A/N: So hi all, this is a collection of one-shots, some of them will be based on prompts from a really cool blog called Ailuronymy, and this is the first of a series of pieces of writing, so, uh, enjoy, and please review!
Also I'm going to try to not have so many author notes so if I have a lot feel free to be like "solaris stahp" and I'll be like "yeah okay" and we can have tea or something idk im just going to let you all read now byebye
edit: yayy I edited it, btw, for anyone who read it before the edit, Daisyfoot is now Daisyclaw, don't be alarmed. :3
Tornstar was dead, to begin with.
That was only the start of a long chain of tragedy.
Soon after Tornstar's death, his deputy and his deputy's two deputies joined him. The nearly earless leader had suffered a slow, painful death by greencough, and his Clanmates had spent an entire snowbound night by his side in mourning.
When a cold dawn fell over the camp, the elders had left camp to bury his body.
The next two days followed a similar pattern.
But all of this was hardly the least of the big problem: who would succeed Tornstar as leader.
Neither his deputy nor his deputy's deputies had been given enough time to chose a replacement, but the entire Clan knew there were only two appropriate candidates: Daisyclaw, a young cream-colored she-cat, and Mudnose, an older brown tom.
On the third day after Tornstar's death, the clearing of ThunderClan's camp was full to the brim with the Clan's cats. An empty space in its center allowed Daisyclaw and Mudnose to emerge from the pack, staring each other down.
The crowd shuffled as the two took a step closer to each other, unsheathing their claws.
"I'm ready to fight for leadership."
Mudnose's low statement broke the silence in the cold camp. Daisyclaw smirked.
"So am I."
They advanced again and began walking in a circle, never taking their eyes off each other. Mudnose flexed his claws, amber eyes bright with the promise of battle. Daisyclaw, tail waving from side to side, narrowed her emerald ones, which shone with hostility.
Pinefur, the medicine cat, watched desperately from the edge of the clearing, his young apprentice Graypaw beside him. Looking up at his mentor, Graypaw murmured, "Surely they won't fight?"
"With every heartbeat that passes, I'm getting more and more certain they will," the medicine cat whispered. Graypaw's eyes widened as Daisyclaw, fur bristling, yowled and leaped into the air.
Mudnose moved to the side, but Daisyclaw twisted in midair, landing on the tom's back. Digging her claws in, she held on furiously as the crowd shuffled around her, making room for the fighting cats.
Should I try to stop them? Graypaw wondered, feeling his legs tremble beneath him.
Mudnose yowled and flattened himself to the ground, playing dead. His ploy failed to fool Daisyclaw, who turned quickly to try to lower her head and bite his shoulder. She fell off of the burly tom's back and rolled away almost immediately, kicking up dust. Taking advantage of his opponent's situation, Mudnose hopped to his paws and pounced on Daisyclaw, rolling across the open space, scratching and biting at her.
Graypaw, growing more desperate by the minute, leaped onto the battlefield and yowled, "STOP!"
Daisyclaw and Mudnose halted, claws digging into each other's fur as the tabby apprentice shot them a desperate look.
"You're fighting for nothing. If you keep up, you're going to kill each other, and where will we be then? It will be impossible to pick a new deputy, with all the able warriors we have." He briefly cast his gaze through the crowd, staring boldly at the shuffling cats. "Please, stop."
Daisyclaw and Mudnose hesitated before looking at each other, the same question burning in their eyes.
Daisyclaw nodded, and the brown-furred warrior separated himself from her, standing shakily on his paws while blood leaked profusely from a wound on his neck. The cream-colored she-cat stood by his side, weakly supporting him.
Pinefur gasped sharply and sprinted over to Mudnose. Daisyclaw, panting, collapsed onto the ground, allowing the medicine cat and his apprentice to gently, slowly nudge Mudnose into their den. When they arrived, Mudnose's wound was still bleeding, though less than before, and his breathing was growing fainter. Graypaw glanced at his mentor.
"Will he live?"
Pinefur hesitated for what felt like eternity to Graypaw before shaking his head. "No. The wound was too deep."
Graypaw let in a sharp intake of breath as Pinefur turned away from the dying warrior, calling over Daisyclaw.
The she-cat soon appeared, and Graypaw saw she knew what had happened from the look Pinefur gave her. Slowly padding towards Mudnose, she settled down beside him.
"Mudnose?"
The warrior's eyes opened slightly. "Daisyclaw?"
"I'm…I'm sorry about this. I would have made you my deputy, you know."
Mudnose shook his head slowly. "No. It's…it's alright. I know you'll make a…great leader." The tom coughed up blood on the last word. His voice was wheezy and old, older than it should have sounded.
Daisyclaw hung her head as Mudnose took his shuddering last breath and lay still.
A few heartbeats later, the she-cat let out a choked sob and raised her head. "I guess I sh-should go to the Moonstone s-soon?"
Pinefur, who was staring determinedly at the wall of the den, nodded. "We'll get going, but let me talk to Graypaw first."
Daisyclaw nodded as Pinefur looked to his apprentice, who stood as the blue-gray medicine cat padded towards him.
"Graypaw," he murmured, "next time we go to the half-moon meeting, I think I'll give you your full medicine cat name. You did well."
The apprentice gasped, eyes shining as he looked to his now-smiling mentor, who grinned back as he approached Daisyclaw. "It's time to go."
Daisyclaw nodded, raising her head. "I'm ready."
Curling up in his nest, Graypaw smiled to himself as he settled into the moss. She'll make a great leader. Daisystar and her medicine cats, Pinefur and…well, whatever name Pinefur will give me.
Maybe I'll ask for Grayleaf. Yes, I think Grayleaf will work.
Yawning, Graypaw soon drifted into a deep, comfortable sleep.