[THE COAL THAT BURNS YOU]

* witf's story

our story starts with the feeble, weak warrior coalheart. once a windclanner, coalheart left his home clan due to doubts about his full-clan heritage. springstar, shadowclan's leader, took him in despite the most senior leader, smallclaw's, disdain. instead of smallclaw, springstar made coalheart deputy, which bothered most of shadowclan considering he wasn't a full-clan cat.

meanwhile, the personal tension between thunderclan and riverclan began to grow as elderly leaders squirrelstar and ivystar's dislike for each other grew. a skirmish over sunningrocks was nothing new for either clan, but the battle left a sour taste in each cat's mouth.

three disrespectful young thunderclan apprentices--pepperpaw, fawnpaw and whitepaw--seeking adventure, dared each other to cross the windclan border. they were quickly stopped by the medicine cat apprentice, raggedpaw, who alerted the deputy, sheepnose of their tresspassing. this caused tension between windclan and thunderclan, as the senior warrior, rowanmask and deputy bramblethorn had to come fetch them.

back in shadowclan, the rogue littlefang, ex shadowclan leader, murdered springstar as he was hunting for berries. coalheart found him, which escalated the young, unconfident cat to leader all too soon. on top of that, the clan was plagued by a terrible sickness that took many lives, including that of brittlebreeze--the clan medicine cat--and smallclaw.

desperate to do something about the bodies dying every heartbeat, coalheart began ordering cats to drag each decaying and diseased carcass over the thunderclan border in an effort to keep the disease from spreading. soon, the thunderpath was lined with tens of cats who had passed away, with shadowclan's numbers dwindling day by day.

hollynight, the new shadowclan medicine cat, assured coalheart if he did not get his nine lives, he, too, could be taken by the disease. but coalheart did not listen, and when bramblestar--the new leader of thunderclan after squirrelstar was killed in a foxtrap--found out about shadowclan's actions, he declared war on coalheart. when the rest of the clan found out what coalheart had been trying to do, they forced him to step down. his deputy, cloverstep, became cloverstar, and coalheart served under her.

humiliated, coalheart ran far away from shadowclan, back into the forest after being refused sanction in windclan. now leader, lionstar took over for acorstar after his death by old age and played peacekeeper as thunderclan and shadowclan tried to repair their regressing relationship.

cloverstar was killed by the rogue, bleak, who was also the mate of littlefang. her deputy, thicketwhisker, recieved his name and lives.

but another force was in full. ivystar had recently disappeared, and the riverclan deputy russetclaw was taking care of the clan in her absence. unfortunately, during the next gathering, the clans were visited by a mysterious she-cat by the name of salem. salem declared great evil would come to the clans if they did not join under her rule, and when they refused, she vanished.

During the gathering, Lionstar--then lionstone--was the first and only cat to speak against Salem. Despite not being offically named by StarClan, she also ended the Gathering after renouncing Salem and vowing to fight the Coven.

the next moon, riverclan was attacked by her group of cats, known as the coven, and completely overtaken. under her rule, kits were killed and eaten. mintwhisker, a riverclan queen, watched her youngest be taken from her by the jaws of the vicious coven cats. she escaped with barely her life, running into morrigan and coalheart who had been watching the scene unfold.

Once named, Lionstar went alone into RiverClan territory, and witnessed the slaughter of kits as well as Russetclaw's capitualtion. She escaped the camp unnoticed, save for an RiverClan apprentice named Splashpaw, who followed her to WindClan territory. Splashpaw was allowed to stay as a refugee, on the condition that she would serve as a forward scout for WindClan warriors when the Coven was to be attacked.

As Lionstar had no deputy when she met Salem, she was able to have Litchenstrike, her new deputy, be "captured" by the Coven so she could relay a message to Russetclaw: WindClan would attack the Coven in three days--ready whoever he could.

before the final blow, coalheart, followed by his traveling partner morrigan, attacked the coven, giving riverclan the chance to fight back. morrigan attacked her mother, salem, but was brutally killed by a slice to the chest, forcing her instant death. coalheart attacked the weakened salem and managed to kill her, but not before mortally wounded, dying soon after. with their leader dead, the coven fled. that night, russetstar traveled to the moonstone to receive his nine lives after it was confirmed ivystar had, indeed, perished.

The combined WindClan/RiverClan force drove out the Coven. Lionstar personally ordered that the Coven members be killed, not just maimed, as they were not merely outside the warrior code, but actively against it. After the battle, Splashpaw was allowed to return to RiverClan. Russetstar named the loner, pale, who had helped them in the battle, the new riverclan deputy under the name palesmoke, and granted hickory--now huckoryfoot--allegiance as the clan's medicine cat.

what will be in store for our beloved characters next?