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.
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Subject: Nightpaw's Warrior Ceremony Sat 1 Jun 2024 - 20:34
i've given up on counting blessings
"All cats old enough to silently stalk in the shadows, please gather in the shadow of the Jaggedrock for a Clan meeting!"
Leopardstar sat atop the Jaggedrock, head held high as she searched the growing crowd for the subject of today's ceremony. The naming of a new warrior was always a joyous occasion, and even as it grew more common it still felt as if it were a rare gift.
She sometimes wondered if maybe it was: there may be more warriors, but each cat was irreplaceable, and their lives were often cut short. So many cats never got this far.
But this wasn't a time to dwell on that, and instead she fought to keep her expression neutral as she looked through the gathered cats.
the gods can judge me when i'm dead||code (c) kieer
Subject: Re: Nightpaw's Warrior Ceremony Sat 1 Jun 2024 - 20:54
SILVERHAWK
The darker the weather...
Silverhawk was among the first to gather when Leopardstar gathered the Clan together. Nightpaw had recently undertaken his journey to the Moonstone, and Silverhawk had spoken with the leader about the young tom’s readiness. In truth… he still held reservations about his apprentice. Nightpaw was a coward through and through. Even so, Silverhawk wanted to see what kind of warrior he could be. It was curiosity and a desire to push him that encouraged his approval more than a belief in Nightpaw’s ability. But, however he felt about his apprentice, reaching warriorhood was an occasion to be proud of, to celebrate. Silverhawk wanted to be there to congratulate Nightpaw the moment his name was announced.
Subject: Re: Nightpaw's Warrior Ceremony Sat 1 Jun 2024 - 21:07
nightpaw
Nightpaw's heart seemed to stop as Leopardstar's call rang throughout the clearing. He knew his warrior ceremony was coming - since his journey to the Moonstone, it was really just a matter of days. He stopped rummaging through the fresh-kill pile at once. Maybe he'd be okay for another day. Maybe some kit was being apprenticed, or something really terrible had happened - maybe it wasn't his ceremony. The tom's green gaze glimmered with anxiety, and dread settled in his stomach with the weight of a badger. No matter how much he hoped, he knew deep down that today was the day.
Each pawstep forward felt like an eternity. He focused on placing one foot in front of the other, but still his heart was racing. A crowd was already gathering, and he didn't know if he could handle standing up in front of all his Clanmates again. He looked around cautiously. There was Silverhawk, sitting by the Jaggedrock already - did he know? He had to. Nightpaw took a deep breath and sat down next to the tom. He didn't want to, but it only felt right. I owe him that, at least, for being such a waste of his time.
Subject: Re: Nightpaw's Warrior Ceremony Sun 2 Jun 2024 - 20:10
Hedgepaw could never fight the mix of anticipation, excitement and dread that rose within her whenever she heard Leopardstar's voice calling out the summons for a meeting. It made her paws tingle as she walked forward to heed them. In the back of her mind, she always hoped it could be a ceremony. Maybe one for her brothers--Fernpaw especially seemed near overdue, and Wolfpaw was hardly far behind him. She knew she probably wasn't ready yet, even though the thought seemed a little sour, but it was easy to swallow. Her brothers would be warriors first, she knew that and she didn't begrudge them at all. Still, the dread remained... if it were none of their ceremonies. If, like Nettleweaver, another of her friends grew up and left her for the warrior's den. If she'd be left behind eventually by her brothers too, too unskilled and kittish to advance or grow up, and would finally have no nests next to her own. Hedgepaw didn't like that thought. She tried to shake it away physically from her head, as if attempting to shake off a stubborn burr or leaf sticking into her fur. Green eyes caught hold of a familiar form. There--Nightpaw. She always felt better when she saw him. A spark of warmth burst inward, dispelling the strange anxious gloom. "Hey, Nightpaw!" Hopefully he wouldn't mind if she approached. The small brown apprentice made her way over to sit by him, grinning broadly. Then her face fell as she noticed the way he trembled, as if running on adrenaline. "You 'kay? What's wrong?"
She found Nightpaw easily, her neutral expression softening slightly to offer an encouraging smile.
"We are gathered here today to witness the naming of a new warrior. Nightpaw, I ask that you please step forward."
Once he had done so, she turned her attention to the crowd.
"I call upon the warriors of ShadowClan to gaze upon this apprentice. He has trained hard to understand the ways of our honorable code, and I commend him to you as a warrior in turn."
She looked into his eyes, searching as she always did for what secrets they held.
"Nightpaw, do you swear to uphold the warrior code? To protect and defend your Clan, even at the cost of your life?"
the gods can judge me when i'm dead||code (c) kieer
The sound of Leopardstar's call had Heatherberry peeking out from the vine curtains of the medicine den. It wasn't often that she stayed long for any ceremonies taking place, her patients needing her constant attention. But she did pop her head in and out to witness the ranking ceremonies from time to time. Tonight, it was Nightpaw's turn under the stars. She worried for him and his nervous disposition; he had shared in confidence with her that he hadn't felt he was ready to be a warrior - that he wasn't cut out to be one. Pity welled deep in her heart that she was unable to calm the anxious storm that seemed to plague him on a day meant for celebration. The message he had relayed back to her from Burdockroot surely hadn't helped his state of mind: "Tell Heatherberry to not let our trauma blind us to the current reality." She had had no answers to what that could possibly even mean, but she did silently find it odd that her mentor would be the one to show up to Nightpaw's moonstone and not a warrior. While not uncommon, it heald more weight with it being Burdockroot specifically. Burdock had not been a cat to simply... Show up for anything less than spilling shaking a wasp nest - which is to say her mentor only bothered to meddle in serious matters.
The only thing she could think of was Nightpaw's name that only seemed to leave a bitter taste in her mouth when she had to say it out loud. Old traumas... Nightstar had been the least of her nightmares as of late.
She sighed as she lingered just long enough for Nightpaw to be called forward, her ears now tweaked backwards as a voice weakly called out for more water somewhere in the dark caverns of her den. Duty called. She would be sure to congratulate him another time. As she turned, however, the stars that had once been twinkling high above the camp, now dwelled within it. Her brow furrowed as if to not appreciate StarClan invading her space in the waking world once again, but she did not turn away from it. Silverpelt danced haphazardly between the gathered cats with an anxious air, picking up pace as though their very existence depended on it. Erratically, they swirled into a concentrated mass until the rest of the crowed was swallowed whole by the maw of night... Leaving one cat all alone in a now starless abyss, their brown tuxedo pelt coated in the only stardust left: Nightpaw. At his paws grew an abundance of different herbs: Chamomile, juniper berries, lavender, and poppy seeds. All herbs that aided in the calming of the mind. How ironic. Just as quickly as the vision had come, it was over, the sounds around her fading back in. The stars had, quite literally, aligned. She understood it, though she was sorry it happened now and not before or after an ongoing ceremony.
"Stop the ceremony!" Quick to act before the apprentice could give his vow as a warrior, Heatherberry rushed forward, pushing through the crowd of cats to meet him face to face. "StarClan has other plans for you, Nightpaw. They have shown me that your path is aligned with the stars." She looked up at her mother who stood on Jaggedrock, her voice confident as she called out to Leopardstar. "I apologize for interrupting, but you know how our insufferable ancestors are." Showing up whenever they felt like it while demanding respect in the same breath.
She blinked an apology to the young tom as she focused her attention on him once more; "You don't have to answer now if you don't want to; but I think you should think on it sincerely. The stars are interested in you, after all."
Heatherberry's interruption was entirely unexpected, but Leopardstar dipped her head in acquiescence to her daughter and advisor. "I trust your word and your judgement, Heatherberry. Though they do often have the worst timing, don't they?" she mused.
Though as a leader, she still had a part to play in this; if a smaller one than she had expected. Perhaps it was a small formality, but she'd grown accustomed to ceremony and tradition, even when she had to change them to suit the situation. "The choice is yours alone to make, Nightpaw. If you wish to follow the call of the stars, you will be formally released from a warrior's oath; free to walk the path of a medicine cat under Heatherberry's guidance."
the gods can judge me when i'm dead||code (c) kieer
Nightpaw looked up, his anxiety easing only slightly as Hedgepaw sat beside him. He always felt lighter around her, a warmth in his chest reminding him that he wasn't a total mess up - that he had at least one friend in this world. "I'm okay," He assured her, worry still flashing in those green eyes. But his voice was warm. "Just a little nervous, that's all." What else was new?
His worst fears were confirmed when Leopardstar finally called his name. All of attempts to convince himself that it was anyone else's ceremony today proved to be entirely futile. He padded forward with all of the eagerness and urgency of an elder. Were his paws weighed down by boulders, or was he only being dramatic? As he came to a stop and met Leopardstar's gaze, trying his best to ignore the gazes of his Clanmates burning into his fur, he realized he couldn't take this vow. Not yet. Maybe not ever. I'm sorry to be such a waste of time. He searched her eyes. Could she see the apology in his gaze? The hesitance? He couldn't seem to muster any words, not even a syllable. He tried opening his mouth, as though hoping he could force a sound, force the sound from his lips, but the clearing was embarrassingly silent as his Clanmates awaited his vow.
Then Heatherberry rushed forward. She probably hadn't needed to be in much of a hurry, his paws as rooted to the ground as they were. But nothing she was saying was making sense. He searched her gaze, now, finding only truth and clarity there. And suddenly everything clicked into place. His Moonstone. Burdockroot. The message she'd had him relay to Heatherberry. Why he'd never felt...right, as a warrior, why he'd never felt that he'd found his path. But heat burned beneath his pelt - shame and embarrassment. He wouldn't be surprised to turn and find the whole Clan laughing at him. Did StarClan think he was so bad as a warrior that they had to stop his warrior ceremony, pluck him up and put him on a different path?
Nightpaw swallowed back his anger. Heatherberry was waiting for some sort of acknowledgement. Some sort of answer. Leopardstar, too. What did he say? What did he do? The stars are interested in you. Why... him? What was so special about him? Was it because he was a useless warrior? But he remembered his talk with Heatherberry, on the way to Mothermouth. She'd been a warrior too, once, and she hadn't properly found her footing until StarClan showed her a different path. His tension eased. Even if it was because he was incompetent, he thought he might like to find himself on a different path much, much more than whatever he was doing now, blindly following tradition.
"Free... to walk the path of a medicine cat? I... I can do that?" He looked between the two mollies, bewildered. They were waiting for an answer. And Heatherberry said she'd give him time to think. Nightpaw took a deep breath as he did his best to process it all. He glanced toward the crowd. Hedgepaw was watching - and so was Silverhawk. What did he do? For once, he found it was about what he wanted to do - not some predestined path he was meant to walk down just because that was how life was. And he wasn't used to that - to having a choice. The silence stretched on. Nightpaw looked back at Heatherberry, meeting her one eye intently. He didn't need time to think. "If that's okay, I - I think I'd like that.I... think I'd like that a lot." He admitted, the weight for once seeming to lift from his shoulders as he imagined the path that might lie before him. The stars chose me?
Subject: Re: Nightpaw's Warrior Ceremony Sat 22 Jun 2024 - 5:13
SILVERHAWK
The darker the weather...
Silverhawk’s eyes never left his apprentice as Nightpaw moved forward through the crowd. Leopardstar called upon the Clan to act as his judge, and Silverhawk leaned forward into his weight, listening eagerly for the following words. The request for a vow… and the silence that followed. Silence, stretching. Silverhawk was sure Nightpaw would speak the words eventually; he had no other choice, really. This was his time. Whether he liked it or not, warriorhood was upon him. He would just have to adapt, for once in his life. Silverhawk knew he could.
But then Heatherberry came crying from the crowd. For the first time, Silverhawk’s eyes left his apprentice. Silverhawk’s pupils dilated to mere slits at her request to stop the ceremony. His teeth pressed together hard. A different path for Nightpaw? Silverhawk did not hide his scoff. But he could not argue. If this was StarClan’s will, so be it. But even if it was StarClan themselves differing his choice for Nightpaw to earn his name, Silverhawk could not help but feel slighted. His tail lashed once. His respect for medicine cats was minimal and, truthfully, reserved only for Heatherberry. Silverhawk couldn’t imagine rejecting warriorhood for it, the way Nightpaw agreed to. Pathetic. He didn’t let the word slip past his teeth.
A few moments after Nightpaw’s hesitant acceptance, Silverhawk got to his paws. He padded over to where his… former apprentice stood at the head of the crowd. His tail tapped Nightpaw’s left hip before he side-stepped and appeared at the smaller tom’s right shoulder. ”Well,” Silverhawk started. His purr was forced. ”Aren’t you special.” Then a new revelation came upon him. Special--what, exactly, made Nightpaw special? What did StarClan see in a sorry whelp like him? Silverhawk’s whiskers twitched and he put on a demure little smile. ”I’ll miss the chance to have you in the warrior’s den. Hopefully Heatherberry doesn’t let you swallow any poison.” He laughed like he’d told a great joke, squinted with feigned warmth, then disappeared to pace about this turn of events.
