A Quick History Lesson [Closed]

Sootwhisper huffed lightly as he limped towards Sunningrocks to check the borders while showing the territory to his newest apprentice. This specific piece of land caused him to feel like if he had just swallowed a bunch of rocks from the ground they walked and now they sat in the bottom of his stomach. The war with ThunderClan, losing his mother to the stupid fox…

He shook his head to get rid of those thoughts as he turned to face Hillpaw “This part of our territory is Sunningrocks. You might had heard of it before because of the recent war against ThunderClan that happened here. We need to constantly check and mark our borders as those mouse-brained forest dwellers always tend to forget this land is not theirs. Lately several foxes come from their territory to here as well, so we need to be cautious” His voice was deep and low, almost a whisper, just like always.

The heavily scarred tom waited for the apprentice to ask any questions in case he had any. StarClan knew how curious apprentices could get when a war against another clan was mentioned, so he was already preparing the story in his head for what he felt was coming.

"This disgusting ThunderClan stench is all over the place," Hillpaw whined, crinkling his nose in disgust. Sootwhisper had turned out to be a better mentor than he had expected, a tough guy and a very loyal clanmate. While this trip to Sunningrocks was kind of strange, considering that they were right next to ThunderClan and their weaklings, but he was rather curious about it. How could any cats be stupid enough to break the code and attack a way stronger clan? Oh right. RiverClan was the smartest clan by a lot, and he shouldn't forget that all the other clans had the intelligence of mice in comparison. "Why did ThunderClan attack? I mean, they are stupid code-breakers who can't tell a cat from mouse, but even for them it was outright mouse-brained! I mean, we are way stronger, and it is breaking the code to invade. Why do we even put up with this foolishness?" A sudden thought occured to him, and he looked to his mentor with interest. "Were you there during the fight? I would give anything to have been there and beat the StarClan out of some weak ThunderClanners."

Sootwhisper sighed softly at the question that he knew was coming. He didn’t mind though, each time he came here he had to retell the same story again and again, after all “According to the leader of ThunderClan back then, the reason they attacked was a mix of lack of prey in their own forest due to a recent fire and a direct request from a cat from StarClan. As you may know, this specific piece of land has constantly shifted paws between ThunderClan and RiverClan, so both clans think it’s their own by right” While he tried to sound neutral to the whole ordeal, he couldn’t keep his ragged ears from flicking with annoyance as he recalled the memory. The war itself had caused the clan enough trouble, but the aftermath had been just as terrible.

He just sighed at the next question of the apprentice, knowing he may wouldn’t like his answer “On the other side of the river alongside other warriors as a last line of defense” He didn’t sugarcoated it. He hadn’t participated directly in the battle, but that didn’t made his role any less important “Ivystar wasn’t a fool, Hillpaw. In a war like this you can’t be too cautious, and while we proved to be stronger in the end, ThunderClan gave a good fight. The chance, as small as it could be, of losing to them didn’t go unnoticed by our leader. They claimed to only want Sunningrocks, but if that’s true or lies shall remain a mystery. Ivystar knew that if they had won the battle and decided to take more territory we could need a second group of loyal cats to fend them off, I was chosen to be part of said group” After finishing his explanation he waited for Hillpaw to react. While it could be indeed a bit disappointing for him to know his mentor wasn’t one of the ones that claimed victory during said war he understood the reasons and choices taken.

"You need to keep in mind that in a war, not only victory comes as consequence, Hillpaw. After we won the war and we returned to camp many were heavily injured, some never properly recovered and were left crippled for life. We were lucky that our side didn’t have to mourn the loss of any clanmate”

"If they were weak, it was their problem, not ours. And they probably couldn't even tell a vision from a dream. Sunningrocks is obviously ours," Hillpaw interrupted, then shut his mouth to listen to the rest of what Sootwhisper was saying. A war story would be fun. The light gray apprentice sat down to listen, looking intently at his mentor. At first, everything seemed accurate enough. They didn't send their entire clan because it wasn't needed, but they had reinforcements ready. Ivystar must have been a very smart cat, she had been the leader of RiverClan after all. Then he said that ThunderClan put up a good fight. That was what confused the young tom. How could those mouse-brains even come close to putting up a good fight? His mentor must be exaggerating for the story's sake. Yes, that must be it. And as wise as the former leader seemed in this story, but she hadn't really needed to think that ThunderClan had the mental ability to even think of taking more territory. If they didn't think that they were flat out told to it, they wouldn't even consider it. That's when the whole 'war is bad' spiel started. Immediately tuning the other tom out, he stood up, a thought occurring to him. "Why didn't we just wipe that clan out when we had the chance? I mean, they're a constant thorn in our side, and we wouldn't lose anything from it. I know we didn't want to take chances or anything, but I mean c'mon, they were ThunderClan. They couldn't win a fight with a bird, let alone an entire clan."

Sootwhisper sighed as Hillpaw talked, but he couldn’t blame the younger tom for feeling their clan was the greatest, doing so would be greatly hypocritical on his behalf after all. He waited to hear all what he had to say before finally talking again “The same reason we didn’t wipe out ThunderClan is why they didn’t wipe us out many moons back” He still remembered the tales of the elders when he was nothing but a kit. He never heard the full tale, and in all honesty he wasn’t surprised, tales of defeat weren’t exactly commonly shared between the clan when those of victory were way more exciting.

“Many moons ago, even before I was born, we had another war where we were defeated, TunderClan and I think WindClan attacking both us and SkyClan. SkyClan was even driven away from their territories and we took them in. But with the combined strength of RiverClan and SkyClan we managed to defeat ThunderClan and teach them a lesson for what they did” He knew his story was extremely vague, but it was the best he could offer. After all, he was sure most if not all warriors that had experienced those times were dead now and all what remained was a fragmented tale rarely shared between the clan “We not only need the balance of the five clans in the territories, Hillpaw, but even if that wasn’t the case wiping out any clan is extremely hard, maybe even impossible as I know some had tried and failed to do so, even victory in an enemy camp is a feat almost no leader can claim to have accomplished…the few that did becoming feared and deeply respected…and no, not all of them were RiverClan” Sootwhisper was…fearful, to say the least. Hillpaw was showing great potential and he could see greatness before her, but if she thought that wiping out a clan was the best solution to a conflict things could get extremely complicated. He might not know much about all those wars, but he knew enough to know that doing something like that only brought resentment and suffering to the clan that dared to even try to drive out another clan from their territories. As well as RiverClan was doing lately, the least he wanted was yet another war on their shoulders.

"But that must have been a long time ago! No offense, but you seem kind of old, and for something to happen before you were born must have been really long ago. We are strong and pure now, we must be was stronger now than those ThunderClanners ever were! I guess that we don't want to take over all the other clans, but why not? Why does there have to be balance between the five clans?" Hillpaw was genuinely curious. Sootwhisper talked of ancient stories of defeat, which seemed rather out of date to him. RiverClan was clever and could improve greatly, becoming more than any other clan had ever been and would ever be. Yet his mentor spoke of something other cats had spoken to him about, but he never really understood. Balance between the clans. It was already disproportionate, with RiverClan being superior, and hardly anything would change in terms of balance if they decided to take over.

“There is an old saying, Hillpaw, an old saying that goes ‘Those that fail to learn from history are doomed to repeat it’, and I had seen it happen time and time again in the time I had lived. Whether we like it or not, we need to know about those that came before it, about their achievements, about their failures…we may be strong now, but if we commit the mistakes of the past yet again, our clan could fall, become nothing but a shadow of what it is today if anything at all” His words were slow and serious, trying to let them sink in so Hillpaw could understand that these old tales weren’t only bedtime stories for kits, but lessons and experiences carried down through generations that she had to learn and keep in mind should she want RiverClan to prosper instead of crumble.

The question she made though caused him to sigh. Explain the balance of the clans was no easy feat, even if it looked like it. It was something all cats learned as they grew up, but to put it into words… “Each clan has strengths and weaknesses that are clearly seen in how their territories are. A Windclanner wouldn’t be able to fish and swim like we do, but we can’t move silently through the thick underbrush that covers ThunderClan’s forest like they do. Taking away a clan would be like if the river suddenly dried out, breaking the balance it brings and, with it, bringing death and suffering not only to us, but all clans as they need water to survive”.