A/N: I. Am. So. Sorry. I wanted to start this fic with a big stereotype and end it with a big one, so I was planning to end it with ThunderClan, so I was obviously going to do RiverClan next. The trouble is, RiverClan has barely no stereotypes. I was suggested that how they're almost always involved in the forbidden love that could be their stereotype, but I dismissed it because I didn't think it was good enough. But as weeks passed and I couldn't think of anything better, I decided that that one had to suffice. So I now finally present to you the third chapter of Misconceptions.
Disclaimer: Nopely nopely nope. In other words, don't own it, never did, never will.
RiverClan
I was never too aware of the problem until my first Gathering. No one had seen fit to warn me, so when I caught sight of an apprentice about my age with the scent of WindClan coming off of him, I headed straight toward the light brown tabby, eager to make my first friend from a different Clan.
"Hi!" I had exclaimed, tail waving about in the air and eyes sparkling. "I'm Wingpaw! Who're you?"
The WindClanner, however, didn't look as enthusiastic to see me as I was to see him. "Get away from me, breaker," he hissed, eyes narrowing. "I know you're a RiverClanner, and I know your tricks. You're not going to seduce me into yet another of your forbidden loves." With that, he whipped around and began to walk away.
"Wait!" I yowled, running to catch up with him. "What in StarClan are you talking about? Breaker? Seduce? Forbidden love? Huh?"
He stopped and turned around again, rolling his amber eyes. "Don't play stupid with me, RiverClanner," he snarled. "I like my status as a warrior code obeyer and don't want to abandon it."
"Please!" I begged. "I have no idea what you're talking about – I swear by StarClan! I didn't even know forbidden loves still happened anymore – I thought they only happened back when Firestar was alive and before."
The tom's eyes widened for a second, but he quickly replaced it with his cool demeanor. "Fool," he spat. "Have you been living under a rock for your whole life? Have you ever seen what's been going on around you? Does RiverClan shelter you from their shameful ways then tell you about it when they think you're good enough at seduction? Forbidden love is commonplace, mousebrain! And almost all of it is from your filthy RiverClan ilk!"
Slowly, I began to put the pieces together, scenes I'd witnessed as a kit but which I had never thought more of. Why was it I'd almost never seen a father to visit the kits in the nursery, or that sometimes toms or she-cats would disappear from our Clan? I didn't even remember a father coming to visit me when I was a kit – nor had my mother ever told me or the rest of my litter about such a cat. I remembered how I'd watch eagerly for the band of RiverClanners who went to the Gathering to come back – but reflecting upon those memories, I realized the apprentices for whom it was their first Gathering would never come back happy, always in some sort of sad or disappointed mood.
The tabby was of the observant type, and he noticed my expression of surprised realization.
"Now you understand," he said, voice containing just a hint of threat. "Now get away from me and stick to your RiverClan breaker friends."
"But we're not all like that!" I had mewed. "Some of us find our mates within our Clan. Besides, if we're always having forbidden loves – it would be with another Clan, so wouldn't it sometimes be with yours? Cats in your Clan are 'breakers', too!"
"But far from as many as your faithless Clan," he replied. "And they mate with rogues and loners, sometimes even kittypets, too." He shuddered at the thought.
"Do you have any evidence that it's our Clan that does it the most? They probably have forbidden loves with Clan cats than rogues, so the Clans are just as much breakers as we are – why is RiverClan only hated for it?"
The WindClanner inhaled, then let out a deep breath. "Okay," he began. "Forbidden loves did happen once in a while before Firestar's time, but when he came, they began getting more frequent. The two most recent before he came to the Clans was Bluestar of ThunderClan and Oakheart of RiverClan's, and Yellowfang of ShadowClan and Raggedstar of ShadowClan's. Yellowfang was a medicine cat," he added as he saw my quizzical expression from the last pair mentioned.
"Just a few during Firestar's life include: Graystripe of ThunderClan and Silverstream of RiverClan…" I flinched as put an inflection on the last word, "…Leafpool of ThunderClan and Crowfeather of WindClan..."
I couldn't help interrupting with, "That was a WindClanner, not a RiverClanner." He glared at me and continued.
"Crowfeather of WindClan and Feathertail of RiverClan…" The apprentice continued listing a few more pairs then stopped, a smug smirk on his face – as he had said, the majority of the cats were RiverClanners. And…
"But there were just as many ThunderClanners mentioned as RiverClanners!" I cried indignantly. "What about them?"
"They stopped. You didn't."
I started to think about that, but as I did, the WindClan apprentice hissed in my ear, "The Gathering's about to start and I'm not sticking with you. You may not have known about your Clan's breaker ways, but now I told you and you're probably filth like the rest of them now." He raced away; sighing, I made no move to stop him.
I found out later that day that according to most cats' predictions, I was going to have a forbidden love with the WindClan tom I had talked to during that Gathering – and the predictions were made by RiverClanners to! Since I was new to this breaker stuff I'd been informed of, I was shocked by how chaste my Clan was about it – it seemed like a normal experience in the day to them. But, of course, it would if about half of our Clan, I later found out, was involved in one.
That day, I made a solemn promise to myself: erase my Clan's reputation as filthy breakers. But as I thought more and more about my Clan's – StarClan, every Clan's – approach to the forbidden love, it widened out, unspoken, into something more: erase forbidden love. But that wouldn't wipe out the Clans' feelings about it. So once again, it evolved into something more: better enforce the warrior code.
Now how was I going to do that?
I quickly mastered my hunting and fighting skills and became a stern and respected warrior, a far cry from the naïve and innocent apprentice I had been on my first gathering. I also proved nearly every Clan cat wrong by not having a forbidden love with the WindClanner, whose name I later found out was Eaglepaw, then Eagleclaw despite holding conversations with him at Gatherings we both happened to be at. However, I did endure many rumors, snide comments about how I was keeping it secret and that I was a just a clever RiverClanner - but dirty breaker filth no less.
After two apprentices and many moons, I moved from senior warrior up to the position of deputy. Having been made deputy when my leader was old and doddering with two more lives, not many moons passed before I ascended to leader and shed my old name of Wingshadow to become Wingstar. By this time the muttered rumors had stopped, especially when I never gave birth to any kits - most understood by that time I had never mated and probably never would.
Finally, after many moons of planning and thinking, I began to enforce the warrior code, especially on the matter of forbidden love. Cats were allowed to speak to other Clan cats at Gatherings only minimally, so there was no chance to get close. Each cat was assigned a cat to watch, so they could tell me if it looked like a forbidden love was starting. I couldn't help but feel a small pang in my stomach at the fact that Eagleclaw had been right when I noticed there weren't as many forbidden loves anymore now that my strict rules had been brought into play.
But as soon as the forbidden love was dealt with, I noticed how little the RiverClanners – which also meant probably all the other Clans – followed the warrior code. I had been focusing on forbidden love too much, leaving little time for anything else. So even stricter rules were enforced, and over time paranoia grew inside me – the other leaders weren't doing the same to their Clans, so they were probably acting little better than rogues! The Clans were dying. Everything needed to change. And change it did…
I never like to think about the last part, though I was still right. But it only serves as a cruel reminder that right now I have an undeserved spot in The Place of No Stars, just because StarClan thought it would be better for the Clans to degenerate into rogues with fancy names than for me to have a strict regime which would make everything back the way it used to be so long ago. And looking down sometimes, I see that though the forbidden love is once again everywhere, the old stereotype of RiverClan being filthy breakers that do it the most is there once again.
I guess some misconceptions never die.
A/N: Oh my god. I feel terrible for imposing such a bad chapter on you like this – it doesn't even really fit in with the Misconceptions quartet at all. But if I tried to rewrite it, something like this would come out again, so I guess I'll have to stick with it. Not to mention not being able to use whore in this as an insult to the RiverClanners since the Clan cats don't know the word was really annoying…
Constructive criticism really appreciated this time.
