Post by ADMIN~! on Nov 11, 2008 16:23:36 GMT -8
Ooc;; Now, I realise this entire post is powerplaying, and we are a forum strictly against that, but for the purpose of our Leader, our Medicine Cat and Medicine Cat Apprentice members each going on a haitus, this was absolutely necessary. Desertrush is played by me. Don't eat her, please. ;___; As for controlling your characters, this isn't a roleplay thread, but rather an announcement in the form of writing. I wasn't going to wait for everyone to reply. Please understand. I didn't single anyone out, so I think I'm safe. ^^"
“Let all cats of HorizonClan come before me and listen to words sent by StarClan!”
The yowl cut across the clearing that marked HorizonClan’s camp, volume increasing as it spread from ear to ear. They carried a promise of hope and an explanation, and upon hearing them, the entirety of HorizonClan lifted their eyes to meet Havenstar’s, wide in surprise. Elders roused themselves from their dens, warriors turned around from a possible hunt, kits scampered towards the leader’s den and apprentices dropped all duties they were carrying out. The medicine cat and medicine cat apprentice sat beside him with twitching tails, while the deputy waited calmly at his side. Frost billowed out of his mouth as he breathed heavily, suddenly nervous to see all the cats in front of him. Though a leader, he had only been appointed two months earlier and he was nervous, especially with such an important message burning at his tongue. Uncertainty flickered at the edges of his mind, but he shoved them aside roughly. Now was not the time to falter.
However, as he look down from the top of his cave-like den, to all the expectant eyes staring up to him, words suddenly lodged in his throat like too much swallowed mouse. Nearly every cat in HorizonClan had shown up, save for the very few out hunting. He didn’t worry about them, as he knew that they would no doubt be told, but it was still a fearsome number of furry bodies in front of him. Havenstar shuddered, feeling it all along his spine, then took a deep breath and flicked his tail for silence. His command was immediately answered with a hush that chilled him right to the bone, the whispering and questions suddenly gone. Trying to soothe his nerves, Havenstar waited for the last few cats to straggle in and sit down to hear the announcement. He didn’t have to wait long.
“Cats of HorizonClan, my trusted and faithful warriors, elders, queens, apprentices and kits of HorizonClan, I come before you today to relay a conversation and prophecy most disturbing, and I pray that you all receive it with the courage I believe you to have. You have all faced the recent events with utmost calm and acceptance that I am immensely proud of, and should ask no more of, but alas, the times call upon it. Through miserable rains, chilling snows, raging thunderstorms and a growing unease of cold you have all braved, and yet more seems to be on the way, with a sense of misery and depression; we don’t know why this has come about, but it has with no sign of relenting to our pleas.” Havenstar closed his eyes, painfully reflecting on the frost-bitten days and bitterly coughing cats who seemed all but alive. “It’s just something we have no control over, except in our dreams, and much to the dismay of many, StarClan seemed to have abandoned us in our time of need.
“I’m here before you to say however, they have not!” Havenstar shouted, passion burning behind his words. A gasp rippled through the crowd and several cats turned to each with hushed voices, until the leader once again called for quiet. Uneasily, it settled on the group, but not without an accompanying feeling of tension. “We are not alone in the world, left so acrimoniously alone to fight off the unnatural elements that have battered us so! After spending a week in the Starcove, Nightstorm,” Havenstar nodded to the scrawny medicine cat beside him. Her usually lustrous coat with dull, and she had lost weight, but her eyes were alight with the fire of war. “made contact with our warrior ancestors very briefly. The connection was weak and staticky, as if coming from a long distance in the middle of a calamity. Yet we are hopeful, despite the icy forbidding in the words. I ask you all now, steady yourselves for a storm you have never encountered before; a storm of survival and a crying message from our hearts.”
Nightstorm stepped forwards from her shadowy position on the rock ledge, eyes glinting when the dull light from the cloudy sky hit her pelt like a revealing dagger. If she had seemed thin before, it was nothing compared to the shadows clinging to her ribs or the haunted ghost in her expression. Like a violin strung too tightly, her muscles were tense and her claws out, scratching against the rock face. More startling however, was her gaze. The normally gentle and forthcoming sky-blue eyes were hooded, hiding behind a secret untold. They seemed to glow, burning like a kindled blue fire that was unknown until now. She jumped down from the ledge, her nimble body landing lightly, but her claws were still out. The she-cat almost appeared to be waiting for an attack on her, and was ready at the slightest twitch of a whisker to lash out in self-defence.
“Nigh a quarter moon has passed since I last saw your faces,” she rasped, padding slowly through the ranks of cats, meeting one’s gaze every few steps. “Frightened they are now, changed from the hope and happiness they once held. I see it in your eyes.” She paused, anger pulsing through her body. “For seven days and nights, with little to drink and eat for I am no warrior, I stayed alone in the Starcove. For seven days and nights, I fervently prayed to StarClan for an answer to our dying comrades, and the clawing hunger at our bellies, and the slow disappearance of the hope, the faith, the happiness, the soul that makes us who we are! Everything that we hold dear and true, it is being torn away from our very beings! Our Companions, our loved ones, our identity, it is all dying, and yet, and yet, StarClan does nothing?” Nightstorm’s voice had risen to a cracked shout, and her steps were firm as her passion turned to a frenzy. “They disappear, no, abandon us when we are dying and struck ill with a plague we have never seen before! Our prey, the very lifeline that we thank StarClan for everyday, is dying and fleeing from the cold, leaving us to starve. Is this the way and will of StarClan? Is this the mercy and kindness we know? I have never known such cold betrayal!
“And yet as the ice beneath my paws crack into a thousand shattered splinters, my heart reaches out to that solitary message I received in a fretfully long dream. A message that you have all gathered here today to listen to, to digest and understand the tragedy that seems to have struck our clan. Well my friends, my warriors, my partners, my family, I stand amongst you to relay that message.” She paused, letting the tension grow until she could almost taste the it strung in the air, then whispered out a haunting melodious chant. “When the snap of a life creates a waterfall of stars, beware the windswept footsteps from afar. ”
“Do not trust the others!” Havenstar called the attention back to himself and all heads snapped back to their leader with fearful eyes. Nightstorm’s words had shaken them, and she stalked back up to her place beside him, eyes still glinting quite madly. “A prophecy and a warning was given to us to do what we will, and I can assure you, they won’t go unheeded. The others we can only assume are the gathering rogues around our territory, especially towards the north in the mountains. I plan to investigate these with the help of two warriors I have already spoken to in advance. If they could please step up and place themselves beside me.” The crowd of cats whipped their gaze around almost accusingly, waiting for the two warriors to climb up on the leader’s den. Two toms, older and strong, stepped from the throng of fur and raced up the side of the boulder and sat beside Havenstar, just a little behind the medicine cats. Havenstar flicked his tail towards Greywhisper and Shadowfox, who stared down with impassive faces. “As protection, I bring with me Shadowfox and Greywhisper, two warriors who have proved themselves countless times when called on.”
Havenstar softened his voice and expression as he looked upon the multitude of cats, their faces struck with fear and bodies frozen on the spot. “I do not leave you without a leader or senior warrior however, unguarded and vulnerable. I trust upon Desertrush, your deputy, to rise to the occasion and lead you all safely through these times of uncertainty until I return.” He faltered slightly, recalling their recent conversation about StarClan and her lack of faith in them, but continued onwards nonetheless. “She is an able-bodied warrior with a quick mind and I am assured that she was make the correct decisions for our clan. Until I return, I suppose this is goodbye…” Havenstar trailed off, looking rather confused. This was harder than he thought it would be. “Shadowfox, Greywhisper and I will return, hopefully within a moon. We make for our journey at nightfall.” He hesitated, feeling the stares of the entire clan on him, then jumped down with the rest of cats following him.