#is he desperate to save Riverclan to prove he’s better than his mistakes? his past?

[sunnymoon-sunshine]

Continuing from my last post containing Feathertail, she and her brother leave RiverClan for ThunderClan after Hawkfrost (and unintentionally Leopardstar) push them out. The forest cats greet them at Sunningrocks with mixed reactions - the older cats are exasperated that Greystripe’s kits seem to think ThunderClan is some place to hide out until the storm is over. “They’ll be back when RiverClan begs for forgiveness, you mark my words.” Are words one would expect from a grouchy elder, but the senior warriors of ThunderClan are starving. They are faring much worse than RiverClan, who have been living fat and fine off the river, even with the absense of land prey.

The younger cats, however, remember Feathertail and Stormfur well from their stay in ThunderClan during the darkest days of the forest. Ashfur and Ferncloud are both warm and welcoming, though visably tired and frazzled. Ferncloud can barely produce enough milk to feed her kits. Every able warrior is scouring the forest for prey. Brambleheart and Squirrelpaw, both still plump from their journey, have thrown themselves into every patrol to help assuage their guilt. Feathertail and Stormfur join them on every one. Their pelts feel hot, their paws prickle at the stares of others, and they feel acutely out of place - yet they’re determined to stay. “We’ve no home in RiverClan anymore.” Stormfur insists to Firestar. “Not with... current events going on.”

Firestar welcomes them graciously. Not only are they his best friend’s children, but they’re hardworking warriors, and his daughter swears from the forest and back that they’re some of the best cats she knows. He has already been swayed to leave the forest - it doesn’t take much effort, considering the state of ThunderClan. It fascinates Feathertail how adamant he is that the other clans come with him, however. Greystripe also welcomes them with warm purrs and excitement - his children have decided to come to ThunderClan! It’s a surprise that’s laced with concern. What happened in RiverClan? The siblings agree, they’ll explain it all later.

Even after the missing cats are freed and Greystripe goes missing, Feathertail and Stormfur vow to stick in ThunderClan. It comes to a heartbreaking goodbye at the river, where Feathertail presses her nose to Mistyfoot’s. She’d tried to convince them to come back, but it was no use. Tehy no longer felt safe in RiverClan. Not as long as Hawkfrost was there. And they had something to prove to the ThunderClan cats - they weren’t about to run home at the first sight of danger.

Her old mentor looks ragged, tired. But there’s a certain fury contained in those fierce blue eyes that would make a weaker warrior cower in fear. But Feathertail felt nothing but warmth from it. The righteous anger eminating from Mistyfoot wasn’t a threat - it was a promise. To Feathertail and Stormfur, and to Stonefur.

“I’m going to drag both of them from one side of the camp to the other,” came Mistyfoot’s quiet hiss. Feathertail had never, not once, heard Mistyfoot speak so violently. “Questioning you, questioning your loyalty, and making Hawkfrost deputy. She’ll never learn, will she?” The blue-grey she-cat spat at the ground. She returns as RiverClan’s rightful deputy, a relief to Silverstream’s half-clan kits.

The journey is a long and hard one. Feathertail and Stormfur sway between their old RiverClan clanmates and their new ThunderClan ones. In fact, all the clans seem much more united than they once were. She never thought she’d walk next to a ShadowClan cat while she helped carry a WindClan kit, yet this was the new reality for the time being. She sticks close to Brambleheart and Squirrelpaw the most, however - in fact, all the prophecy cats find themselves drawn to each other during their second journey to the sun-drown place.

Crowpaw still has an obvious itch to talk to her, walk with her, yet Feathertail can’t bring herself to walk alone with him. He’d barely entered her thoughts for the past few weeks, and while she still carried a soft spot for him, she could never bring herself to follow in her mother’s footsteps. She keeps a careful distance between them. Especially now that she has ThunderClan’s eyes hot on her pelt. It’s hard enough for her to be seen with RiverClan cats, what would happen if she had an affair? The journey is the effective end to their budding relationship.

They go along the path of the mountains at the insistence of the prophecy cats. While there, the tribe cats take care of them. They revere Feathertail as their hero, welcome her and her clans back with warmth and gratitude. She rather thinks she’s impressed a number of cats with how fiercely the tribe cats praise her actions.

She supposes no one thought she could be a hero.

Unfortunately, this is where her brother parts. No longer feeling welcome in any clan, and basking in the warm affections of Brook, Stormfur declares he’s going to stay with the Tribe of Rushing Water. It comes as a heavy blow to Feathertail. She has no kin in any clan now, her brother and best friend is gone, Crowpaw is avoiding her now that she’s eased back on their relationship, and it seems like she’s made nothing but mistakes. But she continues to stay with ThunderClan.

To her surprise, several cats come to comfort her. A few RiverClan, a number of ThunderClan - including Ashfur, Ferncloud, and Brightheart - but some from other clans as well. They all move on, leaving the mountains - and Stormfur - behind.

The real troubles come in when Brambleheart begins trying to get to know his siblings better. Tawnypelt has struck up a decent friendship with Mothwing, though it can’t be said the two are close. He desperately wants to get to know his brother, Hawkfrost, and prove once and for all that he isn’t as bad of a cat as some cats imply he is. This manages to infuriate Feathertail more than anything else had done so far. She can handle distrustful ThunderClan cats, or comments about loyalty from RiverClan ones as well. But Hawkfrost successfully drove her out of RiverClan, using his temporary position and his influence with Leopardstar. She doesn’t forgive him, and Brambleheart’s insistence that he can’t possibly be that bad is insulting at best. She and Squirrelpaw turn their back on him, even as they reach the new territory and the clans split once again.

“He’s an idiot.” The newly named Squirrelflight grumbles, walking with her silver-furred friend. “A complete idiot. Hawkfrost can’t be trusted. He can’t! He’s way too suspicious! And he’s awful to you!”

“I think,” Feathertail says, paws shuffling on the ground as she walks, paying no mind to where she’s going, “That he’s desperate to prove he’s not his father’s son.”

“Who, Hawkfrost? Well, I think-”

“No,” Feathertail murmurs, glancing back towards the new ThunderClan camp over her shoulder. “Brambleheart.”

They continue on in silence for nearly the rest of their walk, before Squirrelflight finds something else to mutter about. Feathertail can’t blame her - they’ve all been stressed.

She also rather suspects Squirrelflight misses him, too.

Things in ThunderClan slowly improved for Feathertail, as well. If they had warmed up to her during the journey ever so slightly, their tolerance for her rose sigificantly after the clans split once again, and she followed the ThunderClan cats to their new home. They greet her as she comes in and out of camp, she’s given patrols to lead on her own, and she finds herself sharing prey with more and more cats in her new clan. In return, she gives them her all.

One day, even Mousefur gives her a somewhat nice remark - “You’re so unlike your father. You’re last to the fresh kill pile, while he’d shove his fat-”

“Language, Mousefur!” Cinderpelt calls from across the clearing.

“-tail over to the fresh kill pile first thing.” She finished, with a huff.

Relief comes as swift as a dam breaking when Hawkfrost is found dead in the lake. Feathertail finds herself letting out a breath she hadn’t realized she had been holding for moons upon moons. When the ThunderClan patrol had found them, the lake was tainted with Hawkfrost’s blood, and Brambleheart stood motionless at the smooth shore, his paws stained and his eyes wide.

Hawkfrost had tried to kill the ThunderClan leader. Brambleheart had saved him at the very last moment.

The forest felt safer, yet it came at a cost.

It was a full patrol that included both Feathertail and Leafpool that returned Hawkfrost’s body to RiverClan. Mistyfoot looked at them with a stony expression as they took him back to bury them. Leopardstar, however, tried to argue. Tried to defend Hawkfrost in some way. Swore at the ThunderClan cats. But eventually, she finally had to admit defeat. There were cats in RiverClan who would mourn tonight, and Leopardstar was one of them. Later on, Leopardstar seeks to speak with Feathertail privately during a gathering. It come as a surprise to many, especially Feathertail herself.

“I expect you’ll be wanting to rejoin RiverClan?” Her tone is flat, and her expression is unreadable. It almost felt like a lull in the storm, an offer to cross normally treacherous waters back into familiarity. She rather suspects Mistyfoot snapped at her again for her treatment of the half-clan cats in RiverClan. And for that, Feathertail is grateful. She even thinks there’s a hint of remorse in the expression on Leopardstar’s face.

And yet, she wants to purr in amusement. The entire conversation is ridiculous. “Oh, no thank you.”

“ThunderClan has been my home for a while now. I plan to stay, thank you.”