"May all cats old enough to catch their own prey please gather beneath Skyrock for a Clan meeting!" Aurorastar yowled. The dawn patrol had just returned with, as usual, nothing to report. The huge clan swarmed beneath the rock, and the white she-ca waited for the general hubbub to die down. "SkyClan, you all know that our Clan is large, very large. We cant fit into our dens anymore, and we barely have enough mentors for our apprentices. We are overcrowded. " A young warrior named Grasswing shouted, "I'll say!" Fixing her with a glare, Aurorastar continued. " Last night, Plumwillow came to me with an idea, and idea I thought about and thought about, and discussed over and over with my deputy. But this plan will never work unless the Clan wants it to happen." She paused for effect and the Clan waited expectantly. "We want to split our Clan into four Clans, like the way it was in the old forest, where Firestar came from. We would each have our own territories, and we would share our news peacefully at Gatherings. But we would each have a smaller territory and fight any cat who crossed our borders."She let the Clan absorb this as they erupted into mutters and conflicts, without trying to be quiet. After a minute, Aurorastar waved her tail for silence. " All those in favor, please stand so I can see how many of you want to." More than three-quarters of the Clan stood. "Okay, those not in favor, please stand." A sole few cats stood, looking around furiously at their disagreeing clanmates. "Then it is settled. We will have four Clans!"
Several cats tried to ask questions at once. Aurorastar silenced them, then said, "Berrypaw, you first." The red-furred she-cat stood and called, "Do we get to choose which Clan to go with?" The leader answered, "I will do my best to choose wisely in which clans to put each cat, but I will be choosing. If you disagree, you may of course take it up with me and I will try and suit your desires. Nightstrike, your question?" Berrypaw sat down looking slightly put out, and Nightstrike stood, his black pelt reflecting the glare of the sun. "Who will be leader, deputy, and medicine cat of the new Clans?" Without hesitating, she replied, "StarClan will decide that. Falconkit?" The tiny brown tabby she-cat squeaked, "Can I be in a different Clan than Applekit?" The Clan chuckled; Applekit was Falconkit's only sister, and the two never quit fighting. "I don't know about that, Falconkit. Your mother can only be in one Clan, and she has to care for you both," reminded Aurorastar gently. "Snowflight?" The fluffy white medicine cat inquired, "What will the new Clans be called? And where will they live?"
"There will be four Clans, one for each element. FlareClan, IceClan, StoneClan, and, obviously, SkyClan. The territories will all be divided equally in a conglomerate territory that covers an area only somewhat larger than current SkyClan territory. Every Clan will have a camp and good places for prey, we will make sure of that. Owlfeather?" The beautiful queen asked sharply, "Has Starclan spoken its approval for the Clan splitting?" Aurorastar dipped her head. "I believe they have. I was sent a sign. Though I am bound by the code not to speak of it to you, it seemed quite clear that they agreed. If I misinterpreted, you'll be the first to know." The mottled silver, black, and white queen dipped her head.
"If any cat has more questions, or has an overwhelming desire to be in one Clan or another, come see me in my den. But remember, I can't please everyone, and you'll just have to deal with what you get." Aurorastar said briskly, then leaped from Skyrock to a ledge that lead to her den. The Clan below burst into chatterings, and Plumwillow caught a few smatterings of conversation; Flowerbreeze's kits begging to be in IceClan, two love-struck young warriors with their tails tightly twined, vowing to be put in the same Clan, and a crotchety denmate of hers by the name of Toadclaw saying gruffly, "I'm not going anywhere." Shaking her fur, she once again made the climb to the leaders den, followed by several other cats.
"Aurorastar!" she called, and the white she-cat summoned her in. "Plumwillow." she greeted, rasping her tongue over one snowy paw. "Must be getting tired of me, I expect." chuckled the elder. "Not at all! I am always glad to have your advice. Sometimes, I don't know what I'd do without your guidance. You've been a good friend to me, and you were one of the first cats born in SkyClan. I expect you'll want to stay here, given that?" It took Plumwillow a few moments to answer, as she was recovering from the unexpected show of friendship from Aurorastar. "Actually, umm, the opposite. I think each of the new Clans should have one of the oldest elders, because frankly, they know the most about forming a new Clan, and the most about the warrior code. Not to boast, but we have just been around longer."
Unoffended, the leader nodded. "I suppose you're right. Once again, your advice is gratefully accepted. Why weren't you ever made leader?" chuckled Aurorastar. "I got too old. I was deputy in my day, you know, but then I got hurt and never really recovered. Spent the rest of my days in the elders den, and here I am." The she-cat's mismatched eyes widened. "Really? I'd never known..." Plumwillow dipped her head. "Cats don't talk about it much." Aurorastar nudged her shoulder in a friendly way. "I'll make sure they do; that you're remembered. Is there a specific Clan you would like to join?"Plumwillow shrugged and shook her head. "Doesn't matter. But Egg should probably go with whichever clan gets the territory with the river; he was the best fisher I'd ever seen in his day, and I bet he could still teach the warriors." The white cat simply nodded, and Plumwillow took the hint. "Guess I'd better be off; there's a line out there." she slipped out of the den, past all the waiting cats, and returned to her own den.
Most of her denmates were milling about outside with the other Clan members, or hunting, so it would be just her and sweet old Larkwhisper, the kindest cat Plumwillow had ever known; and her son's old mate, before he had died. She curled up in her nest and fell asleep.
Back on the other side of camp, Ravenwing had waited in line until it was her turn to speak with Aurorastar. The she-cat invited her in and asked what her issue was. "I don't really have an issue, I was just wondering if I could take a patrol out to look for possible camps, good places for boundaries and such." she said coolly. "That'll be fine. Only take three or four cats with you though, because everyone's going to want to go, and you don't want a huge patrol." Ravenwing nodded, and turned to leave, but Aurorastar forestalled her. "Oh, and Ravenwing? Make sure to take a daylight-warrior. They will be involved too." Ravenwing wanted to roll her eyes; her best friend was a daylight warrior; did her leader really think she was prejudiced against them? "Yes, Aurorastar."
She walked over to the warriors den and spotted the cat she was looking for. "Adderclaw!" The striking tabby tom turned around and caught her eye. "Aurorastar wants me to take out a patrol, look at the territory and see if there are any good places for camps. I have a place or two in mind. You want to come?" She asked, a little shyly. "Love to. Who else are you taking?" Ravenwing gave him a pleased look and answered, "I was thinking just you, me, our apprentices, and one other... Maybe Jasmineflight?" Ravenwing named her best friend, a daylight warrior that was striking in all aspects; She had fiery red fur that was curled tightly, and huge bat-like ears. Her eyes were ice blue, and she was crazy. Adderclaw winked and said, "I'm up for an adventure any day." Ravenwing's heart was melting, but she just gave him a small smile back and darted off to fetch her apprentice.
Darkpaw, Ravenwing's apprentice, was curled in the sun with a few of his denmates, including Adderclaw's apprentice, Sunpaw. "Darkpaw, Sunpaw, we're going on patrol." said the sleek black she-cat, appreciating the irony of their conflicting names. "Yes, we're coming..." murmured Sunpaw, drinking in a little more sun before stretching and standing. Ravenwing whisked back to Adderclaw, who had found Jasmineflight and was kneading his paws excitedly. The two apprentices trailed behind. "What are we doing? Hunting? Border patrol?" questioned Darkpaw, ears pricked. "Nope and nope. We're finding camps and boundaries for the new Clans!" At this, the drowsy apprentices perked up. "Really?" Adderclaw answered for her. "Really."
The five cats set off, heading for the woods. The trees shielded them from the blazing sun, and it was blissfully cool compared to the heat of the gorge. Dappled patches of sunshine occasionally shone through the canopy of leaves to shed light on the patrol's pelts. They slowed as they approached the part of the forest that had been ravaged by the forest fire seasons ago. The pine trees' needles were still a burnt orange, and the few deciduous trees that still stood were charred and leafless. It was a place that spoke of fear.
They continued on, until Sunpaw stumbled over the trunk of a fallen tree and landed with an "oof" in the bed of burnt pine needles. "You okay?" called Adderclaw, who was a little ways behind, scenting the air for prey. "Yeah!" called back Sunpaw, embarrassed. he didn't answer for a while, then called uncertainly, "Ravenwing, Jasmineflight... I may have found a camp." The two she-cats bounded back toward him as Darkpaw said with surprise, "Here?"
They drew closer to where Adderfang was standing, and followed his gaze. He was right; this place was perfect. Fallen, burned trees formed impenetrable walls in an oval-ish shape on three side, with a gap about the width of a cat with its tail stretched to full length, standing sideways. A pile of rocks protected the entrance so that it was much harder to get in that out. A huge tree had half fallen down above the enclosure, but lay safely with the upper third tucked in the fork of an even bigger tree, some twenty fox-lengths away. It's branches would provide cover from the rain, and there were dunes of earth and pine needles that would make digging dens easy. Sapling trees grew around the outside, and they would protect the camp even more in a few years' time. A section of fallen tree lay in the camp, another possible place for a den.
"Adderclaw... It's perfect! Just think, by this time next moon, we could be living here!" He nodded absently. "Yeah... I suppose we could. I don't particularly fancy the idea of leaving the place I've grown up in though. I hope we stay SkyClan." Ravenwing looked at him, a little surprised. "There is that, but wouldn't it be exciting to be one of the first members of a brand new Clan? Anyway, we should keep looking around..."
A/N: Sorry for the two-perspective chapter, which I feel hypocritical for doing since I don't normally like different points of view in the same chapter, but it would be strange for a very old elder to be out on patrol... Oh, and Jasmineflight is a curly-haired Abysinnian cat, very rare and expensive housecat. I don't like them but it adds personality. Thank you, Whirlwind-44, for reviewing and giving me a name for one of my Clans :) I would appreciate any reviews from anyone, good or bad! Next chapter will hopefully be up in the next couple days. I'll put up an allegiances once the Clans are all split up.