ϟ ThunderClan ϟ The Fierce and Caring ϟ |☾ ☼ ϟ ≈ ☁| ϟ

Scarletpaw’s tension melted quickly as she saw Hollowpaw make her way to her side. She nudged her friend lightly, smirking. “It better be! I worked my tail off on my assessment.” She tried not to seethe about how effortless Dawnpaw had made it seem when it had been his turn to hunt and spar. She was happy to pass with both her brothers, but it was so hard to not be envious of how much of a natural Dawnpaw was. Shaking her head, she mused. “Hopefully my name will fit me. Nothing too soft, you know?”

Bramblefur turned to face the highrock, suprised and curious as to what the meeting would be about.

“Attacked?!” Mothsong exclaimed as she bolted up to her paws, fur bristling as she bared her teeth. The thought of rouges once again threatening Thunderclan made her blood boil, and her chest ache with worry that her father’s old group of rouges could be involved.

“They took Arcticbreeze? Starclan, no!” Vixenrose whimpered.

Scarletpaw narrowed her eyes darkly at the news, wanting nothing more than to tear her claws into any rouge she saw.

((Cloning blue!))

Bluewhisker's steely eyes narrowed slightly as Lightingstar delivered the news of the patrol's fate, the rest of her expression remaining impassive. She let a frown cross her face as Forestblaze spoke up, hurling his anger at the Clan deputy.

"Forestblaze," she warned in a calm voice. Call her old-fashioned, but she valued respect above many things. "Ghostscreech is the ThunderClan deputy. Would you rather he idly let us starve?"

"There had to be another way for us to find prey!" Forestblaze said, looking back at Bluewhisker when she spoke up. His ear twitched when Sootclaw seemed to agree with him, glad to know that he wasn't the only one feeling this way. Forestblaze looked at Frostmoon in light surprise when she suddenly snapped at him, feeling a flash of hurt in his chest when he saw how she defended the deputy. A scowl took place on his face, his glare sharpening as he looked at her and Ghostscreech, "It was his idea that we go there in the first place. And yeah, maybe it did work out at first, but that doesn't change the fact that we half the clan was poisoned by that prey! Laceheart lost her life, and it almost cost Sunthroat his kits' as well! Are we really going to ignore all of that just because we had a bit of success with it in the beginning?" He growled, feeling his own fur start to bristle.

Sunthroat flinched when his mate and kits was brought up, the wound of losing Laceheart still fresh for him. "That's enough, Forestblaze!" He growled, standing up and sending his own fierce glare towards the young warrior. "We're in the middle of a meeting. Save your grievances for later, and let's finish the Clan meeting first. I would also appreciate if you could leave Laceheart and my kits out of this." Sunthroat added the last part with a warning look to the rest of the Clan, not wanting to have his mate's death brought up again as another point in why the Twolegplace patrols had failed.

Ghostscreech felt his neck fur bristle when Sootclaw chimed in, but stayed silent when Sunthroat spoke up and turned to Frostmoon, resting his tail tip on her shoulder, "Thank you." He murmured quietly.

Shadowblossom's ice turned to blood as she heard the announcement of Arcticbreeze's kidnapping. She had finally started to form a relationship with her adopted sister and now she was gone? She stood ignoring the fighting happening around her. "I would like to go on the rescue patrol. Arcticbreeze is my sister, I will do all I can to find her."

Stumppaw watched in horror from her spot beside Flurrypaw, "This isn't what I was expecting at all."

Willowsong placed her tail over Forestblaze's shoulders, conflict clear in her eyes as she looked from Ghostscreech to Forestblaze. "Please! This isn't the time Forestblaze."

Blizzardstorm herded Tansykit and Twilightkit toward the nursery, not wanting them to hear the yelling breaking out through the camp.

Flamesky touched his nose to Brokenwing's ear before he peaked his head out of the medicine cat den to see what was going on.

Baykit whined at the loss of heat from his father, snuggling closer to Brokenwing's belly.

Darktail who had barely exited the medicine cat den when the meeting was called sat with ears pinned down, what was going on? This wasn't like the clan to fight like this.

Bluewhisker blinked at Sunthroat as he spoke up, tilting her chin to him slightly in respect. She sat back down, but not without a sever look to Forestblaze first.

Frostmoon tensed up at Lightningstar's order, her eyes averting as she silenced herself, trying to sink low so she wouldn't be looked at. Starclan, she hated having eyes on her. She quickly looked up though as her father volunteered to go on the patrol. She glanced at Ghostscreech, wondering if he would take Shadowblossom and Hornetstrike since they volunteered so quickly. A part of her wanted to go, but the other part of her bitterly reminded herself that she would probably mess everything up, just like she did at Sunningrocks.

Mothsong sat down slowly at Lightningstar's call, her claws flexing as Owlfrost's tail managed to provide her with at least some comfort from her frantic anger.

Dapplenight's ears fell as he agreed with his mate's disdain. He took a shaky breath. "Why does it always have to be rouges? I can't stand it!" It was his earliest memory, being shoved back in the nursery wall as Vixenrose blocked the hole with her body. He still remembered sobbing in terror that Vixenrose would be torn apart right in front of him as he pressed to his sisters' sides. While Vixenrose had somehow held off the rouges from the kits she had stuffed in the nursery wall, she still had scars from that night that always made Dapplenight feel sick. 

Peachdapple listened silently, her eyes dull with the thoughts of all the rouges had done to Thunderclan, all the lives they had taken. A rumbling anger filled her, and her claws flexed into the dirt beneath her. Moments like these made her yearn for Warriorhood, just so she could charge out and send fur flying. She reminded herself that her instinctive anger was not ideal for a medicine cat. Even after all these moons, she still wanted to fight first and ask questions later. For now, she focused on Aspenfall as she approached her apprentice.

"We'll prepare traveling herbs for the patrol. We have some more burnet in stock, yes? I saw you bring more in yesterday, I believe." She mewed quietly. 

“I can’t imagine what we did to get them to target us in the first place.” Dapplenight rasped. “My mother always said that rogues have no sense of honor. Even as a loner, she never liked them.” He admitted softly, suddenly missing Acorntail’s wisdom.

Peachdapple looked at Aspenfall with a strong and steady look. “Always have faith. No matter how hard it gets, how hopeless or helpless, you promise me that you will always have faith, Aspenfall.” She demanded, almost urgently in her seriousness as her heart broke all over again. Soon, she knew, Aspenfall would be Thunderclan’s lone medicine cat. She smiled softly, proud of him and how far he had come. “You must have enough faith for every cat in this Clan. Enough to overcome any darkness.”

Ghostscreech looked up at Lightningstar and gave a nod, "I'll take the three that have volunteered. As well as Ravenshade and Nettlepatch. They were on the hunting patrol as well, so they should be able to lead us to where the attack happened." He mewed, looking over at the two warriors and then at Shadowblossom, Hornetstrike and Nighteye. "We'll leave as soon as we can."

Forestblaze jerked away from Willowsong, turning his angry glare on her, "Of course you would side with him, you always do." He hissed at her. Forestblaze moved several tail-lengths away from Willowsong and sat back down when Lightningstar ordered them to quit arguing, his neck fur still bristling furiously and his tail flicking back and forth as he fell silent.

Echo sat at the edge of the medicine den's entrance, listening to Lightningstar as he reported what had happened. Her ears fell flat when she heard the news of the attack, "So my warning came too late after all." She murmured quietly to herself. Echo gave a sharp shake of her head, maybe it wasn't Greaser's gang. It could have been an entirely different group of cats that attacked them for all she knew. What she did know was that she needed to get back to the Twolegplace soon and find a way to get Sparrow out of that hollowed out monster.

Hornetstrike followed dutifully after Nettlepatch and Shadowblossom, though he kept his ears angled over to Lightningstar as the clan meeting continued. Hopefully, they would have some new Warriors today, a more positive note to a drastically dire situation in front of them.

Frostmoon looked at Ghostscreech, her voice a low rasp as she nodded. "Good luck, okay? I know you can do it. Arcticbreeze has to be okay. And I know you don't give up." She mewed, indicating that she decided to remain back this time. The patrol couldn't be too large, and she didn't want to mess anything up again. She touched her tail gently to his side, before nodding.

Scarletpaw's tail tapped lightly as she glanced at Hollowpaw and snorted. "Ghostscreech has to find them. And if not, then surely someone else will. I can't imagine Arcticbreeze letting any rouge get the better of her, can you?" She tried to soothe her friend, though inwardly she assumed that Rosethorn was watching her every move. So, she remained as neutral as possible.

Nighteye was quick to follow after the patrol to the camp entrance. "I can't believe it's come to this. Kidnapping Clan cats? I remember when the worst of Twolegplace was arguing over crow-food." he growled.

Plumfur swallowed nervously. She hated the idea of cats that enjoyed pain roaming free close to the forest. "It is sick. I'm glad we don't fight like that in the Clans." she admitted, even though she disliked fighting in general.

Aspenfall felt a lump form in his throat, and he turned to face Peachdapple with an emotional look in his eyes. "Truly, Peachdapple, I don't deserve you. StarClan may have called me here to... undo what my father did, or perhaps not, but you have the spirit of warrior and medicine cat - Clan cat - through your entire being. No matter what, I couldn't be more proud to train under you." He looked back to Lightningstar, noting just how old the leader looked. "... there's change coming to ThunderClan soon, isn't there?"

Shadowblossom nodded in agreement, "What could they even want with our clanmates? There must have been a lot of them to be ambushed like that."