[Empress Of Evil]

Originally Posted by Charmer

Shinefang watched for a moment from a cluster of thick bracken as the deputy of his clan settled herself under the tree where she had asked him to meet. He sat upwind to make himself harder to be spotted by any cats who happened to wander near, and had gotten here early to avoid Ringpaw's inane questions. In a way, he felt bad that the younger cat had to start assuming her duties so soon before the Skyclan he knew and loved had taken such a turn. Shinefang was an old cat who liked things to stay the same, and there were a few things he had been sure always would: his devotion to his leader, and his trust that Skyclan would always be on the right path, the path that allowed the clan t thrive. And now, here he found Skyclan in the paws of a ginger fool and Grousestar handing it over without a second thought.

Auroraflame had neverstruck him as a leader he would be on board with in the same way. She didn't have the same steady assurance that Grousestar seemed to have, and he didn't even have that now. He was so stressed that the medicine cat had been supplying him with calming herbs to keep him relaxed enough to function, and while he bent and twisted to try and make Blazingstar's words and behavior somehow fit with his prior agreement to be allies, her was Auroraflame being the voice of reason and calling a mousebrain a mousebrain.

Quietly, he slipped into the open and approached the deputy. For a long moment, he met her intense gaze with his own before sitting on his haunch, his bushy, yellow tail sweeping the dusty ground once before curling over his paws. "I'd be lying if I said I saw this coming."

The inky deputy lifted her head as she heard another voice. Her first instinct was to jump, immediately thinking that it might be one of her clanmates who had followed her out here, ready to question why she was out so far from camp and by herself. But she stayed calm and allowed her mind to process the voice, letting it identify the owner of that voice. "I don't think anyone saw it coming," she responded solemnly. It was true. Never in her life had Auroraflame thought for just a moment that SkyClan would be in such a position. At first, she had thought this because they were isolated. They were alone and they didn't have to worry about neighbouring clans who posed as a potential threat to SkyClan. Even when they had moved here, such a thought hadn't crossed her mind. Yes, she knew that something was bound to happen. After all, there were five clans and like littermates, it was natural for them to bicker and fight. But she had never imagined SkyClan to be in such a weak position. Although the other clans may not see it with Grousestar seemingly sure about his choices and SkyClan having made it unscathed until now, SkyClan was weak. Grousestar was secretly stressed and he was losing his original beliefs. A leader who was so peaceful, a leader that Auroraflame looked up and wanted to be like because of his ability to find the right way out of bad situations for the clan, was now gone. She didn't want to be the cat that Grousestar was right now. She couldn't. It was wrong.

"We are weak," she continued after a few moments of silence. "Grousestar isn't thinking straight and I think he's let the other leaders sway his mind. He doesn't seem to want to listen to us," she said. Although she had felt terribly guilty and had pitied her leader, she couldn't help but feel a little angry now. Everyone knew that the leaders word was law, but the deputy and medicine cat should still have a say in what happened to the clan. Auroraflame bit her lip angrily. She was being ignored and she didn't like it. Perhaps she was just being childish but she didn't like having her opinion dismissed, not when she had worked so hard to gain all this respect. It was rude and it was disrespectful, two things that the deputy couldn't stand.