Prologue

"Have you ever thought that he might be right?" a bright, ginger tom stood in the center of the clearing, his green eyes focused on several other cats who stood around him. "What if he is right, haven't you thought about that? He has been right since the very beginning, why is it that we can't seem to understand that?"

The others growled quietly towards the bright orange tom, his green eyes holding fast to their conflict of emotions from hatred to fear. A blue-gray she-cat stood near him, her gaze down as if deep within her thoughts. Her tail flicked across the soft grass beneath their paws, trees surrounding them but keeping the bright sun within view. Leaves crackled against the ground, picked up by the slow wind that rustled every bush and every blade of grass.

The tom kept his ground. "What if everything is somewhat right? We are dead, maybe if we stopped interfering, then maybe the clans can become something stronger without us!"

"No!"

Everyone turned their heads to a black she-cat at the edge of the clearing, her green eyes meeting the tom's own. They locked eyes for several long moments, everyone seeming surprised that the black she-cat would stand among them.

"In life, I learned true struggle and what it does to those who choose to stand and fight!" the she-cat growled, padding towards the tom. "Firestar, you fought against Tigerstar time and time again, and you only became stronger because of it! You are a legend to the clans, because you fought against what other cats thought about you and your kittypet past!" The she-cat forced her way past a couple other cats, who hissed at her quietly. She didn't seem to care. "Don't you get it? Every clan becomes stronger when they endure the struggle and fight against it!"

"Hollyleaf…" Firestar thought for a moment before sighing. "Things change-"

"No, they don't!" Hollyleaf hissed. "What happened to the leader who I once knew? The leader who rose above the rest to earn the rank of leader and become one of the best leaders known to the clans?" Hollyleaf turned to every other cat, taking a deep breath. "We must continue to warn the clans of coming events, so they may rise up past these issues and become stronger from it!"

There was a quiet stillness surrounding the clearing, only Hollyleaf's shortness of breath the clear sound in the clearing. The grass swayed, but nothing seemed to change. Another tom walked up, his white fur and jet-black paws contrasting against the bright green grass.

"Hollyleaf, with all due respect, but you haven't exactly earned a right to bring your opinion to Starclan," he meowed darkly. "This place is sacred and you barely made it here after your own transgressions. What makes you think we will take your opinion?"

"Shut it, Blackstar," the blue-gray she-cat rasped, padding forward and between them. Her gaze met his now, her fur fluffed up. "We can't let the clans divide because we are divided, remember what happened last time that happened? I'm sure many of us remember!" There were murmurs from the rest of the Starclan cats, Hollyleaf standing back a bit to let the blue-gray she-cat speak. "We can't divide now, not with him still lurking about and gathering intel on every clan cat possible. We all know that is how he got in the first time, he remained in our heads when he came here and even convinced several of us in Starclan that we were wrong!" The she-cat trembled and lowered her head, lost in memory before thrusting her muzzle into Blackstar's face, who flinched, even though he was a far larger cat than she was. "I fought against those I thought I knew because of the battle between the clans and the Dark Forest! I killed the cats whom I had relations with, because of this stupid war! And now that it has ended, I think the clans deserve a bit of a break, but they will never get one. Every cat in this clearing knows that we can't give up on the hope for peace, maybe one day the clans will understand…"

"Bluestar-"

"I said shut it!" Bluestar growled at Blackstar now, her blue eyes blazing with fury. "You lost a few clanmates, but they ended up here, in Starclan, the ones I knew had once believed in the clans until that fox-dung of a cat came to the clans. You're lucky your clanmates are here now, Blackstar, but I promise you, I lost a lot during that battle and I will not rest and leave the clans to die. Hollyleaf is right," she meowed, turning to Firestar. "I thought I knew you, Firestar. I trained you myself and now look at you, defending this idea that maybe we shouldn't interfere. It is wrong and it was never how Starclan operated, so for my own apprentice to come to me with this idea…"

Bluestar shivered and Hollyleaf watched as Firestar seemed to shrink back, his green eyes no longer filled with the strength they had before. His confidence had disappeared and he stood up, his tail flicking for a moment. "I'm sorry," he replied, his ears flicking. "I just thought maybe we could do something different, because everything Starclan has done seems to affect the world of the living more than we think. Maybe if we stopped, we could see just what our faith has really done to us."

As if on cue, the entire gathering of cats had gone absolutely silent, Bluestar staying still for a moment before trudging off through the lush undergrowth. A few did the exact same, the rest staying.

"Maybe it is time for change…" another cat meowed, a tom with a dark reddish color of fur and his eyes dark as the shadows. "I'm sure Bluestar will come around eventually, the rest of Starclan is starting to see this point. The clans don't seem to be getting any stronger with us around, we warn them and they fight or do whatever they need to fulfil some prophecy." He sighed and sat down, curling his tail around his paws. "Hopefully soon, they will come to see that we have more of a negative impact on the clans than we once thought."

"Maybe…" Firestar mumbled as Hollyleaf remained nearby, undecided…

-AN-

Welcome to Fallingsnow's Choice, a sequel to the story Hollyleaf's Challenge, both of these stories taking place in an alternate reality where Hollyleaf never returned to the clans after her fall through the tunnels! If you want to catch up on this story, it is recommended to read Hollyleaf's Challenge before reading this story. This is it, the long-awaited (no, I literally just finished Hollyleaf's Challenge two or three days before I wrote this) sequel to the first!

Special thanks for Stormikat, who originally let me rewrite Hollyleaf's Challenge (I also recommend reading her original version of the story before reading mine, to keep track of the changes and all that!) and I'm also going to be using the characters she created to continue with this sequel! Many of the characters in this story will be hers, and I may have some cameos from my other stories making an appearance as well (may, not guaranteed!) in this! I also don't know how long this story will be, but I hope you all enjoy it as much as I enjoy writing it!