The Lion of the Night [Closed]

Nightheart had decided to take a walk to clear her head. Many things had been happening lately, clouding the she-cats judgement and making her feel sincerely confused. She wasn’t sure why, but her paws carried her to the Lone Stump after some time of walking without any real direction. With a deep sigh she jumped on the stump and sat on top of it, curling her tail over her paws as she looked at the long grass that covered most of the territory as it moved with the soft breeze, her eyes lost as she went through some of the most recent events in her life.

She first thought of her sister, the cat that she thought dead for so long and now she had discovered to be alive and within the ranks of RiverClan. She had kept the secret, and she probably would take it to the grave at some point, not wanting to uncover her, not only shattering her trust on her, but also damaging her reputation in both clans without any real way to fix it. But even if she had sworn to not say a single thing, in the end it was a secret that was hard to keep, given that given the importance of her there was no cat that could help her carry the weight of it without that being a potential risk.

Then she thought about Lionfur. She had seen him grow up for quite a while, and she even had felt fairly identified with him at some extent. As an apprentice she had been quite ambitious as well, even if said ambitions were somewhat spoiled as soon as the Dark Forest took over, and she couldn’t help but wonder if she could’ve been like Lionfur if they never had been around. Her interactions with the tom were somewhat limited to say the least, but she had heard about him before…she had to admit that when her interest about him sparkled was when she overheard something about a prophecy given to him by StarClan itself as an apprentice. Since then she had been wanting to find out more, but instead of pursuing her original goal now she found herself just watching at him going on his daily routine, something that had never happened to her before.

Lionfur meandered aimlessly around the WindClan territory, needing to calm his emotions down. He was a million kinds of frustrated- at the leader, the deputy, his mentor, himself. Some of his Clanmates trusted him. Some blatantly disrespected him. None of them seemed to think him loyal enough to believe all he said. Ashstar had brainwashed the poor fools, stunned them into silence by exiling a cat who had once had a mate from a different Clan. It was up to him to save his Clanmates.... but how? The tom had noticed that cats with mates seemed to garner more respect than single warriors- perhaps because one cat loved them, it made it okay for others to do the same. Perhaps it was time for him to get a mate.

The golden-furred tom racked his brain. Did any she-cats seem interested in him? Sandypaw was nice, but he had seen her looking starry-eyed at Falconstone, and didn't want to encroach on the tom's space. He might need him on his side later. The other apprentices mutually ignored him, it seemed. What other she-cats were there? Heatherstripe and Emberfall were taken; Spiderfur and Ashstar, out of the question. That left Nightheart. Come to think of it, he did like the she-cat. She was rather mysterious, and he caught sparks of ambition in her eyes at times. Yes, she would make a good ally, a good partner. As long as she thought he was in love with her, he had a devoted follower.

By the providence of StarClan, smiling upon his choice, he came upon the she-cat a few steps later. He immediately put hesitancy into his eyes, blushing a little. He made as if to go back, and "accidentally" stepped on a stick. "Oh... h-hi, Nightheart," Lionfur stammered.

OOC: Three part post ditto ^^

Vote for Smokepelt before it's too late!

Nightheart was pulled away from her troubled train of thought by the sound of a stick breaking under another creature’s weight, causing her to turn her head immediately with her ears high. However, as soon as she noticed Lionfur she smiled and let out a sigh she didn’t know she had been holding until then. She had to admit that it was a huge coincidence that he showed up just when she was thinking about him, but he decided to brush it off for now “Hello Lionfur, taking a walk as well or you’re in a lone patrol?” Trying to act all calm and collected even if she could feel the fur on her tail standing on end with a strange kind of nervousness she never had felt before, making her feel glad that her fur wasn’t long enough for it to be too noticeable.

The dark warrior’s eyes sparkled with curiosity, this was the first time she could talk to Lionfur without anyone else around them to interrupt them or overhear them, so maybe this was the time that she had been waiting for to ask him about the prophecy that some of her clanmates claimed him to have? Then again she was finding it somewhat hard to gather her thoughts and come out with a clear question

“I…hum…well, some time ago I heard something about a prophecy that StarClan gave to you, but never managed to know exactly what was it about. Would you feel like sharing it or it is something that should be kept as a secret?” She felt like she was rambling a bit with her question, but she was sincerely interested. Since the fight at Fourtrees against the Dark Forest she had grown to respect and hold StarClan and their noble code really high, and consequently couldn’t help but wonder what they were trying to tell to the cats that were still alive and how she could help them. Plus, she hoped this would make up for a good conversation topic that would lighten the mood.

Lionfur ruffled his pelt nervously. "No, it-it's just me," he smiled. His breathing noticeably calmed down. Don't overdo it, Lionstar. Take your time. By StarClan's providence, the she-cat seemed at least a little interested in him. Honestly, the slightly older warrior didn't look too bad herself. For reasons unknown to him, she-cats normally liked compliments. The tom was good at flattery. "You l-look- beautiful tonight, Nightheart," he meowed, slightly hesitant but with a very sincere and quiet tone. It wasn't a lie- though the tom was good at those, too- the she-cat looked very good. The young warrior sat down, wrapping his fluffy tail around his paws.

It was a good thing he had, because the she-cat's next words made his claws dig reflexively into the peaty soil in excitement. Yes... finally, that charade had paid off! Ha! Thank you, StarClan.... I knew that was the right move, even if Smokepelt didn't believe me! He needed to be very, very careful with this part. Now, what had he said? And could he tweak it just a little bit- to make it a real prophecy? Yes....

"Yes, I see no r-reason why it shouldn't be shared. It s-seemed to be important, and I-I trust you, Nightheart." Yes, throwing that out there seemed to be a good idea. His eyes sparked with the tiniest bit of wonder, and some fear. They showed no power-thirst, not yet. Not yet. That will come in time, Lionstar, in time. "In the dream, we were sitting in WindClan camp, me and a-all the warriors. Then these cats- I couldn't see their f-faces- ran into camp, claws unsheathed, yelling something about prey. They smelled of d-death and of fish. Then they attacked. It was h-horrible. They killed m-more than half of us, including S-Smokepelt, and they s-stole our kits and killed the q-q-queens, even. Then the biggest, w-worst cat of all killed the l-leader, and blood sprayed all across the c-camp, and that's when I woke up screaming." He looked down, seemingly a little ashamed of having not been very brave.

OOC: Lionfur is kind of bipolar, honestly, and he's got two personalities- the fake, sweet, meek, stutteringly nervous Lionfur, and the strong, ruthless, ambitious, power-hungry Lionstar. It's pretty much impossible to tell that he's lying. He's also got some sort of disorder that makes him think he's StarClan's chosen leader. It's pretty dang interesting. If you want to see some Lionstar in action: https://warriorclancats.forumotion.com/t25443-might-makes-right-closed-solo

Nightheart smiled with the compliment, a faint blush reaching her cheeks that was successfully hidden from the tom before her by her dark fur. To be fully honest she wasn’t used those, as she never had tried to get any before, and the few ones she did got were given after she had completed a certain task within the clan or when she did something that she considered had to be done given her strict moral code, and consequently only took them as a sign of approval towards her actions.

The dark warrior listened to Lionfur’s words carefully, clearly curious about the prophecy, as far as she knew, it was just a prophecy that the deputy had decided to not spread across the clan, so she didn’t know much about the original story nor the reason of why Smokepelt didn’t want to share it with anybody. Her ears raised and faced towards the tom as soon as he mentioned the smell of fish…there was only one clan that smelled like that and unless there was a group of rogues living in RiverClan’s territory, the antagonists in his dream couldn’t be anyone else but the warriors of said clan…but why they would want to attack their camp? And why they would say anything about prey in the first place? They had the whole river for themselves, so there was no reason for them to try to take prey from any other clan.

With a comforting smile, she gently nuzzled the golden tabby’s cheek. She had been in the middle of a real battle some time ago, she knew how terrible it could be, so she could fully understand why Lionfur acted the way he did…or more like thought that she knew, as she was completely unaware that this was all a huge lie “Battles are never pretty, I understand that better than you may think” Pulling back with her comforting smile still on her muzzle, she looks at Lionfur at the eyes “I just can’t help but wonder why everyone I asked about it didn’t want to say a word about it though”.