Yoooo sorry that I didn't update last week! School is a great way to sap all the motivation out of you. I had a particularly tough assignment last week and by the time I was done, I just didn't feel like writing anything. So expect me not updating regularly anymore.
I've also had a tough time coming up with AUs I like to put in the AU Dump. The ones I do come up with I feel as if I wouldn't be able to write enough for. I really wanted to update the AU Dump tbh, but yeah, couldn't come up with anything so I guess Ignite will have to do!
Every hit, kudos, and comments means a lot to me!
DIAMOND PEARL REMAKES DIAMOND PEARL REMAKES DIAMOND PEARL REMAKES DIAMOND PEARL REMAKES DIAMOND PEARL REMAKES DIAMOND PEARL REMAKES DIAMOND PEARL REMAKES DIAMOND PEARL REMAKES DIAMOND PEARL REMAKES DIAMOND PEARL REMAKES DIAMOND PEARL REMAKES DIAMOND PEARL REMAKES DIAMOND PEARL REMAKES DIAMOND PEARL REMAKES DIAMOND PEARL REMAKES DIAMOND PEARL REMAKES
The Dark Forest had been defeated. He could hear the victorious yowls of the other clans as they drove the last remnants away, back to the murky, dead, forest they called home. He could have marveled at his new range of hearing. If he really focused, he could probably hear individual conversations, but until then, he would have to learn to tune out most of the sounds so his head wasn't bombarded all at once.
He could have marveled at the sheer power flowing through his body. He could have marveled at the fact that nothing could hurt him now, that he could protect his treasures so easily without hardly any effort.
But what did that matter?
His hatchling was dead. He had failed to protect her. If only he had given into the stone's influence earlier, taken the powers it had prepared for him, then maybe Leafpool would have lived.
She was dead because Tigerstar saw her as a way to get back at him. To make him break.
If that was his intention, then he had done a magnificent job.
Thunderclan hurried about within the hollow, terrified at first, and then warily when they all realized that Firestar didn't intend to do anything but mourn for his daughter. Sandstorm, Squirrelflight, and Brambleclaw stayed with him through the night, upset over Leafpool's death, but also staying out of concern for Firestar. They didn't know how he would react if they suddenly left him, even to go down into camp.
Eventually, Jayfeather had to trudge up to them to look over their wounds with the limited amount of herbs he had. He hissed silently as he ran out while treating Brambleclaw, but didn't move to complain more. Firestar could easily smell his fear scent, horrified that his visions of Firestar's transformation coming true. But there was also an air of frustration that came from his apparent lack of herbs to treat Thunderclan with.
"I need to see if one of the other clans will spare any herbs. But with the battle, I doubt they have any more than we have..." Jayfeather muttered to himself, feeling his whiskers over some of Brambleclaw's scratches.
"You're doing all you can, Jayfeather. Just do your best to help everyone else," Brambleclaw murmured to him.
"My best won't help save some of them down there," Jayfeather mumbled, turning away to climb back down the hollow.
No one said anything more. The three cats just pressed themselves harder onto Firestar's scales while simultaneously mourning Leafpool.
Finally, morning dawned, the first pinpricks of sunlight lighting their way through the clouds. Brambleclaw, Squirrelflight, and Sandstorm got up silently, and moved to haul Leafpool's body to be buried. Firestar tightened his claws into the ground, willing himself to stay still and to not growl at them to leave his hatchling's body alone. But he would be doing her a dishonor by not allowing her to be buried with her other fallen clanmates and kin.
He could only watch as they took her away, gazing upon the clan as they buried their fallen clanmates. He kept his keen gaze on Leafpool until her body had been swallowed up by the earth.
What was he doing here? Everything that had happened up to this point had been his fault. With the way he was now, with him being a dragon, he was better off leaving the clan and his treasures alone. He was too dangerous to be around.
With that thought, he spread his four, great wings, preparing himself to fly off.
"Firestar? What are you doing?" Brambleclaw called up to him.
"What does it look like? I'm leaving," his deeper voice said bluntly. Disbelief, sadness, and heartbreak, he expected out of his treasures. But the rest of the clan turned to gaze and gasp in disbelief and shock. He would have thought that they would be relieved to be rid of him.
"Wha-? Why-?! You can't leave! Not when you finally returned!" Brambleclaw yelped, tripping over his paws to climb up to the top of the hollow.
"Why else? I'm much too dangerous to be around," he sighed. "Besides, I'm sure many of the clan will be happy to finally see me go."
He had wanted to come back, just to find out of what the clan really thought of him. If they really hated him like Windclan did. But that was back when he was a cat. How could they ever find it in them to accept him as a dragon?
"You're not dangerous! If anything you protected us all last night! You killed Tigerstar and ended the battle!" Brambleclaw argued.
"It was the stone that caused me to change, to ravage our territory, and it prompted Tigerstar to make a spectacle out of Leafpool to try and break me. If any Thunderclan cat dies because Jayfeather didn't have enough herbs, it will be on me. If any Thunderclan cat dies because I burned most of the prey within the territory, it will also be on me. Everything that has happened here is because of me! Don't tell me I'm not dangerous, Brambleclaw. If I hadn't come in contact with the stone..." he turned his gaze over to where Leafpool was buried, aware of the many eyes burning into his scales. "...then maybe she would still be alive."
Brambleclaw closed his eyes, breathing out a sigh. He opened them again, staring into Firestar's green slits. "Okay, you're right. No one will deny that you're dangerous-"
At least his hatchling admitted it. Maybe it was for the best that his treasures hated him too. It would surely lessen the pain, right?
"-but aren't we all dangerous? Being dangerous is who we are. We're warriors. If we were so scared of the world around us, then we would keep all the apprentices within camp and not let them battle until they receive their warrior names. But we don't."
"Besides, we all wanted you back. We all want you to stay," Brambleclaw pleaded, eyes trailing over into camp, hoping that the clan would see the desperation in his eyes, hoping that someone would speak up in his defense. He didn't want a repeat of last time, when half of the clan didn't act to defend Firestar from Windclan's wrath.
It almost seemed like no one would speak up, until someone did.
"We do want you back." Firestar's eyes shifted towards Cloudtail, and he remembered the sting of hurt when he realized that his own nephew hadn't tried defending that day.
The fluffy white tom tried upholding Firestar's gaze, but there was no mistaking the fear in his eyes that Cloudtail looked like he was trying so hard to overcome. "There's- there's no excuse for what we did. We shouldn't have left you to face those mouse-brained Windclan cats on your own. We were just so scared-" he stopped, realizing that he was trying to justify their actions instead of what needed to be done.
"We shouldn't have left you to face what was happening to you alone. We were scared, yes, but we all should have known better- that you would never do anything to hurt us; that you never did anything to intentionally or directly hurt us. Even under all the scales and wings and stuff, you're still you. It just took Brambleclaw pounding that into our heads for us to finally see that," Cloudtail meowed.
Dustpelt sighed, moving to the front of the crowd to Cloudtail's side. "I suppose we were pretty mouse-brained. You've done nothing but try and support us when you were going through your own problems. Isn't it time we got our act together and support our leader for a change?"
Then the clan was yowling in agreement, pleading for him to stay. It should have made Firestar feel warm inside, that his clan did care about him. Isn't this what he wanted? To know if his clan really wanted him or not?
He finally had his answer.
"That's all nice of you to say," he rumbled. "Perhaps I would have been convinced to stay if I were still a cat, that is." Thunderclan fell silent, surprised that their words seemingly failed them. "So you want me to stay. That's great and all, but how would this work? You're going to let a dragon lead a clan of cats?"
"Dragon?" Brambleclaw titled his head at the word.
He lifted a claw to the stone, now just a small dot in his chest. "It... that's what I am now. A dragon. It told me so," he said, not wanting to elaborate that the stone had been speaking into his head for the past half moon.
"Not only that, but I needed more prey than anyone when I first changed. All the mice in the world wouldn't be enough to satisfy me. I'd eat this clan, all the clans, out of the lake. Not to mention that I can't exactly fit myself into camp with the rest of you. I'm supposed to sleep within the territory and let a, I don't know, a Twoleg see me? Then what?"
Brambleclaw cringed, finding it hard to find any flaws in Firestar's logic. Of course the small prey that they usually ate wouldn't be enough for Firestar. He would starve to death eating like that. And what if a Twoleg saw Firestar? Were dragons common enough in other parts of the world for Twolegs to not care?
He had a feeling it wasn't the case.
"Also, the other clans won't be happy with me staying," Firestar muttered.
At that, Brambleclaw scowled. The other clans hadn't been happy when Firestar was just a cat with scales and wings, of course they wouldn't be happy now.
"At the moment, I couldn't care less of what the other clans think. What are they going to do, chase you away again?" Brambleclaw grumbled.
Firestar lightly tapped his tail on the ground, humming. He supposed that there was really nothing the other clans could do to him directly. He shifted his gaze to his mate, who gave him a determined look back. It was a silent message, telling him that she wouldn't let anything like when Windclan threatened her life to happen again.
His eyes traveled across the clan, taking in their hopeful faces.
"We will figure something out, I promise," Brambleclaw meowed softly up to him.
Well, he hadn't wanted to leave his treasures anyway. Even now, his instincts were screaming at him to stay, to protect them, that they were all he had left-
"Alright, I'll stay," he said, settling himself down again. Brambleclaw purred and butted his head against his claws. He ignored the excited chatter down within the hollow, only focusing on his treasures. He lowered his head to drink in his hatchling's and mate's scents, who had also made her way up to where Firestar was situated to lay with him. They stayed together until Squirrelflight also made her way up to the top of the hollow, where she nudged Brambleclaw and hauled him down into camp.
"You still need your injuries looked at, mouse-brain!"
It's not anyone can do anything to a dragon. Windclan can throw a hissy fit, but if they try anything, Firestar wouldn't be adverse to burning them all.
Obviously, Firestar can't stay within Thunderclan territory 24/7 since 1) he needs lots of prey and 2) he doesn't want to be seen by Twolegs, who admittedly are the only species on the planet that could probably subjugate a dragon in this time and age. You could imagine what would happen if someone found a dragon living by some random lake...
I'm thinking I've got a solution to that second problem though.
Tell me how I did.