The future's in your paws. Shape it well.Roleplay in a cat Clan of warriors. Based off the Warriors series by Erin Hunter. Takes place in an AU before the cats in the books existed.
Welcome to WCC! Here are our latest announcements:
Activity checks take place on the 1st of the month. PM a staff member with the completed form if you missed it.
Newleaf is finally here, and the Clans hope to find reprieve from the tough Leaf-bare.
Gatherings take place on the 1st of the month; keep your eyes out for a staff member's post!
Please feel free to hit up any staff member if you have any questions!
Subject: looking through a fogged mirror [C] Mon 12 Jun 2023 - 20:04
Birdstar
Shadows stretched long over Twolegplace’s hard stone, streaks of pitch darkening the well-kept gardens. The further Birdstar padded along the fence line, the darker the shadows seemed to grow; by the time she reached the decrepit quarter of Twolegplace, crumbling and familiar, it felt like the evening sun had been blotted out. It was truly no darker here than it had been several tree-lengths the opposite way, but nerves made the pools of darkness swim and stretch.
Sighing, Birdstar shook out her pelt, careful not to lose her footing on the thin rail. Why are you so worried? It’s mom. The reassurance did little to comfort her; if anything, it heightened her nerves. She was happy to see Beechfang again. She always was; just like she tried to tell herself, Beechfang was just mom. But at the same time… Birdstar cast a glance over her shoulder, searching the depths of the forest. She dreaded talking about Falconmoon. She dreaded looking Beechfang in the eye while talking about him. She dreaded every hypothetical, terrible thing that could come as a result of her returning to SkyClan.
But, she dreaded the thought of Beechfang rotting unknown in Twolegplace, disappeared to the whispers of the forest, more than consequence. Straightening herself out, Birdstar took another breath to steel herself and turned her gaze back onto the stone, watching for any sign of a familiar silver tabby.
Subject: Re: looking through a fogged mirror [C] Tue 13 Jun 2023 - 11:44
The evening shadows stretched over twolegplace as Beechfang worked her way back toward the decrepit nest she claimed for herself, glancing over her shoulder and ears alert as she wound her way through the streets. The quiet unnerved her, though the lack of other cats in the area should have been a comforting reminder that she was alone.
Except being alone had never been all that comforting.
Occasionally her gaze would stray in the direction of the twoleg fence that separated her from Skyclan territory. Beechfang tried (and often failed) to not linger. Sometimes she would find the dark, gold-edged feathers of a starling, and she now had a small collection of them in her nest. Dawnfeather's work, if she knew her niece, and thought brought a small flicker of a smile to her face. At least her family was safe, though it didn't make it any easier to avoid Skyclan's border. Tonight she was managing, paws moving steadily towards her nest until a familiar scent caught her attention. Familiar, and out of place. Beechfang turned in the direction of it on instinct, pale paws following the scent of Skyclan, of family.
"Birdstar?" Her daughter's pelt stood out in the shadows as Beechfang approached. Mixed feelings of relief and anxiety welling up. "What brings you out here? Are you alright?" It wasn't often the leader ventured into twolegplace, and Beechfang or herbs were the few reasons Skyclanners seemed to... Or bored toms just finished with their vigil. Neither medicine cat nor her nephew were present however, Birdstar had come alone.
Subject: Re: looking through a fogged mirror [C] Thu 15 Jun 2023 - 6:54
Birdstar
She wasn’t perched on the fence long before the dead wind shifted, carrying more than just the scent of stone. Birdstar’s ears turned forward expectantly, and within a few moments Beechfang emerged from the shadows. She gave a tired smile before jumping down to the other side of the fence.
“I’m alright,” she assured, padding closer to briefly press her head to Beechfang’s. Pulling away, “I was looking for you.” Her nose wrinkled, and the smile fell from her maw, replaced with a tight line and pensively furrowed brow. She had spent the days before coming out here thinking of what to say- she always tried to think of what to say in advance for conversations like this, but anything she came up with always fell through. Birdstar sighed, ducking her head for a few moments of silence to think.
“Bloodstrike and Ravenclaw spoke to me, a little while ago.” She started slowly, ear flicking once. “They want you to return to SkyClan. No one is getting younger, and all. Bloodstrike was given a chance to come back, because he’s family and he’s SkyClan, and— obviously, I mean —so are you. And… you deserve to be home, too.” Birdstar slowly picked her head back up to look at Beechfang again. "And I agree with them— Wolf agrees. We want you home. But I doubt I have to be the one to tell you why that could be a… problem.” Her nose wrinkled again.
“It wasn’t my name you were exiled under. Perchstar’s asked nothing of me, and what happens inside of SkyClan’s borders is not RiverClan’s concern.” Birdstar’s eyes trailed sideways, looking over the pavement and fence-line. She half-expected RiverClan and ThunderClan’s leaders to appear from the evening darkness to listen in. “Mottlestar suggested an alliance at the last Gathering. Between us, ThunderClan, and RiverClan. Considering recent history, RiverClan’s involvement— or ours, for that matter —might be a surprise, but we’ve become friendly with them since leaf-fall. Their deputy is kind, and a good friend of mine, and Perchstar… somehow, she’s become a friend too.
“Which is why, if you agree, I’d like to keep you far from the river, and from Fourtrees. I don’t like feeling like I’m sneaking my own family around, but I like the thought of war in our home much less. If RiverClan doesn’t know, they can’t be hurt by it; and if they aren’t, SkyClan won’t be as consequence.” Birdstar held her eyes closed for a long few moments. While addressing their standing with RiverClan left a flicker of guilt in her chest, it was incomparable to the concern that welled again. She had nothing more to say of their neighbors, which meant,
“I have more pressing concerns about you rejoining SkyClan. They’re… about Falconmoon. You’ve met him, haven’t you? You must’ve, when he was still an apprentice, after the mess at Fourtrees with the twolegs and their dogs. I’ll tell you either way, because stars, we’re at a loss ourselves,” Birdstar’s claws briefly flexed, scraping over stone before retracting, “but I want to know what you think, first. I’ll give you time, a few days or so, to consider it before returning formally, but I… want to know if there’s a chance you could, before I tell you… everything else.”
Subject: Re: looking through a fogged mirror [C] Thu 15 Jun 2023 - 12:50
A purr rumbled in her chest for a moment at her daughter's greeting and reassurance that she was fine, that she was looking for Beechfang.
"...Of course they would put you up to this." Beechfang muttered, a rueful smile flickering across her face. "They know I can't refuse my kits." Much as she'd tried, her paws always wanted to linger near Skyclan's border, and each time she saw one of her former clanmates it was a little harder to leave. The offer was a relief.
"An alliance... With Riverclan?" To say Beechfang wasn't skeptical would be a lie. "Skyclan isn't mine to lead, thank Starclan. And I can't tell you what's best for the clan." Not after being away for so long, but an alliance with Riverclan was a strange thing. They had once helped Skyclan after a fire swept through their territory, and from Beechfang's recollection that was where the good intentions had ended. An unspoken Are you sure? Is that wise? lingered on the tip of her tongue, but she did not voice it. She had little care if Perchstar was hurt by something she wouldn't know, and Skyclan's business was their own, alliance or not. "I have even less desire to spend time near the river or at fourtrees than Perchstar has to see me, I'd expect." That was the logical conclusion to it, in her mind. Bloodstrike and Ravenclaw may have set Birdstar's paws venturing to twolegplace, but it was her daughter's voice that weakened her already shaky resolve. Nearly a year spent wandering twolegplace, guiding lost clan cats back to where they belonged had not made her heart any fonder of the crumbling stone alleys.
Before she could voice it, Birdstar continued, and the moment Falconmoon's name was spoken Beechfang felt dread settle in her stomach like a stone. Of course, he was Skyclan, and returning to Skyclan would mean seeing... that. Of course there would be something to dampen the surge of excitement she felt at being asked to go home.
"I remember." She huffed out. Bloodstrike hadn't quite managed to warn her in time, and she remembered the enthusiastic ball of pale golden fur that had bounded up to Birdstar that day. She wondered how much Birdstar knew, how much Wolfblossom knew. Did they recognize the potential danger living among them? "We've spoken, briefly. I found him exploring one of the twoleg gardens after his warrior vigil." Her claws scraped against stone, flexing with uncertainty. Either Beechfang was about to sound bat-dung insane, or Birdstar already knew something of what she was about to say. She didn't think Birdstar would mention him otherwise - Falconmoon was just her grandson, right? Just a kit? "Let me guess, he's dreaming things you should all be grateful you're too young to remember.""I mean... it was just a dream. It was vivid... no, just a dream. It's just a coincidence! Like dreaming about Shrikestar before I met him. It's not real." Too bad for both of them. Beechfang no longer believed in coincidence.
"He... Dreamed of something I'm not even sure dad knows or remembers, if Wolfstar even told him. I fought with my littermate while we were still very young apprentices... Over what I don't remember." Something about rule-following... The idea of that now nearly made her laugh, bitterly. "Point is, Dawnhawk never told anyone about it. Not that I know of. I used the incident to point out why I'd be a horrible medicine cat... Didn't work, I got stuck with herbs anyways. Wound up taking Wolfcall to the moonstone to get his lives, and then he took me back to get my name within the moon. Half the lives that idiot lost were to me or Dawnhawk or the stress we caused him." More than half, probably... This time a snort left her. She was rambling, she knew... That was irrelevant. Falconmoon was the question here. "Falconmoon looks like him. Sounds like him to where if my eyes were closed, I would think it were my brother standing before me and not my grandson." And Falconmoon had his memories. Or possibly just memory, but why would that be the case? Not with her luck, no.
"What do you know?" She wasn't sure she wanted to know, actually, but if Birdstar was concerned... Well, Falconmoon would've been something to worry over anyways.
Subject: Re: looking through a fogged mirror [C] Tue 20 Jun 2023 - 18:08
Birdstar
Beechfang, while clearly skeptical of the proposed alliance, kept any criticism or concern to a brief flicker through her eye. Birdstar nodded briefly in acknowledgment of it, but stayed quiet to continue listening. She regretted it, almost— maybe she should have lingered on RiverClan, though there was little to say that wasn’t already understood. It would have been something other than watching the tense change in Beechfang when the conversation shifted to Falconmoon.
Her ear flicked at the knowledge he’d gone to the gardens after his vigil. His minor absence had been noted, but odd hours or lone patrols were not uncommon for Falconmoon, even if it was shortly after a long night awake. The same ear twitched again and her eyes narrowed slightly at Beechfang’s next statement— phrased like a question, but blunted by uncanny knowingness. Though the dream Falconmoon had apparently shared with Beechfang was far more mundane than the one that caused his outburst in camp, it made a similar discomfort buzz under her fur.
Too many of her questions were ending in yes; it was harder and harder to ignore the connection. But even then, what did it really mean? The conversation with Wolfblossom buzzed in the back of her mind, and Birdstar frowned against the fresh memory.
A more distant, more welcome memory— if only for the absence of Falconmoon —surfaced the longer she considered Beechfang’s words. Wolfstar. A relative she had never known, outside of the life he blessed her with. There will be days where you will regret ever having tread this starry terrain. Birdstar’s whiskers twitched. Today had been one of those days, certainly, though– With this life, I bid you to use that love, to let it guide you and the actions you take as leader.
Birdstar tipped her chin up a bit, leveling her focus on Beechfang again. “More than you want me to, I imagine. Wolf does, too. The dreams he’s shared with us are… violent.” Birdstar sighed. “A few moons ago, he… Falconmoon had one dream that sent him into a panic. He met some cat at Highstones and she told him something like a prophecy— what was it, the moon being covered and the stars being powerless? He killed her after that. Said he got killed, himself, when he went to this… hidden passage under Highstones. But that he wasn’t dead, and that he was going back to the Clans. To hurt them, maybe.
“And that same day, before he told us about that dream, Falconmoon said he’d had another dream, what, a moon or so before then? He was in the nursery, talking with his mother— not Wolfblossom, but in his dream —and it ended with him–” Birdstar paused, nostrils flaring, before whispering, “it ended with him taking the life of a kit.” Her tail lashed, and her claws flexed to drag over stone. “I guess Bloodstrike talked to Wolf after that, though. He told her that Falconmoon’s nightmares were real, because of course they were real.” She spat the second utterance of the word. Would it be so hard for things to be simple?
“Bloodstrike thinks he’s either being shown these dreams on purpose, or that he… is Dawnhawk.” It burned her tongue to say outloud, even though the thought had swirled in her mind for days and days. “I don’t want to believe it, but it’s hard not to see that there’s— there’s something. And I… I don’t know what to do about it. I want to help him. I know Falconmoon is a good cat. I know Falconmoon. We thought you might know something we don’t, or be able to do— I don’t know, something.” Birdstar released a slow breath. Lowering her head, “And... if you can't come home because of- that, I'm sorry.”
Subject: Re: looking through a fogged mirror [C] Wed 21 Jun 2023 - 8:39
Birdstar's words made her hackles rise out of instinct. Violent dreams, indeed. The first brought no significant memories for her, but the second... "Featherkit." Their little sister, life snuffed out in an instant of brutality that never left Beechfang's memory. "Dawnhawk weaseled his way into becoming deputy after he had the Asylum take your grandfather prisoner. I don't know what started it, I don't want to know. By the time I got to the nursery he and our mother-" Not that Dawnhawk would have called her such, and there were some days where Beechfang wasn't sure, either. "-They were arguing. Featherkit was too young to understand, she was so friendly..." She shook her head, remembering as Featherkit had scampered from the nest, the way that Smokefeather had tried to sweep her back protectively. "I was too slow to stop him. We fought after." Smokefeather had cowered in a corner, she recalled, just trying to shield Mountainkit from it all. She had no memory of how he'd tried to skin her like one of the Asylum's sick trophies, only waking up later to her back feeling as if it had been ripped open and agony across chin and stomach. Asylum paws had healed her injuries when the medicine cat couldn't, using her own herbs to do so. Too much taken, and Beechfang was still absolutely certain that it had been done purposefully. Added insult to injury, another way to weaken Skyclan further.
She shook her head, wishing that would be enough to shake away the memories. She was perfectly capable of dredging up that foulness on her own without Birdstar and Falconmoon helping.
"I don't know about that first one. There's no other passage under highstones that I know of. Dying but... Not? And -" Something acidic and bitter burned at the back of her throat. She swallowed, tail lashing back and forth as the realization sank in with a suddenness, like the feeling before lightning had seemed to set her veins on fire. "It was the night of a gathering when the stars and moon went dark. That was the night the dark forest ambushed us all. Dawnhawk leading them. His throat had been torn open and was gushing blood... But he was still standing. He never faltered." She had watched as then-Bloodstar had fallen to him in the blink of an eye. And more, as he'd shepherded them back to camp. Her paws moved, the battle-scarred tabby pacing back and forth. There wouldn't be enough time for her to wear into the stone here, but she had already done that to the dirty old twoleg nest, not that it mattered. "It would fit with going back to the clans to hurt them, Dawnhawk was always about that even when he tried to place the blame on us. If that one is his too... Then all the ones we know of so far have been his." Why wouldn't this one line up with that? "One could be a coincidence. Two, possibly three... That's a pattern, and not one I like."
Birdstar's question was one Beechfang wasn't sure she had the answer to, and not one she was sure she wanted to know the answer to. "Foxdung if I know, kit." She sighed, weariness dragging her paws to a stop. If there was one thing Beechfang had come to learn, it was that she knew nothing. "I watched him disappear in front of me when we managed to drive the dark forest back to where they came from. I'm not stupid enough to believe he'd be gone for good. Nobody with a shred of sense would be." Neither was Bloodstrike, be it paranoia or otherwise. And they had been right to fear. "Best case, these dreams are being sent to him. Why, who knows. I want to believe he's just Wolfblossom's kit, that would be too easy though, wouldn't it?" It would be just like Dawnhawk to sink his claws into whatever of Skyclan he could reach, into whatever he thought would cause her family the most grief, even from the grave. "Worst case... We're all in danger. He'll turn on you when you least expect it, and these dreams are an effort to buy your sympathy and lower your guard. Don't bother asking Starclan for advice, you'll get the same help I did. Their eyes are blind to Skyclan, and to Dawnhawk." Dawnhawk's transgressions had never been of importance enough to share with anyone, or to warn them of. Never had been, never would be. All the stars did was take and take, leaving the unworthy and stealing what light there was in the forest for themselves. Dovefrost, Blossomstep, Mossbloom, Flowerthorn,, Foxfire... Wolfstar had to be up there now, if he'd never returned to Skyclan like he promised. Beechfang knew that deep down. Primroselight was up there too surely, just another light for the stars to keep. Good cats, all of them, so at-odds with what she saw and knew.
Birdstar's next words were like a slap to the face, her head snapping up to glare at her daughter. "He's torn apart my family for long enough. Don't tell me you think I'd let whatever foxing dreams this kit is having do the same." Not when she'd been kept away for the better part of a year for her own mistakes. Beechfang had thought about it, sure. But to hear the words spoken aloud by her daughter, mere moments after the subject of a return was raised, brought forth an anger that Beechfang had wanted to keep hidden. She hadn't exactly followed the terms of being exiled, but she had kept away far more than she ever wanted to be from her family. "We've made a farce of this exile for long enough. My daughter's kit having trouble isn't pulling me away from it now." Her tail lashed once more as she stared at Birdstar, face so much like her own. "If I wind up dead in my nest, or below a tree within the next week, you'll have your answer about Falconmoon. But at least I'll have died a Skyclanner."
