Lightningstar felt vaguely numb for a few Sunrises after Blossomfern's death. Her deputy had resigned and a queen had died on the same day. Was StarClan being especially cruel to their Clan for some reason? She couldn't think of anything they had done wrong.
She wandered into the pine forest, hoping to get away from her grief for a while. The pine needles bent under her golden paws as she made her way to a large tree near a stream. She had always wanted to climb to the top of the tree since she was an apprentice, but she had never been able to. Well, she thought, today is the day!
She crouched at the base of the tree and leaped up, digging her claws into the bark. Sap dripped onto her paws, but she was determined to resist the urge to lick it off.
She jumped onto a low branch after clawing her way up the tree for a few minutes and looked up the tree trunk. She could see the sky through the leaves and she clawed her way to the next branch, which was only a tail length above her.
She could smell that a cat had recently climbed up the tree, but the smell of pine was too strong for her to discern who it was. She prepared to leap to the next branch by crouching down, but a pile of pine needles was thrown down onto her before she could jump.
She looked up and a white and gray tom was looking down at her in horror from a few branches up.
"Oops! I'm really sorry, Lightningstar! I didn't know you were up here!" Frostfeather said as Lightningstar shook her fur out to get rid of the pine needles.
"It's fine, pine needles never hurt any cat." Lightningstar leaped up to the closest branch, then onto Frostfeather's branch. "So, why are you up here?"
"I just needed a break from being a medicine cat. I can't seem to remember anything from my training! I keep messing up..." Frostfeather looked down at his paws.
"I'm sure you'll get the hang of things. You've made it this far, haven't you?"
"I just don't think I'm ready to be a full medicine cat." Frostfeather picked at the bark, sending chipped off pieces falling to the ground below.
"Cherryfrost wouldn't have given you your medicine cat name unless she was completely sure you could handle it. She's been my medicine cat for the majority of the time I've been leader, and I've never seen her make a mistake." Of course, Lightningstar was lying, but it seemed to make Frostfeather feel better.
"Yay! I'm going to be the best medicine cat this Clan has ever seen! I'll be-" The excited cat suddenly lost all of his cheerfulness. "I mean, thank you for the advice Lightningstar. I'm going to return to the medicine den now."
As Frostfeather jumped quickly down the tree Lightningstar peeked through the branches to the ground. Cherryfrost was walking towards the tree, her tail lashing angerly. When Frostfeather reached the ground she started yelling at him and Lightningstar strained her ears against the wind. She could barely hear what she was saying.
"How dare you disobey me! No gatherings for four moons!" Frostfeather nodded, clearly used to Cherryfrost's anger after being apprenticed to her for many moons.
They headed off towards the camp and Lightningstar was left alone with her thoughts. She stared at the stormy sky, suddenly quite worried about the FlowerClan and PondClan situation.
Two Clans going to war was never a good thing. Of course, there had never been a war in the Clan's short history, but just the border skirmishes were dreadful.
Fortunately, RainClan had almost always been peaceful with their neighbors, and Lightningstar would never dream of starting a war that would harm one of her Clanmates. If she remembered correctly, she had never started a fight during her leadership.
Her mind wandered to Stormstar, her predecessor. The confident leader had had some strange rules for the Clan. Everyone was forbidden to enter the leader's den or sit on the fallen tree, even the deputy and only when kits were three and a quarter moons old were they allowed to eat shrew. There was no reason for most of the rules.
Maybe he was slightly insane. StarClan knows how he managed to become a leader. Even his death was peculiar.
It was a few moments after the battle with PondClan. He had climbed up on to the fallen tree and immediately toppled over onto the sharp rocks lining the entrance to the camp, impaling himself.
It turns out he had suffered a leg injury during the battle and his leg had buckled when he jumped. Why had StarClan decided at this moment to end his strange reign as leader, Lightningstar didn't know, but she couldn't say she wasn't glad.
"Lightningstar? Lightningstar!" Lightningstar was snapped out of her thoughts by Marigoldtail calling for her.
"What?"
"Why in StarClan's name are you all the way up there? I need to talk to you!" Lightningstar leaped down the branches that she had worked so hard to climb up slowly, sad that her alone time had been cut short.
"What did you want to talk about?"
"Follow me." The golden she-cat led Lightningstar through the forest to the edge of the Star Field and stopped at a large cave carved into the side of highstones.
"What's wrong with the cave?"
"It smells so strongly of foxes...and with the fox attack on Blossomfern I think we need to get the Clan to exterminate the foxes." Lightningstar peered into the den, trying to see through the darkness.
"I think that's a good idea. We can't let the Clan lose any more cats." Lightningstar mewed, turning away from the cave.
The sisters headed back to the camp to fetch the clan, talking about almost nothing. When they arrived Lightningstar quickly jumped on to the fallen tree and started giving her speech.
YOU ARE READING
Warriors: FlowerClan's War #1 - A Clan's Choice
Fanfiction**BOOK 1** On the other side of Highstones, three new clans have begun. StoneClan, RainClan, and PondClan have been peaceful for many moons. A new Clan has come to live with them, but their introduction isn't going as well as the cats had hoped. Can...
