What's Rightfully Ours… [Closed]

Blizzardstar had a lot of trouble to sleep this night, just like the night before, and the night before that one…worries plaguing her mind as soon as her leader duties no longer kept occupied. Many cats would label her of obsessive, even workaholic, since the first leaf borrowed the color of the fire that had engulfed the forest not that long ago. It brought back memories and new thoughts. Prey was already scarce in Greenleaf, now it was starting to be even scarcer. What was she supposed to do? Leafbare was so close and they were already struggling to find food, how was she supposed to keep her clan alive and healthy if prey disappeared when the first snowflake fell?

With those worries forming a tornado of negative thoughts in her mind, her eyes finally closed and she fell in a deep slumber.

Her eyes opened not long after, but she wasn’t in her den anymore, she wasn’t even in her territory. She slowly got up, looking around with worried eyes before recognizing the beautiful, lush forest where only a couple moons ago she had received her nine lives. The smells of the forest she once experienced in her own territory and had come to miss flooded her nose and the blades of green grass caressed her paws. It would had made her feel at home, like everything had happened before was nothing but a bad dream, if she didn’t know the truth of her location.

Without much thought, her paws started to move as she walked through the territory of StarClan, wondering why she was there. She couldn’t have died, even if she did she would have other 8 lives…right?

"Greetings Blizzardstar." A sort of harsh voice cut through the quiet of their territory. At the source of the voice stood a ginger she-cat with forest green eyes. Her appearence looking almost like she was alive if it wasn't for the somewhat faded starry look the she-cat held. The ginger deputy sat on a smooth gray rock near a small stream.

Green eyes sat neutrally on the white leader. "We need to have a talk." Flameclaw said.

As if ice met the lush forest in times of Greenleaf, her curious gaze fell on the neutral eyes of the cat with starry pelt not far from her. Her troubled mind needed a couple seconds to recognize the flame colored she-cat sitting on the smooth rock, Flameclaw, the deputy of old that had granted her one of her lives.

Taking deep breath, she changed her direction to approach the she-cat with starry pelt, ears high and eyes wide open. The neutral expression and tone coming from her made her feel rather uneasy, had she done something wrong? Hopefully not. Then again the past couple moons had been nothing but chaos for the clans and she wouldn’t feel that surprised if she learned she had slipped at some point.

Unsure if she was supposed to sit at Flameclaw’s side or not, she stopped in front of the rock and looked up at her “What is it, Flameclaw?”

The ginger she-cat stood, shift to look at the river thing that stood behind her, something like sunning rocks sitting near the deputy. "Did you know that Sunning Rocks used to belong to us?" Flameclaw said. "I remember it was actually thanks to Duskfall and his recklessness that helped us get it back all that time ago." They had actually argued about attacking Riverclan at the time. The ginger warrior hated Riverclan but she didn't believe in attacking them right in their camp.

Her attention turned back to the Thunderclan leader. "Blizzardstar it's about time you took it back." The deputy said. "I know Thunderclan is weak and in chaos right now, but nothing will unite your clan more. It is rightfully ours after all. It was connected to their territory so it belonged to Thunderclan. It didn't even touch Riverclan land.

Blizzardstar blinked silently at Flameclaw’s words before turning her head and looking at the rocks that made her remember of the piece of territory that the deputy of old had just mentioned “I remember my grandmother mentioning it once in one of her tales when I was a kit…” She had never put any kind of importance on the memory until then. The question of why RiverClan had territory across the river and if such tales were indeed true had been a constant whisper in the back of her head, but since Darkflight hadn’t made any moves to take them back or even mention them in her time as a leader she had discarded most of those questions with the answer of It’s nothing but an elder’s tale or It may had been conquered a long time ago, but was never truly ours.

She was wrong, and the tales were true after all.

However, Flameclaw’s next words made her ears rise and eyes widen as her attention shifted from the smooth rocks near the river to the cat with the starry pelt Take back…the Sunningrocks?

Her long fluffy tail wrapped around her paws as she sat and thought Take back what’s rightfully ours… It made sense to her why she had been called to the territory of her ancestors now, she could see them being frustrated at allowing another clan have what should belong to them. And maybe there were even more motives than just pride behind such request.

Sunningrocks had been barely touched by the fire. While the area it occupied wasn’t huge, it was still decent and in her many patrols alongside the border she had noticed the scent of prey coming from it, prey that had managed to thrive between the warm rocks and vegetation, and herbs she  knew Honeypaw would find quite useful. Both things that her healing forest wasn’t being able to provide in the quantities they needed to survive the approaching Leafbare.

Could this be the answer to the question she had been making to herself even before leadership? The key to her clan’s survival during the ruthless season that slowly but surely crept towards them with claws of ice and pelt of snow?

But…what was the price she would have to pay to see it back on her paws?

Would she need to choose between see her clanmates starve to death in camp or their blood spilled in the battlefield? A shiver ran down her body at the thought. A war never was one of the things she planned to cause as a leader, could there be another way? She was unsure. Fishstar was a great and respectable leader, backed up by many moons of experience and wisdom Blizzardstar still lacked, but she was also full of pride beyond what Blizzardstar herself could understand, and her claws were sharpened for war. She would do her best, try to avoid unnecessary bloodshed and the loss of innocent lives...but something deep inside her doubted Fishstar would be willing to solve this through words only.

“I...I understand. I will do my best, Flameclaw” How she was supposed to deliver these news to her clan…should she even deliver the news of a potential war just yet? And RiverClan was clearly stronger than ThunderClan at the time being, should she ask for help? And if yes…who would be willing to put their own warrior’s lives on the line for a war that wasn’t theirs if her words weren’t enough to convince the leader of RiverClan? They would obviously ask for something in return…

Flameclaw nodded before jumping down to the same level as Blizzardstar. "I know you can do this Blizzardstar. It will help your clan in the long run." The ginger she-cat looked at the Thunderclan leader. "It's time you return to your clan. I can't stay for much longer." She wanted to say that she would come if the new leader needed help but she couldn't promise that. Starclan was picky about things sometimes, others would probably bee more fit to help the leader when it came to leader duties.

Blizzardstar looked at Flameclaw, her heart beating quickly even after the reassuring words she had given to her. She hadn’t just promised to her and the rest of StarClan to do something relatively simple as hunt a mouse next day to feel a certain cat or help restock the herbs supply to help Honeypaw. She was supposed to take back Sunningrocks from a clan that was way stronger than them, and if words weren’t enough this could escalate to a war in a couple of heartbeats.

And she would be responsible for the deaths on both sides, for the kits left without their dear parents or parents having to bury their kits, for any cats mauled in the fray, for every single drop of blood that would stain the battlefield. All that without the guarantee of being successful, of potentially losing clanmates for nothing. It was a huge weight to carry, and it was already tormenting the white leader.

“Thank you, Flameclaw…farewell” She wasn’t even done saying goodbye when her vision turned white. White was all she could see before it slowly turned to black and her eyes opened slowly. The scents and sounds surrounding her were more than enough to let her know that the sun was raising in her own territory, making her get up and stretch before walking out of her den. She had to share a couple words with those she trusted the most before she dared to make any kind of moves, or even make public this situation to the rest of the clan…however, one thing was obvious. She had made a promise and she couldn’t back out now.

She was going to take back what rightfully belonged to ThunderClan, she wasn’t going to fail her clan, she wasn’t going to let them starve to death, she would do her best to bring back the clan to its former glory, to the golden days the elders spoke about back when she was a kit. This was going to be her first step.