The Graveyard
Clan cats are very different than domesticated cats: they’re bigger, stronger, and better at fighting. However, ShadowClan cats aren’t like the other Clans, who rely on digging for graves and tunnels. Their paws are small, and they aren’t built for digging like the other Clans.
Since ShadowClan can’t dig as well as the others, when cats die, they don’t bury them. Instead, they drag their dead to what they call the Graveyard. There, they pretty much feed their dead Clanmate to the crows. The other Clans see this as gruesome and dark, and some apprentices are interested in seeing it, event trespassing onto ShadowClan’s territory to see it. Of course, they were caught and brought home.
ShadowClan believes that they are giving back to nature by letting the crows eat them, and that this was sort of like a peace offering: crows are signs of death, if ShadowClan let the crows eat them, the believed they were keeping their Clan safe from death. It’s the circle of life: the crows eat the cats, the crows die and get eaten by the worms and bugs, the bugs get eaten by the birds, and the cats eat the birds.
The first cat to be eaten by the crows was a ShadowClan medicine cat, Mistcreek; she was deathly afraid of the crows, saying that they spoke to her, telling her that if ShadowClan didn’t bow to them, they would send a plague to wreak havoc on ShadowClan. Mistcreek begged her leader, Tansystar to order their Clan to stop eating the crows, but they wouldn’t listen. ShadowClan needed prey and crows were plentiful. They wouldn’t stop eating them just because Mistcreek thought the birds were speaking to her.
So, the crows’ words came true: a horrible sickness plagued ShadowClan, leaving them with few warriors. Even Mistcreek’s apprentice passed away. Mistcreek’s den was full, and many warriors tried to convince Tansystar to listen to Mistcreek and stop eating the crows. When Tansystar go sick, her lives were being ripped away one by one, and her deputy, Pepperclaw, listened to her warriors, punishing any cat who ate the crows.
Then, Mistcreek got sick. The small Clan did all they could to keep her alive, but nothing worked. When she died, she uttered her last words: “The crows will not stop until they’ve had their revenge. We must give back after taking from them for so long.”
The same day she died, Tansystar passed away as well. Pepperclaw and her Clan took the leader and medicine cat to a place near the end of Clan territory and lay them both there. Crows circled them, glaring at them with beady eyes. Pepperclaw lay her dead Clanmates in front of them and they cried out, leaping down from the trees and hopping over to them. One crow stepped forward and bowed its head to Pepperclaw.
“Thank you, young leader,” it crowed. “As a reward for heeding our words, we will take the plague away from you.” As it stepped over to Mistcreek, it added, “The cat who will take the place of this cat shares our name.”
Once they returned home, Pepperclaw named a young apprentice, Crowpaw, the new medicine cat, and he took up his new job happily, trained by ThunderClan’s medicine cat. Pepperclaw was named Pepperstar, and Crowpaw was named Crowcall. Pepperstar made one rule as leader: no cat shall eat the crows on ShadowClan territory, and all their dead will be given to them as a peace offering. Every cat who defied this law seemed to disappear from Clan territory entirely, but some swear they find bits of their Clanmates’ fur left in the Graveyard.
I thought I’d upload something a little spooky for October. I like the idea of ShadowClan having some dark way of getting rid of their dead and this was the best thing I could come up with. So ye. Hope you enjoyed, happy early Halloween.