Winter normally raked its icy claws across the forest and wrapped every living creature in its frigid grasp, leaving nothing but starvation and destruction behind. Panthergaze had grown to hate winter, or leafbare as the clans called it, for it was filled with nothing but dreary gray afternoons and nights of shivering and howling winds. It was almost worse in the twolegplace because of the alley cats and the way they hoarded their resources, became extra violent at the thought of sharing a puddle of water, turned nearly rabid at the sight of a single, scrawny mouse. He had usually found some luck past the borders of the thunderpath, occasionally stealing a bird or two from SkyClan's territory (a secret he would never tell) but still, winter was by no means his favorite.
At first, the warm days and the return of life to the marshes were fine by him. The less he had to freeze his paws off every time he walked outside, the better. Summer, or greenleaf was his favorite season, and one he looked forward to almost every day. Though not quite as hot, the beating sun and gentle trickling streams over lush grass reminded him of those better times. However, as it grew increasingly hotter and hotter, he began to worry much like the rest of RiverClan. There wasn't enough prey to feed them anymore, and the river was shrinking down slowly but surely. Would their water run out too? There was really no telling.
His clanmates believed that this was StarClan's punishment. Panthergaze was still sorta new to this religion thing, and he found that concept hard to believe. What the hell could they be punishing them for? Did the dead cats control the weather? As open-minded as he liked to believe he was, he still found himself a bit skeptical. That was why he was shocked to find out that he, of all cats, had been picked along with Frogpaw and Emeraldpaw to deliver this extremely important message to the rest of RiverClan. Honestly, he still thought that StarClan had messed up and had accidentally picked the wrong cat. Why him? He did have to admit that at the meeting, the message did make a lot more sense after he had had the opportunity to discuss it with members of the other clans. It seemed like StarClan was trying to help them. Instead of resorting to fear and violence, they were supposed to band together. He could only hope it would work as well in practice as it did in theory, and that the rest of the clan would be receptive to the idea.
Standing beside Frogpaw and Emeraldpaw, he thought over his words again carefully. This was a pretty big deal. Though he didn't know too much about the mystical world of prophecies, he did know that they were really rare, and saved for emergency cases. Finally, he decided it was time to speak. "RiverClan, we've got something important to tell you." He waited for a majority of them to assemble before continuing. "The three of us received an important dream recently, about how to save ourselves from this heatwave. StarClan gave us a message, out of the wilting land, cats from every forest and mountain will bloom forth, their journeys intertwined with the survival of their homelands. We were also told to meet cats from the other clans who had received the same dream to talk about it. We figured it out together, that if we're going to get through this, we've all gotta band together instead of staying separated. I think this is what StarClan was trying to tell us all along, that we need to help each other." Wow, he had never talked that much in front of a group of cats, ever. He paused, waiting to see if Frogpaw or Emeraldpaw wanted to add anything to that.
// FROGCHIRP
emeraldsplash!
// the original prophecy thread here ( in case anyone wants to read c: )
its north