Post by STARCLAN on Sept 29, 2023 1:20:21 GMT
[nospaces]
No matter how uneventful the prior seasons, leafbare always swept in upon the Clans with a cold front of an unkind, unforgiving, and unrelenting march. Even without conflict, tension was high, and tempers were rising. Even the bulkiest of frames were wearing thin, no longer a display of sheer and brute strength, but how even just a few moons of starvation could test the limits of those who braved the cold night after night. A thin blanket of snow still sat upon the territories, even if the worst of the cold had passed. Apprentices of all ages shivered in the crowd, huddling close regardless of their allegiances, sharing skin the only way to keep warm in the open sky above Moon Hill.[break][break]
The sky was dark in the night, overcast with heavy clouds that hid the moon from sight as flakes of snow danced from the heavens to the ground. Only a faded gleam of silver illuminating the misty clouds alluded to her presence amongst the stars. As each leader spoke, the chattering of teeth filled the air, biting out word of their Clan's news between frozen breaths. Snowflakes clung to their pelts. Wind challenged their constitution. Alderstar sat in silence, waiting for his turn, the final leader to speak. His tail lashed behind him. Something was stewing, and all attendees to the Gathering were about to find out, including his own unknowing Clanmates.[break][break]
Once it was his turn, he rose to his paws. Even with his thick pelt, all could see that his skin clung to his bones. RiverClan especially fared poorly in leafbare. Regardless, Alderstar stood tall, held his chin up high, and gazed down upon the crowd of warriors and apprentices with a particularly venomous contempt worn upon his face, something even his own Clanmates flinched at the sight of. From his posture alone, many warriors had already begun to tense up, knowing that something was afoot, and that this night would not end well. Good, Alderstar thought bitterly, let them squirm.[break][break]
"Cats of the Clans," Alderstar began, unflinching under all of the wary eyes boring into him. "Tonight I speak to you not as the leader of RiverClan, but as a warrior with no bounds, seeking all hearts." His gaze swept across the crowd. The discomfort he saw in narrowed eyes, wrinkled noses, and raising hackles was what he sought. This was the true feeling of the Clans, he was certain, buried for the sake of tradition. No more, he thought.[break][break]
"For far too long, we have been content to sit under the stars and hold onto the notion that we have not been abandoned by our warrior ancestors. But who among us has received word from StarClan? Who among us has not once felt that sickening sense of doubt strike their hearts? Even our founders, ushering us into a new era of Clans, could not connect with them the way those before us did! They continue to grant us leaders our nine lives, but deem us unworthy of their word, to even see who is promising us our chances to live past a certain fate for any ordinary warrior. Is this truly how we are to carry on with our lives? Waiting for the day we are cleansed of sin we not know, for the day we are deemed worthy again?"[break][break]
Murmuring rippled like waves below him throughout the crowd. Alderstar continued. "I refuse to tread the path that has supposedly been laid out for me with blind faith. The seasons upon seasons of silence have gone on for long enough. I, Alderstar, adversary of StarClan, will persevere not with the so-called guidance of our warrior ancestors, but with faith that the living are capable of defining their own futures! The apostates will forge ahead!"[break][break]
Murmuring became shouting. "Heretic!" someone cried. "Traitor!" another yowled. Insult me all you want, Alderstar thought with a sickening sense of glee, but those who have resonated with my words have already begun to realize the truth. He could see it in the crowd. The twisted expressions, the lowered heads, the averted gazes. He knew that he could not have been alone in his line of thought - he was just the first to finally speak on it.[break][break]
Before he could open his mouth to speak again, however, pain struck through his chest, then his entire body. A garbled noise fell from his maw before he suddenly collapsed where he had once stood. His back legs would not cooperate with him, and his breathing become shallow, rapid. Alderstar's front claws struck out in front of him, scrabbling at the stone in a desperate attempt to pull himself back upright, but the more he struggled, the more difficult it became to breathe. The other Clan leaders watched in horror as he thrashed hopelessly, as if choking on air, before going still.[break][break]
"Alderstar is dead!" someone from the crowd howled, and before anything more could be said, the Gathering was over. Cats scrambled to return to their territories from Moon Hill, leaving RiverClan's few attendees to bring their now dead leader back to the Clan, wondering just what would come their way after such a stunt.
[Googlefont=Oswald|Karla]
✦
PROLOGUE
No matter how uneventful the prior seasons, leafbare always swept in upon the Clans with a cold front of an unkind, unforgiving, and unrelenting march. Even without conflict, tension was high, and tempers were rising. Even the bulkiest of frames were wearing thin, no longer a display of sheer and brute strength, but how even just a few moons of starvation could test the limits of those who braved the cold night after night. A thin blanket of snow still sat upon the territories, even if the worst of the cold had passed. Apprentices of all ages shivered in the crowd, huddling close regardless of their allegiances, sharing skin the only way to keep warm in the open sky above Moon Hill.[break][break]
The sky was dark in the night, overcast with heavy clouds that hid the moon from sight as flakes of snow danced from the heavens to the ground. Only a faded gleam of silver illuminating the misty clouds alluded to her presence amongst the stars. As each leader spoke, the chattering of teeth filled the air, biting out word of their Clan's news between frozen breaths. Snowflakes clung to their pelts. Wind challenged their constitution. Alderstar sat in silence, waiting for his turn, the final leader to speak. His tail lashed behind him. Something was stewing, and all attendees to the Gathering were about to find out, including his own unknowing Clanmates.[break][break]
Once it was his turn, he rose to his paws. Even with his thick pelt, all could see that his skin clung to his bones. RiverClan especially fared poorly in leafbare. Regardless, Alderstar stood tall, held his chin up high, and gazed down upon the crowd of warriors and apprentices with a particularly venomous contempt worn upon his face, something even his own Clanmates flinched at the sight of. From his posture alone, many warriors had already begun to tense up, knowing that something was afoot, and that this night would not end well. Good, Alderstar thought bitterly, let them squirm.[break][break]
"Cats of the Clans," Alderstar began, unflinching under all of the wary eyes boring into him. "Tonight I speak to you not as the leader of RiverClan, but as a warrior with no bounds, seeking all hearts." His gaze swept across the crowd. The discomfort he saw in narrowed eyes, wrinkled noses, and raising hackles was what he sought. This was the true feeling of the Clans, he was certain, buried for the sake of tradition. No more, he thought.[break][break]
"For far too long, we have been content to sit under the stars and hold onto the notion that we have not been abandoned by our warrior ancestors. But who among us has received word from StarClan? Who among us has not once felt that sickening sense of doubt strike their hearts? Even our founders, ushering us into a new era of Clans, could not connect with them the way those before us did! They continue to grant us leaders our nine lives, but deem us unworthy of their word, to even see who is promising us our chances to live past a certain fate for any ordinary warrior. Is this truly how we are to carry on with our lives? Waiting for the day we are cleansed of sin we not know, for the day we are deemed worthy again?"[break][break]
Murmuring rippled like waves below him throughout the crowd. Alderstar continued. "I refuse to tread the path that has supposedly been laid out for me with blind faith. The seasons upon seasons of silence have gone on for long enough. I, Alderstar, adversary of StarClan, will persevere not with the so-called guidance of our warrior ancestors, but with faith that the living are capable of defining their own futures! The apostates will forge ahead!"[break][break]
Murmuring became shouting. "Heretic!" someone cried. "Traitor!" another yowled. Insult me all you want, Alderstar thought with a sickening sense of glee, but those who have resonated with my words have already begun to realize the truth. He could see it in the crowd. The twisted expressions, the lowered heads, the averted gazes. He knew that he could not have been alone in his line of thought - he was just the first to finally speak on it.[break][break]
Before he could open his mouth to speak again, however, pain struck through his chest, then his entire body. A garbled noise fell from his maw before he suddenly collapsed where he had once stood. His back legs would not cooperate with him, and his breathing become shallow, rapid. Alderstar's front claws struck out in front of him, scrabbling at the stone in a desperate attempt to pull himself back upright, but the more he struggled, the more difficult it became to breathe. The other Clan leaders watched in horror as he thrashed hopelessly, as if choking on air, before going still.[break][break]
"Alderstar is dead!" someone from the crowd howled, and before anything more could be said, the Gathering was over. Cats scrambled to return to their territories from Moon Hill, leaving RiverClan's few attendees to bring their now dead leader back to the Clan, wondering just what would come their way after such a stunt.
[Googlefont=Oswald|Karla]