heeeeeeeeey guyyyyysssss. Uh, so, i kind of kept on putting this off, so i'm sorry it wasn't out earlier, but here it is now! ya!
also hooooooooooooly shiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiit. this is a monster. i didn't even mean for it to get this long, it just kind of... became this long?
-break-
As the gathering went on, more things came to light. ShadowClan's leader and deputy had become gravely ill and when they both died, Runningnose was left in charge and claimed to have seen a sign and proclaimed Darkstripe—Darkstar now—the leader of ShadowClan. Darkstar had returned many exiled cats to ShadowClan and made Blackfoot his deputy.
When it came time for Tigerstar to speak he did not address the fact that Darkstar was a former—and exiled—ThunderClan warrior. Fireheart felt frustration build in him, and after the gathering had ended, Fireheart pulled Tigerstar to the side.
"Why didn't you expose him!?" Fireheart asked Tigerstar accusingly. Tigerstar motioned for Fireheart to calm.
"The other leaders know that Darkstar was once of ThunderClan. I have no doubt that they have their suspicions, but for now it would be best to simply wait it out. If we attacked now we would have to fight through all nine of his lives." Fireheart's tail lashed, but he nodded.
-break-
The Clan waited in anxiety for almost a moon for ShadowClan to attack, but when nothing came all that was left in ThunderClan's mind was confusion. To combat this, Tigerstar made a decision.
"You want me to do what?" Fireheart asked, dumbfounded. Tigerstar rolled his eyes at him.
"I want you to mentor one of the kits." Tigerstar repeated. Fireheart tossed that thought around in his head. Realistically—when he thought about it hard enough—it would make sense for Fireheart to mentor any of them. He spent quite a bit of time with Graystripe and his kits, and after saving them, Fireheart had become a lot closer to Tigerstar's kits.
"Do you have a specific one in mind?" Fireheart asked hesitantly. Tigerstar smiled, realizing he had won Fireheart over.
"You'll simply have to wait and see." Tigerstar said, and Fireheart sighed audibly at Tigerstar's purposeful crypticness.
-break-
"Let all cats old enough to catch their own prey gather below the high rock for a Clan meeting!" Fireheart sat dutifully beneath the high rock as Tigerstar called out to his clanmates. The five six-moon-old kits trotted out of the nursery, heads held high.
"Five of our kits have reached the age of six moons, and are ready to become apprentices." Fireheart noted that Tigerstar was signing his words as he spoke them, and smiled softly.
"Bramblekit, Tawnykit, Featherkit, Stormkit, and Snowkit, from this day forward until you all receive your full names, will be known as Bramblepaw, Tawnypaw, Featherpaw, Stormpaw, and Snowpaw. Fireheart," Fireheart stood straighter as he was called on, "You were trained by Bluestar herself and have even trained Cloudheart. You will mentor Tawnypaw. I hope you pass on all you have learned unto her." Fireheart stepped forward and touched noses with Tawnypaw who almost shook with excitement.
"Brackenfur, you were trained in all you know by Graystripe, and you will pass on this knowledge to Bramblepaw." Fireheart heard Brackenfur softly say to Bramblepaw "Most of what I learned actually came from Fireheart—But don't tell Graystripe that" as they touched noses. It got a small giggle from Bramblepaw, which made Fireheart smile.
"Sandstorm, you were trained by Whitestorm, and it is far past time for you to pass on your knowledge to the next generation. I give you Featherpaw to train and guide to warriorhood." Sandstorm stepped forward and touched her nose to Featherpaw's.
"Cloudheart," Fireheart started at that, "You were trained by Fireheart and with what he has taught you, you will train Stormpaw." Cloudheart stood from where he sat next to Swiftstrike and Brightstorm—both of which were giving him supportive looks—and walked in front of Stormpaw, who jumped slightly to meet Cloudheart. The two laughed softly, and Fireheart felt an unexpected amount of pride and joy at his nephew becoming a mentor.
"Snowpaw," Fireheart's clanmates around him started murmuring slightly as Tigerstar addressed the apprentice before giving him a mentor, "Recently, you spoke with Cinderpelt and myself to see if you could pursue the life of a medicine cat." As Tigerstar signed what he had spoken, the cats of ThunderClan murmured louder around Fireheart, though Fireheart himself was only slightly surprised. He recalled the vision Snowpaw had described to Cinderpelt.
"After some discussion, Cinderpelt and I agreed that you would become a medicine cat. Cinderpelt will teach you all she can about being a medicine cat." Cinderpelt limped towards Snowpaw who straightened up and touched noses with her. Around Fireheart, ThunderClan began cheering out the new apprentices' names. Fireheart cheered out with them.
-break-
"Wow!" Bramblepaw meowed out, looking up at the trees surrounding them. Fireheart purred at his wonder, and watched as Tawnypaw tackled her brother into the leaves, surprising a hiss out of Bramblepaw. Next to Fireheart, Brackenfur laughed brightly.
"Cut it out you two! This is supposed to be serious!" Stormpaw yelled at his foster-siblings. The two sat up, Bramblepaw with leaves stuck to his pelt.
"Oh, come off of it, Stormpaw! There's no need to be such a downer!" Tawnypaw retorted back at the gray apprentice, who bristled with annoyance. His siblings laughed, and Cloudheart leaned down to give Stormpaw a reassuring lick. Stormpaw's fur flattened slightly, and the four mentors continued guiding their apprentices through the forest.
-break-
Two days passed, and it was time for the next gathering. Fireheart stood at the head of the group and waited by the edge of Fourtrees for Tigerstar and his Clan to catch up. The night breeze was warm with Greenleaf air as Fireheart looked down at the many cats gathered below.
"Enjoying the view?" Fireheart started slightly at the sound of a voice, but relaxed when he realized it was only Tigerstar.
"Enjoying the peace. Darkstar hasn't done anything yet, but I know he will." Fireheart mewed, tension easing into his voice.
"Let's hope he waits until next gathering." Tigerstar returned softly. ThunderClan made its way into the hollow and its cats started mingling with the other Clans. After some time had passed allowing for cats to speak among themselves, the gathering was called to start, and right as it did, another shock came to the cats below.
Leopardfur—or now Leopardstar, Fireheart supposed—stood next to the other leaders, tall and young and proud as a new leader could be.
"So, is it Leopardstar now? How has your Clan been fairing without Crookedstar?" Darkstar asked, teeth flashing at the golden she-cat. Leopardstar visibly mellowed.
"RiverClan is mourning its leader, but a new has risen from the ashes of the old." Leopardstar stated. "And with this new leadership comes a wish from my clan." Darkstar blinked at her.
"And what might that be?" Tallstar asked. Leopardstar turned to face Tigerstar.
"RiverClan asks that you return sunningrocks to their rightful owners." Cries of outrage came from all of ThunderClan, and Fireheart himself hissed at the remark.
"Like we would ever-" "Both of you, stop!" Tigerstar and Leopardstar looked at Tallstar for a long moment before turning away from each other.
"That is all on RiverClan's end." Leopardstar meowed before backing off.
"ThunderClan has had no new troubles recently-" Tigerstar shot a look at Darkstar, "-But we do have good news. Five of our kits have been apprenticed—Bramblepaw, Tawnypaw, Stormpaw, Featherpaw, and Snowpaw." The cats around Fireheart called out their new names, and Fireheart spotted the five apprentices sitting proudly and squished together. Fireheart smiled at the sight and soon the gathering was over, the Clans heading their separate ways.
"We cannot let them think that they can take sunningrocks from us!" Mousefur growled out on the return journey. The apprentices jumped up.
"Can we help fight them off? Can we!?" Tawnypaw asked, looking up with bright eyes at her mentor. Fireheart sighed.
"I'm afraid that you're a little too small and green to come with us in this fight," Fireheart felt his heart melt slightly as Tawnypaw deflated, "But I'm sure that you'd be much better help guarding the camp from any slimy fish-eaters that would dare to attack us while we were out defending the borders!" Tawnypaw brightened at this.
"Yeah! I'll show any of those water cats who might show up at camp who's in charge around here!" Tawnypaw meowed with bright and pure determination. Tigerstar cuffed her ears playfully.
"And who might that be?" He asked, a purr rumbling in his throat. Tawnypaw looked at her father in mock-seriousness.
"Fireheart, of course." Tigerstar put on a look of hurt.
"Cast aside by my own daughter!" He meowed pitifully. Fireheart laughed at them, and Bramblepaw jumped over to his sister to begin chatting with her. Tigerstar shot Fireheart a quick but warm glance, and something deep in Fireheart's chest began twisting itself into knots.
-break-
A plan of attack, er, defense in this case, was eventually plotted out. Two patrols would head over to Sunningrocks—one going directly from camp and the other taking a longer route to come out from treecutplace. Fireheart was to lead the first group and fight off as many RiverClan warriors as his group could until the second group—led by Longtail—arrived.
By the time Fireheart's patrol arrived, RiverClan cats were already starting to set up a border. Fireheart signaled for his patrol to wait, and once the cats circled around to ThunderClan's side of Sunningrocks, Fireheart and his patrol moved to attack.
Fireheart lunged forward—attacking the RiverClan deputy, Stonefur. The sleet gray cat at first was too shocked to do anything—allowing Fireheart to get a few blows in—but Stonefur retaliated soon after being attacked. Fireheart rolled off the tom and hissed at him.
"Sunningrocks belong to ThunderClan!" Fireheart growled. Stonefur reached out aiming to claw at Fireheart, but the orange tom ducked before the blow could hit him. Mistyfoot came up at Stonefur's side and for a moment, Fireheart thought he was done for when Sandstorm came up beside him and pushed back against the two RiverClan cats with Fireheart.
The four cats traded blows for some time before ThunderClan's ranks doubled. Stonefur looked around in worry as RiverClan started losing ground before he called out for retreat.
"RiverClan! Fall back!" Some cats of RiverClan looked relieved at this signal, while others looked enraged. All of RiverClan soon fled the rocks, though, and ThunderClan cried out in victory.
"Any major wounds on your end?" Longtail asked Fireheart after things had calmed down. Fireheart cast a nervous glance towards Fernpaw and Runningwind.
"Runningwind has a pretty big gash on his side. Most of it has scabbed over, but he should get back to camp soon." Longtail nodded.
"And what of the apprentices?" he asked. Fireheart brightened at that.
"Ashpaw and Fernpaw should be ready to become warriors. I didn't see their fighting, but Dustpelt claims they fought like all of LionClan." Longtail purred in amusement.
The trek back to camp was a tired, if victorious, one. On their way, they met up with Brackenfur and Bramblepaw.
"I assume the battle went well?" Brackenfur asked fearfully. Fireheart nodded, and Brackenfur sighed. He then perked up in thought.
"By the way, we went by snakerocks earlier and I noticed some dogscent. I didn't investigate, but maybe we should send someone to check that out." Brackenfur explained.
"I'll see who would be available after everyone's healed up." Fireheart agreed.
-break-
"Fireheart…" The addressed tom turned to face Longtail and Mousefur. He had sent the two to investigate the dogscent that supposedly was permeating around snakerocks.
"We went to snakerocks," Longtail started, voice somewhat shaky, "And we found scent of dogs all over them. Rabbit bones were also scattered here and there." Fireheart's eyes widened.
"There have to be at least three dogs living around there, all big from the pawprints." Mousefur went on. Fireheart nodded at the two.
"I'll talk to Tigerstar about it." Fireheart meowed before turning to the leader's den. After asking a couple cats, Fireheart learned that Tigerstar was in the medicine den. When he entered, Fireheart saw that Tigerstar was agitatedly speaking with Cinderpelt. Once Fireheart came into view, however, the two stopped. Tigerstar padded over to his deputy.
"What is it?" He asked softly. Fireheart blinked back towards Cinderpelt curiously before returning his gaze to Tigerstar.
"Yesterday, Brackenfur came to me with news of dogscent by snakerocks. Today, I sent Longtail and Mousefur to investigate these claims and it appears that there are multiple dogs residing in ThunderClan territory." Tigerstar growled and turned to exit the medicine den, gesturing for Fireheart to follow. The two reconvened at Tigerstar's den.
"How many dogs?" Tigerstar asked.
"From Longtail and Mousefur's report; at least three." Tigerstar once more let a growl rumble in his throat.
"We'll have to send a patrol to chase them out. They're by snakerocks, you said? Then we can chase them either into twolegplace or into ShadowClan." Fireheart nodded.
"Whitethroat and Littlecloud may have some objections to the second option." Tigerstar rolled his eyes at Fireheart.
"Fine. Into twolegplace then." Fireheart smiled at Tigerstar as the tabby tom went on about who to bring.
-break-
Runningwind had begged and pleaded to come on the mission, but remained confined to camp on the grounds that his wound was too serious to risk opening again. Fernpaw would be going without her mentor, which caused her only some worry. When patrol finally did make it to snakerocks, they were met with not three, not four, but five dogs. The canines were ruthless too.
The goal was either to simply lure them onto the Thunderpath for easy killings, or kill one of them to scare off the rest. Half of the patrol started racing off towards ShadowClan, getting two dogs to leave the group and go chasing after them. The remaining three stood stong with the largest standing in the front.
Tigerstar was the first to attack, leaping forward at the foremost dog. Fireheart joined him soon after, and quickly the area was filled with the sounds of battle. The dogs fought fiercely, but ThunderClan fought fiercer. Just as Ashpaw, Fernpaw, Dustpelt, and Whitestorm had chased off one of the dogs towards twolegplace, the largest dog—which Fireheart had been fighting—closed its jaws around Fireheart's scruff and shaking. Fireheart was thrown across the rocks and came to a rolling stop a couple fox-lengths away.
Fireheart was dazed but as he looked up, he saw the jaws of death moving towards him. Before they could get closer a ear-piercing yowl cut through the sounds and a tabby cat threw himself at the dog, clawing at its eyes. For a moment, Fireheart thought it was Tigerstar, but then as his eyes cleared, Fireheart realized he was looking at Runningwind!
Fireheart rushed to stand and help his clanmate when the dog slammed its head into the rocks and knocked Runningwind off. Fernpaw let out a devastated cry and hurled herself at the dog, Ashpaw following suit. Fireheart stared at Runningwind's prone form, horror filling his being as blood pooled around the tabby.
Fireheart looked up just in time to see Fernpaw slashing out the dog's throat. It collapsed to the ground, the last life in it sputtering out like a dying flame. The remaining dog took one look at what was likely its leader and turned tail. Fernpaw stood over the dog's body, breathing heavily, as Dustpelt came up beside her. Tigerstar walked to Runningwind's body and pressed his nose to the tom's fur. After a moment, Fireheart's leader spoke.
"Runningwind… Is gone." Fernpaw let out an anguished wail and rushed over to her mentor. Ashpaw and Dustpelt stood on both sides of her, providing comfort. Fireheart didn't notice Tigerstar walking over to him until he was pulled up onto his paws. Green eyes met empty amber ones, and Fireheart felt worry overshadow guilt and sadness. But for now, he didn't dare speak.
-break-
When the patrol returned to camp, Mousefur could only stare in horror and disbelief as her brother's body was pulled to the center of camp. Longtail met her and whispered apologies to Mousefur.
After the Clan had mourned and buried their fallen friend, Tigerstar leapt up onto the high rock.
"Today we have lost a clanmate. Runningwind was… many things to many of us. A brother… A mentor… And a friend. But most of all, he was our family… All of ours. And he will forever be missed." The clan all bowed their heads for a moment in remembrance. For a moment, Fireheart recalled his first day as an apprentice—the day Redtail died.
"Runningwind also had an apprentice; Fernpaw." The speckled gray she-cat lifted her head to meet Tigerstar's gaze.
"After Runningwind was defeated, Fernpaw and her brother—Ashpaw—fought and killed the dog that claimed Runningwind's life. She more than proved herself in my eyes and certainly in the eyes of her late mentor. So for that, I believe it is time for them to become more than apprentices." The siblings looked at each other before stepping forward before Tigerstar.
"I, Tigerstar, leader of ThunderClan, call upon my warrior ancestors to look down on these apprentices. They have trained hard to understand the ways of your noble code, and I commend them to you as warriors in their turn. Ashpaw, Fernpaw, do you both promise to uphold the warrior code, and protect and defend your clan—even at the cost of your life?" The two former apprentices stood taller.
"I do." They both said. Tigerstar smiled down at them.
"Then by the powers StarClan has granted me, I give you your warrior names. Fernpaw, your warrior name will be Fernbreeze. StarClan commends you for your bravery and heart. Ashpaw, your warrior name will be Ashcloud. StarClan commends you for your cunning and intellect, and we welcome both of you as full warriors of ThunderClan!" Fireheart's clanmates burst into cheer for the young warriors, Fireheart included.
After everything had subsided, Fireheart spotted Tigerstar by his den, looking up at the stars overhead with a saddened look. Walking over, Fireheart caught the attention of his leader.
"Tigerstar? Are you alright?" The tabby tom gave Fireheart a long look, before inviting Fireheart into his den.
"Patchpelt and Halftail were elders, and thus their deaths were… not guaranteed, and certainly not lesser, but… They were old. And with age comes weakness and I remember how much they hated being weak. In StarClan they will be young again…" Fireheart blinked at Tigerstar's words. "But Runningwind was young. He was spirited and had so much life left in him. If he had just stayed in camp—"
"Tigerstar," Fireheart spoke softly, "Don't blame yourself for his death. It was his choice to come and fight, and perhaps if he had stayed in camp he would've lived, but that's no guarantee that no one else would have died. He will be missed, but don't make his sacrifice for nothing." Tigerstar looked at Fireheart, and for a moment nothing was said between the two.
"Thank you, Fireheart. I… I think I needed that." Fireheart nodded to Tigerstar and turned to leave.
"Wait-" Fireheart stopped and turned back to Tigerstar, "Do you think… Could you maybe… stay?" Fireheart smiled softly at Tigerstar's fumbled request, and sat back down next to the tom. Tigerstar's eyes showed his thankfulness and Fireheart felt that feeling again. Fireheart rested his head on his paws and closed his eyes.
After some time, Fireheart felt Tigerstar's breathing even out and he cracked an eye open. What he was met with somewhat surprised Fireheart. Tigerstar looked so… Unguarded and young asleep. For a moment Fireheart recalled words that had been spoken to him in a dream, but they were washed away too quick for Fireheart to completely remember.
Fireheart closed his eyes once more and let sleep come over him, a smile on his face and warmth in his heart.
-break-
and it's revealed that im gay! Fire's gay! Tiger's probably gay? who knows? haha yeah. thoughts? anybody?