Mightier Than the Sword [c]

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For many of his younger warrior days, Stormwatcher would nap most the day and all night.

Now- after Wolf had set him on a more responsible path he actually did try as a warrior, he actually did his work and tried for the clan.

Losing Birdstar his adoptive older sister ate away at him. Because... he HAD tried, he had tried so hard to stop the enemy and beech and bird were now both dead.

He couldnt help but wonder if he had tired harder in his youthful warrior days that somehow he could have been stronger for them on the day of the battle, that he could have saved birdstar.


He was exhausted now after a full day of work and his ears swivled as someone wanted him.

He wanted nothing more than to curl up in his nest and pass out for awhile. While wolf had changed him a lot and made him more responsible in general, the tom still found great comfort in naps and down time.


He blinked glancing over, oh... it was Honeydew, if it had been anyone else he would have declined, but he could not easily do so to the deputy now could he?

He tried to not let his disapointment be too prominate as he nodded and turned taking one last look at his warm cozy looking nest.


"erhmm sure I guess so" he nodded. He walked along side her away from the den so she could speak her mind with him one on one.

"whats up honeydew?" he asked

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Stormwatcher sat across from the deputy. He felt oddly like this was back in his younger days when the deputy would pull him aside and tell him that:
'you really ought to work more storm'
or
'if you fought as hard as you napped the clan would be forever strong'

He shifted his tail uncomfortable. His youthful days of lazing around had taught him well enough that getting pulled aside for a high rank one - on - one was generally not to talk about butterflies and rainbows. More so, it was often used to poke at him for doing something wrong or in his case not doing he was supposed to do.

Oh and just perfect, her eyes looked serious too, oh this was going to be one of those talks too wasn't it?
But I haven't even been lazy at all lately! he complained already in his mind before Honeydew had even spoken yet.


"You are a strong warrior, and one of SkyClan's best. You have shown significant improvement over the past few moons, even a cat as young as myself can notice that."

He stood there staring back into her blue serious eyes with his golden yellow eyes unblinking.

In the 'staredown' of sorts he blinked first mostly in confusion and taken aback by the surprised praises she was throwing his way.

He didn't really know the last time a high rank had said he had done a good job in terms of that.  Well, wolf had mentioned it but that was only after moons of her being on his tail about improving. It felt... odd, unnatural for a superior to be telling him good job. It felt so weird in fact he missed the days of being yelled at, at least then he knew what to respond with.

'sorry mr/mrs deputy, Ill do better next time' got him out of 99% of missed patrols in his apprentice days the other 1% he got to go clean out the elders den.

He had no idea how to respond to a 'good job storm'.  He twitched slightly his tail more uncomfortable than ever now.

It did not help that he himself viewed his performance as an utter failure at the border battle.  He had failed to drive away the enemy invaders and because of that his adoptive sister Birdstar that had helped so much in the transformation of him to a better warrior was dead now.

He didn't feel brave when he was forced to flea the battle when Perchstar and Poppyshine had ganged up on him.  He did not feel admirable when he learned that their clan had failed its objective to keep beechface safe and at the same time had lost their leader.

To him the whole thing felt like a failure on his part to protect the ones he finally cared about. His old self would not have cared for any clanmate.  It was Wolf who had made him care.  And now that he cared he was seemingly powerless to protect them from something that should have been trivial.

Yet still, Honeydew praised him?  His chest tightened all up and he felt almost sick.  How was she so pure of heart? He wondered.


She won the 'staredown' again as he had to look to his paws.  He nodded a little in thanks of her notice of his improvement and praise.


However... then she continued.


He looked back to her as she went on about being pure of heart.  Was she... was she talking about him? He couldnt even be sure.

He felt nerves run all through him. He had no idea what she meant by any of this.  It felt like she was congratulating him on using his claws in one sentence then telling him he had gone too far in the next.  

If the high ranks could please tell me to either claw or nap ... that would be great he muttered but only to himself never aloud.

He squeezed his eyes shut a moment trying to figure out how in the world he would even start with this.

"Honeydew... you are a good deputy. I am glad you were picked. I cheered for you the day you were picked because I belive you can be the heart you are talking about.  I dont know how but you seem to always somehow see the light at the end of tunnels. Only you could see any improvement in what otherwise was a very dark day in our clans history he started.  He was also trying to pick his words carefully enough.


"While I know what you are trying to say, that we should be better now, not kill our enemy. Be righteousness and all, it is not so easy, not when our enemy is nothing of the sort" his eyes met hers again though this time he would not be the one to back down or blink.


"Riverclan had no issue killing all of birdstars lives even though they claimed to only want beech.  That makes them a liar on top of killers.  We cant beat them if we play by rules they do not.  While I do not agree with sunfires methods of attacking a medicine cat, we cannot expect that playing honorably will save us honeydew. In war... cats die it is why it is so horrible I understand that now"  to think that just a moon earlier he had been so excited for war sent shame and shivers down his spine.

he sighed. "You are the best of us honeydew, even after all this you still wanting that proves it.

He nodded his head in respect, "how about this, a compromise of sorts. Just as a cat needs both a heart and claws to survive so too does a clan.  You be our heart, I will be our claws.  We can keep each other balanced in sorts.  If I get too aggressive you can stop me.  However... if you get too soft I will claw anything that comes after us tenfold. For the record... Riverclan already came after us in my book. So as noble as you want us to be.. they have already asked for the claws"

He held out an honest paw to shake on it, "deal?"

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