Revelations
I was beginning to pick my way through the secrets the Clan were so dedicated keeping buried. They would only hold for so much longer. The same went for their old ways of life.
There was an audible crunch as Hollypaw's paw sank into the snow. Sharp and alert, her eyes diligently scanned the frosted landscape, tracing the surface for certain imprints of markings. For once the howling winds had subsided to an extent where visibility out in the open was actually viable. She could scour several foxlengths out without a wall of wind and hail blinding her.
"How much further?"
Blinking, a pair of bright eyes materialized out of thin air besides her. If she hadn't actively been aware of the presence already Hollypaw might've jumped out of her pelt in surprise. Lilypaw's white fur made it so she blended in seamlessly with the pale backdrop.
There was a quiver to her voice, courtesy of the wintry chill in the air. Truth be told Hollypaw wasn't faring much better herself. Her fur didn't insulate her in the slightest from the biting cold.
"Not long now," she replied through gritted teeth. The cold had already spread through her toes. "Come on, we're heading this way."
She quickly pushed onward with Lilypaw trailing closely behind. Thankfully their destination wasn't that far out of reach. With the weather turbulent and harsh as it had been lately, as well as the time where illness was at its most rampant, cats were barred from traveling more than a certain distance away from camp.
As was accustomed of Hollypaw and her carefully crafted reputation, she'd managed to break this rule within days. If discovered there was no telling how wrathful the warriors would be, especially when they realized she'd managed to drag Lilypaw off along with her.
I'll make this quick. The sooner we're back the better for both of us.
Long shadows cast down alongside them as they ventured into a tightly congested throng of trees. Lilypaw seemed to reflexively huddle closer to her body. Her pricked fur gave away her anxious mind state. Not to mention the several erratic movements of constantly glancing around at the slightest crack or hint of sound.
"Wh-where are we heading again?" her timid voice carried out.
"The meeting spot. Don't worry we're nearing up on it now."
As if to prove her words magic an enormous jag of rock jutting out from the ground manifested before them. It stood in sharp contrast to the colorless wilderness surrounding it like the last fleeting drop of light among a veil of darkness.
Lilypaw hung back, eyes flashing with emotion. "Maybe this was a mistake. CloudClan cats will be there and after everything that's happened between our Clans, th –."
"They're just like the rest of us, relax." She met Lilypaw's anxious stare with a steady one and expressed it as calmly and subdued as the chilling throb in her paws would allow. "Believe me, no one who shows up to this is here to fight. Stuff like that doesn't matter among us."
A fleeting heartbeat past between them. Shivering in the snow, Lilypaw took a shaky breath and then gave a slow nod. Hollypaw leaned forward and gave her a encouraging nudge, motioning for her to follow with a smile. They walked side by side, coming up on the murmur of voices trailing out from beneath the rock. Lilypaw's eyes lit up.
A spacious alcove suddenly opened itself up to them. Close to fourteen or so cat of varying sizes, pelt color, and heritage were revealed communing amongst each other. MeadowClan, SwampClan, and CloudClan all banded together peacefully.
"Wow, it's like a gathering," Lilypaw said in a hushed tone.
Hollypaw made a face she didn't see. Don't compare what we're doing to them. Our intentions are actually genuine.
"Hey, it's Hollypaw!" one of them called out, turning to look up.
"Finally! I was nearly about to freeze my tail off," another more annoyed voice sounded off. "What took you?"
"It's not easy navigating through snow, you know," Hollypaw replied grumpily. She padded into the alcove with Lilypaw by her side. "This is Lilypaw, by the way. She's the friend I was telling you all about last time."
A moment was taken as Lilypaw was introduced to each cat present. Particularly, smiles and nods from the CloudClan apprentices seemed to ease her misgivings quite a bit. She'd initially been bashful when interacting with the other cats, but the showing of goodwill from past adversaries seemed to soften it. Hollypaw was relieved to see her genuinely smiling now.
Through the crowd of apprentices, Hollypaw caught sight of Falconpaw weaving his way towards them. She nudged Lilypaw to get her attention and then nodded in his direction. She took one look at the black spotted MeadowClan apprentice and her eyes widened.
"Is he your leader?" she whispered.
Hollypaw noticed Falconpaw visibly wince. He'd heard her.
"This is Falconpaw. He's more like our agreed upon speaker," she interjected, jumping in the way of the ensuing awkwardness. "We don't have leaders. Everyone here is on equal footing. All opinions matter."
There was an unanimous nod of heads at this and Hollypaw internally exhaled. Of all cats there Falconpaw was probably the most repulsed by term leader. She turned to make eye contact with him then, offering up an apologetic look for Lilypaw's misstep, but his gaze was locked elsewhere. Golden eyes had fixated on Lilypaw and her unblemished fur.
"How much has Hollypaw told you about us?" he asked curiously.
Lilypaw turned to her uncertainly as if to ask for permission to proceed. Hollypaw slightly nodded her head, giving her the go to speak.
"You don't want anymore bloodshed, right?" Lilypaw replied. "Something like the CloudClan battle will never happen again?"
Falconpaw paused, seeming to consider her words. "Our mission statement is simple: breed and foster good faith and companionship among the four Clans. One of the biggest hurdles that's always hindered us from any real progression is this arbitrary over reliance on residential loyalty. Where we're born somehow tricks us into viewing outsiders as enemies." He gestured broadly to the lot of them. "As you can plainly see we're doing our best to remedy this, all unified under one cause."
"That's right," Hollypaw chimed in. "It's one of the reasons I decided to bring you here tonight, Lilypaw. I saw how you reacted during the battle. It was similar to how I felt in the moment, and why I want to make sure nothing like it ever happens again."
"I won't deny that our methods are very slow moving at the moment," Falconpaw continued. "Not everyone will or does think like us, which is why it's important we gradually integrate and spread our core values among Clanmates. Drop subtle nods every now and then like seeds, hoping they take hold and grow. It's a trickle down effect. The most efficient way to attack a problem is from the inside."
Lilypaw glanced around, looking at everyone in tow. "So what more have you guys actually been doing to change the way things are then?"
Hollypaw decided she should be the one to take on this. "Well, for one, we've already started implementing some of our own goals like cross trading. We feasibly spare anything that another Clan may be in need of."
"One thing we've all noticed is when a Clan is either insecure about or in dire need of something they'll start assessing other Clans as potential targets to get it," Falconpaw added in. "If we can help lessen the desire for want it'll ultimately soften their egos a bit."
"Exactly," Hollypaw agreed. "Less want means less conflict. We'd eventually like to reach a point where open trade between Clans is a thing, as well as better communication. No more full moon treaties. One of the biggest things we stress on is making sure to meet up every couple of days to just talk. Having a better idea of what each other is going through helps make the Clan divides less important. Seeing each other more as cats instead of BoulderClan or CloudClan improves relations."
Hollypaw padded to stand directly besides Falconpaw. "We're all still new to this sort of stuff, but we're making a real effort to try and be better. This forest is all our home and I think we should try acting like it more. One day it might not be here for us to enjoy anymore."
How prophetic those words would become. It still feels dreamlike to think what's become of everything. Speeches weren't the only thing I'd come to deliver that day, though. There was an entirely different, more pressing, matter that I had to address. And it primarily revolved around one cat.
With Lilypaw caught up in mild conversation, Hollypaw took her opportunity to grab Falconpaw and quickly usher him away into a corner from everyone else. There was something important the two of them needed discuss, and it most certainly could not wait a moment longer.
"What've you managed to find out?" she questioned at once.
There was no lead in. No slowly probing around for a good way to start. She was upfront and direct, staring straight into his eyes. Falconpaw for his part didn't seem too perturb or taken aback by this. He'd probably expected it sooner, knowing him.
"Not as much as you'd probably like," he replied, "but it's something."
"Go on."
"Sometime back before our time there was apparently a major incident that occurred in BoulderClan, nearly halving their original amount of cats."
She shook her head in frustration. "I know all this already. What else do you have?" Details were what she needed. What exactly was the incident? How did it tie Oakclaw and Redpaw together?
"Despite our best efforts to scour for answers, it was next to impossible to get a definitive response on much. Whatever this incident was your Clanmates have kept it a tightly guarded secret. To call information scarce would be putting it lightly."
Foxdung! This wasn't going in the direction she'd wanted.
"And Oakclaw?" she asked.
Falconpaw's nose twitched. "Conflicting reports."
That wasn't surprising. If anything it was to be expected.
"Tell me everything."
"Honestly, it's like we've been told stories featuring two completely separate cats going by the same name. There seems to be an Oakclaw prior to most of our births that is significantly different from the one we know of now. There was talk of an awkward, almost surly apprentice with little patience for others, and then murmurs of this oddly upbeat and spry warrior, the timing of which conveniently lines up with around the time this unspeakable incident occurred."
Falconpaw caught on fast. She hadn't even given a reason why she wanted the information.
"So they're definitely connected, then?"
"There's little doubt that they aren't."
Good, they were getting somewhere now. The threads were slowly starting to unravel and reveal themselves. She had one more angle to try. There was no promise of it amounting too much, but overhearing it during the conversation between Oakclaw and Crowstar had left her curious.
"Did the name Cedarshade ever come up?"
Falconpaw's eyes gleamed like honey. "Ah, so this is about Redpaw."
She blinked in surprise, completely confused. "I never said anything about Redpaw."
"You didn't have to. You've managed to nearly mention him at least once every time we've ever spoken. I figured this wouldn't be any different."
Had she? Hollypaw honestly couldn't recall something like that. He was her friend, sure, but had Redpaw always been on her mind that much?
Falconpaw seemed to take her silence as a signal to continue. "I'll admit I got curious about him overtime after how much his name seemed to come up during our talks. Recently, I decided to probe around on my own and ultimately discovered something quite odd."
"Odd in what way?" she questioned. What could Falconpaw have possibly uncovered?
"Nearly every single cat I spoke to about him hadn't even been aware of his existence. It's not unusual to not know every single cat in a rival Clan by name, but when an entire Clan and more worth of cats haven't either it starts raising some alarming questions like, why do so few cats know of his existence and why has he never been to a single gathering? It's almost as if he's purposely being kept back from sight. It wasn't until I spoke to some of the CloudClan cats that they recalled seeing a ginger cat during the battle against your Clan. They never caught a name for the cat they saw that day, but if they had the name Redpaw would've probably fit him perfectly."
Falconpaw paused to study her expression before continuing.
"And that's when I got word about you wanting information about Oakclaw and this incident. The moment I started digging it led me to start noticing similarities between the scarcity of info on it and Redpaw. While piecing together stories about Oakclaw afterwards, along with this mystery incident no one else seems to know much about, the name of the cat you just brought up surfaced."
Hollypaw leaned forward expectantly, but Falconpaw wasn't quite ready yet to spill the secret.
"Before I answer you though," he mewed, "can you tell me what you personally know about Cedarshade?"
What she knew? "Not much," Hollypaw said. "She died when I was barely a moon old. The only real thing of note is she's Redpaw's mother."
Something like triumph flashed across Falconpaw's face. "I suspected it'd be something like that. I really didn't have much of a reason to think Cedarshade had any involvement in this until you brought up her name. You just gave me the answer connecting the threads."
"Okay, Falconpaw, no more vague responses," she growled, starting to lose her patience. "If you know something about this tell me."
Falconpaw met her gaze evenly. "Cedarshade was the litter-mate of Oakclaw. They're kin. And if what you say about her being Redpaw's mother is true, then by extension that also means that –."
"Oh. My. Stars." The realization slammed into her at full force and Hollypaw was sent reeling back.
How? How? Did Redpaw know? If he did for how long? Was this what Oakclaw and Crowstar had been arguing over, she wondered. All this time something so apparent had been right there on the surface and all of the warriors knew the entire time.
Her thoughts flew back to the apprentice ceremony. Had that been why he'd volunteered to mentor Redpaw? If so then why was their relationship so distance as it'd been? There was too much to mull in one sitting. She'd need to fully digest it all.
Fully aware that what she was doing next went against Crowstar's words, Hollypaw detailed to Falconpaw the full story of what she'd been told and knew, from Redpaw's treatment in BoulderClan, to Oakclaw being his mentor, Oakclaw having a dislike of Redpaw's father, Redpaw's father being an outsider apparently responsible for the mysterious incident, and finally Redpaw's current condition.
"A fever mixed with whitecough?" Falconpaw mewed in surprise.
She nodded grimly. "He's been unconscious for days now. Fernleaf won't let anyone inside to see him either. Doesn't want to the contagion spreading throughout the camp." She festered in the dark emotions. "If I'd just been a better friend, more attentive, most of this could've probably been prevented."
"You can't prove that for sure," Falconpaw mused aloud, "but at least now that you do know you can make sure it never happens again, right?"
Hollypaw found herself nodding furiously. "Yep, and once this all blows over I'm gonna go and talk to him. I'll tell him everything and invite him to come and join us."
"If he's anything like you've told me, we'll be glad to have him."
Hollypaw nodded furiously again and the two of them from there moved their attention back to the original issue of the incident.
"Pack of dogs?" Falconpaw speculated. "Maybe an illness?"
"It was made to sound like one cat was responsible for it all," she said. "There was also no mention of bodies being left afterwards."
"One cat responsible for the removal of half a Clan of cats?"
"It doesn't make any sense to me either," Hollypaw replied defeated. "The warriors that were there to witness aren't talking, and Redpaw who also seems to know isn't able to tell me an-."
A sharp sneeze fired from Hollypaw's nose mid-sentence. Falconpaw took one look at her and then around to the rest of the apprentices.
"Let's call it here from today. We're not getting anywhere right now and it was mousebrain of us to meet out like this during this kind of season anyway."
She sniffled, feeling the early stages of an oncoming cold. Great, it was just her luck.
"You sure?" she asked.
"Yeah. Let's wait awhile, at least until the weathers cleared up more before we all meet again. I agree with your medicine cat. Now's not the time we want sickness spreading among our Clans."
Once again Falconpaw had been right. It was only too late then that we were able to heed his warning. Several cats in fact would get ill during that Leaf-bare, making supplies scarce for every Clan. That's probably when you saw your chance to do it then, huh? It was then that you decided to kill Brackentail.
A/N: Apologies for the overall lackluster writing quality this chapter. Next one will be up to par and more, I promise. It's a big one and I'm investing a lot of thought, time, and effort getting it carefully fine-tuned to the standard that it deserves. It'll be worth the wait.
On the subject of writing though, I wanted to take a moment to quickly address something that I've witnessed lately that's always been a part of fanfiction culture, but it's only now I sorta feel compelled to add my own two cents on, especially in regards to this specific fandom, and it concerns "originality".
There seems to be this idea constantly thrown around that somehow cliches are inherently bad. Not only bad, but that if you, as the writer, writes a story using them it magically devalues the quality of your overall work. As someone whose written for well over a decade now, as well as purposely chosen a well-worn and overdone premise as a story and managed to acquire a decent readership for it, I can comfortably tell you it is literally impossible to write a story without relying on at least two or more cliches to tell it.
You need them. A problem only really arises when that's all there is to your work. Cliches should be used as templates, not crutches. It's not the idea, but what you do with it that ultimately matters. Being generic means that something is by the numbers, familiar, lacking any real discerning personality from the pack. I actually implore newer writers to start a bit generic as they begin developing their own works and styles. It's great practice for those more inexperienced with common practicing tropes, archetypes, and the lot. Everyone needs a solid foundation to build their ideas off of and tropes/cliches should be used as your tools.
What I find seems to happen quite a bit though, is this dismissal of works in that vein and an odd over reliance on originality in terms of premise, despite the fact no one idea is truly original. It also isn't the idea that makes or brakes a story. It's what you, as the writer, does with it. I'll take a well-written "unoriginal" premise over a poorly done "original" any day. With this being fanfiction and all, we're already treading upon unoriginal territory to begin with.
So to any aspiring writer reading this enjoy yourself. Explore! You're here to express yourself and slowly build your craft. Don't allow yourself to be dismayed. Writing slowly strengthens itself overtime just like with any muscle. Whenever I feel discourage about the quality of my stuff or the direction it's going in, I stop to go back and look at some of my older works as an indicator of how far I've actually come. Take your time, don't beat up on yourself, but most importantly have fun! At the end of the day a lot of us are just writing silly cat stories and should at least find some joy in it while we're doing it.