"Starlingpaw," Honeypool meowed from beside her. The two she-cats were walking at the back of the line, the others padding ahead of them. Starlingpaw slowed her pace, somewhat gratefully as her legs were starting to hurt, to speak to the medicine cat.
"What is it?" Starlingpaw replied, curious about what the ginger she-cat could want to tell her.
"About Birchpaw…" Honeypool began, lowering her tone so that the cat in question couldn't hear them. "I want to make sure you know everything about his condition so you can give him the help he needs."
Starlingpaw nodded and waited for her to speak. The medicine cat took a few moments to gather her words before she started.
"Birchpaw has anxiety, as you probably know. It causes him to have panic attacks from time to time. You saw one of them at the river the other day. Sometimes they're random, but more often they trigger due to certain… stimulus, I suppose," Honeypool took a breath between sentences and sighed. "This is a lot of information, I know. But the most important thing to know is what can cause these attacks. Unfortunately for Birchpaw, his main trigger is battle. I think I've explained to you before how the attacks feel to him, but it's basically a reliving of traumatic events, or at least, the fear from them. We are heading to a battle training session, so you're going to have to keep a careful watch on him."
Though she felt dizzy with all of the information that was suddenly thrown at her, Starlingpaw mewed, "I understand," A moment later, a question popped into her mind. "But what do I do when he's having an attack?"
Honeypool smiled. "That's a good question. It's difficult to know what exactly helps him, but whatever you did last time seemed to work."
Starlingpaw recalled the day at the river, but the answer didn't make much sense to her. "All I did was sit beside him. Then you came in and gave him thyme leaves. I don't think he needs me to just give him herbs."
The older cat shook her head knowingly. "No, you did much more than that. He usually never calms down that quickly after I give him herbs. Anyway, I want to see what happens if we stay away from thyme leaves. After all, herbs can lose their effectiveness on cats if they're used too much, and I don't want that to happen with Birchpaw."
"So… what is it that you want me to do, then?"
"Just be at his side to calm him and ground him, and if it doesn't work, I'll do what I can to help. Okay?"
Starlingpaw felt an uneasy twist in her stomach, but she nodded in agreement. One more doubt stuck at the back of her mind and she worked for a moment to place it before speaking. "Honeypool… shouldn't Birchpaw be learning to handle this on his own? I can't always be there for him."
Honeypool looked at her with an unreadable expression. "Sure you can, Starlingpaw. He can't handle this himself. No cat could."
Confused at her words, Starlingpaw pretended to understand what she meant and ran ahead to catch up with the others, her wide stance making it difficult to do. At least she didn't fall over.
The whole time she was running, her mind was occupied with Honeypool's words. Sure you can, Starlingpaw. What in StarClan's name did that mean? Sure, she did spend a lot of time with Birchpaw, but there was bound to be a point when they were separated from each other. What would he do then? Though she didn't want to question the medicine cat's judgment, she didn't entirely agree with it.
When she reached the training hollow, her legs were already in pain from the rushed hobbling she had to do to get there. Birchpaw turned to face her, his face full of relief, and briefly nuzzled the side of her face.
"Thank StarClan," he meowed, his tail twitching happily. "I couldn't stand being alone with Thornflame for another moment!" She didn't point out that there were multiple other cats in the clearing besides Thornflame.
Starlingpaw smiled and felt some of her uncertainty fall away, but she was still worried about the training session ahead of them.
"Now that every cat is finally here," Thornflame announced with a cold glare at his daughter and the ginger medicine cat pushing through the bushes behind her. "We can begin the training session. Larkpaw, as you have the least problems, you'll likely be training the whole time today."
Larkpaw nodded solemnly, his eyes flat and dull. He didn't seem slow in movement, luckily, and Starlingpaw saw his ears swivel at a faraway bird call, but his mind was still probably occupied with thoughts of Tawnystripe. At least he looked ready to train.
"All right, then we can start off with you and Starlingpaw," Thornflame ordered with a flick of his tail toward Larkpaw.
Her brother padded forward to stand in front of her, his stance strong. She stood crouched, her body low to the ground to keep balance and dug her claws into the ground for extra purchase. They stood across from each other for a while, each cat trying to figure out the best way to attack, until Starlingpaw launched herself off of the ground at him, outstretching her paws to wrap around his neck. She fell a little short, but her claws caught onto his fur and she managed to scramble forward with her back legs and started kicking at his forelegs with sheathed claws. Larkpaw refused to be knocked over and instead started to fall to the side that she hung on to. She barely escaped being crushed under him by jumping off at the last moment, stumbling slightly and taking a moment to right herself. They were back to their first position, circling each other and searching for openings.
"Starlingpaw, come here," Honeypool meowed. Starlingpaw obeyed, ducking away from Larkpaw to hear what the medicine cat had to tell her. "Try to attack from the back, okay? And keep your back legs on the ground as much as you can. It'll help your balance."
She nodded and turned back to her brother, trying to factor in Honeypool's advice. She wasn't sure how to get behind Larkpaw without him moving first, since she probably couldn't outrun him and do it that way. Though jumping onto his back would be difficult and she'd likely fall off, she could probably get a good few scratches in before having to roll off again. An idea sparked in her mind.
Her sable fur flashed in the morning sun as she ran up to Larkpaw and aimed a blow at his legs. He was faster and took a leap towards where she was standing with paws outstretched, exactly what she had wanted him to do. She dodged swiftly and scrambled behind him, leaping immediately, leaving no time to spare, and landed squarely on his back, though her leap was awkward enough that one of her back legs was left hanging by his flank. She panicked, and as Larkpaw began to react, she used her back claws to clumsily climb up his back and right herself. She released a quick breath and held onto his pelt tightly with unsheathed claws.
Starlingpaw tore at his fur, thought lightly to not badly harm her brother, and Larkpaw reared up to fall back and crush her again. She waited until he began to tip backward to leap off of him and watched the cream tomcat fall onto his back. Taking her opportunity, Starlingpaw leaped at her brother and pinned him down with her legs, then lowered his fangs to his throat and delivered a fake killing bite, leaving her jaws totally open and putting no pressure on his neck.
The she-cat apprentice released Larkpaw and fell onto her side, panting with the effort of the fight, and heard meows of praise from the sidelines of the clearing.
Larkpaw came over and sat beside her. He meowed quietly, but his voice was bright. "Good fight, Starlingpaw! You totally caught me off guard there."
Starlingpaw could barely reply over her deep intakes of breath. "Yeah, but it nearly killed me," she joked. "It's honestly a miracle I didn't trip when I made those sharp turns. Probably-" she paused and coughed violently, her lungs still reeling from the intense exercise. "Probably not a good tactic to continue forward with."
Larkpaw shrugged. "Hey, who said that battle was easy? If you can do what you did now again, no matter how hard it was, then it works."
Starlingpaw cast a smile at him, finally recovering her breath, and walked to the grass on the side of the earthy clearing to rest beside Honeypool, who gave her similar praise.
"Good work," the medicine cat said, purring softly. "Though it may have been a bit too risky. You could have easily fallen on any of those turns."
"What should I do instead, then?" Starlingpaw asked, perplexed. Hadn't she done what Honeypool wanted her to?
"In a situation where you have a disadvantage, such as you and your balance issues, it's always best to take a defensive approach. Let your attacker move first and react to what they do. Since they'll be faster than you, it's unlikely that you'd be able to outspeed them as you did with Larkpaw. Instead of attacking, figure out ways to use their own power against them."
Starlingpaw listened intently, but her head was already so full of training knowledge that she barely understood what Honeypool was saying. It struck her that Larkpaw had said an eerily similar thing before she had discovered her disease and lost half of her tail.
She didn't have to think about battle right then, though, because Birchpaw had walked forward, his fur fluffed up to make him appear even larger than he was. Larkpaw stared him down, unintimidated, and the cats began to circle each other, Birchpaw's eyes flitting wildly across the clearing, looking over Larkpaw and the various roots sticking out from the ground. Larkpaw seemed to be waiting for him to make the first move.
Neither cat moved for a long while. Birchpaw wasn't going to move first, and Starlingpaw thought she knew why. He probably wasn't jumping at the opportunity to encounter a trigger; though she realized that being attacked would probably negatively affect him more. Wasn't that how his encounter with the fox had been? Maybe it didn't quite work that way, she thought.
Eventually, Larkpaw grew tired of waiting and jumped forward with a snarl, landing just barely on Birchpaw's back, as the black-and-white tomcat had tried to dodge out of the way. Starlingpaw was relieved that Larkpaw hadn't landed anywhere near Birchpaw's scruff. The cream tomcat raked his claws across every part of Birchpaw that he could reach, though like his sister he did it gently so as to not hurt his opponent badly.
Birchpaw reared up on his hind legs and as Larkpaw leaped off of him, he twisted his body to land facing his challenger.
Larkpaw gave him no time to rest, immediately taking a running start toward Birchpaw, who steeled himself for an impact. Instead of colliding with him, Larkpaw slid between the larger cat's wide legs and exploded upwards, knocking Birchpaw into the air. Larkpaw spun around and jumped onto Birchpaw as he landed.
The two cats tussled on the ground, kicking with strong hind legs and tearing out small clumps of fur. Starlingpaw smiled in pride for both of them, training with all of their might and doing well with it. She was especially proud of Birchpaw; she was worried that his anxiety would make him too afraid to fight, terrified of bringing on an attack, but he seemed to be facing it without fear.
Larkpaw finally seemed to gain the upper paw, clamping his jaws down on Birchpaw's foreleg, and though the patched tom tried to fight back and wrestle his leg away from Larkpaw, he couldn't seem to.
Something in the air snapped, and suddenly Starlingpaw noticed that Birchpaw was barely moving, his head lying limp on the ground and his paws shaking. Larkpaw seemed to notice it too and released his grip on Birchpaw's foreleg.
Starlingpaw rushed forward from the sidelines where she sat and reached Birchpaw in mere heartbeats, though even those felt too long.
Larkpaw had pulled away completely, his chest heaving with long intakes of breath, trying to recover from his exertion, but Starlingpaw didn't pay attention to him. She stood over Birchpaw, his paws twitching violently and his chest rising and falling much too rapidly.
Casting a quick glance at Honeypool, who was speaking quietly with the other mentors, Starlingpaw laid down beside Birchpaw and pressed her snout into his fur, breathing in his overwhelming fear-scent. He was definitely having an attack.
She set to grooming his fur, hoping that he would feel her tongue rasping across his pelt and snap out of his terror. After a moment that felt longer than a moon, Birchpaw jerked his head up off of the ground. He had responded to her touch, but he still seemed to be in his past- his pupils were wide with horror and his body shook even more than it had. He got to his paws, though he stayed low to the ground, so Starlingpaw moved to crouch beside him and pressed her muzzle against his, trying to wake him.
"Birchpaw," she mewed, throwing as much warmth into her voice as possible even though her paws shook with fear. "It's Starlingpaw. It's just me. There's no fox, no danger."
He didn't seem to hear her, or at least, understand her words, though his muscles calmed slightly and his pupils contracted.
Filled with a small rush of relief, Starlingpaw buried her muzzle in the long fur on his chest, his head sitting above her neck.
"Come on, Birchpaw," she whispered into his fur, unsure if he'd even be able to hear her. "I don't want you to hurt like this. If you just- if you can wake up then you don't have to," She felt his trembles calm even more and kept talking, her voice filled with desperation. "Birchpaw, you can do this, okay? I'm here. I'm here," Tears pricked at her eyes, but she spoke through them. Picturing the pain that Birchpaw was in filled her with more than motivation. "Birchpaw, I- I… you've got to…" Her voice trailed off, and she worried that she had failed, that he was still stuck in his mind, his blood made of terror and his muscles frozen with it.
Suddenly her mind cleared as she felt his muzzle press against the top of her head, and she couldn't muffle a small cry of joy. Starlingpaw brought her head back and looked into Birchpaw's eyes, their cold green color dull with pain but at the very least conscious, and she curled her neck around his to offer comfort.
Birchpaw accepted her comfort with hesitation, his movement gentle and tentative as if he feared for the attack to return at any moment. Starlingpaw saw Larkpaw staring at them both with confusion and a touch of horror, and she wondered if he had an idea about what was going on. It didn't matter to her, though, because Birchpaw had recovered.
"Thanks," Birchpaw whispered hoarsely.
Starlingpaw turned her head to meow into his ear. "I promised, didn't I?"
He nodded and sat down, his legs shaking as if all of his energy had been sapped from him in an instant, and Starlingpaw sat by his side, pressing her pelt against his as if he needed it to stay grounded in reality.
The clearing was totally silent. Thornflame didn't show any signs that he was upset, and Starlingpaw figured that he had seen Birchpaw's attacks before, being his mentor. Both Darkfeather and Russetstorm seemed stunned. Honeypool sat with a pleased expression on her face, probably proud that Starlingpaw had been able to help Birchpaw.
She only looked at the others for a short moment before turning to face Birchpaw, suddenly purring uncontrollably. She was hit with an overwhelming wave of happiness that he was safe and calm.
"What was it like?" Starlingpaw mewed quietly, her voice smaller than she thought it would be.
"Weird, honestly," he started with a dry laugh. "It was like I was caught between now and the past, and while I could sort of sense what was here, I wasn't really. Here, I mean. I could only see and feel the past, again and again, and well, you know how bad that was."
Starlingpaw said nothing, only purred and pressed her muzzle into his pelt.
They sat like that for a few long moments, none of the mentors wanting to interrupt them, and then Starlingpaw spoke. "I wish you didn't have them."
"What, the attacks?"
"Yeah," she responded, her voice suddenly weak. "It must be horrible for you. I mean, not like you didn't know that already, but I just never want to think about you being in that much pain. Emotionally, I mean. Well, both, but-"
"I get it," Birchpaw cut her off, laughing at her rambling speech. "But there's nothing I can really do about it. I mean, Honeypool says it gets better over time, but…"
"I'll help, just like I did now!" Starlingpaw meowed, not wanting for him to say I don't think it'll get better.
"Of course you will. And thanks again."
Starlingpaw purred and moved her injured tail over his as well as she could before meowing, "If it hadn't happened, though, everything would have been fine."
"If what hadn't happened?"
"The fox," she said simply.
"Well…" Birchpaw started, and Starlingpaw was shocked that he didn't seem to agree. "I just… Even though the fox was a horrible, horrible thing, and it affects me to this day, I don't think I'd be who I am without it. And without who I am, I don't think I'd be this close to you."
Starlingpaw's heart swelled so much she thought it might burst. At that moment all that mattered was Birchpaw, and to hear him say that he was happy, that he didn't regret meeting her despite the cost, made her overjoyed. Life was perfect, if just for that instant.
Then Honeypool spoke and broke the moment. "Ready to try again, Birchpaw?"
Starlingpaw whirled around, her fur standing on end. "What do you mean? He can't be ready to fight after what just happened!" Birchpaw seemed to agree, his fur bristling in either fear at the anticipation of a fight or anger at Honeypool.
"No, I think I've got an idea that'll help with that," Honeypool announced triumphantly. "Why don't you two fight together? Not only is it an effective battle tactic, but being with another cat during battle might help him. It could stop the trigger from, well, triggering his attacks. The only way to find out is practice!"
Starlingpaw heard Birchpaw sigh from beside her. "Okay, sure," his voice was tired, but he seemed to agree with the medicine cat. Starlingpaw did too, but she thought that Birchpaw at least deserved a break before he was launched back into battle.
"Well then, why don't you teach us some partner fighting moves first? We can watch you demonstrate and Birchpaw can rest," Starlingpaw proposed, to the great relief of Birchpaw, whose previously tense muscles relaxed.
Honeypool smiled. "Sure! I can fight with, say, Russetstorm, and Darkfeather and Thornflame can fight against us."
Darkfeather looked confused and opened her mouth to say something, but then thought better of herself and closed it. Starlingpaw guessed that she wanted to fight with Russetstorm, but requesting to do so seemed like something a younger, less mature cat would do.
As Honeypool and Russetstorm prepared to fight, standing back-to-back in the middle of the clearing once the three apprentices moved to the sidelines, Starlingpaw realized how similar they looked. Both cats had bright ginger fur, though Russetstorm's was darker, and they had the same battle stance, their legs shoulder length apart and barely bent and their tails barely tucked between them. She wondered if Honeypool was perhaps his aunt or some other distant kin since she was rather sure that the medicine cat had never had kits.
Darkfeather moved to circle around the two ginger cats, her long black pelt shimmering in the morning sun, and Thornflame apparently decided to stand his ground, only pacing back and forth, his unsheathed claws tearing at the earth beneath him. Honeypool whispered something quickly into Russetstorm's ear. The tom nodded and they both quickly lashed out with unsheathed claws at their fake attackers. Russetstorm managed to knock over Thornflame and he leaped on the tomcat, who was slightly larger than him, and struggled to pin the sable cat to the ground. Honeypool bounded over and added her weight to help, trapping Thornflame down between them, though he struggled as well as he could to escape. Darkfeather leaped onto Honeypool and tried to drag her off, but Russetstorm retaliated by shoving his weight against her, and Honeypool took the free moment to dig her teeth into Thornflames tail.
All four warriors stopped there, Thornflame getting up from the ground with an angry glance at Russetstorm, who was blissfully unaware of his look. Apparently the sable tom was a sore loser.
Darkfeather turned to face Starlingpaw with a smile, her eyes closed. "So! Do you think you can handle it?"
Starlingpaw looked to Birchpaw, wanting to hear his opinion, and the black-and-white tomcat nodded his agreement.
"Sure," Starlingpaw mewed, getting to her paws.
"All right then," Honeypool meowed, shaking the dust out of her fur and retreating to the side of the hollow. "You can train against Darkfeather and Larkpaw. Even though we did the opposite, remember that staying defensive instead of attacking first can very well save your life."
Starlingpaw nodded with a yawn and shook herself, trying to work up the energy for battle. Birchpaw stretched beside her and rose to his paws, then entered the center of the clearing with her.
They stood back-to-back, their tails brushing together and their flanks a mouse-length apart. Darkfeather and Larkpaw prowled around them, searching for opportunities to strike.
There was a loud hiss as Larkpaw leaped out at them.
"By StarClan, I've never trained so hard in my life!" Starlingpaw groaned as she lay in the medicine cat's den. Honeypool was applying a yellow poultice to her paw pads, which were cracked and sore from overuse.
"Perhaps we should have taken a break sooner," the medicine cat worried as she spat out a lump of golden flower. "You'll have to rest tomorrow if your paw pads don't heal soon."
The apprentice sighed in relief. The thought of another day of training with bleeding paws was torture. "That sounds wonderful, relaxing all day in camp."
"Well, you'll go swimming anyway. It can help clean your wounds if they're still open."
Starlingpaw set her head in her paws. "I guess I have to, huh?"
"Of course you do. If you don't train well, then, then…" Honeypool trailed off, her eyes focused on something in the corner of the cave.
Starlingpaw followed her gaze but found nothing other than a dark shadow over a pile of herbs. "Is… is something wrong, Honeypool?" she asked tentatively, confused about the medicine cat's unusual behavior.
Honeypool sighed. "I guess there's no harm in telling you. I received a message from StarClan today."
The sable apprentice swallowed nervously, wondering if the message that she had received had anything to do with what Starlingpaw had seen at the Moonfalls.
"I was out early, collecting herbs in the woods, and for just a moment I saw the clear blue sky fill with dark gray clouds as if a storm were gathering," Honeypool explained as she began to tidy up the den. "It left as soon as it had come. It had to be an omen, but what could it mean?"
Starlingpaw was both relieved and concerned. The medicine cat herself didn't know about the prophecy Starlingpaw had been given. Why would StarClan tell a troubled apprentice and not this knowledgeable she-act before her?
"Trouble is coming, Starlingpaw," Honeypool meowed, her voice low. "That must be what the message means. But how am I supposed to prepare against this threat if I have no idea what it is?"
Starlingpaw took a deep breath and battled against herself within her mind for a moment, trying to decide whether or not to tell Honeypool about the prophecy. She spoke before she could stop herself. "Honeypool, I… I received word from StarClan a while ago. A few days, actually."
The medicine cat jerked her head up from the herbs she had been sorting, her eyes wide. "What?"
Starlingpaw recoiled, immediately regretting her decision. "Well, I… I sort of used the Moonfalls, and-"
"Starlingpaw!" Honeypool cried, her voice full of frustration. "You used the Moonfalls?"
"Uh, y-yeah, that is what I said," the apprentice replied, digging herself a deeper hole.
The ginger she-cat exhaled and shook her head, exhausted, but looked back up with a different expression. "Regardless, StarClan chose to speak with you. That's not something you can force," After a long moment, she added, "Aren't you going to tell me what it was about?"
Starlingpaw launched into her explanation "I received a sort of vision from StarClan. I was in the woods, and my paws were a different color and soaked with blood. There were all these- bodies around me. It was horrible," she shivered at the memory before continuing. "Anyway, there was the body of Blizzardstar, but he was… sort of still alive. But… not for long, because I killed him."
Honeypool looked appalled. "You mean to tell me that StarClan warned you that you were going to kill Blizzardstar?"
The sable she-cat shook her head wildly. "No, no! They weren't my paws, Honeypool, or my body! Some other cat's, but I don't know whose. I didn't even make the movement to kill him. It was involuntary."
The medicine cat sighed, placing her head in her paws. She looked more tired than Starlingpaw had ever seen her. "Is that it?" she meowed, her head buried in her fur.
"No, not even close," Starlingpaw meowed a touch too enthusiastically. Sure, her visions had been horrifying, but in retrospect, the thought of being chosen to receive a prophecy from her warrior ancestors was exciting. She was finally worth something, at least. "Later, when I fainted from the injury, I was visited by a StarClan cat. She was a grey tabby, I think, with green eyes."
"Rainstar," Honeypool breathed, her voice full of awe. "Go on."
"So um, Rainstar gave me a prophecy, or something, after that. She said 'The sun will not rise if it is mourning the loss of the night'," Honeypool began to interrupt her, but Starlingpaw kept talking. "That's not all. Then this- this river of blood rose from the ground, and then there was the Moonfalls, but its water was blood too. The clearing filled with it and I was trying to stay afloat but I sank under into all of the blood and-" she broke herself off with a shiver and pulled her legs closer, wishing that her tail was long enough to provide comfort but knowing that was impossible now. Her vision had bothered her more than she liked to think about, so she generally tried to push it out of her mind, but now that it was back… well, it was unpleasant to say the least.
Honeypool looked shocked, her eyes staring upward as if she were trying to imagine an image. "The prophecy was 'The sun will not rise if it is mourning the loss of the night'?"
Starlingpaw nodded, though her nods were different from other cats' due to her wobbly head.
"What do you think it means?" the medicine cat asked, her voice quiet and soft.
"I think it's pretty obvious that 'the sun' has to do with DawnClan," Starlingpaw said, finally voicing the thought she had mulled over for days. "So does that mean 'the night' is DuskClan?"
Honeypool stared at her thoughtfully for a moment. "I think you may be right. A rising sun creates the break of dawn, and a setting one creates both dusk and eventually, the night."
"So… what is 'the loss', then? Is DuskClan going to…" Starlingpaw swallowed in fear at the thought. "Will they die out? But why would they? They have a huge Clan with so many warriors that there's no way we could ever fight them off!"
The medicine cat shook her head. "It wouldn't make sense that we would destroy DuskClan. Maybe it's some inside force, like an illness or starvation."
Starlingpaw scoffed. "Starvation has never been a problem in the forest."
"But DuskClan is over twice our size. Surely they have trouble finding prey to feed all of their cats," Honeypool reasoned, and Starlingpaw had to agree. She had never even considered that DuskClan would have problems; they always seemed unnecessarily vicious, but maybe a lack of prey could explain their behavior.
"Well then," Starlingpaw announced, getting to her feet. "We should go warn DuskClan to be wary of disease! If we can prevent the-" she suddenly stopped, having realized something she hadn't before.
"What is it, Starlingpaw?" Honeypool asked, her tone concerned.
"If the sun doesn't rise, Honeypool," Starlingpaw began. "Then there is no dawn. Only infinite dusk."
haaah long chapter ;w;
I'm sorry this is so dang big. But I am very relieved it's finally done; I am having writer's block, ugh, and so this chapter is a bit lackluster. :(
thank you for reading! (if you managed to get through all that lol) I really really hope you're enjoying the book. I think the chapter after next stuff is going to start happening.
A bit of a big question, but if any of you sent in OCs, I would like to know how you feel about them dying. I'm not going to kill a character of yours without your consent because idk it feels wrong? But as a lot of battle stuff is coming up I'm going to need a few characters that people are willing to kill off. If not, no worries! I'll just make up some random cats to die instead! If you have a story-driven idea to share(about an OC's death or something? or just in general), that would be super cool, though :0 (the main plot of the book involving DuskClan should be showing up soon, so you can understand what kind of environment your OCs will be showing up in!)
Reviews! :
succulentsofa - hey! super glad you enjoyed the chapter, Mint is always very fun to write with, idk what it is about him. And yes making up Clan traditions is both super fun and one of the best things about making fanfiction and worldbuilding as a whole! It adds depth and also,, you can make cats do cute traditions lol. Thank you so much, have a great day! :)
Mossy Clouds - Hi, great that you got an account! hope you've been well :) I'm glad you like the story so far, and thank you for letting me know about your OCs! have a great day!
WarriorsFanfiction11111111111 - wait what, I totally thought I responded to your review! did I miss it? ahh so sorry D: anyways, I will totally be sure to put Diamondkit/paw/fur somewhere! and yes rabbitwhisker is such a fun name, I picked it randomly and love it so much :) I hope to update again sometime this week, but chapters are taking longer because bleh, writing block. hopefully that stops haha. thanks for reviewing!
Thank everyone so so much for reading and/or reviewing and also just for existing! You are all lovely people :)
Have a great week!