one more time (all skyclan)

The clan below gathered quickly. A swarm of colour rushing together at his call. On better day it may have made him reflect on what they were, by name and by strength. However, that day was not yet there. It was lost under a sea of anger, churning in his chest. It represented a jumble of emotions, all writhing under his fur, as inescapable in that moment as the past. The past his warriors had now created. The leader’s gaze was drawn to them as they entered, pelt sopping wet, a sign of their crime and the realism of what had just taken place.

They’d broken the warrior code. They’d deliberately stepped into that river and been found. Rather than hang their heads and admit shame, they’d taken it to RiverClan, overstepped, and in front of the clan’s deputy on top of that. StarClan have mercy on them, as he certainly would not. There were many things that Pinestar knew himself to be lenient about. However, deliberate breaking of the code? Overstepping and commanding in a way that they were not permitted to? That he would not stand for.

It was apprentice behaviour, and that was how he intended to treat them. Apprentices who had gone over the limit of what they had been taught, and would now need to face their mentors. Pah. Pinestar’s tail lashed sharply behind him as he narrowed his eyes, gaze moving away, and instead searching out the pelt of his one-deputy. Pepperstrike was nowhere to be seen. This was becoming a trend with his deputies, a sign of their suitability he supposed. Maybe they weren’t prepared to face that denouncing that came with the resignation, even if the clan would think no differently of them. Well, beyond himself.

Instead, he sought out the cats who he could trust, the warriors who meant dearest to him, and would stand tall and loyal without question. They were the ones he needed, that SkyClan needed to go forward. The leader straightened, and took a breath, slow and steady, as he forced his fur flat, to find some composure. He would come back to the ungrateful brats that had no right to be anything but silent at the edge of the clearing. Before he was due to lecture, the more important point needed to be covered, the one that would define how they pressed on from that point. The leader’s head tilted down as he looked toward Vervainpaw, before to his paws, the white tufts sticking out around his claws seeming more prominent to him than usual. Perhaps it was his keenness to focus elsewhere.

There was no point delaying the inevitable. He’d made his choice of deputy before leaving the camp, as Pepperstrike’s words had barely left the air. There was no point keeping it from them. Pinestar lifted his head, and stood tall, claws unsheathing into the thorn branch for balance, as he forced his ears upright. “Cats of SkyClan,” he begun, voice loud, booming through the camp, a mark of his usual self. If there was one thing the tabby and white tom was not, it was quiet. “We join once again for things we have discussed before that are now of a new meaning.” It felt like every meeting had been for the two topics he held against his heart there and then.

“The first being of the most importance, and by no means any element in my, no doubt, obvious anger. Pepperstrike has decided to resign from the deputy position he accepted not long ago, the reason for which you can discuss with him in your own time.” StarClan help them, if this continued he would need their ancestors themselves to intervene, to tell him what was going wrong. “Therefore, we will need a new cat for the role. The cat I have in mind is one of our dearest, who will do nothing short of showing us his natural loyalty and patience in changing times. I say these words before StarClan, so they may hear and approve of my choice. Snowfall with be deputy of SkyClan.”

The leader’s claws tightened in the wood, as he looked down into the crowd, seeking out his brother’s gaze. His littermate, his other half. The tom who fought so hard to be all he could be, and had all the patience in the world to face what came. His foil, in so many aspects. That was the deputy that the can needed in order to be the best that they could. The leader’s gaze flicked to his apprentice, Foxpaw, before to Icepaw and Dandelionpaw, and eventually across the clearing to Elksong and Lioncloud. The decision felt good, it felt right. That was what he needed. However, the elephant in the room remained, in the form of four soaked warriors at the edge of the clearing. Pinestar glanced toward them briefly, and his momentary lapse of calmness disappeared, and he straightened once more, giving his brother a firm nod.

He stayed quiet, letting the tom say anything he wished to, and the clan’s call to ring out around the clearing. However, he was not done, far from it. He stayed still, expectant, waiting for quiet to reign again before he continued, even as the words he was about to say prickled under his skin, small sparks waiting to ignite.