"But... I don't understand. Why me?" Silver asked in a tone that was slightly higher pitched than normal. It didn't matter to the ghostly cats in front of her, as they began to fade into darkness. She always assumed that Starclan knew everything, but by the looks she was given by her warrior ancestors it proved that a great many things in this life are obscured, even to them.
She awoke sore, as if she had been tensing up the entirety of her slumber. Perhaps she was, like when she was taught by the Starclan cats about battle moves or hunting tactics. But she hadn't been doing either of those things the night before, leading to some confusion until the memories of what had taken place rushed back to her. She couldn't lead a clan! She had no experience in the matter, and she could barely take care of herself! Now she was to take care of countless other cats who were to rely on her to be wise and know the answers to any questions they might have?
She let out a soft wail. She wished someone, anyone really, were here to guide her, to tell her what to do. Her heart pounded and she silently pondered running away from the forest so that she wouldn't have to face this massive responsibility thrust upon her by some fur-brained dead cats. If the clans worked so well in the first place, why did they disband? If they were strong enough to survive the Great Sickness they would have, but they didn't. So what was the point? Eventually they would fail again due to something equally as stupid.
Her thoughts were interrupted by the scent of another cat-no, two cats- talking. They sounded angry, annoyed at...each other, perhaps? Silver unsheathed her claws, hoping whatever they wanted it would not lead to a fight.
"Hello?" She called out to them. The two cats went silent. Getting up and stretching out her legs, Silver looked towards the direction the voices came from. It was obsured by a relatively dense patch of brambles and brush. Side stepping it completely, she was face to face with two cats. One was a bright orange tabby tom, green eyes that smoldered with worry and anger. The other, a smaller, sleeker, cat, was similar in color to her tom counterpart, but was spotted instead, with the same green eyes. Were they littermates? Why else would they be together?
"Hi!" The she-cat answered cheerfully, pushing past the tom, "You must be Silver!" She mewed.
"How did you know that?" Silver asked, sheathing and unsheathing her claws in anticipation.
"I know a great deal about many things. I'm your medicine cat," She responded, not breaking eye contact with Silver.
"My what?"
"Medicine cat. I help sick cats. This is my brother George." She motioned towards the tom with a flick of her tail. George sat uncomfortably still, his eyes trained on Silver, tense and claws also unsheathed.
"What's your name?" Silver asked, still confused.
"My name is Ginny," Ginny responded, dipping her head respectfully at the other cat.
"Alright... And why did you know who I was?"
"I already told you, I am to be your medicine cat. Starclan dictates it so,"
"So you know what Starclan is?" Silver asked.
"Every cat knows what Starclan is. The ones who've lived in the forest for long have, at least," Ginny mewed, "I've been having dreams since I was a kit about herbs and how to help sick cats and kits. The cats of Starclan told me that I was to be Thunderclan's medicine cat. I was to wait for a cat named Silver to find me,"
"We found you first, though," George added, seeming to relax after he realized that Silver had no intentions of attacking the pair.
"So you know I'm meant to be leader?" Silver inquired of the sister.
"I inferred it, yes. Do you know the leaders of the other clans, yet?"
"Uh, no."
"Oh," Silver said disappointedly, "When do you find out?"
"Well...Now, actually. I'm supposed to go to the Island to meet them,"
"Oh! Good! We'll come with, then," Ginny said cheerfully, bounding towards the direction of the meeting place.
"Uh, alright, then," Silver responded quietly as George followed his sister.
Another cat arrived right before the group did. A yellow she-cat, sitting calmly at the base of the dead log that connected the mainland to the Island, looking at the Island with her paws tucked beneath her tail.
"Hello," Silver dipped her head respectfully. The cat didn't look at the newcomers and continued to stair straight ahead, "My name is Silver. These are George and-"
"Which clan?" The cat interrupted.
"Excuse me?" Silver asked, surprised at the rudeness of this new cat.
"Thunderclan," George answered softly from behind Silver.
The cat nodded, hopping onto the log, "All of you?"
"Yes," Silver said, hopping on behind her, "And you?"
"You're the last to arrive, you know," The cat ignored her completely.
"Sorry. Who are you?" Silver was getting short with her annoyance towards this new she-cat.
"My name is Dawn," the cat answered, "Of Windclan,"
"Hello, Dawn of Windclan," Silver said, "I'm Silver,"
Dawn nodded, crossing the log onto the Island with the three Thunderclan cats in tow.
Four other cats sat waiting by the big tree near the opposite end of the Island, all looking up when the four newcomers appeared.
"Think we can take them?" George asked quietly.
"George," Silver scolded, equally as quietly. Dawn bounded off, touching noses with two of the cats, a small brown she-cat and a large brown tom. They knew each other.
"Who are your friends, Dawn?" The small she-cat asked.
"Silver, of Thunderclan," Dawn motioned towards Silver, "And you already know Ginny and George,"
"You know each other?" Silver asked Ginny. She nodded.
"You're the only cat here that I didn't know before today," Ginny admitted.
The large brown tom stepped towards them, "My name is Flynn, this is my sister Shorty. It's nice to meet you,"
"You as well," Silver said respectfully.
"Come meet the others," Shorty said.
The group walked towards the two remaining cats, a she-cat and tom, both brown tabbies.
"That's Holly, she's going to oversee Riverclan," Shorty said, "And the tom is Nettles, he's in charge of Skyclan," Both cats greeted the newcomers warmly.
"Well let's not wait any longer. This is about reestablishing the clans," Holly said, "So we need to do a few things before then. Firstly, borders. The old Riverclan borders are from the Small Thunderpath, to the Horseplace and I see no reason to change that," The other cats agreed.
"Shadowclan bordered Riverclan to that side and Skyclan to the other. We should mark the Shadowclan borders at the Twoleg path,"
Nettles' fur bristled slightly, "Which one? Because if you mark it at the one by the clearing that's barely any room for Skyclan territory."
"I'm not trying to steal any territory from you, Nettles. The one closest to the old Shadowclan camp, then." Flynn said quietly. Nettles seemed to calm down.
"My apologies. So from there to the Old Thunderpath will be Skyclan territory. We will share that border with Thunderclan," He said, nodding at Silver.
"Alright," SIlver said, swallowing, "There's no good place to end Thunderclan territory, so how about the path halfway between the old Thunderpath and the Twoleg Place?"
To her surprise, Dawn simply agreed, having no argument, "That's close enough to the old borders anyways." Was all she said, not looking at Silver.
"Well that was a lot easier than I expected it to be," Holly admitted.
"I was hoping not to get into any Clan wars before there are any Clans," Nettles said with a purr
"So...What's next?" Silver asked.
"We still need cats," Dawn said, "You need cats for a clan,"
"How do you propose we do that?" Shorty asked, looking towards Flynn.
"We tell every cat of the forest to gather at the Islands at the next full moon," Flynn said, "There, we can tell them about the benefits of clans and about each of the clans individually. We let the cats decide where they want to go and which clan they want to belong with,"
"What if they don't want to join any clan?" Silver asked.
"What, you think you're the only cat receiving dreams from Starclan?" Dawn asked, "Every cat in the forest has. Our warrior ancestors have been spreading the word for us, we just need to do some work to get the clans going in the waking world," she licked her paw.
"What, you think every cat will listen to those dreams?" Silver shot back, "What about the ones that think the dreams are pure nonsense? A result of a fever or bad prey?"
"They won't." Dawn said, her fur bristling.
"And if they do?" Silver challenged.
"Calm down, both of you. There's no point in fighting about this right now. They'll live as loners if they don't desire to live in a clan," Flynn said.
"And steal prey from the clans?" Nettles asked, "Not from Skyclan, I'll chase them off of my territory,"
"So we're chasing off cats who simply want to live as they were before this? That seems completely fair," Silver said, "Claiming the only home they might've ever known and then kicking them off it,"
"We should deal with that when we get to it," Holly suggested, "Right now, we should spread out and tell every cat we see about the meeting on the full moon, like Flynn said," The cats agreed, what else were they to do about that possible situation, anyways? They couldn't deal with loners before any sprung up, after all.
With that, the cats said their goodbyes to each other before leaving the Island.
"What do we do now?" George asked, looking after Silver as she trotted ahead of him and his sister.
"We go to our territory," Silver said, "Our best bet at recruiting cats are the ones already living there, the ones used to the terrain. It will be an easier adjustment that way,"
"The others aren't doing that, Silver," Ginny pointed out, "I'm not saying that it's a bad idea, but if we want Thunderclan to prosper, we might want to expand outwards,"
"What about Flame? His mate is expecting kits. They live near the Horseplace. It's nobody's territory," George pointed out, "But everybody knows they're expecting kits, so we have to get there first to convince them that Thunderclan is the best option,"
"Good idea, George," Silver nodded, "To the Horseplace it is,"