Title: How the Four Great Clans fell
Author: Sunstorm raining
Pairing: None- Hollyleaf's POV
Spoilers: None- own creation. But ignore Power of Three book 4 and onwards.
Rating: T- to be safe
Type: One-shot, complete
Word count: 1, 768
Summary: The four Clans were once powerful, prosperous and great. They were noble cats will great pride, respect and honour. It took but one word to reduce generations of pure bloodlines and history into nothing but rubble.
Disclaimer: I don't own Warriors..
Authors Note: Well i hope you all enjoy this. I wrote before I finished reading the POT series. I always thought it would end like this.. guess not. Although once I read the book I changed my mind on this opinion. Anyways, despite the uncanonness of this, I hope you find it somewhat realistic.
How the Four Great Clans Fell
The four Clans were once powerful, prosperous and great. They were noble cats will great pride, respect and honour. It took but one word to reduce generations of pure bloodlines and history into nothing but rubble.
Greed...
It brought the Clans to their knees, forcing from their paws the very Warrior Code they all lived by. StarClan couldn't save them now. For even Tigerstar was never able to reduce and scatter the Clans into nothing more than rouges, with a scarred and humiliating past. Boundaries blurred, and pride and honour all but disappeared. Just like the many lineages and families that were wiped out, the Code vanished into the blackness of the past and unwanted memories.
A great leader by the name of Firestar of ThunderClan tried desperately to hold the four Clans together until the bitter end. So much pain, suffering and destruction were spawned by the simple word that many held deep within their hearts. It wasn't until one cat took a chance that should never have been taken, that the Clans were cast into absolute chaos. It destroyed much more than just the Clans. It hurt Firestar so much more, watching the one he thought was family destroy all that he had tried to achieve.
I'll start from the very beginning. I'll start from what happened before the actions of a traitorous cat changed our fate forever. I was just an apprentice at the time. I had just received my name, Hollypaw. My brother, Lionpaw, was training to become a warrior like me. Our youngest sibling, Jawpaw, was forced into training under our medicine cat because of his blindness. I had always seen the bitterness and hate grow within him whenever he was near us. It hurt me to see that he just couldn't let go and accept who he was.
It started then. I realise now that it was that exact moment that spurred the events of the moons that were to come. Never would I have realised that pain can cause the worst type of hatred. The type that consumes one from the inside out. I always thought my brother had accepted his position, not happy about it...no, but just accepting of his circumstances.
At that time, despite Jaypaw's inner battle, there was peace. No fights broke out between rival patrols, no arguments between leaders and most importantly, no blood was spilt over needless causes. Of course, as we all soon found out, the close future held enough bloodshed and death to last more than one lifetime.
When both Lionpaw and myself were made warriors without our remaining sibling, it never did sit well with me. We always did things together no matter what. Lionpaw was made Lionclaw and I was named Hollyleaf.
The bitterness and hatred continued to grow with in my brother until it consumed his heart. He finally snapped that day we gained our warrior names without him. I guess he was just finally sick of being left behind. He betrayed the clan and gathered cats from each of the four Clans secretly, a feat that Tigerstar hadn't managed to complete. He formed a group of those who wanted more than they could have, and deserved. They were all there for different reasons; they believed anyway. They turned against the Warrior Code to gain respect, or power, for honour perhaps? But in the end, all things led to greed.
Not long after Jaypaw himself gained his medicine cat name, Jayfeather, that this new group burst forth from the shadows and massacred the entirety of RiverClan. It has always been said that there must be four Clans and so our world crumbled under the horrific fall of the First Clan. The blood of elders, warriors and kits alike were on the paws of my brother. A war soon started between his steadily growing group and the final three Clans. We always had hope, how could those who had abandoned the Warrior Code and their Clans possibly overthrow those who remained loyal?
We, again, had been wrong. If one Clan falls, the others are destined to follow. Jayfeather knew this and within two moons of the war beginning, half of WindClan, ShadowClan and ThunderClan had fallen to the bloody dream that Jayfeather had created.
It wasn't until few from each Clan survived that I came face to face with my brother. Firestar, Lionclaw, Greystripe, Brambleclaw, Cinderfur, Poppytail, Whitewing, Brackenfur, Ferncloud, Cloudtail and myself were the only survivors of ThunderClan. ShadowClan and WindClan had suffered much worse than my own Clan as many more of their own warriors had gone rouge. Five, maybe six from each Clan survived. We gathered our diminished forces and took to our last resort, an all on head attack. That was it. Win or lose, survive or die; to me it was a lose-lose situation. We had already lost so many.
You see, Jayfeather was smart when it came to planning his group's attacks. It wasn't just frontal attacks. They would swipe at hunting and border patrols, leaving those left to even be too scared to wonder out of the camp. He used bribery and blackmail to make others follow his lead. Despite myself, I couldn't help thinking on numerous occasions how much my bloodthirsty brother had grown.
The day of the planned attack on my brother, it was sunny. It was a perfect day, it almost felt like all this had never happened. A light breeze skimmed over the grass and across the lake as we remaining cats went to meet the enemy. They had taken over the WindClan camp. Seeing my brother upon the hill, a perfect backdrop of blue framing his lithe body against the far off mountains, my instincts overcame me and I charged ahead. All I wanted to do was kill him for the suffering that he had brought upon us all. He had singlehandedly broken the peace many had worked on for generations.
Despite his position of power, he was still blind. I slowly gained the upper hand as many of both his and our cats fell. It was also then did the legendary Firestar finally fall for the last time, as did the remainder of my family. Finally with so many bloody and broken around me, I managed to take down the last remaining enemy; Jayfeather. Before I killed him I asked him why he had hurt us, hurt me, so badly. His answer didn't shock me. I hung my head low in disappointment and shame as he told me all he was getting was revenge, whilst others wanted power and respect, my little brother wanted revenge and the blood of those who doubted him on his paws. He wasn't my brother anymore; he had rightly fulfilled the stereotype of Tigerstar's descendant that we had been trying to escape since our birth. He truly was a monster.
I killed him swiftly and walked away from the last of my family. I turned upon the bloody scene. I quickly walked through the bodies and killed any remaining traitors. At last the great battle had come to an end, but Jayfeather had still achieved his dream... to watch the four Clans fall.
There was nothing left. Only a handful from each three surviving Clan had survived and that long, cold night we sat vigil for our fallen. For our friends and family, and our Clans. I once believed that even in the darkest of places, a light would still shine. I was wrong. I had no choice but to turn my back on my Clan, my home and my ancestors.
StarClan had said that there will be three with the power of the stars in their paws. Never would they have realised that one of those prophesied would turn and use such power to destroy the very fabric of their existence. Using that power to reduce the clans into dust that was swept away on the winds of time.
I once thought that I was destined to change the future, but what future do we remaining have now? My mother had told me that if you were strong enough, you could survive anything. Again I was lied to and betrayed. By my mother, my brothers and by the very ones who were supposed to keep us safe.
It has been some moons since then. I am alone now, I lost everything. Most that were left couldn't stand to be constantly reminded of the past, so they left. They travelled far away from here, to places unknown. I just hope they are all safe. I, however, stayed by the lake. I wonder the territories, remembering what the Clans used to be like, and how they came to fall.
I'm telling you this story so that it may never be forgotten. We may all die and pass on but our history shall never fade. Others need to heed out warnings and learn from our mistakes, the ones that claimed many lives. Those who left this place for a better life told me time and time again that the past should remain in the past. I can't accept that, how can we ever learn to continue forward is we bury those memories, despite the pain?
If this was to happen again, to other Clans that might one day inhabit our territories, I fear that it won't just be them that will be scattered and thrown into the fires of chaos. My one and only wish is that I hadn't been one to watch the Four Great Clans fall.
So there you are. R&R
-Sunstorm raining