private ROUND TABLE (council meeting + meddie)

[HOWLINGSTAR]

// @Flycatcher @Flamewhisker @Sunfreckle @BERRYHEART SORRY ITS SHORT mobile post but needed to get this out!!

Howlingstar’s tail tip is flicking thoughtfully as she stares at the ground before her. Around her, her council sits as they discuss the current prey situation. Berryheart has been invited as well in hopes that he’s heard something from their ancestors. Newleaf has not brought the abundance that ThunderClan had hoped for, not with the recovering part of the forest still in its beginning stages of regrowth. While the other clans grow fat off newleaf prey, ThunderClan remains scraping by.

“Has StarClan sent you any signs?” She asks her son, lifting her gaze to look at him hopefully. Her brows are knit tightly together, clearly displaying her worry. With so many mouths to feed with an overflowing apprentices den and a full nursery, they can’t go on like this. The woman sweeps her tail around her body and patiently listens for the medicine cat’s response, sincerely hoping that he’s heard something from the stars.​

 

[Sunfreckle]

Their leader asks if the stars have offered any guidance and he glances briefly to Berryheart with calm green eyes, warily hopeful. It would be nice if they did.
ShadowClan on one side, RiverClan on the other. The red tabby felt his fur prickle with unease as he thought about war so soon after they had chased out the dogs that had plagued them, that had taken their leader from them. When Howlingstar calls them all to her den he is initially uncertain, hesitant and sheepishly looking at the ground but the more he sits and glances around at the others present the more he feels his hackles raise.
The food situation was still dire, even as newleaf approached, the prey was not fully back in the territory. Buried still in burrows, hollows in trees, beneath sunning rocks. Sunningrocks. Oh, if only they had gotten that strip of land to hunt on. The extra territory that they had fought to defend themselves would be beneficial in this time.
RiverClan not helping them was one thing, but to so boldly insist they keep their rocks despite the hardships they had all gone through to unburden them from predators was insulting at best and cruel at worse. So many cats had been injured during that time, Berryheart's stores strained and his clanmates hurt.
They almost lost Silverlightning to the river itself, let alone the dogs.
"...Cicadastar said they are at a temporary camp, are they not? Theirs is flooded. They are struggling to." It at first sounds as though he intends to sympathize, but the tabby speaks with a low tone quite unlike his usually boisterous and cheerful one, "What is to stop us from taking Sunningrocks by force?" RiverClan cats depended on fish for prey mostly didn't they? ThunderClan was dealing with food issues as well but it was in their usual territory of hunting in the forest; the river cats had been fully stripped of their ability to fish until recently so they must be doing more poorly than they. At least, Sunfreckle was assuming so. He was not a warmongering cat, far from it, but a combination of desperation and insult to their pride was pushing him toward the only real option.
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[BERRYHEART]

Verdant eyes looked to him for guidance, and though he wished to provide his mother with the answer she wanted- a resounding and confident yes- he could not lie. Likely she already knew there had been nothing- Berryheart would've informed her immediately had there been even the slightest glimmer of a sign from the stars. This question was a last resort, and one he met with a solemn shake of the head, accompanied with a furrowed brow. Crooked jaws stayed fastened shut, dull ache flaring in his jaw in contemplation.

Nifty's words shifted his attention- talk of taking the Sunningrocks as a prize for their labour. Lilts had looked a madman atop those rocks, spouting accusations of ThunderClan purposefully chasing the dogs into their land as a way to manipulate them into sharing hunting rights. It was such a baffling conclusion, using Sparky's death as leverage in what had only been a plea for aid, that Berryheart felt a great deal of pity toward the RiverClan leader. To be lose control of yourself like that... often, it felt like all of those whom he had once known from the marsh group had been maddened with power.

"It's unfair," Berryheart added, "That we should have to deal with Sunningrocks' problems, yet reap no rewards." The dogs on their territory were somehow ThunderClan's problem. It made no sense- either it was wholly RiverClan's, or wholly ThunderClan's. Or at least, that was the way it should be.​

PENNED BY PIN ☾​

 

[Flycatcher]

Flycatcher sits quietly in the leader's den as this meeting tolls on. Howlingstar asks if StarClan has sent any guidance and all eyes fall to Berryheart. in that moment, hoping that he might have some answer. Flycatcher wants to believe as his leader believes that StarClan has sent them a sign, but he is of the opinion that if they had anything to say they would have known by now. Alas, they re stuck in the middle of what feels like four warring clans, both literally and figuratively. True, the situation with WindClan and SkyClan doesn't feel as bad as what was going on with ShadowClan and RiverClan, but the whole situation is tense.

They are waiting for Berryheart to reply when Sunfreckle of all cats speaks up about Sunningrocks. He flicks an ear as he listens to Sunfreckle's words, understanding quickly what the red tom was getting at. "If RiverClan really cared about sunningrocks they could have sent warriors to assist us in driving out the dogs. They wouldn't have even needed to commit to sending half their clan, but some warriors would have been better than none," Flycatcher mused. He would not have even faulted Cicadastar for keeping most of his warriors back, but to give no help and then further deny ThunderClan's requests to hunt on that land felt rude and slightly insulting. "We have been cordial to RiverClan. We have asked and asked and they only refuse us, citing that they cannot help us because they already help so many. Why should we not take what is deserved? If not for ThunderClan warriors those slobbering mutts might still be there."[/font]​

 

[Flamewhisker]

She takes a seat beside Flycatcher, offering the rest in the room a dip of her head in greeting. The meeting starts by Howlingstar asking Berryheart if he had received any signs from Starclan. Like the others, she finds herself drifting her attention towards the Medicine Cat, also wondering the same. As he shook his head, she would frown. If they had blessed him with a sign, this conversation would be much easier.

Sunfreckle was the first to speak, and she would quietly give him her attention. She would nod in agreement, but her gaze sparkled with surprise that it had been him to suggest forcibly taking the rocks first. He was typically a more peaceful clanmate, but she knew he could be fierce if he believed in something. Before she could speak, Berryheart and Flycatcher added in their opinions, all of which she agreed with.

"Do they even hunt land prey? It's on our side of the river anyways, so I don't know why they think they have a claim to them anyways." her fur ruffled as she began to get more irritated the longer she thought of the Riverclanners. "Between the dogs and thieving Shadowclanners, we barely survived leaf bare, while their river stays full of fish all year. Technically the dogs were on their territory, so they had no reason to not help us. The only reason the dogs didn't cross the river is because it's flooded. It's the least those fishbreaths could do is let us have Sunningrocks. Like Sunfreckle said, with the river being flooded, there isn't anything stopping us from just taking the rocks. They can't safely get across now anyways."

[₊⋆]​

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[HOWLINGSTAR]

Berryheart gives a solemn shake of his head and Howlingstar's ears fall in disappointment, even if his answer is expected. If he'd received a sign, he would have come to her. Briefly, her eyes glance towwards the ceiling as if in desperation. Tell us what to do. It's Sunfreckle's voice, surprisingly, that brings her back to focus. She blinks in stunned silence towards him as he suggests ThunderClan take Sunningrocks by force. It's entirely uncharacteristic of the softhearted man, but given the tragedy and suffering they have endured, she can't say it's too surprising it's come to this.

Her son speaks next, saying nearly exactly what Howlingstar herself had said at the Gathering. She finds herself nodding in agreement, murmuring, "Exactly." Flycatcher voices his agreement, pointing out the dogs would still be on RiverClan's territory if it weren't for ThunderClan driving them off. And finally, Flamewhisker, fresh from the nursery but fiery as ever. She voices what Howlingstar has begun to believe, as well. "You are all right. It makes no sense that they ever claimed land on the other side of the river for themselves. It should have always been ours. They've made it clear Sunningrocks will always be our problem anyway." Her tail lashes to and fro thoughtfully as she stares hard at the ground.​

 

[Sunfreckle]

"They claimed to not need it and its called Sunningrocks. They clearly don't use it for much more than just leisure whereas we would get actual use from it as an extra place to hunt." Really, he was surprising himself with the boldness, but what he had garnered from the gatherings was simply that RiverClan was on some kind of egotistical power trip and their leader was the greatest ego there; it almost rivaled WindClan in its madness but at least they weren't warmongering. Just being useless as an unmarked collar on a kittypet.
"We can gauge their status at the upcoming gathering but there's nothing stopping us from using it now. Just with more warriors capable of handling a skirmish on hunting patrols there."
And could preferably swim if things got a bit too messy. He still remembers hearing of the river sweeping Silverlightning away from them, how horrifying it must have been to watch the tom vanish and be unable to do anything to save him.
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