Windclan's Deputy Ceremony December 2023

At this point Tigerdance has to face the inevitable. Days had passed with no sign of Smallstar or Jayfrost.. it didn't seem like either would return so he had to face the fact that he was leader now. At least until the could beat this illness and do a more thorough search. The leader wasn't giving up quite yet but he certainly was going to need some help, and the clan needed to appear strong in front of the others.. so that meant picking a deputy.

It took a while of dealing with the fact that Smallstars was gone, and running through candidates in his mind for him to finally decide on one. He just hoped they would accept the position. He also hoped Starclan wouldn't be mad at him for not following the moonlight rule considering it had been days at this point. For now he needed to get a move, the rest could be dealt with later.

The skinny striped tom stepped up to his usual spot, giving a quick glance around before calling out in his hoarse voice. "Let all cats old enough to run the moor gather here for a clan meeting!"

Ooc: mobilehehe

Sootstorm had a feeling he knew what was coming. Search parties had grown fewer and fewer as the days passed, his clanmates already giving up on ever finding Smallstar and Jayfrost. They had yet to find even a tuff of fur, and finally they could not search any longer. With so many cats sick, and WindClan already being pitifully small, it seemed the only right decision was to forget about their missing clanmates and move on. As reluctant as he was to forget Smallstar, there was simply nothing he could do. Sootstorm settled near the front of the crowd, a heavy heart in his chest and a mask of a smile on his face. Perhaps one day, when their sickness had ceased and WindClan was a little stronger, they could search for the two cats once more, though he hoped it wouldn't be too late then.

Eaglefly had searched all over for his missing brother. Jay had gotten seperated with Smallstar and now both of them had vanished completely. There had been no sign of either one of them for a while now. Eaglefly's tail drooped as he heard the meeting called. He knew it was coming but the fact was now that enough time had passed that Tiger needed the clan to be moving on. Tigerdance was right but it still stung deep that the likelyhood of ever getting to see his brother or old leader again was slim to 0 now.

He slowly went to go join the meeting.

He spotted coyote and Sleepy and went towards them wanting to be with the family he had left now that Jay was gone.

Eagle is wanting to join coy and sleepy for this


Lavendercloud sniffled and drug herself over to see what this was all about. She didnt have the energy to look for her missing clanmates unfortunetly with the illness but no news of them saddened her greatly, windclan was growing smaller by the moon and any lost clanmate was felt hard in patrols and hunting abilities for their clan. She stayed near Daisypaw who she noted was being attentive to the still sick cats not able to attend, a natural med cat indeed.

She nuzzled her kit a little and looked around to see whare the rest of their family was... what was fuzz up to anyhow? He could be the next deputy for all she knew so he had better not be late! Hmfff!

Finding his place beside Lavendercloud and Daisypaw, Fuzzface gently nudged the side of his mate's cheek in a welcoming manner. With Smallstar missing, him, Molehill, and the others that hadn't grown ill had been put to work looking for their missing leader, though their efforts were to no avail. Of course, the plump tom had already assumed that they wouldn't find the tom, especially since he'd been gone for so long now and every day had been a tiring one. Finally though, they'd been able to rest a little, but of course Tigerdance couldn't let their relaxation last too long and had called for a clan meeting.

"Better be good," the grey tom mewed to his mate between cleaning his paws.


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Having been working on some nests for the queens, the newly named Molehill perked his ears at Tigerdance's words. Turning his attention towards the deputy, the brown tom thumped his big paws against the ground in an attempt to get off the dirt clumps that clung between his claws and paw pads. Making his way towards the growing crowd of his clanmates, the warrior used his strong sense of smell to seek out his family. Sitting behind them, he dipped his head in greeting before turning his amber gaze towards Tigerdance, curious to know what the tom had to share. 'Hopefully good news,' he thought nervously to himself.

Finchspeckle raised her gaze as Tigerdance's voice called out once more. It as if her days now only consisted of Clan meetings and the bitter taste of herbs. The calico pushed herself onto shaky legs and stumbled closer before collapsing ungracefully into a sitting position. Berrypaw pushed past the warrior to find her family, wriggling past the warm bodies of her littermates to settle close to Lavendercloud. She shivered, feeling as if her paws had frozen into ice.

Eveningpaw had been poking through the fresh-kill pile - she was still in awe that it could ever look so... Full. She was always used to the Clan struggling with food and it was hard to eat much without feeling sick... But she had been on a different mission - seeing if any birds happened to be caught in hopes of stealing a pretty feather or two to give to Finchspeckle in an effort to cheer her sister up in the face of her sickness.

She glanced up however at her mentor's call, giving up on her search as she spotted her sister shakily getting to her paws and stumbling to join the crowd. Eveningpaw jumped to her own paws and darted her way over, giving Finchspeckle a soft smile as she took a seat next to her sister. The two hadn't spent much time together since they had both become apprentices and now that Finchspeckle had breezed her way into a warrior, even less time was spent... But Eveningpaw was determined to let her sister know how much she looked up to her and spent as much time as she could spare with her, now that everything was so uncertain in the wake of this illness...

Then there was the whole matter with Smallstar disappearing - and Jayfrost, of course, but their leader just...Gone? She had done her best to keep an eye out when she ventured out for food but.. A sigh escaped her, staring up at Tigerdance. She felt so terrible for her mentor, the stress the deputy had to be under. Was there any new information, she wondered? Was this meeting about a trail that a warrior had picked up or...?

Goldengale followed along behind her brother, grin still refusing to leave her face. She was a warrior now, and that was real important, so she ought to pay lots of attention to everything that was happening in WindClan- like meetings! Sitting beside Tallshadow, she flicked her tail against his flank lightly, eyes searching his for any trace of distant delirium… but he seemed fine? Like, mostly fine? To her at least? He wasn’t rambling, and that was a good sign, so she supposed she’d bite back her protests and let him sit through the meeting, even though his laboured breaths made her fur prickle uncomfortably. Stars, he worried her.

What was this even about? Maybe Stormstorm knew? She cleared her throat, leaning towards the older warrior and speaking in a hushed whisper (at least for her). “Do you know what’s goin’ on?”

Quickpaw was resting peacefully when she heard the call for a clan meeting, likely a kit becoming a apprentice. At least there was something to be positive about in these times. So she walked on over to see if she could pick out a kit that would be an apprentice, then she realized no kits were even over there. Maybe an apprentice becoming a warrior? They had two of those recently and she knew she’d likely be next, but it would be time for that. So then it must be news about Smallstar officially declaring him dead most likely as she hadn’t seen him around.

Quickpaw realized what this meeting was going to be about shortly after, it must be the deputy ceremony seeing as nothing else made sense. So with that in mind she sat back relaxed and enjoyed.

Tigerdance sighed, trying to relax himself before he spoke. It was big news, he didn't know how the clan would take it but it had to be done. "As you all know Smallstar and Jayfrost still haven't been found, regardless of how much we have looked. I am not calling off the search, but at this point we have to accept something we don't really want to." The striped tom could feel anxiety bubbling inside of him as he continued to speak, but he had to steel himself. For the clan.

"Windclan needs to be strong, and we can't do that when we are missing cats to fill critical roles of our clan. So I have come to the hard decision that I will be stepping up to take Smallstar's spot as leader of Windclan. Which leaves the deputy spot open, and I'm here to rectify that." Would they approve of him as leader? Would they accept that? Could he actually lead them properly and not end up like Shrikestar? The questions filled his mind, but he shoved them away. Now wasn't the time. He had a deputy to appoint.

"I say these words before Starclan, hoping they hear and approve of my choice." He couldn't help letting his gaze go up to the sky for a moment, praying Starclan wasn't mad at him for taking so long to get this done. "Sootstorm will be the new deputy of Windclan." The tom was a staple in the clan, someone many cats could rely on. He was the best choice they had. He just hoped the clan agreed.

Quickpaw had known the deputy part off of speculation, but the new deputy being her own father? Inconceivable. She didn’t know how to process it, she was really proud of her father, but she wasn’t really surprised as much as she was. He was a great cat after all. Not entirely knowing what to do she walked up to him and said, “Congratulations!” perhaps it was all she could do at the moment, it was a little to exciting. So she gave him a warm smile before going over to chant his name with the others.