Warrior Cat Clans 2 (WCC2 aka Classic) is a roleplay site inspired by the Warrior series by Erin Hunter. Whether you are a fan of the books or new to the Warrior cats world, WCC2 offers a diverse environment with over a decade’s worth of lore for you - and your characters - to explore. Join us today and become a part of our ongoing story!
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Recently, everything held a sense of normalcy, and it was almost strange to Lilydawn. She didn't dread waking up, she didn't hate being apart of Winterclan, she didn't look out towards the borders and wish there was more, and while there was certainly a background feeling of anxiety with the exile of Doefreckle from Summerclan, she tried to put it out of her mind because, by now, he'd probably found some tom who would cuddle up to him in bed and keep him safe. She'd seen Shadedsun at the Gathering and he didn't seem as much as a mess as she'd expected. So, she could tuck it away for now, focus on her new apprentice. Halfpaw had, despite her efforts, grown on her. She liked feeling needed, and this young cat's education was in her paws now. But that wasn't what she was doing today — she'd actually given her the day off, mostly because Lilydawn wanted one and, really, she could do whatever she wanted. Technically.
Making her way down the side of the mountain, through the belly-high slope (her overall shortness had always been a drag, everything was so much harder), she paused near the bottom, turned back to stare back at Winterclan's impressive peaks. Springclan and Fallclan were just beside them, two bits of land she considered sacred, and Summerclan was behind. Her opinion on them had been unsteady lately. She was always convinced she hated everything about them, how cursed it seemed to be, and then it was a little better, and then it was a little worse, and now it had settled into something confusing and messy that she didn't want to get into any time soon. They had a new leader, she heard, and she'd gotten off on a bad start, and then a worse start with a marriage to a tom who didn't even seem to like her that much, though she felt it reflected her own situation with Cottontail; she didn't like him, but it was for Winterclan, or whatever Wintrystar felt she needed to spew out.
She didn't realize how close to the border she was, because a little further ahead she noticed a dark, beckoning entrance. A cave, or some tunnel. Curious nonetheless, because Winterclan held a whole bunch of unexplored tunnels in their depths.
Her honeymoon with her reluctant groom now over, the clan forcibly moving on despite the new Doefreckle-sized hole that yawned at their core, Sunstar dredged herself through the snowdrifts blanketing the territory. SummerClan's winters were short but brutal, blizzards shrieking down from WinterClan's mountainside and freezing even the ocean froth into treacherous ice floes, and all their many prismatic meadows were masked beneath ear-high snows. Traitorously, despite how she so loathed the cold, she couldn't help but lean into invasive thoughts of what it might be like to disappear under the ice, let the hypothermia bite every last life out of her soul, feel the chilling hand of darkness sweep behind her eyes.
It was so tempting. She needed to get away from the water.
An unsteady sunset wavered beyond the mountains by the time Sunstar became cognizant of her surroundings again, noting with a sudden flame of warmth in her paws that they were raw and bleeding from trekking so long in the cold. "Crap," she muttered. She scoped out the land around her- an uninterrupted sheet of white, with pillars of snow-dusted evergreens casting long shadows across the snow- until she could just make out a distant landmark. Hurrying toward it, now staggering, she didn't hesitate to clamber down into the cave, deep into the darkness she'd longed for hours before. Was this what it would feel like to die, she wondered, curiously finding that this death was far warmer than one by glacial waters.
And far less lonely, as her eyes adjusted and pinned down the other occupant of her sanctuary warily. On edge, Sunstar battled to keep her fur from bristling, detecting notes of a scent that was becoming far too familiar far too fast. "You're from WinterClan," she stated unnecessarily, cementing that fact and reminding herself that that would make this cat her ally- willing or not.
The snow was almost up to her stomach (short legs be damned), making the walk up to the new cave exhausting, and by the time she set foot on the stony floors she could hardly feel her legs at all. Hardly getting a chance to look around before she was graced with company, turned from where she was staring up at the ceiling, back to the entrance, to see Sunstar stumble into the cave and practically collapse onto its floor. For a moment, she didn't know what to do, simply gave her a bewildered look. She was illuminated by the whiteness of the snow beyond, and it almost gave her a glow.
You're from WinterClan. Her confusion didn't lessen, but she did approach, somehow both careful and confident, stopped to stand just before her. "Well, what gave that away?" A scoff, but it was lighthearted, "Summerclan cats." It was obvious; her crass carelessness, her overly sweet, flowery scent reminiscent of sunshine, even in the dead of winter, and Lilydawn had always been quite good at picking them out. She sat down and leaned forward slightly to examine her noticeably bleeding paws, winced at the sight of them.
"Might want to warm those up," she pointed out, just as obvious as Sunstar's observation before, "or we're going to have to cut them off. That's a joke, probably, but frostbite isn't too good to get, so." She shrugged, gave a slight, sarcastic half-smile. She gave a quick look around the cave again — she would have explored it more, had she not been interrupted, because though it was small, there was bound to be some sort of secret she could scope out.
She gave the stranger her attention again, "so, like, what are you doing out here? Got a death wish or something? Not that I'm going to kill you, you seem to be doing that just fine on your own."
Sunstar, too, glanced down at her still-bleeding paws, the visual image of their ragged surface making her more cognizant of the condition they were in, but she offered no more than a sour grimace at her own expense and gave them several careful, deliberate licks to warm them slightly. Without access to the herbs at camp, it was the best she could do- and it wasn't like she could leave and hobble back, not with night settling in and the wind stirring up flurries outside.
"If they get any worse, you'll get first dibs on cutting them off. Maybe you'll win some points with Wintrystar, get bumped to a higher... class? Caste? What is it you call them?" Her interest in WinterClan still new, she wasn't incredibly familiar with their terminology. Reapingnight tended to talk more about himself than the systems of his home, but even if he did, Sunstar tuned him out more often than not, reduced to nothing more than a drone in the background as far more interesting things like how many worms were digging holes in the dirt at her paws went on.
A wry grin formed as Lilydawn quipped at her, cooling some of Sunstar's apprehension from the tense set of her delicate shoulders. "Oh, you know, with NightClan gone now and the threat of being on WinterClan's bad side neutralized, I figured I needed some way to get the adrenaline back. Nothing like freezing to death to get your heart racing, right? I don't see many of you down this way," the last one was now her husband, unfortunately, "Isn't it too warm for you down here?" The temperature was steadily plummeting, but it was still far warmer here than it was when she'd trekked closer to WinterClan to meet with the Sovereign.
"Castes? Oh, don't get me started — they're way too hung up about it, and couldn't even put me at the top! I came to Winterclan like 'hey I'm related to Ghoulstar give me status, he's my dad,' and they're all like 'well, you don't look like him,' or 'I'm eighty years old and don't remember you!' But I was only in Winterclan like once before, and then they put me in the third lowest class and it still sucks," she seemed far to friendly now, and perhaps it was the chance to actually talk to someone without the weird, strict rules of the hanging over her head, and she could finally complain to someone about an arranged marriage without the possibility of offending someone. Instead of continuing to stand over her any longer, surprisingly she settled a little way away from the stranger, like they were gossiping friends, and stared out towards the gathering flurries. Almost self-consciously — she used to be; they had always served of a constant reminder of what she wasn't — she ran a paw over her folded ears.
"Maybe it's the ears, or the stature, I don't know." Lilydawn shrugged.
Isn't it too warm for you down here? For a few moments, she gave a dumbfounded look, like it was the stupidest question in the world, before she blinked, realized this cat didn't assume she wasn't anything clan born.
"What? If it's too cold for you it's not too warm for me. But no, I lived in Summerclan before. And … Springclan, and … Fallclan," she looked like she was thinking, before she continued, "but I actually lived in Summerclan the longest. I hope you don't mind me complaining about Winterclan, I don't have many to do that with." Other than Doefreckle, but Summerclan's new leader did have him literally exiled, so that wasn't an option anymore. She supposed there was Shadedsun, though he always preached something about being a little easier on them, that maybe she wasn't as open as she should be. Lilydawn would roll her eyes at that.
She felt the need to look a little closer at the she-cat, and so she directed her gaze to her, took in the way the light from outside illuminated her distinctly flame-pointe face, tilted her head and squinted her eyes until it clicked. "I saw you at the Gathering — aren't you Summerclan's leader?"
Watching Lilydawn open up so trustingly was fascinating. Sunstar titled her head, a small but genuine smile playing along her lips, as she listened to the she-cat's rant while considering every other encounter she'd ever had with a WinterClan. There was that fidgeting Knight with the nervous, flitting eyes; Wintrystar and her cutting composure, demanding more than she offered; and Reapingnight and...all of that. Even if it weren't for Lilydawn's admission, 'I lived in Summerclan before. And … Springclan, and … Fallclan,' it would not have been difficult to distinguish that she wasn't a native of her chosen clan. "You get around," she remarked, intrigue awakened in her gaze. "What did your dad look like? We could have a makeover session- I'm extremely good at those." She was one of her clan's best Garden Keepers, after all, practically bred for the role.
I hope you don't mind me complaining about WinterClan. Sunstar grinned. "Are you kidding? You say you lived in SummerClan, but you've forgotten how much we love to gossip?" She was leaning in now, thoroughly invested. If just a little more time passed, enough for this cave to warm the chill of apprehension fully from her, she'd be gasping and growling in turn, fully devoted to Lilydawn's plight, as if they were best friends and not mere strangers to one another. "Spare no complaints."
Having relaxed, Lilydawn getting closer to observe her reinvigorated the caution, hoping that maybe she would be pegged for her mother. She had some brand of anonymity clutched in her grasp. She was loathe to let it go. "SummerClan’s leader?" She pulled a good impression of shock at the question, one she hoped was convincing enough, and rounded it out with an amused breath of laughter. "Why would SummerClan’s new leader be all the way out here?"
it's kind of amusing to me that in this thread, they're both still (unhappily) married, but in real time their husbands are mia. truly, they are parallels of one another
this is for the girls whose husbands mysteriously disappear!!!!
She laughed, but it was strained — she didn't mention how that it was only a brief system roughly put together by her fathers to ensure each of them would get some time with their kits, and to ensure they would be accustomed to each of their clans. The blossoms of an alliance that had fallen apart shortly after. "My dad?" She asked, then gave a small, brief grin, "which one? Kidding — I'm not, I had four. He's long gone now," she hardly got to know him, "but I don't think you'd have much luck, he was like, Siamese or something like that, it's been a while. We weren't, like, actually related. . ." she trailed off, tucking her paws under her chest. She found herself gazing at Sunstar's, like she was checking on her — she wasn't, let that be know, she certainly would survive a little bit of frostbite.
"Right," She tilted her head back slightly as the other closed in, still not extremely comfortable with the invasion of her personal space, "uh, well ... I think Winterclan has their heads a little too far up their own asses — especially Wintrystar," she groaned, "she's just so ... I don't know," her paw waved in a small circle, urging the words to come, but she just fell silent.
Why would SummerClan’s new leader be all the way out here? She nodded slowly, deciding that, for now, she wouldn't press it, "sure, I guess you have a point. Not sure what'd I do, though. It would be a little awkward because she, you know, exiled my dad there and all, and now he's staying with the League," she stuck out her tongue distastefully, "that makes me want to throw up. But he said 'oh, she's going through a lot give her a break,' so," she stared at the ground ahead of her, then towards the outside world, where the snowfall had picked up amongst the howling of the wind, almost creating a curtain of white.
"Maybe I shouldn't be oversharing so much," she hummed, "promise you won't tell anybody or, like, use it against me in some way?" Her tone was lighthearted, of course, but there was an underlying anxiety to it, like it was something she expected. "Oh — you have to give me something to work with now."
"Four?" Her eyes nearly bulged out her head. If she'd been drinking something, she would have spit it out directly into Lilydawn's face; however, in lieu of that, Sunstar sputtered in surprise, swiftly drawing her tail to cover her maw and erase the specks of spit snared on her whiskers. She forcibly regained her composure though there was something less relaxed in her stance now, as if she intended to flee back into the blizzard and disappear into the haze. "So that would make you..." Doefreckle's daughter. Shadedsun's daughter. Two cats that were not her biggest fans at the moment. Rather than draw attention to that, she instead settled on, "Batflower's sister, right? He used to be a Red Guard member."
If she ever had audience with the mysterious soul of Watermouth again, she fully intended to give them an earful about their wicked sense of humor. First, Doefreckle slept with her father's murderer, then she married herself off (unsuspectingly) to the one tom she couldn't stand, and now this?
Sunstar was almost positive that Lilydawn wasn't buying the facade now, and her uncertainty made her tense, her smile tightening, the atmosphere of this encounter shifting. Her paws flexed, restless and blistered and painful. "That would be awkward," she agreed, "It's a good thing that isn't me. Haha. Ha. I mean, starting off your reign with an exile? How tacky, right? Though, between you and me," she lowered her voice, as if someone would overhear, and spoke in a conspiratorial whisper, that insidious need to tarnish everything beloved about Doefreckle desperately seeping in, "I heard he committed treason."
Unsteadily, Sunstar rocked to her paws, wincing as they burned, and moved around the cave. Anxiety was a relatively new experience for her, and the only way she knew how to mitigate it was to move, to put distance between herself and whatever was causing the anxiety. "I won't tell," she promised, her voice low in her throat. You have to give me something to work with now. Sunstar gave a faint smile, but before responding, felt the ground give way at her paws. She scrambled to safety before she could be consumed by the earth, and now gaping in the shadows was a strange, dark tunnel leading to... Well, she didn't know yet. "Oh. Well then. That's interesting."
Lilydawn snorted, "oh yeah! I forgot that's ... a lot. It's okay, two of them are dead so I have a normal amount of dads now." It wasn't like she didn't know that having four fathers was a lot, it was the fact that cats sometimes had that reaction to it, that it was some outlandish thing. She supposed not everyone was product of a four way alliance. Quickly, she fell silent, confusion crossing her features. Batflower's sister, right? She gave a single nervous chuckle, "huh?"
Her paws drummed briefly, "uh, I think you have the wrong cat here. My brother is Batkit, he didn't make it to adulthood," she looked away and gave a stiff cough. It was easier talking about Bijou and Ghoulstar, about Doe and Shaded, because she never got the real chance to know them as anything more than her short-lived adopted family, but her littermates were different. They were blood. She visited their graves almost every day, she had kept them up and beautiful since she was an apprentice. She knew had coexisted with a Batkit, Batpaw, Batflower, in her Summerclan youth, but they weren't the same. She remembered she hated looking at the young tom, he looked too similar.
Instead, she focused now on, very obviously, Sunstar. Of course it was obvious, she was the type to stick out in a crowd, but now instead of getting a solid answer, Lilydawn was interested in seeing how long she could string it along. I heard he committed treason.
"Yeah, me too," she followed suite, rising to her paws much more comfortably than Sunstar, giving a stretch to loosen the last of the tension from her limbs, "not denying he isn't stupid," she watched as her companion tripped over herself, resisting the urge to laugh because, despite as blunt as she was, she wasn't that rude. Only occasionally. She peered into the dark tunnel, blinking to attempt to adjust to the blackness.
"Careful," she hummed absently, already deciding to walk ahead, reaching out slowly to attempt to get a feel for the space. Her paw hit a sloped wall to her right, then to her left. It was thin, but the way there was a slight coldness from up ahead meant there was some wider opening. Silently, she began to walk.
