High Rank Announcement [#hrannouncement]

**shaae_26** · #**2171** November 8th, 2021, 04:13 PM

"Exile her! Who would admit to murdering a mere queen? It's pathetic!" Snakebite mewed

**Quasar** · #**2172** November 9th, 2021, 07:19 AM

Flamepaw | he/him

The stocky tom bristled slightly as his clanmates started shouting out their opinions, his expression conflicted. On one paw, she had murdered a queen, and that surely called for punishment, but on the other paw, leafbare was steadily approaching and they needed as many able bodied warriors as possible. It would be nice for the clan not to have more murderers in it, but with Dawnstar in charge that...wasn't really possible. Scrunched his nose slightly, he stepped forwards with a confident look on his face. "Dawnstar, I think that she should be demoted for now. She's apologizing now, but I'm not sure if its genuine. Maybe with a demotion she'll actually change her behaviour" he mewed once it settled down a bit, his long tail flicking behind him.

**carmen** · #**2173** November 9th, 2021, 04:46 PM

@Jackpot
Juniperpaw growled with frustration. Where was her recognition? Was she that unnoticeable? Wait, that was it, right? It was just that she hadn't seen her, not that she didn't care. She puffed up her chest again and smiled widely. Everything was fine. But no, it wasn't fine. Dawnstar had noticed some nobody warrior over her! So, Foxstorm had bragged about killing somebody. So what? It didn't affect her, so why should she care? She started to turn away, her blue-grey body nearly ready to sink into the shadows and disappear. No one would notice.

She stopped and turned around at a single word. Reputation? When had Shadowclan cared about their reputation? She smiled at the idea. So Dawnstar did understand the glory of being known as intelligent bloodthirsty beauties. Absolutely wonderful. She gasped as the leader carried on. No wonder Foxstorm was in such great trouble! It was the proper reaction in such a situation. Sullying their glorious reputation over a mere queen. Pathetic. She wasn't sure why it was so horrid, but from everyone else's reaction, hers seemed reasonable.

"You would honestly kill another cat just like that?" She turned to the molly who had spoken. She was new, wasn't she? And some sort of former rogue? She blinked back to when the cat had been introduced. Adderstrike, Addersomething. Eh, who cared about her name. "I mean, don't get me wrong, there's nothing wrong with a little death here and there, but why would anyone waste their time on something like her? And imagine how oily your claws would get! The oil from her fur is probably way out of proportion. No wonder she doesn't care about how we are seen!"

***Undertaker*** · #**2174** November 9th, 2021, 05:11 PM

High Rank Announcement [#hrannouncement]

The leader's ears swerved to catch the voices of her clanmates. Dawnstar was interested in how many cats bothered with actually voicing their thoughts on the matter, even if some of the ideas were dull, she was glad to see that they were taking an active interest in their clans and their members. Foxstorm's pleads fell on deaf ears, the leader truly never had any intentions of killing her, or she would have died at the Gathering, as for exile, she would have already been gone a long time ago.

No, most of this was to draw attention to Foxstorm, set an example, and for the pure humiliation. Dawnstar would have kept her tail tucked and her head down for moons if her mother had ever outed her this badly at a clan meeting. ShadowClan valued their pride to a point where blood would be spilled for it. So it would be hard to hold your head up high when you screwed up this badly. Most of the cats didn't think as deeply as Dawnstar did on the matter, they were focused on the stupid dead queen, which was fine, it was Dawnstar's job to worry about the entirety of the clan. Perhaps she was thinking too hard about this matter, a bit paranoid, yet, all it took was one string to be pulled to unravel all this work. It took one cat to start really looking look into ShadowClan for real problems to arise.

Elmshadow, Redshrike, and Ivypaw were the only three that weren't parroting the rest of the sheep. Ivypaw's words were vague, not too much thought went into her answer, but she was young and had time to learn. She didn't just follow the flock so it was better than nothing. Redshrike, she expected nothing less from him. He went further than even she had thought and gone into RiverClan's thoughts, and that is why he was one of her favorites. She doubted no matter what she did with the cat, the Catfish would never think that the punishment was harsh enough, but it's not like they could talk. Elmshadow went into something Dawnstar had overlooked in irritation, Foxstorm was a loyal member of the clan, and idiot, but a loyal idiot, and those were so very hard to come by.

Pity, if she had taken notice of Elmshadow earlier, she would have happily given him the rank of deputy, and she highly doubted she'd have any seconds thoughts about it the way she did with Shadestorm. Granted, the gray deputy wasn't a bad deputy, he handled his duties just fine, and seemingly cared about the clan in his own way. He was too arrogant for her liking though, too blindly reliant on his rank to stand out, and a bit too greedy. If Elmshadow continued to prove he was more than that, Shadestorm would be out of his rank.

Blackpaw drew her attention to him as he took a stand next to Foxstorm. Seemed like the molly had some cats willing to step up for her. Firepaw's question had the leader facing him with a growl, "It's not the rank, but who the rank belonged to that makes it worthless." Dawnstar left it at that not interested in explaining herself to an apprentice. No one at the gathering was able to name this queen, making them worthless. Drawing attention to their death was unnecessary, no one would have noticed she was gone, nor ShadowClan's involvement in it. They were called ShadowClan for a reason! It was a dumb thing to expose for no reason.

Her ear twitched in acknowledgment of Flamepaw's last little request. Demotion had always been the paw to play, still, it was good to separate those worth paying attention to those who simply wished to continue to blend into the ShadowClan. She knew who to turn to for any future advice, finding cats that could actually advise her without fear of retaliation, pain, or demotion was about as rare as finding a competent, devoted, and loyal warrior to ShadowClan.

"For the next moon, you'll be known as Maggotpaw, you'll sleep in the apprentice den, and you're not allowed out of camp without your mentor. Elmshadow, you'll be in charge of her, I don't care what you do with her, but make sure it enough that this lapse of stupidity doesn't happen again." This would be a pain considering she needed to find someone new to watch Dewdrop for the rest of her time here. "Maggotpaw, you'll get the moon to realize the mistake you made. A simply 'I was wrong or I'll never betray ShadowClan' isn't going to cut it. I want you to tell me what you did wrong or rather why it was wrong, figure it out by the next meeting and you'll get your rank restored." Dawnstar left it at that to return to her place atop of the Shadowledge.

"We've got a new mouth to feed, Lilacpaw, is a scrawny little outsider with no training. We don't need her, however, I thought it would be entertaining to at least give her a chance to earn a place to belong. Robincall, she's yours to training."

"Sharppaw, I believe you are the only one needing a new mentor... Or well, Daisypaw you'll need a new temporary mentor since your's got a demoted."

"Weepingshade, you'll mentor Sharppaw. Badgersight, you'll serve as Daisypaw's mentor for the time being." Dawnstar ordered, eyes already finding the tardy kit she had nearly forgotten about.

"Sleetkit, since you're here this meeting, I'll do your apprentice ceremony. From now on until you earn your warrior name, you'll be known as Sleetpaw. Your mentor will be Brackenfire."

With those all done, Dawnstar moved into a more pressing topic. "RiverClan's is an annoying thorn, but nothing more than a thorn. As much as I would like to teach them a lesson for the disrespect, leafbare is on its way. Even though I highly doubt ShadowClan will have any problems with providing for ourselves, I'll let you all decide. We can continue to put RiverClan in their place, as our pride as ShadowClan demands. Or we can focus on preparing for leafbare, training and strengthening ourselves, and let bygones be bygones."

"I've no doubt that RiverClan and WindClan will be rallying together to fight us sooner or later and that thorn will turn into a fang, but no clan leader in their right mind would want to pick a fight with leafbare on its way. It would be the perfect time to strike RiverClan, cut down their numbers, it would be unexpected. But it also might hurt us just as well..." Dawnstar trailed off with a thoughtful expression on her face. Pain shouldn't be something that a hardened warrior of ShadowClan should worry about, but the cold kills everything. It was a disadvantage as much as it was an advantage, risky too.

During the start of her leadership, Dawnstar would have sprung straight into a war without bothering to worry about the consequences, and don't get her wrong, she still saw her clanmates as nothing more than tools and pawns to move around and do her bidding. But she's had time to mature a bit and think about playing a long game over a messy short one. She'd get her war regardless, she was certain of that, but there were ways to get her war without destroying all the hard work she's put into ShadowClan.

**JackHunt_17** · #**2175** November 9th, 2021, 05:25 PM

Fiercefire was satisfied with the demotion. He was surprized that Sharppaw's mentor had already abandoned her but he was glad that she'd gotten someone else.

Lynxkit didn't really know what was happening. He chanted the new apprentices names, Sleetpaw and Lilacpaw that is, not Maggotpaw.

**gs29513** · #**2176** November 9th, 2021, 05:34 PM

Shrewstep wasn't normally a fan of speaking out during clan meetings, but this time he did have something to say. While he didn't particularly want fighting through leafbare, especially with his kits, saying no fighting would get him seen as nothing but weak. So perhaps a moderate approach, find some way to convince Dawnstar to only provoke what would actually benefit the clan. Which admittedly wasn't much, she mostly seemed to enjoy a load of chaos, but perhaps she was willing to listen to reason for once? She seemed in an unusually receptive mood to the wishes of the masses.

Windclan will hardly be a threat during leafbare. They never seem well fed and leafbare drives their precious rabbits away, so any attack from THEM is unlikely. Hmm, perhaps he said have said bunnies instead of Windclan. Well, too late now, they were a clan, some in Shadowclan seem to have forgotten that. But next time, bunnies. And fish, for Riverclan. Yes, make sure he was using the proper vocabulary for this, he didn't want to mess up his bit of input with sloppy speech.

As strong as we are, attacking the guppies who have their fish all year round might not be the smartest idea unless we're truly trying to gain something. Battles are a great opportunity to test strength and weaken our rivals, but unless Riverclan oh dear, he'd slipped up again has territory we can use to feed ourselves, creating conflict during leafbare probably isn't worth it. Whether Dawnstar was asking genuinely or as a way to see who wanted peace was another matter entirely, he had to hope it was the former. Because if it was the latter and she had every intention of attacking anyway, Shrewstep didn't think he had impressed her, or anyone, particularly much. Not that he cared aside from making sure he didn't attract undue bad attention to his family.

**Ikoria the Wolf Pup** · #**2177** November 9th, 2021, 05:57 PM

Echokit padded up to the Shadowledge. He had been trying to listen from in the nursery, but he couldn't hear much. Looks like he had missed more than he wanted to. The naming of Maggotpaw? If only he knew who was demoted, and why..

A war with RiverClan and WindClan? Maybe he should ask his parents. No, they wouldn't like that. Besides, he was sure he could ask someone else that was more willing to share information.

**-Ash-** · #**2178** November 9th, 2021, 06:24 PM

About time he was given a mentor! Sleetpaw puffed out his chest proudly, a smile on his face.

**TheNyanCatMinecart** · #**2179** November 9th, 2021, 07:20 PM

~ IVYPAW ~

Ivypaw wondered if anything had been made of her response. She didn't know much except that this Foxstorm cat was being a nuisance. And Dawnstar had wanted to kill her or something. She listened as more voices piped up. Weaklings didn't belong in ShadowClan. Although she had just been boasting about killing a queen, and potentially messing with Dawnstar's announcements or whatever. She didn't care much if the other Clans got mad; sure, she wouldn't say anything stupid, but surely ShadowClan could easily beat them. Ivypaw had perfected a couple moves as a kit, for StarClan's sake. Surely they were stronger. She tilted her head to one side and listened as Dawnstar addressed it.

Of course Blackpaw was messing with things again. They hadn't responded to Ivypaw's comment earlier; maybe they'd ignored her. Whatever. Ivypaw nodded. Something in the back of her mind was thinking that death might be a bit drastic - she wasn't soft or anything, it was just a warrior boasting of a kill. She'd be eager if she killed someone. But Dawnstar was annoyed, so that meant that she was right. Ivypaw would probably learn later. Oh, so it was just a demotion. That made sense. Ivypaw knew that Maggotpaw was meant to be a jab or something, but she didn't care much about names. Maggotpaw better make her mind up and impress Dawnstar. Ivypaw wished that these ShadowClan cats could be more loyal. Jeez.

A new member, huh? Lilacpaw, a former Outsider. Ivypaw preferred ShadowClan blood, but if the Outsider was useful, then they'd be a good addition to ShadowClan. Dawnstar was mates with Grimhound right? Two apprentices were getting reassigned. Nothing too interesting. Oh, Sleetkit had arrived. He was getting his apprentice name, Sleetpaw. Don't miss your ceremony next time. She rolled her amber eyes. Ivypaw didn't call out the name because nobody had called hers, and it might be weird because she had just become an apprentice, too. Okay, now Dawnstar was talking about something different. Ivypaw's ears strained toward her leader, her eyes getting that look that they did when she was listening.

What she said was interesting. It was about putting RiverClan in their place... or relaxing their forces as leaf-bare came. It was a reasonable question. As much as Ivypaw wanted to fight, they needed to stock up. Dawnstar was a good leader. She wasn't weak, but she wasn't stupid. One cat had an opinion that made sense. Ivypaw wondered if she should pipe up, since she was a new apprentice, and her previous comment hadn't really done much. Ivypaw hesitated for a moment and thought. She got a bit of an idea. Why not. As long as she didn't say anything stupid, everything would be fine. Ivypaw stepped forward and fixed her gaze on Dawnstar.

"Obviously, ShadowClan's the strongest, although the cold weather is harsh from what I've heard of leaf-bare. We don't want to do anything stupid. Maybe we don't fight now. But during leaf-bare, we focus a lot more on battle training? That way, while the other Clans are mainly focused on surviving, we'll be surviving and strengthening our skills. So in newleaf, we can take them by surprise. Or if something happens that causes us to attack in leaf-bare, we'll be ready." Ivypaw knew that she was young and didn't fully understand these things, but why not just put the idea out there and see if it was considered.

@Undertaker

Raven~ · #**2180** November 9th, 2021, 07:51 PM

For @Ravensong
_________
Her. Name. Was. Maggotpaw? Why!?! She knew she had just thought that she wouldn’t mind having Dawnstar pick her name, but wasn’t exactly what she had in mind. It was a disgusting name, though she supposed it was better than death. It meant that Dawnstar thought she was still valuable to the Clan. Besides, it was only one moon. Maggotpaw would have to think about the apology, but that shouldn’t be too hard if she had a moon to think about it.

Maggotpaw padded over to Elmshadow, refusing to look him in the eye. “I’m not touching noses with you,” She muttered under her breath. It would be even more embarrassing. They were the same height for StarClan’s sake. It would feel wrong. But for some reason, she also added in a slightly softer tone, “Thanks for standing for me.” Why not? Might as well get in good terms.