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soloratiste · 7 years ago

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Dawnspeck with her deaf apprentice, Quietpaw, creating a sign language for them to communicate in.

Because I like the idea of a disabled cat who isn’t pushed to the side to be a medicine cat or to retire, but also is allowed to be disabled and given whatever extra support they may need. some story below because why not

Dawnspeck’s clanmates whispered and chatted amongst themselves with concerns and speculation of their future. She felt so distant from them when she stood there in the leader’s place on top of the Smooth Rock, calling for a clan meeting. She’d be the third leader to stand there since the cats had settled in their new clan territories, the scent of the rock had only recently truly marked it as a core aspect to their clan. Such a big title for someone as inexperienced as her...

Riverclan hadn’t been in The Valley for long, but neither had any of the other clans. Why had Starclan told Snowstar that only Thicketpelt or who had his wisdom could be the deputy, only to take his life so suddenly? Weren’t they mad at Dawnspeck for taking his place, when she’d only just been named a warrior?

Then when everything finally seemed to be calming down, their scared and elderly leader Snowstar lost his final life, succumbed to the river they were supposed to be the clan of. If Starclan wasn’t truly mad at them, then that was just pure cruel irony.

“What wouldn’t the other clans say about us,” she could hear the murmuring of Fawnfoot, the chestnut brown and golden tabby she-cat who Dawnspeck had shared her apprentice days with, although she sounded so foreign without her usual know-it-all tone, “a clan whose leader hasn’t even had an apprentice...”

‘If only you knew I felt the same way, Fawnfoot...’ Dawnspeck’s anxiety spoke in her mind.

She could barely collect a single coherent thought, as the wind blew coldly in her paws. She didn’t understand why her clan felt so far away from her, when she was sitting so close to them? She scoured around with her gaze, freezing in place as she couldn’t feel any of the cats she used to know behind their eyes. They were afraid like her, but she had to do something. Then Skyfall, the mate of her deceased mentor, came into her sight. She wasn’t paying attention to the meeting, still exhausted from the recent kitting of her two daughters. Two beautiful kits, named Lakepaw and Slatepaw, who laid so close together with their mother, it was as if they were trying to merge with her.

Remembering what Skyfall had lost, and what she had promised, awoke something in Dawnspeck. Skyfall had been there to help her during her short time as a deputy, and it was time to show her that she didn’t act in vain.

“Let all cats old enough to swim gather to hear my words!“ she finally announced, barely masking how shaky she felt behind her loud words. The clan all turned toward her, having waited for a long while for the she-cat to gather her courage.

“I know we’re all confused. I am as well. I have no idea why Snowstar would pick me as his deputy, and I have no idea if whatever omen Starclan sent him truly meant what he thought it did, but that’s something we can’t change now. This is the situation our clan is in now,” she started, feeling crushed under the weight of her clan’s expectations, “For moons, I have tried to learn as much as I could about being a future leader, but I seemed to not have as much time as I wanted. We still mourn Snowstar, but we have to move on now...”

“What do we do, Dawnstar?” Nettlestem, a fluffy dull golden tom, spoke up.

Dawnspeck shook her head, “Nettlestem, I haven’t been accepted by Starclan yet. I am still Dawnspeck.”

Another warrior, Sandystalk, began speaking as well, “Does that matter right now? We just lost a leader, and we don’t have as many warriors as Thunderclan does!”

“Sandystalk calm down, don’t go losing your whiskers now,” Owlcry, another warrior who shared his apprentice days alongside Dawnspeck, butted in, “our clan’s queens have had many kits this season, and most of them are already ready to become apprentices!” his gaze turned to the ginger splotched leader in a quick flash, before he turned to smile at the queen Dapplemoss, his mother, with a warm gaze.

“Owlcry is correct. We do have plenty of kits who have become old enough to be named apprentices. Even if we may not have as many warriors as Thunderclan, these soon-to-be apprentices are important to keep in mind,” Dawnspeck responded, seeing a silver lining in the oppertunity to bring her clanmates’ attention onto something different.

“What about getting your nine lives, and naming a new deputy? Riverclan needs a leader!” Sandystalk argued yet again. Owlcry murmured something under his breath, but he didn’t appear to have anything to say out loud.

“Yes, that’s important as well. I will get back to that in a while, but Owlcry reminded me of something I wanted to do at this meeting,” Dawnspeck had calmed down a bit, reassured by the familiarity and support of her old friend.

“It’s clear for us all to see that the nursery has become too overcrowded by kits who are very much ready to be made apprentices, so let us all forget our worries about issues that are mine to take care of, and instead let us celebrate a new generation of warriors. There are plenty waiting, so I will waste no more time.”

The kits practically poured out of the nursery in excitement, wasting no time to even await being called out by Dawnspeck, as they lined up in a clumsy heap and stared at her with high expectations in their hearts.

So, she began. First came a tiny dark russet male kit, Fernkit, a shorthaired kit who was practically the mirror image of his father, Pinetail, with his colors. He was smaller than the others, but was spunky and full of determination, so he’d need a mentor who was capable of being careful and patient with him. His eyes lit up with joy when Dawnspeck announced Fawnfoot to be his mentor, with Fawnfoot humbly accepting the task with her usual excellent manners.

After Fernpaw came his littermate, Aspenkit, a she-cat whose ashy brown colors were similar to Nettlestem, the mentor to her older brother Owlcry. She seemed as excited as all other kits, although she seemed to make an attempt at being polite, yet it was clearly because she wanted the best mentor to herself. A clever and sly kit like her would make an apprentice who’d only be in check with a mentor who could compromise, yet set strict boundaries if needed. A stubborn cat like Sandystalk fit that role perfectly, so she announced her as the mentor to Aspenpaw. Sandystalk was taken aback at first, but didn’t protest and accepted as well.

A rash and rude third kit stomped in, and fluffed his chest fur up with pride. That was the son of Dappleflame, a tom who was a bit of a pushover, and Amberskip, a she-cat with the abrasiveness, attitude and stripes of a tiger, by the name of Sunkit. He’d always been known as a bit of a bully in the nursery, and it’d be a bad idea to not get that attitude in check during the apprentice days, so he’d need someone who could be stern and know about manners. She considered Owlcry for a moment, but he was known as a “mother’s tom” in the clan, she didn’t want to humiliate him by giving him an apprentice who would bully him. Instead she called for Pinetail, who was known in the clan for his ability to make younger cats listen to him no matter how stubborn they are, to apprentice the kit. Somehow she was pleased by the surprised and intimidated look in the newly named Sunpaw’s eyes, as he looked at his new mentor who sent him a smug smile back.

Lastly, behind the other new apprentices, a kit who seemed to be absent. A fluffy kit with blue splotches, similar to Dawnspeck’s ginger ones, and big blue eyes. The clan almost seemed like they wanted to scatter now, but Dawnspeck’s focused eyes wordlessly told them to stay in place. She recognized who the kit was. The son of Spottedsky, a proud and slightly mousebrained tom with similar markings to his kit’s, although with a darker gray color instead, and Mothspots, a patient she-cat with slightly outdated views on clan life and other cats.

“Quietkit...” she muttered out loud, twitching her whiskers slightly as she thought further about him. Her clanmates began shuffling slightly, visibly uncomfortable by her silence.

“Dawnspeck, I have been thinking about this for many moons,” Mothspots stated, padding softly out of the nursery, stammering a bit, “and I think that he could become a great medicine cat apprentice!”

Dawnspeck didn’t seem thrilled by the suggestion of the queen. She shouldn’t care so much about the suggestion, had it only just not been suggested for Quietkit. She sighed and spoke to the soft cream colored queen, “What makes you think that?”

“Well... It’s just, since he lacks the abilities other apprentices have, I just thought he’d be better off helping Cloudfrost with his duties! Cloudfrost can... maybe show some gestures, to point out which herbs were which, and how they could be used!” Although Mothspots seemed enthusiastic about her idea, it was clear that Quietkit somehow knew what she was talking about, and had witnessed this conversation several times before.

Dawnspeck wanted to speak up to decline her suggestion, but stopped herself before she could as she was taken aback by how her clanmates were nodding and agreeing that Quietkit had to become a medicine cat. The poor kit looked heartbroken at seeing his clanmates agree. It infuriated the leader, but she didn’t speak up, rather Cloudfrost walked out of the medicine cat den and interrupted the meeting.

If he could see, he’d be staring Mothspots dead in the eyes with the disappointment that seemed to be surrounding him. He clearly announced to her and the whole clan, “Mothspots, I don’t want Quietkit as my apprentice.”

She was shocked to hear his words, but as she was about to argue back, he continued on with his words, this time turning his back on all of them to face Dawnspeck only.

“I didn’t choose to become the medicine cat because I’m blind, it was a decision I made prior to that, and it was something I stuck to afterwards, but not because I thought it was my only use. I remained a medicine cat because I wanted to!“ he yelled, his fur bristling slightly, showing the various scars on his thin white pelt, “It hurts to think the clan agrees that Quietkit should be forced into a life he has no interest in because of his deafness, something he cannot change...”

Dawnspeck was amazed at how his words seemed to affect the clanmates, as plenty of them looked at the ground in shame, while others seemed confused as to what to think, but Cloudfrost continued.

“I see no medicine cat in him. His nose twitches in disgust when he smells the herbs in my den, he averted his gaze when he saw blood for the first time, and when he was sick with greencough a moon ago, he had no desire for sitting within the den. I sensed the fear in him, the fear that that was where he’d stay his entire life, and I sensed the yearning to run free as a warrior, and swim in the cool water to fish like his clanmates. This hatred for all that I work with is not something I want in an apprentice, so for the last time, I’ll say it again,” he focused on Mothspots yet again, who seemed to be stepping backwards a bit, clearly upset about the words of the medicine cat, before finally finishing his statement, “I will not be taking Quietkit as an apprentice.”

Cloudfrost took a deep breath, before giving a quick nod to Dawnspeck, and carefully treading back towards the medicine den. The entire clan fell silent, as gazes were shared with eachother. It was clear to the Riverclan leader that none of them wanted the kit as their apprentice. A part of her knew she couldn’t be too hard on them for that, nobody really knew how to train a deaf cat. Quietkit’s mentor would have to be someone who themselves would be in need of learning as well, someone who had room to grow and mature, someone who would be willing to face the difficulties and compromises that came with the task...

Dawnspeck didn’t call off the clan meeting, but silently she stepped down from the rock. Clan cats didn’t know whether to leave, or to stay in place, but she didn’t say a word. She stepped over to the deaf kit, who seemed to have sensed her presence a while ago. His eyes were full of desperation, a plea to not be made a medicine cat, as he looked up at her. She stared back at him.

“I am a leader who has broken the warrior code. I was made deputy without having an apprentice,” she started, eyes averting from Quietkit to not make him think she was speaking to him, “My personal issues and doubts are not what Riverclan needs now. You need a leader... But that leader I cannot call myself just yet.”

The cats began mewing gossip and whispers of disbelief at eachother, with one ear still turned towards their leader.

“I will go to the Moonfalls at once, and get my 9 lives most definitely, but I will not be changing my name,” she informed them, and then turned back to the young deaf kit, “at least not until my apprentice, Quietpaw, has become an excellent warrior.”

Quietpaw’s eyes lit up upon seeing her smile. Somehow he knew that not only had he been saved from the medicine cat life, but he was made the leader’s apprentice.

#Warriors #Warrior Cats #riverclan #wc #warriors ocs #riverclan ocs #warrior cats ocs #ocs #fandom #dawnspeck #dawnstar #quietkit #quietpaw

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