So this is probably a long time coming, and I doubt anyone really cares? I have a few repeat readers that seem like they like this story so this update is more for them.

((My apologizies for not updating in a long time, I've been extremely busy. Also I'm not being sarcastic or anything, I work at a school and the principle got the funding for us to feed all the students and the local seniors in the senior home so I am making more lunches then ever and the bus drivers are delivering them))

Specifically, I am not happy with the current state of A Cost of Truth. I have a lot planned out but while recently re-reading the previous chapters to remind myself where I was I realized I personally wasnt all that happy with how it was turning out on the page.

I know the issues the story has. I have four clans of cats where I am focusing on Five individuals (Thornpaw, Dawnpaw, Shellpaw, Icepaw, and Sunpaw), their lives in their clans and the forces driving their lives complete with the overarching plot of a plague that is slowly but steadily decimating the clans and what happened to the previous Caveclan before they were driven off.

I wasn't spending enough time with the individuals and their clans. The clan territories barely had any description to make them unique from each other outside of a few mentions such as Hillclan being almost entirely under bushes and such. Despite the fact I have actual drawn maps of the clan territories. The clan camps aren't as clearly defined as I'd like and the clan cats themselves are basically names with faces and no personality beyond a few standouts that are interwoven with the main characters (Blackpaw, Batear, Redpaw, Maplepool). This is despite me having detailed art of not only the clan camps, how things are set up including the inside of the dens, but also art of various characters with backstories and personalities attatched that those who read only this fanfic would have no idea of (such as Ashface being the grandson of Rainstar, or what happened in depth to Foxwhisker's previous apprentices)

Also, I feel the clans really aren't large enough and I re-use specific prefixes and suffixes a lot. A lot of the normal day to day routines and such of clan life is missing a lot (Sharing Tongues is a big one), ceremonies, the fact Medicine Cats are not actually bound to Clan Boundries and can go where they please in order to talk to other Medicine Cats and get herbs as needed, ect.

I know why. The clans need to be bigger so I dont re-run into an issue I had before (killing off to many cats to not keep a viable population resulting in me needing to re-write a chapter to keep more than two tom cats alive in a clan. Cool an idea as that is, I really dont want to have to decrease the number of clans unless I absolutely have to), A lot of the daily life of clan cats I forgot about due to having started writing this before I started re-reading the series (I am about half way through aVoS right now), and in general just me trudging foreward while ignorning glaring issues that were eventually going to bite me in the ass later if I didn't fix them.

That is what this update will be about actually. Addressing these issues and how I plan to deal with them.

Well, I addressed my major issues above, now I how I plan to address them:

First and foremost, I am not dropping this series. I really love the characters and what I have planned out (especially for when I get to the later arcs). But I need to rethink how I go about this.

First and foremost the story needs a drastic re-write. The current structure of each chapter taking place in another clan is not only boggling down the pacing of the story and making it take forever to get anywhere, it is also limiting my ability to properly show the clans, their members, and their territory in any meaningful way. Going foreward with my re-write my plan is to focus more on writing multiple chapters in a singular clan's point of view before shifting to another clan's. So instead of staying with, say, Thornpaw for one chapter to see how Hillclan is dealing with an issue we will spend two or maybe three chapters there to go more in depth with the more nuanced things and so I can spend more time showing things going on instead of just telling you guys (such as Nettlewhisker's inferiority complex or Redpaw's anger or Batear's prejudice, ect)

I need the clans to be populated and not have a bunch of cats that all share the same prefix or suffix (such as having like... 5 cats with the Adder prefix at one point before they got changed). So I plan to do a complete overhaul of the Alliances as well, and also rethink how I am doing kitbirth and apprenticeships. Based on the current timeline technically speaking there are more than just Thornpaw that should be full warriors for instance. For the most part, a lot of the major cats wont change so if you have a favorite I wouldn't worry. This will mostly be for either renaming characters, changing a few parts of their design due to an overuse of certain characteristics (solid coloured tails, anyone?), or adding new cats here and there as I need. As of right now, no cat is actually on the chopping block unless I plan to kill them off in story.

I also plan to keep a better guide on a few things for in story, such as how certain ceremonies go or things the original books establish as being part of a clan's daily life that I keep forgetting.

The final thing I'm going to address is the Warrior Code itself. One of the things I had decided early on is that, while the Code exists for the clans I wanted to change it to reflect that it developed seperetely from the Canon Clans. Only for me to immediately just use the entire code as a default. because I forgot.

Then nearly wrote myself into a hole.

You'll understand what I mean once I actually get into the re-write.

Also I feel like I wrote myself in a hole, pacing wise, by starting the story and intro chapters when most of the cast are kits and thus I plan to also deal with that while also keeping mention of some of the things that happened while they were kids or re-adapting the events in a different way later.

Anyway, the story as it currently is will remain up and I am backing up the chapters (for personal reference tbh) and I wont upload the new ones until I am at least six chapters in (not including the re-written prologue and alliances). Currently I am on chapter 4 so it shouldn't take to long.

Anyway, hope you guys stay tuned and I hope you enjoy the future re-writes.

Stay safe out there!