How strong is that alliance anyways?

Sprucebark woke up on time as always even after being out late last night.

With a quick groom of his pelt and making his next afterward he went directly to Perchstar's den.

He was much more direct than Stormwatcher and more polished with his words. Not so akward but much more formal of course.


"Perchstar! wishing you a pleasant morning. I was hoping to have a minute of your busy schedule. I wanted to talk with you about an idea that I have been having"

It was fairly early in the morning. Having no dawn patrol herself, Perchstar was still awake, but using the time to hide from the sun's heat in the shade of her den. There were plenty of things to think about, and plenty of things to plan for the rest of the moon. Poppyshine was out organizing the rest of the day's patrols, so she was alone--or at least, she had been, before a voice at the entrance of the willow root den. Surprised, she glanced up. "Sprucebark." Since the ill-fated expedition to the Moonstone, where he apparently had not been able to see Minksplash, much of the color had gone out of his voice. She'd been a little bit worried that her warning had failed to dash his hopes early enough. Now, however, he seemed somewhat better. That was good. An idea...? What could he possibly be thinking of now? Still, she nodded. "Certainly. Come in. What is this about?"

Sprucebark did indeed have a rough couple past moons. Now, things were slowly on the mend however. The not getting to talk with minksplash had saddened him a great deal as he had held onto a false hope for too long on that.

With the help of poppyshine and his aunty kite however, he was doing better-ish now though.

And today, he seemed to have some new enthusiasm around his idea a new kind of bubbly happy that one could see if they knew him well enough and perchstar definitively did know him well enough to see it no doubt. A bit of poppyshine's happiness and warmth was begging to show through again with him even if slowly. He wasnt as joyful as poppyshine (few cats really could be) but he was her kit after all. He was probably a bit more formal than his mum too and certainly more formal than his brother Rowansong.

Speaking of, Rowansong and him were finally on good terms and actually got along quite well now.


After being welcomed in he dipped his head formal as always and settled in sitting before his leader. Even the well disciplined Sprucebark had to remind himself several times to not flick his tail back and forth out of eagerness.


How to start this anyways??, he wondered to himself. He realized the idea was a bit unusual but he saw great potential in it that he hoped he could get his idea across to his leader.

perhaps it best and after all formal to start with some small talk after all he figured:

"it is too bad about Rainkits parents, I really do feel for the little guy. I have grown really attatched to him.
and ... I think he has to me as well. I want to help him through this best I can. he meowed quietly,

"umm other than that, patrols have been running well and hunting has been *Pause* ... umm well challenging he admitted. Hunting for sprucebark had not gone well as of late. Perhaps it would be better if he could actually fish without freezing up any time he got close to the river. He had been shifting over more to hunting non river type prey, things like squirrels and such which meant he had been spending more time near the skyclan border. All in all though his hunting skills had sharply declined as he was in the middle of trying to relearn everything from hunting fish to hunting a new thing altogether. All of this, of course was to avoid the river as much as possible. His whole time doing this he had caught only a few squirrels and it was frustrating to say in the least.

The one time he had tried to go back and fish, force himself to be by the river even though his body froze up real bad whenever close to the water like that... well he had missed every single fish. It seemed his absense of practice in the fishing had also declined greatly his ability to fish. Which, was even more frustrating that the previous to him. But, all of that seemed like alot of detail for just small talk of introducing what he really wanted to ask at. Besides, he was sure that perchstar was well aware of the fact that he had not been doing well on hunting when he always came back empty pawed from hunting trips.

Perhaps, he needed a temporary mentor to help him out again... just on the hunting side of things "hmm maybe you and I could try and ... fish together at some point? he had really wanted to say hunt there instead of fish to leave the possibility of just hunting on land open... but he knew to be a helpful warrior to his clan he couldnt hide from his fear forever. Especially when leaffall was coming soon. The clan would need its warriors fishing ready after all.

He shifted a bit on his paws finishing his small talk and got to the point of why he was here:

"Perchstar, about two or three? moons or so ago I was attacked by those badgers if you recall, it was over near the skyclan border... well I would have been done for if it was not for a skyclan patrol that helped rescue me out of that situation he explained. He really did have the worst luck when it came to predators, it was so unfair... but all was well that ended well he figured.


"anyways, what that has to do with why I am here today is that the skyclan cat who rescued me is named Stormwatcher. He's a big guy, dark long hair deep eyes"


"Anyways, he's a really good friend of mine now, we talked during the gathering.
We were wondering if we could fight one another in a fight night that we are trying to set up. And additionally, we wanted to hold a tournament of sorts, the beginnings of some divisions to help warriors from all over improve their sparring and battle for a bit of glory.

The warrior paused ... hmm I should probably clarify some things real quick first. he thought

"the fights would be monitored of course, would have a referee so no one would take things too far. And I think that getting our clanmates more experience with different styles of fighting that they might not have seen before would be beneficial.


"what we were sort of thinking, was we would hold a bit of a fight night once a moon or so and as long as the warrior or apprentice had approval from their leadership could enter the fight card for the night. Over time, a ranking could be made as a fun little motivator for everyone.

Sprucebark took a bit of a breath slowing down and glancing at his leader,

"And, well skyclan and us are pretty well aligned and all so getting to practice with our alliance might not be so bad. Sort of an iron sharpens iron type of thing yes? Other clans might be able to join to maybe depending on what their high ranks say. Stormwatcher said he would talk to birdstar about it.

"What I was hoping for was approval from you to be able to fight Stormwatcher on fight night and also was hoping that you would approve anyone else who might like to join me in representing riverclan as well for the first one."


He grinned eagerly for the first time in a long time. He really hoped all this would get the clear, not only from perch but he would later have to find out from stormwatcher again if Birdstar would agree to all this too. But the idea of getting to spar against his friend in a mock up battle gave him alot of motivation to try and brush up on some of his sparring skills.

Perchstar listened, ears pricked slightly forward. She nodded at the mention of Rainkit. Too many young kits had lost their parents; she'd seen how ill it had affected Sunpaw, Larkpaw and Rookpaw. "I'm glad that you are there for them," she said. "I think a figure like you is exactly what Rainkit needs at the moment." Hopefully, times would only continue to get better for her Clan. Hopefully, fewer and fewer kits would be lost with no one to look to. Of course, though, that hadn't been the only reason that Sprucebark came to speak with her. It was always several things with this tom. His mind moved quickly, and his mouth moved quicker, darting from topic to topic almost faster than she could keep up, despite the hesitant lulls between his words. "Fishing together sounds good. Anytime you wish." It saddened her that so many RiverClan cats were afraid of the river. She would teach them all herself if she had to. The river was the source of life and peace, not death and agony. As long as one knew how to swim, knew when to swim and when to stay dry, it would be all right.

After a little while, Sprucebark got to the main piece of his conversation. The query he'd come to speak about. She offered a small nod when he mentioned the badgers. It had been lucky indeed that a SkyClan patrol had decided to help... but where was he going with this? Then, he reached the point. A fighting tournament--but not between Clanmates as her apprentice spar had been. Between different Clans. Potentially all of the different Clans. Battling for... glory? Ranking? Though he did have a point about them being allies with SkyClan, Perchstar couldn't help but feel something slightly rub her the wrong way about the whole idea. It was all well and good to practice with one's Clanmates, but going to a different Clan and sparring? Sharing Clan techniques and other things meant to help defend territory in case of emergency? She had never been a fan of fighting in general, and the idea of sharing secrets like that--even with her allies--made something tighten in her throat.

It hurt. Sprucebark was smiling again, for the first time in a while, and here she was having to be the one to dash his hopes again. But that was part of the burden of being a leader, she supposed. She wished it could all be happiness and help, but sometimes she had to put her paw down, or even just disagree with well-meaning ideas. And this would have to be one of them. "Sorry, Sprucebark, but I dislike this idea." The words tasted sour and reluctant in her mouth. "Not that your reasoning isn't sound--because it is. I see where you are coming from. However, the entire point of fighting is learning how to protect our Clan. It makes no sense to practice those methods of defense and protection against the very cats that we may someday have to unsheathe claws on. While it might strengthen our techniques, yes, it would also strengthen the warriors that may someday be our enemies." She managed to keep her face neutral and her form still, despite how saying these things made her want to twitch in discomfort. "While in a best-case scenario this would be a good idea, I believe that when one is realistic, it simply poses too big of a risk. I would love to assure you that we will never have to fight SkyClan with tooth and claw. But having lived as long as I have, and seen as much as I have seen, that is simply wishful thinking. War could happen at any time, for any moment. I do not think that bolstering our technique or camaraderie with other Clans is at all worth the issues it might cause."

Perchstar let out a deep sigh. "The code clearly states that while you may have friendships with cats from other Clans, your loyalty must remain to your Clan, as one day you may meet them in battle. Can you tell me honestly that if this Stormwatcher were to assist his Clan in raiding our camp, you would be able to fight back as viciously as necessary? Even if your answer is yes, which I hope that it is, I see no need to take even the possibility of making our Clan weaker. It is simply a risk I am unwilling to take." Hopefully he would not hate her for this. In a better world, all the Clans would get along, and war would never be a looming threat. But it sorrowed her to realize that no matter how much she might personally like Birdstar, or feel comfortable with Mottlestar, they could never truly share the same bond as they could if they were Clanmates. Other Clans would always have the potential to become enemies, no matter what her feelings were. That was how it had always been... and how it would always remain.

Sprucebark listened to his leaders many concerns with all that. She brought up alot of different perspective that he hadn’t even thought of. He had just meant it as a way to interact more with others.

She asked him if he would defend the clan against skyclan. He blinked a bit suprised by this hypothetical but was even more suprised she had asked it of him in the first place. Did his idea of this shake her faith in him that much?? No no surely she just meant it as a hypothetical.

He nodded confidently perchstar, I made a promise to you and this clan when I became a warrior that I would do anything to defend it including giving up my own life. So yes, of course I would defend it as hard as possible if it ever came to that even if it was against stormwatcher. he said confidently with a little polite bow of his head to her.

I only brought it up because I saw the possible potential to make us all continue to be well trained. But I do see your concerns and understand your decision. So of course I will follow your rules and will not attend that.

He was a little bummed from it but thinking through all her thoughts on it he actually moved off it quite quickly.


He gave her another smile and even a happy purr to assure her that her decision didn’t change how he saw her at all.

He switched back to their other topics just as much:

He gave a nod yeah, hopefully with time rainkit and I can continue to do so

“Yeah, a fish does sound nice… let’s say tomorrow early morning.. Of course, the planner he was would specify all those details

He wondered if he could ask her for a friendly spar as well since she had mentioned that inside the clan it was okay to practice skills.

Perhaps, after our fish you and I could practice our sparring? I understand your concerns of practice outside the clan but I still think it’s good to practice up on them and all. Maybe sometimes the best is the combination of ideas. You bring up good concerns of practice outside of the clan but said inside the clan is good.

His happy flicking of his tail returned once again. Better be ready I’m gonna bring my A game for it perch

He didn’t really think he could defeat perchsatar in a spar. She was quite the fighter, but what better way to learn. And part of it, was getting her good practice too. He was one of her more senior-ish warriors and so it wasn’t far fetched to say she might learn off it too he hoped