✭ TRIED TO FIND THE ANSWERS IN MY FEAR ➣ gathering #1

despite the dangers of starting the gathering without every clan present, tallstar knew the moon only had so long before it dipped back behind the hills. he looked left and right, and while he could not see shadowclan, he scented their presence. they could not wait forever--perhaps littlestar and whitesmoke had a bit of a hold-up. well, there was nothing anycat could do about it now, so tallstar chose to start the gathering with the three clans instead. 

"Tallstep. I'm surprised to see you up here. Where's Twilightstar, or even Quillfur?" he turned his head when he heard blizzardstar's deep, rumbling voice. so, they hadn't heard the news... tallstar was sure the other clans knew of his leadership, but blizzardstar never ceased to prove him wrong. "unfortunately, twilightstar fell to her demise in the gorge," he muttered, still achy all over from the pain of losing their beloved leader. "quillfur was not in starclan's favor and attacked a clan member, so we chased him out." should he mention the signs he received before his leadership? ".... there was no one else to take the spot." while tallstar deeply believed he'd been chosen as leader, a part of him wondered... if his selection had only been of... necessity. 

lynxstar appeared next, followed by his horde of riverclanners. he noticed a few cats flattening their ears, aware of the unstable situation riverclan currently found themselves in. three leaders in under a moon... flintstar led for the longest, and when he died lionstar took his place, not even the deputy of the clan. lipnstar lasted for maybe  afew suns before lynxstar replaced him, as no one knew what happened to the great golden cat. he was curious, but said nothing, twitching his ear as a slight sign of greeting.

finally, tallstar saw whitesmoke padding through the foliage, but did not see littlestar with him. oh no... thought tallstar, worried another leader had fallen to the claws of death. please, starclan, let it not be so... but allowing one's emotions to get the best of him or her was a lesson tallstar did not want to recreate. "hello tallstar." he winced at the sudden mockery in whitesmoke's voice, resisting the urge to sink back against the rock, a better avoider than confronter. "hello.... whitesmoke...." mumbled the newly-appointed leader, the confidence he lacked struggling to omit itself through his voice. "where is... littlestar? isn't she one to never miss a gathering?" if another cat fell prey to disease, then tallstar knew windclan was next.

“Flintstar has passed. I lead Riverclan in his stead.” no matter how uncomfortable tallstar felt, lynxchaser's appearance calmed him slightly. at least he wasn't the only new leader appearing at the gathering. seemingly, only blizzardstar, a leader of many moons, ran his clan stagnantly. whitesmoke replaced littlestar, he replaced twilightstar and quillfur, and lynxchaser stepped into flintstar's paws. the hollow glare whitesmoke shot at tallstar made bugs crawl down his neck, but he tried to ignore her hot sneer. "i am very sorry for your loss," whispered tallstar, bowing his head in respect. as a medicine cat, tallstar felt deep anguish whenever a fellow forest dweller passed on, but the new requirements for his position didn't always fall into tandem with his previous training. what did tallstar know about being a warrior? a leader? what did he have to prove? "windclan will sit vigil for -- ...." his words were cut off as a windclan warrior shot him an angry glare, reminding tallstar he wasn't to treat other clans as sympathetically as he wiished.

tallstar chose not to finish his sentence, realizing it had no place in the conversation. his ears perked as whitesmoke spoke: "littlestar had some business to take care of. she sends all of you her best wishes, however." he wondered what kind of leader littlestar was... having only met her a pawful of times, tallstar couldn't recall her personality or presence. obviously, she didn't have a strong hold on him, so perhaps she wasn't as threatening as the other cats acted? "i hope.. we get to meet her soon." oh, starclan, how bad he was at this... warrior thing! several cats looked at him strangely, as if he were mousebrained for wishing to introduce himself to such a terrored cat. he chose not to respond to their stares, but his discomfort grew at each heartbeat. 

"Her best wishes. Right. Coming from Littlestar, that's more 'go fall in the gorge' instead of 'go die in a fire'-" blizzardstar began to speak, but cut off his sentence, as every cat knew what he implied. after the devestating fire leaving shadowclan in ruins, it had been clans like windclan who offered to rebuild, but the stubborn cats refused. under littlestar's leadership, he smiled at blizzardstar's gradual change in mood when he addressed lynxchaser, but chose to bide his time and wait before revealing any information about windclan. the idea of "enemy" hadn't solidified in his head yet.

"LYNXSTAR ISN'T RIVERCLAN'S LEADER!"

a wild call sounded from the far-off distance and the birds took flight, flapping their wings wildly as they took to the sky, cutting through fourtrees on their way out into the wild. a few wings knicked a few cats and they screetched, hunkering down low as to avoid being pecked or clawed by the white pidgeons. out of the shadows a large, gray-colored she-cat with light tabby stripes emerged, her fur long and eyes the brightest color of blue imaginable. silverfur, the elegant ex-queen of riverclan stepped forward, positioning her on the cliff above fourtrees overlooking the rest of the clans. her light green eyes shone like wild fire as she glared at their tabby-colored leader, ears flattened with discontent. "he is not our leader. starclan has spoken."

many cats did not know of silverfur. previously a queen due to her dislike of fighting, silverfur gave up her soft, posh life for something greater and began resuming her warrior duties, becoming one of the sharpest-tongued cats in riverclan, while loyal to both frostclaw and lynxstar, she doubted her deputy and his companion, never seeing them as powerful or as ambitious as flintstar. "he is a fraud. flintstar never made him deputy--our deputy was lionstorm, who died his first day of leadership." lionstorm, the brave deputy but cowardice cat, couldn't take his first day of leader and dramatically threw himself over the side of windclan's gorge after being scented by their warriors. riverclan never told anyone about the incident and tallstar kept it secret, respecting lynxchaser's choice to step into the leadership role, making his mate, frostclaw, deputy.

"starclan never chose him--they never even gave him lives." lynxstar attempted to get his lives from the moonstone, but because he had not been deputy (no deputy was assigned), starclan would not give him his lives, for his leadership broke the warrior code. silverfur's eyes swiveled towards ravenpaw, narrowing. "and after our medicine cat, frostbite, passed on, ravenpaw was given his medicine cat duties without a trip to starclan or inheriting his medicine cat name!" cats whispered all around, as if shocked this was all coming from a riverclan queen. the she-cat took a step and padded forward, ignoring lynxstar's heated gaze. "he says nothing, but he knows i am right." she glared at him, claws unsheathed. "you have three heartbeats to get out of the forest before i claw you." no, riverclan would not have another leader change.

silverfur would end that trend.

Quailwhisker expected this to be a silent gathering. Every cat here was faking it, she had seen enough of these tense gatherings. Her ears flicked around now and then, but that was it. Again, she never hesitated to put on a mask on herself, but silently, she was grateful that she didn’t have to be like any of the four cats on the rocks. Her Clan was wordless, and that caused a reduced amount of trouble, which she was thankful for.


She didn’t listen to a word about what the others said; she had learnt to do that in countless gatherings, she avoided discussing these ‘complex’ topics. Yet a wild shriek came from the distance, which woke Quailwhisker up. Cries and screeches of the birds as the voice sounded. It was from a large female grey tabby. But what she said was even unpredictable, and shocking, this simple sentence left her body seem frozen.


“Lynxstar isn’t Riverclan’s Leader.”


But then who could it be? Her gaze turned to Lynxstar, her green eyes searching for signs of apprehensive or insecure emotions that he hid, as this was revealed. The Riverclan leader was calm and composed, as if nothing had happened, but this can deceive her, she knew they always pulled this expression to conceal their emotions, so that would be a yes. She continued to listen to the grey tabby’s story. So Tallstar was involved? She shot a glance at the leader. It sounded convincing that she was speaking the truth, and she demanded violence. Oh dear. This wasn’t a good idea.


There was a faint rustle, and a younger voice sounded in the air, before the grey tabby could attack the leader. The medicine cat began to question the grey tabby, almost in a demanding way, and reminded her that there was no violence. Hopefully the grey tabby would sure realize what she did just now, she was walking on thin ice.


Would the others treat Lynxstar as a leader now ?


Or even better, Can this chaos end ?


_{What if StarClan sends a cow to  to fall from the sky and squash Lynxstar to show that he isn't da leaderrrrr}