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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Things were starting to settle down again. No, he still wasn't pleased with the current state of affairs, a deep absence in his heart every time he did not spy a familiar white pelt at the border, but a hopeful Crow would still ghost through that area at the same time each day until he spied her: Orchiddrop, formerly Orchidpaw. And when he did catch sight of her, his firebright eyes would catch ablaze in the glow of the sinking sun and a spring would enter his step. Some days he might be brave and graze his muzzle against her cheek; most days, though, he would find himself bashful, hesitant to touch her.
Today was a brave day. The sun was lower than usual, casting frail light upon them, and perhaps the shade was what imbued courage in him on this cloud-streaked afternoon. Drawing away with much reluctance, he smiled radiantly. "Settling in to warrior life?" He recalled her expressing worry that her leader might hold her back from promotion after their journey, but it wasn't but a few days later she boasted her new name.
Orchiddrop was surprised at how far she'd come in the time since her arrival in Summerclan, a number of moons ago. The loss of her parents had set her on a quest for vengeance, and her own values had stopped her before she could stood to the level of those rogues. Since her return to the clan, she'd been promoted, given more duties, taken on extra patrols.
For the first time, Summerclan was truly feeling like home. Orchiddrop had been going out of her way to make friends and live up to everyone's expectations of her. Ratstar had been disappointed in her for abandoning the clan, and part of her desperately wanted to prove herself as a loyal member of the clan. So it was difficult to slip out to see Crow under the guise of patrolling the borders, and it weighed heavily on her conscience.
But she couldn't stop herself. However much she respected Summerclan, Crow was her oldest and truest friend, and abandoning him for an entire season was unquestionable. So the talented young warrior continued to break the rules, despite recently being in trouble with Ratstar. She knew it was selfish, but she couldn't help it.
Tonight, she was unaware that she was under suspicion and being tailed. So her greeting to Crow was just as warm, her white, scarred cheek brushing his. "It's great," she responded, faintly embarrassed. "I like the extra duties, actually. I just don't like being able to see you," she admitted, a little bolder than normal. "I miss meeting every day."
Going days without meeting was like being stranded in a desert without rain, and Orchiddrop's voice was the rains finally falling. He felt an immense swell of emotion at the sound of it and at her touch, a purr filling the pockets of quiet in between her words. "I'm glad you're able to enjoy it," he said, and he meant it to an extent. Yes, he was happy she was happy. Yes, he was thrilled she was forging bonds in her own clan. Yes, he would continue to bury his feelings deeper and deeper if only to save her the heartache he was experiencing. "You never did tell me Rosepaw's new name. You'll have to pass along a congratulations from her favorite rogue, eh?"
At the admission of her feelings, in a manner she didn't express often, he grew more somber from his previously joking demeanor. "So do I. Any news on whether the lockdown will end sooner?" It was a futile question, one he already knew the answer to. But Crow couldn't help but hope.
"It's Rosethorn," Orchiddrop responded, sitting down beside Crow and draping her tail over his. That steady glow had grown in her chest from their first meeting, from admiration to companionship to something stronger, something she knew to be love. It was getting more difficult to hold her feelings back, and she had a feeling it wouldn't be long before she confessed her love to him.
She was no longer afraid of not being able to love him in a healthy way- she had grown tremendously in the recent weeks, and felt like she was in a place where she could settle down and commit herself to one tom, to Crow. But there was a new worry, the worry of being seen as a clan traitor. The closed borders made everyone more wary of outsiders. Orchiddrop was still trying to prove herself, and if people found out she was in love with a rogue... it was a difficult image to process. "I'm not sure when it will end," she admitted quietly, dropping her gaze. "We just have to be patient, I think. It'll pass, eventually."
"I figured as much. I'm never sure what to do in the evenings I don't get to see you. I've been training Chimera and Daisy some nights, and it's nice to walk with Orion and share thoughts with him... but it isn't the same." He did all he could to fill his time, but there was no filling that gaping hole in his heart that ached in her absence. Clearing his throat and seeming a bit bashful, he mentioned, "I did find this the other day, though. I've been waiting to give it to you." He lifted a paw to reveal what had been underneath it: A seashell, but there was something special about it. As the night drew closer, it began to glow similar to the way the ocean shore had on one of those first nights they'd sat together in the darkness, warmed by their companionship in the chilly night.
Nothing seemed out of the ordinary for the pair, and it didn't occur to Crow that this shimmering souvenir would act as a beacon for watching eyes to pinpoint them in the shadows.
Tonight, she was unaware that she was under suspicion and being tailed.
If there was one thing that cats born and raised in the twolegplace always knew how to do, it was how to move like a shadow, completely unseen and unheard. Ratstar silently watched the couple from a distance, hidden in the undergrowth of some bushes just a few fox-lengths away. Since he allowed her to receive her warrior name, Orchiddrop had been the ideal, model warrior; picking up any and all extra duties required of her, and always willing to lend a helping paw. In many ways she reminded him of Summerclan's Deputy, strong and dutiful. The only concern the leader really had was what was taking place in front of his eye right now; the sneaking out to break his direct orders in the dead of night in order to visit her mate.
The identity of the young tom was inconsequential, and honestly the only part of her rule-breaking he didn't actually care about. Who was he to judge love, considering his own choice in mate resulted in so many incredulous stares? But rule-breaking was still rule-breaking, regardless of the reason. The borders had been closed with no exceptions, so a compromise would have to be made tonight.
"Patience is a virtue, I believe the sayin' goes." Ratstar rose from his hiding spot, shaking the dead leaves and twigs from his pelt before padding down over to the pair. From his body language and curious expression, it was obvious he wasn't here to start a fight. Though if the young tom tried to start one anyway, he'd be easily outmatched - the idealism still shining in Crow's bright young eyes. The city hadn't broken him down just yet, though wide-eyed youngin's like him would get eaten alive sooner or later, if they didn't wise up.
Orchiddrop had reached her paw out to touch the seashell, pulling it closer to her with a growing smile. It brought back those memories of their time on the beach, of the soft glow of the luminescent creatures that drifted below the surface. The nostalgic smile on her face was frozen, however, when she heard the voice from the bushes.
Starclan, let this be a joke, she thought, her sapphire eyes turning to the leader with trepidation. The universe was apparently not playing a joke on her, since Ratstar stood there in the flesh, watching them idly. Orchiddrop was awash with shame, her ears flattening to her skull as she looked between the two toms, caught in her rule-breaking once again.
It was entirely unfair. Summerclan had been good to her. Crow had been good to her. She loved them both- why did she have to choose between them? It split her heart down the center, leaving her torn in two directions. If either of them was gone from her life, she was incomplete. But it seemed she would have to choose. This time, Orchiddrop did not speak, shrinking away from Crow slightly as if that would erase her wrongdoing, waiting for him to speak or for Ratstar to speak once again.
The moment was interrupted by a voice starkly unfamiliar to him, but gauging Orchiddrop'a reaction and the way she shrunk back from him, her warmth replaced by a chilly wind, he could take a guess at this being Ratstar. His instinct was to puff himself up and dare the leader to separate them, but he was no fool despite his youth. Had he been dumber, had he shoved himself between the clan leader and his warrior, Ratstar would quickly have realized that Crow fought with a style very familiar to him, the style of SummerClan warrior.
But, as he was wiser than his bright eyes would make him seem, instead Crow glowered darkly. "Haven't you ever heard that eavesdropping is pretty rude?" Not smart enough to watch his mouth, though.
"Well breakin' rules is pretty rude too, but what can an ol' tom do?" Ratstar smirked slightly at Crow's attempt at bravado, talking back to a clan leader, but rather than start the lecture that Orchiddrop might have been expecting, he instead sat down on the lightly snow-covered grass and began to groom himself. He could feel the pair's anxious and confused stares on him, and he only smiled more to himself. "Ya both can relax, ya know. I ain't mad, jus' a bit disappointed. I'd hoped that after bein' leader fer so long, I'd worked up enough respect and reputation that nobody would break ma rules, but I 'spose there's always gonna be loopholes..." He paused for a moment, glancing up at their stunned faces. "An exceptions. I like t' think of myself as a nice-enough fella, so I'll give ya little lovebirds a chance to fess up and explain yourselves. How long have ya two been meetin' like this?"
Orchiddrop's cheeks flushed hot behind her fur at the insinuation, glancing up at Ratstar. "We're not... we're just friends," she said softly, the truth spilling forth in an effort to salvage her reputation with the leader- even if he wasn't as mad as she'd expected. "I met Crow shortly after joining Summerclan. He's the one who helped me find the rogues who killed my parents."
His disappointment hurt nearly as bad as anger, but it was mostly her own guilt that stung. Orchiddrop wanted to be a great warrior, someone that Ratstar could trust. Not someone who kept breaking the rules. "We've been friends for a long time. I meant no disrespect by breaking your rules, Ratstar. It just... it felt wrong to abandon an old friend."
Friend seemed too trivial for their relationship. Orchiddrop knew that she loved Crow, but they weren't... official yet. She couldn't think of a better word, though, so that's what she went with. "If... if you let us say goodbye, I can promise we won't meet again until the isolation period is over." Orchiddrop hoped her word would mean something. She had promised to try to earn her way back into the clan, and she liked to think she had mostly kept to that promise. The white-furred warrior never did make the same mistake twice.
Crow wanted to breathe out the fire he felt flaring deep from within his soul and harness an ancient anger, one that lived strong in his veins, but there was nothing more diminishing than to hear friend and we won't meet again echoing over and over in his brain. They bounced between the confines of his skull, and he looked visibly pained. He understood why she said it, but it didn't reduce the hollowed pit forming in his stomach or silence her words from punishing him endlessly. For the first time since Ratstar appeared, his fur laid flat and Crow's smoldering eyes left the leader's tabbied coat to gaze at Orchiddrop, as though it really would be for the last time.
"You have an exceptional warrior in front of you, Ratstar," he said quietly, though he did not sound meek. There was an honesty to his words that was as impassioned as Orchiddrop's apology, but Crow wouldn't apologize for something he wasn't sorry for. "Don't let this instance cloud your opinion of her. She was here making sure a rogue who never learned his lesson didn't cross the border. I was the one who fell--" In love. His jaws clamped shut and he looked away, furious.
In a swift motion, Ratstar raised his tail to silence the both of them, his smirk growing into a sly and mischievous grin as he stared down Crow. "The end of the sentence you're looking for is 'fell in love', kiddo. I might only got one eye, but I sure as Starclan ain't blind, though between y'all's yammerin' and stammerin' I'm startin' to think yous are." As much as he admired how large the hearts of the youth were, sometimes it seemed like they had brains the size of walnuts. When it came to things like love, youngins seemed to talk themselves in circles, like two stupid squirrels chasing each other 'round a tree trunk. "Honestly," the leader continued, rolling his eye in an over-dramatic, exasperated manner that could only be credited to his mate Poppymask. "Y'all barely even answered my question, if at all. I ain't in the mood fer grovelin' an' excuses an' apologizes tonight; I wanna hear the story. Y'all wanna keep meetin', don 'cha? Gimme a story worth takin' pity on you mousebrained kids."
Orchiddrop wanted to fall through the earth, with her leader stating the obvious that she hardly dared to believe herself. In love. Crow couldn't be in love with her- why would he be? Still, she did want to keep meeting him, so she spoke up. "We met on the border after I started my training," she said, casting a glance at the defeated looking Crow.
"Crow was from Sunclan, and he ran away after the war and after his father was exiled." Orchiddrop knew the timeline wasn't exactly correct, since she was still ignorant of other clans ordeals and wars and such. "I was still healing from my scar and I could still v-vividly remember watching my parents die." It still hurt to speak of, even if the memory had faded a bit. "We recognized each other as someone who'd been through pain. I helped him learn to fight and hunt so he could survive on his own. He showed me more of the beauty in the world, like glowing creatures on a beach and flowering meadows and waterfall caves."
Orchiddrop spoke rather quickly, embarrassed about her own sentimentality. "When I was ready to hunt down the rogues that killed my parents and gave me my scar, he was quick to help me. And when I couldn't deal the killing blow, he still supported me. Without Crow I wouldn't be half the warrior I am. I wouldn't have had the motivation to keep going for long without his friendship. I wouldn't be as committed to Summerclan if I hadn't heard of the hardships of his past, his former clan. And when the lockdown came... I couldn't imagine not seeing him. Crow is kindhearted, and a selfless leader of his group, and far more passionate about life than I've ever been. He's no threat to Summerclan." After she finished, she looked down at her paws, shuffling them back and forth. "That's the story, Ratstar."
Ratstar remained silent throughout Orchiddrop's story, his eye narrowed as he hung on to every word. When she finally finished, he tilted his head back to look up at the cloudless sky - with all the stars of Silverpelt glittering in the Leafbare night - and let out an appreciative hum. "That's quite a story, an' surely an impressive one at that," he meowed simply, lost in thought. The young warrior's conviction had more than convinced him, but now it was a matter of coming up with a fair solution to the conflict of sneaking out. Lowering his head, he looked between them, noticing with some amusement how Orchiddrop's words had moved Crow to tears. "Here's the deal," the Summerclan leader finally sighed. "If there's one part o' the warrior code I've never particularly cared for, it's the idea that who a cat loves is any business but their own. An' as long as I'm leader, it ain't gonna matter, so long as any future kits belong t' Summerclan."
"But... I can't jus' let ya two off the hook, either. My word on t' borders closin' was final, an' if I start makin' exceptions it ain't gonna reflect kindly on me. Ya can still meet, but Orchiddrop needs t' stay on one side, an' Crow on the other 'til Newleaf comes. Crow, when the borders open again, come see me, an' I'll make ya an honorary Summerclan member so ya can visit whenever ya like without a problem. That's as much lenience as I can afford t' give. Would ya both say that's fair enough?"
Orchiddrop was not terribly surprised that Ratstar was accepting their relationship, but there was still a lot of second-guessing and self-doubt ringing in her head at his proposition. The leader may give his blessing and offering a future where they could be together, but what would the other warriors think? Would they see her an exception to a rule, even if she technically wasn't? Would they look down on her for her love for an outsider?
Still, her leader was being very generous. Orchiddrop gave him a grateful smile, choosing for tonight just to focus on the positive. "It's more than fair, Ratstar. It's certainly more than I deserve. Thank you." She looked over at Crow, relief and admiration in her gaze as she looked between the one she loved and the one who was the first to acknowledge and validate their love.
Somehow managing to collect himself between then and now, Crow did the only thing he could: He dipped his head, a respect he'd never shown to a leader before. "Thank you, Ratstar. We won't betray your trust," he said, voice tight with the emotions that threatened to spill out of him again. His eyes, brighter than any star, gleamed appreciatively in the darkening night, but as he turned them upon Orchiddrop, there was something softer and more pronounced. Neither of them had exactly professed love, but, with the SummerClan leader speaking of love and kits and with Orchiddrop's retelling of their story, he felt it more strongly than if they had.
He imagined many nights standing across and gazing at his summertime sweetheart, absolved of the worries that came with wanting someone on the other side of the border. He imagined laughter, mirth, and a lifetime of love. He imagined they could fill their evenings just the same way they'd been doing until spring bloomed flowers and the new-leaf rains washed away the scent marker that divided them for the very last time.
In his delighted expression and loving eyes, he never would have imagined this would be one of their last nights before things became infinitely more complicated.
woofGidgetGal i'm going to say ratstar yeeted himself out of there bc crow and orchid have to profess their love to one another now cx
After Ratstar had turned to leave, granting them one last evening before they would need to follow the border rules, Orchiddrop turned back to Crow. She would certainly be double-guessing herself in the morning, but for now she was imbued with relief and joy to have their relationship recognized and affirmed.
In the waning twilight, she was bolder than she was usually, stepping forward to wind her body with his, resting her cheek on the black-furred tom's shoulder. "When did you get so grown-up?" She asked, with a giddy laugh. They both had matured from the heavy-hearted apprentices that had met at the border. He was now larger than her wiry frame, but there was an adultness about both of their faces despite their youth. "Nevermind," she shook her head, her smile still breathless. "This is... great. We can keep meeting."
Orchiddrop was unaware that she would be her own downfall, that her own fears and doubts and incoming trials would keep her from returning to the border. For now, she saw their future as brightly as he did.
