View topic - Create A Clan- V.4 (2024)

Number of Cats: 15 | Next MoonCave Visit: Now | Pebbles: 52
Mod notes: No deaths yet please! And longhairs only please.

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{I forgot to add the 5 starter herbs when Berrypelt joined, so I'm adding one each of Hare's Ear, Bird Cherry, Cobwebs, Honey, and Willow Bark now}

TaigaClan's situation was dire. Half the Clan had already fallen ill to the strange illness, some had died already, and Roseleaf had yet to find an herb to cure it. Among the ill was Taimenstar, and even StarClan couldn't cure the sickness, because the leader had already lost several lives to it.

Camp had once been buzzing with activity on an evening like today's, now it was nearly deserted. Birchfur was over by the meager fresh-kill pile, Loachtail was sitting in the center of camp waiting for him, and of course the deputy Lizardfoot was sitting in front of the leader's den, keeping vigil for the dying leader. He'd been conversing with Taimenstar whenever the leader was lucid enough, making last minute preparations for his inevitable transition to leadership.

Birchfur grabbed a mouse from the pile and brought it over to Loachtail. "Sorry Loach, there's not much to pick from." The lynx point flopped down on the ground and gestured for his mate to take the first bite.

"I don't care, anything's fine as long as I'm eating it with you," the brown tabby purred. She took a delicate bite, then offered the mouse to Birchfur. The two took turns taking bites out of the mouse until nothing was left. Half a mouse wasn't much, but it took the edge off of Loachtail's hunger. She shared tongues with Birchfur, the two grooming each other in silence.

Loachtail stopped when she saw movement at the camp entrance. Morninglight emerged from the shrubbery, followed the rest of the dawn patrol. And then even more cats.

This drew Lizardfoot's attention from his vigil. "Morninglight? Your patrol should have been back ages ago! Where in StarClan's name have you been?!"

Morninglight's hackles were raised as he glared at the light brown tabby. "It's time to end this, Lizardfoot. I'm the leader TaigaClan needs right now!" And with a yowl, the cream tabby threw himself at the deputy.

---

"To sum it up, the plague starts similarly to whitecough, but doesn't respond to any treatment. The patient develops sores on the inside of their mouth, and a high fever. Their legs and face will swell, and the whites of their eyes will turn yellow. All you can do is isolate them from other cats and pray to StarClan that they'll be one of the lucky ones. We didn't isolate in time, because we didn't know it was so different from whitecough." The StarClan molly's green gaze burned into Berrypelt.

"Roseleaf," Berrypelt said soothingly, "Everything's going to be fine. It's not even whitecough. Alpinestripe and Owlpaw just have colds is all."

"I know. We just worry. Almost all of the original TaigaClan is here, and most of us from my time died of that illness. The thought of it coming back and destroying everything Mothstar has built is not one we take lightly."

"Almost?" Wolfpaw blurted out.

"All but two really," the dark ginger molly replied. "Mothstar is still alive of course - the last living cat of TaigaClan blood. And Morninglight never made it out of the Dark Forest. Never even tried for forgiveness, as far as I'm aware." Anticipating questions, Roseleaf quickly added, "He was a warrior who attempted a coup during the plagues. He died long before either of you were born."

A gray molly with one blue eye and one golden eye - Bluefrost - stepped forward. "It's time for you two to leave. Yarrowseed is waiting for you." The forests of StarClan swirled and faded away, and Berrypelt and Wolfpaw awoke on the cold stone floor of the the Mooncave. The two medicine cats made their way through the darkness out into the starlight to find not only Yarrowseed, but two other cats as well - one white, one ginger and white.

"Glad to have you back. These two have a request for Mothstar, but I didn't want to leave here without you."

"What kind of request?" Berrypelt asked.

"We'd like to join your Clan," the ginger one responded. "My name's Goldie, and this is my sister Cloud. Word's spread about a growing group of cats at the foot of the mountains here, and I thought it would be safer for us if we were living in a large group." As he spoke, Berrypelt noticed he was making strange motions with his paws, ears, and tail.

"Why are you moving like that?" Wolfpaw asked bluntly.

Goldie chuckled. "I'm translating for Cloud. She's deaf, so she and I communicate like this." Cloud motioned something to Goldie. "She says we can teach if you like, if we join your Clan."

Yarrowseed drew close to Berrypelt. "So what do you think. Shall we bring them to camp?"

"I don't see why not. We don't have enough warriors to mentor the kits we have right now, I'm sure Mothstar will be happy to let them join." With that, Berrypelt gestured for the sibling pair to follow, and the group of five headed to camp.
---

Sablepaw popped her head into the medicine den, a pair of mice dangling from her mouth.

"Right on time!" came Wolfpaw's chipper voice from deeper in the den. The gray apprentice gestured to a spot on the den floor. "You can put them there, Owlpaw and Alpinestripe are still sleeping. I'll give them their mice once they wake up."

Sablepaw did as Wolfpaw asked. "How are they doing?"

"Still got a bit of the sniffles, but with some more rest they should be fine. You know Owlpaw has been asking about you. You should come back later when she's awake, she really misses you."

Oblivious, Sablepaw cheerfully replied, "Yeah, me and Canarypaw miss her too! The apprentice den just feels so much smaller without our friend in it."

Wolfpaw rolled hir eyes. "Maybe one at a time so you don't crowd her. I gotta get back to sorting herbs now, you should go eat something for yourself before Mothstar picks who's going on the fox patrol."

"Good point. I want to put my new battle skills to the test, and I can't do that on an empty stomach!" Sablepaw excitedly dashed out of the den without waiting for a response. She ran over the the fresh-kill pile and snatched a pika for herself, then found a sunny spot to enjoy her meal. While she ate, she caught sight of Cloudtuft and Goldenflower sharing tongues. The brother-sister pair were settling in nicely to Clan life, and in the past few days Sablepaw had learned a handful of words in their sign language.

"Let all cats old enough to catch their own prey gather beneath the Highbranch for a Clan meeting!"

At Mothstar's call, Sablepaw wolfed down the last of her pika and dashed over. She eagerly awaited her mentor's words.

"As you all know, there's been a fox on TaigaClan territory for the past couple of moons. We've been unable to track it down until now. Unfortunately, the situation is worse than we thought. When Eagleclaw's patrol went out tracking the fox yesterday, they found its den. It has pups." Worried murmurs spread throughout the gathered cats. "This fox is not going to leave without a fight. I'll be leading the fox patrol, and coming with me will be Yarrowseed, Eagleclaw, Goldenfeather, and Sablepaw. Make any preparations you need to now, we leave as soon as possible." With that Mothstar jumped down and began talking to Yarrowseed.

Sablepaw trotted over to Canarypaw and Eagleclaw, her temporary mentor, excitedly. "I'm going to go help fight the fox!" she exclaimed.

"Be careful, this is your first real fight," Canarypaw replied. "Don't get co*cky, and come back in one piece! I've seen what foxes can do, and it's not pretty."

Eagleclaw flicked his tail impatiently. "I'm sure Mothstar has a good plan in mind. Let's go talk to them and get this over with." The two chosen cats walked over to join the other three, leaving Canarypaw behind. Sablepaw glanced back and saw Canarypaw trudging over to the apprentice's den.

"Listen up, I don't have time to be repeating myself. Sablepaw, Eagleclaw, Goldenfeather, and myself will be on the ground, we will surround the fox before it notices we're there. Yarrowseed, you'll be in the trees. On my signal, you'll drop down on top of the fox and the rest of us will rush in. We're not trying to kill it, just send a message. Understood?" Everyone nodded, and Mothstar lead the group out of camp. They traveled in grim silence, but Sablepaw was bubbling with excitement.

In the same moment that Sablepaw caught a whiff of fox, Mothstar signaled for the patrol to stop. Yarrowseed climbed a tree, and the other cats began to fan out through the foliage. Sablepaw caught a glimpse of red fur in a clearing.

Snap! A small twig broke beneath Sablepaw's paw. The world seemed to slow down. The fox lifted its head, its eyes fixed on the black apprentice. It charged straight at her, and she should have ran, but she stood there, frozen in fear. Sablepaw cringed, anticipating the fox's snapping jaws meeting her flesh.

Time returned to normal. A gray blur flew in between Sablepaw and the fox, and the fox sunk its fangs into it instead.

"Mothstar!" came Yarrowseed's grief-filled yowl from above, and she leaped down onto the fox's back, causing it to let go of the Clan's leader. Goldenfeather and Eagleclaw rushed it from the sides, and the three cats rained down a flurry of bites and scratches.

Sablepaw gingerly walked around her motionless mentor, and gasped at the sight. A wide gash passed through Mothstar's neck, and blood poured out into the dry soil.

"No no no no no, I'm sorry, I'm sorry! Please wake up!"

---

Mothstar opened their eyes, to see Loachtail's starry form standing in front of them. As they looked closer, they saw a second cat standing there, a barely visible outline.

"I died, didn't I?"

Loachtail purred soothingly. "It's just your first life, dear. You've got eight left. Just wait here a while, so your body can recover."

"Are the others alright?" Mothstar asked worriedly.

"They're fine. You saved Sablepaw's life you know, you should be proud of yourself." The two sat in silence for a while, until finally their grandmother spoke again. "Your body should be ready for you now. Go back to the living."

The world of StarClan faded to blackness, and Mothstar opened their eyes to see Sablepaw's big blue eyes looking back at them.

"Mothstar! You're alive! I'm so sorry it's all my fault, if I hadn't-"

Mothstar put a paw over Sablepaw's mouth to shush her. "Don't blame yourself. I had eight lives to spare, you've only got one. Is the fox taken care of?" They put their paw down.

"Yeah, Yarrowseed and the others chased it and the pups towards the border. I'm waiting for them to come back." Sablepaw pressed her face into Mothstar's fur. "I'm so glad you're back."

Mothstar placed a paw on their neck, where their fatal wound had once been. Now, they felt a massive scar crossing their neck.

"Hey! Sablepaw!" Goldenfeather's voice called out. Mothstar looked over to see the victorious patrol. They thankfully sported only minor scratches from their battle with the fox.

Mothstar stood up. "Goldenfeather! I take it everything went well?"

"R-right!" the ginger tom stammered. "You're alive, huh?"

"One of the benefits of leadership. We should head back now, a certain pair of kits will be waiting for their ceremony." Mothstar led the patrol back the camp. Things were initially awkward, but it didn't take long for the cats to start cheerfully joking around.

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Actions Taken:
The Clan eats one big fish and one pika (4 servings)
Sunkit is now Sunpaw and Yarrowseed's apprentice
Pikekit is now Pikepaw and Goldenfeather's apprentice
Mothstar, Sablepaw, Yarrowseed, and Sunpaw patrol the borders
Eagleclaw, Canarypaw, Goldenfeather, Pikepaw, and Cloudtuft go hunting
Mothstar trains Sablepaw
Eagleclaw trains Canarypaw in place of her ill mentor
Berrypelt and Wolfpaw gather herbs
Berrypelt trains Wolfpaw
Owlpaw and Alpinestripe rest
Mothstar requests a warrior
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