Cries of Fallen Stars [closed]

Barleytuft paced the camp under the cold light of the full moon, and he was not at peace. He had been fetching a small bird from the fresh-kill pile for his queen friend, Dappleshine, who lay sleeping in the nursery, swollen with kits, when something happened. The sky changed. In the distance there was the sound of a howling wind, yet the moors went unstirred. The senior warrior gazed towards Fourtrees with a twisting feeling of apprehension as the sky changed; had StarClan declared an end to the Gathering? But the moon stayed present always, even when a flash of light illuminated the camp. As a dying star fell in the distance, Barleytuft immediately returned to the nursery to check on his former RiverClan friend. Had she seen the flash? If she did, he would be no help; he had no answers... He could only hope that StarClan would provide some, or perhaps Finchstar when the Clan returned home.

Fortunately, or unfortunately, Dappleshine seemed to be asleep. Barleytuft left the nursery again, this time sitting and waiting anxiously outside camp. He watched for WindClan as the time moved on. The sky had cleared again, but the stars seemed faint and cold. His paws worked nervously at the earth outside the entrance tunnel. When eventually there was movement coming from the direction of Fourtrees, Barleytuft was surprised to see only one cat - and not even a WindClan cat, judging by the somewhat lumbering run and the glinting, thick fur. Unsettled, Barleytuft immediately raced out towards them, and then they were calling out. Whatever else the cat was saying, the senior warrior did recognize one word: Dappleshine.

"She's in the nursery, sleeping - please don't startle her awake. Did you come from the Gathering?" Barleytuft asked as soon as he had met the apparent RiverClan she-cat at her side. He didn't recognize her at all, but the sheer concern in her voice was plenty to identify her as a cat in search of a friend. He was instantly leading the way towards camp. "I'm Barleytuft - what's your name? Are you alright?" She didn't seem to be wounded, but her distress was clear.

Stormbringer was thankful that the Tom wasn't instantly hostile towards her sudden appearance. She padded into the camp not bothering to look around and judge the way the camp was. After what happened, what she had learned in the gathering.. Her mind was too muddled. Unable to be concerned with the differences.

As soon as she heard that her mentor was in the nursery. She padded over to the area, following the scent of milk. "I... I'm Stormbringer.. physically.. I am alright but what I have just learned.. what I heard at the gathering I couldn't stand to be there any longer.." She wanted to say it to get it off her chest but she didn't need to say it twice. Both of the warriors should hear it at the same time.

She stopped outside of the den to the nursery. The gray warrior freezing in her spot, amber eyes wide. She didn't even know how to approach her former mentor. Not after everything that happened, not after what she used to think of the She-cat.

Sadness, confusion, and betrayal welled up inside her chest. Her head dropped as she sobbed out. "Oh Dappleshine.. I'm so sorry.. So very sorry.." She was sorry for the way she used to think of her mentor. She was sorry for the way Torrentsrar had treated her. She was sorry for everything but never had the guts to say anything. She was awful. Riverclan was awful. Torrentsrar was awful.

A sudden commotion from the nursery entrance pulled Dappleshine from her slumber, but as she raised her head the only thing she saw was the tip of Barleytuft's tail as it disappeared from view. The air seemed so still, and quiet.... Something wasn't quite right. Barleytuft had been checking in on her, but he was usually quieter, and he seemed to leave behind a faint scent of fear. Concerned, Dappleshine sat up in her nest heavily, her swollen belly swaying as she forced herself upright.

Barleytuft's voice sounded outside, and was followed by another, heartachingly familiar one. "Stormbringer?" Dappleshine whispered, eyes widening in surprise. Of all the cats she would have expected to make a surprise visit, her second apprentice was not one of them. She had been afraid that Stormbringer had hated her for what had happened, but the grief in her voice pulled the queen to her paws, prepared to face whatever had made her old apprentice feel this way. What in StarClan had happened at the Gathering? Was Raventail okay?

She emerged from the nursery to find Stormbringer just outside it's entrance, head hung low as she apologized time and time again. Shushing her gently, Dappleshine instinctively moved forward, enveloping the other she-cat as best as her pregnant belly would allow her, licking her head and ears calmly. "Oh Stormbringer, you have nothing to apologize for dear... Everything will be okay, there is nothing you've done that needs forgiveness. I'm sorry to you, for everything... For how it all happened... It was never my intention for it to go the way it did..." Looking over the RiverClan she-cat's head to Barleytuft, her eyes held multitudes of questions.

Still staying close to the she-cat, she pulled her head back to gingerly lift Stormbringer's muzzle. Wow, how she had grown... A strong, beautiful, dependable she-cat... Pride warmed Dappleshine's heart as she touched noses to her old apprentice before asking the first questions. "Stormbringer.... What brings you here? What's wrong? What happened?"

Barleytuft kept his ears perked and his eyes on the RiverClan cat as she slowly caught her breath, stammering out a response. The she-cat, Stormbringer, was frantically looking for the nursery, and the senior warrior gently nudged her in the proper direction even as she oriented herself toward the scent of milk. He frowned at her confirmation that something had happened at the Gathering, and he paused to look worriedly over his shoulder. Were Finchstar and Raventail and the rest of WindClan safe? Were his kits alright? Hesitantly, Barleytuft turned back to the nursery where Stormbringer had frozen just outside and began to approach it himself.

Dappleshine emerged without being called, but surely she had heard the commotion; the queen looked shocked but not unwelcoming to the appearance of Stormbringer. Barleytuft slowed as he drew near. He watched the queen-to-be as she swiftly took the other she-cat into her embrace, murmuring and cooing reassuringly to her friend. Even as Dappleshine spoke of forgiveness and innocence, her sparkling blue eyes shot over the RiverClan cat's head and met Barleytuft's full of questions. Blinking, his own confusion was clear on his face as he shook his head subtly. Slowly Barleytuft moved to Stormbringer's other side, not presuming to be her father yet unable to resist the nature to offer comfort to a younger cat. He gently laid a tail over her back, prompting gently, "You said something happened at the Gathering, is that right?"

Comfort. A relief to the pain of what happened. Dappleshine was comfort. There was a twist of pain in her chest as the Queen apologized. Dappleshine shouldn't have to apologize. Yes she left for Raventail but... Besides following her heart nothing had changed.

Stormbringer closed her eyes, relishing in the comfort and scent that was Dappleshine. Yes she smelled like Windclan now but the scent was still her. It was unique to only her. Her mentor touching noses with her finally got her to relax enough to speak again. To answer their questions.

She stepped back Amber eyes looking at the two cats before finally starting to speak. "The gathering.. Starclan is mad.. they sent a burning light down from the sky.. Aspenheart realized what was happening and spoke up. Someone broke the code, and badly but we didn't know who. Saying that they had a final warning and messed it up." The anger in the Tom's voice for what had happened. Why couldn't he have said it himself. Why did he have to make Mossblossom say it?

"Your medicine cat made Mossblossom come up and speak. Oakstar granting his spot to her. She revealed something I never thought I would hear..." She still couldn't believe it. She hated it, she hated Torrentstar, she hated Thornstar. She wanted to escape but she couldn't leave Ivybrook and Honeytongue behind.

" Torrentstar.. Thornstar.. They betrayed us... And Finchstar took their side.. I left before Oakstar or Spottedstar spoke up... I couldn't bear it anymore.." She paused to gather her thoughts. Not being clear on the news as she wanted to be. The thought of it already shaking her up again. "Starclan is mad... Because Thornstar is having Torrentstar's kits.. Finchstar defended their 'love' against Starclan saying something about how Starclan had no business in two cats live or something. I don't know for sure.. All I know is that he defended their code breaking ways.. Their selffish, hypocritical ways.." It wasnt fair.. It wasnt at all fair for all of the cats that were subjected to Torrentstar's anger for doing something outside of Riverclan.

"I.. I don't want to follow Torrentstar anymore but I can't just leave Ivybrook and Honeytongue.." She expressed her thoughts. A thought she never expected to have of leaving Riverclan, but unexpected thoughts seemed to be the theme tonight. If it wasnt for those two warriors, she would have been trying to convince Spottedstar to bring her to Skyclan or deal with Houndheart and Thunderclan.

Barleytuft looked just as confused as she felt, but the answers would come in a moment. For now.... The queen found that she had a she-cat to comfort. And she was content to wait until Stormbringer was ready to answer all of their questions. Moments after the two touched noses, Strombringer stepped back a couple paces, looking between the two WindClan cats before starting to explain. StarClan mad.... Burning light... Aspenheart.... Final warning... Concerned now, Dappleshine looked to her companion, a hint of her growing fear showing in her gaze. Was everyone at the Gathering alright? They must be, if Stormbringer was here.... Right? 

Her gaze returned to the she-cat as she continued, speaking of the ThunderClan medicine cat Mossbloom. She had been granted a spot to reveal something unheard of, and Dappleshine's mouth opened slightly as the news came. Torrentstar? Thornstar? Fear clenched her heart as the names of the two cats that had nurtured and guided her paws through her kithood and apprenticeship, and early warriorhood were called. They betrayed who? Their clans? The forest? What had happened? After a brief pause Stormbringer continued, answering the questions building in the queen's head. It was as if all the ice in the river had shattered, but a falling snow had muffled the sound entirely all at once. 

Her mouth felt dry, drier than it had been even on the hottest days of greenleaf. Thornstar having kits was news to her, but it was heightened by the identity of the father..... Torrentstar. A wide array of emotions flickered through her eyes, each one enhanced by her pregnancy. Her whole body started shaking as thoughts of Thornstar, happiness for her coming litter and hopeful that they would be heatlhy, and Torrentstar, anger at his hypocrisy and shocked at the news, started to overwhelm her. Finchstar, naturally, had spoken in support... His views had been what led him to accept her into the clan after Torrentstar had chased her from RiverClan. It had been what allowed Raventail and her to be together.... This was different though...

"It would be one thing if it were love. The two hate each other. I don't even know that... That Torrentstar is...." Dappleshine's voice shook and cut off as she struggled to voice what she was thinking without letting her anger speak for her. Changing her thoughts, she took a deep, steadying breath, attempting to stop the shaking in her paws. "I truly don't believe that it was love. I don't know what it was, what possessed them to do something like that, but... I know Torrentstar. I've known him before he became deputy, and I saw the look in his eyes when he told me I should have been abandoned with my siblings - one of which didn't even make it back from that forsaken lake and the other has been missing for moons now - to die. All because I admitted to him that I had fallen in love with a tom from another clan. He didn't even give me a chance, or my daughter for that matter."

"He had started pushing me away since the day that Dacedream had left. He knew that she had been alive and safe, and never told me. I didn't find out until the Gathering where he suddenly called her out in front of everyone that she was okay. He knew, and he let me wallow in misery at not being able to find my kit, despite knowing I was searching every day. After she declined to return, because of the way he had tried to force her to return, he not only turned his back on her, he turned it to me as well. He was so afraid of losing another, that he forced us all away, thinking that would somehow make everything better."

Her paws were still shaking, but as she took a deep breath and realized that tears were streaming down her face, she stepped forward to pull Stormbringer into another embrace. "You don't have to follow him. Let the clan speak for what they believe, and what they wish to stand for. If your heart is calling you to stay with Honeytongue and Ivybrook, then stay by their sides. The three of you can withstand anything that comes, I know it. RiverClan will need some stability, and I feel that the three of you are some of the best it's got right now. Everything will fall into place, and I'll always be here if you need to talk." The idea of Stormbringer being in any other clan than RiverClan was foreign and strange, but Dappleshine couldn't help but wonder how she would have felt.... 

Barleytuft listened with quiet attention as the RiverClan cat, Stormbringer, quietly confirmed that something had happened at the Gathering: StarClan was angry. He immediately thought of the storm that had seemed to emanate from Fourtrees and felt his stomach knot. He bit back the impulse to ask if his kits were alright - she wouldn't know them by name or face to begin with, but more than that it was clear she intended to share exactly what had happened and if the cats in the clearing were in any danger. Barleytuft was a bit surprised to hear that Aspenheart had been the one to speak up first, somehow aware of what StarClan's fury was for. The senior warrior's long tail flicked anxiously at the uncertainty of what his brother must have known: that someone, somehow, had broken the code, and that the ancestors' final warning had been disobeyed. The ominous tone behind "final warning" made the WindClan tom's pale fur stand on end.

His eyes narrowed thoughtfully as the slender cat continued. The next medicine cat's name was familiar, too: Mossbloom. A cat from the lake shore of infinite kindness. Aspenheart had his faults, overzealousness sometimes being one of them, and so for a moment the discomfort that he must have caused the ThunderClan cat went unconsidered. As soon as Stormbringer revealed what Mossbloom was forced to announce, though, Barleytuft's mind froze, his dark hazel eyes widening. "StarClan is mad... because Thornstar is having Torrentstar's kits." A sudden dark, seething anger began to bubble up in Barleytuft's stomach, and he glanced aside to Dappleshine despite himself. After what he had said and done to her, the way that he had treated her and her kit, how could Thornstar possibly behave like such a hypocrite? Dappleshine's face was shocked, her mouth agape.

Now that the possible threat of danger against his kits and Clanmates had passed, Barleytuft was quickly swept up in frustration and overwhelming discomfort regarding the whole situation. Hearing that Finchstar had spoken up strongly in the two leaders' defense only added to the warrior's discomfort. Absolute hare-brain, Barleytuft thought with exasperation, StarClan covers all but the moon and sends down lightning to force the medicine cats to reveal what they know, and Finchstar thinks that's the right time to vouch for love. The warrior code is clear, but a clear message from StarClan is clearer! But his stomach twisted with apprehension, too; what would StarClan think of the young, passionate tom's declaration?

It seemed that Dappleshine felt the same, and when she spoke her first hesitant words that began to grow with anger, Barleytuft scowled slightly, Torrentstar's hipocricy stinging further. He and the ShadowClan leader seemed to have hated each other. The WindClan warrior leaned against Dappleshine comfortingly, feeling the queen tremble. He offered what strength he had to her as she responded with betrayal and mistrust and frustration, outlining everything she had heard and gone through because of Torrentstar's anger. Barleytuft's tail was stroking her haunches as he saw the tears brimming over her eyelids and dripping down her face. The senior warrior looked helplessly at Stormbringer, clearly a dear friend of Dappleshine's. Both she-cats looked hurt.

Barleytuft moved away respectfully as Dappleshine leaned forward. Stormbringer didn't want to follow Torrentstar, yet she didn't want to be disloyal to her Clan either. The former RiverClan cat's answer was respectful and thoughtful as always, and Barleytuft found himself nodding. He looked at Stormbringer with encouraging, sympathetic eyes. "You must have run fast enough to rival a WindClan cat to get here with that news," Barleytuft commented kindly. He stood. "Would you like a mouse, or some water?" he asked her. He added, "I don't know how long you want to stay, but you're welcome to stay as long as you need. If, ah, I can help you to feel more comfortable..." He glanced aside at Dappleshine, wondering what the she-cat was thinking now.

"I.." Stormbringer started trying to process everything that was said. How her leader had treated her former mentor. The information about Dacedream.. She knew what had happened with the she-cat but she never knew the full details of it. It was concerning to say the least. What was Starclan going to do with the two leaders? Would they take Thornstar's kits? Would they take the leader's lives? She didn't know but one thing she was sure of was that she didn't want Torrentstar to lead her anymore.

"I'm sorry I never knew.." Maybe if she had known the truth maybe things would have been different. Maybe things would have been better than the current situation they were in right now. Torrentstar's mistakes and wrong doings had piled up on him and it was all falling down now, and he deserved every bit in her mind.

The Riverclan warrior allowed herself to enjoy another moment with her mentor. Something she wouldn't get too often anymore. Maybe one day they could have another moment like this on better terms but for now she got what she wanted out of this conversation and she didn't want to overstay her welcome. She certainly didn't want to be in the camp with the cats at the gathering returned.

"I left the gathering before anyone else left except one.. Ivybrook took some Riverclan cats home after the news was shared. Luck just happened to be on my side to get here fast enough." Stormbringer said. "While I would love to stay and enjoy the comfort of the two of you I need to go find Honeytongue.. She ran off before everyone else.. And Ivybrook is waiting on me. I can't imagine what those two are going through right now. I also would rather not run into Finchstar and say some not so friendly words when the two of you have been nothing but kind." She didn't think that she could face the Windclan leader right now without having some harsh words for the tom.

She had also broken the code enough tonight. Crossing the border, being in their camp. It didn't matter if it was on good terms she couldn't take any prey without feeling too guilty. She was just thankful she got this.

The support that Barleytuft provided was welcome, and Dappleshine felt a little bit sturdier because of it. Shaking her head gently, Dappleshine's tail waved over the ground. "How could you have? We rely on our leaders and deputies to communicate with us truthfully, and when that is not the case, well... Then you run into half-truths or straight lies. I'm sorry he did that to you... To everyone. I don't know what changed when he became leader.... But something did." Dappleshine blinked as Barleytuft welcomed Stormbringer to stay a few moments longer, but she wasn't necessarily surprised by the she-cat's response. As she mentioned Honeytongue, however, Dappleshine flinched. "Oh dear..."

Nodding as her mind considered what her sister was going through, Dappleshine touched her nose to Stormbringer's. "Go to her, and them. They need you, and I'm sure she needs you too. I'll always be here if you need to talk, either of you. I will always be your mentor, and I mean that with every fiber of my being Stormbringer. I'm so sorry for everything, and if there's any way I can help I will. Go safely, dear."

Barleytuft dipped his head respectfully as Stormbringer declined his offer. After what had happened, he wasn't surprised, and it seemed that Dappleshine wasn't, either. The senior warrior felt a hint of admiration for the she-cat he'd just met; it was an honorable thing to have gone through such disappointment from her own leader and still be so deeply loyal to her Clan that she'd turn down prey from someone else's when freely offered. Barleytuft didn't know the name of the other she-cat who had apparently run, but the deputy of RiverClan was vaguely familiar. At the mention of Finchstar, the senior warrior's eyes hardened slightly. "I've got some not so friendly words for him myself," he assured her tersely, though the extent to which he meant those words really depended on what Finchstar would have to say for himself - if anything.

Dappleshine moved forward in the corner of Barleytuft's vision, and he watched the she-cat say goodbye to her former Clanmate. "May StarClan light your path," Barleytuft added to her words, and then a little more gently, "I feel they already do." How could they not? Stormbringer's first loyalty was to RiverClan - to the warrior code, and to doing what StarClan desired. They were watching this night, that was clear; Barleytuft prayed that when they saw Stormbringer's flight to WindClan they saw only a cat who feared for her Clan. If they disapproved regardless, he simply hoped the she-cat would be well.