A storm was brewing. A tumultuous storm that was fueled with nothing but the drowned cries of anger and frustration. It wasn't long before Honeysucklebloom figured that out, curiosity foolishly drawing her in as she overheard Fadingstar call the clan over for what seemed to be a meeting. His voice carried the waves of regret and exhaustion, almost making the sunshine tabby heart quench in painful sympathy and frustration. Before she could ponder what the tom wanted to say, he had already begun to speak, and the most that he had decided to convey was about his lackluster leadership as of late. From the moment Fadingstar started to talk, the longer the former kittypet felt the inevitable quantities of rage start to rise from the stirring of her clan-mates. She knew fairly well that the leader had a fairly mixed reputation within the crowd; both negative and positive. But Honeysucklebloom knew that it was of a more negative impact than a positive, from just the events that happened from the last few moons that had done nothing but severely damage the clan as a whole. Constant threats of execution, unnecessary restrictions, and full-blown exile from more than two moons were all events that had caused RiverClan to turn into the mess that it was. But, even before that, her clan had been struggling. Leadership was always a failure to keep uptight, and the High Ranks always seemed to get swept so often that it was almost impossible to keep someone in the same boat.

Golden-striped tail flicked as it curled itself plaintively over her paws, the black tip twitching nervously as she listened for the opinions of her clan-mates to stir upon themselves. Fadingstar was never clear with his words, and the clan had always been quick to pick up on this rather diabolical behavior of his. Every time he said he wouldn't get angry at someone’s opinion, the opposite would always happen. At first, she listened to Adderstrike speak, admitting her cowardly admission to wanting to speak with the leader with just how inexplicable he can be. Perhaps it was unholy true to the fact that their leader lost all the respect he could have earned if he had just done his job right, but he hadn't. Only doing purely the opposite of good and causing chaos after chaos to uprise. Tinytoad spoke next, and her proclamation made sense, even if it was questionable. The mountains were a horrible place to stay, and the dangers there were elevated in comparison to here. Sure, it was somewhere for them to live momentarily while they were trying to pull themselves together, but it was a massive change to what they were used to in the familiar trenches of their territory. But, all of that was going to be rushing back at her the moment they moved into their new camp… whenever that may be, that is. Her thoughts trailed off as she listened to Flowerhunter speak, noting him as being the first of many to tell Fadingstar to resign from his position of leader. It felt extreme, but the more she thought about it, the more it made sense. He has been struggling with keeping this clan afloat; every decision he made has only caused them to struggle more than ever.

He remained cowardly, hiding away in his den like he had countless time and time again. Every decision that popped off the top of his head had been something inevitably questionable and led to hushed whispers that not even the molly herself could recall. Dusklion seemed to be the only one with a stable head on her shoulders, and while the tabby never interacted with her often, she felt more respect leaning toward the deputy than she did towards her leader. While she waited for more voices to speak up, the most the molly got was hearing Fishpaw speak, hearing the apprentice state the tom as a good leader—the molly felt herself internally wince at the statement. Good was a mediocre statement at best, in her shared opinion. Fadingstar hadn't done much for the clan, and the most that he could offer them was… pretty much nothing at this point except fixing his mistakes and showing that he was a proper leader. Honeysucklebloom almost wanted to speak with the apprentice to tell her of the leader’s true actions, but she kept her mouth shut, staying silent as she felt as if causing unnecessary drama would only do more conflict to the clan than needed. Before she could process her next range of thoughts, Waterlily suddenly began to spit out words coated with malice and venom as thick as a cobra. Her words were loud and burning hot with a malevolence not even a kit would bear. Following after her speech were both Amberdusk and Plumshade, but Honeysucklebloom found herself mingling onto Waterlily’s words, sinking them in with eager ears.

Waterlily pointed out everything that was wrong with Fadingstar—right from his actions to the way he couldn’t even keep himself together. Her words were like a bee stinging a cat repeatedly, the pain only growing worse from there on out. Her roars of anger pounded within her ears, and the continuous involvement of both Sedgeflake and Redmire only worsened this engagement. Cats now fully stepping up and voicing their opinions, enraged fully at the leader who hasn't been proving himself in the slightest. A sharp ringing pain strikes her mind suddenly, making her legs nearly buckle as she seethes from the pain. She raised a paw to instinctively clutch the side of her head while the rest kept her afloat, her vision almost going fuzzy as she tried to keep focus. All their words became nothing but a blur, a tidal wave of migraines rolled into one. All the wrath was too much to bear; a wrath that could rouse the meekest of mountains to erupt. The pain only seemed to drift away as her vision regained its focus, taking in the focus of Waterlily stalking towards Fadingstar as she continued to spit out words coated with venom towards him. Fadingstar at the moment didn't look like a leader; he looked like a kit getting scolded by a queen. The restrained fury weaving off Waterlily seemingly subsided as the frail elder looked to be struggling to maintain her posture for long. It was almost pitiful to look at if Honeysucklebloom was being honest. It wasn't her fault, of course. She had been in the clan for a long time, and that wasn't anything that was gonna change.

Finally, the inevitable happened, and Fadingstar fled. All the power he held on his paws now drifted as he took the cowardly way out. The molly only stood there bewildered as she watched Waterlily shove the tom out of their temporary prison, commanding him to leave and never return until he learned to be the leader RiverClan needed. The guilt that he would harvest would be lined razor-sharp teeth that salivate with unending hunger. They would gnash and bite with a reckless ferocity that wouldn't stop even if advised to. A deafening silence fell over her ears, so loud and thunderous that she could easily hear the accelerated pounding of her own heart. Primrosepaw’s words didn't reach her ears, the tabby only staring at the gateway where Fadingstar… or Fadingsun, had fled. Anyone else who decided to speak up furthermore had left her on deaf ears, and the only thing the tabby was able to catch was Dusklion speaking up against everything. She wanted them to distract themselves; go hunt, go patrol, anything to see past the horrors they witnessed. Honeysucklebloom wasn't certain, but she could feel a lump tightening in her throat. Her claws slipped and dug deeply into the dying grass beneath her paws. So many things were going wrong, and this was one of them. The only thing she suspected was that Fadingstar got what was coming for him. Being a leader was too much for him to handle, and he couldn't even state that he wanted to step down. It… was cowardly, but Honeysucklebloom’s mind was in a messed haze that she couldn't counter everything that happened in that singular moment, only taking it in one sample at a time as the voices began to die down. Stars, what has RiverClan become?

Whatever happened here wasn't something Owltalon wanted to ever experience. Not again. Another leader, down and pushed to rot. The Lionheart winced at the news, watching as Fadingstar buckled under the weight and slipped away. As always, chaos ensued. The Lionheart put on a brave face and marched forward to Redmire, her ears flicking in slight agitation.

"Redmire! Calm yerself before ya subject anycat else ta yer yappin'." She addressed the she-cat with an authoritative but level tone. "Calm it. Everyone's stressed 'ere and yer yellin' ain't helpin' with our dire situation." She gave the warrior a slow blink, trying to slow her own movements to perhaps make Redmire realize how crazed she looked.

She glanced her good amber eye over to Goldfish, her expression taut with something even she couldn't describe. She then turned back to Redmire with a more sour expression.

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Sheesh, Goldfish must like hearing herself bark orders or something. This fiery hiss-fit that came out of Redmire was more than justified, in her opinion (even if it was a little dramatic), but Duskleaf's nonsense was concerning in contrast. Maybe that one 'oughtta pay Berrypaw a visit...

Then more cats chimed in out of nowhere. Stars, the only cats making sense in this were Seabreeze, Redmire, and Sedgeflake.

"Goldfish," She finally chimed in, taking a step toward the lionheart "You don't have to use such fowl language referring to Strongstorm. Nor do you need to talk down to Redmire as if she needs explainin' to like some kit. I suggest you learn to handle your role with grace and respect for your clanmates, or you'll come to find that your clanmates will stop respecting you."

Unwilling to escalate things further, Vixenflame sighed, giving a side-glance at Seabreeze and Sedgeflake's comments on getting out of here. "Y'know what? A patrol sounds pretty good right now. Peace!" With a tail-flicked turn, she left the scene.