camp 𝐌𝐀𝐘𝗕𝐄 ╱ "𝐒𝐓𝐀𝐑"𝐆𝐀𝒁𝐈𝐍𝐆

WindClan's sky darkens in preparation for the gathering. They will not leave for some time longer, but the burnished orange of the horizon has those intending to attend stretching their limbs, saying their farewells to those that remain. An attempt at normalcy, despite the uneasy force behind their words. If they say it with enough volume and certainty, it will become the truth. I will see you before the sun rises. Can they guarantee this, truly? The flames have left a path they might hug along their border to RiverClan. The fire that hedges their border to ThunderClan remains relatively tamed. As long as the gap does not close, WindClan will be united. He cannot help but worry things will not be this simple.

For above them, StarClan is buried in the smoke. A thick blanket of gray turns their watchful glow hazy. It peeks through only rarely; he can imagine the way that they sweep away the clouds with starry tails. But soon enough they are separated again, and not even with his gaze turned upwards for long, passing moments does he see them part again. The stars are, for a moment, gone. Sunstar sighs, but still cannot tear his attention away.
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  • OOC.
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    SUNSTAR. LEADER OF WINDCLAN.  
    ——– HE – HIM – HIS ╱╱ 48+ MOONS OLD, ADULT.
    NPC x NPC, MOUNTAIN CATS. MATE TO WOLFSONG; FATHER TO BEARPAW, SINGEDPAW, RIVEPAW, SUNLITPAW AND FEATHERPAW. MENTORING RIVEPAW.

    TH ╱╱ A LARGE, FRESHLY SCARRED CHOCOLATE AND WHITE ROSETTE TABBY TOM WITH SEAGLASS BLUE EYES
 
The gathering would begin soon. Under the dense blanket of smoke under the rising moon, Slateheart finds it hard to tell the time, but as his Clanmates bid farewell to each other and prepare to leave, he opts to stay behind. He cannot, in good faith, leave his home unattended with windswept fires threatening their territory, threatening their camp. The Gathering would not miss such a reclusive cat, anyhow.

Slateheart spots Sunstar amongst those that are promising their return, and joins to stand a tail-length away. He does not speak at first, only follows his leader's gaze to the sky. Some stars find their way through the darkness, but each greeting is short-lived as the haze rolls through, drowning out the knowing gazes of their ancestors. For some time, he does not break the silence, until his uncertainty finally speaks. "Do you think their vision of us is obscured, just as ours is of them?" His chest tightens with apprehension at the mere thought that their ancestors are not watching over them while this fire burns, that they are left to their own devices - that StarClan may not know of their fate.
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    slate slatepaw slatetooth SLATEHEART
    ━━ MOOR-RUNNER WARRIOR of WINDCLAN
    ━━ 23 MOONS,, ages every 6th
    ━━ LYNXTOOTH xx ADELAIDE xx SILVERFOOT
    ━━ SIBLING to GRAVELSNAP and ASHPAW
    ━━ MATE to none | PARENT to none
    ━━ MENTOR to none | MENTORED by LYNXTOOTH
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  • speech is #bbbb88

 
The air is thick with ash, threatening to suffocate them all. Snakehiss' heart sinks into his stomach as he thinks of the territory around them burning, slowly closing in, possibly not stopping until there is nothing left. The hills were his home — the home of his ancestors, even — and now it was being scorched. "StarClan has turned on us." Snakehiss murmurs solemnly. WindClan hadn't listened when the ancestors had blackened the sun. Snakehiss hadn't a clue about how much control StarClan had over the likes of twolegs, but perhaps this was a way of condemning the moor clan for ignoring their omen.

He looks toward the rosette-spotted leader now, dim green gaze harboring a mixture of emotions — uncertainty, anxiety, even judgment. Could Sunstar be the only cat standing in the way of WindClan's connection to StarClan? They are unhappy with a rogue being leader. The moor runner thinks critically. Could the darkness have meant something else? A sign that... darkness should replace the light?

His irises narrow.

  •  
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    *
    snakehiss
    he/him; moor runner of windclan
    long-limbed black tom with green eyes, a small white chest patch, and multiple scars
    father to violetkit, cricketkit, and privetkit (duskclan)
    "speech", thoughts, attack
    link to full tags; @ on discord or dm @beaaats for plots!​
 
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Agitation radiates off Dimmingsun. His paws itch with the need to go - as far from the flames as possible, the Gathering being the least of his worries right now. His decision to go tonight has been made uneasily, finding it difficult to leave camp behind when he doesn't know what state it will be in upon his return, but he wants Celandinepaw to have a shred of normalcy for her first time. She looked eager to go, and he cannot possibly take that excitement away from her.

He knows Sunstar is sharing more or less the same thoughts. Dimmingsun loathes the idea that his leader will have to report the Clan's impending doom from one of the thick branches over at Fourtrees, like it's any other kind of report, letting the other cats savor this momentary weakness. Momentary, yes- Dimmingsun cannot possibly accept that their moor might not be the same after this.

"Surely they wouldn't burn us all for that," he argues with Snakehiss, though there is no fight in his words. StarClan has seen them stumble and fall before... driving them out from their home or letting them fry with it sounds way too cruel to be true.



---


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  • DIMMINGSUN WINDCLAN WARRIOR
    ────── HE/HIM ✦ PENNED BY KARMEN ✦ 04/15
  •  
 
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When Sunstar had asked the lead warriors to stay behind and watch over camp, it had not been ahrd for ehr to agree. If given the choice between going to a gathering and not Bluepool would always choose the latter. They were a waste of time, in her opinion. None of the other clans truly cared for another, they only cared for themselves. And the gathering was just a scene set for disaster, in her opinion. The truce that they all fell under was flimsy at best, and chaos could errupt at any moment. It's inevitable. Still, she wishes Sunstar would not go at all, but she knows there is no use in trying to talk him out of it.

Instead, she joins the small group in tilting her head back to look at the stars obscured by clouds. Slateheart asks if the stars could see or if they were blinded by the cover "I think they can still see us..." she says, her voice wistful. Where was her sister, she wondered. Certainly she would not have ended up among the ranks of StarClan but wherever she was.. could she still see them? "I doubt it was about WindClan, we have done nothing wrong" she says a bit defensively. StarClan would not forsake them, surely. Not when they were just now starting to rebuild. Dimmingsun, at least, seems to agree.
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    BLUEPOOL WINDCLAN LEAD WARRIOR ; SHE / HER ; SISTER TO SOOTSTAR & MINTSHADE
    A small framed moor runner with a blue toned pelt and black stripes. Her tail is cropped and her eyes are golden in color. On her chest, she sports a large 'X' shaped scar.
    Difficult in battle. A skilled fighter + isn’t above using dirty tricks in order to win
 

The stars had rotted into greyness, everything above them wearing the coat of the decayed. Featherpaw hid her fear behind yellow glare, meeting the dull, distant glow of flames with a facade of skin-deep bravery. The Gathering was tonight, but Featherpaw would not be going; she wished her father wouldn't either, but he had deemed it necessary to meet the Clans, to presumably inform them of the danger that spread flickering arms around WindClan.

Was it the best thing to do? Featherpaw's tenseness was, as ever, thorned- hard to parse, and past the prickles there convulsed a fear of death and of exploitation. With WindClan burning, would the other Clans take advantage for the sins of their former leader? Would they make good on their over-the-border hatred, barked usually without much remorse?

A white-tipped tail curled protectively around his paws. StarClan has turned on us. Featherpaw felt a tug within him, and turned a yelow glare to Snakehiss, who earned a knife-sharp glare of ire. "You're g-giving up too easily." She did a good job of keeping her voice steady and certain, despite the overspilling uncertainty she felt. For StarClan to turn on them would mean that they had made an error. That they had done something against the will of the stars- that WindClan, yet again, would collapse into darkness.

Featherpaw had more faith in her father than that. He knew Sunstar had to be the one to lead them through this, to help StarClan see them past the smog once again. But no matter what conclusion he white-knuckle gripped, a memory played distantly in Featherpaw's head- one of her telling Pinkpaw, with softened spines, we did the right thing. In ousting Sootstar... in fighting their leader's will.

She did not like to think that she had been mistaken.
✦ penned by pin
 
જ➶ The pale figure slips along the smog filled night. Troubled by the fire that spreads. There is a meager irritation coating his face but the reason not easily discerned. His head tilts up, attempting to view the stars that shudder and seem to waver from his view as the smoke and ash lifts into the air. Others are also gathering around Sunstar. Some speaking quietly and he tilts his head as he hears Snakehiss and his words. Starclan turned against them? "That implies that they are very fickle. Or can not tell good from evil." His low tones murmur into the night as he settles down where he stands no longer wishing to make another move. Frankly he hopes they are neither of those things. It just seems too quick to suddenly abandon them on the turn of a new leadership. Sunstar has just begun his reign and nothing in the future has been gleaned.

From the stories that he had been told about Sootstar the former leader was a disaster. Attacking her own and, scarring them, chasing others out that did not obey completely. Quick to raid. Shaking his head at the tales of pain he merely lifts his pink stained eyes up to the sky, squinting just slightly. "I just hope they will give us safety from this mess." A way out. Anything.