused. “RiverClan is in danger? But, Mothwing, you said everything was fine!”

Mothwing frowned. “I did, and it is, mostly. But darkness is growing in our Clan,” she said quietly, “and its wings are spreading across the lake.”

Shadepool narrowed her eyes. Did they really drag me all across creation just to tell me something as cryptic as that?!

But she could tell it wasn't nonsense, not to them - whatever this darkness was, both Root and Mothwing seemed utterly convinced of it. They had to be if they were going through all this effort behind RiverClan's back.

What does it have to do with me, though?

They didn't have to wait long. Down below, at the stump that marked the old Gathering-place at the Arrival, Shadepool saw a shadow move: a cat, lean and powerful, stepped out from the darkness. She didn't know who they were, but their appearance made her heart hammer hard in her chest.

Mothwing signaled with her tail for silence as if sensing that Shadepool might ask more questions. She and Root crouched low, and Shadepool followed suit, getting the very obvious feeling that they could not be discovered. She endeavored to keep her jaws clamped shut.

The one cat was not alone for long - another shape appeared, their shoulders lit by the moonlight as they trotted downslope from WindClan territory.

Shadepool stiffened. That was a WindClan cat for sure, but which one? She breathed in the air, straining for scent - with the wind sweeping in from the lake, she could only tell that it wasn't Crowflight. That put her at some sort of ease, but she still anxiously gripped the earth with her claws.

The two cats met in the middle, and when they spoke, Shadepool found that the wind carried their voices with it:

“I thought you weren't coming,” the first cat meowed. His voice was fainter, but Shadepool recognized it: Falcontail, Mothwing's brother.

Before she could comprehend that, the other cat spoke: “Our deputy caught me trying to sneak out,” responded the WindClan cat. Their tail lashed. “I had to make up an excuse.”

Who is that? Shadepool strained to figure it out. She knew it wasn't Crowflight, and it didn't sound like Duskwhisker or Ryewhisper - but beyond them, she didn't know WindClan cats very well. The voice did sound somewhat familiar, though, as if she had heard it recently.

“I'm sure he only wanted what was best,” Falcontail said idly.

“He wouldn't know what was best if it bit him in the tail,” the WindClan cat hissed.

Falcontail made a gesture Shadepool couldn't see. His voice carried, light and airy, “Relax. How are things going...?”

The WindClan cat seemed to collect themselves. They said something, but Shadepool didn't hear all of it: “...dy to attack at any time. ThunderClan won't see it coming! But Crowflight keeps stalling. I swear, he's half ThunderClan himself after that journey - ThunderClan would be gone by now if he hadn't argued for more time...”

So he is trying to calm things down, Shadepool thought. He had managed to give ThunderClan until the half-moon, despite disapproval from his Clanmates. It was probably all he could do in the face of his vengeance-hungry Clan without losing too much of his position’s power.

“Well, if you want to expedite things,” Falcontail's voice was like a snake's, smooth and slithering. “You know what you can do...”

Shadepool felt a chill run down her spine.

The WindClan cat was quiet, and Shadepool had to strain to hear: “It hasn't come to that,” they said.

“Hasn't it?” Falcontail went on. “WindClan deserves justice - why is Crowflight trying to stall if not to give time for his ThunderClan allies to gather strength? You know how close he is to some of them... Like littermates - his own words!”

Shadepool froze in horror, her blood turning cold as ice. Was Falcontail really encouraging this WindClan warrior to kill Crowflight?

The WindClan cat's tail lashed. “How would you even get away with that?” Their voice had risen in disbelief.

Falcontail's voice was smooth, unbothered: “It's far easier than it seems, don't you remember...?”

Shadepool trembled. She couldn't stomach it anymore; she felt like she might retch. She shuffled out of hearing, heart thudding in her ears like thunder as she crouched beneath the leafless branches of the bushes, trembling.

Her mind worked a mile a moment, and the past moons pushed her head beneath the water of her own thoughts, threatening to drown her - Onewhisker and Barkface ambushed. ThunderClan, accused of their murder. No evidence but an unrecognizable ThunderClan scent and a tuft of gray fur.

Gray fur.

Falcontail had gray fur.

Not only that, but it was Falcontail who had fought the hardest on Mudstar's side from RiverClan by leading Mudstar's supporters from the other Clans. If Falcontail had planned for Mudstar to come out on top, and he had found he'd made the wrong call, then wasn't that the perfect motive for him to attack Onewhisker?

“You see it now, then,” Root whispered. “The darkness in RiverClan.” The golden tom joined her in the bush, his tail resting against her flank comfortingly, his pale eyes sympathetic.

Shadepool stared - not at Root, but at Mothwing. The golden she-cat was still listening, her back turned to Shadepool. She was stiff from ears to tail, her claws flexing against the earth.

Falcontail is your littermate, Shadepool thought despairingly. The dark wings opening over RiverClan, threatening the whole lake - Your brother! Oh, Mothwing...

“I don't know what made him this way,” Mothwing admitted as if she could feel Shadepool's thoughts. “But his plotting has caused a great deal of suffering.” She turned only her muzzle, looking over her shoulder at Shadepool. Her eyes were bright in the moonlight, full of an old and worn-out grief.

Her words were simple: “He needs to be stopped, Shadepool.”

Shadepool swallowed. “But he's your-”

“Falcontail is no brother of mine,” Mothwing said resolutely. “He hasn’t been for a long, long time.”

Shadepool shivered. There was a coldness in Mothwing's eyes that Shadepool just couldn't fathom. She tried to imagine what Nightfrost would have to do to stop being her brother, and Shadepool’s mind could not create anything so vile that her brother could actually be responsible for - nor could she comprehend cutting him out of her life entirely.

“I'll help,” Shadepool promised. Her heart thudded in her chest. “I will. What can I do?”

“Warn Crowflight,” Mothwing said. Her gaze was intense. “I don't know when this cat will act, and you're the one Crowflight will believe above anyone else.”

Shadepool swallowed. “I don't know if he'll listen to-”

“I do,” Mothwing insisted. She turned and brought her muzzle close to Shadepool's. “You love him, don't you?”

Shadepool stared, frozen in shock. She hazarded a glance at Root, who seemed to be paying no attention to this part of the conversation, fascinated by an ant on a strand of grass. Shadepool struggled to ask, “H-How...?”

“I have eyes,” Mothwing insisted. She flicked her tail. “And, on the Great Journey, he was all you'd ever talk about if we weren't speaking of herbs. He was always looking for you, too.” She sighed, and her hard gaze softened. “I was in love once, you know, before I became a medicine cat. It might not have lasted, but I know how it looks on a cat.”

Shadepool swallowed lamely. Her secret had been so easily found out, and by a fellow medicine cat! The blow seemed like a puff of air compared to the gravity of Falcontail's plots.

“Your secret is mine, too,” Mothwing promised. She touched her nose to Shadepool's head, her breath warm. “No one will ever know.”

Shadepool trembled, touched by Mothwing’s promise. She hazarded a glance at Root, who had risen to his paws.

The golden tom looked down at her, his gaze soft. “Love is more powerful than any rule a Clan cat can make,” he told her with a gentle, knowing smile, “and no rule should attempt to contain it.”

Shadepool lifted her head, finding that she was calming down. Clarity was returning to her mind, and with it, the intense realization of what she had to do. She managed, “I need to go home. I have to warn Crowflight!”

“Rest first,” Mothwing told her. Before Shadepool could protest, Mothwing licked her between the ears, pointing out, “You’ll get nowhere if you keel over in ShadowClan territory. I'll take you home first thing tomorrow, as I promised.”

Shadepool glanced past Mothwing, and saw that Falcontail and the WindClan cat were long gone. The stump of the Arrival was lit by the cold, uncaring light of the moon, and the stars filled the sky above, twinkling in a blanket of blackness reflected on the lake’s surface.

She looked up at those stars and wondered, StarClan - did you know?

Did you know all along and do nothing?

#tb au #tb twilight

[redux-iterum]

Burning Hearts: Chapter Twenty-Nine

(AO3 counterpart here.)

It was baffling, how quickly everyone else adjusted to Greystripe’s absence.

No one spoke of Greystripe, beyond Mousefur tracking him and reporting to Bluestar that he was on the border of the Houses. Anyone who talked with Fireheart gave him a warning look when he leaned the conversation towards his friend. There wasn’t even a whisper of his kits in RiverClan. It was as if Greystripe had never existed.

Fireheart spent most of his time in camp on Bluestar’s orders. She had given some reason about “knowing he’d go looking for him” or whatever. It didn’t matter. She was unable to maintain contact with Fireheart’s accusing eyes and walked away quickly.

On this particular night—Fireheart had no idea how many had passed already—he was extra antsy, his tail thumping the ground behind him as he stewed over Greystripe and Silverstream. What will happen to their kits? RiverClan will surely keep them, but will they be treated differently because of their blood? Will they be conflicted in their loyalty to their Clan? Why did that stupid rule about loyalty have to be here in the first place? A cat died because of this! It—

“You okay?”

Fireheart blinked rapidly, jerked out of his thoughts, and turned his head. Swiftpaw had just left the apprentice’s den and was looking at Fireheart with concern.

“Oh—” Fireheart cleared his throat. “I’m fine. Just thinking.”

“Alright,” Swiftpaw said, head tilted. “You, um, you just seem kind of upset. Your tail’s really puffed out.”

Sure enough, when Fireheart looked back, his shaking tail was bristling hard enough to make it look like his hair was as long as his Clanmates’. Fireheart blinked again, stupidly this time, and could only say, “Huh.”

Swiftpaw shuffled his paws awkwardly. “Um… do you want to talk about it?”

Fireheart huffed a grim breath. “Evidently, I’m not allowed to. But… thank you. I appreciate it.”

Swiftpaw’s eyes widened just a bit and he nodded in understanding. “Sorry.”

“Oh, it’s not your fault, it…” Fireheart flicked a paw, paused, and turned the conversation. “Actually, I wanted to ask you about that rat. The bitten one?”

The apprentice stiffened, face now anxious.

“You’re still not in trouble,” Fireheart said gently, and he relaxed. “I just was wondering, was it your idea to bring it to Bluestar, or did someone tell you to?”

Swiftpaw’s eyes lifted skyward thoughtfully. “Actually, Tigerclaw said I should. He said Bluestar would probably be hungry, and she’d appreciate a gift.”

Fireheart’s heart sank. “Did he mention the rat specifically?”

“Uh…” Swiftpaw squinted now. “I think he might have? He might have just said to get the top thing on the prey-pile. I’m sorry, I don’t remember well. I think I knew I was supposed to get the rat, but I don’t know why.”

“Alright.” Fireheart nodded, trying to look at ease while his throat tightened. “That’s fine. I was curious, is all.” He waved his tail, forcing it to relax its fur. “I think I’ll get some prey myself, actually.”

“Okay,” Swiftpaw said, looking relieved. “Just, well, maybe make sure there’s no snake bites on whatever you get.”

Fireheart snorted with the barest enthusiasm he could muster and got up. He walked a little ways with Swiftpaw before the apprentice broke off to check on his sister. Fireheart dully picked through the prey-pile, trying to find the smallest thing possible. He felt sick.

That’s another strike, he thought while pretending to sniff a shrew. The rat, the borders—

“Will you pick something already?”

Fireheart startled as Darkstripe stalked around him, giving him the stink-eye.

“You’re making a mess of the pile,” the tabby added, swiping a squirrel.

For a splinter of a heartbeat, Fireheart was ready to slap Darkstripe across the face. For the rest of the heartbeat, he willed himself to stay calm and speak politely. “Sorry. I’m elsewhere today.”

Darkstripe grunted and skulked a few steps away before flopping down and chewing at the squirrel’s side.

The borders, Fireheart thought. Right.

He strolled over to Darkstripe, his prey forgotten. Darkstripe didn’t notice him until he coughed politely, and when he looked up, his face was contorted with disgust and confusion.

“If you don’t mind—” Fireheart started.

“I do,” growled Darkstripe.

“—I’ve got a question for you.” Fireheart gave him a friendly blink, disappointed by Darkstripe’s glare in return. “Do you remember when Tigerclaw had you go fetch Bluestar those times at the border?”

Darkstripe’s glare turned a bit puzzled. “…Yeah.”

“They were about rogue-scent or something?”

“Yeah.”

“I was wondering…” Fireheart hesitated, then forced a chipper tone. “Did you smell those rogues too?”

Darkstripe squinted at him. “That’s what you want to know?”

Fireheart nodded. “Please.”

The dark warrior, to his relief, did look to be thinking back by the distance in his eyes. After a bit, he said, “Well, my nose was clogged at the road, so no. I didn’t smell anything at the Houses either. Nose wasn’t clogged then, though. Why does that matter?”

Fireheart’s mind got to his tongue before he could think of a response. “I guess it doesn’t very much. I just get worried about arpam being out on the borders by himself, with rogues being wherever they want to be.”

The drop of the word “arpam” flared Darkstripe’s fur and turned his glare fully hostile, his eyes burning. He twitched his lip.

“Well, that’s all,” Fireheart said cheerfully. “Thank you. I’ll leave you to your squirrel.”

Before Darkstripe could respond, he turned and trotted away, perhaps a little more satisfied than he should have been.

The night passed, and Fireheart’s satisfaction with it. He woke up on-edge and with the sensation of being a mouse trapped in a shallow hole with an owl standing above him, waiting for him to make a move. Before Bluestar—or anyone else—was awake to tell him to do otherwise, he padded out of camp, tail-tip twitching erratically.

He wasn’t entirely sure where his paws were taking him; he was in the ether of his mind. Vague images of faces wavered in front of his eyes: Greystripe, alone, Tigerclaw’s muted fondness, Ravenwing’s intense focus as he led his friends to seek out the truth…

And Silverstream, skinny, pained, frightened.

Had she been frightened? She’d tried to make the litter go away. What was the last thing she ate before she died?

The rush of water alerted Fireheart back to the real world. He blinked in surprise—he had walked to the border of Sunningrocks.

Of course.

The rain was light, but it was chilly. On the calmer surfaces of the river, small rings appeared, expanded, and disappeared, replaced quickly with other rain-rings. Fireheart sat down unconsciously and watched the droplets, distantly fascinated by how sometimes the rings would come faster as the rain intensified for just a few heartbeats and then faded back to a drizzle, rhythmic but unsteady. It was quite pretty. No wonder RiverClan liked the water.

Caught up in the beauty of the world and feeling slightly betrayed by the ugliness of Clan life, Fireheart didn’t notice a fishy scent approaching him until a rumbling, gentle hum made him look to his left. A reddish-brown tabby was standing on the other side of the border, watching him with kind amber eyes.

“Didn’t expect to see you here,” the tom said, and Fireheart swore he knew who this cat was. “Not dropping off more prey, I assume?”

Fireheart shook his head, adding unhappily, “I’m so sorry about Silverstream. I heard about her from Leoparddawn.”

The tom’s eyes lit in surprise for a moment, then dimmed again. “I thought you might be Greystripe’s friend. You’re the former kittypet, yeah?”

“Yeah…” Fireheart sighed. “I’m Fireheart.”

The tom dipped his chin. “Oakclaw.”

Immediate realization hit Fireheart and he examined the tabby with more interest. He could see why Bluestar had been drawn to him; he was tall for a RiverClan cat, though not as tall as ThunderClan, and his face was noble and lightly scarred. He could have passed for half-ThunderClan, at the very least, but the thought of half-Clan kits made Fireheart a bit queasy.

“You’re her uncle,” he said quietly.

Oakclaw nodded, his face falling just a bit. “She told you about me?”

“She told Greystripe, and…” Fireheart hesitated, not sure if he should bring it up, but: “And Bluestar… filled me in on her history.”

So slightly that Fireheart wasn’t sure if he actually saw it, Oakclaw drew back, then settled. “Ah.”

“Yeah,” Fireheart murmured. “I’m sorry about your kits. And I’m sorry about Silverstream.”

Oakclaw seemed to scan Fireheart for a moment before saying slowly, “I didn’t think she’d ever tell anyone about that.”

“I’m good at getting secrets from people,” Fireheart said with a forced purr.

Surprisingly, Oakclaw’s whiskers twitched. He turned his gaze to the river, but still spoke to Fireheart. “Silverstream talked about you a few times, you know.”

Fireheart blinked. “Really? Why?”

“You were bringing us prey, lad.” Oakclaw looked back at him, dimly amused. “And even with the stink of ThunderClan all over you, you’ve been nothing but kind to us swimmers. We’re all grateful for you and… well, maybe not so much Greystripe anymore, but you’re still alright in our minds.”

Fireheart met his eyes and nodded. “It was an honor to help where I could.”

Oakclaw’s eyes warmed more. “Keep that kind heart safe. I know they’ve tried to claw it out of you.”

Fireheart didn’t respond, not sure whether to argue that his Clanmates had named him for his kindness or agree that ThunderClan could afford to care a bit more about the cats outside of their border. He just let his eyes drift to the ground, his thoughts coming back around to Silverstream.

“How bad was it for her?” he asked, not looking up and dreading the answer.

Oakclaw hummed dully, his voice faint and raspy. “She wouldn’t eat. She thought that could get the litter to go away. It didn’t.” His words weakened a little. “And by the time she did eat, it was too late. She got sick—don’t quite know with what—and then she really couldn’t force down anything.” He paused, tail shivering. “I just woke up one night to Crookedstar screaming for her to open her eyes.”

Stars, Crookedstar… Fireheart hadn’t even thought of him. A lump clogged his throat.

“Where did you bury her?” he managed.

Oakclaw’s ease and calmness returned. “We don’t bury. We sent her down the river.” At Fireheart’s curious look, he added, “She’s in StarClan’s paws now, all of her. Soul with stories to tell, body covered in scales and faded flowers.” He sighed, sounding like he was trying to be amused. “I don’t know how your Clan’s dead find their way to StarClan when you put them in the ground under a tree like that.”

Fireheart weakly rolled a shoulder. “I guess I’ll find out when I die. If StarClan takes me.”

“They’ll take you, alright,” Oakclaw said kindly. “No cat who does what’s right gets left behind. I don’t care where they come from.”

That eased Fireheart to his marrow in a way that he hadn’t realized he’d been tense over. “Thank you.”

Oakclaw lowered his chin a little, eyes creased, but his voice hardened a bit. “I just hope your friend goes with you and Silverstream. Most of my Clan thinks otherwise. Leoparddawn and Crookedstar certainly do.”

“He’s being punished,” Fireheart said sadly, his positivity forgotten. “Isolation for nine days. And I know he’d take anything your Clan threw at him. He was almost comatose when we first heard. He didn’t even try to defend himself.” An anxiety that had been lying in wait for days hit him. “I’m sure he wants to die too. He can’t see his kits and he can’t see Silverstream anymore. He was just… empty. When the Clan found out.”

Oakclaw’s expression didn’t change. He spoke flatly. “I can be comforted by that, I suppose, but that won’t bring my niece back.”

“Leoparddawn said something like that, too.”

“Hm.”

A long pause, then Fireheart looked Oakclaw directly in the eye and did his best to speak politely but firmly.

“I know right now it’s an impossibility,” he said, “but please, someday, please forgive him. He really did love her—loves her still. He’s desperate to see his kits. He pleaded with Bluestar and she denied him. And the entire Clan hates him.” Anger colored his next words. “They won’t even say his name, or talk about him. All he has now are me and Ravenwing, our friend, and we can’t even see him. I know him well enough to tell you no one regrets this more than he does, and he’ll never forgive himself. He’d give his life to bring her back.”

Oakclaw regarded him with something like melancholic fondness. “You know that doesn’t fix this.”

“And nothing ever will,” Fireheart said. “But when time passes, and the hurt fades a little… I hope— I hope you can see the hurt in him, too, and understand.”

He slightly bit his tongue, waiting with nervousness as Oakclaw appeared to be contemplating his request. The rain intensified, drumming at the river, filling up what silence the river’s rushing had let slide.

Finally, Oakclaw gave the barest nod and the slightest head-tilt. “One day. One day, I can try.”

Fireheart barely caught a sigh of relief before it escaped him.

“I know Crookedstar and Leoparddawn will never be able to swallow it,” Oakclaw said. “But I know how it is on the other side of something like this. I think I’ll be able to understand in a kinder way sometime.” He lifted a front paw to turn away, paused, and looked back. “We owe you both a lot, Fireheart. I suppose this is a good way to try and pay you back.”

Fireheart dipped his head respectfully and waved his tail as Oakclaw set off for the river. He himself stood and retreated into the forest, hoping desperately that things would be okay again, however long that took.

#warrior cats #redux iterum #iterum #chapter #chapter twenty nine #arc one #book two #burning hearts

[troutfur]

Frostpaw spends a night over in WindClan with Whistlepaw and the two become fast friends.

Some notes of what I'm thinking about with this:

Mothwing doesn't have a connection with StarClan so she'd like Frostpaw to get some mentorship on that from Kestrelflight who is already training Whistlepaw.

Whistlepaw is mentioned as being a warrior apprentice in TBC The Silent Thaw before becoming a med cat apprentice. I think that is super interesting given that Frostpaw quits to be a warrior.

Can include questions from Frostpaw like "What was being a warrior apprentice like?" "What was hunting like?" "Do you miss it?" "How do you know if your visions are real?" "What is StarClan like for you?" to break the ice, but then I imagine it leading into more questions about themselves and building a real friendship. :)

GIRLS' NIGHT! GIRLS' NIGHT! GIRLS' NIGHT!

I ADORED seeing this in my inbox. We hardly see much of the meddies' supposed trumping of Clan borders and I think a setup where they pass apprentices around to cover their weaknesses is super interesting.

And really it is a good excuse to think of Kestrelflight, how he'd be as a mentor, and the dynamic of the half-moon meetings post-Po3. It is nice to imagine the meddie apprentice club in their youth but now that they've grown so much. Jay's become a hero to the Clans, Willow's gone, Kestrel only now and very reluctantly takes an apprentice of his own. And he probably remains the single colleague Mothwing still has a good relationship with, so no wonder she's sending Frostpaw to him.

But let's not neglect the main girls themselves! You're so very right that as a warrior apprentice turned meddie she is in an interesting position to give advice to a doubting Frostpaw in discerning whether the path is good for her. Particularly I'm thinking in how one of the things Frostpaw feels a longing for is the idea of training alongside her siblings. She could satisfy a curiosity in that regard.

Aaaaaah! The thoughts are swirling, swirling, swirling here. Best to get right into the piece and let the soup settle there.

(Want me to write you a one-scene ficlet? Check out my guidelines and send it in! The more suggestions the better, that way I can have more leeway in chosing which make it to writing from here to November 30th.)

Frostpaw lay with her paws tucked under her side by side to Whistlepaw in the latter’s expanded nest.

The instructions for this part of the special training session had seemed simple enough: sleep. The fragrant herb mixture that they’d woven into the moss lining as well as the chants she’d performed under the pristine light of stars on a moonless night would take care of the rest. Or at least so went that WindClan’s method for inducing contact with StarClan.

And yet, the RiverClan apprentice couldn’t help but feel uneasy with this whole thing. She shifted her position ever so slightly, careful to not disturb the sleep of her nestmate for the night. The exercise was beginning to feel as fruitless as the other things Kestrelflight had been trying to teach her. From the daily prayer routine in praise of Moth Flight he’d tried to drill into her to his lesson on cloud reading, whatever spark that made Whistlepaw and Kestrelflight just get it seemed absent in her.

As she huffed in frustratrion, she felt a tail drape over her side and out of the corner of her vision saw an amber eye open tentatively. “Having trouble with this as well?” Whistlepaw whispered.

Frostpaw blinked, sneaking a glance into Kestrelflight’s nest to verify if the senior oracle was still resting belly up and with his head resting against the edge of his nest. After a few moments of seeing his chest gently rise and fall to the rhythms of sleep she turned back to Whistlepaw and gave a timid nod. “Did you... did you also have trouble your first time?”

“Oh, this is my first time,” she replied.

Frostpaw’s ears drooped at hearing that. She’d forgotten that although her friend was twice her age she too had only recently been made an oracle’s apprentice.

“Don’t worry about it,” she reassured, caressing her tail across the younger apprentice’s flank. “At least you didn’t sprain an ankle and crash into an abandoned burrow on your first day learning how to run down a rabbit.”

Frostpaw turned to her friend with wide eyes to which Whistlepaw only gave a solemn nod. “Did it...?”

“Hurt? My pride more than anything. By the time Kestrelflight gave me the okay to leave his den everyone was still chattering about it. Flutterfoot more than anyone.” She stopped to shake her head. “Lucky opportunist. The rabbit ended up hopping right into his paws. But I had my payback next quarter moon during battle training. Should’ve seen his face when I swept him off his feet and pinned him in three heartbeats flat.”

Frostpaw purred for her peer as she imagined the scene. For a moment she spotted Kestrelflight shift in his nest out of the corner of her eye, making her heart skip a beat. But as he rolled onto hsi side and curled up in what was clearly still a dream state, she relaxed once again.

“Heavy sleeper as they come,” Whistlepaw whispered into her ear. “Don’t wanna tempt StarClan but I bet that even if we spoke normally he wouldn’t wake up. Anyway, my point is we all have our strengths and weak points. Bet this just means this iss going to be an area in which you’re gonna need to put a little more work in.”

“Thank you,” Frostpaw muttered, trying to go back and sleep as instructed.

“So,” Whistlepaw began again. “What made you chose to become an oracle’s apprentice?”

“Oh, well,” Frostpaw began. “It’s just that I’ve always had a gift for dreaming of things before they happen. Like when I would dream of a storm coming over camp and even though the sky had been clear it would pour all over us.”

“Ah, so a natural in prophecy,” Whistlepaw said, giving a slight bump to her fellow apprentices’s shoulder. “No wonder divination is hard for you.”

“And why did you chose to become Kestrelflight’s apprentice?” she asked. “You were about to become a warrior, weren’t you?”

“The warrior life loses its starshine when you are so close to it,” she replied. “It just got so boring to be doing the same old tasks. And even the things that I was very good at, like pummeling my siblings in battle training was getting repetitive. I much more liked the idea of being here, always learning something new.”

“Don’t you ever miss them?” she asked.

Whistlepaw shrugged. “I still see them all the time. You’d almost believe Flutterfoot keeps getting into freak accidents just so he can come brag to me that he’s got his warrior name.” She paused for a moment. “Do you not see your own littermates much?”

Frostpaw shook her head. “Mothwing prefers to treat all patients on her own. Often leaves me to keep memorizing herbs. Was it fun training with them?”

“I suppose,” Whistlepaw replied. “Except when they got competitive. At least when you’re an oracle’s apprentice you aren’t getting challenged to endless rematches or stuck hearing their nine times nine excuses on why really if you think about it they only came in last on the practice race due to bad luck.”

A pause settled between them as the topic seemed to have been exhausted but suddenly Whistlepaw spoke up again. “How about you try telling Mothwing that you’re overwhelmed? A good mentor must be able to find a pace that their apprentice feels comfortable.”

“I can try that,” Frostpaw said with a yawn.

Whistlepaw smiled at that. Seems tiring her out worked in the end!

#warrior cats #wc #frostpaw #whistlefrost #kestrelflight #mothwing

[a-vampire-culturelover]

My HawkStar Au

So I’m back at it again with another warrior cats au, this one’s actually a little older than my last one, inspired by @lockandkeyhyena’s Ashstar au. I will say that there’s some similarities but not that many tbh, there’s plenty different with it.

-For starters, the whole au starts after Hawkfrost starts conspiring with Ashfur, Hawkfrost falling for Ashfur and same with Ashfur himself, although he’s still bitter at Squirrelflight. After Hawkfrost realizes his brother most likely would not be on board with killing Firestar to become deputy, he and Ashfur revise his old plan…

-When Firestar gets caught in the Fox trap by Hawkfrost, Brambleclaw is horrified, not wanting to. Ashfur then arrives and proceeds to act suprised at the sight of Brambleclaw and Firestar’s almost dead body, running back to camp before Brambleclaw can explain himself. Hawkfrost leaves before he can be dealt with and the whole clan is very suspicious of Brambleclaw. He attempts to get Firestar on his side, after all, Hawkfrost was the one who tried killing his leader, not him! But Firestar instead is disgusted with him, having lost that life and gone unconscious before he could have even seen Hawkfrost. Squirrelflight and everyone else is pissed and exile him, Brambleclaw heading back to Shadowclan to live with his sister Tawnypelt. Ashfur and Hawkfrost’s plan worked, but what to do with Mistyfoot and Leopardstar now?

-Hawkfrost, still alive and having control over his sister, forces her to make up a vague sign about Leopardstar destroying Riverclan having high emphasis on the troubling past of her leadership of Tigerclan alongside Tigerstar. While some clan mates like Mistyfoot, Willowpaw and Leopardstar herself are too astonished and confused to say anything against it, the rest of the clan and Hawkfrost’s supporters chase her out, taking the rest of her lives. Hawkfrost is picked as deputy after faking another sign for Mothwing, who is growing increasingly done with her brother’s antics.

-Sometime before Mistyfoot can even go to the Moonpool to get her lives, Hawkfrost kills her and pins it in one of the clans they neighbor, Windclan. Onestar was eager to make it known Windclan was independent and strong, and pushed heavily against the idea that Windclan would have any need to kill Mistyfoot. A war is practically bound to happen, and Hawkfrost takes lead with the promise of keeping Riverclan safe. Black claw gets promoted to deputy, and goes to the Moonpool for his lives.

-I’m honestly not sure who gives him his lives yet, but I KNOW Sasha and Tadpole give him his last two. I mean if Leafstar’s mom could be allowed to than so can they. I think Tadpole would give a life for Kinship with not just blood, but with all he is close to, and Sasha gives him a life for something like protecting his clan with his life idk. Sasha is definitely worried of her son becoming like Tigerstar though.

-Meanwhile in Thunderclan things are kind of in shambles. Everyone believes Brambleclaw tried killing Firestar, even the leader himself agreeing out of fear and little evidence on Brambleclaw’s side, and Ashfur is made deputy in Brambleclaw’s awakened “betrayal”. He boasts about it behind Firestar’s back, annoying his clanmates and even promising Birchpaw that he’d make him deputy when he became leader of Thunderclan. -However, Ashfur began noticing something odd about Leafpool, and inevitably realizes what the swill was of her belly meant; kits. During the gathering sometime before Leafpool and Squirrelflight leave, he goes to talk to Hawkfrost, now Hawkstar, about the matter, and Hawkstar tells him to take two of the kits to Riverclan for him to raise. Ashfur makes up some excuse like a starclan prophecy he got in a dream so that he can follow Leafpool and Squirrelflight, and sometime after the Three’s birth he sneaks into their den at night, only manages to steal Hollykit and Lionkit, leaving little Jaykit left. Squirrelflight and her sister are distraught in the morning, Starclan cats that confronted them that same time not making things any better. All the while, Ashfur snuck the two to Riverclan where Hawkstar waited, and he lies about them being kits left behind by their Loner mother. Mothwing soon realizes just whose kits they were, and tries to convince little Lionkit, now renamed Sleekkit, to be a medicine cat apprentice due to him being dangerously useful for Hawkstar with his power. However the kit simply sneered, Hollykit, now Tadpolekit after Hawkstar’s brother, being a little more interested and doing so much to her father’s annoyance.

That’s all I’ll do for now I guess, might put some designs down for anyone interested in seeing them, and maybe later I’ll put down some more regarding this silly little au I’ve been reworking!

Fun little facts: I based Mothwing’s design off of the Death-head Hawkmoth, since I think it’s a really cool kind of moth that fits Mothwing to me :3

#Hawkstar au #Warrior cats #Warrior cats au #jack rambles

[the-owl-tree]

if you mind me picking your brain for more new gen au stuff, i would love to learn more about the scourge x sasha x smoke poly! (triple s poly? lol) how did it become a thing? how long were they a thing before scourge died? were timber and pandora able to get to know their dad before he died? were hawkfrost, mothwing, tadpole, darktail, and darktail's littermates alive when the triple s poly was a thing? did scourge play an active father figure role in their lives? sorry if i'm bombarding you with questions i'm just very curious about lmaooooooooo

NEVER APOLOGIZE FOR QUESTION BOMBARDMENTS!!!!!! the only thing is….i’m definitely winging this one lol i got the pairings and thought oh that is adorable and smacked a canon sticker on them. This is all a hunch of half-baked ideas strung together so good god it might be Too Much (even for the Too Much AU this is lol)

My rough idea is that they all knew each other before the big darkest hour battle. Suburb and city cats, in my hc world, are VERY social and often have very elaborate social nets that they love collecting cats to add to. They have a trade and barter focused culture which adds to this (Princess and Smudge would exchange toys and treats when they’d visit one another). So the three knowing or at least catching wind of one another would be feasible, especially when Scourge starts getting a reputation.

Sasha’s a wanderer who came into the city. BloodClan, in this world, is not as over the top evil lol they’re not as bloodthirsty about borders as the Clans are. If you don’t make trouble, trouble won’t find you. I think she made a few friends before the whole Tigerstar and her thing went down. One of those friends is Scourge, the two hitting it off and becoming decent friends. Sasha is soft spoken but earnest and Scourge is quiet but does well to listen. Flirty banter ensues, what-if feelings start to bubble up, if they weren’t both held up on the possibility of losing their friendship, something more may have happened……BUT ANYWAY-

Another one of those friends being young mom Smoke struggling to raise her kiddo alone. Sasha intervenes because she’s not gonna leave her all by herself and takes her to BloodClan where she gets settled. Darktail would be a BloodClan cat in this, he’s already got punk makeup in most designs, he just needs a spiked collar.

Sasha eventually gets back to wandering and the whole Tigerstar thang happens. My general idea is Scourge survives because this is the indulgence AU actually, he’s cool and I like the idea of them being a cute trio lol ANYWAYS! I think Sasha would get it in her head that Scourge would hate the children because of their father and that leads to the RiverClan debacle. Cue that, she returns to BloodClan….and immediately gets embraced by her two old friends, demanding to know where she’s been and how dare she not visit for MOONS and how worried sick they were.

She sees Scourge’s wounds, the way Darktail is no longer the pudgy kit she’d carried…and she too realizes just how much she missed her friends. Cue an emotional reunion and eventual fall into confession. It’s a natural progression to them, just saying the words they’d all known they wanted to say for a long time. Eventually Sasha is able to tell the truth of what happened and cue more emotions. Scourge offers to retrieve the children but she quietly says they’re probably more at home in RC than they ever would be with her.

Timber is born first and then Pandora. Scourge is a pretty active father in their lives but can be gone for lengths at time settling disputes in the Clan, doing his town hall sessions where cats air out their grievances, and generally ‘taking care’ of troublemakers that don’t want to abide by the rules of the city (he’s not a total softie in, he still kills lol). I think Darktail would try and tag along with his dad and that’s where he starts to get some of his core ideas (that and his growing interest in “”real”” clan culture and his biodad. This one’s tough because vengeance isn’t motivating him anymore so I gotta work something out).

Darktail is the only one aware of his younger siblings, Moth and Hawk aren’t made aware of their existence until later on. I gotta figure that out though lol

This was a fun question!!! I think I’d consider this my very rough base of the trio and will be subject for change once I stop binging shows and do something more productive like work on my too many projects i have going

#new generation au #deer rambles #ty to skinwretch and feathermedics for getting me invested #i think the idea of these three as a thing is so cute #fucked over by clan cats poly squad

[dawnfinchh]

onestar’s confession excerpt

alright yall we’re goin through the allegiances

first up: thats weird

the windclan and shadowclan rank is referred to as medicine cats, while the thunderclan and riverclan rank is referred to as just medicine cat, despite thunderclan having two fully trained medicine cats. also, mudfur is still a person despite being an apprentice :(

now: windclan

deadfoot is onestar’s mentor. this is fine? i like this. he’s always been my second choice for onestar’s mentor, behind tallstar.

these mentors are... fine? morningflower doesn’t visibly react when tallstar dies, though.

morningflower, ashfoot, and onestar are all the same age and from the same litter, which i don’t like. i have no problem with them being siblings (though if they were you’d think it would have been mentioned, especially when onestar appointed ashfoot deputy but,), but morningflower and ashfoot always seemed. older? than onestar. 

they have kits long before him. morningflower retires before onestar and ashfoot come into leadership, which could be due to a chronic condition? but she just generally seems like a generic bahh my aching bones elder.

anyway, they seem to be around stone and misty’s age. 

allegiances are Not listed by age, as stagleap is listed above his mother. probably just because he is onestar’s father. but im not even going to try to figure out ages

warrior names for the rest of tallstar’s siblings/onestar’s aunt and uncles! i like bristlebark’s name

rabbitear has a strangely detailed description compared to everyone else. also her description literally links to the wiki. maybe she becomes important?

im a genius. the erins were scrolling through MY tumblr and were reminded that these guys existed

nothing really else of note? hickorynose and hareflight have retired, while their mates, meadowslip and mistmouse, have not. palebird is dead, or at least not listed.

next up: thunderclan

this was confirmed in a field guide or something that bluestar was runningwind’s mentor.

redtail as mousepaw’s mentor has been a headcanon of mine for a long time... mainly because there literally isn’t anyone else for him to have mentored before becoming deputy. 

running and mouse were the litter after red, spotted, and willow. running was bluestar’s, as stated previously. and then darkstripe went to tigerclaw, then longtail to darkstripe. mousefur to redtail makes sense. i don’t think it’s ever been confirmed before.

lot of stuff happening here. we finally have 1) in-book confirmation that darkstripe is willowpelt’s 2) a birth season for darkstripe 3) no stated father. tawnyspots could be the father, depending on how old, exactly, darkkit is.

this description is wrong. as confirmed in redtail’s debt, one-eye lost her blind eye before retiring. 

all the thunderclan descriptions are very detailed compared to the windclan ones (you know, the pov clan?) but that’s just bc theyre thunderclan.

next up: riverclan

these are fine

i like these! i’ve always had trouble assigning misty and stone mentors, but i think these are good choices. i especially like misty to echomist. 

softwing isn’t someone i would think of in a million years, mainly bc i forget she exists. the timing is also close, but i do think that her kits are just barely older than stone and misty.

next up: shadowclan

theyre... fine...? 

wolfstep and deerfoot have designs now

main gripe i suppose is the elders. archeye, crowtail, poolcloud, and ashfur are literally all still elders by into the wild, which is three years later. the only cats who retire from the pool of warriors are hollyflower and featherstorm, the latter of which was forced. none of these guys were warriors three years ago? none of them retired in three years time? (nightpelt is exempt bc he is young.) it’s just a long time with little to no change in the ranks.

also, lizardfang was listed as an elder yellowfang’s secret and tallstar’s revenge. you go, you crazy bastard. outlive them all.

#im not tagging all these characters #onestar's confession #allegiances #there might be things that i missed #onestar #warrior cats #amber.txt

[residents-of-the-darkforest]

Release Me (short story)

“This is ridiculous!” Newttail hissed to Troutleaf beside him. 

They lay hidden in a holly bush after having rolled in mushrooms for extra measure. In the small, secluded clearing in front of them sat Bluerain, their friend since apprenticeship, which had ended seasons ago. With him stood Rocknose.

Rocknose was a kittypet before joining the Clan, and it turned out that she was Bluerain’s mother. Newttail could tell something was off between them, as while Bluerain seemed comfortable, Rocknose’s pelt always seemed to shift when he was near, her eyes unable to meet his.

When they spoke to her, she first told him that it was for her and her son to figure out. But then Bluerain was clearly upset with his mother. Whatever she had tried to figure out with him had obviously failed, and so she turned to Newttail and his mate, Troutleaf. But in doing so, she had to explain what troubled her so, and that….

Newttail just couldn’t believe it.

Rocknose couldn’t either, it seemed. She was never sure, and the question haunted her all her life, a life that was now nearing its end. Rocknose had begged for his help, to witness her hear the truth.

Now, his legs ached as they spoke.

“Are you enjoying your carp, dear?” Rocknose asked politely while Bluerain dug in. 

He licked his lips, anger forgotten. “It’s delicious! You caught this?”

Rocknose nodded. “With help.”

“You’re coming along really well! I’ll have to congratulate Wavestep on the good work as well.”

Newttail hid a smile. See? How could a horrible cat be so kind to the mother that had left them?

“Thank you, Blue.”

“It’s Bluerain now, remember,” Bluerain reminded her cheerfully. “I’m not a kittypet anymore.”

“No, definitely not!” Rocknose chuckled. Then she frowned. “You’ve certainly grown into a fine forest cat.”

“Thanks, mother. I’m sure you’ll be one of the best in no time,” Bluerain assured her, blinking warmly. Rocknose looked away.

Newttail had half a mind to burst from the bushes and admit to Bluerain that they were spying on him. It felt wrong to lie to their friend, to even consider that he could be…. Could be a murderer! He could prick his ears to hear all the wood’s sounds, but no insincerity would emit from Bluerain’s voice. He could stare with eyes as strong as an owl’s, and see no indication of a violent, unstable, dangerous cat. It was Bluerain, for Starclan’s sake! The sweetest warrior there was, even to a fault!

“I am curious..” Rocknose began. “How much of your past life do you remember?”

“Why do you ask?” Bluerain questioned calmly, licking his paws clean.

“Raising her kit is the best moment of a mother’s life,” Rocknose answered with a shaky grin. “I want to know how much of it my darling boy also remembers.”

“Well,” Bluerain lifted his pupils, as though the memories were moving in the sky above him. “I don’t think I did anything besides play. I remember that one toy with the weird-coloured feathers. That was my favourite, wasn’t it?”

For a second, it seemed that Rocknose had frozen up. Then when it seemed she could no longer hold her breath, she exhaled and moved naturally once again. “I-It was! But before it was yours, it was your sisters. Do you remember her?”

Bluerain’s gaze darkened. “How could I forget? A wonderful heart gone too soon.”

Newttail fidgeted. This was cruel.

Rocknose shook her head. “I blame myself so much for her death. I should’ve taken better care of her.”

Bluerain rushed over, pressing himself against her, but the gesture only seemed to make her feel worse. “You still got me,” he told her.

Newttail wondered fleetingly why he didn’t instead tell her that she wasn’t a bad mother, or that the death wasn’t her fault. Maybe he was too surprised by the darker change in topic to think properly.

“And you,” Rocknose went on, sniffing. “You saw the whole thing. Poor dear.”

Bluerain dipped his head. “It took a lot to get over, especially coming here, to Riverclan.”

“I…” Rocknose shifted her paws for a painfully long time. “I was wondering what you saw.”

Bluerain widened his eyes. “You want me to remember that?” 

Rocknose hesitated before nodding. “A mother needs to know how her baby was lost.”

Bluerain took a deep breath. “The twoleg kits were throwing things in the yard. One of them, a white ball, I think, the one that makes the noises, landed in the giant blue container. I remember you told us not to go in it, but she wanted it, so she jumped in anyway. I… I wish I could have done something!” 

The heartbreak in his voice was so genuine that Troutleaf had to bite Newttail’s side to keep him from running out and comforting his friend. Why were they doing this to him? This was going nowhere! Beside him, Troutleaf looked just as uncomfortable.

“Her name was Pippa. Please say it.”

Bluerain lifted his head. “I wish I could have done something for Pippa.”

“Why didn’t you?”

Bluerain took a step back. “What?”

Rocknose’s eyes shimmered with emotion. “After her death….I put it to denial, but you were…. You were too calm! After witnessing your own sister’s death, after losing your best friend, you were okay! You acted like she never existed to begin with!”

Anger rumbled in Bluerain’s throat. “You really think that I would do something to my sister?”

“Her name is Pippa!” Rocknose practically shrieked. “Say it! Say what you did! Release me from this torment!”

Bluerain’s pelt bristled. His claws dug in and out of the ground. “I did nothing!”

“I know!” Rocknose fired back. “That’s why Pippa is dead! You could have saved her. You were stronger than her, the water was close to the top. You could have reached in if you had just tried, but you weren’t even wet! You let her die!”

“I didn’t!”

“Tell me the truth!”

“That is the truth, mother! And if you can’t believe me, then maybe you should leave!”

A long, tense silence followed. Their ragged breathing could be heard from the bushes, and they stood defensively, as if preparing for the other to attack at any moment. 

At last, Rocknose sat heavily. “What can I do? I am old. I am a stranger. If you told me what happened, would anyone believe me if I spread the news? What good would that do me anyway?” When Bluerain responded with a growl, she pressed on. “I am old, and I am sick, and I have carried this weight for far too long. Please, my dear boy, I love you so much, but I need to know what happened before I join the stars. Please, after all this suffering, release me from this torment! Why didn’t you save your sister?”

Bluerain glared at her for another long time. Then his features calmed. 

An icy chill gripped along Newttail’s spine.

“I wanted her feathers.”

=================

--New character introduction! He’s black and white, and was named for his blue eyes. I like to think that he has a bit of a heart-shape on his chest as well.

--Basically the story is that the twolegs had a pool. Pippa got in, but she couldn’t swim (it was too deep, and she was very weak). Yes, Bluerain likely couldn’t have done much of anything, but he was stronger than her and more capable, and also like Rocknose had said, his paws weren’t even wet, meaning he didn’t even try.

Pippa always hogged the feathers, her favourite toy, and I imagine that’s because it gave her comfort when she was sick (along with her mama, of course).

Bluerain really wanted the feathers, so when he saw that Pippa was drowning, all he really thought about was that now they would be his.

--Rocknose waited so long to confront her son because she was in denial for a really long time.

--I imagine he commits some more murders later on.

#wc #rocknose #bluerain #newttail #troutleaf #riverclan #dark tales #dark forest tales #wcoc #wc oc #Warriorsoc #warriors #warriorcatsoc #warrior cats oc #warriorcats #warrior cats #kittypet #drowning #pippa #wc pippa #place of no stars #dark forest #dark forest resident

[blorboclaw]

Oh wait, now I remember! The second one is a bit popular, but I'm curious what your take on it would be.

If Fireheart is too late to stop Tigerclaw from killing Bluestar, and Tigerclaw doesn't kill him to make sure he stays silent (most likely pinning the crime on Fireheart himself). How will events unfold from there?

“what are you doing? My clan need me!”

“Send my regards to Starclan!”

Fireheart leaps in the leader’s den, but it’s too late, Tigerclaw killed Bluestar.

Tigerclaw tries to pin the murder on Fireheart. Yellowfang, Graystripe, Brackenfur, Cloudpaw and Cinderpaw refuse to believe he would have killed Bluestar. Sandstorm too but she doesn’t want to be too vocal, because after all, what does she know?

Problem is that Fireheart’s supporters are, in order: 1) a former Shadowclan cat 2) a cat with a crossed clan relationship 3) the youngest warrior 4) the youngest apprentice and 5) Fireheart’s former apprentice who’s now apprenticed to the forger shadowclan cat.

We could turn the tides, maybe, if Yellowfang says she’s familiar with Tigerclaw’s words because it’s exactly what Brokenstar said when he killed a pair of kits and pinned the murder on her. I’m pretty sure a couple of other warriors and queens would join FIreheart’s side. But it’s not enough.

Tigerclaw exiles Fireheart and Graystripe, one for having murdered their leader, the other for having slept with Silverstream. Riverclan arrives and claims they want StormFeather, and Tigerclaw is glad to have someone to dump them on. Graystripe leaves with Fireheart, relieved that FeatherStorm won’t be raised by Tigerclaw. Sandstorm prevents Cloudpaw from speaking up again because she wants to protect him.

But then pray tell, what is the big thing Fireheart and Graystripe constantly get into trouble for?

Crossing borders uninvited, feeding other clans with their preys, and making friends with every single underdog ever.

So when they wash up at the edge of the territories, they stumble on Blackfoot and the other rogues of Brokentail. And they actually become quite friends, because they all feel betrayed by clans and all still want to get back there.

At some point, they all think “what if we tried to get back to Shadowclan? Maybe Nightstar would accept us?” and go. But lo and behold! Nightstar is dead, and so is the deputy, and so is basically everyone. So Fireheart and Graystripe pull a Flooded Riverclan on them and start hunting for them. And they do it out of the goodness of their heart. But they’re doing exactly what Tigerclaw did in canon when he was exiled.

Back to Thunderclan, Tigerstar gives Cloudpaw to Dustpelt to secure Dustpelt’s loyalty and to make sure Cloudpaw is mentored by someone loyal to him. He cannot become a tyrant too soon because all of his plan rests on him being a respectable, honourable warrior. It only affects the fact Sandstorm gets Ashpaw instead of Dustpelt. Swiftpaw is made warrior under the name Swiftclaw.

But at Gatherings, he cozies up with Leopardfur, asking her how the fish is, how the halfclans are, how she is, and well courting her politically. When the fire starts, he obviously choses to save his son rather than the meddling Yellowfang, and the clan gets refuge on Riverclan territory, where he courts Leopardfur even more.

As Tigerstar arrives at his first Gathering after the fire, he is completely SHOCKED to realize that Firestar is the new Shadowclan leader. And honestly Firestar himself didn’t quite get how it happened. (Graystripe is not deputy because Firestar needed someone who’s always been in Shadowclan to be deputy, it’s Oakfur who is)

Seeing that his nemesis has become leader of Shadowclan, Tigerstar decides to find allies faster. Except... he doesn’t have Boulder. So he never finds Bloodclan.

By halfway through a Dangerous Path, Tigerstar has to deal with a pack of hounds on his territory and Shadowclan is becoming more and more prosperous. With Firestar at its head, Windclan accepts to ally with them when Tigerclan is formed from River and Thunder. Tigerstar leads the hounds on Shadowclan territory to have them annihilated. Except... I’m pretty sure there are some kind of trailcams on the thunderpath and so twolegs come for the dogs.

However, they’ve been nearing annihilation, and Boulder reveals to Firestar that he knows of a guy who fights dogs for a living... but Firestar refuses to ally with blood clan, because Princess told him not to and he respects her opinion.

Four become two. Lion and Tiger fight in the forest. Firestar reveals to everyone that Tigerstar murdered Bluestar and pinned the murder on him, Cloudtail, Cinderpelt, Sandstorm etc say they never doubted him. Bramblepaw and Tawnypaw leave the clan to join Shadowclan because they can’t believe their father would do such a thing.

Also, Tigerstar never meets Sasha. She does join Shadowclan, but she doesn’t have kits. She is named Softwing.

Thunderclan chases Tigerstar off or kills him again and against. Darkstripe, his deputy, is chased off too or killed. To avoid further implications on this side, let’s say they are killed in some fashion eitehr way and end in the Dark Forest. Cinderpelt has a sign that Whitestorm should become the new leader of Thunderclan. Whitestorm accepts when Firestar makes it clear he is not going to come back to Thunderclan. Sandstorm is allowed to cross clans to be with Firestar, and Cloudtail decides to stay with Brightheart. Swiftclaw flirts a bit with Ferncloud and because of the whole evil tigerstar regime she prefers him to Dustpelt.

Skyclan revived etc.

Midnight comes.

Tawnypelt is sent for Shadowclan. Brambleclaw follows her. Feathertail and Stormfur go for Riverclan. Crowpaw for Windclan.

Now the tricky question.

Who could do it for Thunderclan? When Brambleclaw cannot I generally give that role to Squirrelpaw. But she’s in Shadowclan now.

So let’s say it’s the kit of Swiftclaw and Ferncloud, Shrewpaw. He goes. It basically goes as before. Feathertail dies.

They come back. Shadowclan cats are not concerned by the whole catnapping, so they don’t send anyone to free cats there. Graystripe is not catnapped, so no Blossomfall, Bumblestripe and Briarlight later. Softwing (ex Sasha) has kits with Oakfur whom she names Hawkkit, Mothkit and Tadpolekit and who are raised in a healthy setting. They will later become Hawkflight, Mothfur and Tadpolefrost and be loyal warriors.

Great Journey. Shrewpaw becomes Shrewnose, and shadowclan apprentices Squirrelpaw and Leafpaw become Squirrelflight and Leafpool. Due to the repartition of the clans and the absence of Hawkfrost, there is no windclan succession war and no Crowfeather falling in love with Leafpool. Squirrelflight and Brambleclaw start a romance, Tawnypelt and Rowanclaw have their own.

Firestar doesn’t lose a life in a foxtrap. Whitestorm welcomes BerryHazelMouse and Daisy in the clan. Littlecloud leaves the (shadow) clan temporarily to go train a medicine cat in riverclan, because Mudfur’s dead and there’s no Mothwing (because no TigerSasha).

BrambleSquirrel and TawnyRowan have their litters at the same time: JayLionHolly and TigerDawnRed (I think naming their kit Flamekit when Firestar is their own leader and still alive and his own daughter is having kits at the same time would be a bit tacky, like, family honoring names are reserved for family you know) (also he will be named Redcloud not Redtail because already a Redtail).

Jayflight (in my aus where Jay is BrambleSquirrel’s son he’s named after his mother not Crowfeather) becomes full medicine cat, Hollyleaf discovers she’s not part of the prophecy, but there’s no murder to push her out. She stays.

When Firestar realizes Hollyleaf’s not one of the Three, he quickly thinks of his other family (Cloudtail and all) in Thunderclan, and in his great wisdom decides that the prophecy should help all clans, and thus doesn’t do anything. He does tell Whitestar that there’s a prophecy that could concern one of Cloudtail’s descendants but doesn’t know more, and Whitestorm thanks him for the info but doesn’t act on it.

Omen of the Stars. Dovepaw “has a dream about beavers” and obviously Firestar sends Lionblaze and Hollyleaf in the patrol. So she doesn’t meet Tigerheart, firstly, but also they investigate about her and find out her powers.

Ivypool and Tigerheart both train in the Dark Forest but don’t have any more chemistry than they did in canon. However, both spy the DF for their respective clans.

Whitestorm dies during the battle, leaving his clan to Brightheart who becomes Brightstar (who was mentor to Dovewing and to Foxleap in this au). Oakfur retires and Firestar choses Tawnypelt as his new deputy. He still has at least three lives because 1) not lost one against Scourge 2) not lost one in a foxtrap 3) not lost one to a falling tree because the only reason the tree fell on him was to take his last life and here it’s not his life.

Brightheart’s Storm happens (haha yes!). At the beginning of A Vision of Shadows, Bramblesquirrel had a second litter and I can’t say more because I’m half-way through the apprentice’s quest but let’s simply say that Firestar would have a good grip on his dozen apprentices, a better one than Rowanstar at any rate. After him Tawnypelt will become leader.

That’s about it.

TL;DR: If Tigerclaw had murdered Bluestar and pinned the murder on Fireheart, Firestar would have become leader of Shadowclan, Tadpole would have survived into adulthood and Brightheart would have had apprentices.

#ask #wc au #firestar of shadowclan au #decided to start naming my aus so people could do follow up question

[aerial-jace]

i noticed tumblr ask offers me a readmore button and i needed someone to test it on so hey! how are you doing! uhhh questions questions questions...

have you talked about windclan much in the augur au?

they've got some mad little politics :3

^this is supposed to be under the readmore, for testing purposes.

luv u <3

Hmmm? In the inbox it doesn't seem to work but maybe when I post? I'll have to test it out myself.

ANYWAY! YES! WINDCLAN!

I find it so interesting how Onestar is the main driving force in the plot so often, lmao. Like really. I know we've had a lot of talk about how Onestar is actually justified and perfectly rational in his decisions to distance himself from ThunderClan after the civil war over the legitimacy of his reign hinging on ThunderClan interventionism. But I still get to clown on him for causing so much trouble dammit.

Just from the outset him going "actually no, we're not having any stinky ThunderClanner be your apprentice when Morningflower has a perfectly fine kit" to his sister. To his older sister. To his older sister who is THE MATRIARCH. The audacity of this bitch. I bet you if he wasn't a patrician, he'd be smacked right out of the room.

It's actually pretty interesting how this is a conflict pitting two figures of authority within the Clan who are on the same standing with their lineage. Because like normally Ashfoot would have the last word on this. If she wants to be sentimental and bring Hollypaw over she could do that. But her brother does have some sensible concerns about seeming too chummy and their personal relationship does give him more of a way to pressure her into compliance.

Anyway, have I talked much about Kestrelflight? IDK, he just seems so funny to me. Like. WindClan is pretty much the only clan who remains isolationist for most of the plot of augur AU. Kestrel doesn't like marry Dawnpelt or anything and I like to think that this is the family standing in solidarity with Leafpool over having her children's rights denied. So Kestrel is shit out of luck with getting an out-of-Clan match and he's got to find someone within WindClan.

AND HERE'S THE KICKER. He turns out to be infertile, woops. Great job continuing the bloodline! (Maybe cycles through a couple marriages trying to get an heir? And Onestar's pressuring him to get a litter out ASAP? I don't know I haven't thought much about Kestrel other than how pathetic he comes across to me.) The stubborn bastard refuses to admit it, of course. And it isn't until Harestar comes along that WindClan finally caves.

Breezekit was supposed to be Leafpool's consolation for not being able to bond with her granddaughters like she wanted. For having to watch as her grandson Fernsong was given up for the game of dynasties. He was supposed to be her and Crow's kit for themselves and themselves only. And perhaps a little bit of insurance on the dynasty since RiverClan has proven itself untrustworthy.

But then along comes Harestar like: "so, yeah, uh, you did promise us one of Crowfeather's children and we're cashing in that promise now". Like damn. She probably wishes Onestar could've lived like a year longer, she's just had her son, the light of her life, her source of happiness after a pretty stressful time, promised to be given away. And she can't do shit about it. ThunderClan can't afford to come across as the unreasonable ones now.

I think by this point it's Cinder(pelt)star who's in charge? I like the idea of Cinderstar having Brambleclaw as her second deputy. That way he can be in play at the right position once The Broken Code times come. But anyway. For some reason Bramble in particular strikes me as the kind that would push for Cinderstar and Leafpool to accept giving Breezekit to WindClan. IDK why really.

But yeah, hmmmm, delicious. Family drama that intersects with politics. That's why I love royalty and dynasty stories so much.

#warrior cats #wc #warrior cats au #augur au #onestar #ashfoot #morningflower #kestrelflight #leafpool #crowfeather #breezepelt #harestar

[warriorsbutnotreally]

okay this needs to happen

EelReed hypokits

MY FAVORITE RAREPAIR PART 2

So this one is more AU than the other

Cause I imagine Eel and Reed got together long before Apple ever tried to to date Reed so Applefrost, Willownose, and Shyheart never happen

Instead we have Cherryheart

she's a chimera kitty and she's a trans molly [she/her]

she was born the same day as Mapleshade's kits - Patchkit, Petalkit, and Larchkit. Appledusk, aware of what this would mean, goes out of his way to convince Mapleshade to move to RiverClan, which she opposes to multiple times.

Eventually she has no other choice and the two work together to get the ThunderClan queen and their two kits over to RiverClan.

Cherrykit is happy to have three knew friends / playmates and she strikes it off well with them. She's especially close to Patchkit and the two bond, Cherry herself believing she's a tortoiseshell like he is.

Mapleshade, thinking herself a better mother with better kits, isn't so find of Cherrykit and will keep finding ways to draw her kits away, leaving Cherrykit alone.

This makes the nursery a struggle, but soon enough the four are six moons old, meaning they can all hang out!

except.. To show loyalty, Mapleshade is made a mentor.. Specifically she's Cherrypaw's mentor.

Mapleshade isn't the kindest molly and every time Cherrypaw thinks she's caught a break to be with her friends, Mapleshade ends up dragging her away to train or hunt.

It gets to the point that to spend time with anyone, Cherrypaw and the other apprentices sneak out.

It's around this time and during these secret hang outs that Cherrypaw and Patchpaw develop crushes on each other

The two are super close and soon enough Mapleshade notices.

Mapleshade takes to threatening Cherrypaw, warning her to not try to ruin her son's chances of being the best warrior he can be. Cherrypaw is confused and frustrated.

She chooses not to listen to Mapleshade.

Close to her warrior ceremony, Cherrypaw and Patchpaw are out playing, having slipped away from their patrols and spending time in the water with each other. The two have been abandoning their patrols to hang out for a while now.

Mapleshade finds them and she's not pleased. She shoos Patchpaw back to his mentor and turns to Cherrypaw, demanding to know if this was what she was doing when she was supposed to be providing for her Clan.

Cherrypaw tries to defend herself, only for Mapleshade to attempt to drown her right there by the river.

Mapleshade is only stopped when Patchpaw, who had turned around to try to make sure he didn't get Cherrypaw in trouble, rushes in and pushes his mother off of Cherrypaw.

Stunned, Mapleshade tries to act like nothing happened, but it's hard to believe her.

Patchpaw tries to get Cherrypaw back to camp so that they can tell Darkstar, but the idea of him knowing has Mapleshade hiss.

She lashes out, springing after Cherrypaw, telling Patchpaw that no one will be saying anything.

Once more, she goes to try to kill Cherrypaw, believing that her silence will make Patchpaw listen to her more - that he'll go back to his 'mama's boy' ways - but shock takes over when Patchpaw attacks her again

He's only trying to free Cherrypaw, but one wrong move from Mapleshade while he swiped at her with unsheathed claws leads to him fatally wounding his own mother

A patrol happens upon them as Mapleshade is dying

Both apprentices are too shocked to explain what happened at first. It's not until they're in front of Darkstar that they manage to explain anything, though both are badly shaken by the experience.

In the end, they get to stay, but Patchpaw never shakes the memory.

The two never end up becoming mates as warriors, but do stay close friends

#hypos #hypokits #eeltail #reedshine #warriors #warrior cats #not like my others #but i had a specific idea for her

[bonefall]

You mentioned that each Clan's dogwhistles sound and look a little different-- would you be willing to elaborate/give some examples?

WindClan

NEVER talks openly about their beliefs and is the best example of Thistle Law doublespeak. Tigerstar and Brokenstar are unpopular for obvious reasons, and the Clan as a whole leans towards Soft Traditionalism. On one side of their mouth, they'll talk about how they won Heatherstar's Campaign and how they rightfully conquered that land, but then turn around and frame the turn of the war as ShadowClan's underhanded snakery (in Clanmew it's literally "adderness").

"Fear" is a lot more common in their rhetoric. Fear of outsiders diluting their Clan, fear of wasting time and prey, fear of having things taken and stolen. The WindClan Massacre is invoked a LOT, because it's useful for making cats too emotional to think straight.

Here, we'll walk through BB!Mudclaw as an example. I'm going to mark every weasel word with an asterisk, let's see if you can figure out what's weird with it before the end.

Mudclaw speaks to Tallstar, claiming that the trading with BloodClan is opening up WindClan to being betrayed. "Scourge turned* on Tigerstar in the end, how can he be trusted now*? There was bounty for a while, but leafbare is coming* and we already* have so many mouths to feed. Snapper and Leo* arrived and now we're having troubles with the humans*. I'm just worried, I never want to lose so many Clanmates ever again*."

Scourge was acting in self defense

The trading is part of filling the deal that Tigerstar did not intend to honor

Starvation rhetoric

Sudden pivot to exclusionary language, Us vs Them

Refusal to use new names

Implying it's their fault

Massacre allusion

ShadowClan

Much more openly violent. A LOT of talk of glory, you could use these guys as a social case study. Crusades, winning the war with WindClan, the beauty of TigerClan, re-framing Ripplestar not as someone who wanted to help SkyClan but as a simple conqueror. They have lots of moments to invoke from their Great History.

The cost of that violence is downplayed. Like the Snowtuft example, they won't bring up the mother and children he slaughtered, just boast about their glorious ancestors fighting in the Crusades. They won't mention how they ripped kittens out of their nests, just how they bolstered ShadowClan's numbers. They'll frame the WindClan massacre as a final battle they triumphed over, leaving out how they ambushed and poisoned elders and apprentices.

RiverClan

"Glory talk" is downplayed in RiverClan, probably because they didn't actually take part in the Crusades. Instead, they focus on negative traits of mixed-blood cats (which they made up), accuse other Clans of being underhanded, and demand to be "heard."

And what THAT means is that they want to be able to derail any conversation they want. Interruptions of clanwide discussions, dismissing critique of Tigerstar and co, intentionally saying things that are divisive to cause fighting. They will prevent ANYTHING from being done unless it's the thing THEY want to happen.

I actually write Thistle Law supporters in RiverClan to be like... incredibly annoying. They don't say what they mean, they bring the Clan to a screeching halt, they literally dismiss the lesson of TigerClan. You cannot pin them down, they never admit to anything, you will only waste your time talking to them.

They also act on their bigotry in ways that are 'deniable'. Reedwhisker fell into the water? Must have been his thick ThunderClan blood pooling in his paws. A RiverClan cat should be able to pull themselves out. Of course you're listened to, Mistyfoot, you're deputy after all, what more do you want? Gaslighting. Making you doubt your own senses towards your unfair treatment.

ThunderClan

A sort of 'mix' of ShadowClan and WindClan tactics. ThunderClan is THE Fire Alone Clan, you could count the Thistle Law supporters and the Hard Traditionalists on one hand, but has a battle-centric history they tend to tap into.

Listen for "glory," talk about 'avoiding humiliation,' starvation rhetoric. ThunderClan has an absolute bounty with their forested territory, that last one is almost always code for wanting to exclude or eliminate people like Daisy and Purdy.

When Thornclaw became deputy under Bramblestar, he was very, very careful about his escalations, and mostly focused on manipulating Bramble himself. He was VERY aware that the Clan wouldn't take another Mixed Clan Meeting like the stunt he pulled in TNP.

Even the impostor in TBC overplayed his hand, the rebellion was born out of ThunderClan itself.

#Thistle Law #Better bones au

[twilights-800-cats]

<< Chapter 2 || Chapter 3 || Chapter 4 || From the Beginning || Patreon & Ko-Fi >>

Chapter 3

The walk back to ThunderClan territory was long, tense, and mostly quiet. More than anything, it was humiliating. Though RiverClan and ShadowClan’s territories were empty of patrols this early in the morning, Shadepool could almost feel their warriors watching from the shadows of every bush. Were they laughing? Did they find it funny that ThunderClan was being forced to take the long way home?

Orange dawn light streaked the sky as the ThunderClan patrol crossed into ShadowClan territory, and by the time they had forded the stream and made it across their own border and into the forest, the sun had risen fully. It was just another humiliation, taking so long, and the entire patrol felt it, with shuffling paws and dragging tails.

“I hope the dawn patrol went out on time,” muttered Dustpelt as they stepped into ThunderClan territory. Shadepool glanced over her shoulder – the dark tabby warrior was clustered with Mousefur, Brightheart, and Sootfur just behind her.

“Graystripe took care of it, I’m sure,” Brightheart assured. She stepped over a large, fallen stick, brought down by the recent blizzards.

Dustpelt raised his lip in a scoff. “Graystripe could hardly ever get his apprentices up on time, you think he can handle waking up a whole patrol? Or waking up for one himself?”

Brightheart rolled her eye, though Shadepool saw Sootfur’s whiskers twitch in amusement. Mousefur’s voice was stiff and certain, however: “Come off it, Dustpelt. The patrols are fine – no cat wants to get an earful from you...”

Dustpelt looked like he might complain further, but Tinystar’s voice stopped him. The Clan leader didn’t look back, only yowled, “Ferncloud! Snowstep! Come up here, now!” and continued on his way, leading the patrol along the winding, up-and-down paths through the forest.

Ferncloud and Snowstep obeyed, hurrying away from whatever conversation they were having with Sun, Mistyfoot, and Nightfrost. Shadepool watched the couple huddle around Tinystar and Brackenfur, heads bent close.

“Wonder what they’re talking about?” Nightfrost wondered, sidling up to his sister.

Shadepool twitched her whiskers, curious herself. She longed to go up and listen, but she imagined that Brackenfur would simply tell her that it wasn’t her place, which made her pelt flash with annoyance.

I may have my full name, but I'm still just an apprentice in his eyes.

To distract herself, she glanced at Sun. The young she-cat's expression was troubled, and Shadepool wondered, “Are you alright?”

Sun flicked an ear. “I am fine,” she responded, sounding uncertain about it. “But, well, I’m sure you understand that I wasn’t expecting such a thing at a Gathering...”

Shadepool blinked in understanding. This must be so hard for you to wrap your head around. This Gathering had been her debut as a full warrior of ThunderClan after leaving her home in the mountains, and Shadepool felt sorry that such a momentous occasion had been taken from her new Clanmate by such dismal news.

“Not all Gatherings are like this one,” Nightfrost assured. He brushed his tail along Sun’s flank. “I think every Clan is going to be reeling from what happened last night for a while, though...”

Sun’s expression only grew more clouded. “The Tribe never had these sorts of issues,” she pointed out.

Mistyfoot drew close and mewed gently, “The Tribe do not share their mountains with anyone else. Here, Sun, you must remember – ThunderClan isn’t the only Clan around, and the Clans have hardly ever seen eye to eye on anything.”

Sun frowned. “But to accuse us of something so heinous? Has the Great Journey meant nothing after all?”

Shadepool glanced between Nightfrost and Mistyfoot, feeling a twinge of discomfort in her stomach. They must be thinking the same thing – that the journey they had taken, all the hardship and loss they endured to bring the Clans to their new home, was for naught.

The unity borne from the Great Journey had faded like mist in the moonlight at the power of Mudstar's words, and now the grass beneath their paws was as dry and cold as it had ever been. The worthlessness of it all was overpowering.

“I don’t think that’s fully true,” Nightfrost mewed. He was trying to sound optimistic, and he gave Sun a playful nudge. “Some cats just can’t stop holding on to grudges no matter what, and Mudcl-Mudstar is one of them, for sure!”

“Yes,” Mistyfoot agreed hastily. Her expression was unreadable. “That's exactly it. Every cat has their own agenda.”

Sun frowned. “I suppose,” she mumbled.

Mistyfoot's eyes sparkled when she looked down at Nightfrost, as if she were grateful for his words, and Nightfrost’s shone right back at her. Shadepool had to look away. The feeling creeping in between her ears from her brother was so warm, so happy – it felt inappropriate to partake in.

She tried instead to focus on Crowflight. This entire situation was so baffling, and Shadepool was struggling to understand that the cat she loved was now the deputy of a WindClan that hated ThunderClan with every hair on their pelts – but despite all of that, he still wanted to meet her. Surely that meant that some sense could be made of the whole thing!

We ought to be able to figure this out, she thought, determination warming her limbs, staving away the cold. Surely he has something I can use to help us out of this situation?

It was nearly sunhigh as the Gathering patrol drew close to the tightly woven gorse bushes that formed the camp walls. They were each and all cold, tired, and more than a little annoyed with the long trip they'd had to take. Shadepool herself did not look forward to subsequent Gatherings feeling like another Great Journey, herself - all the more reason to find a way out of this mess, with whatever she and Crowflight could come up with.

Tinystar drew them to a halt just outside the entrance with a flick of his tail. When the cats in the patrol were all gathered around him, he raised his chin to speak:

“I know you are all tired,” he meowed, “and each one of you will be spared from patrols or hunting parties for the day while you rest.” Tinystar’s sharp gaze leveled on his Clanmates. “Say nothing of this Gathering to the Clan until I've had the chance to speak about it.”

“When will that be?” Dustpelt demanded.

Tinystar flicked an ear. “I intend to call a Clan meeting immediately.”

“Good,” Mousefur grunted. Her shoulders were squared. “But is there a plan?”

Tinystar did not reply for a moment. Shadepool sensed her Clanmate’s growing restlessness in the way that Mousefur shifted her shoulders. The others were just as expectant - surely Tinystar had a plan, right?

After a moment of silence, her father meowed: “This is not a situation we can take lightly. I’ll be open to any ideas from the senior warriors, once everyone else is informed.”

Mousefur’s pale eyes flashed in surprise. “But-”

“Mousefur, there’s really nothing else I can do right at this moment,” Tinystar interjected, his tone sharp. Shadepool knew he was just as tired as everyone else, and his temper was wearing thin. “I need to tell the Clan before there are any wider discussions.”

Mousefur closed her jaws. She glanced at Dustpelt, who looked equally disgruntled – but Tinystar stood strong. Shadepool knew her father was right, that this needed to be handled properly; but she couldn’t help but feel a lump form in her throat.

What if he couldn’t handle it? 

———————————————————

“Let all cats old enough to catch their own prey join beneath the Highledge for a Clan meeting!”

Tinystar’s voice echoed, bouncing off of the stone walls that encircled ThunderClan’s camp. It was certainly effective for drawing out any cat that hadn’t already gone out for an assigned patrol, though the meeting was well-timed – Shadepool counted heads, and it seemed like every ThunderClan cat was going to be present for this one.

They might wish otherwise, she thought grimly, once they hear the news.

“We got worried when you weren't back on time,” Cloudtail purred, shaking dried leaves from her pelt as she emerged from the warrior’s den. She was quick to touch noses with Brightheart, relief in her eyes. “Graystripe wanted to send out a patrol to look for you...”

Swiftfoot was only a moment behind, his broad shoulders carrying snow from the branches of the den that he didn't bother to shake off. “What’s all this about?” he asked roughly, brushing his muzzle with Brightheart's.

“You’ll see,” Brightheart sighed, flicking the snow piles from Swiftfoot's shoulders with her paws. She drew her mates close, and they settled into the crowd. Whitewing, their daughter, joined them a moment later, just coming in from a hunting patrol with Rainwhisker and Spiderpaw.

After hauling their catch to the fresh-kill pile, Spiderpaw found her mentor, Mousefur, who didn’t seem thrilled to sit with her apprentice for the meeting. Spiderpaw was the only apprentice in the Clan at the moment, though, and thus she got her way in some regards.

Sootfur was barraged with questions by Rainwhisker as they went to join Sorreltail and Sun, but Shadepool saw them both hold firm and stay silent. Dustpelt touched noses with Cinderpelt, and Shadepool guessed she knew her mate well enough not to ask just yet. They sat with Ashfur, Graystripe, and Silverstream, and Longtail sat down close by, his ears twitching in the direction of any nearby conversation.

Shadepool saw a flash of gray and white out of the corner of her eye – Ferncloud and Snowstep had both retreated to the nursery, which made Shadepool curious. Did they have permission to miss the meeting? Was Larchkit ill? She was about to turn and ask, but Nightfrost stopped her. 

“Sit with us?” he invited.

Shadepool frowned. Her brother was sitting with Mistyfoot, near Mousefur and Spiderpaw and Rainwhisker. Nightfrost was sitting quite close to Mistyfoot, their flanks touching, and that wasn't just to leave room for Shadepool, she guessed.

She sensed that she had little choice – it was a bit late to sit by Brackenfur beneath the Highledge, as Tinystar was already gearing up to speak, and she would have to make her way through an entire crowd to get to them. She hurried over to her littermate and ended up squeezing in between him and Rainwhisker.

“I’m guessing last night didn’t go well?” Rainwhisker hissed, leaning close. “Soot here won’t tell me a thing, and Sun's jaws are sealed, for once!”

“You could say that,” Shadepool offered, tentatively.

“Cats of ThunderClan!” Tinystar’s meow rose high. “As I am sure you are all aware by now, I and my Gathering patrol have arrived far later than anticipated. I apologize for any undue worry, but we were forced to take an alternate route around the lake."

“Forced?” questioned Longtail. His ears focused intensely on Tinystar, the scarred lids of his eyes twitching as if they were trying to narrow. “How?”

“We all have the right to travel around the lake, especially for Gatherings,” Cinderpelt added, confused. “We agreed on that at the Arrival.”

“I know,” Tinystar meowed on, his tone stretched thin. “However, something has happened that has changed our circumstances.”

Shadepool saw her father steady himself. She couldn’t imagine the pain and sorrow he was feeling, having to say what he was going to say.

“After the battle on the moors, Onewhisker and Barkface went to the Moonpool,” Tinystar explained. “However, before they could contact StarClan, they were ambushed. Onewhisker was killed, and Barkface was reportedly savagely wounded.”

“Great StarClan!” gasped Rainwhisker. His eyes went wide to their whites, and Shadepool felt his pelt bristle in alarm.

“W-What?!” Cinderpelt’s mew was full of horror. She glanced at Dustpelt, who confirmed with a somber nod. Cinderpelt whispered, “Who would do such a thing?!”

Spiderpaw was bristling, and Shadepool saw her limbs shake. “Is WindClan okay?” she asked, her voice trembling.

“Yes, are they? Who leads them now?” wondered Graystripe. His tone was full of concern. “If Ashfoot and Onewhisker are both dead...” Graystripe trailed off, clearly hurt by the news, then mustered the strength to ask: “Onewhisker appointed a new deputy before he left, right?”

Tinystar took a breath, his gaze darkening. “This is where things get a bit more complicated, I’m afraid – Onewhisker apparently appointed no deputy before he left. After the attack, Mudclaw was allegedly chosen to lead WindClan by some sort of consensus that he did not disclose.” Tinystar blinked, slowly. “He is Mudstar now, and he has chosen Crowflight as his deputy.”

Shocked yowls rose in a chorus. Within the high camp walls, Shadepool felt like a throng of birds had started to scream in her skull all at once. They were as outraged as the cats attending the Gathering had been, and Shadepool felt herself reeling once again:

“He’s too young to be deputy!”

“Mudstar? How?!”

“How do we know he didn’t kill Onewhisker?”

“Yeah! He was certainly willing to before...”

“After all we did for them?”

“I’ve got three scars because of that fight!”

“I'm still sore!”

“Crowflight? Why?”

“He’s a good enough warrior, but it’s against the code, isn't it?”

“He's had no apprentice that I know of...”

“What is WindClan thinking?”

“Calm down!” Tinystar yowled.

Her father’s voice had cracked, straining to get over the cacophony. The fretting dulled down to a murmur, and Shadepool curled her tail around her paws. She tried to lean on Nightfrost, but sensed that he was preoccupied – Mistyfoot looked to be dizzy from all the yelling, and he was busy comforting her. Shadepool drew back sharply and dug her claws into the slush instead, hot thorns pricking her pelt.

“Yes, this is unprecedented,” Tinystar went on, his voice straining. “Mudstar hinted that StarClan had something to do with both his and Crowflight’s appointments. That, however, is not the only issue at our paws.”

“What else could there possibly be?” snapped Swiftfoot. He looked incredulously up at Tinystar. “Have mice started flying as well?”

The absurdity of his question, combined with the absurdity of this entire situation, did get a few purrs of some sort of dark amusement out of a few cats in the crowd. Shadepool wasn't certain whether or not that was a good thing.

Tinystar frowned. “Apparently, at the site of the ambush, there was significant evidence of a ThunderClan presence.”

The entire Clan went deathly silent.

“Mudstar has declared that ThunderClan is responsible for Onewhisker’s death.” Tinystar’s voice broke with the weight of his grief. Shadepool saw the luster fade from his eyes. “He has closed his borders to us and is demanding justice.”

The silence stretched thin like ice just creeping over a stream. The cats who had attended the Gathering, who already knew, looked up at Tinystar with resignation to the facts. The others, those that were only just hearing of this, wore shocked, open-jawed expressions. Shadepool could almost hear their words of disbelief die on their tongues.

“Mudstar did not outright declare war,” Tinystar pressed on, tired and resigned, “but I have decided that we must prepare for it, nonetheless.”

His icy gaze swept across his Clan. “I know, deep down in my bones, that no ThunderClan warrior would ever do something so cowardly and heinous – these accusations are baseless. But, Onewhisker is still dead, Mudstar is still the leader, and all of WindClan stands behind him. RiverClan and ShadowClan’s positions are undecided. We cannot ignore what this means.”

The crowd murmured, unsettled.

“No cat leaves camp alone,” Tinystar declared. “The WindClan border must be monitored, and I want the patrols along the Divide doubled. Hunters should avoid getting too near the river. There must be no undue instigation from us. We will need every cat ready to defend ourselves - it's not a matter of if Mudstar will cause a problem, but when and how.”

He took a deep breath, and his gaze lifted. Shadepool followed his eyes, turning her head towards the nursery. Ferncloud and Snowstep sat just outside, with Larchkit between them, his fur groomed to perfection.

Oh. Shadepool suddenly realized why Tinystar had spoken to the pair earlier. Had Larchkit heard all that had been said? Did he understand what was about to happen? She felt bad for him – every kit dreamed of getting their apprentice name, but this honor would always be eclipsed by the circumstances that necessitated it.

Every cat turned their heads, and the realization dawned on them, too. Shadepool heard Silverstream murmur something sympathetically. Someone wondered who his mentor would be, but there was little suspense in their voice.

“Larchkit,” Tinystar announced, “come forward.”

The young cat got to his paws and, urged on by Ferncloud, padded forward. The crowd split around him, everyone edging away to give him some space. Larchkit kept his chin high, but Shadepool could see a wobble in his step.

So, he has some idea, she guessed. He was not fully deaf, like his father. Shadepool guessed that his good ear had caught all he needed to know. Poor mite.

“Larchkit, you have shown tremendous bravery for one so young,” Tinystar meowed, his voice clear and loud, as Larchkit paused beneath the shadow of the Highledge. Ferncloud was allowed to sit beside her son, to sign Tinystar's words in case he missed them. “You have crossed from forest to mountain to lake, and it is my pleasure to give you your apprentice name.”

Larchkit raised his head, his bicolored gaze wavering.

“Larchkit, from this moment forward, until you earn your warrior name, you will be known as Larchpaw,” Tinystar announced.

Shadepool watched her father’s gaze keenly. Who would be Larchpaw’s mentor in this trying time? An older warrior, like Graystripe or Cinderpelt? Someone young, like Rainwhisker? Or, perhaps, Mistyfoot?

She glanced at her friend, curious. Mistyfoot had had an apprentice seasons ago, in the old forest – Shrewpaw, Spiderpaw’s brother. However, an encounter with a badger had taken Shrewpaw’s life shortly after he’d gotten his apprentice name, and Mistyfoot had taken the blow and blame deep in her heart. Would she be given another chance?

Mistyfoot was looking up at her leader, now, straining as if she might convince him with her gaze alone. It was no secret that Mistyfoot longed to be deputy – to work with her former mentor and lead ThunderClan. But to do that, according to the warrior code, one needed to have trained an apprentice, unless StarClan decided to interfere. There had been Shrewpaw, of course, but his life had been cut short all too quickly, and Shadepool didn't know if that counted or not.

“Ashfur.”

Shadepool almost heard Mistyfoot’s heart break.

“You have shown strength and bravery in adversity,” Tinystar meowed on. “I think you would make a great mentor for Larchpaw.”

Ashfur looked shocked to be chosen. He glanced over his shoulder at Ferncloud, his littermate, who stared back with love and gratitude in her eyes. Shadepool’s heart went out to the queen – she had lost two of her kits to the horrors of starvation in the old forest, and Larchpaw was all that remained of that first litter. Had she asked Tinystar to put Larchpaw in the care of his uncle, for her own sake?

“Larchpaw! Larchpaw!” the Clan cheered. “Larchpaw!”

Ashfur recovered quickly from the shock. He strode up to Larchpaw and touched noses with his new apprentice.

“I’ll take care of you,” he promised, signing through the noise. His dark blue eyes flashed up, looking directly at Mistyfoot. “Don’t worry. You’re safe with me.”

Shadepool felt Nightfrost stiffen beside her. “How dare he!” he hissed. “What a snake!”

“Stop, Nightfrost,” Mistyfoot whispered. Her voice was so, so tired. “It’s not worth it.” She and Ashfur had never gotten along, and Shadepool guessed that him having an apprentice over her this time wasn’t going to change that in the least. 

“I’m sorry to interrupt, but what’s the plan?” demanded Swiftfoot. “Are we just going to let WindClan’s accusations stand?”

Tinystar’s ice-blue eyes turned hard. “Absolutely not,” he declared, his voice gaining strength. “I won’t let WindClan get away with threatening us. Whoever killed Onewhisker and framed us will be found, and they will be made to pay. ThunderClan is not a Clan of murderers and codebreakers, and Mudstar will not smear our name across the lakeshore while I have the lives to stop him!”

“ThunderClan!” Graystripe yowled. The whole Clan raised their voices with him: “ThunderClan! ThunderClan!”

“Graystripe, Cinderpelt, you have the patrols for today,” Tinystar declared as the cheering died down. “We senior warriors will discuss things further once we’ve rested. This meeting is adjourned!”

With that, Tinystar turned and headed into the cave he called his den, blending into the darkness immediately. The Clan broke up into gossiping groups, every nerve aflame by the shocking announcements.

Shadepool saw a few patrols begin to head out, and Ashfur and Larchpaw joined them. She prayed to StarClan that his first tour of the territory would be peaceful, but she didn’t envy having to deal with Ashfur as a mentor.

“I can’t believe it,” Rainwhisker murmured. “WindClan, hating us? After everything ThunderClan has done for them?”

“Whatever could make them think we killed Onewhisker?” Sorreltail wondered. Her eyes were wide with shock. “We’ve been friends since long before the Great Battle with BloodClan!”

“It’s got to be a ploy,” Rainwhisker suggested. His tail swished in the slush. “Mudstar’s always wanted power. He’s got it, and now he wants more.”

Sootfur was nodding along. “I mean, I did hear that rumor that he pushed Ashfoot under the tree...”

“Whoa, who from?” Sorreltail demanded.

“That ShadowClan warrior Skipnose swears he saw it...”

Shadepool’s heart felt sick. She drew away from the trio, edging closer to Nightfrost and Mistyfoot. She longed for the comfort of their companionship, not the gossip of her Clanmates – but it seemed like she couldn’t escape it, even there.

“I hope we can settle things before someone gets hurt,” Nightfrost sighed. He nudged Mistyfoot. “What’s your read on this mess?”

Mistyfoot shook her head. She seemed utterly at a loss, her dark blue eyes shimmering with misery. “I-I don’t know. I certainly didn't see it coming, that's for sure.”

Nightfrost touched his nose to her shoulder. “I wish we could talk to Crowflight,” he sighed. “There’s no way he’d lie to us.” Shadepool didn’t miss the way his gaze flickered to her. She could feel him prodding and poking between her ears.

“I wouldn’t be too sure,” Mistyfoot said resignedly. Her gaze looked hurt, and she was ignoring Nightfrost's prodding. “He was very quick to put borders up between us again, remember...”

Shadepool felt her tail puff with indignation. You don’t understand him at all! None of you ever did!

“I don’t think he would betray anyone, least of all us,” she meowed sternly, “and I don’t think he’d agree to be deputy if Mudstar were a murderer!” Especially if he murdered Crowflight’s own mother!

“Well, things are changing,” Mistyfoot meowed. Her gaze was even. “Our home has changed, the Clans have changed, and the cats within them have, too. We’re in danger now, and we may have to face Crowflight in battle sooner or later.” She sighed, resigned. “We have to prepare for that eventuality.”

Nightfrost sighed, and his shoulders sagged. “The Great Journey really is over...”

Shadepool dug her claws into the earth. She knew her emotions were rising, flaring up and pulsing hotly into Nightfrost’s mind. She wanted to screech at Mistyfoot, call her a mouse-brain for not trusting Crowflight – but she felt Nightfrost push back, trying to get her to understand.

Shadepool’s heart twisted, searing in her chest - she wanted them to understand her, not the other way around!

She tossed her brother a sharp glare before she got up and headed for the medicine cat’s cave. She heard Mistyfoot’s concerned mew but ignored her. Shadepool knew she would have to apologize later, and she would - but for now, she was angry and knew she would be for a time.

Crowflight has the answers, you’ll see! She thought firmly. She would see him tonight, and learn everything they needed to fix this. We won’t get out of this without him!

#tb au #tb twilight

[redux-iterum]

Burning Hearts: Chapter Sixteen

(AO3 counterpart here.)

Neither Cinderpaw or Yellowfang returned with a clarity-providing vision, to Fireheart’s disappointment. Perhaps it was exacerbated by the situation with his friends, but he only grew more and more antsy as time went on and no answer was given. It wasn’t just this vague dream—no amount of self-assurances would let him take his mind off his troubles. Ravenwing noticed right away, but any explanation Fireheart could give was scattered and frayed at the ends.

“I’d just like to be able to relax for a bit,” he said, scraping at his face with a paw. “I mean, not to blame you—”

Ravenwing shook his head. “Blaming me for anything would be appropriate right now. Look– far be it from me to be the optimistic one, but I think it’ll be alright in the end. It’s just bad in the moment.”

Fireheart hummed and groomed his face even more aggressively.

Greystripe did not offer any encouragement. He had stopped speaking with Fireheart as well. A curt nod or flick of the tail in greeting was all he gave before marching off to do his own thing (which was invariably Silverstream-related). Disheartenment was an eager and unwelcome presence hanging over Fireheart’s head.

Praise the stars, a break finally came. Gathering night rolled around, and Fireheart and Ravenwing were selected to go. Unfortunately (fortunately, fortunately, Fireheart scolded himself), Greystripe was in the Gathering party as well. Lizardtail and Teaselfoot thankfully walked in the middle of the group as they set out, with Fireheart and Ravenwing on one side and Greystripe on the other. Bluestar only glanced back once, but her pale eyes were calculating and deductive. Fireheart would have prayed she didn’t decide to get to the bottom of this mysterious situation, but at this point he’d take anything to get Greystripe to see reason.

As it was tonight, though, when they arrived at Fourtrees, Greystripe split off into the crowd of RiverClan cats without a word to anyone. Fireheart held his breath and waited, but no one questioned this and in fact just spread out themselves to speak with their neighbors. Half-relieved, half-disappointed, Fireheart walked with Ravenwing, looking around the crowd.

“No ShadowClan yet?” he remarked. “Huh. They’re not usually the last to arrive.”

“Been busy.”

Fireheart and Ravenwing looked back forward to see the lanky Wrenwhisker strolling towards them. No apprentice was at his heels, but Fireheart noted that his friend looked a little more tired than usual.

“Far as I’ve heard,” Wrenwhisker continued, flat and dry as ever. “Think they’re still watching for rogues.”

Fireheart blinked. “Oh! That’d explain it. And good evening to you!”

“Evening.”

“Nice to– nice to see you,” Ravenwing said, even more nervously than usual. “Your apprentice isn’t here? Gorsepaw?”

Wrenwhisker’s eyes widened so slightly that Fireheart wasn’t sure they widened at all. “Nice of you to remember.”

Ravenwing mumbled something incoherent under his breath.

“He’s sick,” Wrenwhisker said, as if Ravenwing had done nothing. “Got a cough. Been resting for a few nights until he’s recovered.”

“Oh, poor thing,” Fireheart said, a pang in his heart. “I hope he’ll be okay.”

Wrenwhisker rolled a shoulder. “He will. Happens all the time.”

“Ah, there you are!”

Crookedstar, sitting on the leaders’ boulder, had his back towards the crowd. His tail wagged in delight as a cluster of tiny, skeletal marsh-cats trotted up to the ring of trees.

“Apologies,” Blackstar said, almost as flat as a WindClan cat. “We were held up.”

“Not a problem, not a problem.” Crookedstar turned back around, sweeping the air with a paw. “Come along and catch up with your friends, my fine fellows! We have time yet.”

ShadowClan dipped their heads to him in unison with a few replies of “thank you” and “blessings”. They fanned out and melted into the crowd, the other Clans greeting them and absorbing them into their various conversations without a thought.

Fireheart sat up on his haunches and looked as much over the crowd as he could. “I don’t think Rainpath is here.”

“Shame,” Wrenwhisker said. His eyes slid over to Ravenwing. “You got any rogues yourselves?”

Ravenwing, surprisingly, answered rather calmly. “Just a couple. They may have killed our deputy. Lionface.”

“Ah.” Wrenwhisker flicked his left ear. “Sorry.”

Fireheart sighed and nodded. “We never found a body. I think the humans picked him up and took him away.”

His friend’s eyes narrowed again, much more clear than the widening. “Always got to ruin things, the pricks.”

Ravenwing made a noise somewhere between a splutter and a snort. Fireheart looked at him curiously, and it was hard to tell if he was more shocked at himself or amused at the comment.

Wrenwhisker blinked, but someone called his name before he could respond. He looked back the way he’d come, then looked back at the ThunderClan cats.

“Go ahead,” Fireheart said. “It was good to see you!”

Wrenwhisker’s eyes flicked to Ravenwing, who subtly squirmed and nodded, near-bashful. Fireheart squinted at Ravenwing, confused—

Oh.

Oh-ho-ho!

As Wrenwhisker turned away to walk off, Fireheart stared up at Ravenwing with, he was certain, pure jubilation on his face. Ravenwing glanced at him, then looked again, his own expression immediately panicked.

“Wooow,” Fireheart whispered. “And you yelled at Greystripe for—”

“Shut up!” Ravenwing hissed frantically. “It’s not the same thing! And I don’t know what you’re talking about!”

Fireheart’s eyes were nearly shut in delight. “You gunna say anything to him?”

“No!” Ravening somehow squeak-whispered. “I’m just– appreciating! I can appreciate!”

Fireheart opened his mouth to respond, but caught Wrenwhisker standing still out of the corner of his eye. He and Ravenwing looked at the brown tom, both definitely hoping he hadn’t heard anything.

Wrenwhisker had his head turned to them, his eyes slowly roaming between the pair. They settled on Ravenwing for a long moment before he gave a deadpan wink, then turned back and trotted off after whoever had called his name.

Fireheart gawked, fighting the urge to chuff. One look at Ravenwing nearly sent him howling; the poor tom’s eyes were bugged out of his head and his mouth dropped open, his ears half-back in shock. A very tiny creak came out of his throat.

Gradually, his eyes turned over to Fireheart, who was watching him in immaculate glee. Barely audible, Ravenwing managed, “Don’t even start, I swear to—”

Fireheart couldn’t help himself. A “HA!” escaped him and he ducked his head to hide his chuff that shook his whole body. A few cats looked at him in surprise.

“I hate you,” Ravenwing muttered. “I hate you so much.”

“What in the world is so funny?”

Fireheart looked up, his humor rapidly retreating. Greystripe had made his way over to them and was staring at Fireheart with a tilted head.

“Oh—” Fireheart sat up straight and cleared his throat with a couple coughs. “Nothing. We can tell you later.”

“Where’s your friend?” Ravenwing asked, in a voice that was trying its very best to be neutral.

Greystripe, surprisingly, did not glare or ignore. He instead looked around and leaned in towards his friends, eyes wide in worry. “That’s the thing. I can’t find her. She said she’d come unless something stopped her, and she’s not here.”

Fireheart leaned in too, keeping his voice low. “I’m sure it’s alright. Maybe she just didn’t get picked to go.”

“She’s always here!” Greystripe said, barely remembering to stay hushed. “What if she’s sick, or hurt? What do I do? Should I ask someone about her?”

“Don’t,” Ravenwing said—and to Fireheart’s relief, he didn’t sound angry or annoyed. “Looking for her like you are is going to raise questions. Just– I don’t know, just sit with us. Fireheart’s right, it’s probably fine. WindClan is dealing with a cough. She might have something similar.”

Greystripe’s eyes darted between his friends. Fireheart couldn’t help a sting of compassion in his chest at the fretful way Greystripe was looking at them, like he needed them to reassure him Silverstream was okay.

“She—” he dropped his voice to a mumble. “She did say she felt funny the last time I saw her.”

“Let her rest,” Fireheart said soothingly. “You can ask after her later. Come sit with us.”

A very guilty look at Ravenwing, who just turned his eyes to the leaders’ boulder, and Greystripe shuffled meekly over to Fireheart’s left and sat down. He didn’t look at either of his friends, his head low like a scolded dog.

He was just in time, because Bluestar gave a long, loud call that silenced the crowd and turned all their heads to the leaders, all sitting with varying levels of grace and equal levels of authority.

“A welcome clear sky in this less-than-welcome season, I’d say,” Crookedstar said, loud and cheerful as he stood up. “Good evening to you all! I hope you have all been as well-fed as RiverClan.”

Rookstar tilted his long head a bit. “Your water has cleared up?”

“In the past few days, we’ve been swimming and fishing without sickness, yes!” Crookedstar beamed at his fellow leader. “RiverClan is back to its natural home; we feast on fish once again!”

Congratulations rippled through the air, and the leaders all nodded approvingly.

“However,” Crookedstar said, raising a paw for silence, “I would be remiss not to admit that we’ve had help these past months. ThunderClan, I’d like to thank you for gifting prey to us in our troubled times. RiverClan is in your debt, without question and without shame.” He winked at Bluestar. “I had to beat you to the catch on that one. I knew you’d mention it if I didn’t.”

Bluestar twitched her whiskers, her voice warm. “Any chance to have one over on you.”

“Ha!” Crookedstar shook his head. “Not this time, old girl.”

Rookstar actually looked surprised, and Blackstar’s amber eyes were wide and ears perked. Their Clans murmured to each other their own amazement at Crookedstar’s admission. Fireheart noted that a couple of RiverClan cats suddenly had their ears back in embarrassment, and ThunderClan’s cats had their chests puffed out.

“To everyone’s shock, yes, we actually can get along here and there,” Crookedstar said when the noise died down. “But with our river restored, ThunderClan has no need to share their prey with us anymore. We’ll find a way to repay you in time for feeding our queens and elders, of course.”

Blackstar spoke. “I suppose that wouldn’t involve sharing Sunningrocks?”

“Not in a thousand lifetimes,” Crookedstar said jovially.

“Figured,” Blackstar sighed. “At least you are all safe in your water.”

“Yes.” Rookstar nodded. “We’re happy to hear that.”

Confirmations came from the crowd.

Crookedstar trilled and dipped his head to them, then turned back to Bluestar. “Would you care to speak, now that I’ve stolen your thunder?”

Bluestar gave him a joking stink-eye before speaking. “ThunderClan has unfortunately lost our deputy, Lionface, to what we assume are rogues. His body was gone before we could retrieve it.”

The cheerful mood dissipated and sympathetic words were given to whichever ThunderClan cat was next to the speaker. Their heads were bent now, their chests shrunken back.

“No burial, then,” Rookstar said quietly. “Sorry. I know that’s hard for you.”

Bluestar blinked at him thankfully before addressing the crowd again. “Our new deputy is Tigerclaw, who has elected to stay home tonight to take care of the Clan while I’m gone.”

“Ah, I remember him,” someone whispered in front of Fireheart. “Fine fellow. Good choice, very good choice.”

“Yeah, he’s prime ThunderClan,” their friend whispered back. “I’m just shocked he wasn’t picked before Lionface. He’s got manners, at least.”

“Other than that,” Bluestar said, “ThunderClan is doing well. We have a full nursery and healthy warriors who can always find something to bring home. Nothing else to report.” She turned her head to Rookstar, then to Blackstar in a silent prompt.

Blackstar stood up as she sat down. “I will speak. Bluestar, I apologize for the intrusion of rogues along your border. They’ve retreated from our own after we made it firm that we would not tolerate them hereafter. I did not expect they would come to torment your Clan, of all of us.”

“That isn’t your fault,” Bluestar said kindly. “Rogues will do anything for a meal.”

Blackstar grunted. “Still, unfortunate, and you have our sorrow.” He dipped his head to her, a motion she mirrored, before turning back. “Elsewise, we’ve no poor news. ShadowClan prospers. Our food sources have been restored to us, and we dine easily once again.”

“Wouldn’t know it, looking at you,” Rookstar said.

“As ever,” Blackstar replied. “I presume you care to speak now?”

Rookstar hummed and stood up, long tail waving. “WindClan has received no visitors to our border, but a few unfamiliar scents have been found near the Barn. The loner there has seen nothing, and neither have we. We’ll alert you if we find them to be dangerous.”

“I pray it isn’t more rogues,” Blackstar said as Rookstar sat down again.

“Certainly cats.” Rookstar lolled his head to one side apathetically. “We’ll see soon enough.”

Bluestar leaned forward to look at the toms individually. “Then we have no more news?”

The other leaders affirmed with various noises.

“Resume your conversations,” Bluestar said to the crowd. “Now, Crookedstar, about that debt…”

Crookedstar snorted, but there was no aggressiveness in his body. If anything, he looked tickled. Fireheart didn’t miss that the other leaders subtly leaned in, ears perked, as the leaders of ThunderClan and RiverClan started chatting.

“Well…” Greystripe started, making Fireheart look his way. “I guess I don’t have anyone to talk to.”

“You could talk to us,” Fireheart offered.

Greystripe darted an anxious look at Ravenwing, who was pointedly still staring forward. “Would… would you even want to talk to me?”

Fireheart blinked at him, as friendly as he could muster. “It’d be nice to chat with my friend again, yes.”

“Assuming he won’t insult us,” Ravenwing muttered out of the corner of his mouth.

“I’m not—” Greystripe fumbled. “I don’t– just– I’m—”

Ravenwing still didn’t look his way, but his body was much more tense, like he was expecting the need to sprint in the other direction. Fireheart looked between them, now nervous that another fight was about to break out.

Greystripe eventually gave up and hung his head. He mumbled something Fireheart couldn’t decipher, but chose to believe was an apology. Ravenwing didn’t run, but Greystripe didn’t speak, and the air was uncomfortable, and painfully tense.

Fireheart breathed deeply and slowly to keep himself at ease. It didn’t help at all.

#warrior cats #redux iterum #iterum #this one was fun to write #arc one #burning hearts #chapter #chapter sixteen #book two

[troutfur]

(For the geomancy ask!)

A grey lynx-point she-cat approaches the fallen tree that the old wanderer shelters under. A mouse dangling from her jaws, the warrior shoots a quick glance over her shoulder to ensure that she hasn’t been followed before she slips under the trunk. The wanderer greets her with a rusty purr as she drops the mouse at their paws.

“I picked up your scent on the way here. I told you that you should be more careful when walking near ShadowClan territory,” the she-cat says, frowning slightly. “My Clanmates will not be as welcoming to you as I am.”

The wanderer’s purr rumbles louder as if her worry only amuses them. 

“I will heed your warning,” they say, tearing a bite from the mouse. “Although, I’m curious about whyyou have been so welcoming? If your Clan is as hostile as you say, what processed you to guide me away from the ShadowClan border and provide me with this shelter even before you knew of my abilities?”

Uncomfortable, the she-cat shifts her weight from paw to paw.

“My mother was a rogue,” she murmurs. “I guess I’m just more… sensitive to loners and wanderers than my Clanmates are.”

The wanderer arches a brow, the she-cat’s unease not escaping their notice. “And this troubles you? Your difference from your Clan?”

The she-cat huffs, her ears twisting back. “More like it troubles them.”

The wanderer nods slowly. “I see. And is this the problem you wanted me to divine your future about?”

The she-cat blinks hard a few times before looking away.

“It’s not unrelated to it,” she mutters, still avoiding their eyes.

The wanderer nods again, their expression softening. “What is your name, child?”

The she-cat’s blue gaze flashes back to them.

“I’m Frostmask,” she says after a beat of hesitation.

The wanderer purrs warmly.

“Thank you for the prey, Frostmask,” they say. “Now tell me, what are the answers you seek?”

Frostmask takes a deep breath and braces her paws against the ground as if to steady herself.

“I recently became ShadowClan’s deputy, but the transition hasn’t been easy. The other Clans, WindClan, RiverClan, and SkyClan don’t approve because of my rogue blood. Even some of my own Clanmates oppose it. And ever since my appointment… strange things have been happening.” Frostmask’s expression darkens. “We used to be allies with ThunderClan, but they don’t want anything to do with us anymore. And some of the other Clans seem to know things about ShadowClan that they shouldn’t…” She anxiously flexes her claws into the ground, raking furrows through the dirt. “We may have been betrayed by one of our own. I’m worried for myself, but also my friends and family— my mate and our two young kits.”

The wanderer makes a murmur of concern, but quickly falls silent again as Frostmask continues.

“There’s this one warrior in my Clan, Dampfang. We’ve been rivals our entire lives. He’s always hated me for being a ‘rogue,’ and he especially hates that I’m deputy now. I’d always thought his loyalty to ShadowClan would outweigh his hatred of me, but now…” Frostmask’s voice trails off, and she turns a desperate gaze onto the wanderer, her blue eyes wide. “Can your abilities tell me if it’s Dampfang? Is he the one behind all of ShadowClan’s problems? Or could it be… someone else?”

(I hope I did this right! I used Frostmask here, the main character of my fanfic Cold Bloodlines. She’s asking a burning question that she currently has in-story, which plays a big role in the fic’s climax! Although in-story she’ll definitely not find out how things end up so easily haha. I’m very curious to see your response though, and how it lines up with what I have planned or if it helps me think up any new, better ideas! Thanks for doing this, it was really fun to write this out!)

The wanderer sits deep in attention as they consider the question over the mouse brought to them. Once their querent finishes they rise from where they'd been lazily sitting and arch themselves best as their old bones and the cramped space will let them.

"That Dampfang certainly seems like a bad host. I'm glad some cats in that ShadowClan of yours seem to have taken a liking to you, but it must have been quite the ordeal growing up no? Did you ever consider leaving?"

Whatever Frostmask's answer, the elderly cat listens, one ear perked towards her as he begins idly scratching marks onto the bark of the trunk. Row after row he makes his strange lines of uneven lengths which he then crosses out two by two.

"...And I don't imagine you'd consider it now do you?" They say as they finish crossing out the marks they made and begin to draw other strange diagrams in the bark. "It's noble, what you are doing, but I have to warn you, the signs don't read like this will end in a way you like."

"I'll give you the answer you came here for first: it's not Dawnfang. In fact..." He traces over to the bottom of the first diagram and circles the figure in the middle. "...I think the signs tell me you should be working together."

"The outcome won't be pretty," he warns as he moves his claw to the right then moves towards the second diagram pointing to a repeated dot pattern between the two, "for neither you nor them. But the good news is: you're on the right track. If you let things play out, it should all work out. I have the impression Dampfang may be working on this too, so perhaps you should approach him."

"These 'deputies' are the cats who lead after the current cat in charge goes, right?" the old cat asks as Frostmask considers their reply. "Being new on the position must be exciting; so much time to define what you want your leadership to be!"

He points a claw to one of the figures, then slides it across to a nearby one. "It seems the chart agrees you've got potential, child. And it seems you are a thoughtful and careful sort of cat. Just don't let that caution paralyze you when you have to act."

(Thank you for participating!~ It was so fun getting back into it and getting into the mindset of the fortuneteller once again. Hopefully this advice is relevant and accurate to Frostmask.)