A/N. Just wanted to say thank you all for the support and reviews! I also wanted to respond to AtlierSky's comment on Sunblaze's mates. Nutmeg and Quince are both mentioned/will be mentioned in the story, I changed their names to (Nutmeg) Acornflower and (Quince) Quietflight. Acornflower was briefly mentioned in Fireheart's flashback. Quietflight/Quince will be brought up later. Anyways, I'm truly overjoyed that lots of people are liking my AU. I would also like to apologize for the very late update, this October I had lots of family visiting so I didn't have the time to write then and health issues mixed with school stopped me until now. I'm also very sorry for how short this chapter is, but it's just a filler. Hopefully the next chapter will be up later today or tomorrow. Btw, I still need OCs for the other clans.
Fireheart's P.O.V
When Fireheart awoke it was just before dawn, getting to her paws she began to groom herself and glanced around the den. Beside her were Iceclaw and Fawnstep, both still sleeping. Others in the den were either just waking up or sleeping. Fireheart suppressed a purr of laughter when Patchfoot raised his head, half awake, with a piece of moss clinging to his face. Getting to her paws, Fireheart left the den and made her way to the base of Rock-pile to get patrols ready. As her fellow clanmates left their dens with the sun steadily rising from beyond the Gorge, Fireheart watched as Waspwhisker and Flarestorm came down the slope from night guard. When they passed her, she dipped her head and they did the same. The first warrior who had left the warrior's den had been Sharpclaw, the hard-headed tom followed by Patchfoot and Leafdapple, made their way to her.
"Sharpclaw, you can lead the dawn patrol, Leafdapple take Harepaw with you." Fireheart ordered, Sharpclaw huffed at her before nodding to the others and heading towards the camp entrance. She shook her head lightly, Sharpclaw had been angry towards her ever since she was announced deputy. But she was the better choice, Sharpclaw hadn't trained an apprentice at the time and is well known for his fighter nature. Even now she could hear Cloudtail's, then Cloudpaw, joyous cry when she became deputy. Soon more cats began to flow into the center of camp, even Skywatcher was out laying besides the entrance of the elder's den.
Spotting Magpiewing and Speckledthrush, she called them over. After assigning them to both lead hunt patrols with cats of their own choosing, Fireheart waited patiently as the patrols filtered out of camp. Deciding that hunting would be good, she slipped into the forest. But as she was leaving a call for her caught her attention. Running up to her was Iceclaw, he slowed down to a normal pace as he dipped his head towards her.
"Hunting?" Iceclaw asked, his head tilted. Fireheart nodded and continued into the forest, her brother at her side. They split ways after wandering for a while, as Fireheart hunted she noticed the sky begin to darken. She frowned, just when the rain was beginning to stop it kicked back up again. As time passed Fireheart had managed to gather an impressive catch and made her way back to camp. Rejoined by Iceclaw on the way, they chatted about Iceclaw's newest apprentice and Mistykit's recent health issue.
The day had been calm with only a mishaps, mainly with apprentices not doing what they needed to do, but something was bugging Fireheart. As she sat in the shade of Rock-Pile watching the dusk patrol she'd just organized leave, something made her look towards Whispering Cave. Standing in front of the cave was Echosong. The young medicine cat had an expression of pure terror, her green eyes stared blankly over camp and her fur was raised along her spine. Swiftly crossing the camp, Fireheart stopped just before Echosong. After a few moments Echosong's blank stare moved to her as the silver she-cat whispered something that made Fireheart's skin crawl.
"The clans are coming, Fireheart, the peace we had for so long is about to be broken."
Whitestar's P.O.V
The camp was in chaos, Dappletail had just dropped dead after eating a poisoned rabbit. The clan had been starving from lack of prey. The Two-Legs having appeared little over a moon ago and the clan leaders have been preparing their clans to leave the territories. But, something seemed wrong within the clan. Early that morning Ashstripe and Mousefur had scented rogues deep with the territory but it disappeared before they could find were it led to. Currently, however, was the issue of the elders. One-eye and most of the other elders were far too old to make the journey, and now Whitestar was forced to make a horrible decision. To leave his own clan-mates to die, or bring them and risk harming the rest of the clan. As he thought about the decision he must make, Willowpelt padded up to him. He paused and looked at his mate expectantly.
"The elders want to speak with you." Willowpelt murmured, her eyes looking past him at Dappletail's figure in the center of camp. Whitestar gave her a nod as he rose to his paws, making his way past the vigil, Whitestar slipped into the Elders den. The first elder Whitestar saw was One-eye, the ancient she-cat was laying next to Speckletail. Nearby them was Shortfur, the remaining elders turned towards him. Speckletail made a motion at Whitestar for him to sit with them.
However, before Whitestar could even open his mouth Shortfur cut him off. "We're staying Whitestar."
Whitestar stared back at the pale tom before replying, "That's unnecessary Shortfur, I'm sure that you and the others will be-"
"No we can't. You know this too; we won't be able to travel for several moons at our age, besides this land has always been our home. We were born here, and its here we will die." Shortfur snapped, effectively cutting off Whitestar.
"Whitestar, it must be clear to even you that we should at least have a say in what happens to us. We've lived good long lives, the younger cats need to live much more than us, prioritize them." One-eye added, the old she-cat turned to him despite being completely blind. Whitestar dipped his head in respect to the elders before leaving.
Once outside the den he called Runningwind to deliver a message to the other clans that Thunderclan was ready to leave the forest and that all the clans should meet at the Fourtrees. As Runningwind left camp, Whitestar looked toward the sky.
Ah, it's like what Lionheart once said. Life doesn't stop moving, not even Starclan can stop the inevitable.