[Fawn]

Lionstar

The crown is getting heavy
But they've written my name in the stars

"Lionstar, they're here."

The warrior holding sentry over TreeClan's entrance found him shortly before dawn was in full motion. Lionstar, who had paced restlessly inside the confines of the Ancient Stump was grateful, at last, for the return of Falconstorm's party.

"Pumafang, to me." He called quietly to the towering earth-brown tom sitting nearby. The words 'we need to talk when Falconstorm returns', had been all he'd given the Clan's deputy, but Pumafang would not be left in suspense for much longer. Sprucefur was given the task of keeping an eye on the camp while all three of the Clan's ranked cats stepped away for a little while.

"Falconstorm," Lionstar greeted the healer, sparing a curt nod to Sunwind and Deerstorm, though his eyes never fully left the medicine cat's. So many words were already pressing against his chest, throat and teeth, desperate to get out. To speak of the dream he had just experienced. "I understand you are wary. You can return to your nest soon, I promise. I need to speak with you and Pumafang at the sparkling brook."

Lionstar side-stepped to the right, almost able to hear the low babble of TreeClan's main source of water.

The three of them were each formiddable in their own way. Lionstar had never found the Ancient Stump cramped, but the presence of Pumafang, who rivaled most cats in the Clan for size, and Falconstorm, who was large even without the copious amounts of fur, left Lionstar feeling claustrophobic in such a small space. That, and he did not want to be overheard.

Not when the next steps TreeClan took needed to be careful and precise. If they could not present a united front to the rest of the Clan, then morale and resolve would ultimately suffer. Lionstar's expression was taut, his thoughts obviously concentrating around something weighty and decisive.

He didn't speak again until they were at the water's edge, in a stretch of grass worn thin by so many cats coming here to drink. Lionstar straightened, feeling a simmering energy begin low inside his gut. This is going to change everything.
"Cherrystar spoke to me in a dream tonight. StarClan believes NightClan has gone unpunished for too long." That their list of crimes have gone unchecked. "She made it clear that TreeClan cannot sit on our paws while NightClan disrespects and disrupts our lives at every turn."

Lionstar's neck fur bristled with a chill that had nothing to do with the weather. "StarClan doubts the sharpness of our claws. I believe for TreeClan to save face and push back against our enemies, we must fight." The golden tom's expression darkened with the shadows of internal strife. "I seek your counsel now more than ever, Pumafang, Falconstorm. TreeClan cannot go to war lightly, and we cannot go to war uncommitted and unprepared."

He promptly closed his jaws, giving the floor to either the deputy or the medicine cat - though the slow sweep of golden eyes to Falconstorm's face gave away who Lionstar wished to hear from first. The question in his eyes was obvious. What has StarClan said to you?

Pumafang did not have divine encounters. Not yet. That did not make his word any less meaningful, his advice any less wanted. Lionstar held his breath, waiting for the others to speak.

I've been building up all these kingdoms for so long
It's good to be king

105 Moons || TreeClan || 552 Words || Justice @jet

Leaf-fall 12 The sky is clear with small wisps of cloud. A soft breeze stirs the fallen leaves from the ground, creating a comforting rustling sound. The temperatures are usual, with no extreme highs or lows.

[Justice]

It had been an interesting meeting to say the list. Dreaming of Bluejay, feeling his heart break all over again over being unable to save the young she-cat, of failing to protect her properly, had left him feeling ragged and weak. The last thing he wanted was to speak with Lionstar, but the towering tom was there waiting for him when he returned. He sighed.

"Bluejay told me." He said quietly, already expecting that they'd be speaking about the situation with NightClan and just how it was going to be handled. As their solo medicine cat, he'd be confined entirely to camp, he was very sure.

After those words he simply followed, head down and eyes dull. What he'd been told, and what was being said now just made him more and more weary and heartsick. How many cats had to die before it was enough for NightClan to back off for a few moons? Even in the uneasy time between now and the last major fight they hadn't exactly been peaceful. With things culminating in the words said at a gathering of all places. War was coming. He had no say in the matter. It was coming, and all he could do is prepare for the worse.

He snorted as Lionstar spoke of StarClan and Cherrystar. He sat once they were close enough to where the leader wanted them for him to sit and curl his tail around his paws. "StarClan silenced Bluejay, but sent her to give me news. What a horrible thing to do to such a gentle she-cat." His voice was rough, disapproval and cynicism coloring his words.

"There has been too much bloodshed in our forest. TreeClan cannot afford to wait any longer for a peace that isn't coming." His blue eyes burned, rage starting to settle into his heart. Rage and a blooming hatred to StarClan. Not all of them, but some. Enough. "She wished that there was another way, and asked that we be careful and look out for one another."

Fawn
@jet

[Deleted]

Lionstar emanated a brooding intensity he hadn't often seen, though that didn't affect Pumafang's composure as he sat patiently for Falconstorm's return. His mind was numb, empty, and waiting. The deputy's entrails, on the other paw, were hot and bothered. The tom knew something was off this morning judging by Lionstar's dense demeanor and his rallying of high ranks by the Sparkling Brook before dawn shed its first light. Pumafang's ears twitched as Falconstorm's party returned, keeping close to his leader and healer, but giving the divine a small bridge of space.

When the exchange of words began, Pumafang listened unassumingly, face blank and accepting despite the spark of irritation that made his tail twitch. The tom stifled his disbelief. StarClan? The deputy had his doubts about the celestial clan who seemed to dig their claws into the minds of every leader and healer to walk through the valley. It didn't seem...legitimate? Though despite this shared delusion both Lionstar and Falconstorm had graced to his ears, what Pumafang did hear was a call for war.

Finally. The thought drifted through his mind like a lone bird in a clear sky.

Glancing between the two toms, Pumafang offered the morning a brief silence, listening to the water rush coolly over earth and stone. What input did Lionstar want from his deputy? If it was approval, he had it. The colossal tom shifted slightly, blinking away a haze of tiredness that threatened to dull his wits.

"We could prepare TreeClan for reclaiming the Deer Path." Pumafang's lucid rumble wouldn't have been a suggestion to anyone other than Lionstar himself, though his eyes shifted between his leader and medicine cat courteously. "With your permission, I could set up training groups among both apprentices and warriors. We can select the fittest and strongest of our clanmates for battle preparation, and the rest can carry the weight on patrols."

It seemed the most sensible, and accelerating the apprentices' training could only improve TreeClan's power and prowess as a whole. Not to mention, the warriors were growing lazy from walking borders and leisurely hunting. Glacierpaw helped Pumafang keep sharp and strong, though TreeClan's deputy wasn't godly enough to take on all of NightClan by himself.

"Lionstar, Falconstorm..." Pumafang's deep voice resonated hesitantly. "Offering our weaker clanmates the patrols along the NightClan border particularly might be deception enough to give us an edge when it counts. NightClan has everything to lose. Since Rookshade's unfortunate injury, of which I am still unsure the extent of, it seems they have made an effort to put calmer souls on the front."

The chocolate black tom waited calmly for a response, hoping his impatience with NightClan didn't mask itself as eagerness in the others' eyes. Lionstar had one of the strictest moral compasses Pumafang had ever come across. The deputy's dull amber eyes blinked slowly in the quiet reprieve after his lengthy offer. He wanted to protect his clan by eliminating the biggest threat to TreeClan's survival: NightClan.

He wanted to make them bleed.

Fawn Justice

[Fawn]

Lionstar

The crown is getting heavy
But they've written my name in the stars

Bluejay! That was not the she-cat Lionstar pictured when he thought of harbingers of war. His heart echoed a dull pain at her loss, remembering the fierceness with which she advocated for peace and justice. Lionstar dipped his head in acknowledgment of Falconstorm's words. The medicine cat had once more been put to trial at the Moon Tree, and had returned home irritable, an air of anger and misery about him like a low-lying fog.

So Cherrystar's words were not hollow. StarClan truly was sanctioning a response to NightClan's heinous disregard for the Warrior Code.

"I will do my best to honor Bluejay's wishes," he said in reverant softness.

Pumafang chose then to say his piece, and Lionstar listened with bolstered seriousness, the downy touch of sadness erased by the intense focus this meeting required. "Yes. We prepare TreeClan to take the Deer Path. But is that enough?" He nodded his head in approval of Pumafang's plans to put together training sessions - accelerate the progress of their apprentices, and sharpen the skills of their existing warriors.

Taking the Deer Path was expected. NightClan would see this coming. It wasn't much of a message. A low noise of disagreement rumbled from Lionstar like thunder. "If they continue to behave like rogues, then we treat them like rogues. Any attack patrol we come across, chase them into the mountains. Let them have time to dwell on their commitment to the Warrior Code as they wander back to their camp."

Surprise them. Scatter them. Chase them out.

It was no permanent solution. Though Pumafang's words whispered in his ears to drive them out for good, Lionstar's morals chained him in place. He could not take the tyrant's way out. He could not crush another Clan, no matter how greatly they seemed to deserve it. Their eternal strife with NightClan would wax and wane like the moon; now it was approaching full. Some day, it would calm again.

Tempting as the deputy's idea was, Lionstar shuddered at the cost. Destroying one Clan to rid the valley of another was a fool's war. He loved the Clan he led too deeply to put them through that kind of senseless agony and bloodshed.

"Variation is a better idea," Lionstar replied at last, frowning at Pumafang's divisiveness. "If NightClan breaks through our 'strongest and fittest' fighters, what will we have, other than a massacre? Every TreeClan cat will pull their weight, of that I have no doubt. I know it's tempting to put our fiercest warriors first, but the Clan we face is petulant and vengeful. This will not be one battle, but many."

Darkstorm was still young and stupid and power hungry. What else would she do, after her first big loss? Curl up and mope? No, she would come after them with blood in her eyes.

"We need to pick our battle parties and our patrols carefully." Lionstar fell into a brief, heavy silence, before he let out a long exhale. His attention was back on Falconstorm. "What do you need to help you prepare, Falconstorm? If it's extra paws around the den, or assistance gathering herbs, you will have it." Lionstar's gaze stayed on the former warrior, not sure if he expected a hissed rebuke or a grim answer from the Clan's one and only medicine cat.

I've been building up all these kingdoms for so long
It's good to be king

105 Moons || TreeClan || 546 Words || @jet Justice

[Justice]

He was listening to the other two toms, plodding along and only thinking about falling into his nest to sleep off his adventure to Moon Tree. He was exhausted and heartsick and just didn't want to deal with this anymore. But this was part of his duty, and he did have a say in what was going on.

"I think we should mix the patrols, partner warriors that are stronger and better prepared with those less so, both to give the less trained and experienced warriors some experience and to make it seem as though we aren't on our guard. Have NightClan believe we aren't taking this seriously. They will attack, not expecting us to be prepared for them. But I will leave such things to you, and that is only my suggestion." Not like he was still expected to help in battles. Just in the clean-up afterwords. Bitter? Yes, but also true. With no apprentice trained Falconstorm was their only medicine cat. He couldn't be risked. He knew this.

When asked what he would need the large tom could only sigh and look up at the sky, thinking over everything that would have to happen for him to get his supplies. "Cobwebs, straight sticks, dry moss ready to be dipped in water for the injured to drink, for the prey pile moved closer to the medicine den so that those bringing prey have less of a trip and can return to their other duties quicker, and a small patrol of cats quiet on their paws to go with me to collect herbs outside the territory that we are going to need." He took a breath and let it out slowly, making an almost hissing sound. "The last time I was in RainClan territory they escorted me out, without the herbs I was trying to bring home." Some herbs grew better in other territories, and to deny a medicine cat access to those herbs was unheard of. TreeClan was preparing for war, they needed all the herbs they could get.

His tone had been sharp but not snarky, simply reciting off what he needed with a sense of resolution and defeat. "I can only prepare my den for those that come home. If we have them spare a few of the apprentices could help me lay out a few more nests in my healing chamber, but if there's more injured than I can hold in my den then we have to have somewhere for them to go until I can get to them."

Fawn
@jet