Burning Cicadas [C]

Burningwing picked up the owl and dragged it by it's head towards the spot where he buried the rest of the prey. He set it down and began to dig up what he'd caught when Cicadapaw began to speak again. Burningwing pretended to think for a minute. "Well... if you really think about it, we'll always need maybe one or two for fresh blood in the clan... but if you get too many outsiders, the true Shadowclan bloodline begins to die. You can tell the difference between someone who can trace their roots all of the way back to Shadowstar, like me.... and who... well doesn't fall into that category. Windclan has completely lost it's purity as far as I know. The true blood of Windstar is thin, if not completely absent from Windclan, because they have let in so many rogues and others who do not share true Windclan origins."

He scooped the other prey items up with his claws and set it beside the owl. He had them arranged in a way that it would be easy to carry them all in his mouth, though it was inevitable the owl would drag the ground on the way back.

"It's sad, really. Such an important part of our history is lost when you allow our bloodlines to be muddied beyond all recognition. Windclan cats are fast, but it is only speculation now that if they are truly as fast as the first Windclan cats, or Windstar herself. Maybe they're downright sluggish in comparison to them by now. We won't ever know, because there are no true Windclan cats to compare them to. The same thing could happen to Shadowclan, though I pray to Starclan it doesn't. Skyclan is almost completely pure... and we can actually see that their ability in the trees and their ability to jump to such breath-taking heights is unmatched by any other clan. It's a beautiful thing that they have maintained their roots. I just believe Shadowclan, and all the other clans, ought to do the same and use caution when welcoming outsiders... rather than throw it to the wind..." Ha. He made a funny. The world must be ending.

He bent his head and gripped his prey in his teeth and waited for Cicadapaw to do the same. The injuries weren't horrible, but they should still be looked at.

Cicadapaw listened as he unburied his own prey, quiet and attentive. He had never considered that before. He always knew too many outsiders could be a problem, but only for obvious reasons. They could be spies or lazy thieves who don't give back to the clan what they take. But no, even the benevolent ones caused a threat to the clan by muddying their blood. His blood was relatively pure as far as he knew, but who knows how many distant impurities may be robbing him of his true Shadowclan potential. What if he could never be as sneaky as his predecessors simply because his great-great-grandparent had some rogue in them?

"Oh... that's..." He couldn't finish his sentence, his head already spinning. How many other dangers had he not realized outsiders and half-bloods brought in? He had only been thinking so surface level. Perhaps he should ask more of Burningwing... but later, as the stinging feeling in his shoulder urged him to take a pause on his learning. Hopefully he could get a nice scar out of it. "Thank you for telling me."

He picked up his catches, now with new thoughts on his mind that he could bring home with him.