I've realized what one of the flaws in the series is now that's a more subtle flaw.
Aside from Purdy... No one has a "way of speaking". Everyone sounds the same. So much formal speak is used now, and mind you with cats in leader positions I imagine there would be an expectation of sorts, I can't imagine Mistystar accepting anything less than PERFECT grammar.
But a cat like Graystripe? He'd love weird contraction words! Man says "y'ain't" unironically!
Dovewing using big words and long complex phrases until she leaves Thunderclan and challenges herself to use as few words as possible for a while to break the habit...
Hollyleaf The Nerd accidentally taught her the habit in the first place, mind. Get a chair and some water when Holly gives a speech, you'll be there for a while.
Jayfeather on the other hand? Learn to speak grunt.
Lionblaze picks up mannerisms from EVERYONE. Slang from Daisy and Berrynose, a little "y'know?" From Cinderheart, and you can catch him say "um" the same way Leafpool does from his brief time as Cleric apprentice.
Squirrelflight would often speak too quickly so sometimesshetalkslikethis...
Hmm... Bit hard to read.
I'll-write-it-like-this! Squirrelflight!
Skybranch (Twigbranch) stumbles over words and tries to pick them as carefully as possible. A-uh A lot of the time, she'll kinda talk like this? I think, uh, I think that's good. Right? Yeah. Should be okay.
Where cats like, say, the aforementioned Mistystar, take a very high-class tone. A cat like Mistystar would not lower herself to using foul language, like the Thunderclan warrior, Spotfur. There would simply be no need for it.
And Spotfur thinks that that's badger bullocks! Swears express your passion, dammit!
But... Yeah. The way people speak and talk, tells you a LOT about them.
Instead of folk songs (sorry it just sounded very boring to me 😭) , each clan has its own —more modern— music genre.
ThunderClan : ThunderClan is the land of the average, of the common, of the general idea of everything. So Pop wasn't a difficult choice. I do see Brightheart as a singer with a mitski vibe to her!! Squirrelflight would like more rave-scene music, while Leafpool would create a flute out of sticks and sing beautiful songs to her loved ones.
RiverClan : videoclub. French music. French romantic gentle music. RiverClan = France.
ShadowClan : Rap was the obvious choice. Any kind of rap,... Imagine Blackstar singing all on Eminem. But also, a part of ShadowClan would sing rock, metal, hard metal, punk, etc. too, and I'm HERE for it.
WindClan : Gentle, coping music. Maybe people like mitski, Kate bush, Alex g, you know that stuff.
SkyClan : SkyClan is the gen z kitties. They like rave music. They LOVE rave music. 2008 kinda shi.
The Tribe of Rushing Water : now THEY use old ancient music. Like some medieval times music or even older.
WarriorClan : just think of the last song that came out and was popular on TikTok. Yeah that one.
In all of this, I've thought to myself. WARRIOR CATS CLAN BATTLES..... BUT ITS A SONG BATTLE!!!!
[image ID= Four pale brown simple representations of cat heads, with symbols overlaid on top of them. Symbols described below. /end ID]
RiverClan's symbol comes from the river that borders their territory. The River feeds and protects the Clan, and they believe the river's power to give and take life is part of the cycle of life.
ShadowClan's symbol is the pinecone, one of the most familiar sights on the forest floor during leaffall. Generations of ShadowClan warriors have observed pinecones and seen how they work - the cone's protection of its seeds mirror how they protect one another, and open cones signal dry weather. They're often used by warriors to draw prey to certain areas of the forest to practice ambushing birds.
ThunderClan's symbol is the flash of lightning, which often accompanies the rumble of thunder. Storms are an important part of Clan culture - storms are a good omen, bringing rain to the forest and making the best battle conditions. They believe that the strongest kits are born during a storm.
WindClan's symbol is a swirl of dust for the wind. They are most attuned to the feeling of wind ruffling their pelts, and instinctively they learn to follow the direction of the wind. Without wind, seeds would not be scattered and the air would be still, allowing no birds to fly over the moor.
cloudtail’s daughter — worldbuilding & logistical things
so i've been working on an au re. dovewing being the direct child of cloudtail and brightheart. check out my cloudtail's daughter tag for more info, because i'm basically just jumping in this time with minimal context.
that said, i think this is relatively self-contained. it's mostly thoughts about the world of warriors, lumped in with specific changes for the au purposes.
[3.8k words, 14 min read. section headers, very long paragraphs. paragraphs in parathesis and italics are sidebars that can be skipped. a lot of spelling mistakes because my grammer checker cuts me off after like 2k words. sorry.]
section one: po3
so i've said before i want to minimize the changes made specifically in po3 for the purposes of this au. a) because that means i only have to keep track of 6 books worth of content (i've given myself through bramblestar's storm to get to the point where it could mostly fit into canon, but for reasons that are obvious re. my dovewing/tigerheart take, tigerheart's shadow would be a little weird, but not out of canon. anyway we don't get any tigerheart pov in this so who knows what he's thinking.)
anyway, hollyleaf plays a significant role in the ending three books of the rewrite, getting her own pov in book 4 the forgotten warrior. so she can't go exactly the same way it happens in po3. i need her back in thunderclan by book 2 for beavers, not book 5. also, she still needs to end up mates with fallen leaves. because changing that would count as a major series change that could have an impact on the future continuity and this series rewrite is intended to be fairly self contained.
right. so hollyleaf has her shit a bit more together, but she still kills ashfur and goes into the tunnels. the difference is we're ignoring the entire hollyleaf's story novella. don't get me wrong, it was a really good novella, but she doesn't have that much time. i'm not interested in figuring out the details of what happens, but she returns to the clans either before book one or in book one, i haven't decided. she continues to see fallen leaves fairly regularly, though, including spending irregular nights with him. everyone just kind of...accepts hollyleaf's ghost boyfriend, because no one wants to upset hollyleaf again.
lionblaze's personality is not entirely nonexistant in po3, contrary to popular opinion, but he does have to support an entire book in this rewrite, and it's the weakest book in the arc, so he's gotta have something. i've nudged him to be a bit gregarious and open. you know, big and friendly and warm. terrifying in battle though.
jayfeather ends on much better terms with brightheart. i know he doesn't really end on a bad note with her, but this is also to help story flow a bit.
other changes will, i'm sure, crop up here and there, but those are the three major ones. i've got tonnes of changes i'd like to make, but i'm keeping it minor. (notably, if it were up to me, jayfeather would do his back in time sequence once, not twice, and it would be in omen of the stars. hollyleaf's ghost boyfriend would add more solid ground to it, and that would be established in book 2, but as i've decreed the rules, it is not up to me.
also, dovekit and jaykit would be siblings, and dovepaw would become the medicine cat dovefeather, and jaypaw would be the warrior jaywing. that's a bigger change though for a different au.)
section two: family dynamics & a bit of genetics
so one thing i really like in omen of the stars is how close dove/ivy/white are. it's really cute. cloudtail and dovekit are super close in the first book, and brightheart, dovekit, and ivykit are going to stay close throughout their lives. (cloudtail will also stay close with his daughters, but dovewing and ivypool consistently look to whitewing for support, and brightheart is good for that too.)
i have whitewing as still existing because age wise, i think it makes sense for brightheart to have her younger litter at dovekit and ivykit, than for them to be her first litter and for amber/dew/snow continue to exist. (in my hypothetical jaywing/dovefeather au, this is reversed.)
i'm not keen on her being close with her younger sisters. i do think, for future story purposes, whitewing and birchfall would have amber/snow/dew. this is a super unimportant change because the only part of that litter that matters is that lilykit is fostered so that lilyheart can then foster twigkit and violetkit, and there's 0 reason that whitewing can't be responsible for that.
(be honest, did you even remember that chain of events? did you even remember who raised lilykit? did you even remember sorreltail was her birth mother who died? yeah, that's what i thought.)
anyway, i've danced around the specific genetics of how we get a grey dovekit from a white cloudtail and a red brightheart, and you may think, "matthew, one paragraph isn't dancing around it," and that's because you have no idea how much i care about this and how much i have to say about this. if you don't want to read 1.3k words about cat genetics, skip to the next section. the last two paragraphs is the only part that's even kind of important.
so. i've put a whole lot of thought into this. because obviously dovekit is responsible for being grey to make the whole bit work about her, you know, being dovekit, and dovekit must be dovekit for dove's gentle wings to work. so this is important.
i'm going to walk through the two options: tortie brightheart and tortie dovewing. (*technically, calico brightheart and either for dovewing, but i'm keeping it brief.)
(an aside that's totally skipable: so there is a gene on the extension locus E/e which causes cats born black to turn to amber, which definitely could be brightheart, but it's pretty rare, so i'm sticking with my calico assumptions. that said, in brightheart's official art, there is a black ring around her nose, implying a very specific silver tabby to amber deal. given her kit coat isn't described anywhere i can find it, i'd say it's actually the best description of brightheart. that said, best description is not the most likely. anyway, if this were the case, i wouldn't need all of this write up. so know that there's an easy solution, but i'm choosing to ignore it because of its rarity and because i don't want to check if brightheart could have inherited the silver genes she would have had to for this to work. it's definitely possible, given that frostfur has the same deal as cloudtail, see below, and lionheart could be golden --- as in the formal word for a cat with certain genes, a color linked to silver, but, well, i just can't find it likely. i'll add a short description of how it would work at the very end of this though.)
in either case, cloudtail is the same, so i'll address him first.
so, cats have four genes on the white allele, Wd, Ws, w, and wg. Wd is dominant white, and it could be what cloudtail has, but since he has blue eyes, it would be likely for him to be deaf, and, because it's dominant, there's a low chance that neither dovekit nor ivykit inherit it. is what i would be saying if whitewing wasn't his first daughter. she is also solid white with blue eyes, so to me, that makes me thing he has Wd- (as in, any other gene.)
the other option, Ws, requires him to be WsWs to be fully white, and brightheart to be either WsWs or Ws- for whitewing to inherit WsWs. given that ambermoon and dewnose are not fully white, it seems that brightheart is Ws- and cloudtails is Wdw (or Wdwg) in order for their theoretical image to be correct.
(an aside of even less importance: ambermoon's father was not cloudtail. the short explanation is that she shares one X chromosome with princess, who was XX --- see my discussion of tortoiseshells below, we know princess wasn't one, so she can't be XXo --- and one with brightheart, who's XXo or XoXo. therefore, ambermoon and princess cannot both have accurate canon descriptions because one of them needs to be a tortie. i think it's more likely she was sired by a red tom. yes, it is possible for kits in the same litter to have different sires, and yes, that is necessary, because no one else has dominant white in thunderclan AFAIK. this means making her birchfall and whitewing's gives a bit more wiggle room in all this. a bit. she could also have the same thing covered on brightheart in the above slide, but that's complicated for other reasons.)
brightheart is almost certainly Wsw or Wswg. they're not both wgwg because that leaves no options for ambermoon, who i'm interpretting as not having any white. cloudtail inherits from princess wg because of birman gloving demonstrating on her white paws (there are other ways, but given her description, which fits it almost identically, i'm going with that.) so for white, we have Wdwg for cloudtail and Wsw for brightheart.
ivypool inherits Wswg so she can have her inconsistent white, and dovewing inherits wwg.
now, we don't know anything about cloudtail's father, except that he's white too (or cloudtail couldn't be white.) princess is light brown tabby, which is something i'm having a hard time deciding her genetics for, so we'll work back to that (neither of the obvious options leads to a cat that looks like princess, because of how tabbies work, the combination is likely not to be obvious anyway) if i decide we need her genetics.
right so for dovewing to be solid grey, two things must be true: cloudtail and brightheart must be either Dd or dd (dilution). brightheart, i don't believe, is dilute, because i've seen cream on cats and it's far closer to sandstorm's color than brightheart, so i'm calling her Dd. cloudtail can be either.
dovewing is dd, and so is ivypool. that's how you get light grey.
now, either cloudtail or brightheart have to have a B- black phenotype. (special case included, if you read the aside) and i think it's more likely to be cloudtail. then, brightheart can be blbl, which is cinnamon, and would help hide her tortie-ness. (we're covering that later.)
at this point, dovewing is more or less settled. if you're comfortable with this type of genetics, you can probably work it out. dovekit inherits B-/dd/wwg, and she's everything we need. the fact that she's not a tabby does kind of matter, but not really, because the nonagouti gene is recessive so even if cloudtail was a masked tabby, he can still be Aa and brighheart can be Aa, so she won't show. that makes dovewing B-/dd/wwg/aa, for those following along at home.
ivypool is a tabby, so she'd be B-/bb/Ws-/A-.
okay, we have the core of them settled down. there's a lot more that goes into types of tabbies, but that doesn't really matter here. the last bit that matters is the tortie issue.
as is a somewhat commonly known fact, tortie cats are almost always female, because the phaeomelanin (red pigment) gene in cats is sex linked to Xo (vs X for eumelanin, the black gene). this is expressed as O/o when discussing the specific gene, but since we only care if its dominant, the XO/Xo distinction is slightly faster to type if X means black and Xo means orange.
anyway, these are codominant, if a cat has two, they'll be expressed at random. that's how tortie cats exist. since for the vast majority of cases, only female cats have two X chromosomes, only female cats can be XXo.
(as an aside, that's another reason for the clans to find sol strange. i know the clans have a lot of male calicos, but sol was the most distinctive one, since redtail died in the prologue and i can't recall any others off the top of my head.)
anyway, dovewing needs to inherit XX to be fully black (grey), so brightheart needs to be tortie to pass on one to her and remain orange. alternatively, brightheart is XoXo and dovewing is a tortie. i'm sticking with brightheart tortie because that's actually how i pictured her, so i like it better, but it doesn't really matter, since the cream on dilute torties is actually rather subtle.
ivypool is the same as dovewing, although she could be a tortie if dovewing isn't and brightheart is, something i quite like the idea of.
now, for option 3, the cryptic option in the aside. basically, to summarize, you can get black cats who turn orange over time. the end result is a cat who looks very much like brightheart if they start silver tabbies (like ivypool could be), up to the black ring around her nose in the official art. that makes it the best way to describe brightheart.
however, it's pretty rare, so i chose to ignore it for my analysis. if brightheart did have this gene, then nothing would change about dovekit and ivykit from their canon descriptions, nor would her's change, except for her apprentice art, which would need to be updated as spreading orange over silver.
this is also the only option that gives us fully red ivykit, something i have decreed adorable.
over 1k words about cat colors later, here's my take: dovewing and ivypool with somewhat mirrored tortie spots (they'll never be perfectly mirrored, both because ivypool has white and because its entirely random) is cute and adds something extra to all of that art where they're mirrored.
i'd rather have straight red brightheart because she's got so much art very clearly not calico, and i'd rather have the two sisters match each other for cinematic drama than change brightheart. the accurate thing to do would be calico brightheart because it could be easily hidden by the right genes on the B locus, but i don't want to do that. so. i hope this was illustrative.
section three: clan culture
this here has no impact on plot but i've read a lot of worldbuilding stuff developing distinct cultures for the clans and honestly, that's why i'm so sad book 6 takes place with two shadowclan narrators. unfortunately, dovewing and ivypool are, like, crucial to the success of the clan cats, so they need to be there.
that said, were i to write this, i would certain write novellas for lionblaze and jayfeather.
anyway, i'm going to take what we've come to see as "standard clan culture" as thunderclan culture. they have a good deal of contact not with twolegs but with kittypets (compared to the opposite for riverclan) in the old terretory, so it makes sense they developed a more rigid, militeristic life, less free and less spiritual than the other clans necessarily. they're trying to be tough in front of the kittypets.
riverclan is just kinda...chill. they like flowers and shiny things. they copy twolegs because its fun (cats irl do this because they want to be like you --- being like you seems safe to them, but these kitties do it because its fun.)
so they make, not flower crowns because, no thumbs, but certainly weave flowers into den walls and leave petals places. (to everyone who keeps putting things on cats heads, please try doing that with the most patient domestic cat you know, and then i'll let you quietly correct yourself. i mean, continue doing it for fun, but if you seriously think that's possible...)
i do like the idea of them making wreathes its just, like, no opposable thumbs guys. maybe the medicine cats do it for religious holidays.
anyway, they have patrols far less regularly than thunderclan. they're also the most true to real cat schedules: most active at dawn and dusk. that's when fish are active.
so they're not lazy, sleeping all day, they get up earlier than all but the earliest risers in thunderclan and shadowclan. (windclan wakes up early too, we're getting to them.)
they also make shrines, but they don't really have a ton of weight to them. they're copying what they see.
when cats die, however, the trinkets lining their nests are dispersed to their loved ones, and one or two are added to a collective pile/arrangement somewhere. riverclan has been pretty clear their nests float (although i can't tell you why, considering they just evacuate when that happens and have to rebuild), so the most useful thin i can think of is to preserve the trinkets.
they also are one of the two clans to celebrate proper holidays. there's not a good sense of order to them, but when a celebration is needed, a celebration is had.
that said, unlike thunderclan, the warrior vigil does remain strong in riverclan. this is because twolegs are far more common in their territory, and so learning to be quiet when necessary is important, and the vigil reinforces that. riverclan cats are also really good at sitting still: you have to, to be able to catch fish.
shadowclan is pretty serious, but unlike thunderclan, they're serious about religion. being a medicine cat in shadowclan is a pretty serious deal. they tend to die young. (i'm stealing this mostly/entirely from warrior cats redux because i can't get it out of my head.)
they retain bringing apprentices to the moonpool in the new territory. it was always an important deal for them, whereas in thunderclan it's kind of like "oh yeah make sure that happens," like a mastery project in high school or a first year seminar in university.
they also care a lot about their ancestors. i believe blackstar is the one who called the names of the fallen during every gathering? yeah. that's because remembering the dead is really important in shadowclan.
they've got a lot of nursery tales about ghosts who grew vengeful once their names were forgotten, fading from starclan but not allowed to fully die. so. when everyone dies real fast like that, carving their names into everyone's memory is super important.
(if it wasn't blackstar who did that it is in this au.)
anyway, they've got a good amount of order to their life, like thunderclan, and the camp is also a lot quieter. in thunderclan, kits are under a good amount of danger from badgers and foxes and hawks, oh my!, but pine forests are a bit safer, since foxes are the only serious predetor.
i mean, it's complicated, and i can't really figure out what biome to base this analysis on, but i'm sticking with "foxes are all shadowclan really has to worry about" because it works for me. so shadowclan kits are allowed (suprivised) out of camp much earlier.
i know this contradicts tigerheart's shadow, and my choice was either "shadowclan: militant about protecting kits" or "shadowclan: dgaf" and i'm going with "after brokenstar, they did get real protective of their kits, which is when tigerkit was born and raised, but over time, they've relaxed back to their natural state of chill"
anyway, they're probably the most similar to thunderclan, but dovewing vibes there so much better because there's a real sense of order for purpose, not just because. so there's less shouting about who is going on patrol and who's hunting. the dawn patrol is leaving because if you're up at dawn, you need to secure the territory. etc.
and while she's part of a prophecy, shadowclan revers the prophecy itself, not dovewing. dovewing is not special for being a part of it, she's just doing her role for clan life. her role happens to be different than the usual, but so what? she's just a cat.'
also, they have holidays. namely, the new moon is a big celebration night, but they also celebrate the seasons, and new life. this is part of why tigerheart gets so homesick: even dovewing, his wife, doesn't share this part of life with him, and he misses it.
finally, windclan. i don't know honestly what to do with them. they're supposed to be the most spiritual but that's not reflected in how they're written, even in like tallstar's revenge, so i don't know. i think they're the calm riverclan crossed with the more focused on protocol of clan life thunderclan.
they rise early because rabbits, and their hunting patrols are smaller and less organized. based on the books, they just run full wild after rabbits most of the time, which means they scare off the other ones for a while, so it makes sense to have a mentor and apprentice go out every hour or so during the waking day to grab a bunny or bird than for a bunch of cats to feed the clan for a day.
they do have a lot of respect for medicine cats and leaders. starclan isn't seen as something the average cat has any connection at all with. i have a hard time keeping track of who complains about what in the broken code and avos, but i feel like windclan gets angry at some point about shadowsight's visiosn.
anyway, so a cat like jayfeather is like "oh he real cool" and that's fun for jayfeather. everyone expects great things from him. because, you know, medicine cat and in a prophecy? can you imagine i mean shame he came to be via crowfeather and leafpool but you'd be a fool not to admit he's a credit to his parent's names.
they're also pretty proud. and private. very private. no one knows at all what goes on in windclan. i'd not put it past them to have a secondary camp to move to if they get uncomfortable with so many people knowing where their camp is.
i mean, how else do you explain them keeping the tunnlers secret for so long? i mean, like completely secret, no one else knew about them secret, we found out about them in a super edition secret for so long?
section four: medicine cat shit
this is a short section, but i want there to be the idea, especially in shadowclan and windclan, that medicine cats are really important to the integrity of a clan, so they need to be spiritually pure. this doesn't mean they can't have been warriors, but they can't break the code.
that's why thunderclan and riverclan medicine cats share herbs so much more than the others: if windclan and shadowclan leadrs say no, medicine cats are risking a lot by disobeying.
this is also part of why leafpool steps down when the truth comes out. what she did is bad enough, but it will be far worse for crowfeather if she doesn't step down, and shadowclan and windclan will come for her head.
nightcloud and breezepelt are also angry because not only did crowfeather have kits out of clan, but it was with a medicine cat. that's like having sex out of wedlock with a nun.
and that's pretty much all i have for this. most of it was taken up by cat genetics, because integrity matters to me.
Shore/Ridge border: where the elevation begins, roughly.
Ridge/Conifer border: the river, sometimes. ridge and conifer fight over the strip of land across the river. ridge believes it’s theirs, as full pine forest does not begin until later. conifer obviously disagrees.
Conifer/Field: treeline
Field/Shore: disputed area. shore fights for their territory to extent to the treeline, but shore wants to extend into the grasslands, up until the hills.
Neutral Area: ruins at the river fork
Tribe of the Rising Sun territory (not mapped) is located south of ridge and conifer territory.
Leaders can choose which life they want to lose in order. The will experience something related to that cat's death or, rarely, have a talk with them. When the leader dies, they go into a misty, swirling meadow, surrounded by the cats who gave them their lives.
Pinestar chose Harepounce first, wanting to brave it. He felt the aching in her stomach, but also the intense love for her daughter, Whitekit. It is a looming feeling, especially when he first eats kibble, his belly full while other cats go hungry that night.
Bluestar chose Mosskit last, and instead of feeling the winter's chill, she felt nothing but safety and love, the snow becoming a blanket to settle into. Mosskit allowed her to spend her last moments lucid, seeing all of her children on the bank as she passed.
Crookedstar chose Appleshine for his first, and felt the intense pain she had felt as she died, and the pain gave him determination to keep going during a battle with Thunderclan. (Guess what they were fighting over!)
Tallstar's second to last life was lost after the Bloodclan battle, he chose Dawnstripe's life. She showed him the thrill of the battle she had passed away in, but that while sometimes fighting for something is necessary, it isn't always the only option. It sticks hard with him.
Brokenstar picked Sagewhisker to get rid of it first, he felt the intense pain of the heart attack that killed her, from that point on he made other cats fight his battles more, wanting to hold onto his lives.
Leopardstar's final life was with Brightsky, who she had been avoiding. She watched her mother's life slip away, and the heartbreak that her mother had felt seeing that 2 of her children had been born sleeping. She realized as the world faded to cold darkness that she'd made a mistake.
Losing all his lives at once, Tigerstar had begged each of them to save him, one by one. But they could not, even if they wanted to. The last lost was the tiny warrior, Olivetail, showing her death was at the claws of his own ancestor, Gorsestar, in the same way he himself bleeds out now.
Firestar choses Swiftclaw first to get that over with. It is agonizing pain but all the Might of Lionclan in his bones keeps him going and fighting even when the literal jaws of death clamp down. He remembers Swiftclaw, and all the young cats he is fighting for when he comes back to the living world.
Blackstar chooses to lose the life Blizzardwing gives him, wanting to be rid of it as fast as possible. He feels sickness claw at him, and rage at an unfulfilled life full of regrets. It's... sobering, especially when he just lost the life due to a branch falling on him.
Leafstar choses Dawnstar (who gives a life for Selflessness) during Skyclan's Destiny to see if she is doing the right thing by helping the rogues. It is calm and cold and quiet, her lungs feel tight but she can feel guilt baring down on her as she watches herself through Dawnstar's eyes denying herself catmint to make sure the other cats can live through the greencough epidemic, seeing a Starclan cat looming over a kitten, knowing he will be a heroic leader.
Onestar's final life was Brushclaw, who didn't show him his death, but only talked about how disappointed he was. He gave Onestar a life for friendship, and Onestar chose to isolate himself afterwards, acting unfriendly towards even his own clanmates.
Mistystar's first life was Crookedstar, and she spoke with him about what happened to Leopardstar, and if she was a bad cat for it. He gives her reassuring words, and tells her that he is proud if her.
Bramblestar's first life lost is for Longtail, he feels the terror as he loses his sight, reliving Longtail's last moments before the tree crashes down, all he can think of is the last though in Longtail's head: I can't let prey go to waste, I'm sorry Poppydawn. It rattles him completely.
Rowanstar chooses Cedarheart during a Yellowcough life loss, who fought with all his might to protect the Riverclan nursery, dying for them just as the retreat order was called. It fills him with vigor and strength.
As Harestar lays dying of Blackcough, he picks Barkface. They talk, and Barkface confirms that, no, he will not recover from this. But not to lose hope, for Windclan's future is still bright, have faith. As he gazes over at Breezepelt, he feels a glimmer of hope.
Tigerstar's second life lost after Rowanstar was Flametail, he missed his brother too much to save it for later. The water made him afraid, but when he saw how Jayfeather had tried to SAVE his brother, he personally traveled to Thunderclan and invited Jayfeather to a feast, re-building a bridge that had been hanging in threads.
o yea. i saw u reblogged rock & midnight. how r they in ur rewrite ? :3
Glad you asked!
For simple fun things, Midnight is huge because I like the giant badgers. Rock is also gay.
I'll put Midnight in the second post. You've hit Lore Jackpot.
For the more complex things... Let's start with Rock. A bit of Rock's dialog from PO3 intrigued me and I never quite let it go.
I know it was probably meant as a "ooughh immortality is awful" line but... What if it isn't?
What if he actually was cursed? Why else would a being that feels like this... Feel like this? This isn't an emotionless immortal creature rejecting Jayfeather out of coldness, this is a repressed, traumatized creature rejecting Jayfeather because he is seeing a newborn baby and a rotten corpse at the same time. He doesn't have access to Starclan, he cannot stay friends with Jayfeather after he inevitably dies. It'll only hurt. Also, there are heavy implications if not outright statements that Rock used to be a normal cat! He's even mentioned in Night Whispers to be scarred. (Look I know that the 2007 book that mentions 3 tribes and mentions that Rock's kin used to live around the lake isn't canon anymore but... Who cares. Its better worldbuilding than what we've got now.)
So... What could cause immortality like this?
I began to brainstorm, and decided it was a real tragedy. Something awful happened, something a certain young tom should have learned a lesson from... And didn't.
It was a gloomy day around the lakeside when a young couple, a gray and white tom named Rock who loved to swim and his new mate, a pure brown tom named Bug who loved to try herbs on wounds, to heal them. The two had been racing each other down the lakeside, laughing and playing, rushing through the autumn leaves and exploding out of the piles the had accumulated.
Bug, the more adventurous of the 2, had found a small opening. The scent of running water had made his curiosity burn. Rock nervously followed him, reminding him that they needed to get home at some point soon. Rock's mother, Falcon, had recently had 3 kits, and he needed to go and watch over them for her and his father, so they could hunt together.
Bug urged him on. "Come on Rocky!" He mewed, his eyes widening when it echoed. "This place is too cool to not explore a LITTLE! What if we can't find it again? Besides, we can bring back something for them all when we leave."
Rock couldn't argue with that! He leapt down after Bug, their tails twined together as they looked around. Rock's thick, fluffy fur was keeping him warm, though Bug, with his short fur, needed to huddle against his mate to keep warmer in the cold tunnels.
The tunnels did not seem to run deep, but soon enough Rock and Bug found themselves navigating using only their whiskers and tentative pawsteps. The tunnel took a sharp turn suddenly, enough that Rock nearly bumped his nose into the wall!
Bug laughed, and the wonderful, soft sound echoed. But... Soon after, another sound would very faintly echo through the tunnels.
Thunder.
"Oh, jeez, I didn't know it would rain. We should probably get back now."
How easy that sounded... The two toms rushed through the tunnels, their hearts beginning to pound as water filled the narrow rocky halls, Rock himself slipped over his own paws, landing into the water, the freezing water soaking into his thick fur immediately and chilling him to the bone.
"Rocky!" Bug had cried, but the water was picking up speed, dragging Rock down, deeper into the tunnel. Above, a hole in the ground had worn away, pouring more rainwater into the tunnels and providing a light.
The last thing Bug saw of Rock was his eyes glazed with terror as he slid away into the darkness, crying out for Bug...
Bug had kept going, managing to find another tunnel that lead straight outside into... Bright sunlight? Bug was soaked to bone, he had heard the crashing thunder just seconds ago...
Falcon stood outside the tunnel entrance, a deep glare on her face. "Where have you been?! It's been 2 days! And where is Rock?!"
"B... Bug? ... Where's Rock...?"
A few days later, Bug gathered himself, and would fling himself into the tunnels once more, the floor of them was as dry and bare as bleached bone. Not a single sign of the rain that had washed his lover away...
Bug searched, deeper and deeper, down the tunnel he could have sworn did not stretch that long.... Into a coldness that he swears he could feel in his very soul.
Down, at the very bottom chamber, lit by a shimmering white mossy rock, is Rock's body. His fur isn't soft anymore, it's cold and wet. His eyes, unblinking, stare into nothing. Bug begins to weep as the mossy rock that isn't a mossy rock sits up, striding over.
"I am sorry for your loss." A large, fluffy, pure white molly speaks. Her glossy fur shimmers, and her eyes, black as night, give nothing away. "It was his time."
"What do you mean 'it was his time'? He had a family! He has little siblings! His mother and father are broken hearted!"
"Everything has a time. It cannot be rewritten. Your time will come. Everything that has happened, is happening, will happen." She spoke without tone, her hollow voice echoing through the chamber. “I am time's keeper. The god of time. I have seen all that there is and has been and was. All is as it should be, as it ever was, as it always will be. Move forward, like time has, and you will be happy once more.”
Bug unsheathes his claws, he stares down at Rock, his sweet Rock, who had never harmed another cat in his life, had only ever been kind... Why him? Why not some other awful cat to drown this way in this awful place? "No." Is all he says, as he leaps at the ethereal molly, slashing her throat. Sparkling blue blood covers Bug, the molly doesn't even so much as flinch.
"You will regret this, little one. Time needs a keeper. It will never be your time. You cannot change what has been written."
The god of Time dies, and Bug finds himself lifted into the air. All at once he sees what has been, could be, should be, will be, and is. His fur begins to streak gray from the stress and strain, his eyes turning pure white. He rushes to Rock, crying out softly for him to wake up, that he has power over time, there must be a way to fix this... To turn back time....
But the molly had told him already. He is the god of Time, not its warden.
He repeats his beloved's name to not lose his mind. He cannot leave the tunnels. Time stretches on and he realizes what the old god had meant. He ages, seasons pass. Heat and ice and rain and young cats and sticks and crying parents and terrible storms and so, so much emptiness.
He repeats Rock's name to remember it. His lover's bones long since crumbled to dust and to nothing. Over and over, and over.
Without seeing him, a tiny gray tabby picks up the stick he guards, the very last one. He senses the cat in front of him, and says hello without fear. The kitten, Jaykitpawfeather states his current name, not yet aware of how it will change. He asks for the name of the god of Time.
In an old, creaking voice, he stammers out the only name he can remember.
Leafstar! Miss Mama Cat! First leader of New!Skyclan.
For those new here, Leader Lives is the in-depth look on the 9 lives a leader gets during their ceremony, how they lost them, and in what order.
Her first life is a special one. It is given to her by Firestar. While fighting against the rats, Firestar sees a vision of Runningwind. Runningwind looks at Leafstar and tells Firestar that he can transfer a life to her, but he'll have to give it up as if he is dying.
He collapses under the rat pile, meets with Runningwind, and transfers over the life. (Runningwind also spills the beans that Sandstorm is pregnant OOPSIE)
Leafdapple's first life is Firestar's Life, for Reigniting Skyclan.
Her second life is from the recently passed Skywatcher, who gives her a life for Hope. Hope is not a wonderful, pretty thing. It can be watching the stars night after night, pleading and begging for your family to be reunited, for your home to be saved. Hope is heavy in Leafdapple's chest.
Her third life is from a cat named Hen. Hen is Leafdapple's mother. She gives her baby girl a life for Love. The fierce love that a mother has for her children, but also the ferocious love of a loyal friend, and a love for your home.
Her fourth is from Redstar, for Wisdom. She is a smart cat, who will need to make logical choices, but not forget her emotional intelligence that will help her make the choices that are truly wise.
Her fifth life is from Birchstar, ancestor of Clovertail and Heavystep, and she gives Leafdapple a life for Sympathy and Understanding. Every cat's situation is unique, and though you may not always understand, it is best to listen rather than ignore.
Her sixth life is from Swiftstar. See things through to the end, no matter what. Do your best to keep going, and never let others down, never break promises. Swiftstar was always the more rough, straightforward type.
Her seventh life is from Dawnstar, for Selflessness. If someone had just shown a little bit of this trait that night, a horrible Era in history could have stopped before it began, and a horrific injustice would have never happened.
Her eighth life is from Cloudstar. He gives her the life for Endurance. The strength that can last through terrible journeys, push on when your heart breaks, and keeps you going, even when things seem hopeless.
Then... Quiet. Is this it? Is Skyclan's new leader only going to get 8 lives? Is this a bad sign?
Then, on the horizon, a voice calls out. A beautiful voice that sings like a bird...
Birdflight bounds over the horizon, many other lost Skyclan cats flooding in until stars are sparkling all over, more plentiful than the dapples on Leafdapple' pelt. Shimmering and shining and calling out to one another, free from their ghostly wandering and Rat prisons and returned from their hiding spot in the old Starclan... They form Sky-Starclan, otherwise known as the Skywatcher Lights.
Birdflight steps forward and grants Leafstar a life for Faithfulness. Even when things are at their lowest, and everything feels pointless, like you'll never be happy again... You will. Happiness may not be constant, but neither is misery. You will see your loved ones again.
The first life to be lost is Dawnstar's during Skyclan's Destiny. Leafstar takes a lethal blow meant for Harvey that Red had tried to get in the way of. Leafstar had shoved her out of the way and taken it on herself. She asks Dawnstar if helping the other cats is the right thing to do. Dawnstar shows her a vision. Dawnstar, laying in her den, dying of Greencough. She is offered the last bit of catmint by her medicine cat, only for a small kitten to catch her sight. He is sick, but Dawnstar sees Starclan spirits nodding their heads in approval at him. Dawnstar denies treatment, and the kit grows up to be the legendary Marshstar, the leader who lead Shadowclan out of a very dark era and away from the time of Ripplestar. Leafstar takes in Red and Harely.
Her next life lost is from Birchstar. She loses the life saving Harry and drowning during Flooded Skies (WCR!Skyclan and The Stranger). She had been very cautious, and with a gifted Medic like Echosong, Skyclan was incredibly safe for quite some time, leaving life loss at minimal, even with a huge Whitecough outbreak. She sees Birchstar's death, infection gripping her as she struggles to breathe, feverish and frightened about where she will go after she dies, after all, what should become a leader that exiles an entire Clan? It's that Sympathy and Understanding that makes Leafstar a much more open minded person, and though it has drawbacks like letting Harry into Skyclan for that amount of time, Leafstar would rather make a mistake than toss out an innocent.
Her third life lost is from Swiftstar, to the sickness that sweeps through Skyclan during their journey, with Leafstar dying instead of Firefern now. After a long period of relative peace, she hadn't lost a life in quite a while, and... This is the first of many sudden losses. She gets to see how Swiftstar lost his final life, fighting a battle that he could never have won against Shadowclan, their leader Gorsestar tearing open his belly. Even with the lethal wounds, Swiftstar manages to leave a nasty scar on Marshfall's face, giving him the new name Marshscar. Even dying, Swiftstar stuck to his ground, though not the best cat to have lived, it taught Leafstar about staying determined until the bitter end.
The fourth life taken is from Redstar, lost when she is poisoned by Juniperclaw. The life showcased the horrible truth of the last leader involved in Skyclan's exile. Gorsestar, Cloudstar's son, had risen to power within Shadowclan, and attacked Redstar as the Sky Oak died at a Gathering. In the horrible fight, Redstar had fallen off if the rock the 2 fought on, snapping his neck, but remaining alive just long enough to see Shadowclan's leader crushed to death under the rotted oak, split by disease and a lightning strike.
She is then given a vision of Ripplestorm, son of Gorsestar, becoming Ripplestar, launching attacks in an aimless goal before nearly being struck directly with lightning, the stone itself being steuck and the current from the bolt itself killing him... The leader's remaining placing a BAN on talking about Skyclan.
The 4 leaders step forward, bow their heads, and apologize...
Leafstar's fifth life lost is the one from Birdflight. Rather than going first through branches, she instead watches over her Clanmates when they go over a branch that sits over a rapid, swollen river, watching in case anyone falls in, as only 1 cat can go at a time. Gravelpaw falls into the river, and when Leafstar goes into the water to save them, she is only able to save Gravelpaw, drowning herself before Ebonyclaw can grab her out. She meets with Birdflight, and they talk. Birdflight tells her to be strong, that Skyclan will stick together, she needs to hold onto her faith that things will get better.
Her next lost life was the one from Skywatcher. During Squirrelflight's Freedom, when a rockslode is triggered by the fight against the Sisters, Leafstar is caught in it too. She bleeds out through a large wound that a sharp rock put into her front left leg. She watches the trial in Starclan, though is not allowed to speak in it. Skywatcher sits with her, and reminds her that Skyclan, and subsequently Sky-Starclan, is different for a reason.
Leafstar's seventh life lost is from Hen. A few moons after Squirrelflight's Hope, taking place during Princess' Passing but only seen in a Lost Stars Bonus Chapter, Billystorm is found Leaf-fall afternoon to be dead. He died in his sleep, having a peaceful nap with Leafstar after their midday meal. He most likely had a blood clot or some kind of heart attack. It was probably the worst moment in Leafstar's life. After his funeral, she would simply lay in her den, not eating or drinking unless Freckleshine and Fidgetflake pushed her to do it. At one point Leafstar opens her eyes to see the swirling meadow of Starclan's entrance. Seeking comfort, she picks Hen, and cries to her beloved mother that her heart has shattered. Hen comforts her daughter, telling her that she will see Billystorm again, it's only a matter of time. She tells Leafstar that she still has life ahead of her, and while it's normal to miss Billystorm, her kits need her too, and Billystorm wouldn't want her to grieve herself to death.
Leafstar's next life lost is... Well....
Nightheart sends a message to Skyclan from Tigerstar during ASC Book 2. Just a spice trade, some coriander for some dill...
Leafstar, atop the one of the highest branches in the old sycamore that Skyclan's camp holds, stops talking. She lurches, her chest in agony. She falls from the highest branch...
The life she picks to lose is the one from Firestar, and she finally gets to see her friend again. She requests gently to see how he died. What happened while Skyclan were at the Gorge?
He plays out exactly what happened. His death at Tigerclaw's paws, along with springing out of his own body to finish the tyrant off. To Leafstar, it's nothing short of magical.
Leafstar wakes up, but begins to shake, her eyes rolling back once more as the world fades again.
Confused, Leafstar glances at the only cat whose life she has not spent. Cloudstar.
He informs her that the fall from her heart stopping broke her neck, taking her 9th life. Skyclan will be okay, it always has been. She was the best choice for leader to reignite Skyclan, and now she deserves to rest.
She sees Billystorm again, running to him and purring with a much younger voice, her body now back to the moment she was happiest.
What she does not know, is that as she died, Waspwhisker and the missing Skyclan cats have just wandered back into camp... Now what is Skyclan to do with 2 deputies?
