Too Many Straws, Too Little Days

[Shadewing]

[atrb=border,0,true][cs=7][bg=171717] the count;; 281 the cat;; Shadestar the involved;;Ashenanarchy, SC the notes;; Shadestar had dug a hole, about two feet deep, and placed his little kit, Nightkit inside. He didn't want to cover him up. Not yet. I'm not covering him up. And he's staying in my den. When I do cover him up, he'll be covered by nice smelling leaves so when... when he decays.... Stadestar stood rigid. You're in StarClan now. I will make sure that your death does not go unnoticed, Nightkit, Shadestar thought, jumping up on a branch. "All cats gather 'round for a Clan meeting!" Shadestar yowled, more furious than ever. Cats right away gathered around him, including FireClan. Shadestar paced on his branch. "I think its time for Crowpaw to become a medicine cat. He has worked hard to learn the ways of StarClan and interpret its strange language, as well as selflessly heal the Clan. At the next half-mon you will travel to the moonpool alone, and Starclan will preform its secret ceremony with you. Thank you for serving ShadowClan! Call out this medicine cat's name!" Shadestar began the cheer, and cats happily followed, and even FireClan cats joined in with a little enthusiasm. Shadestar looked into the crowd. "Ashenanarchy, come here." Shadestar jumped down, and stood rigid, waiting for Ashenanarchy. "When you come out, would you like to tell us what happened this afternoon, along with what happened before you had your first litter?" The whole crowd went silent for a moment, when they heard about the hint he had fathered a litter, and then small whispered echoed around. "Silence, mousebrains! Let Ashenanarchy speak! Perhaps he will have a good reason for siring a litter with my mate.."

[Twilight]

Ashenanarchy padded out of his den, and sat beside the entrance. He didn't speak for the longest time. He just sat there, thinking of how to say what he was going to. His icery eyes looked over all the clan, and then stopped on Shadeastar. He finally spoke, his voice loud, so the entire clan could hear. "I don't have to explain myself to a leader who lets his own kit die. You took Nightkit out of the den, when moving him could have cuased him to die. He was doing fine until you came him and carrie him around the camp. As of now, I am no longer a ShadowClanner" He turned away an started walking to the entrance. "By the way, Crowpaw's medicine cat name is Crowdusk." He finally walked out of camp, and started running.

[Silky]

[*Crowstorm]

Crowpaw looked up at Shadestar. Was he CRAZY? Making him medicine cat? Crowpaw could barely remember half the herbs! Where was Ashenanarchy going? Why was Morningcloud sobbing? Why was Nightkit dead? What the hell was going on?! "B-but Sha-!"[/color] He said, as Ashenanarchy spoke. I'm not ready... The apprentice thought. Ashenanarchy was gone, leaving a young, inexperienced apprentice in his place. "DAMNIT SHADESTAR I'M NOT READY!"[/color] He yowled, not caring who turned to stare at him. "I can barely remember half the herbs, let alone the uses of them! I'll need Sandfire to help me before I'm even half ready to become Shadowclan's medicine cat!"[/color] He said, blue eyes blazing angrily. He wanted to know what Ashenanarchy had done, and if he'd upset Morningcloud, or if Morningcloud was crying because Nightkit was dead. So many questions, yet no answers.

[Shadewing]

[atrb=border,0,true][cs=7][bg=171717] the count;; 915 the cat;; Shadestar the involved;;Ashenanarchy, Morningcloud, Dustpaw, Ravenpaw, Flamepaw, Crowdusk, FC, SC the notes;; "Mousedung, Ashenanarchy! If you weren't too busy having sex with Morningcloud in your den, you could have saved Nightkit! You bastard!" Shadestar's fur prickled when he said the word, both with anger, and with remorse for saying the word loudly. It's called for, he tried comforting himself, because right now, he was sure nobody would step up and do that to him now. "You neglected a kit! You stole my mate, as a medicine cat! And now I bet you're going to live as a kitty-pet!" Shadestar called after him, black fur fluffed. "Going against my word! Four rules broken and counting! If I see you on this territory one more time, I'll kill you!" Ashenanarchy was already gone by the time he was finished. He heard Crowpaw cry out about not knowing the herbs. "Crowpaw, StarClan and Sandfire may guide you. Both are wise mentors, much wiser and better than Ashenanarchy ever was. Medicine cats help StarClan, not go against them. I won't have you taking that same path." Shadestar walked around a few more times, collecting his thoughts. "Ashenanarchy thinks he is StarClan. Thinks Crowpaw should be called Crowdusk. That is shameful, that such a cat takes the naming ceremony of StarClan into his own paws. Now you see why he must have left," Shadestar yowled, and paced about further, eyes glaring into any cat that looked at him. "Ashenanarchy never shared any signs of StarClan with us! He was a terrible medicine cat! He couldn't even heal Nightkit before his.. death. " Shadestar walked under his branch, before his clan, and sat, curling his tail around his feet. "Now, since Ashenanarchy the moody queen in labor failed to answer my commands, and didn't tell what happened, I'll tell you what happened to the best of my ability, Morningcloud and I were obviously mates, and we had been for about two seasons. We had our first litter of kits, and I was more proud of them than anything. I didn't think any of them had a real resemblence to me, but I still loved them all the same. When Sablekit was found to have bad hearing, I loved her like any other kit, like a father should have. She may never become a complete warrior, StarClan's blessings be on her, but I never neglected her. Cherishkit and Nightkit, my two sons, loved me as a father, I loved them as sons. Just this sunhigh, I went in to check on dear Nightkit, who had a terrible cough, and I had found a spot of blood. He needed care from sun up, to sun down, and even should have been checked on through the night. Ashenanarchy tries to blame his death on me. However, I caught him when I saw Nightkit left alone, mating with the cat who I thought was my mate, Morningcloud," Shadestar yowled, and licked his lips, and took a short break, his mouth turning dry, and his voice beginning to go into an extremely angry tone. "Of course, that was why none of them looked like me. It was Ashenanarchy who was the real father of the kits, not me. The sleazy queen who should be in FireClan's harem had mated with him knowingly, and then had misled me to being mates. I protected her from FireClan males, I thought she was my mate. However, since she was not.." He eyes travelled for a rfew moments, and then rested on the siamese. "She shall join the FireClan harem. FireClan males, I encourage you to breed with her more than any other harem. ShadowClan, we will travel onto ThunderClan territory, and take brambles from their forest, since we have very few. Flamepaw, Ravenpaw, Dustpaw, I will send the three of you. This will be your assessment. If you pass, I will make you warriors as soon as I can see that you can fight and hunt properly. If you fail, I'll give you three more months of training, and then another assessment. The three of you will travel in a group, led by Leopardfang. You four will be all I will send, so it doesn't look like we're starting a fight, though lowering ThunderClan's numbers would be splendid. If a patrol sees you, I want you to run. If one cat sees you, you are to run. Are we clear?" Shadestar yowled, eying all of the cats. He knew that Flamepaw would follow his commands, and Dustpaw would want to get together with Drydusk, and Ravenpaw would likely follow them, unable to do anything. She was like a ThunderClan cat with less willpower. "Depart at moonhigh, and I want you to watch for ThunderClan's patrol. When they pass, I want you to wait a few movements of the moon, and then go onto their territory, and get as many brambles as you can. The apprentice who brings the most brambles gets first pick of the kill," It was a fairly good reward for a cat like Flamepaw, since apprentices in ShadowClan were extremely traditional as far as the honor system went. Bowing heads were needed until the two cats knew eachother informally. Apprentices ate last. All of the old traditions. "Good luck," Shadestar meowed to them, and then went over to Crowpaw. "Would you mind telling me where I can find strong smelling herbs.. son?" He added at the end, expecting a straight answer.

[Twilight]

Flamepaw's outraged cries spat at where Ashenanarchy had left. She knew something wasn't right about him. Her dark green eyes showed she wanted to go after him and tear his ears off, maybe even tear out that traitorous heart of his. Her calico form bristled with anger and a wanting of vengeance for her clan and the now dead Nightkit. She defiantly turned her mind away from the dark thoughts filling her head when Shadestar called out her name along with her sister, Ravenpaw, and her older sister Dustpaw. Her fur smoothed quickly and her dark green eyes softened as she listened to the orders of her mentor.

She got up fom her spot with a dark gracefulness that would make her seem almost evil to any other clan cat but ShadowClan. The dark thoughts of Ashenanarchy swirled through her mind as she padded confidently to her sister, flicking with her tail to follow, and went over to Leaopardheart and Dustpaw. The setting sun struck hard upon her red calico pelt as she went to Leopardheart. Flamepaw dipped her head to the warrior, and the warrior nodded. She flicked her tail thoughtfully, and seemed to frown. Then, she asked Leopardheart directly. "And what kind of kill will we be indulging upon as the dawn comes? He wasn't very clear about our prize, but then again, it's always fun having your reward somewhat of a mystery." Leopardheart sort of just shrugged, and Flamepaw could stand being in camp no longer. She lashed her tail and spoke again. "Leaopardheart, I'm going hunting. I'll be back in time for the mission, and I'll bring back as much food as I can." With that, she walked out of camp, and grudingly forced herself from following Ashenanarchy's scent trail and tracking him down to hurt him. {Flamepaw has left the camp... }

((By the way. I want a name other than Flameflower as her warrior name. I liked Flameflower at first, but... I'm just not liking it anymore and I can't come up with a name I like... I also need an unrelated tom for her to crush on. Not Drydusk, of course, cause he has Dustpaw, but I want her to have some clumsy, uncomfortab;e moments instead of her usualy confident and arrogant air. XD))

[Silky]

(I think her having a crush on Drydusk would be cool, coz Dustpaw is her big sister she'll be like "gtfa you little mangy kitten D:< I've been liking him since before you were even the gleam in Daddy's eye!"

Also, Leopardfang = Shadowclan, Leopardheart = Thunderclan.)

Crowpaw looked at the floor. He did not want to have the name of his father. "No cat should be ever called Crowdusk again..."[/color] He muttered under his breath. He didn't want to listen to Shadestar when he talked about Morningcloud. So, that was why she was crying. The apprentice hazarded a look over to her, and saw the Fireclan toms let out a few woops. He felt his fur prickle. Despite what she had done, giving her to Fireclan was by far the worst punishment the wretched she-cat could get. Then, Shadestar finished, and came over to him. He asked him where he could find any strong smelling herbs. The tom nodded. "I can get some Thyme, Lavender, Tansy, Chamomile and Catmint from the twoleg gardens if you wish Shadestar.."[/color] Crowpaw said. He knew who it was for, little Nightkit.

Dustpaw sighed. Ashenanarchy had made a mistake. Perhaps, Sandfire had made a mistake choosing him as her apprentice all those moons ago, but, she was glad he had been chosen, otherwise, she could have been in this situation with Drydusk. She glanced over at him, the strong, handsome grey tom. Well, she better become a warrior, or else she'd claw out Shadestar's throat, but not till Fireclan were gone. Maybe later, she'd appeal to Shadestar to have mercy on Morningcloud. No other she-cat knew what it was like to be in that harem, apart from Dustpaw, and, it had scarred her for the rest of her days on this soil. "She doesn't deserve that kind of punishment... No one does."[/color] She hissed to herself, a little too loud for her liking.

(By the way, his two sons are Brightkit and Nightkit, and his daughters are Cherishkit and Sablekit ^-^)

[Shadewing]

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