WindClan: Life Before 2023's Fire

[spade]

➳ Basilwhisker

As Stagleech pressed his head into his shoulder, the tears wet and warm against his own fur, Basilwhisker felt a twitch of his heart. Suddenly, all he wanted to do was to make sure the tom was alright. Almost instinctually, he rested his tail across the WindClan warriors shoulders, humming softly in his ear to try and comfort him. It tore at him like rose thorns to see him upset, and for a brief rare moment anger flared in his belly. Who was Dawnstar to waltz into camp and demand that WindClan merge with ShadowClan? Who was she to take over Twilightstar's role? It made him want to bare his teeth and use the battle training every cat seemed to think he lacked and drag his claws down her face.

But right now, Stag was the most important thing to him.

Ears flicking as he heard approaching pawsteps, the tom glanced up and recognized the familiar face of Rushingmoor. Certainly he would be of more comfort to Stagleech in his time of need. Watching the tom stare defiantly up at the rock made him wish he had the courage to speak such words. Instead, he gave a swift lick over Stagleech's ear, continuing to hum softly to him.

[ @Arie @Beau ]

➳ Littlepaw

So much was happening at once, but it was dimmed by the sound of Littlepaw's heartbeat, which echoed in his ears. Being so new to WindClan still, and to Clan life in general, he wasn't entirely sure what was happening, but his gut instinctively told him that whoever the large cat was on the rock, she was a bad omen. Everything felt like it was on fire, screaming at him to run out of camp, to hide, to go back to the peaceful life he had as a loner with Otterberry outside the camps walls.

He felt his mother stagger at his side and instantly moved closer to her, burrowing his face in her fur. Breathing in her scent did nothing to calm him down as it usually did. "M-Mom I'm s-s-s-scared!" he cried, his whole body trembling from ears to tail tip. The only other cat he knew of, Breezefeather, was dead... The cat his mother had talked so highly of on their way back that Littlepaw was certain he already knew the tom. "What are we going to do??"

[spade]

Originally Posted by spade

♠ Littlepaw ♠

Trying to remember each word his mentor said, Littlepaw closed his eyes once again, his tail remaining still. Trying to relax his shoulders as much as he could, he moved one part forward, then the other, at a pace just a smidge faster than a snail. He focused on his breathing as well, trying his best to slow that as well. Inhale... exhale... Blue eyes opening, he moved another paw forward, slowly but surely moving a mouse-length at a time. He didn't want to break the tiny tendril of peace and calmness he felt, and it was reflected in his precise and calculated movements.

"W-Will I event-tually need t-to sprint a-a-after the prey?" Littlepaw whispered, his voice just loud enough for Seedheart to hear. He didn't break his gaze away to look at her as he asked, instead halting his movement.

[ eeep i just realized i never mentioned you in this sorry!! @Angelique ]

[TheNyanCatMinecart]

@TheSnowyAnimal

Ashfeather hardly heard Ravenkit's mispronunciation of ShadowClan. That wasn't important right now. Taking a deep breath, she tried to weigh what to say. What would happen to Whitekit?! "No, speaking out might make Dawnstar do something to you," she mewed, feeling a huge urge to get to her daughter. "We can't do anything. Even... even if we did something to Dawnstar, Twilightstar would die. Since only Dawnstar knows where she is." Her body was shaking.

[ophelia]

// @Fletcher - [oh wow so much happened]

Fawnbriar glanced sympathetically at the tom before turning her attention back to the rock. Coldamber allowed Dawnstar to speak. The huge molly began addressing them, and Fawnbriar kept her eyes trained coldly on the leader. She did her best not to react to the words, but her brain was racing furiously.
Breezefeather was dead? How could that be? She'd just been with him... Her heart was pounding so loudly she wouldn't have been surprised of Hallowstep could hear it beside her. Either join with her, or she'd kill Twilightstar. The clan was in uproar once again, rallying to save their leader. But...what if that wasn't the right choice? It was Twilight...or the whole clan. Fawnbriar was very loyal to her leader, but even more loyal to her clan. Maybe they had to let Twilightstar die to save the clan.

// @gs29513

A high pitched meow caught her attention. Thunderkit. Her heart broke for the young kit. She'd taken quite the liking to this kit, and didn't want to see him injured, or worse. She strode forward, aiming to pull him back, but he was lost in the crowd of stampeding cats. She sighed. It might be easier like this anyways. It wasn't like she could tell him not to worry. It wasn't fair, but they had to all calm down.

// @Rainquail

"Coldamber," Fawnbriar raised her voice. She could tell the medicine cat was upset and struggling to keep control. "Perhaps you should take a few warriors to discuss this matter in private," she suggested, making sure her voice was questioning and calm. She thought it would be better that way. The apprentices and kits should return to their dens. Many of the apprentices and warriors were yelling rash and unwise things.

[Arie]

-- @Beau @spade --

Mushy was here. Weaselwish was here. He was going to be alright... but Twiggy was not here... Twiggy was not here! The fact stuck harder to him than the deputy's death because... Deputies could be replaced right? Twiggy did that with the others... Strange face and Oogly. But... twiggy could not. He wanted to find Twiggy, he needed to find Twiggy but all he could do at this moment was cry. Why couldn't he just be stronger? Stagleech... was not a very strong cat. He'd always drawn his strength from Twiggy... and Mushy and now that she was gone... he didn't know what to do. Except cry.

And with Mushy's tail over his back and his shoulder pressed in against Weaselwish.. he felt safe for now. He actually felt strangely good. It was odd... he wasn't allowed to feel this good when Twiggy was gone. So he turned, voice hiccuping from his sobs as he tried his best to get it under control. "Mushy... Do you know where Twiggy went?" And then Weaselwish began licking him over the ear and he returned his muzzle to lie on his shoulder and he tried his best to do the same. Weaslewish's humming was nice, and in order to stem the sobs, Stagleech tried to replicate them... as best as he could.

[Fletcher]

[ @Paradise ]

Hallowstep

Hallowstep let out an exasperated yowl, his pelt twitching and quivering with emotion. He was completely overwhelmed and had no idea how to deal with it, his claws dug so intensely into the ground that it had begun to cause the tips of his paws to bleed.

"This. Will not....." he hissed, unable to finish his sentence.

[ophelia]

// @Fletcher


Fawnbriar tilted her head, attention drawn back to the tom at her side. He had let out a howl, clearly upset. She brushed her tail lightly over his shoulder. "Hey," she said, eyes widening a bit in alarm as she scented the metallic tang of blood. She turned her good eye towards it, realizing the strain of his claws in the dirt was pulling at his flesh. "I think we should all calm down," she murmured to him. "Coldamber will be able to figure it out, I'm sure." Not that the medicine cat should have to. Not that any of this should have happened to begin with. Why couldn't Dawnstar just be satisfied with her own clan?

[Undertaker]

High Rank Announcement [#hrannouncement]

Dawnstar couldn't help but wonder if all clans would react like this. All she did was add a little anarchy, overturned the accepted order, and it appeared that chaos was all that was left. The smug molly watched the cats scrambled around, like headless chickens, it seemed like it was every cat for themselves, as it should be. This was why Dawnstar didn't get attached to anything, it left one vulnerable.

The clan fell apart without the right cat to keep it together, despite living together for so long, despite preaching about loyalty, feeding, hunting, and fighting together, despite the warrior code, they drifted into their little groups. Each cat trying to save the ones they held dearest, leaving the rest for crowfood. No direction, no unity, game over. It was self-preservation, she understood. It seemed to her that only those in the high ranks could truly grasp the meaning of selflessness, generosity, and so on, they didn't have the luxury of worrying about only a select few. It must be so nice taking the easy way out...Pffft! Not that she could complain!

Her eyes flickered over to the apprentice who tried to rally her clanmates against her, it didn't seem like many were listening and even less agreed. A burr in her pelt, Dawnstar's instinct was to kill her at once, but she second-guessed herself. No, not yet. She stifled the snarl that wanted to rip through her throat. She's killed quite a few cats today, she really did need to start pacing herself. She couldn't cause them suffering if she kept killing them all, it defeated the purpose.

She had to go back to ShadowClan, give the cats who wanted a chance to flee a moment to get out of her fur and bring some of her cats back here with her. The dark brown tabby would watch a little bit longer, entertained.

Oh! Yes, the little booger who called her such a heinous name, she nearly forgot about him. She could barely hear the hairball over the yowls and screeching of his clanamtes. Dawnstar felt some of them were being a little overdramatic, no?! She rose and made to walk over to the tiny kit, she doubted anyone would notice if she swiped him, they were to busy worrying about themselves, so willing to let this whole clan turn into ruin due to a small bump.

Unfortunately, she was unable to simply grab the hairball she wanted, another one, some big-eared gray dumbo, showed up in front of her calling her fat? She'd rather be call fat over the filth the brown and white hairball called her, in her opinion, fat was better than being a twig a mere gust of wind could blow away. She was in a semi-decent mood so she was willing to indulge dumbo, this once.

"If you like my scars, I don't mind giving you some of your own. None of your business, I'm always in a fight, and no, I'll just hurt you really really really bad... you might die but that would be your medicine cat's faults." Dawnstar mewed in one rapid breath with a sneer.

It seemed that queens here take care of their kits as well as ShadowClan queens do, as in not at all. Two more hairballs came up to her and Dawnstar narrowed her eyes. Did these cats think she wouldn't kill a kit? Her eyes zone in one the little white and black molly who was asking her something rather stupid. "Do you want me to eat you?" She felt stupid questions needed stupid responses, only it was hard to tell if the fierce leader was jesting or not. There was screeching queen, an ugly little thing, that Dawnstar had no time to comment on.

Chomper over here was gumming at her tail with his baby teeth yowling at her. A breath of cold air filled her chest before she let it out loudly, fur bristling just a tad, if these rabbits didn't want to watch their young, they couldn't blame her. Any earlier thoughts about keeping them alive vanished just like this kit's heartbeat would.

[I have permission to Powerplay this bit.]
Turning, she raised one huge paw and brought it down on the kit's body with enough force to knock a full-grown cat off their paws. Sweeping her tail out of the dead kit's maw, Dawnstar sniffed it with a growl. She hoped she didn't get infected with some kind of wimp disease.

Her intense amber optics flickered briefly up to Coldamber as she tried to take control of the clan, failing, and then made a joke about Dawn bring only two warriors with her. Rich. But it was time for her to go, she'll bring them a present back when she returned, she had wanted to see what they'd do and these rabbits didn't disappoint. Noticing that someone had snatched her little booger, Dawnstar's gave an annoyed growl, she'd have to find him when she came back. Keeping that thought in mind, the clan leader promptly made her exit.

@BILL. @Kai @Arie @gs29513 @~RooRoo~

[plum]

Padding home, a thick mist had settled over the moors (just using current weather for pizazz). Visibility was low, and it chilled Eldersky to the bone. Maybe to whatever was beyond bone, even! She glances at her Clanmate to try and evaluate how he was faring in the colder cold. Her paws cross though, and she stumbles like a doofus in front of Quailtail!

Pelt growing warmer now, the molly clears her throat and turns away. "Well, it's unfortunate that we didn't find any sign of Twilightstar..." Trailing off, the she-cat wonders if it really did matter to her so much by this point. She'd had a good time in spite of the lack of evidence of their leader. She is about to open her dumb mouth and say something else along the lines of 'wasn't that fun anyway though?' when she halts in her tracks, flicking her tail to signal to the tom to follow suit. She'd heard something.

Eldersky drops into a crouch and continues towards the noise. A rhythmic crunch crunch of pawsteps over frozen soil. She was so close...! And in the mist, she could see a now looming form- Someone walking. The warrior continues to slither forward with her belly to the ground, until she is close enough to leap. Pouncing towards this intruder, she lets out a battle-cry as ferocious as a kitten savagely attacking a leaf. "NYYEEEAAAAAAAAHHH!!!"
[ @wnder, @dinosaur ]

[Pand1440]

The young warrior was anxiously awaiting Dawnstar's departure, and was having trouble maintaining calm. It had seemed like a good idea at first, but considering the risks it would still be dangerous. Now now, you have to be brave... Faking tripping over something, Maplebird fell to the ground. "Mouse-brained me..."

[basically, Maplebird is trying to draw attention to herself so she can share the idea without too much suspicion- feel free to have your character react!]

 

@dinosaur @implimm @Phoenix Fall @Kyrieknight @Snow Fox @Shadeleaf @Lionblaze2008 @Bramblefire01 @feather lily @Slushie @Kai @PEPPERMINT~ @gs29513 @Home Alone @Rani @WinterRabbit5350 @Estelle