~ a long, long day [clan meeting 001]

[~ .rushstar.]

It was a disaster, all of this horrible stuff happening in her first season as leader. Her first three moons, and she had already lost a deputy. Was it StarClan's way of saying they had made a mistake; that Rushstar wasn't supposed to be a leader, that she was too young and inexperinced to lead successfully? This passed through Rushstar's mind in an unusual moment of self doubt. No. StarClan wouldn't, couldn't do that. They had chosen her when they had given her her name and nine lives. So what was it then? Was it just the fact that she was turning into the unluckiest leader ever?

Her eyes caught the sight of a body, a lump of fur lying in the center of camp. Cypressheart. Her first deputy. The first victim. Why did it have to be Cypressheart that was the first to be taken by this plague? Honeyrain was sick, laying in the medicine den that moment. What if her friend was the next to go? Rushstar didn't know what she would do, then.

The tabby leader cleared her mind of such thoughts as the last border patrol arrived. The sun was starting to sink below the sky; however there was still plenty of light. Rushstar stood from where she had been sitting next to the tree that she would soon be sitting in. Her muscles had tensed up while she had been sitting down, which she soon fixed by stretching. After taking a deep breath, she bounded up the tree settling on her usual branch.

Her pelt prickled as Rushstar sensed the eyes of the cats below on her. The cats that weren't in their dens had seen her movement and knew a meeting was approaching. She shifted her weight until she was comfortable, the yowled out to her clan, "All cats old enough to catch their own prey, gather below the Branch Arch for a Clan meeting." PineClan's leader looked out below at her clan, waiting for the rest of the clan to gather.

business;
- the rodent/rat plague
- cypressheart's death
- appointment of new deputy
- pm me if you have any other business for the meeting

[One-eye +/+]

It was with a heavy heart that the one-eyed elder shambled to his feet. He had known that this meeting would be coming and it was only a matter of time. He wondered silently who would be the next deputy. He would miss Cypressheart but he hopped that Rushstar had a good head on her shoulders about this decision. Whoever it was would have to be strong through these hard times.

He moved out of his nest and over to where the cats had already started to gather. This call was all too familiar to him, but this time it hung with a heavy emotion in the air. Fear. Depression. Curiosity for the future. What was Rushstar going to say to reassure everycat that they could make it through this sickness.

As he sat down, he glanced over his shoulder to focus his good eye on the Medicine Den. He wondered if Honeyrain was conscious enough to poke her head out to listen to the news or if Birchbark and Emberstorm would leave their sick patient. And with Dawnbreeze ready to kit any day now...

There were so many things that could go wrong in the near future. He closed his eye and sent a quick and silent prayer to StarClan for safety and health of the newborns. It was up to them to grant his wish.

He opened his eye and turned it toward his leader, waiting for her to begin.

[Bluetwilight]

Bluetwilight was not altogether surprised when Rushstar leaped onto the Branch Arch to call a clan meeting. It was no secret among the Pineclan cats that they were being hit hard by this rodent plague. Already the sickness had claimed a Pineclan life, and it was the former deputy’s body that was lying in the center of the camp like a grim warning. She could not help but to allow her dark, sapphire eyes to wander over to Cypressheart’s tabby corpse again. Bluetwilight hadn’t known him well; the shock of his unexpected death hit her harder than any personal loss she felt with his passing. If such a strong deputy had succumbed to this disease, then what did that mean for the rest of them?

Her eyes wandered from the body to the entrance to the medicine cat’s den. Honeyrain was in there now, the potential second victim of the plague. No, don’t think like that. Bluetwilight told herself sternly. Honeyrain could pull through. She wasn’t doing a great job of convincing herself, though. What with the shortage of food that came with the sickness, her thoughts were even more grim now than they would have been normally. Unlike most of her peers, she was even more worried about the food situation than the disease. There wasn’t much she could do about it other than try to eat as little freshkill as possible, but that didn’t stop her from stressing out about it. She feared the most for her sister, who would have to birth her kits during this plague. As much as she tried to distance herself from Dawnbreeze’s overwhelming personality, that didn’t mean she didn’t care about her littermate and her unborn nieces and nephews.

With a sense of dread building in her chest, Bluetwilight walked slowly to stand at the edge of the gathering of cats. No doubt Rushstar would discuss the sickness and appoint a new deputy during this meeting. She looked around at the group of cats, wondering who would be chosen to be Rushstar’s possible successor. Bluetwilight knew it couldn’t be herself, since she had yet to mentor an apprentice. But there were many eligible cats, so it was really no use trying to guess. She only hoped that Rushstar would pick someone with a cool head to help in this desperate time.

[→SMOKESTRIPE]

Rushstar's voice echoed through the camp. Smokestripe had just returned from a prowl amongst the large trees in their territory, hunting. The rats and mice he had seen had been quite terrifying. Though the temptation to take an easy meal had struck him several times, he enjoyed the hunt. What fun was there in pouncing on an already dead mouse? That's right; there wasn't any fun at all.

He had a blackbird, a sparrow and a finch in his jaws, barely able to keep a hold of the three of them together. He lumped them to the prey pile before rushing forth to join his clan, squeezing between them and muttering out his apologies and slinking to the front. He sat down, large eyes staring up, almost admiring Rushstar. She was a beautiful cat and Smokestripe quite admired her, both for her strength and her beauty. But he could never tell her. He couldn't. He wasn't strong enough. He had to be better.

He hoped this would be an exciting meeting.

[/blockquote][/size]

[Aspenpaw ✿]

Aspenpaw felt as though she couldn't breath, couldn't think, couldn't even move without something inside of her wanting to cry out. How could this have happened to them? What was PineClan doing wrong that their very own deputy had been taken from them? Was StarClan punishing them for something? And if so, what was it? So many questions were racing through her mind, so many doubts and fears. And for what? Because one cat died. But it was one cat that, had she listened to the warnings, had she heard what the other animals had been saying, she might have been able to save.

'I should tell someone else... maybe I can be some sort of help,' she thought as she paced in the apprentices den, each step paining her. The sound of the leaders voice rang out in the camp, making the young she-cat stop in her tracks and turn her eyes outwards towards the main area of the camp. She paused for a beat, not sure if she should go. This would be her first real clan meeting and though she thought that she should be at least a little excited, she just couldn't be.

Quietly, the young she-cat walked out of the den and headed over towards the branch arch. The first thing she did was look around for her mentor, Jaydance. Though she didn't not have the greatest love for her mentor, she still had to respect her and she had assumed that sitting by her mentor would have been best. Since the older she-cat was not yet present, though, Aspenpaw went to go sit by someone she knew and cared for: One-Eye. As silent as a mouse, she went to sit beside him, making sure she was on the side with his good eye. Without so much as a word, she wrapped her tail over her feet and looked up at Rushstar, dread filling her with every passing second, as she waited for the meeting to start.

[~ .rushstar.]

It took a while for her clan to gather, something that caused Rushstar to frown. Was everyone okay, or were they catching the sickness? The looked fine, however, and Rushstar waited for them, tail twitching in irritation. Once they had all sat down, their leader waited a moment, then stood to start the meeting. "As you all know, our loyal deputy Cypressheart was killed by an unknown sickness earlier today. Birchbark has said that he believes this sickness is from the sick rodents that we have been finding around the territory." Rushstar paused, thinking about how she was going to tell her clan that they were not going to be able to use their main food source.

After taking a deep breath, she continued, "From now on, for the safety of PineClan, nobody should eat any of these dead rodents. If you find them around the territory, bury them, then wash your paws off in the stream below camp. When you're getting a drink, be sure to go above camp to get it." She hated not being able to tell them that this was a one time thing that would soon pass without taking anymore lives. There was no point, since every cat in the clan knew otherwise. Honeyrain was sick in the medicine den and slowly getting worse and worse. Rushstar was losing hope that her friend would survive this sickness.