#also i know ravenpaw is older than firepaw graypaw and sandpaw

[diadraws]

thunderclan's newest and most fearsome apprentices!

[warriorsbutnotreally]

Sandstorm Is Tigerstar's Daughter AU

So, to preface this

a lot of changes had to be made to canon

but in the end it came to a result that made me happy

and to add - this isn't super long

I don't even span the full first arc

Self edit before this is even posted; I got carried away and this is longer than I expected

this was a fun idea and [admittedly] I almost ignored it - cause I was worried I would have no ideas - until a bunch of cool ideas hit me at once and then I got excited about it

There's also changes to some relationships for very obvious reasons!

Sandkit is born alongside her brothers Swiftkit and Lynxkit [who are not Patchpelt's kits. You cannot convince me they're Patchpelt's. I have a lot of negative emotions towards the retconned family relationships in Warriors]. They are born about six moons before Rusty / Firepaw joins, meaning Swift and Lynx are older than they are in canon.

Sandkit is very proud of her heritage, as is her brothers and the three are close. Lynxkit is the most level-headed as his brother and sister can be stubborn and hot-headed.

When they're apprenticed, Tigerclaw goes out of his way to have his kits apprenticed to cats he considers his friends by convincing Bluestar and Redtail that it's a good idea. Sandpaw goes to Whitestorm, Swiftpaw goes to Longtail, and Lynxpaw goes to Darkstripe.

When Firepaw joins ThunderClan, Tigerclaw is quick to make sure his kits do not like and do not trust this kittypet and allows them to openly antagonize Firepaw. This gets so bad that apprentices den is split into two factions; the group who likes Firepaw; Firepaw, Graypaw, and Ravenpaw and the group who wants him gone; Sandpaw, Swiftpaw, Dustpaw, and Lynxpaw.

However, after their first patrol together, Lynxpaw is the first to change his mind about Firepaw. He becomes more welcoming, but expresses to Firepaw in private that he doesn't want his siblings to turn against him. Firepaw and Lynxpaw bond quietly behind Sandpaw and Swiftpaw's backs.

Sandpaw sticks close to her father or her mentor most days and as Bluestar's mental health starts to slowly decline, Tigerclaw is planting the seeds of disloyalty into her head. This only gets worse when she learns that Lynxpaw and Firepaw are friends and she lashes out at her brother

Swiftpaw is still on Sandpaw's side, however, and refuses to budge, though he's unsure about being angry at their brother.

When Fireheart and Graystripe become warriors, Sandpaw is even more outraged and - with some prompting from her father - starts making plans to make Fireheart's life just a little worse every day

Sandpaw sticks with Tigerclaw and it's thank to him that Bluestar finally gives her and her brothers their warrior names while Fireheart and Graystripe are out saving WindClan; Sandstorm, Swiftfang, and Lynxclaw.

When Tigerclaw tries to clear Bluestar on the Thunderpath, Sandstorm does manage to stop Cinderpaw from going as she knows the apprentice isn't the target.

After Bluestar fails to show, however, Sandstorm and Tigerclaw start up a different plan. Sandstorm openly blames Fireheart for the fact she didn't show, despite her being sick with greencough.

They do try to drag Swiftfang into their plans, but he expresses concern. He only agrees after Sandstorm peerpressures him into it, but it's clear that he believe they're going too far.

When Bramblekit and Tawnykit are born, Sandstorm becomes like a guardian older sister who spends time with them. This has her thinking of starting a family, but she wants to wait until she finds a proper mate - she is considering Dustpelt - and when her father is finally Tigerstar

Swiftfang does eventually tattle on them before the rogues attack and turns Sandstorm and Tigerclaw in as traitors, as he finds himself unable to just sit back and let them kill Bluestar and Fireheart, especially as he believes Lynxclaw loves the former kittypet.

Sandstorm is outraged as she and her father are exiled from the Clan. She tries to get Dustpelt to join, and for a moment she thinks he will until he reveals he'll never be able to stand beside someone who willingly walked with Redtail's killer.

After joining ShadowClan, Sandstorm assists her father in working hard, though she dislikes ShadowClan's territory. She starts considering having kits, not for a family, but for strong warriors that are loyal to her and her father.

When he becomes Tigerstar, he makes Blackfoot his deputy and Sandstorm is irritated but decides that gives her time to work out her own plan.

She starts carefully deciding which cat is the strongest in ShadowClan and, after being rejected by Blackfoot, settles on Boulder to sire her kits.

While she's courting Boulder, she learns of BloodClan and tells Tigerstar. The three go and meet Scourge and her plans change as she starts talking with Bone.

She's early into expecting Bone's kits when Scourge kills Tigerstar and she lashes out at the BloodClan cats. She isn't killed and ShadowClan ends up exiling her after she refuses to renounce her father's crimes.

When Scourge and Bone are killed, Sandstorm sneaks into the ranks and quickly earns favor with BloodClan as they know who she is and she reveals that the kits she's close to having are the proper heirs of BloodClan.

Cats try to challenge her, but Sandstorm allows herself to be brutal and relentless, which soon catches the eye of a certain one-eyed molly.

Fury becomes co-leader as she teaches Sandstorm the shaky customs of BloodClan and the two become close by the time the kits are born.

There are four kits born to Sandstorm; a dark calico tabby she-cat named Omen, a pale ginger and white tom named Talon, a mostly black tom named Bane, and a dark tabby with white patches named Tiger

Sandstorm instantly favors Tiger more than any other of her kits and is determined that he'll take over BloodClan when the time comes.

As the kits grow older, Fury and Sandstorm grow closer and eventually the two becomes mates and work together to help BloodClan grow better and stronger.

Sandstorm starts spying on the Clans again and learns, angrily, that Firestar and Lynxclaw are mates now and that the two have had a litter of kits together; Squrrielkit, Leafkit, and Spottedkit [Squirrel is dark ginger, Leaf and Spotted are both tortoiseshells] [how is also up for interpretation]

Sandstorm starts making plans again to take down ThunderClan and Fury is more than happy to help.

This comes together in an idea to steal the kits and hold them hostage until Firestar comes to get them.

The first attempt doesn't go well and many BloodClan cats are wounded in trying, but that doesn't stop either leader and they try once more. This time they manage to steal two of the kits; Squirrelkit and her brother Spottedkit.

While watching the two kits, Sandstorm is overtaken by rage at her brother becoming mates with 'the enemy' and for a brief moment she actually considers killing one of the kits. She actually almost kills Squirrelkit before she is stopped by Bane [he and the others being the age of older apprentices].

Bane becomes the watcher of the kits and he bonds well with his cousins and feels pity for them. When he learns his mothers' plans, he convinces Omen to help him carry them back home before any needless death happens. Omen is hesitant at first, but agrees and the two carry the kits back to ThunderClan.

When she learns about this, Sandstorm is outraged and she considers a regular punishment until Fury insists that Bane needs to be made an example of.

Sandstorm allows Fury to publicly kill their son and Omen feels like she's the only one truly horrified at this. Talon seems openly interested in the violence and Tiger was never easy for her to understand, as they are rather withdrawn and never talked to her or their brothers as they were being trained to take over BloodClan.

Sandstorm goes on to not allow Omen to be alone and Omen has a guard with her at all times.

Eventually Omen escapes her guard and flees to the Clans, being taken in by ThunderClan, who promise to protect her.

There she meets her cousins again, plus Leafkit, and gets to know her uncles, Lynxclaw and Brambleheart. She is treated with love and welcoming for the first time in her life and she finds herself about to cry.

She chooses to join ThunderClan after a moon of thought as well, as she fears what will happen if she ever encounters her mothers again. She is given the name Lightpaw.

Eventually Sandstorm does attack again and Lightpaw tries to hide, only to be found by her brother Talon and attacked. He almost kills her only to be killed by Firestar.

This outrages Sandstorm even more.

She attacks Firestar and takes away one of his lives, but before she can do more harm, she is attacked by Lightpaw.

Lightpaw fights her mother off and Sandstorm swears that she'll have her revenge and that ThunderClan will never be forgiven

Lightpaw tries to reason with her sibling, Tiger, but they push her away and lash out, angry that she let their brother die She tries to reason more, but it's useless

She watches as they leave

.

BloodClan does return in the form of Tiger, eventually, but my brain didn't plan that far, but Sandstorm eventually does pass away and Tiger kills Fury in a silent retaliation against her as they never forgive her for killing Bane.

She and Fury do also end up with another litter; a ginger tabby she-cat named Wrath, and an albino tom named Wisp.

Lightpaw eventually earns the name Lightstep and she's the one chosen to represent ThunderClan in the Great Journey.

Spottedkit/paw ends up being killed by BloodClan in a random, aggravated attack and Squirrelflight almost dies in the same attack, but survives, unlike her brother

Squirrelflight eventually becomes mates with Shrewpaw/heart, who survives in this AU and they have a very happy and healthy relationship

Lightstep originally is crushing on Feathertail, but she passes away. Later she actually becomes mates with Daisy and the two are very happy and comfortable wives to help take care of kits who need help raising.

Swiftfang leaves ThunderClan and ends up joining WindClan to get away from all the drama involving his family. He never takes a mate or has kits and he's perfectly happy just living a nice life.

[canon-notcanon-warriorcats]

Decatssi: A Warrior Cats Re-write Arc I

-dustpaw is mentored by tigerclaw and ravenpaw is mentored by redtail, both apprentices witness redtail being killed by tigerclaw, though ravenpaw wasn’t supposed to

-redtail and runningwind are sandpaw’s dads and she has a breakdown over her dad’s death

-sandpaw is still mentored by whitestorm, graypaw is mentored by mousefur, and ravenpaw is given to lionheart to finish his training, firepaw is juggled between all of them for a couple days but runningwind and bluestar end up dual mentoring him

-bluestar makes lionheart deputy as usual, ravenpaw is still scared of tigerclaw, but since he doesn’t have to be constantly around him and has the protection of lionheart and his friends, he doesn’t leave thunderclan and fake his death

-sandpaw gets close to firepaw before she’s a warrior because she realizes that dustpaw is a big jerk wad and firepaw isn’t even that bad and her dad is his mentor and he likes him and she knows that redtail would’ve liked him as well, so dustpaw, tigerclaw, darkstripe, and longtail are probably the wrong ones

-brokenstar was already the leader when firepaw joins and has been for like a year and now he’s ran out windclan and yellowfang

-firepaw finds yellowfang and instead of everyone being like “we should kill her” they actually have brain cells and are like “something’s not right, also yellowfang you can chill here, but firepaw you still have to take care of her because you brought her here” tigerclaw, darkstripe, and dustpaw are the only ones pissed at yellowfang existing in thunderclan

-brokenstar attacks thunderclan while most of the warriors are out on patrol (hmmm tigerclaw, lionheart, firepaw, ravenpaw, and runngingwind are the only cats trained and healthy enough to properly fight while this attack is going on, interesting) because they want more babies to make into murder machines, spottedleaf, who doesn’t have any weird feelings for firepaw and instead is sandpaw’s cool and wise aunt who she loves, is killed, rosetail is killed, thrushpelt is killed (he was an elder, he didn’t die yet before firepaw came to the forest) and lionheart are killed

-bluestar losing her girlfriend, boyfriend, medicine cat, AND deputy gets hit very hard and refuses to name a new deputy because she’s lost two in like a month and a half “if starclan keeps taking my deputies, then they can be the one to choose them!”

-she goes to the moonstone with all the apprentices, whitestorm, mousefur, and runningwind and gets killed by a rat but she’s better now and still has two lives so she’s fine

-ashkit and fernkit are now born to brindleface and their dad is darkstripe, but he wants nothing to do with them and is an asshole to brindleface for no reason, also it should be mentioned that darkstripe’s dad is thistleclaw who was killed by redtail and whitestorm when he was an apprentice and his mom is willowpelt, and now willowpelt and whitestorm are mates so now he has a grudge against both of them and is angry because his family is weird now (no one besides whitestorm and willowpelt know it was him and redtail who killed thistleclaw)

-snowkit is born to speckletail and unknown tom, she won’t say and no one cares, also oh no snowkit is deaf but speckletail’s sister, one-eye, who is going deaf, helps them learn a kind of sign language, and a bunch of thunderclan, including the kits, wanna learn too

-firepaw decides that windclan being chased out for almost 3 moons is too long so him, ravenpaw, graypaw, and sandpaw go save them, not dustpaw though because dustpaw said it was stupid and windclan should stay gone

-they succeed! and bluestar is so impressed she makes them into warriors: fireheart, graystripe, ravenpelt, and sandstorm, dustpaw gets pissed off that he isn’t made a warrior too, he’s older than graystripe and fireheart and his brother got made a warrior, but bluestar tells him to shut up, cats become warriors when they act like warriors, not when they become a certain age

-brokenstar attacks thunderclan again, but this time bluestar captures him and kills him once and also blinds him, everyone takes a moment to remember exactly why she was made leader

-everyone’s nervous that bluestar still hasn’t chosen a deputy yet, they all know it’s between whitestorm or tigerclaw, but bluestar’s still scared they’ll just die as soon as she makes one of them deputy, redtail had only been deputy fro a few moons (one-eye was her deputy before she retired) and lionheart had been deputy for like what, a month and a half before he was killed? also bramblekit and tawnykit are born to goldenflower and tigerclaw

-tigerclaw is weirdly close to brokenstar “theywere friends when they were apprentices and warriors together” everyone says, but is that really what’s happening

-shadowclan is glad to be rid of brokenstar and his followers and they choose nightpelt as their new leader, who actually does get eight lives and becomes nightstar, but they’re pissed that thunderclan is keeping brokenstar because if they had just killed him one last time by now nightstar could’ve had 9 lives

-bluestar makes brightpaw, cinderpaw, brackenpaw, and thornpaw apprentices and give them to sandstorm, fireheart, graystripe, and ravenpelt respectively, it’s been like a moon and dustpaw is still an apprentice because he’s a little turd head

-except graystripe has been going off on his own a lot lately and is like barely mentor, turns out he’s dating silverstream who saved his life while coming back from saving windclan, sandstorm gets angry because she’s had a crush on her for moons but i guess she didn’t like her back

-brokenstar’s rogues attack to free him, but they’re actually being led by tigerclaw now and in the flurry of battle, tigerclaw kills bluestar onces, but she beats him out of her den with the help of whitestorm and fireheart before he can take another one

-yellowfang feeds brokenstar deathberries as she tells him she’s his mom in the midst of battle so the rogues attacking only comes to his death

-what a surprise, tigerclaw had been conspiring with brokenstar and took over his rogues, bluestar banishes him and he’s chased out, but dustpaw follows him because he’s more loyal to tigerclaw than thunderclan and he’s pissed that bluestar didn’t make him a warrior, darkstripe stays to everyone’s surprised because he was tigerclaw’s first apprentice and they were super close, longtail is shocked and angry at tigerclaw and revokes any and all respect and loyalty he had towards him

-bluestar finally names whitestorm as her deputy and orders to keep a watch out for tigerclaw and dustpaw

approximate amount of time that passes during all of this: 5 moons

-graystripe is whitestorm and willowpelt’s son (kiiind of) and so darkstripe also has a super grudge against him, also graystripe gloats that his dad is the thunderclan deputy a LOT now, he also sometimes calls bluestar grandma

-it’s the beginning of leaf-bare now

-while out on a patrol-date, fireheart and sandstorm find old tigerclaw scent by twolegplace so they try to track where he’s been, but when they find a brown trabby it’s actually fireheart’s long lost sister princess!

-fireheart has vague memories of her, but she recognizes him immediately and is so excited and tries to get him to follow her to visit their mom, nutmeg, fireheart declines saying that thunderclan is his home now, sandstorm leaves them to catch up and hunt, tigerclaw’s sent was too old anyway

-they talk for quite a bit and princess tells fireheart that she’s afraid her twolegs will take away her 5 kits who are a moon old now and after fireheart has told her about the clans she wants one of them to come live with him

-fireheart is hesitant, but princess doesn’t really take no for an answer and brings out a white fluff ball she named cloud and really how can you say no to that

-fireheart brings fluffy back to camp and everyone’s kind pissed, but bluestar’s just like “you really like bringing cats outside of the clan to us don’t you” but she has a soft spot for white cats because her sister was white, her first apprentice, frostfur, was white, and her nephew-son-deputy is white, she also has a soft spot for fireheart so how can she say no, “okay, but you have to be his dad now”, brindleface offers to take him because her kits, ashkit and fernkit, are the closest in age to cloudkit, darkstripe gets extremely pissed off that his “mate” is nursing a kittypet and his son and daughter are now being raised with a kittypet, but brindleface puts him in his place and basically officially breaks up with him, if they were ever considered a couple in the first place

-a few days later a patrol of whitestorm, runningwind, fireheart, and cinderpaw are patroling the shadowclan border, suddenly there’s some rustling and it’s not until then that runningwind catches tigerclaw’s scent (he’s one of the best trackers in the clan, no one else could scent it yet over the stench of the thunderpath) tigerclaw jumps at whitestorm, but runningwind zooms between them, saving whitestorm and getting killed by tigerclaw instead, who runs across the thunderpath into shadowclan territory, his two rogues following behind him (they were fighting fireheart, whitestorm, and cinderpaw)

-cinderpaw goes after them even with her mentor and deputy yelling at her to not and she gets hit by a car, her left back leg being almost cleanly torn off from below the knee, whitestorm carries runningwind and fireheart carries his apprentice back to camp

-sandstorm has another breakdown because now both of her parents are dead and tigerclaw is the one that killed them both, runningwind’s parents halftail and one-eye, his sister, mousefur, his former mentor, bluestar, and his former apprentice, fireheart, all grieve immensely for him as well and sit vigil

-frostfur, thornpaw, brightpaw, and brackenpaw are all also terrified for cinderpaw, fireheart is caught between grief for both runningwind and his apprentice, but yellowfang removes cinderpaw’s barely hanging on leg and she miraculously survives, yellowfang thinks this is the first time in clan history a cat has lost a leg and survived

-a week later cinderpaw is back on her paws, or trying to be, she asks yellowfang if she’ll have to be a medicine cat, but yellowfang tells her that she’s too much of a fighter to be a medicine cat, she has to become a warrior, fireheart vows to train cinderpaw to be the best warrior she can be and so she can become a warrior alongside her littermates, all while also basically training brackenpaw because graystripe keeps sneaking away, and helping to raise cloudkit, this is when sandstorm falls in love with him, they had been friends kind of crushing before, but now it was evident that they were falling madly in love with each other

-a terrible sickness starts in shadowclan, it’s so bad nightstar has already lost two lives to it

-fireheart visits windclan with cinderpaw to get tips from the deputy, deadfoot, on hos to become a warrior with only three fully functioning legs

-at some point both yellowfang and tallstar call fireheart their son

-a rare thunderstorm happens during leaf-bare about a moon after cinderpaw’s accident and a fire starts close to thunderclan’s camp, they flee over the river and stay the night in the riverclan camp until the fire has stopped after being put out by the falling snow

-yellowfang and fireheart save bramblekit, but speckletail sadly dies from smoke inhalation while saving her son, snowkit, smallear reveals that he was snowkit’s father, goldenflower asks if he was also her’s and lionheart’s father, but he says no, their father had been sunstar, thunderclan’s leader before bluestar “why didn’t speckletail tell anyone” “because she was honorary and didn’t like other cats knowing her business, neither sunstar or me had ever actually been her loves anyway”

-bluestar talks to mistyfoot and stonefure a /lot/ and seems to take an interest in mistyfoots new kits, primrosekit, pikekit, perchkit, and reedkit

-graystripe does a terrible job at hiding him and silverstream being mates a secret and hangs out with her and mosspelt, who’s pregnant, a lot, silverstream reveals to everyone that she is ALSO PREGNANT but she refuses to tell who the father is

-thunderclan returns to their territory the next morning, the camp needs rebuilding, but luckily the fire didn’t damage an especially large amount of territory, darkstripe is fidgety

-also this is around the time littlecloud decides to become a medicine cat, him and cinderpaw become good friends at the first gathering she’s back and he gets inspired to take a path of healing, a path that brokenstar had refused him, he also has his boyfriend, whitethroat with him

-a couple nights later, goldenflower screams that her kits are missing and soon darkstripe comes back with them, saying they had tried escaping the camp and he had found them on his way back from getting some fresh air, he’s also weirdly taken interest in his own kits, like he wants to become an actual father to them

-willowpelt is pregnant with whitestorm’s second litter of kits!

-there’s dog scent by snakerocks, and also dead rabbits, what could be happening, better go to windclan and interrogate them

-tallstar denies any windclan activity in thunderclan territory, but they still haven’t SEEN any dogs at snakerocks and it might be too dangerous to check it out, even though it’s leaf-bare, adders could still come out of their dens

-brackenpaw is anxious that graystripe has hardly been around for his training and thinks that maybe graystripe doesn’t think he’s good enough to be a warrior, so he asks his littermates to help him fight off the dogs at snakerocks, if he does that graystripe will HAVE to recognize him as good enough, but only brightpaw agrees to come with him, and only because it’s a stupid idea and he shouldn’t go alone

-the next night they go to get rid of the dogs and brackenpaw and brutally murdered and brightpaw is found staying alive by a thread, without an eye and a torn ear

-frostfur is devistated, just after her one daughter was healing, her other daughter was barely alive and one of her sons was dead

-thornpaw tells fireheart, sandstorm, and ravenpelt why they went to drive out the dogs and they get justifiably angry at graystripe, who walks back into camp only after brackenpaw’s body was laying in the middle of the clearing

-sandstorm is so angry at him she swipes at his muzzle, cause droplets of blood to appear and graystripe, in fear, anger, and grief runs out of the camp again, fireheart and ravenpelt run after him, knowing exactly where he’s going, and when they reach sunningrocks they find silverstream giving birth far too early to her’s and graystripe’s kits

-yellowfang is too far away and will still be busy trying to save brightpaw, so, defying silverstream’s and graystripe’s wants, retrieves riverclan’s medicine cat, mudfur, but it’s sadly not enough as silverstream dies shortly after both of the kits are born and she barely utters names for them, featherkit and stormkit

-crookedstar, being by his daughter’s side as she died just as her own mother had died giving birth to her and her siblings, is extremely angered and upset at graystripe, but when graystripe asks to live in riverclan with his kits, crookedstar hesitantly allows him, ravenpelt and fireheart object, but graystripe tells them he’d do better with his kits in their mother’s clan than he’s been doing in thunderclan as a warrior, leaving with crookedstar and mudstar, mosspelt, who had just given birth to two kits, dawnkit and shinekit, two days earlier, turned out to have also been silverstreams mate, and those two kits had been surrogated by a tom for her and silverstream to raise together, graystripe knew this was happening and gladly agreed to mosspelt nursing his kits

approximate time that has passed between part 1 and now: 4 months

-with the news that graystripe has moved to riverclan to be with his kits bluestar and whitestorm just kind of quietly accept that their family can’t have a normal relationship ever

-frostfur is pissed because it seems like graystripe is running away from his actions causing his apprentice’s death, but she doesn’t want to be and tries to hold it in, hoping that the bigger reason why he left was because he wanted to be with his kits and if so she can respect that and makes her very slightly less angry

-with everything going on, bramblekit and tawnykit “sneak out” again and darkstripe “finds them” outside of camp /again/

-it takes brightpaw over a day to regain consciousness, but the bleeding has finally calmed down and she’s going to be okay

-bluestar wants to make thornpaw, cinderpaw, and brightpaw warriors now because thornpaw’s ready, cinderpaw has gracefully caught up and is doing really well adapting, and brightpaw will need help adapting to hunt and fight with only one eye but before this she was basically ready to become a warrior, but thornpaw and cinderpaw want to wait for their sister to be healed

-bluestar agrees, though she didn’t want almost as many apprentices as there are warriors, but it’s close to when ashkit, fernkit, snowkit, and cloudkit should be apprenticed

-bluestar wanted to give snowpaw to willowpelt but she’s gonna have kits any day now, so she gives him to frostfur instead, gives ashpaw to whitestorm, decides to finally trust longtail and gives him his first apprentice in fernpaw, and even though he’s technically still mentoring cinderpaw, bluestar gives cloudpaw to fireheart because who else could mentor this fluffy idiot

-darkstripe is overly mad that his son is being mentored by whitestorm

-willowpelt gives birth to sorrelkit, rainkit, and sootkit hooray

-a few days after silverstream gives birth, crookedstar loses his last life to greencough and leopardfur takes his place as leader and is now leopardstar and she names stonefur as her deputy, graystripe is afraid she’ll kick him out, but luckily she tells him that as long as he’s loyal, he may stay

-meanwhile, dead rabbits keep appearing closer and closer to the thunderclan camp, seriously, in THIS leaf-bare

-patchpelt just keels over and dies because of “stomach pain”

-in the midst of mourning and darkstripe going “at least we’ll get more food” because fuck you darkstripe, brindleface is found murdered close to camp, her scent is covered in rabbit scent and wet moss, everyone correctly guesses that tigerclaw must have killed her and is probably the one killing the rabbits and slowly training and leading the dogs to the camp, but he’s been hiding his scent so no one can tell it’s him, darkstripe says that that’s reach it couldn’t possibly be tigerclaw, but no one believes him and why isn’t he angry that the mother of his children has been brutally murdered and almost made into dog food

-”hey at least it wasn’t willowpelt” he says ominously

-everyone agrees that the dogs need to get out of their territory because they’ll know where their camp is now, so they make a plan to trick them into jumping off of the cliff over the riverclan waterfall

-ashpaw, fernpaw, and cloudpaw want to be in on it but since they’ve only been apprentices for like half a moon bluestar obviously says no, whitestorm also tells bluestar to not be a part of it because he doesn’t want her to die for the final time

-before they go bluestar names frostfur’s children warriors, naming cinderpaw cinderpelt, thornpaw thornclaw, and brightpaw, who’s been starting to leave the medicine cat den, brightheart, she also gives a naming ceremony for the dead brackenpaw, saying that she would have named him brackenfur after his mother

-a patrol of thornclaw, fireheart, sandstorm, whitestorm, and longtail take turns having the pack of dogs chase them through thunderclan territory until they reach the waterfall, but instead of slipping in they manage to stop

-bluestar had been hiding there the whole time and attacks the leader dog, both her and the dogs falling into the waterfall

-thornclaw and longtail run back to tell everyone else what happened while sandstorm, fireheart, and whitestorm run to help bluestar

-the dogs are dead, but they soon find stonefur and mistyfoot pulling bluestar onto sunningrocks

-mistyfoot presses onto bluestar’s chest and she coughs up water, looking up she’s extremely happy at how brave and talented her children are and she’s so glad they’re such great and respected warriors

-”wait you’re our real mom???” “wait they’re bluestar’s kits that disappeared???” whitestorm nods

-bluestar tells them that she wished she could’ve raised them, but she’s so glad they have a happy life in riverclan and she’s so thankful to graypool and oakheart for raising them and loving them, and she is glad that all her living kits, including whitestorm and fireheart, are all finally together with her, she whispers that she wished that they could’ve raised them all, together, before passing away for the final time,

-whitestorm elaborates through grief that bluestar had given up her kits so she could become leader instead of his father, thistleclaw, who was an evil and bloodthirsty cat who would’ve had thunderclan dive into an era of nothing but war and death, and that mosskit died on the journey to riverclan, bluestar had never fully forgiven herself, and that she wished that her, graypool, oakheart, and thrushpelt could have all raised them happily together

-mistyfoot and stonefur nod and are understanding, mistyfoot saying she had sometimes thought they were born in thunderclan because she had vague memories of the thunderclan camp even though she had thought she had never been there, and her and stonefur both felt like they had met mousefur and runningwind before they were apprentices, as it turns out they had once been den mates in the nursery

-they decline sitting vigil for bluestar though, as mistyfoot has to get back to her kits and see how her son, perchkit, is doing as he is very sick, along with many riverclan cats, crookedstar dying of greencough was only the beginning. and stonefur must get back to his duties as deputy

-everyone mourns greatly for bluestar and whitestorm realizes this means he is now leader of thunderclan, but he takes a full day to mourn for his adopted mom and aunt before leaving for the moonstone with yellowfang

-after him and yellowfang leave, sorrelkit secretly follows darkstripe as he sneaks bramblekit and tawnykit out of camp, she wants to go too “hey where are you going?” she squeaks, darkstripe tells her to come with him and roughly grabs her by the scruff, but bramblekit and tawnykit, being almost 6 moons old now yell at him to stop and goldenflower and willowpelt run to find their kits, darkstripe drops sorrelkit, dazing her and willowpelt scoops her up to get her away, goldenflower demands to know what was happening, fireheart, longtail, and sandstorm come to see what’s happening and everyone goes back into camp, darkstripe tells everyone that bramblekit and tawnykit were trying to go see their father because they want to see him again and they want to look up to him and be like him and they were trying to take sorrelkit with them, tawnykit calls his bullshit as well as goldenflower, saying that they’d never be anything like their father no matter what anyone says

-tawnykit and bramblekit tell everyone that darkstripe has taken them to see tigerclaw multiple times, always meeting in shadowclan territory, but they were told not to tell anyone, and darkstripe had been telling tigerclaw everything that was happening in thunderclan, sorrelkit mews that she had just wanted to see what they were doing and followed them

-everyone agrees to put a guard on darkstripe until whitestorm and yellowfang got back, mousefur and longtail offer to be the first guards and darkstripe is made to stay in the old elders den that got charred in the fire

-whitestorm, now whitestar, and yellowfang get back the next day, with bad news, they came across a patrol lead by deadfoot while in windclan and he said that shadowclan had been acting very weird for a long time, and many cats have apparently gotten sick and they believe nightstar might have recently died, and they don’t know who his new deputy was because the former deputy had died of the illness, and now they keep finding shadowclan scent on their territory, whitestar tells everyone they need to be on extra guard since shadowclan had been so secretive and barely attending gatherings since nightstar had been so sick

-goldenflower is the one to inform whitestar about what darkstripe did- and has been doing, whitestar is infuriated at his half brother and his first act as thunderclan’s leader is to banish him, he tells him that if he is still so loyal to tigerclaw that he can go join him, darkstripe is chased out, sandstorm and longtail chasing him off into twoleglace, surprisingly, but before he goes darkstripe admits that it was him and tigerclaw who set the camp on fire and that all of thunderclan will die as soon as tigerclaw gets his way

-after darkstripe is chased off, whitestar decides that before he names his deputy he must make bramblekit and tawnykit apprentices, he gives tawnykit to cinderpelt and is about to give bramblekit to thornclaw when bramblekit speaks up, he doesn’t want to become a warrior, he wants to become yellowfang’s apprentice and become a medicine cat, he’d wanted it ever since she and fireheart saved him from the fire, and he wanted there to be no way that he could follow in his father’s pawsteps and instead make up for what he’s done by healing

-yellowfang gruffly agrees that perhaps he will make a good medicine cat and comments that she needs an apprentice because she’s not getting any younger

-whitestar then names goldenflower as his deputy, everyone is shocked, including goldenflower, because they expected fireheart or sandstorm to be chosen, but goldenflower humbly accepts her new role, tawnypaw and bramblepaw are ecstatic that their mother is now deputy of their clan

-two nights later is the gathering, shadowclan and riverclan were the first to be there, because they came together, cats from both clans intertwined under the four great oaks, with tigerclaw, now tigerstar, sitting on top of the great rock, leopardstar and blackfoot sitting underneath where deputies usually sit, and darkstripe and dustpaw not too far away, along with brokenstar’s/tigerstar’s group of rogues, which had even more members now than ever before

-Thunderclan is immediately angry and windclan is very very confused, Whitestar refuses to jump onto the Great Rock because he will not share it with Tigerstar and what the heck did he do with RiverClan? Tallstar, seeing the tension and realizing something’s gone down jumps off as well, trying to get answers from Whitestar, who announces that Tigerstar killed Redtail, tried to kill Bluestar, killed two other ThunderClan warriors directly, set ThunderClan on fire, and tried to lead dogs to ThunderClan’s camp

-ShadowClan goes “nooo he was with US, he brought our warriors back and helped us get rid of the illness, he’s been making us strong again” they won’t believe tigerstar could do all that

-tigerstar continues to go on that he is now also strengthening riverclan by ridding them of their illness and joining them with shadowclan to make TIGERCLAN, the riverclan cats seem to shrink and be embarrassed, especially leopardstar, it is then that whitestar notices that riverclan’s deputy, stonefur, was not at the gathering,  nor was mistyfoot or graystripe or any of their kits, who would be new apprentices by now and should be attending their first gathering

-tigerstar continues that leopardstar’s and mistyfoot’s son, perchkit, died of the illness but since then the sickness had cleared after he isolated the half-clan cats in riverclan, including mistyfoot and her kits, stonefur, and the unloyal graystripe and his half-clan kits, the sickness had also killed graypool, who had tried to defend mistyfoot and stonefur from being imprisoned because she had raised them as her own when they were brought to riverclan (tigerstar actually killed her/had her killed and said it was the sickness that took her)

-tigerstar explains that it was the half-clan cats that had died from this illness because they were inherently weaker then pure blooded clan cats because their loyalty, and therefore their strength, was split no matter what they said or did, tigerstar says that the only way to get rid of this weakness in the clans is to become one clan, under him, to become as strong as they can be, riverclan already did it, and now he was proposing for windclan and thunderclan to join, even with their “difficult” past

-thunderclan and windclan obviously object and refuse, which tigerstar angrily retorts that then whoever doesn’t join tigerclan in the next three days will be killed by his clan and that windclan and thunderclan would be destroyed either way

-the gathering ends with windclan and thunderclan leaving first, when thunderclan gets back to camp they’re greeted by a half starved graystripe, who says that with less of tigerstar’s followers in camp he managed to escape, he trembles in fear, agony, and embarrasment as he begs for forgiveness and for help to save his kits and mosspelt, as well as mistyfoot and her kits and stonefur

-fireheart and ravenpelt immediately agree, as well as willowpelt who covers graystripe in licks and gives him a mouse to eat; sandstorm, taken aback by her cousin’s state, agrees that it would be wrong to not try to rescue his kits

-whitestar pretends to think on it for a moment, but then fully agrees that thunderclan will help in any way they can, and will take in graystripe’s kits, mosspelt, mistyfoot and her kits, and stonefur as refugees,  it would be wrong to not try to help any cat, especially since most of these cats were thunderclan’s kin (he pretended to think, but we all know he would have killed tigerclan himself to save his grandkits and his cousin-siblings and niece and nephew-cousins)

-a rescue party of graystripe, ravenpelt, fireheart, and sandstorm is sent to rescue the cats: graystripe to guide where they’re being held, ravenpelt because he’s small and sleek so he can hide easily and be sneaky, and fireheart and sandstorm because they’re fast and can hopefully fend anyone off just enough to escape. They roll in river mud to hide their scents and pelts, especially fireheart’s

-they hide in the bushes bordering the riverclan camp by the nursery where the cats are being held hostage and they’re met with the horrifying sight of blackclaw and dustclaw shoving graystripe’s kits, stormpaw and featherpaw, into the middle of the half-wrecked camp and mosspelt yowling in distress as two black and white toms (snake and ice) block her way of escaping through the nursery entance, stonefur is being held guard by darkstripe and blackfoot on the other side of camp as tigerstar growls that the new apprentices’ father cowarded away like the thunderclan cat he is to leave his kits to die without him and that they must pay for their father’s disloyalty and cowardice, while stonefur must prove his own loyalty to tigerclan by being the one to kill them, especially his own apprentice, stormfur, yowls of objection can be heard through the nursery by mistyfoot and her kits even though they can’t be seen

-leopardstar, looking miserable and defeated, looks up to tigerstar and asks him why stonefur must be so cruel, he’s already proven clan loyalty, he was her deputy, he was a brave, strong, and loyal cat even if he was half-clan, he shouldn’t have to murder to prove his strength, and the apprentices hadn’t had a chance to prove themselves yet, but they were crookedstar’s grandkits of course they would be strong and loyal to riverclan-

-tigerstar interrupts her there, hissing that their riverclan loyalty didn’t matter, that riverclan no longer existed, only tigerclan, and she had allowed graystripe  to stay even though she knew he was a disloyal thunderclan cat, and therefore she had no say and no power in this decision, which made her bristle and a glint of her old stubbornness returned to her gaze, but she said no more ase she glanced around at the glares of tigerstar’s cats and even a pawful of her own cats, who supposedly her own cats, like blackclaw who she had once seen as her brother since they were nursed and raised together

-ravenpelt presses graystripe to the ground as he almost let’s out a full growl in the bushes of the camp and sandstorm and fireheart start thinking of a plan, perhaps making a distraction and getting as many cats out as possible, graystripe and fireheart start vigorously digging a hole behind the nursery that maybe mistyfoot, her kits, mosspelt, and her own birth kit, dawnpaw who wouldn’t leave her foster littermates or her mother, could squeeze out of while ravenpelt slinked away to make some sort of distraction, sandstorm whispers into the nursery that they’re there to save them, mistyfoot says that she will not leave her brother, and mosspelt says that she will not leave stormpaw and feather, sandstorm says that once ravenpelt makes the distraction that she needs to call to stormpaw, featherpaw, and stonefur to run to the nursery as fast as possible

-blackfoot shoves stonefur forward to be in front of the young apprentices who look half starved like graystripe and trembling, stonefur bends down and quickly whispers something into stormpaw’s and featherpaw’s ears and touches his nose to stormpaw’s head and gives him a knowing nod before turning to tigerstar who’s hissing to “prove your loyalty already, no more soft heartedness” stonefur raises his head up high and proudly states that he would never kill an apprentice, especially not innocent ones who are also his clanmates and kin

-tigerstar growls “of course” and flicks his tail to darkstripe and blackfoot who immediately run toward the apprentices only to be blocked by stormfur’s body, still strong with being half starved, there’s no more time, the hole has to be big enough and ravenpelt’s yowl can be heard from the opposite side of the camp where he lays hidden several fox lengths away, mosspelt yells out to stormpaw and featherpaw to run back, and with cats running to go see what the howl was, the fight bloody fight between stonefur, darkstripe, and blackfoot, and mosspelt’s howl, ice and snake are confused enough to be pushed through by the apprentices, who even though are young and starved still have the bulk of their father to push through and daze their guards, dawnpaw slithers through the hole first, then featherpaw, stormpaw, and mosspelt after them. Mistyfoot shoves her kits toward the hole and is about to run through the entrance to help her brother until snake and ice crash through the entrance instead with growls and hisses “THE HALF CLAN CATS ARE GETTING AWAY” ice yells, but two of mistyfoot’s kits have already gotten out of the nursery and reedpaw is almost through, snake smacks mistyfoot down with giant paws, but as reedpaw escape sandstorm slips through and pounces on the black and white tom, knocking him over into his brother and she pushes mistyfoot towards the hole, yelling at her to leave now, but she leaves through the nursery entrance instead, where she’s met with blackfoot’s jaws snapped shut around stonefur’s neck, his blood covered body gone limp and his eyes glazed over with death as blackfoot drops his body like a piece of rotten prey

-tigerstar order his cats to catch the escapees, but there are only a few left that didn’t go after ravenpelt’s yowl and weren’t on patrol, leopardstar yells, begs, mistyfoot to run, which snaps her out of her daze and she turns around and dashes away, pushing through the walls of the camp, sandstorm slashes and kicks at the cats that try to get in her way and mistyfoot leaps into the river, where the rest of the escapees are farther ahead, because most of the cats following tigerstar can’t swim like riverclan cats, the only way they can follow them is one by one across the stepping stones, where whitestar planted a patrol of longtail, mousefur, thornclaw, and himself as back up, and trapping the tigerclan cats so they can only head back to riverclan or get clawed at with no where to escape

-blackclaw; however, was still raised riverclan and also now follows tigerstar, along with beetlenose, voleclaw, and sunfish and they swim after the escapees, sandstorm, graystripe, and fireheart reach sunningrocks and continue to run to meet them, dawnpaw, featherpaw, and stormpaw are the first to make it to shore where graystripe immediately warms them with licks, mosspelt and mistyfoot’s kits make it soon after, but blackclaw is almost caught up to mistyfoot and as she gets onto shore he hooks her back leg with a claw, but fireheart and sandstorm bat him away, and whitestar’s patrol joins them, fighting the former riverclan cats who flee, being outnumbered

-the 8 riverclan refugees are quickly taken to thunderclan camp and made nests, fed, and made warm, featherpaw, stormpaw, and dawnpaw sleep in the apprentices den, and with graystripe insisting that he stays with his kits it’s quite cramped but warm, reedpaw, primrosepaw, and pikepaw stay with their mother and mosspelt in the nursery

-that night the cats of both riverclan and thunderclan sit vigil for stonefur, graystripe, mistyfoot, mosspelt, whitestar, mousefur, and one-eye stay up all night to mourn him, graystripe and mosspelt thanking him for protecting and saving stormpaw and featherpaw, stormpaw stays up as long as he can to sit vigil with them, but is pressed by his sisters to come to sleep

-whitestar spends the whole night thinking about his lost cousin, hoping that him, mosskit, oakheart, and bluestar can finally be a family in starclan, and asks them to watch over and protect their kin and clans closely in the coming days

-Whitestar wakes up the next morning only being able to think about what the future of the clans was, what the future of his kits were, and also there was barely enough warriors in thunderclan to mentor all of these new apprentices, not to mention his own kits would be apprentices in just over a moon

-Goldenflower knocks sense into him saying that it’s more important to stop tigerstar and hopefully the riverclan cats would be able to go home soon enough, whitestar agrees and yellowfang mentions the prophecy that she and whitestar got at his leader ceremony “Fire alone will save the clan, but there needs to be proud wind and honorable thunder to summon the storms that will clear the shadows.”  and that means that thunderclan and windclan need to stand together to be able to defeat tigerstar and his “clan”

-whitestar agrees, but the only way to get to windclan would be through fourtrees and tigerstar definitely has patrols patrolling at all times, so it would be hard to get through without being noticed, and perhaps that was part of tigerstar’s plan, either way he decides that he’ll go to windclan and talk to tallstar and decide what to do, thornclaw asks what will happen if tallstar decided to join tigerstar but whitestar retorts that tallstar would never, mistyfoot approaches and says that she will go with him, and yellowfang says she will go as well, perhaps if they come with cats who were raised in all of the other clans then it will be easier to persuade windclan to fight together, whitestar chooses longtail and thornclaw to come with them as back up in case they ran into a tigerclan patrol

-once the patrol makes it to fourtrees, tense and nervous even in their own territory, dustclaw suddenly appears on top of the Great Rock from behind it, snidely welcoming them and ask them what they’re planning on doing there, blackclaw, sunfish, clawface, and jaggedtooth come out from behind the great rock

-yellowfang snarls at the two former shadowclan cats, telling them that she watched them grow up and she thought they’d be good shadowclan warriors and here they are now, jaggedtooth spits at her, saying that they were better warriors then she ever was and ever could be, and twice as loyal than she was to anything

-mistyfoot hisses at blackclaw and sunfish, blackclaw replies that even her hiss is weaker since she’s a half-clan cat and he threatens to claw her until she begs for mercy, mistyfoot retorts that he’d be dead before he could even touch her

-longtail tries to appeal to dustclaw, asking him what their parents, robinwing and fuzzypelt would think of him, and what would their four dead siblings would think of him, and if he came back now maybe he could be an honorable thunderclan warrior again

-dustclaw snarls at him saying that longtail’s become kittypet soft just like the rest of thunderclan and would never recognize his greatness or tigerstar’s and that’s why thunderclan must be destroyed, whitestar growls and tells dustclaw that he wouldn’t let him back into thunderclan anyway, and that thunderclan’s business was none of his own, clawface snears that they both have 5 cats, but one of the thunderclan patrol was an old medicine cat and another was a weakened and frail queen, yellowfang and mistyfoot hiss and sunfish and jaggedtooth visibly flinch

-just as the patrols were about to clash, a hiss is heard from windclan’s side of fourtrees and tallstar and a patrol of onewhisker, whitetail, and tornear appear and they run down to fourtrees and meet the thunderclan patrol, the tigerclan patrol have a moment of worry until dustclaw shakes it off and asks tallstar “oh, are you looking for a couple of your warriors tallstar? icetail, eaglefoot, and hedgepaw?” “no, i’m pretty positive of where they are, dustpaw, i know they joined tigerstar’s group of rogues!” dustclaw’s fur bushes up and he gets defensive “i am dustCLAW now, tigerstar named me a warrior as soon as he became leader because at least appreciates me as a warrior!” tallstar sniffs and replies “he’s using you like he uses all of his other rogues” dustclaw snarls and seems to be about to pounce until he realizes again that the two patrols together almost doubled his patrol, even with an old medicine cat and worn out warrior, and claims that they’ll have the chance to tear them apart in time, until then they had to go report to tigerstar. The warriors are about to attack as dustclaw leaps down from the great walk and strides off towards shadowclan territory with his patrol, but whitestar tells them to halt, they needed to conserve their fighting energy and couldn’t risk anyone getting hurt right now

-tallstar asks if the patrol was coming to visit thunderclan and whitestar nods, tallstar says that barkface received a prophecy from starclan and yellowfang says it’s the same one that she and whitestar received, whitestar asks if this means that thunderclan and windclan will fight side by side then, and tallstar says that of course they would. The leaders decide that the two clans will meet the next morning at fourtrees just after sun has peaked over the horizon so tigerclan won’t have time to attack individually, but two clans being at fourtrees will definitely grab their attention and they would take on tigerclan from there

-once the patrol gets back to thunderclan whitestar starts explaining the plan to everyone, he offers goldenflower to stay in camp to protect his kits and the elders (mostly because he knows it must be hard for her knowing they would be fighting her ex-mate), but goldenflower refuses saying that she must battle alongside her clanmates

-whitestar asks willowpelt if she wants to fight, to avenge redtail and brindleface, but willowpelt says she wants to stay and protect the camp, to protect their kits, frostfur steps forward and says that she will fight as well, for lionheart, for her sister brindleface and her son brackenpaw, as well as the injuries tigerstar had caused her daughters

-rainkit and sorrelkit star calling saying that they want to go fight too, they don’t need to be protected they’re NEARLY apprentices, whitestar adors his little kits but tells them that they need to stay in camp and maybe willowpelt will teach them some fighting moves, mosspelt steps up and says that she’ll stay in camp as well, featherpaw says that she wants to fight in the battle and stormpaw says that if she fights he wants to fight as well, but whitestar refuses them as they had just become apprentices the day before tigerstar took over riverclan and hadn’t gotten enough battle training, primrosepaw says that they had been apprentices for a quarter moon longer than them, so they had gotten some battle training, whitestar thinks and then tells them that they need to guard the kits and elders, dappletail then retorts that she and the rest of the elders would rather die protecting the clan than die needing to be protected, so if anything were to happen the elders would fight till the end, halftail, one-eye, and smallear all heartily agree. Whitestar thinks about how the last time the elders had to battle to protect their clan that rosetail and thrushpelt had been killed, but he knew that he wouldn’t be able to stop them, and if it came to it they wouldn’t have a choice anyway.

-Whitestar is about to tell tawnypaw to stay behind too, but she insists on fighting, she won’t sit in camp while her father tries to destroy the clans and featherpaw insists again and her fighting as well, whitestar decides that tawnypaw can join, but stormpaw and featherpaw will not fight, he gives them to responsibility of being runners, fetching injured cats and bringing them to yellowfang and bramblepaw who will be just outside of fourtrees to attend the injured and they will assist the medicine cats as needed, ravenpelt offers to help them and make sure they don’t get hurt

-whitestar starts worrying about how brightheart or cinderpelt would do in battle, as well as snowpaw, he asks brightheart first, telling her he’s unsure if she’s ready to fight when she had just recovered for about a moon, cloudpaw interrupts and says that brightheart could fight anyone and beat them and she’s been working will hard to train, cinderpelt, sandstorm, and fireheart agree, saying they’ve all been training very hard together and brightheart or cinderpelt could fight just as well as anyone, whitestar asks cloudpaw to fetch snowpaw and he comes back with both snowpaw and fernpaw, whitestar, using sign language, asks snowpaw if he felt comfortable fighting or if he’d rath stay and protect camp, snowpaw shakes his head and signs for “fight” and points towards fourtrees and then signs for “speckle” and “tail”, meaning he wants to fight for his mother, who died saving him from the fire that tigerstar and darkstripe started in thunderclan, fernpaw agrees that snowpaw can and will fight, and she’ll be with him and they’ll protect each other, cloudpaw agrees that he won’t let anyone hurt his clanmates, ashpaw chimes in that he will fight to avenge their mother and whitestar says that he had no doubt his apprentice was ready to battle

-whitestar realizes just how wide tigerstar’s wrath had spread, everyone in the clan had been personally effected, and decides that willowpelt, mosspelt, mistyfoot’s kits, and the elders staying behind to protect the camp will have to be enough, he leads a hunting patrol of longtail, mousefur, cinderpelt, and tawnypaw, and besides that patrol they take the rest of the day to rest and prepare, though most of the clan was too restless to truly rest, yellowfang was teaching bramblepaw the different healing herbs and making leaf bundles that they and stormpaw and featherpaw would carry to the battle, the warrior apprentices trained together with thornclaw and brightheart, whitestar gives ashpaw some last minute battle tips

-before the sun had risen the clan silently pelts to fourtrees, the wind is sadly against their back and when they arrive they see two pelts slink into the bushes, one towards riverclan and one towards shadowclan, whitestar signals for his clan to fan out and they line out in front of the thunderclan border so it would be harder for anyone to try to run into thunderclan and attack the camp, whitestar is suddenly very relieved to have goldenflower standing beside him, strong, proud, and ready to fight, frostfur, mousefur, mistyfoot, and longtail stood beside her, on whitestar’s right flank was sandstorm, fireheart, graystripe, and ravenpelt beside her, thornclaw, brightheart, cinderpelt, and the apprentices created a second line of defense behind them, the apprentices close behind their mentors. Whitestar checked behind him for ashpaw, he could see fear in his eyes and his scent, but his stance was strong and confident

-pink started lining the horizon and whitestar was starting to fear that windclan wouldn’t get there in time, or maybe not at all, he knew tigerstar would be aware of thunderclan being at fourtrees by now, he must be preparing and even on his way, but as soon as he thought that the bushes on windclan’s side of fourtrees started rustling and tallstar sped down the slope into the clear, a stream of windclan cats followed him and lined up in front of their border like thunderclan. Tallstar walked forward to the middle of the clearing and whitestar joined him, they both bowed their heads respectfully to each other. “I’m sorry I couldn’t greet you as a leader for the first time in a better situation, Whitestar. I know your leadership has already been hard, but I am positive Bluestar chose the right cat, and I am sure she is very proud of you and her clan and will be protecting you all, just as the rest of StarClan will watch over us.”

-Whitestar suddenly felt on the spot and guilty that he didn’t know tallstar as well as he should, “I know your leadership has not been easy at all, especially the past few seasons, I’m honored to be a leader with, and to fight alongside you and your warriors. Do you have warriors staying in camp to protect your camp?”

-Deadfoot steps forward and goldenflower suddenly pelts forward to be besides whitestar again, they both nod to each other respectively and then bow to the other leader, “Ashfoot is with our kit, crowkit in the nursery, Webfoot is also heavily pregnant with his own kits, and Robinwing just gave birth to Tornear’s and her daughter, Nightkit, yesterday. They’re all in camp with the elders, Morningflower has also stayed behind to protect them. Tigerstar’s rogues killed her son, Gorsepaw a moon ago in a border scuffle, but she’d rather be there to defend the kits and queens just in case. Whitestar apologizes and asks where their other apprentices were, he only saw warriors in their battle formation and tallstar says that as they had learned yesterday, hedgepaw and two warriors had joined tigerstar and tigerclan, and their other two apprentices were staying back outside of fourtrees with barkface to assist him and to fetch injured cats. Whitestar nods saying that they had two apprentices to help Yellowfang and Bramblepaw as well as to assist injured cats. In big battles like this it was a standard practice, but Whitestar was still glad that the two leaders had made the same strategies.

-Whitestar dips his head to his fellow leader and raises his voice so the rest of the cats could hear him, “May our clans fight alongside each other and lookout for each other. And may StarClan guide us well.”

-As soon as he finishes speaking the wind suddenly changes and a rush of ShadowClan and RiverClan scent swamps the clearing and soon countless pawsteps can be heard and then bushes on RiverClan’s side of the border start to rustle and Blackfoot steps through, Leopardstar close behind him, with many cats, most riverclan but with several shadowclan cats and rogues, following them. Then the bushes on ShadowClan’s side start rustles, shadowclan, riverclan, and rogues streaming forward into the clearing, and then finally, Tigertstar strides out from within his group of cats, darkstripe and dustclaw close behind. The large dark tabby stares down the leaders, not even looking at his former mate, who’s green eyes are now narrowed and her fur bristling, her claws already unsheathed and she’s obviously keeping in a snarl. “So,” Tigerstar oddly purrs, “Have the great leaders of ThunderClan and WindClan made their decision on joining my clan?”

Finale

“We already told you our answer, Tigerstar, our answer is no,” Tallstar responded cooly. Whitestar quickly glanced over all sides of the clearing, almost all the cats of every clan were there, including all of Tigerstar’s rogues and even ShadowClan elders; ThunderClan and WindClan were greatly outnumbered. Whitestar realized that Tigerstar had fixed his gaze onto him.

“And you? Great ThunderClan leader, Whitestar, the one I considered to be like a brother,” his eyes widened to look innocent.

Whitestar’s pelt bristled, “You are no brother of mine! ThunderClan would never join you. WindClan and ThunderClan will defend ourselves until the last breath!”

Tigerstar’s amber eyes narrowed and his claws unsheathed as he growled, “Then die.”

Before Tigerstar could wave his tail to signal his warriors to attack, a yowl came from RiverClan’s side of Fourtrees.

“No!” It was Leopardstar, her eyes filled with anger, her pelt bristled, and claws unsheathed. Tigerstar paused to look over to her, his eyes like fire and his teeth bared.

“Leopardfur!”

“No!” she repeated, her teeth now bared as well, “I am Leopardstar, and I am the leader of RiverClan. We will no longer be a part of TigerClan, I never should have agreed to it in the first place. We will night fight with you Tigerstar! You killed my deputy and dear friend, you held my mate, kits, and clanmates hostage! You brought rogues into my camp! You’ve disrespected and harmed my clan. We will night fight with you, but we will fight against you!”

Shock flooded through the RiverClan cats, as well as several hisses from the rogues and a few warriors, but most of the RiverClan warriors seemed to stand taller and confidently behind their leader. Relief flooded over Whitestar even as snarls, hissing, and yowls erupted from Tigerstar’s followers and rogues, but to his surprise many ShadowClan cats were looking confused or disheartened.

Whitestar had to do something, “ShadowClan! You don’t have to fight with Tigerstar. You can fight for what you know is right and you will be even more of a loyal ShadowClan warrior for it!”

Tigerstar’s lips drew back in a snarl, “You do not tell my clan what to do! They follow my orders and my orders alone, that is the warrior code!”

“You don’t care what the warrior code is!” Sandstorm hissed. Agreement rang across the clearing.

“Enough!” Tigerstar yowled, “I will no longer be merciful, you will all die for your betrayal to StarClan’s wishes and to destiny! TigerClan, attack!”

In an uproar cats from ShadowClan and RiverClan’s sides erupted into the clearing, clashing into WindClan and ThunderClan. Whitestar tried to keep track of where Tigerstar was, but in the flurry of battle, he could no longer spot his dark pelt.

I’ve been in plenty of battles before, but none like this.

Suddenly Whitestar’s breath was struck out of his body as a dark gray body slammed into him and claws sank into his fur. While Whitestar was trying to assess the battle, Darkstripe had taken the opportunity to attack.

“Finally,” Darkstripe’s breath was hot on Whitestar’s muzzle as he struggled to turn towards the striped tom, “I get to do what I’ve been wanting to do for moons!” Darkstripe’s claws raked down Whitestar’s side and he hissed in pain. Whitestar was a pretty decent fighter, but the surprise attack and the fact that Darkstripe was his kin and a former clanmate was making Whitestar struggle to fight back as hard as he could. He swiped at Darkstripe’s muzzle and beads of blood appeared, but Darkstripe was ruthless bit down into Whitestar’s shoulder, but barely missing his neck as Whitestar dodged. Darkstripe sunk his teeth deeper into Whitestar’s shoulder, blood running down his white pelt. Darkstripe wasn’t letting go and instead started thrashing his head. Whitestar yowled in pain, hardly able to combat the tom’s dirty attack.

Suddenly Darkstripe’s teeth were relieved from Whitestar’s shoulder and another thick gray pelt was beside him, a single thick darker gray stripe running down the back. Graystripe had tackled Darkstripe away from Whitestar and was now battering him with heavy blows. Graystripe, being bigger and heavier than Darkstripe easily overwhelmed him with blows.

“Get away from my father!” he yowled. Darkstripe hissed and lunged for Graystripe’s throat, but instead Graystripe’s unsheathed claws landed on Darkstripe’s and in one heavy slash, Darkstripe’s throat was sliced open and he fell to the ground. With his yellow eyes wide, he desperately tried to push himself to his paws, but before he could stand he fumbled back to the ground, soaked in blood. His eyes glazed over, empty with death. Whitestar tensed as he recognized his father’s dying eyes in the gray tom. They were exactly the same.

Though Whitestar was relieved, he couldn’t help but grieve for his half brother. If only you could have been better than our father. Graystripe stood over Darkstripe’s body, blood and scratches on his pelt. Whitestar realized he had never seen his son so injured, no battle in his life had been this hard and suddenly his grief moved to his son, who had never killed another cat in his life and had already lost so much, to now have killed his own kin, his own half brother.

To save my life. He saved my life.

Whitestar flicked his tail down his son’s pelt, “You didn’t have to do that, I have more lives than you, you could’ve been hurt,” Whitestar hesitated, suddenly feeling warm pride in his son, “But you saved my life anyway. You were so brave, my son you are a great warrior.”

Graystripe let out a loud purr, “I could never stand by and watch someone kill you!”

“And I would give all my nine lives for you,” Whitestar purred back.

Graystripe’s whiskers twitched in gratitude, and maybe a little embarrassment, then turned around and rushed back into battle.

I need to find Tigerstar. Whitestar thought, refocusing back to the battle surrounding him. Featherpaw and Stormpaw were rushing a RiverClan cat to Yellowfang and Bramblepaw. Mistyfoot slashed and grappled with Blackfoot across the clearing. She raked Blackfoot’s ears with her claws then grabbed him by the throat and slammed him to the ground, mercilessly finishing him by ripping open his throat.

And as he deserves. Why should she show mercy when he didn’t when he killed her brother.

Leopardstar fought Blackclaw a few fox lengths away, slamming his shoulders into the ground. Suddenly Deadfoot was thrown a few tail lengths away from Whitestar; the ShadowClan warrior, Jaggedtooth, jumping to pin the older tom to the ground. Both cats were covered in blood, but Deadfoot was in much worse condition. Whitestar immediately threw himself at the ginger warrior, his search for Tigerstar would have to wait. Jaggedtooth stumbled away from the black tom as Whitestar’s weight knocked him aside. Whitestar hooked his claws into the tom’s shoulders, there were already wounds there and the ginger tom yowled in pain and tried to tear himself away. Whitestar slashed at his muzzle, Jaggedtooth went low to attack his underbelly, but Whitestar quickly spun around and kicked the tom directly in the skull. Dazed, heavily bleeding, and his jaw possibly broken, Jaggedtooth turned tail and fled from Whitestar and the battle.

Whitestar quickly turned his attention to the WindClan deputy, still heavily bleeding. He crouched down, trying to evaluate his wounds, “Don’t worry, old friend, the medicine cats will get you patched up,” Whitestar tried to gently purr and grazed his muzzle across Deadfoot’s. His one twisted paw seemed to be even more twisted than usual.

Deadfoot twitched his ears, “I know, I trust our medicine cats with my life. As well as StarClan,” he breathed heavily. Suddenly another black pelt, Ravenpelt, ran to Whitestar’s and Deadfoot’s side.

“Deadfoot!” Ravenpelt yelped and immediately started to move Deadfoot onto his back, “All the runners are already busy, I’ll take him to Barkface,” and with determination in his eyes, Ravenpelt dragged Deadfoot to the edge of the clearing. Whitestar felt such deeply imbedded pride in the young warrior who had once been the most timid kit he’d ever seen. Even though he still might not be in love with fighting, Ravenpelt was a truly courageous warrior of ThunderClan and Whitestar was extremely grateful to have him as his clanmate. He kept a watch to make sure no one attacked the two black cats before plunging back into the heat of battle.

Though things were simmering down; many bodies lay limp and lifeless on the floor of Fourtrees and very few of Tigerstar’s followers remained. A dark brown tabby pelt appeared at the top of the Great Rock. His amber eyes fiery and bright in the bright morning sun.

“Tigerstar!” Whitestar hissed, fury heated his pelt as he charged forward. No one got in his way as he halted in front of the Great Rock, “Tigerstar! Come down he and face the consequences of your war like a warrior!”

Tigerstar crouched down, almost as if he were bowing to his enemy, “As you wish, Whitestar,” and with a glisten in his eye he leapt off of the Great Rock and before Whitestar could realize-

The large tabby landed directly on Whitestar’s neck.

~~~

Whitestar awoke in a grassy field and immediately pushed himself to his paws. He anxiously looked around, expecting to see Fourtrees and countless cats fighting, but instead he was met with the starry figures of his late loved one: Bluestar and Snowfur stood in front of him, and Lionheart, Redtail, and Spottedleaf stood beside him.

Of course, he was in StarClan. Tigerstar had killed him, but Whitestar had a sudden rush of emotion and love seeing his mother, aunt, and friends once again.

“Mother! Bluestar!” Whitestar stepped forward and both of his mothers lovingly nuzzled him. He turned and Lionheart and Redtail both touched their noses to his, Spottedleaf licked his ear. Though he was overwhelmed with joy of seeing his loved ones, the feeling was soon washed away with anxiety, “I’m happy to see you again, but I need to go back. I still have eight lives, correct? Please, send me back, who knows what Tigerstar could be doing right now!”

“Please, Whitestar,” Snowfur mewed, “Your neck was just broken, please stay for just a few heartbeats as your body heals. I promise it will be okay, my love,” she began to lap at his ears as any mother would do to calm her kit.

His mother’s words calmed him a bit, as well as hit him with a wave of grief that he hadn’t been able to grow up with her to teach him and comfort him.

Bluestar nodded, “I know that it may feel like you’re here for a long time, but that’s only because you’re anxious, you know that when a leader loses a life they come back to life in just a few moments. No matter how long it feels here, in the living world you’ll only have been dead for a few heartbeats,” she purred.

Redtail twitched his whiskers, “You’re always patient for every cat except yourself!” he flicked his tail tip over Whitestar’s face, just as he’d done when they were warriors together and Redtail would tease him.

Whitestar jokingly cuffed his old friend’s ear, “But Redtail, you know better than anyone else how dangerous Tigerstar is!”

“Yes,” Lionheart answered, “but most of his followers are dead or have ran away, it is only him against all of the clan now,” he shared a playful and proud glance with Redtail, “You should know better than anyone else that your clanmates, and the other clans cats, are very capable and defending themselves.”

Redtail raised his head high, purring as Spottedleaf nodded and returned her gaze back to Whitestar, “You should be proud, Whitestar. You should be proud of everything you’ve accomplished, and everyone you’ve touched the hearts of,” she mewed.

“And not to mention you picked a great deputy!” Lionheart added triumphantly. Whitestar purred at Lionheart’s obvious affection and pride for his sister.

Redtail stepped closer to Whitestar again and touched his nose to his, his green gaze, which looked exactly like Sandstorm’s, now calmer and serious, but still full of affection, “Thank you, Whitestar,” he purred, “for everything you’ve done for me and my kin.”

As Redtail stepped away, Bluestar stepped forward and pressed her forehead to Whitestar’s, and Whitestar drew in her warm scent, just as it was when she was alive, “It’s time for you to go back Whitestar. Remember to trust your choices, to trust yourself and your clanmates. And remember that I named Sandstorm after you for a reason.”

~~~

When Whitestar opened his eyes his head and body pulsed with aches. He immediately stood and quickly took in the scene. What had he missed, how long was he in StarClan before he continued on his next life? Where was Tigerstar? But before he could get a clear focus his legs started to give. Goldenflower was quickly by his side and steadied him before returning a cold gaze down at her former mate.

Before Whitestar could give his deputy thanks, his vision finally cleared and he followed Goldenflower’s gaze. A few fox lengths away was Tigerstar. Fireheart’s claws were dug deep in his back and shoulders; the ginger tom’s green eyes were filled with more ferocity and anger than Whitestar had ever seen in them before. In front of Tigerstar was Sandstorm, fur risen, tail lashing, and her eyes full of hatred, spitting at Tigerstar. For a moment Tigerstar struggled to get out from Fireheart’s grip before seeming to give in, even though his expression still showed nothing but unwavering brutality. Howls, hissing, and growls filled the clearing. Cats closed in around the the fighting cats in a circle to get closer, some trying to get in their own swipe, but there wasn’t enough room.

“Kill him!”

“Slash his throat!”

“He’s a traitor among the clans!”

“And the warrior code!”

“Disgusting,” Tigerstar spat, “To be pinned by a kittypet and be guarded by a cat I once thought could be a fierce warrior. Allying yourself with the kittypet made you soft, Sandstorm. You can’t even kill me like a warrior can you? You’re just like your fathers! Weak, fragile, and too soft-hearted to be true warriors!”

Sandstorm bared her teeth, and with a yowl, reared onto her hind legs and slashed her unsheathed claws down Tigerstar’s eyes. Blood sprayed from his face as he let out a howl. Fireheart struggled to keep Tigerstar pinned down as he lurched upwards in pain.

“Don’t you ever talk about my fathers like that! They were better warriors than you could ever be in all your nine lives!” Sandstorm hissed.

Tigerstar snarled in her direction as he attempted to open his eyes, but there was nothing but blood, streaming down his eyes and face. He suddenly lurched to the side, tearing Fireheart’s claws off him and knocking him over with a roar. Sandstorm lunged for Tigerstar and snapped her jaws down directly on his throat. Tigerstar gagged as blood spilled onto the ground and down Sandstorm’s chin. Then she let go. Tigerstar’s body thumped onto the ground. Sandstorm stared down at his body. Her ferocity and hatred quickly faded into horror as she realized what she had just done.

Whitestar felt a wave of grief and sorrow. Not for the death of Tigerstar, but for his former apprentice. Sandstorm… You didn’t deserve any of this. This shouldn’t have been your burden to bear.

Whitestar glanced next to him at Goldenflower. He was steadier now so he took his weight off of her, but she didn’t move away. Her gaze was somber, but steady as she stared down at the ground in front of her paws. Whitestar knew that she didn’t want to look at her former mate’s dead body. And he also knew that she knew that it wasn’t over yet.

Fireheart rushed to Sandstorm’s side and Ravenpelt paced behind them. Sandstorm’s gaze cleared as she caught her breath and raised her head high.

“He’s dead!”

“StarClan couldn’t have possibly given someone like Tigerstar 9 lives, right?”

Leopardstar stepped forward from the crowd, her fur battered and bloody, matted onto her neck. She must have lost a life at some point during the battle.

“No. He was definitely given lives,” she addressed above the murmurs of the crowd, “I know because I killed him once. I took one of his lives trying to reclaim my clan,” She paused and gritted her, “His followers then took one of my own lives in revenge. And then when both Tigerstar and I came back he killed me again for his own personal revenge.”

Leopardstar stood strong against the eyes of the clans, but Whitestar heard the cracks in her voice. Some cats narrowed their eyes in suspicion, some murmured pity, and a couple growled or hissed in anger.

“How could StarClan give him lives!?” Bramblepaw’s yowl echoed across the clearing.

“Maybe he lost his last one, he hasn’t come back to life yet.”

“Yeah, Whitestar got back up almost instantly!” Ashpaw blurted, running up beside his mentor.

Runningnose pressed through the crowd. He looked older and sicker than usual. He stood beside Leopardstar and he opened his mouth to speak, but before he could, Tigerstar’s pelt rippled. Cats gasped and Fireheart pressed himself in front of Sandstorm and snarled, his claws unsheathed and ready to defend his mate.

Tigerstar let out a cough and blood spat out of his mouth. He rose to his paws, some wounds healed, at least enough, but blood still dripped from his face and mouth. He gritted his teeth and snarled, snapping his head from side to side. He kept his torn up eyes closed. He was blind. Cats yowled and hissed, some trying to move forward to get to Tigerstar, but before anyone reached him Tigerstar turned to face Whitestar and opened his eyes.

“Whitestar!” Tigerstar charged and then leapt for the ThunderClan leader, giant, unsheathed claws outreached. Whitestar was taken by surprise, but instinctively met his former close friend with his own outstretched claws. As Tigerstar’s claws sank into Whitestar’s shoulders, Whitestar’s forepaw slammed into Tigerstar’s still-wounded neck. Whitestar felt the strength of the entire forest rush through his legs and paws as his claws sank into Tigerstar’s throat and he slammed his body onto the ground. He felt and heard a crack as Tigerstar choked. Then his amber eyes went dull and blank as Whitestar stood on top of him.

The cats stayed quiet as Whitestar caught his breath and stepped away from Tigerstar’s body. He looked to Goldenflower, her lips drawn back in a snarl and claws unsheathed. Her face showed nothing but anger looking down at Tigerstar. Tawnypaw ran up from the crowd to press herself against her mother; Bramblepaw followed behind her more cautiously.

“I’m sorry,” Runningnose sniffed shyly, “I should have spoken sooner…” The cats around murmured, some even twitching their whiskers in amusement at the old medicine cat. “But I have an explanation. And I know I should have told ShadowClan sooner, I should have told anyone sooner. But I don’t think Tigerstar received his lives from StarClan.”

“What!?”

“How does he have lives then?”

“Who gave him lives?”

Runningnose cleared his throat and tried to speak above the chatter while also repeatedly glancing over to Tigerstar’s body nervously, “We never made it to the Moonstone. Tigerstar said that the entrance to Mothermouth was far enough for him, I tried to persuade him, but he just got angry. He fell asleep, but I couldn’t sense the presence of StarClan at all! But he kept twitching and grunting in his sleep, sometimes hissing and snarling. I was hoping that he was just having a bad dream instead of getting lives, but he apparently did, and they definitely aren’t from StarClan.”

“He would have been almost completely healed if they were from StarClan!”

“And he was dead way longer!”

“Why wouldn’t you tell us immediately!”

“Why would you keep a secret like that from your clan!”

“Wasn’t Runningnose raised with Brokenstar? How can we trust him!”

“What kind of medicine cat would do that?”

Runningnose shrank back in guilt and shame and was about to slink back into the crowd when Littlecloud ran up and Flintfang stepped forward.

“Runningnose is a great medicine cat!” Littlecloud defended his mentor, “No one would’ve been able to do anything! If he had said something Tigerstar would have banished him or even had him killed!”

“Littlecloud is right,” Flintfang growled, “Nothing like this has happened in anyone’s memory. Runningnose has done as much as he can just to keep ShadowClan alive! No one one would’ve been able to do better than he has!”

The cats all started murmuring and chattering again as Yellowfang walked through the crowd to stand beside Whitestar and her former apprentice, “I’ve only heard stories of this when I was a kit and my old mentor had mentioned it maybe twice in passing. But there may be something other than StarClan; a place where the worst cats go where they die instead of StarClan. A place of no stars, where light can barely filter into the forest. I believe the elders called it the Dark Forest. It could be entirely possible that they have the power to give lives just like StarClan,” she looked down at Tigerstar, “but perhaps are not as good at healing.”

“I remember that name!”

“I’ve heard some stories about that, but isn’t it just a nursery tale?”

“That’s why he didn’t want to go to the Moonstone!”

In the din Tigerstar’s pelt rippled once again. His wounds were crusted over with dried blood as he struggled to return to his paws. He couldn’t open his eyes. Whitestar took a step back. How many more times do we have to do this? Six? Do we have to just keep killing him over and over? What if he has more than nine lives from the Dark Forest?

“I’m not afraid to die! I’ll come back again and again. I’ll outlast you, I’ll outlast your kits and your kits kits! The clans will never be rid of my claws!” Tigerstar roared.

Goldenflower nudged her kits backwards into the crowd and then stepped forward. She stood in front of Tigerstar, her expression unreadable. Whitestar wanted to tell her to get back, but he had never seen Goldenflower like this and the words seemed to get stuck in his throat.

Tigerstar faced his former mate; his ears and whiskers twitched, “Goldenflower,” he purred, “Have you decided to join me? To choose your mate over your clan? I saw Bramblepaw and Tawnypaw before too. I’m glad you’ve all come to your senses.”

Goldenflower stayed quiet, her green gaze burning into the dark tabby. The rest of the clans had fallen silent, no one was sure what was going on or what to do.

“I’d die before I joined you,” Goldenflower murmured, “I’d die before I let my kits be influenced by you,” her lips pulled back in a snarl, “And I’d die before I let you, my former mate, the one I used to love and respect so much, hurt my clan, or any clan again!” She lunged forward, tucking her head under Tigerstar’s chest and shoving him backwards. Before he fell onto his back, Goldenflower aimed her strike, hooking her claws into Tigerstar’s throat and slamming him to the ground with full force. Tigerstar’s scabbed eyes shot open in shock as he choked in pain, blood gurgling out of his throat. Goldenflower then swiftly raked her claws from his throat down his chest and exposed belly. She stumbled backwards, bloody fur stuck in her claws as blood spurted from Tigerstar’s belly. His eyes had already gone blank as blood continued to spill from his body.

No one spoke. The entirety of Fourtrees was frozen except for the pool of Tigerstar’s blood. Tawnypaw and Bramblepaw stared in shock from the crowd. Ashpaw coward behind Whitestar. Leopardstar, Littlecloud, and Runningnose stood shocked, but Leopardstar looked vaguely impressed. Fireheart, Sandstorm, and Ravenpelt pressed against one another. Whitestar could only glance at Goldenflower before staring at Tigerstar’s corpse. His amber eyes flashing back to life, his pelt rippling and mouth gasping and choking before growing dull and lifeless again. Over and over again. Until he finally lay still forever.

Epilogue: After The Battle

Death Count:

A bunch of Tigerstar’s rogue and former kittypet followers

ThunderClan:

-Tigerstar: killed by Sandstorm and Fireheart, Whitestar, and Goldenflower

-Darkstripe: killed by Graystripe

-Whitestar lost a life

WindClan:

-Hedgepaw: Killed by one of Tigerstar’s allies when he tried to run away

-Icetail: Killed by his sister, Whitetail, and Onewhisker

-Deadfoot: he made it back to WindClan’s camp but died shortly after

-Tallstar lost a life

RiverClan

-Blackclaw (Tigerstar’s ally): Killed by Leopardstar

-Sunfish (Tigerstar’s ally)

-Beetlenose (Tigerstar’s ally)

-Leopardstar lost a life

ShadowClan

-Blackfoot (Tigerstar’s ally): Killed by Mistyfoot

-Clawface (Tigerstar’s ally)

-Nightwhisper (Tigerstar’s ally)

-probably a couple elders since Tigerstar made them fight

-couple of other warriors i don’t feel like finding names for

~~~

-It’s not even sunhigh when the battle is over, Whitestar sees Onewhisker carrying Hedgepaw’s body to the group of WindClan cats and prays to StarClan that unless he truly had darkness in his heart to allow him to hunt with them in their hunting grounds because he was too young.

-Tallstar approaches Whitestar and tells him that WindClan will be returning to their territory now, he wants to see how Deadfoot is doing and that he wants to make sure any injured can be treated by Barkface, and that they were glad to have help, Whitestar apologizes to the WindClan leader for his clan’s loses today, but Tallstar replies by saying that it was an honor to fight for the sake of the clans and to be allies with him and ThunderClan, he turns around, gathers his warriors, and leaves.

-Whitestar sees Graystripe leave Darkstripe’s body and ask Leopardstar if he can take Darkstripe’s body back to ThunderClan, he wanted to tell Willowpelt himself what happened. Leopardstar agrees as long as Whitestar is okay with it, she glances over to him “But I don’t think there’s any doubt he’ll let you.” Graystripe bounds over to Whitestar and before he even asks, Whitestar says yes, he may, and offers to help him carry their half-brother’s body, which Graystripe answers with a nod.

-Goldenflower, Tawnypaw, and Bramblepaw are gathered around Tigerstar’s corpse. Whitestar is about to go to them when his apprentice, Ashpaw, speaks up “Who’s going to take his body?”  Whitestar says that ThunderClan will take Tigerstar’s body, as he was born and raised in ThunderClan, but he will be buried outside ThunderClan’s border. Flintfang steps forward and says that ShadowClan will take the bodies and bury them outside of their territory by Twoleg Place. Russetfur objects saying that he doesn’t have the right to make that decision for the clan and that there are almost as many dead rogues as there are ShadowClan cats. Flintfang says that they were technically ShadowClan cats at one point, so they will be taken away by ShadowClan. No one else objects

-Tawnypaw stands up from her father’s corpse and says that she wants to help ShadowClan bury the bodies, that she has decided that she wants to join them. Goldenflower is shocked and objects and Bramblepaw cries saying that he thought she wasn’t actually going to join ShadowClan like she once said she would in private. Tawnypaw looks to her mother and then to ShadowClan and she says that she felt like it was her duty as the daughter of Tigerstar to help heal ShadowClan and put her strength into them, helping them to be strong and become stronger.

-Russetfur and several others spit that they don’t want some ThunderClan brat joining them, that they don’t need ThunderClan’s help, ShadowClan was strong on its own. Littlecloud runs up and stands by Tawnypaw though, saying that any apprentice of Cinderpelt’s would be a strong and honorable warrior. Whitethroat agrees and Rowanpaw, from the back of the crowd, yells that if she joined that they could beat her up whenever they wanted to. Cinderpelt meets with Tawnypaw and Littlecloud and asks if this is really what she wanted to do and with grief in her eyes, Tawnypaw says yes. They all look to Whitestar and he says that she would basically have to start her training all over again, which Tawnypaw says that she knows and understands. Whitestar then says that if it’s truly what she wants then she doesn’t need his permission, it’s ShadowClan she needs to get the permission from.

-Flintfang hesitates, but then nods and agrees to take her in, and makes a remark, “And Russetfur, you can be her mentor; you know what it’s like being an outsider of ShadowClan coming in.” Whitestar thinks to himself that Flintfang would make a good and noble leader for ShadowClan. Several cats flinch, no one usually dares mention that Russetfur was once a kittypet that joined ShadowClan, but after a hiss at the gray tom, Russetfur only motions to Tawnypaw, “Fine, then earn your keep now and start helping to carry one of these bodies.” But before she runs off, Tawnypaw turns around and nuzzles her mother, brother, and now former mentor. She promises that they’ll see each other on patrols and at gatherings, and that maybe she’ll see Bramblepaw when he’s out gathering herbs by the ShadowClan border.

-Cinderpelt leans over to Littlecloud and asks him to please watch over Tawnypaw and thanks him, touching the tip of his ear with her nose and Littlecloud says of course, touching his nose to CInderpelt’s. ShadowClan, with all the bodies gathered, leaves for their own territory, the last thing that can be seen is Tawnypaw’s fluffed up, golden and brown tabby tail.

-Mistyfoot approaches Leopardstar, a wary awkwardness between them. Leopardstar’s eyes soften for a moment, a rare sight to see. Mistyfoot says that she’s going to fetch their kits and Mosspelt. Leopardstar’s eyes harden again, as if she’s suddenly aware that she had let herself soften and responds, “No. I want to fetch them,” them softens her tone, realizing that she started to harshly, “Mistyfoot, please take RiverClan back to camp for me.”

-Mistyfoot is shocked as well as the cats who were in earshot, but she nods and agrees, but then whispers to Leopardstar, “Only if they want to come back, Leopardstar.” Leopardstar shifts her paws and says of course.

-Stormpaw and Featherpaw say they want to come get them as well and Leopardstar hesitates and then agrees. Mistyfoot collects the RiverClan cats and they begin to leave as Leopardstar walks to Whitestars, slightly nods and tells him to take the lead. Whitestar says that Goldenflower can lead with Bramblepaw as they carry Tigerstar’s body and he and Graystripe will follow behind with Darkstripe’s. Leopardstar walks in step with him, Stormpaw and Featherpaw trotting behind their father. “Come, ThunderClan, we’re going home,” Whitestar says, he notices that Fireheart, Sandstorm, and Ravenpelt take the back, just behind Ashpaw, Fernpaw, Cloudpaw, and Snowpaw. Whitestar takes not on how brave all four of them had to be today, and notices with sadness that they all have blood on their pelts.

-On the way to camp, Leopardstar admits to Whitestar that she saw the cat, Sasha, running towards RiverClan territory, and that she expects she will be in their camp when she gets back. She says that she was Tigerstar’s mate and one of his closest cats, which Goldenflower, overhearing, visibly twitches her tail at. Bramblepaw’s fur raises. Whitestar asks her what she’ll do with Sasha if she is and Leopardstar replies that Sasha is a good cat and i snothing like Tigerstar, and that she believe she is expecting his kits, she would never turn away an expectant queen. Goldenflower is heard swallowing a growl and her ears are pinned back, while Bramble seems to shrink in his own fur.

-They reach camp and lay the two bodies in the clearing, the cats who stay behind swarm around the group of cats, Primrosepaw quickly asks where Mistyfoot is, fearfully. Leopardstar consoles them that their mother is fine and took RiverClan home and that everything should be back to normal soon. Or as normal as it can be. Pikepaw says he wants to go home right away, his siblings and Dawnpaw agreeing.

-Graystripe tells Willowpelt what happened with Darkstripe and then steps away to let her grieve over her older son. Whitestar can tell that he feels worried about something when Graystripe cautiously approaches him. They go under the Highrock and Graystripe asks Whitestar if he can rejoin ThunderClan. His kits are apprentices now and he trusts Mistyfoot, Mosspelt, and whoever will train Stormpaw next to take care of them. He says that he has never felt like a RiverClan cat and that every moment he’s in RiverClan he misses ThunderClan. It doesn’t feel like a home, he can’t be a good warrior there.

-Whitestar feels both pity, joy, and worry. He would take his son back in a heartbeat, but he looks over to Frostfur and her kits, then Sandstorm, and then back to Graystripe. Would they ever be able to forgive him for neglecting Brackenpaw and that leading to his death? If I show that I trust him, they will.

-Whitestar nods, but warns that he’ll have to work twice as hard to gain the rest of his clanmates’ trust back, but Graystripe gleefully says of course and then bounds over to Willowpelt and his younger brothers and sister to tell them, then, more solemnly heads towards the RiverClan cats.

-Stormpaw and Featherpaw are absolutely dejected. Mosspelt’s face turns hurt and sad and says that she had a feeling he would decide this. Leopardstar says that she knew he would decide this for moons now. There is hesitancy and side eyes from a few ThunderClan cats. Graystripe confronts his kits and tells them that they don’t need him anymore, they’re apprentices and are RiverClan through and through, if he were to stay in RiverClan he would just be a reminder that they’re half ThunderClan to their entire clan and he felt like they wouldn’t get the respect they deserve. He says that he’ll always be there for them if they need him though and that he’ll always be their father and that he loves them so much and he knows that so does their mother who will always watch over them in StarClan. Mosspelt rubs her muzzle to his and whisper to him that he’s a good cat and a good father, giving him a look with a glow of love in her eyes. Graystripe says thank you and then presses his muzzle against both of his kits and licks them both between the ears before turning back to Mosspelt and asks her to take care of them. They both say of course.

-The apprentices all say goodbye, Stormpaw and Featherpaw especially take a moment to say goodbye to Willowpelt and her kits. Leopardstar walks over to Whitestar and whispers her thanks for taking care of them all and tells him that he’s a good leader. Whitestar nods and says of course, and that she’s a good leader as well. Mosspelt says her thanks as well and then the RiverClan cats leave to return to their home.

-Fireheart and Ravenpelt pounce onto Graystripe in a welcome back. Sandstorm staying more to the side, but affection for the gray tom can be seen in her eyes and she nods to him. Rainkit and Sorrelkit jump onto Graystripe’s back for a badger ride. Graystripe can hardly stand up with both of the kits on his back.

-The elders, Willowpelt, Goldenflower, and Bramblepaw all take Tigerstar and Darkstripe to be buried just outside of ThunderClan’s border and Whitestar sends a patrol of Longtail, Mousefur, Thornclaw, and all four of the warrior apprentices to go hunting. After the burial patrol returns, the hunting patrol returns with jaws full of prey. Newleaf is surely almost here.

-After everyone eats their fill and Yellowfang and Bramblepaw were able to treat everyone’s injuries, Whitestar calls for a clan meeting. He tells everyone that he’s so proud of ThunderClan and all of the clans for their victory over Tigerstar and that he hopes that after this their can be peace in newleaf. He says that in celebration, their warrior apprentices are ready to become warriors. He calls on Ashpaw, Fernpaw, Snowpaw, and Cloudpaw. He says that they were all so brave during the battle and then to come home and almost immediately go out and bring back fresh-kill for their clan. They were true warriors. He turns to Ashpaw first and says that he was so proud to be his mentor, and names him Ashfur. Then asks Longtail if Fernpaw was ready to be a warrior and when he says yes, says that Fernpaw is graceful and compassionate and names her Ferncloud. Then he asks Frostfur if Snowpaw is ready to be a warrior and when she says he is Whitestar says, while also signing to Snowpaw, that he is patient and intelligent and from this moment forward he will be named Snowears. And then finally Whitestar asks Fireheart if Cloudpaw is ready to be a warrior and after Fireheart says yes Whitestar says that Cloudpaw is passionate and confident and from this moment forward he will be named Cloudtail.

-ThunderClan chants the new warriors’ names, and some even sign the names for Snowears.

-Whitestar apologized to Bramblepaw since he’ll be the only apprentice now, but then Sorrelkit announces that she and her brother can be apprentices with him, but Whitestar refuses, saying that they still have to wait about another moon.

-The sun sets on the clans. They are rid of the evil that was Tigerstar, and are full of promise for a happy future.

[sunset-embers-warriors-designs]

Hey hey I have another warrior cats AU where Sandstorm, Dustpelt, and Ravenpaw are littermates originally born in Shadowclan

- The three kits are born to Dawncloud and Stumpytail (Chose this pair because Dawncloud mentions having lost kits to Brokenstar’s leadership, and she and Stumpytail are noted to be really close in Tigerclaw’s Fury). Dawncloud knows for sure she can’t keep her kits here because of what happened to her brothers, so she and Stumpytail take the kits to the Thunderclan border in hopes a patrol will pick them up. They don’t tell anyone in Shadowclan about it, but folks are suspicious.

- In the morning, a Thunderclan patrol finds the kits and brings them straight back to camp, where they’re adopted by Dappletail. Dappletail’s two kits, Cricketkit and Featherkit, had passed away very recently, and she was among the only available queens to nurse them. It takes like 2 hours for her to decide that these kits are hers now, and she names them Sandkit, Dustkit, and Ravenkit. Thunderclan has no idea where these kits could’ve come from - they smell a little like Shadowclan, but they were right on Shadowclan’s border so cannot confirm. The running theory is that they’re rogue kits who’s mother died on the thunderpath.

- Dappletail absolutely adores these kits, and they adore her. She’s a very no-nonsense mother and expects them to be on their best behaviour at all times, and raises them on traditional “hard work is good” values. Much to her dismay, Ravenkit is the only one who follows rules without making a fuss about it every time. Sandkit and Dustkit are both really energetic and rebellious, and they love to test the boundaries every chance they get, but Dappletail is way more patient than they are.

- Sandkit, Dustkit, and Ravenkit grow up with little knowledge of how they were found. They know they were brought into Thunderclan from the outside, but only because their clanmates keep talking about it like it’s a big deal. Dappletail tries to shield them from cats like Swiftbreeze, Sparrowpelt, Tigerclaw and Darkpaw who keep muttering about them, but some of it starts to settle in their minds. Particularly Ravenkit

- Ravenkit’s social anxiety starts to take form, which doesn’t make his reputation among his clanmates any better. To combat this, Redtail introduces Dappletail’s kits to Graykit, his nephew who’s got no littermates of his own to play with. Sandkit and Dustkit still prefer to keep to themselves, but Ravenkit and Graykit are immediate best friends.

- The three of them become apprentices shortly after Graypaw. As he’s entered this teenaged stage, Dustpaw has become a bit more angsty and difficult to talk to, so Bluestar assigns him Redtail, as Redtail is experienced at being the cool uncle and she thinks he can get through to him. Sandpaw demonstrates really great hunting and stalking potential, and so to encourage those skills even more, she’s given Whitestorm as her mentor. For Ravenpaw, Bluestar *had* planned Rosetail to mentor him before she all of a sudden decided to retire. Mousefur and Runningwind were only just made warriors, so they aren’t ready for their own apprentice yet. The only option left is Tigerclaw; Bluestar figures Tigerclaw can help Ravenpaw become more bold and sure of himself. Dappletail fights her on this because of Tigerclaw’s attitude, and offers to train her son herself, but Bluestar tells her “Parents can’t mentor their own kits, sorry”

- Ravenpaw departs on a patrol with Tigerclaw, Redtail, Runningwind, and Mousefur on a mission to go get Sunningrocks back. Dustpaw would have come, as Redtail’s apprentice, but he’s grounded for misbehaving during training or something. In the chaos of the retreat after the battle, Tigerclaw commits the Redtail murder, and Ravenpaw is the only witness. When he gets back to camp to scream that Redtail is dead, he gets sick to his stomach when he locks eyes with Dustpaw.

- Redtail’s death drives a wedge between the brothers. Ravenpaw has this immense guilt that he just can’t explain to Dustpaw, and Dustpaw takes it as pity, which he’s far too proud to accept. Sandpaw is caught in the middle, but then floats over to Dustpaw. Ravenpaw still has Graypaw, and the new guy Firepaw to keep him company, but as Sandpaw sees it, Dustpaw doesn’t have anyone else.

- As they get older, the siblings feel the pressure to prove themselves as loyal Thunderclan cats more than ever. Tigerclaw uses Ravenpaw’s unknown background as a way to spread rumours about him being a Shadowclan spy, which Dappletail refutes every time its brought up. Dustpaw tries to speak out against it, but his new mentor, Darkstripe, shuts him up by saying if he was “really” Thunderclan, he’d be wary of Ravenpaw like the rest of them. Sandpaw feels the need to demonstrate her allegiance to Thunderclan by bullying Firepaw, which Dustpaw then joins in on. Firepaw being the most recent outsider to come into camp makes her and her brothers less of a target for suspicion and gossip, so she does not hesitate on getting involved in the Firepaw bullying.

- Back in Shadowclan, someone overhears Dawncloud and Stumpytail talking about their kits and how they’re doing in Thunderclan, and reports back to Brokenstar. Brokenstar exiles the two and decides he’ll get his revenge on Thunderclan by taking some kits of their own.

- Ravenpaw’s death is faked after Brokenstar is dethroned, which makes Dustpaw and Sandpaw kind of snap back into reality. Dappletail is absolutely heartbroken, and becomes very bitter with all of her clanmates that took part in the Ravenpaw being a spy gossip. She always knew her son was a good cat, and she’s furious that the only proof Thunderclan would accept was his death. Dustpaw and Sandpaw stand by their mother, but they can’t hold it against their clanmates like she does. Dustpaw was *part* of the rumour’s start. They opt not to tell her this, and the two just try to focus on being good warriors for the time being. 

- Dawncloud’s only confirmation on her three kits making it safely to Thunderclan was when she saw them at their first gathering, and heard them announced as new apprentices. When only Dustpelt and Sandstorm are announced as new warriors, she feels a dire need to ask someone in Thunderclan what happened, but also is terribly afraid to.

- While he’s still somewhat associated with Tigerclaw’s crew, Dustpelt isn’t as into it as Darkstripe and Longtail are. Dappletail talks his ear off all the time about how Tigerclaw was one of the cats who started those rumours, and to “keep an eye on him”. Dustpelt was never one to listen to his mother unquestioningly though, he kind of keeps a paw on both sides to observe and see for himself whats really going on. Meanwhile, Sandstorm becomes more of an ally to Fireheart. Clanmates turning on one another and playing this game of outsiders and real warriors is the very thing that got her brother killed, and so Sandstorm has given it up as she’s grown older and lets both herself and Fireheart prove themselves real warriors by their actions and dedication to their clan. Because they’re focusing on such different things, Sandstorm and Dustpelt have drifted apart. Dappletail thinks the independence is good for them, since they’ve been side by side since they were kits, but Sandstorm still gets worried when she sees Dustpelt growing further away from her.

- Tigerclaw is revealed as a traitor, and the truth about Redtail’s murder and Ravenpaw’s witnessing is revealed. Dappletail has this moment of rage and triumph, because once again, it’s proven that her son wasn’t a traitor. Dustpelt is furious, and has to re-think a LOT of how he acted in his apprenticeship. After the exile, he cuts ties with Darkstripe and starts talking more with Sandstorm again

- Around the time that the battle with Bloodclan is approaching, Ravenpaw and Barley arrive from the farm to assist in the fight, and Dappletail and her family realize he’s still alive. There’s a very tearful family reunion. After the battle is won, they beg him to come home to Thunderclan, but Ravenpaw chooses to stay on the farm. They make him promise to visit when he can.

- Dappletail gets to celebrate her first grandchildren in Spiderkit and Shrewkit, followed closely by Squirrelkit and Leafkit. Squirrelkit and Shrewkit are Best Friend Cousins and become the same kind of dynamic duo that Dustpelt and Sandstorm were when they were kids. Unfortunately, Dappletail starts to become senile when they become apprentices, and eventually dies.

- Shrewpaw, Larchkit, and Hollykit’s final resting place is around the same place as Dappletail, so she can keep an eye on them

- On their way to leave the forest territories, the clans stop by Barley and Ravenpaw’s barn. Sandstorm and Dustpelt ask him one more time to join them back in Thunderclan, or else they might never see each other again. Ravenpaw still wants to stay at the barn, and the siblings say their final goodbyes.

- Both Sandstorm’s grandsons and Dustpelt’s granddaughter end up being part of the prophecy. When this is revealed, they’re both just a little bit proud.

- At the end of the battle against the dark forest, Dustpelt and Sandstorm have both lost their mates, and Dustpelt’s lost another kit. Sandstorm decides that she wants to retire, and tries to convince Dustpelt to do the same. He refuses, because keeping up with things around camp is the only way to keep from thinking on his grief. Sandstorm waits a season or two to see if he changes his mind, but he dies in battle before he can retire. Sandstorm retires alongside Graystripe instead, and regrets that she didn’t do more to for Dustpelt. She, Spiderleg, and Birchfall are his most frequent visitors at his resting place.

- When Sandstorm dies on the journey to find Skyclan, Firestar is the first to fetch her and bring her to Starclan. However, right past the entryway, there are Dappletail, Dustpelt and Ravenpaw.

- The three of them end up meeting Dawncloud and Stumpytail in Starclan. They’re not very close, and their relationship is less parents and children as opposed to friendly acquaintances, but they’re glad to finally learn about exactly how they got to Thunderclan. 

[skeptycats]

Vicky Archives #4

CODE OF THE CLANS - A little light humour

Vicky Holmes, the former editor of the Warriors series, has been doing short extract readings on Facebook since the start of the UK lockdown back in March. There’s some really cool anecdotes hidden within some of these videos, so I decided to begin penning them down for posterity and easy reference.

I won’t be transcribing filler, hedging and false starts but I’m including some amount of preamble just to be comprehensive.

A little short one this week! My health is a little poor at the moment so it’s a couple days late anyway, but I hope you enjoy!

#1 Into the Wild | #2 Forest of Secrets | #3 The Darkest Hour | #4 Code of the Clans | #5 Firestars’ Quest | #6 Twilight | #7 Long Shadows | #8 Leafpool’s Wish

---

Hello! It is Tuesday, March the 31st, last day of March, and I’m in a bit of a down mood today, I’m sure a lot of us are. The realities of lockdown are setting in, I’m bored, I want to go shopping - and I never want to go shopping! I’d just like a change of scene.

I decided today to go for some light relief. I’m going to do a reading from Code of the Clans, which was I think the first book I wrote completely on my own, so I storylined it, brainstormed it, and actually did all the writing on my own. It’s a lot harder without Kate or Cherith to help because obviously I was responsible for all of the words, but I was also able to play with the Erin Hunter voice myself. It was lovely, and I really enjoyed it.

Code of the Clans is something which we call non-fiction. Obviously it’s still fiction, but it was delving into the world behind Warriors. The structure, the heritage, the religion. It was just a pure exercise in fantasy, it was a delight. 

I’m going to read a short section from Code #11, which is ‘boundaries must be checked and marked daily. Challenge all trespassing cats.’ I’m going to read a short scene in which Whitestorm teaches border tactics to some familiar faces when they were apprentices. I can remember when I wrote it I was smiling, and giggling to myself. I’m probably going to do the same now, so forgive me for effectively laughing at my own jokes. We all need a bit of humour today. 

Is every cat here? Firepaw, Graypaw, Ravenpaw, Sandpaw, and Dustpaw? Dustpaw, stop trying to push Firepaw into the brambles. I’m not blind; I can see what you’re doing. Firepaw, go to the other end of the line. Sandpaw, he does not have fleas! Stand still, all of you.

As Lionheart told you, we’re going to practice border defense today. You can be the patrol, and I’ll be a deputy from another Clan who’s crossed the boundary. Who’d like to lead the patrol? Don’t look so terrified, Ravenpaw. I won’t make you be the leader if you don’t want to be. Graypaw, why don’t you have first turn? If you could just pick up that stick in your mouth and use it to draw a line across the sand, we’ll call that the border. Sandpaw, it doesn’t matter that the line is wobbly. Boundaries aren’t whisker-straight, code are they? So, you’re on that side, walking along on a dawn patrol. Off you go, patrol!

Did you really need to yawn like that, Graypaw? Oh, I see, it’s because it’s the dawn patrol, and you’re tired. Well, let’s pretend you all had a really good night’s sleep and are full of energy. Now, what should you be doing? Yes, sniffing, tasting the air—what for? That’s right, Sandpaw. ThunderClan border marks. And what else? Yes, Firepaw. The border marks of the other Clan. But only where the two borders meet. Beside the river and the Thunderpath, it would be bad news to find any scents of RiverClan or ShadowClan, because it would mean they’d crossed over from their side. So keep sniffing.

Maybe not that much, Sandpaw. Have a good sneeze and you should get the sand out of your nose. So, border marks, border marks. Can you smell both sets? Good. But what’s this? A cat from another Clan has ignored the marks and stepped over your border?

No, Ravenpaw, I didn’t mean we were actually being invaded. The cat from the other Clan is me. See how I just stepped over the line in the sand? What are you going to do about it? Wha . . .whoa! Stop treading on my ears!

Well, yes, Dustpaw, launching an attack and knocking me back across the border is one option. But is it wise to take on a cat twice your size? Or a trained warrior with more experience than you? The purpose of a patrol is to assess the situation and report back to your Clan leader. You won’t be able to do that if your pelt is clawed to shreds at the farthest part of the territory from the camp. Any other ideas?

How about asking what I’m doing? I might have a valid reason for crossing the border, especially if I’m alone. That’s right, Graystripe: [TN: Vicky points out the name error here] What do you want? is a good way to start. Don’t be too hostile: Remember, you are in the stronger position, because this is your territory and you have the right to defend it. Unless I have a very good explanation for crossing your border, I don’t have any rights at all. What do you think my reply might be?

Yes, Ravenpaw, I might need your help. My Clan might have been invaded, we might have serious trouble with prey, or we might have sickness that needs your herbs. All these reasons would mean that I am weak, so you can allow me into your territory but never out of sight.

If I am hostile, then meet me with hostility—which isn’t the same as aggression, Dustpaw. You’ve started with a strong challenge—What do you want?—and now you need to give me some sort of warning. Ravenpaw, what would you say?

Hmmm. If you’re going to threaten to claw a cat’s ears, you should try not to look so terrified at the prospect. Firepaw, would you like to try? Ah, yes, I like that you indicated the rest of your patrol. It’s always good to let the enemy know they’re outnumbered. Sandpaw, put that fire ant down. No, I don’t care that Firepaw might not know what it is. Now is not the right time to show him—and he certainly doesn’t need to get bitten by one.

So, you’ve challenged the trespasser, warned me that there’s a whole patrol here that can take me to your Clan leader if that’s what I wish; what next? That’s right, Graypaw, let me—the intruder—speak. If I can’t give you a convincing explanation for what I’m doing on your territory, if I don’t ask to be taken to Bluestar at once, then chase me off with no more questions. Don’t provoke a full-scale war—chasing means chasing, not catching and clawing. Just make it clear that you will defend your boundaries from any kind of invasion, even one paw across the border. A good warrior is always ready to fight, but only if it’s absolutely necessary: A good warrior will seek a peaceful, claws-sheathed solution first.

You will all make good warriors one day. Don’t look so doubtful, Ravenpaw. You need to find only a little more courage to be as good as your denmates. Your hunting skills are excellent— Dustpaw, you’d do well to watch him. Who knows? You might even lead this Clan one day!

Now, back to camp, all of you, and leave this old warrior to enjoy the sun in peace.

BEHIND THE SCENES

That was fun. Always cheers me up to revisit some of the humour, and there was a lot of humour in Warriors. Both Kate and Cherith excelled at introducing some comedy, especially around kits interacting with the older cats.

That’s something I was very aware of when I was writing the ‘non-fiction’ books like Code of the Clans and Battles of the Clans. It’s very easy to think of Warriors as super intense and super involved and traumatic and emotional, but you can’t sustain that. It’s exhausting to write and it’s exhausting to read, just as it’s exhausting to live. I think at the moment there’s a danger that we’re all sort of living on a bit of a knife’s edge, living on our nerves, and I’m certainly starting to feel that. It’s okay to take a break, with your writing and with your general day-to-day life. Laughter is the best medicine, literally. Writing about kits just gives me the giggles every time. And yes, it feels self-indulgent to laugh at my own jokes, but hey, I’m on my own, I have to make my own jokes.

It was very interesting there because of course I spotted a typo - one of my famous errors! - that Graypaw had been referred to as Graystripe. Obviously I wrote Code of the Clans when we were probably on series two at least, if not three, so I was thinking of these cats as their warriors names, and obviously forgot I was supposed to be calling Graypaw ‘Graypaw’ there. I have obviously made lots of mistakes over the years. I think my favourites are the fact that Heavystep died and comes back to life several times, and Rowanclaw started off as a she-cat and then pops up as a tom. So we could perhaps claim the first transitioned fictional cat? But it was an honest mistake.

One of my fondest memories from going on tour is when I would turn up in a bookshop and some very earnest little child would turn up with a book full of post-it notes, and they’d solemnly say that they’d pointed out all the typos and errors in the book and marked them with post-its, and would I like to take the book away so I could do the corrections. No, is the short answer. I’m sorry for the mistakes, but it’s not up to me to correct them. That’s the publishing, that’s further down the line. We have corrected errors in some books, but it has to be big mistakes, you have to go in and change the printing plate. All I can humbly say is ‘I’m sorry’. I’ve written a lot of words, they’re not always going to be the right ones. 

[fortunatelycooltrash]

A Maple’s roots.

So I’ve had an au idea for a while now and this is basically how it goes:

Mapleshade goes to Twolegplace instead of Riverclan because she doesn’t want to take her three very young kits on such a long journey.

While there, She meets Crystal and her young but older kits. Her own kits immediately take a shining to a particular one, a bright ginger tom named Jake.

After the kits find their homes, Crystal begins to move on and Mapleshade tries to follow her, wanting her to stay to help for a moon longer before she goes to Riverclan.

Mapleshade is hit and killed by a monster. She winds up in a state of limbo for betraying her but never actually hurting anyone.

However, Ravenwing, Frecklewish, Appledusk, and Oakstar end up there as well and let’s just say Maple had her vengeance and earned her rank in the DF.

Meanwhile, Petal, Larch, and Patch have all taken kittypet homes. Petal with Jake a few moons after his adventure with Talltail, Larch with a friendly tom named Henry, and Patch with a tiny kit named Quince.

After Quinces becomes pregnant, Jake takes Petal as his mate before abandoning her to go be with his true mate, Talltail.

Petal is elderly at this point and struggles to care for her two newborn kits. She remembers tales her mother use to tell her about how a clan cares for all it’s clanmates and decides to leave her kits at the Thunderclan border.

On her way there, She comes across an elderly Patch and his younger roommate Quince.

Quince offers to take the stronger tabby kit in exchange for Petal taking her weakest kit(Tiny) to be cared for by the clans as well. If only so she doesn’t have to see him die.

They trade and later on, Redtail finds two tiny kits mewling on the border. They are taken back to camp and renamed Firekit and Snowkit by Bluefur.

Also, guess who becomes Bloodclan leader instead of Scourge? That’s right, Princess.

Bluefur becomes leader during the brothers apprenticeship.

Firepaw dreams of being the best warrior but lately, he’s been seeing a strange cat in his dreams, cheering him on to claw his way to power with claws unsheathed. She’s told him not to fear her though, she’s kin after all...

His mother’s mother.

Snowpaw notices his brother becoming more violent and callous but grows with him rather than stop him. A weak cat has no place. His real siblings taught him that.

They become nearly inseparable.

They are named Firestorm and Snowfoot.

Snowfoot is mentor to Ravenpaw

Firestorm is mentor to Dustpaw

Redtail mentors Graypaw

Tigerclaw mentors Sandpaw.

Redtail is murdered and Firestorm is salty af because that’s who brought him to the clan.

Ravenpaw brings in Yellowfang. The brothers adore her.

Snowfoot and him are hella defensive of all the apprentices and help Raven(feather) escape to his boyfriends place after he reveals everything.

Brokenstar tries to bluff but they don’t take that shit and fukcin wreck him cause he made their grandma Yellowfang sad.

Mapleshade leaves fake omens that lead Bluestar to name Firestorm deputy instead of Tigerclaw.

Lionheart still dies in Shadowclan battle. RIP.

I can go on and on about this au, let me know what y’all think.

[sn0wshimmer]

hhhh I need to talk about this warriors au sitting around in my brain anyways here goes

Differences in clan custom:

- It’s pretty normal to bring in and/or mate with outsiders so as to keep the gene pool not so... incesty...

- Clans pretty much are a large family unit. It’s not uncommon for cats in the same age group to think of each other as siblings despite not being from the same litter.

- LGBTQ+ is seen as a normal thing and accepted without much question. It’s customary for cats to introduce themselves with their pronouns included.

- Mollies can be deputies/leaders while nursing kits. The idea that they can’t is just sexism.

- Sign language is a standard skill because,,,, let’s be real,,, it’s pretty much practicality.

- Disabled cats can be warriors because the only reason they can’t is ableism.

Storyline changes:

- Tiny was found by Bluestar on her own rather than Thistleclaw and Tigerpaw. He becomes part of ThunderClan under the name of Nightpaw, and later Nightstorm.

- Rusty and Princess join ThunderClan at the same time as Firepaw and Kindlepaw. Firepaw is trans.

- Sandpaw and Dustpaw don’t bully Firepaw. However, Sandpaw is generally unpleasant because of losing her father recently, and Dustpaw is destructive and unpleasant because he and Ravenpaw were loner kits with an abusive mother before coming to ThunderClan. They both get support.

- Ravenpaw stays in the clan and earns the warrior name Ravenfeather. He has support for his anxiety and PTSD.

- Mosskit is the child of Bluestar and Thistleclaw (result of a one night stand). They are non-binary and go by they/them. They’re a ThunderClan cat and their warrior name is Mossheart. They mentor Firepaw.

- Tigerclaw is less Obviously Evil, he’s a lot more covert about his actions.

- Tigerclaw is Snowfur’s son and Whitestorm’s brother. That’s why Bluestar falls apart after that, because that was her nephew and she loved him dearly. 

- WindClan doesn’t get kicked out because that’s whack and really never would have happened in any sort of realistic scenario.

- Brokenstar is less... stupid. He makes smarter decisions. Basically, instead of training young kits, he collects lots of rogue allies and wages war on the other three clans.

- Crookedstar X Bluestar instead of Oakheart X Bluestar. Because the idea of this just being a taboo subject that a lot of people kind of know about, but they’re just rumours and like as if our two clan leaders would have had an affair with each other? Gold.

- Crooked X Blue have Mistyfoot, Stonefur and Silverstream. Bluestar pretty much stares down her daughter and thinks “why did she do literally the exact same thing I did” and Silverstream’s death is the first thing that starts pushing her towards breaking.

- Stormkit and Featherkit go to RiverClan without a fight because the claim does belong to the mother’s clan regardless of circumstance. Graystripe doesn’t change clans (he can’t bring himself to leave his entire family for one that won’t trust him) but is still very much present in his kits’ lives. 

- Firepaw, Kindlepaw and Graypaw stay apprentices until the end of the second book.

- Dustpelt, Ravenfeather and Sandstorm become warriors before the other three apprentices.

- Cloudtail is Ruby’s son. Ruby is leader of BloodClan (renamed “The Clowder). She couldn’t deal with having a son and leading The Clowder, so she gave him to Nightstorm instead.

- Fireheart, Kindleflame, Nightstorm and Cloudtail actually have significant family relationships.

- Cloudtail, Ashfur and Ferncloud are foster siblings and it’s relevant.

- Cloudtail, Ashfur and Ferncloud are Sandstorm’s younger siblings and it’s relevant.

- Dust X Fern is changed so that it’s less creepy.

- Snowkit lives. His warrior name is Snowcloud.

- Cinderpelt, despite being disabled, is not a medicine cat because she’s disabled. She’s a tripod (born without a leg) rather than an accident happening. She becomes a medicine cat because she wanted to be one.

- Yellowfang was originally named Murkstorm, but Brokenstar changed her name as a way to disgrace her.

- Swiftpaw is Brambleflower (Bramblestar) and Tawnypelt’s older brother and it’s relevant. 

- When The Clowder comes to the forest, Ruby tries to take Cloudtail back. He declines, and ThunderClan straight-up refuses to give him up.

- Leafpool is a demigirl and Squirrelflight is agenderflux. Brambleflower and Squirrelflight have a toxic relationship (so basically canon) and eventually the truth about the three’s parents is the final straw that break’s the camel’s back. Squirrelflight gets together with Nightcloud and Brambleflower with Stormfur. Alderheart and Sparkpelt are Nightcloud and Squirrelflight’s kits.

- Squirrelflight and Crowslash (Crowfeather) have a one-night stand resulting in kits. Squirrelflight rather than Leafpool because it’s less out of nowhere. Squirrelflight doesn’t know if the three are Brambleflower’s or Crowslash’s until the kits are born and Hollykit has almost his exact coat and Jayfeather has the exact same WindClan build. Crowfeather knows upon seeing them that they’re his but keeps quiet. Brambleflower notices but blames it on coincidence. He had some doubt in the back of his mind but it’s mostly gone by the time they’re apprentices.

- OKAY SO the story behind Squirrel X Crow. Instead of Feather X Crow, Crowslash and Squirrelflight have a highly passionate affair during the great journey, before breaking it off because they’d rather stay loyal to their clans. Squirrelflight moves on with Brambleflower and Crowslash “moves on” with Nightcloud. At first, all seems well until Squirrelflight and Brambleflower have a massive fight, and she finds herself at WindClan’s border. She is met with a Crowslash who immediately moves to comfort her. They end up getting more... sexual (Crow just can’t resist his old flame). Afterwards they are both extremely ashamed and vow to never speak of this again. That is, until Squirrelflight gets pregnant...

- Lionshade (Lionblaze) becomes the medicine cat instead of Jayfeather. He’s terrified of his powers and doesn’t want to hurt anyone. He and Jay say “fuck you” to destiny.

- Hollyheart (Hollyleaf) is the third cat. Their power is persuasion. They can convince others to agree with them or do things for them. They can’t make them do anything against their morals and it might not work against a particularly strong-willed kind of cat, but they just have a kind of... charisma about them. She doesn’t die in the last hope, but near the beginning of a Vision of Shadows.

- Dovewing is the fourth cat. Her powers remain the same. She’s pressured into becoming mates with Bumblestripe by her friends, Rosepetal and Blossomfall, because he loves her. However, she feels nothing for him. She’s only ever had one crush before, and it was on Sedgewhisker, an older molly from WindClan. She finds herself more and more drawn to another friend, however... Briarlight. Briarlight listens to Dovewing without judgement and helps her find the courage to break up with Bumblestripe. The two mollies become mates not long after. 

- Ivypool is pretty much the same as she was in canon but Fernsong is a bit older. Blossomfall is their other mate and they’re in a happy polyamorous relationship with their lovely kits, Bristlefrost, Flippaw, Thriftpaw, Shellfur and Plumstone.

- Thornclaw’s a single dad, his kits are Eaglewing and Stemleaf.

- Leafpool dies in the final battle of Omen of the Stars, leaving Lionshade devastated. Hollyheart also dies. Lionshade then takes on his younger half-brother, Alderheart, as his apprentice, and it becomes a really precious sibling bond. 

- Shadowpaw is Tigerheart’s son with another molly (not sure who yet). He’s still the same as in canon, just not Dovewing’s son. Lightleap and Pouncestep are still Dovewing’s daughters however. 

- Tigerheart never becomes leader. In fact, he STAYS. DEAD. Tawnypelt is ShadowClan’s leader instead.

And yeah that’s all I got so far should I make a separate blog and turn this into a rewrite?

[warriorsrewrite]

Enter the Wild Chapter 14

( you can either read it under the cut, or here on ao3. it’d be very much appreciated if you interacted with both ! )

When they arrived back in camp, it was obvious that many had stayed up to hear about what had happened during the Gathering. Even the kits of Frostfur’s young litter were lying just outside the nursery, yawning and trying to keep their eyes open as Speckletail stood watch over them. As the cats filed back into the clearing, ears perked and cats stood at attention, but those returning were silent with worry. A cloud of dread began to spread over those who stayed back.

Firepaw felt off as he padded into the clearing next to Graypaw. He was caught between being exhausted from interacting with so many cats, to being wide awake with all the turns of events that had occurred.

“Hey,” Ravenpaw greeted in a hush tone, considering the stillness of the rest of the clearing. “What… what happened…?”

“Yeah, what happened that’s making everyone look like they’ve been brought back from StarClan?” Sandpaw quickly added on, approaching them soon after Ravenpaw.

Both Firepaw and Graypaw blinked in surprise at Sandpaw’s tone, which didn’t have its usual sneer in it. Firepaw figured the curiosity was too overwhelming for her to remember they weren’t supposed to like talking to each other.

Graypaw opened his mouth to answer, but a quick call from Spottedleaf interrupted whatever he was about to say. He glanced behind him, saw Spottedleaf’s expression - one Firepaw couldn’t quite read - sent an apologetic glance back at the two older apprentices, and scurried away to her. Sandpaw huffed quietly, then turned her attention on Firepaw, her intense green gaze repeating her question to him without actually speaking.

“Uh - ” he began, but was thankful to spot Bluestar approaching the Highrock; he really didn’t even know where to start. “I think Bluestar is going to explain everything.”

Sandpaw immediately turned around and hurried over to find a good spot below the Highrock along with most of the Clan, even though Bluestar hadn’t called out the summonings yet. Ravenpaw, however, stayed behind with Firepaw. “Is it… bad news?” he asked in a whisper.

Firepaw couldn’t answer him, but he thought his expression told him enough of the answer.

“All cats old enough to catch their own prey, join here for a Clan meeting!” Bluestar finally called, drawing both him and Ravenpaw to take a seat amongst the growing crowd.

As everyone was getting seated - it didn’t take long, considering most were already prepared for a meeting in the first place - Firepaw glanced around to see where Graypaw went. He saw Frostfur, who had been at the Gathering, reunite with her kits and lather them in licks that were probably more of a comfort for her and annoying to them, before ushering them inside. He also saw Brindleface outside of the nursery, as well as the clearly displayed disappointment and grief on her brown flecked face; she didn’t need anyone to tell her that WindClan wasn’t there for her to know.

Quickly turning away from the direction of the nursery, he continued his search. His gaze soon fell upon Yellow’s corner of camp, and he spotted her bright orange eyes - the same bright orange color her son possessed - shining out from the shadows. Goldenflower stood guard for her tonight, and she was quickly joined by Tigerclaw. The two whispered between themselves, and Goldenflower seemed to get agitated, if the lashing of her tail was any indicator. Soon, Tigerclaw backed off after saying one final thing, leaving Goldenflower to her duty in peace. Firepaw thought this as odd, since he knew them to be mates - Dustpelt being their son - but he also knew that he rarely saw them together anyways.

Thinking it to be none of his business, he moved on. Finally, as he lifted his head up above the crowd, he spotted Graypaw sitting beside Spottedleaf right next to the Highrock. His friend’s face was even more scrunched up with worry than before, and his big tail twitched nervously around his paws.

“ThunderClan,” Bluestar announced, causing all cats to go silent, “I’m sure those of you who did not join us are wondering about what happened at this particular Gathering. I’m also sure those who did join us are still trying to grapple with what we heard and saw. To those who don’t know, I will say first that what happened was unexpected and upsetting. Some questions were answered, but we were also left with new questions.” She paused, letting those who hadn’t come prepare themselves. “Here is what happened…”

For once, as Bluestar spoke of the upsetting things that were revealed - about how Brokentail had stolen kits from WindClan after they drove them from their home, and made them into apprentices at far too young an age, and about how he threatened to do the same to ThunderClan and RiverClan if they did not bow down to ShadowClan, and about how RiverClan betrayed their trust by agreeing to his deal - the Clan was silent. No one shouted or yelled. Instead, they only bowed their heads as they tried to process everything.

“And that is what happened,” Bluestar finally finished, leaving a silence so large it seemed to weigh down on Firepaw’s shoulders.

After a long moment, a voice spoke up, “what does this mean? What do we do now?” A few other voices murmured their shared want to know the answer.

“Brokentail has made it clear that we are ShadowClan’s enemy now,” she answered calmly. “He is sure to try and attack us soon, of that I have no doubt. All we can do is prepare ourselves and the camp for the fight. But in regards to what we should do about him and ShadowClan in general, we are in need of some guidance.” She glanced down towards the healers. “Which is why Spottedleaf and Graypaw will journey to the Moonstone tomorrow and ask StarClan for a vision. They, of course, will not be going alone. Because of Brokentail’s obvious disregard to the warrior code, it is not beneath him to attack a traveling healer and apprentice on their way to speak with StarClan. Which is why I am assigning a patrol to accompany them. This patrol will consist of Goldenflower, her apprentice Sandpaw, and myself.”

Tigerclaw stood up. “And what if ShadowClan attacks and you’re not here?” he asked boldly.

“I have already informed Lionheart to keep as many cats in and around camp as possible while I am away,” Bluestar said cooly, her gaze steady with his. “Even without me here, ThunderClan still has many well trained warriors that can defend camp. And in truth, I do not expect Brokentail to order an attack the day after the Gathering. He wishes to strike when we least expect it, and we would expect him to carry it out as soon as possible. I will admit it is a risk, but it’s one I’m willing to take.”

The senior warrior glanced from her to Lionheart and back to her. Something in his face shifted as he nodded and murmured, “understood,” before sitting back down.

“Is there anymore questions?” she asked to the rest of the crowd. When no one spoke up, she continued, “then it is settled. Get some rest, and be alert, just in case. May StarClan be on our side.”

*

Firepaw woke up just in time to see Graypaw exit the apprentice’s den. Though his paws were weighed down heavily by exhaustion, he forced himself up and followed his friend out into camp. “Graypaw, wait,” he called out quietly.

Pausing, Graypaw glanced over his shoulder. “I have to leave soon. The rest of the patrol is already gathering,” he said back in a hushed tone, flicking his tail towards the gorse entrance. Just as he said, Spottedleaf, Bluestar, Goldenflower, and Sandpaw were already sitting beside the tunnel, ready to go as soon as Bluestar gave the signal.

“I know, but…” He paused, unsure of what he really wanted to say. “Just… be careful, all right? If you come across a ShadowClan patrol, be sure to stick with Spottedleaf and stay out of the way, okay?” He gave a small, strained huff of a laugh. “I don’t want my best friend getting turned into crowfood just yet.”

A reassuring smile crossed Graypaw’s face as he gave him a solid nudge with his shoulder. “Noted. But, you shouldn’t worry so much. Bluestar said she knows a way to Highstones that’ll take us through areas where ShadowClan cats are least likely to be, though it’ll take us longer to get there, which is why we’re leaving so early.” He looked up to glare at the rising sun, as if it personally offended him.

Firepaw laughed more freely this time. “Yeah, you’re right. It’s just… a stressful time right now.”

“You can say that again,” Graypaw sighed. There was a brief moment of quiet between them before he continued, voice taking a more serious tone, “you be careful, too. If ShadowClan does somehow decide to attack while we’re out, you fight like all of StarClan is with you, okay? Can’t complain to crowfood about my head spinning with herbs now, can I?”

“No, you can’t,” he purred, stepping forward to nudge him under the chin with his muzzle.

“Graypaw!” Spottedleaf called, causing him to pull away from Firepaw.

Sighing, Graypaw turned back and briefly touched noses with him. “I’ll be back before you know it, and then we’ll have a plan on what to do about ShadowClan.”

Firepaw nodded and watched him scamper over to the patrol, and out into the forest. He didn’t look away until he heard a wheezy chuckle coming from the shadows. Groaning inwardly, he glanced over at Yellow’s side of the camp to see her looking at him with mirthful eyes. “Someone has a crush,” she croaked between chuckles.

“I…!” he exclaimed, feeling his ears grow hot. “I do not!”

She hummed, obviously not convinced.

Scrambling, he looked towards Yellow’s guard. “Willowpelt, you believe me, right?”

But Willowpelt only gave him an apologetic smile. “I don’t need perfect vision to see that something’s going on there,” she murmured, causing Yellow to burst into a cackling fit.

Now feeling his entire pelt grow hot, he huffed and turned back towards the apprentice’s den without another word, ignoring the increase of laughter coming from the old molly. He was about to re-enter the ferns with the intention of getting some extra rest, but he caught sight of Brindleface exiting the nursery a few fox-lengths away. When he caught her eye, she gestured for him to approach her. Suddenly wide awake at the prospect of training, he was eager to obey.

“Firepaw, good morning,” she greeted with a small purr.

“Good morning,” he said back, before pausing, remembering her face of despair last night when she figured out that WindClan hadn’t appeared at the Gathering. “Are you… all right?”

She smiled at him. “Yes, I think so. I’ve done my mourning, and I’ve come to terms that I may never seen Tornear again. I’ll still hold out some hope, perhaps after Brokentail is finally dealt with WindClan will be able to return.” She cleared her throat. “But I’ve decided instead of cooping myself up in the nursery, I’ll force myself out, get some fresh air, and do some training with you. Sound like a good idea?”

“Yes!” he instantly replied, before another thought entered his mind. “Or… are you allowed to? I know the kits are due soon.”

She shook her head. “I’ll be fine, as long as I don’t do any strenuous moves.”

“All right… Are we starting now?"

“No, no,” she chuckled. “I see the way you look like you’re about to fall over from exhaustion. Go get some more rest and we’ll start in the afternoon.” At Firepaw’s disappointed face, she laughed. “All right, all right. To make it up to you, I promise to take you out for more training first thing tomorrow morning, and we’ll go for most of the day. How’s that sound?”

“Great!” he purred.

“Good, now go get that rest. I’ll be waiting over by the camp’s entrance at sunhigh. Join me when you’re ready.”

“Will do!” Spirits having been lifted, he trotted back to the apprentice’s den with his tail held high. He pushed back the ferns and saw the mostly empty nests, the only other apprentice still in camp being a still fast asleep Ravenpaw. Padding over to his own nest, he puffed up the moss so it was extra comfortable before settling back down.

I’ll get as much training as possible in these next few days, so when Graypaw and everyone else comes back safe with a plan, I’ll be ready, he thought as his mind drifted back to the land of dreams. I’ll be ready…

*

“Again! This time use your hind legs to get more power!”

Firepaw nodded, shaking off the sand from his pelt as he prepared to do the battle move again for the hundredth time in a row. This time, he landed on the soft ground with a solid thump that caused sand and dirt to kick up around his impact point.

“Good! Now try it again until it becomes a reflex."

Both he and Brindleface had been out at the Sandy Hollow practicing Firepaw’s battle training for most of the day. She had kept her promise about taking him out first thing in the morning, and even though he knew his muscles were going to complain about that decision later that night, at the moment it felt good to finally be out and training so hard he had trouble taking in deep breaths. Especially since he knew he would have to use these moves on the ShadowClan enemies who planned on attacking camp sooner or later. It gave him the extra drive he needed to do his very best in perfecting them.

As he continued to repeat the move, Brindleface overseeing a safe distance away due to her close due date, he couldn’t help but think of how lonely it had been sleeping in the apprentice's den without Graypaw’s huge fluffy pelt pressing against his side the whole time. The Moonstone patrol still hadn’t returned yet, and he could feel the worry the Clan had about what this meant when sunrise passed and the group still hadn’t shown up. But Firepaw didn’t worry himself too much about it, mostly because Graypaw had told him the route they were taking was far longer than the usual one, so of course they would later than usual. No, he didn’t sleep well that night because he had missed the very presence of Graypaw, but he figured that he should get used to it, for as soon as Graypaw completed his training as a healer apprentice, he would be permanently moving to the healer’s den and the two of them wouldn’t be able to sleep next to each other again. Sure, Firepaw had Ravenpaw sleeping in the den with him that night as well as grumpy Sandpaw, but no nest was right next to his, so he didn’t get that extra warmth and the solid presence that he was used to, and he thought it too awkward to ask for Ravenpaw to switch nests for only one night.

His thoughts then strayed to the brief conversation he had with Ravenpaw that morning before he left for the Sandy Hollow. He had been wondering why Ravenpaw wasn’t out training with Tigerclaw like he was with Brindleface, and asked him about it when he saw that Ravenpaw was awake.

“I don’t know,” he muttered in response. “I haven’t even seen Tigerclaw around camp since Bluestar and the others left for the Moonstone yesterday. But… I make it a point not to question him."

His answer had bothered Firepaw, who knew that Ravenpaw needed extra work done on his battle training. Surely, with the threat of ShadowClan just around the corner, this would be the best time to do it. But if Tigerclaw’s not back at camp, then where is he? He can’t be doing hunting since the freshkill pile isn’t noticeably bigger, but he also shouldn’t be doing any long border patrols, since both Bluestar and Lionheart have forbidden going too far from camp for long periods of time.

“Firepaw! You’re losing focus,” Brindleface called out, snapping him from his muddled thoughts.

“Sorry!” he called back, preparing to do those moves over again.

“How about we take a break?” she asked, standing up and stretching her limbs with a small groan. “You’ve been at it since around sunrise, and it’s past sunhigh. You need the rest in order to not become sloppy with your moves."

“Okay,” he sighed, easily flopping down onto his belly for a breather, which earned him a chuckle from his mentor. They rested in easy silence for a while until Firepaw eventually broke it with a quiet question, gaze turning towards where camp was. “Do you think they’re back yet?”

Brindleface hummed, also glancing back towards camp. The Sandy Hollow was close enough to camp that they both could hear the faint hustle and bustle going on to make sure the camp was fortified for ShadowClan’s attack. “I don’t think so. If they did return, then we probably would’ve heard about it by now.”

Firepaw glanced up at the sky and at the sun, which was starting to make its way down to the horizon. “But they should’ve been back by now, right?”

“...Yes, but we also don’t know the exact route they’re taking, and they could have rested for the night at Barley’s, if whatever vision they were given wasn’t an urgent one. But, we won’t know for sure until they’ve returned, so all we can do is wait. And while we’re waiting, we can strengthen our skills to make the most out of our time, yes?”

“Yeah…” he replied, though he couldn’t shake the feeling that something was wrong from his pelt. Nevertheless, he forced himself to continue his training on command, still determined to give it his all.

They continued this way for a while longer until Brindleface told him to a take another break. The sun was now starting to dip down into the trees, and Firepaw was panting so hard he had to bend over to catch his breath.

“How about we call it for today?” Brindleface asked, getting up and slowly walking over to him. “You’re probably hungry, right?”

“I can go for a little longer,” he insisted, but knew it was futile to argue, seeing as he felt like he could barely walk.

She just shook her head. “We’ll rest here until you’ve gotten your breath back, then we’ll head back into camp. Sound good?”

“All right,” he ceded, settling down on the ground with a sigh of relief for his aching muscles. Brindleface purred a laugh and settled down beside them, moving so that she was in the best position to start grooming his fur of all the dust and sand that had accumulated since beginning training. Firepaw gladly accepting the grooming and wasn’t ashamed to feel like a kit again when she started getting behind his ears.

It was about when Firepaw was rested up and ready to leave when Brindleface stopped and lifted her head, tilting it to the side as she listened to something. Firepaw was about to ask her what was wrong when he heard it as well.

Incoming cats!

Immediately they were both on their feet facing the bushes where the rustling sound of a patrol was coming from. Firepaw scented the air, but he already knew who was going to appear before they emerged.

“Graypaw!” he cried with immense relief as he saw his big dark gray friend enter the Sandy Hollow along with the rest of the Moonstone patrol. More relief filled his veins when he saw that there looked to be no major injuries anywhere on Graypaw. Save for his grim expression, he looked perfectly fine. “I’m so glad you’re…” his voice trailed away as his gaze slid over to the rest of the patrol and took in the sight of Bluestar, covered in blood, leaning heavily against Goldenflower’s flank. Both Goldenflower and Sandpaw also had injuries, but theirs was nothing compared to what Bluestar had.

Brindleface, face horror stricken, took an unsure step forward. “What happened? Was it ShadowClan?”

“No, it was - ” Sandpaw tried to explain, but was cut off as Bluestar tried to right herself and failed.

“There’s no time for that,” the leader snapped. “What’s the current condition of camp?”

“Camp?” Brindleface murmured, looking behind her shoulder as she continued, “as far as we know, everything’s - ” She - along with everyone else in the clearing - suddenly froze as the sound of a battle cry yowled from the direction of camp, followed by the unmistakable noises of fighting.

“We’re too late!” Bluestar cried. She tried to right herself a second time, managing to stand on her own. “Goldenflower, Sandpaw, Firepaw! You three get to camp now!”

“I’ll go, too - ” Brindleface tried to say before her path back towards camp was blocked by Spottedleaf.

“You’re not even supposed to be out of camp right now,” the healer said, eyes disapproving. “You’ll stay and help us care of Bluestar.”

Brindleface looked conflicted, but one glance over at Bluestar, who looked like a small breeze could knock her down, and she was nodding.

Firepaw watched as Goldenflower and Sandpaw immediately jumped to follow Bluestar’s orders, racing past him and towards camp. He was about to follow, but couldn’t help but spare one glance back at Graypaw. He caught his eye, and Graypaw stared him down, eyes questioning. Swallowing, he nodded firmly.

Our promise still stands.

Seemingly satisfied with his answer, Graypaw nodded back and turned to join Bluestar’s side along with Spottedleaf.

No longer hesitating, Firepaw spun around and raced through the underbrush. As he ran, he couldn’t help but think that this was his first real fight. No sheathed claws… No calling time out when you need a break… Some of these cats might even try to kill me. He shivered at the prospect, but shook it off and continued forward. This was no time for such thoughts. The only things he should think about were his own survival and the safety of his Clanmates.

It wasn’t long before he burst into camp and saw what was happening for himself, the scent of ShadowClan filling his nose. He first spotted Frostfur fighting in the middle of the clearing against a large gray tom, Goldenflower helping her out by distracting him with quick swipes. A few tail-lengths away was Redtail facing off against a young black ShadowClan warrior, easily overpowering and sending him back where he came from with small nips at his heels. Over by the elder’s den was White-eye, Speckletail, Dappletail, and Patchpelt teaming together to drive away a tortoiseshell molly while Sparrowpelt and Smallear, the oldest elders, huddled within the fallen tree’s hollow trunk.

Firepaw’s survey of the camp was interrupted as a light brown tabby entered his view, her scent obviously ShadowClan. Growling, he threw himself at her, biting down on her leg as hard as he could. He heard her yowl before she kicked him away from her. Spinning back around, he wasted no time in leaping back onto her, digging his claws into her shoulders and leaning down to give a harsh bite to her back. Screeching, she shook him off vigorously, but instead of continuing the fight, spat in his direction before running back through the gorse entrance and presumably back to ShadowClan’s camp.

He had no time to celebrate his first victory, however, as he was bowled over by another cat. Hissing, he tussled for control in their roll, but ultimately lost as the other cat managed to pin him down on his back, their back claws readying to slice into his exposed belly.

Firepaw was getting ready to do a counter move that would hopefully release him when he looked up at the cat properly, their scent momentarily distracting him when he smelled something familiar about him. It only took him a moment then to recognize the brown tabby pelt and light blue eyes.

Littlepaw!

He was stunned still for a solid moment as the realization hit him, but it also seemed that Littlepaw was distracted as well, his eyes growing wide and his grip loosening.

Seeing his chance, Firepaw was the first to snap out of his stupor, pushing on Littlepaw’s stomach with all the strength in his hind legs to force him off. Littlepaw fell away easily, landing on the ground with an audible huff. Firepaw scrambled to his feet and glared him down, but did not make another move to attack.

I don’t want to fight you… so don’t make me!

Littlepaw slowly got to his own feet and met Firepaw’s gaze head on. A heartbeat of stillness passed between them before Littlepaw turned around and sprinted towards the camp entrance, ears pinned low to his head.

Firepaw watched him go with a quiet sigh, relaxing a bit until he realized that the battle was not yet over. A startled cry from the direction of the nursery caught his ear, and he turned just in time to see a large white tom with huge black paws pounce on Rosetail, who was guarding the nursery.

Blackfoot, he realized, remembering Ratpaw pointing him out with pride at the Gathering.

Rosetail hissed and spat as Blackfoot managed to grab and drag her away from the nursery. One big black foot on the back of her head and another in the middle of her back, Firepaw watched in absolute horror as he drew his head back, mouth open and teeth glinting.

“No!” he cried, feet already moving towards them, but it was too late. Blackfoot’s jaws clamped around the back of Rosetail’s neck with a snap that Firepaw could hear a fox-length away, and her struggling body stilled. “Rosetail!”

Blackfoot released her neck, her head falling to the ground with a thump, and turned towards the now unguarded nursery. Firepaw pushed away his horror and grief to focus on getting to the large ShadowClan warrior as fast as possible before he took the kits. However, just before he was within pouncing distance, a gray and brown molly tackled him to the ground.

“Oh, no, you don’t!” she laughed into his ear as he tried to get out from under her, but failing due to her expert hold. He struggled some more, but the molly placed her hind claws onto his belly in the same threat Littlepaw had given, but this time, she delivered. Firepaw howled in pain as he felt her sharp claws rake across his lower belly.

Not knowing what else to do, he stopped fighting against her, letting his body go as limp as he could make it. She smirked down at him, thinking she had the win as she loosened her grip just a bit, opening her jaws for a killing blow Firepaw wasn’t going to let land.

He still had a promise to keep.

As soon as the molly’s grip loosened, he reached up, grabbed the side of her flank with his paw, and twisted so that they both went rolling. Startled, the molly let go of him and tumbled off to the side. He was quick to get back on his feet, spinning to face her again, arching his back and hissing with all of his might.

Clearly unnerved, the enemy warrior took one step back, then another, then turned completely around and followed the rest of her defeated Clanmates.

Firepaw wasted no time in running the rest of the way to the nursery. Doing his best to ignore Rosetail on the ground, he looked inside the bramble bush to see no sign of Blackfoot. Instead, he saw Yellow crouched over all five crying kits, panting with one eye shut as a cut on her forehead bled into it.

Recognizing him, Yellow backed down with a grunt, spying his confused expression. “I swore an oath not to kill. Didn’t say anything about hurting anyone,” she muttered, glancing down at the kits. “Besides, I wasn’t about to have more kits die on my watch.”

Firepaw looked at her, saw the raw honesty on her face, and nodded solemnly. “Then I’ll leave them in your care,” he said before stepping back out into the clearing, ready to take down another ShadowClan warrior.

However, when he glanced around he saw that the rest of the enemy warriors still in camp were already being chased out and back into the forest. He saw Sandpaw drive off a gray tom all by herself, looking ferocious even though he was sure she was absolutely exhausted. It wasn’t long before the last two intruders were run out by Whitestorm and Willowpelt, and ThunderClan’s victory was assured.

Right then, all of the adrenaline that had been coursing through his body suddenly evaporated, leaving him feeling boneless. Not knowing exactly what to do, he just stood there in front of the nursery, observing his Clanmates begin to gather in the middle of the blood-spattered clearing.

And for just for a moment, there was silence as everyone took in what just happened.

Then, Firepaw heard a soft dragging sound coming from the other side of camp. He, along with many others, turned to see Tigerclaw slowly walk into the light, in his jaws a limp pale golden tabby cat. Gently setting them down, Tigerclaw stood tall and covered in blood as he announced what was beginning to dawn on many cats.

“Lionheart is dead!”

[brindlestorm]

Dialogue is hard, getting into it is fine but I never know how to wrap up a conversation -_-

Side note, something I wanted to say before I post the next chapter! My Truth or Yours (obviously) is focusing a lot on Redtail, Tigerclaw, and Ravenpaw and the events prior to Into The Wild.

Redtail’s Debt is largely considered not canon, especially because it doesn’t line up with the main books, I’m loosely basing some events as plot points, but somethings are heavily altered to better fit my story. Like the bullshit that happened when Redtail was a new warrior, Redtail doesn’t attack that apprentice, and it actually causes a fight between the two friends until Tigerclaw admits that it was wrong of him to even suggest it.

Though I probably won’t write about it, I will say that the two talked about it, and Tigerclaw mentions what Thistleclaw had him do to a kit when he was an apprentice, Redtail was actually a key part to Tigerclaw noticing these issues with Thistleclaw’s mentorship and his behaviours because of it.

More importantly though, this story is going to bridge the gap between some inconsistencies in the series. Like Dustpaw and Sandpaw still technically being considered around the same point in their training as Graypaw and Firepaw, despite being older than them.

Another thing is Ravenpaw’s personality, I do believe he was very jumpy starting out, but I also believe that he was starting to grow out of it, just as Bluestar had hoped by pairing him with Tigerclaw. Seeing his mentor murder the clan deputy was definitely a setback, also traumatizing. But I do see Ravenpaw’s personality and actions as canon, because there’s more to his character than just a timid apprentice, he caught an adder for Pete's sake!

So yeah, just wanted to put that out there because I’m working on Ch2 and there’s a bit that will look OOC but its happening for a reason :)

[canon-notcanon-warriorcats]

Re-write Part 1

Because i can’t write it all out in novel-like form and i’m tired of holding all this in

-dustpaw is mentored by tigerclaw and ravenpaw is mentored by redtail, both apprentices witness redtail being killed by tigerclaw, though ravenpaw wasn’t supposed to

-redtail and runningwind are sandpaw’s dads and she has a breakdown over her dad’s death

-sandpaw is still mentored by whitestorm, graypaw is mentored by mousefur, and ravenpaw is given to lionheart to finish his training, firepaw is juggled between all of them for a couple days but runningwind and bluestar end up dual mentoring him

-bluestar makes lionheart deputy as usual, ravenpaw is still scared of tigerclaw, but since he doesn’t have to be constantly around him and has the protection of lionheart and his friends, he doesn’t leave thunderclan and fake his death

-sandpaw gets close to firepaw before she’s a warrior because she realizes that dustpaw is a big jerk wad and firepaw isn’t even that bad and her dad is his mentor and he likes him and she knows that redtail would’ve liked him as well, so dustpaw, tigerclaw, darkstripe, and longtail are probably the wrong ones

-brokenstar was already the leader when firepaw joins and has been for like a year and now he’s ran out windclan and yellowfang

-firepaw finds yellowfang and instead of everyone being like “we should kill her” they actually have brain cells and are like “something’s not right, also yellowfang you can chill here, but firepaw you still have to take care of her because you brought her here” tigerclaw, darkstripe, and dustpaw are the only ones pissed at yellowfang existing in thunderclan

-brokenstar attacks thunderclan while most of the warriors are out on patrol (hmmm tigerclaw, lionheart, firepaw, ravenpaw, and runngingwind are the only cats trained and healthy enough to properly fight while this attack is going on, interesting) because they want more babies to make into murder machines, spottedleaf, who doesn’t have any weird feelings for firepaw and instead is sandpaw’s cool and wise aunt who she loves, is killed, rosetail is killed, thrushpelt is killed (he was an elder, he didn’t die yet before firepaw came to the forest) and lionheart are killed

-bluestar losing her girlfriend, boyfriend, medicine cat, AND deputy gets hit very hard and refuses to name a new deputy because she’s lost two in like a month and a half “if starclan keeps taking my deputies, then they can be the one to choose them!”

-she goes to the moonstone with all the apprentices, whitestorm, mousefur, and runningwind and gets killed by a rat but she’s better now and still has two lives so she’s fine

-ashkit and fernkit are now born to brindleface and their dad is darkstripe, but he wants nothing to do with them and is an asshole to brindleface for no reason, also it should be mentioned that darkstripe’s dad is thistleclaw who was killed by redtail and whitestorm when he was an apprentice and his mom is willowpelt, and now willowpelt and whitestorm are mates so now he has a grudge against both of them and is angry because his family is weird now (no one besides whitestorm and willowpelt know it was him and redtail who killed thistleclaw)

-snowkit is born to speckletail and unknown tom, she won’t say and no one cares, also oh no snowkit is deaf but speckletail’s sister, one-eye, who is going deaf, helps them learn a kind of sign language, and a bunch of thunderclan, including the kits, wanna learn too

-firepaw decides that windclan being chased out for almost 3 moons is too long so him, ravenpaw, graypaw, and sandpaw go save them, not dustpaw though because dustpaw said it was stupid and windclan should stay gone

-they succeed! and bluestar is so impressed she makes them into warriors: fireheart, graystripe, ravenpelt, and sandstorm, dustpaw gets pissed off that he isn’t made a warrior too, he’s older than graystripe and fireheart and his brother got made a warrior, but bluestar tells him to shut up, cats become warriors when they act like warriors, not when they become a certain age

-brokenstar attacks thunderclan again, but this time bluestar captures him and kills him once and also blinds him, everyone takes a moment to remember exactly why she was made leader

-everyone’s nervous that bluestar still hasn’t chosen a deputy yet, they all know it’s between whitestorm or tigerclaw, but bluestar’s still scared they’ll just die as soon as she makes one of them deputy, redtail had only been deputy fro a few moons (one-eye was her deputy before she retired) and lionheart had been deputy for like what, a month and a half before he was killed? also bramblekit and tawnykit are born to goldenflower and tigerclaw

-tigerclaw is weirdly close to brokenstar “theywere friends when they were apprentices and warriors together” everyone says, but is that really what’s happening

-shadowclan is glad to be rid of brokenstar and his followers and they choose nightpelt as their new leader, who actually does get eight lives and becomes nightstar, but they’re pissed that thunderclan is keeping brokenstar because if they had just killed him one last time by now nightstar could’ve had 9 lives

-bluestar makes brightpaw, cinderpaw, brackenpaw, and thornpaw apprentices and give them to sandstorm, fireheart, graystripe, and ravenpelt respectively, it’s been like a moon and dustpaw is still an apprentice because he’s a little turd head

-except graystripe has been going off on his own a lot lately and is like barely mentor, turns out he’s dating silverstream who saved his life while coming back from saving windclan, sandstorm gets angry because she’s had a crush on her for moons but i guess she didn’t like her back

-brokenstar’s rogues attack to free him, but they’re actually being led by tigerclaw now and in the flurry of battle, tigerclaw kills bluestar onces, but she beats him out of her den with the help of whitestorm and fireheart before he can take another one

-yellowfang feeds brokenstar deathberries as she tells him she’s his mom in the midst of battle so the rogues attacking only comes to his death

-what a surprise, tigerclaw had been conspiring with brokenstar and took over his rogues, bluestar banishes him and he’s chased out, but dustpaw follows him because he’s more loyal to tigerclaw than thunderclan and he’s pissed that bluestar didn’t make him a warrior, darkstripe stays to everyone’s surprised because he was tigerclaw’s first apprentice and they were super close, longtail is shocked and angry at tigerclaw and revokes any and all respect and loyalty he had towards him

-bluestar finally names whitestorm as her deputy and orders to keep a watch out for tigerclaw and dustpaw

approximate amount of time that passes during all of this: 5 moons