PrankFox

Warriors: Trial of Shadows

It just didn't seem possible. The clans had been at peace for almost as long as Wolfheart had been deputy. Why would DuskClan so suddenly decide to begin murdering their clanmates when they had done nothing? His tail lashed angrily at Tigershine's words. All they had to go on was apparently the word of Foxstar and as far as he knew she'd never particularly liked any of the clans aside from her own. If any of the leaders would be the ones to start a war it would be her. Even Emberstar, arrogant as he was, would never put his clan in danger for any but the best reasons.

Yowls of agreement started from the crowd as Jaystar's words and Wolfheart turned to face him. "We can't let them just get away with this. They kill one of our own, leave his body to be found in the Moonbrook, and then have the audacity to say that they had nothing to do with it." Amber eyes narrowed, "They need to pay for what they've done." The other clans would have to be in agreement as well. Based on what Dawnwing said all of the cats who went saw the aftermath. There was no way that the ThornClan and MistClan medicine cats wouldn't warn their leaders about what DuskClan was doing. With all three clans together they could force Foxstar to admit her guilt.

"Why's there so much yelling?" a slender, blurry eyed tortoiseshell stepped up behind Ashenpaw, confusion obvious on her face. Squirrelpaw glanced at her sister, "Everyone seems angry."

Warriors: Trial of Shadows

A loud yowl woke Wolfheart from a very comfortable slumber. He blinked amber eyes open to see that many of the other warriors in the den were also stirring with mumbles of confusion. It was still dark out with only the faintest bit of the morning sun beginning it's slow crawl across the sky. He stood and shook the bits of moss clinging to his dark tabby pelt before stepping towards the entrance of the warriors den and nearly slammed directly into Swiftflight. The silver tabby had a wide look of distress and panic in her eyes. "What's going on?" his voice was gruff, but not unkind.

"Dawnwing and her group are back from Moonbrook," Swiftflight said in a rush. "They found Russetfern. He's been murdered." The she-cat's voice broke at the end of her sentence.

The other warriors in the den who were still waking up began to cry out in shock and horror; pushing themselves onto their feet. Wolfheart forced his own paws to move, brushing past Swiftflight and into camp. "Wake Jaystar, immediately." Swiftflight darted off towards their leaders den with a speed that fit her name well.

At the center of camp he could see their medicine cats as well as Braveleap and Addertongue, the two that Jaystar had sent with them as protection. Resting on the ground in the center of them was the limp and matted body of one of their youngest warriors. Braveleap's apprentice as well, he could only imagine how grief stricken the tom must be and he felt a mixture of rage and sorrow beginning to well up as he padded towards them. "What happened? Where did you find him?" he directed his questions mostly towards the medicine cats.

Dawnwing responded quietly, "We don't know what happened. When we all got to the Moonbrook his body was floating in it." She shook her head, still trying to grasp the situation, "DuskClan said they knew nothing about it."

He sat down and shook his head. No way that was true.

Legends of Pyrrhia | Wings of Fire

Viper kept the pace slow enough that the larger dragons could keep up, but not so much that she would be wasting time. She wasn't sure when Queen Ardent would be getting back to work, and she would probably be needed for the end of day rush that usually came through. This was so much more fun though. She made sure to follow the simplest path with the most space so that none of her new friends got lost.

She had no idea she would wake up this morning, or after her afternoon nap, and get to meet so many new dragons. She really wanted to spend the entire flight to the waterfall asking questions and getting to know all about them and their homes, but she didn't want to distract one of them and have them knock into a tree or get tangled in vines. She might work with the healers on a fairly regular basis, but they wouldn't like her if she got them hurt.

Her feet hit the ground at the oasis and she could see Handsome sitting in his usual spot. His scales looked a little less gray today, maybe that was a sign that he'd want to have a conversation this time. "Hi Handsome!" she raised a paw and waved wildly in greeting, "There's some dragons from outside the tribe that wanted to talk with you about something."

She turned towards the others and lowered her voice, "He's not usually very talkative, most of the time I end up talking at him, and I don't even know if he's really listening," she smiled, "but if you can get his attention with something interesting maybe he'll talk to you!"

Warriors: Trial of Shadows

Hawkpaw didn't think her muscles had ever been this tense in her entire life, not even during her apprentice ceremony when Blackmoon got named as her mentor. Excited nerves maybe but never this much fear. She glanced up at the form of Dew-Whisker who stood above her and Frostpaw ready to defend them if it came down to it. She didn't want them to and they were wildly outnumbered by the DuskClan cats since they were so nearby their camp. She didn't want anyone to get hurt on her account.

At Foxstar's words she felt her entire body relax. Despite them not getting to meet with StarClan, not that she really wanted to after all that had happened, she was more than happy to co back home and bury herself in the moss of her nest and try to get the image of Russetfern's still body out of her mind. She saw the white tom look over at his medicine cat and saw the faintest frown and cross Willowcloud's face before she turned away and herded her own apprentice out of room and up the tunnel. As this happened Addertongue gently lifted Russetfern's body and helped to position it between himself and Braveleap so that they could carry him home.

She helped Frostpaw get his feet under him as they all began to follow after who she assumed was Whiteshadow. She stuck close to Blackmoon's side and once they'd all entered the sloping tunnel she saw a long legged black tom step in behind them so that they were pinned in between the two DuskClan warriors.

"Why did StarClan let this happen?" She heard the soft mutter from Frostpaw, said to no one in particular, and she didn't have an answer for him.

Legends of Pyrrhia | Wings of Fire

The warm smile stayed on Viper's face, "You're welcome!" Dreamseeker seemed like a shy one, but that wasn't going to stop her from trying to make friends with the small NightWing. She glanced around at the other dragons in the group, "Not to say that the rest of you don't have wonderful looking scales," she said quickly. It felt a bit rude to only say something nice about one of them. She saw Eclipse lean slightly into Dreamseeker as she pressed up next to him and slightly extend one of his own starry wings to rest gently on her back. Yep, definitely an interesting bunch.

She sighed a bit with relief. She wanted to make a good impression and help them out and it seems like that was what they wanted to hear. "It would be my pleasure! Getting lost in the forest is not fun and it's super easy to if you don't know where you're going." She turned and waved at a few other RainWings that were resting on the platform before leaping off into the trees and gliding a short ways before turning to wait for the rest of them.

"Looks like we finally got lucky." She heard the SandWing say to the rest of the group as he and Eclipse leapt off the platform after her.

Legends of Pyrrhia | Wings of Fire

Viper's head turned to each dragon as Dreamseeker pointed them out, her eyes wide and excited. "Wow, those are really cool names!" she chirped, "And your wings are so pretty!" She dipped her head down a bit to look at the silver star-like scales on the underside of Dreamseeker's wings as she gestured. She smiled warmly at the others, all of them looked so different than even some of the other dragons that she'd seen occasionally show up in the forest, and most of the time those dragons were all from the same tribe. These guys were super interesting.

Her scales brightened to a gold hue and she nodded, "Of course I know Handsome, I know most everyone in the tribe since I work with Queen Ardent almost every day. He's actually pretty quiet and likes to spend time by himself. I've tried to get him to open up and chat with me," she shrugged, "but he doesn't really seem interested." That was ok though, she still liked him even if he didn't want to talk.

She paused for a moment tapping her chin with one claw, "I think I saw him heading out into the forest. There's this one little waterfall and oasis out there that I know of that he likes to spend time at. Does that help?"

Warriors: Trial of Shadows

It was more difficult to keep quiet than Hawkpaw expected it to be, especially when Foxstar leveled an insult at ThornClan. What right did she have to make judgements when the body was in DuskClan territory and not theirs. She kept her mouth shut however when Blackmoon snapped at Shadeclaw and Stonefoot, the former who had been just about to growl a response to Foxstar's words.

She saw no trace of the kind and friendly tom that had spoken to her on their journey here. Braveleap looked like he was ready to leap at DuskClan's leader at a moments notice. She hoped he didn't, that would only lead to more bloodshed and that was the last thing that anyone needed or wanted. She couldn't imagine the pain he must be in. She thought about losing Blackmoon or one of the other apprentices that had practically become siblings to her. It was a terrible feeling and it wasn't even something that had happened.

Dawnwing stepped up next to Blackmoon, giving Braveleap a sharp, but not unkind look. She dipped her head respectfully towards Foxstar. "If I may, I believe the true intention of this conversation is being clouded by anger and grief. Braveleap was Russetfern's mentor, he'd only just recently become a warrior before he went missing early this morning." Hopefully Foxstar could understand where the tom was coming from. "Is it possible one of your clan may have seen something? I do not wish to accuse anyone, simply find out what could have happened to him since it is unlikely his body could've been brought here completely unseen."

Hopefully what Dawnwing said would be enough to stop a fight from breaking out, but Hawkpaw still stuck close to Frostpaw. If something did happen she just hoped she could get the white tom to safety since he was practically frozen to the floor. Who else could they blame really? The body was deep in DuskClan territory and they had no other way of determining who might be responsible unless someone had seen it and said nothing.

Legends of Pyrrhia | Wings of Fire

It had already been a very busy day for Viper. There were so many dragons that had come to see Queen Ardent and her claws hurt from scribbling on the scrolls that she kept in the room. They were still covered in ink as well and she knew that would take ages to wear off, but it was something she was proud of. It was a symbol that she could do something important for her tribe. Now Queen Ardent was taking a break and she wanted to find these strange dragons that were visiting. It was so exciting! She hadn't met any new dragons in so long. Her normally light blue scales swirled with yellow as she scanned the platforms for anyone she didn't recognize.

Ah, there! There was no mistaking the unusual stature and strange colors of foreign dragons. They seemed to be wandering from group to group of lounging RainWings, for what reason she had no idea, but she definitely wanted to find out. As she landed she heard the grumble from the spiky one, but she didn't quite catch the mumbled words from the small, black one. Did other dragon's scales show emotion? Did that mean she was upset about something? That wouldn't be good. She wanted their visitors to have a nice time here.

"I wonder why it's like this. Does their Queen just not care?" She heard the comment from the dark red dragon and frowned; her scales tinged an emerald green.

"Of course Queen Ardent cares about us," she flapped up and over their heads to land on the platform in front of them, "She spends all day every day listening to the problems we have and coming up with solutions."

The red dragon blinked in surprise before giving a sheepish grin, "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to be rude."

Well he was very polite. She gave them all a bright grin, scales now her usual pattern of light blue and pink. "I heard there were some new dragons hanging around and I just had to come see. You all look like you could maybe use some help with something? Queen Ardent always tells me that I am very helpful so maybe I can do that for you all as well!" She paused in her ramblings for a moment, "Oh! I'm Viper by the way. What's your names?"

Warriors: Trial of Shadows

The emotions filling the cavern were near stifling as accusations were thrown between clans. Hawkpaw looked nervously at each of the cats; many of them looked like they were ready to jump at each other's throats at any second. They couldn't do that right? Not here by the Moonbrook. Then again, someone already had, her eyes briefly trained back on the body of Russetfern floating limply in the reddish water.

Dawnwing moved to touch her nose against one of Braveleap's ears. "Let's get him out of the water. We will carry him home so the clan can sit vigil," she meowed softly before giving a nod to Addertongue who gently gripped the back of Russetfern's neck, grimacing at the blood matted in the fur, and pulled him from the Moonbrook onto the silvered stones.

Hawkpaw didn't feel comfortable enough to move closer to the grieving clanmates, but her heart ached for the kind tom. Instead she stepped towards Frostpaw and brushed her pelt with his hoping to offer some support. She could feel the smaller cat trembling faintly as he stared wide eyed at the arguing cats. If it came to a fight she doubted any of the medicine cats had much training, she herself had none. She looked up through the break in the ceiling hoping for some sign from StarClan that this should cease, but there was nothing.

"Peace Lavenderpaw." Willowcloud's striped tail flicked the apprentice in the side. "There is no need for insults." Though her voice was fairly steady there was still a note of fear in her eyes as they looked between the rear of the cavern and the sloping tunnel that lead out of the cave.

Shadeclaw opened his mouth to retort when Foxstar's voice echoed into the cavern. He nodded in agreement with his sister as she pressed up next to him. "What do you have to say about this?" His voice was no longer raised but eyes were still narrowed with barely contained rage as he gestured with his tail towards the back of the cavern.

Warriors: Trial of Shadows

What's her problem? Hawkpaw wondered as she saw the narrowed eyes of Lavenderpaw in her direction. She didn't have to be friendly, but she could at least not make it so obvious that she didn't like them. She saw Frostpaw press himself closer to Dew-whisker; seemingly hoping that he could vanish into the speckled gray fur of his mentor. She felt bad for the nervous young tom. Clearly he didn't do great around other cats and hostility wasn't going to make that any better.

She followed after Blackmoon and the rest of their party as they disappeared into the tunnels. She already started to feel nervous as they lost sight of the little bit of sky that they could see through the pines and those nerves only increased at the unfamiliar smells that swirled around the tunnels. How the DuskClan cats could live like this she could never guess, and it didn't seem like they were interested in chatting about it either. She stuck close to Blackmoon as her paws slipped a bit on the sandy floor of the decline they were following. The medicine cats made this journey every moon? It must get tiring after a while knowing that the place to speak with StarClan was in a deep, dark hole. Not that she'd let that stop her from fulfilling her duties to the best of her ability. She didn't want to let Blackmoon or her clanmates down.

As they entered a room where they could once again see the sky she felt her eyes widen and her jaw drop a bit as she looked up into the bright light of the half-moon and the stones around it that looked like they were made of the stars themselves. It was beautiful.

She was so distracted looking up that she didn't even notice anything was wrong until she heard Braveleap cry out. Her head snapped towards the Moonbrook and she recoiled in horror at the still, matted body that floated in the water. She wanted to follow Blackmoon, and the others, to see what had happened but she couldn't get her paws to move from where they'd rooted themselves to the floor of the cavern. She looked to her left and saw that Frostpaw had pressed himself down onto the stone, ears flat against his head and fur fluffed up as if he could ward off the panic that suddenly filled the room.

Addertongue and Hailshine rushed past after Braveleap. The bravado that the sandy colored tom had possessed when they first met drained away as he stared in shock between the body of Russetfern and his grieving clanmate. Hailshine stepped next to Braveleap pressing her side against his offering what little comfort she could as Dawnwing stepped gingerly into the stream.

The small calico pressed her nose gently into Russetfern's sodden fur and felt no warmth or breath. As Dew-whisker had said, all it took was the one bite and he was gone. She let out a mournful sigh before looking towards Braveleap, "I'm sorry Braveleap, there's nothing I can do for him, it's been too long." She looked up towards the sky, hoping that StarClan was still watching, "He was a courageous and kind warrior and BirchClan will mourn terribly for his loss.

Hawkpaw could see Willowcloud standing nearby looking just as confused and stricken by this as the rest of them, but before the medicine cat could say anything Shadeclaw whirled towards her from where he'd been standing near the back of the room. "What's the meaning of this?!" His teeth were bared and green eyes flared with anger as his tail lashed wildly behind him, "Is this some kind of sick way of admitting DuskClan has been responsible for these murders this whole time?! Of declaring war between clans?!"