Lightpaw Is Getting The Short End Of This Adventure Huh?

Moon 8

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Halfway around the world lies the one thing that you want

Buried in the ground, hundreds of miles down

Fogfreckle hasn’t stopped shuffling around since sundown. Moonstar may not have her eyes open, nose tucked firmly into her tail, but she can tell that he hasn’t stopped moving because the constant shff shff sound of him shifting around in his nest is driving her to madness. 

Willing sleep to come just a little bit faster, Moonstar flattens her ears as close to her head as she can get them and fluffs her tail up against her face. 

Shff, shff.

Fed up, Moonstar uncurls her tail from her face and sits bolt upright, mouth open to shout at her brother to just lay still already, but Fogfreckle cuts her off by springing quite suddenly to his paws. Having not seen him do much more than curl in a ball for two entire moons, the sight shocks Moonstar into stillness. 

“I can’t,” he meows into the darkness. “I can’t do it. I’m not going to suffocate in this– this– cave for another heartbeat. I’m going hunting.”

Moonstar’s annoyance flees from her immediately, like a mouse slipping from her claws. “Wait–” She scrambles to her paws, panic overtaking her as Fogfreckle reaches around to grab the edge of his cobweb wrappings in his teeth. “Wait, don’t! You can’t– what if your wounds open back up–”

With a wild tug, Fogfreckle rips at his cobwebs, pulling the sticky strands away from his fur. He keeps going, yanking at them, agitation and annoyance etched in the sharp lines of his thin limbs. Moonstar reaches for him, attempts to get him to stop, and Fogfreckle spins around with his hackles fluffed out and swipes at her. Narrowly dodging the reach of his claws, Moonstar gasps, retreating.

For a heartbeat, both cats stare at each other, tension thick in the air between them.

“Stop treating me like I’m a helpless kit,” Fogfreckle spits, torn cobwebs hanging from his jaws. They lay tattered against his white fur in shredded strands. “I’m fine! I don’t need you to– to play medicine cat at me! Don’t tell me what I can and can’t do!”

His words sweep against Moonstar like a cliffside gust, the hurt they bring almost physically pushing her back. “I… I…” Several emotions cycle through her in the space of a single heartbeat, until it finally settles into a pulsing anger that crackles over her pelt like lightning. “I’m only trying to help! I’m looking out for you– we only have each other, in case you’ve forgotten,” she snaps, voice nasty, horrible satisfaction welling within her as the words strike her brother and he recoils. “We left the rest of our family behind, buried under a landslide!”

“As if I could forget!” Fogfreckle explodes. His reflective eyes are almost as sharp as the claws he’s sinking into the earth. “I can’t– I was useless to help them, and I’ve been useless for moons to help you, letting you go out on your own every day, when I’m the only one left who can keep you safe!” 

All of the anger rushes out of Moonstar, fast as a roaring river, as she stares at her brother, heart shattering. 

“I’m just–” he continues, yowls bouncing off of the boulders around them. “Sitting around in this dark hole, doing nothing from sunrise to sunset, wasting time we could be using to find a new camp and you– if something happened– I could lose you, too– Moonstar, I wouldn’t even know–” Fogfreckle breaks off on a hiccuping sob, voice losing its volume as it takes on a shaky quality and he ducks his head, hiding his pained expression from his sister.

Moonstar stares at her brother’s shaking shoulders. Guilt claws at her insides for the words she spat at her brother, the memory of her lost Clanmates sitting like a stone in her throat.

“Fogfreckle… I can handle myself,” Moonstar mews quietly. “I can handle both of us! Look at me,” she says, gesturing to herself with a sweep of her tail. “I’m here, aren’t I? I’m fine! I’ve been hunting for us for moons and I’m fine. You’re the one that’s hurting, and I’m– you need to let me take care of you sometimes, too.”

After a heartbeat of silence, Fogfreckle mews with a wet, broken voice, “you’re an awful excuse for a hunter. But,” he adds, flicking his eyes towards her, “you’re a pretty good sister.”

A bubble of incredulous laughter escapes Moonstar before she can stop it. She can’t even be mad about the hunting bit – he’s right. She hopes he’s right about the sister part, too. She butts her head against her brother’s with a purr.

“I’m supposed to protect you,” Fogfreckle whispers.

“Where did you get that from? We protect each other. I’m sorry for fussing over you so much, just–” Moonstar releases a huff of breath and sits back heavily on her haunches. Her tail swishes the ground. She waits until Fogfreckle sits across from her with a shaky sigh. “I worry about you, too. It doesn’t make you any less brave to need help. I worry about you because I care about you– not because I think you can’t deal with it on your own. Not because I think you’re weak.” Fogfreckle’s mouth twists into a grimace as he casts his eyes to the side, avoiding Moonstar’s gaze. A weak smile lifts the corner of her muzzle. She’ll never get her brother to admit out loud how much stress he puts on himself trying to stay responsible for the both of them, but she knows now. She knows.

She pushes herself to her paws and gestures at Fogfreckle with her tail. “Well, we’re not getting any sleep now. You’re seriously up for hunting?”

Clearly relieved at being rescued from having to talk about his feelings in any further detail, Fogfreckle twists around to pull the remaining shreds of cobwebbing from his back. He licks his fur into place, carefully covering the freshly healed pink marks of where the eagle had sunk its talons into him. “I can hunt. It doesn’t even look that bad anymore, see?”

Moonstar smiles. Thank StarClan she doesn’t have to do a botch job wrapping him with fresh cobwebs anymore; she’s really not cut out for it. 

With a stretch, she pads from under the boulders, pleased beyond relief that they won’t have to spend another night under these suffocating press of rocks. “Let’s go hunting, then.”

///

Don't ever forget, We haven't lost it all, yet.

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and so we begin First | Next

it's Bully Coldcrash Moon

i did use a reference for tide and larch but i made the bad decision of not saving that pinterest image, still trying to locate it

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moon 16 part 1.

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i spy a little larchmask! Thank you again for drawing her! Everyone is so pretty all gathered together!

Moon 30, part 1/2.

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Under the cut is the full background page without the text bubbles and panels in front of it (which I'm super proud of), and a list of all the cameos for fans!!

Cameos, catmeos, cameows~~

Willowburr by @fleacoveredfur Mulberrystripe by @froodyie Larchmask by @tidalclan Rockheart by @stellaclaw Rose by @clangenthriftclan Mudsnail by @gardenergulfie Shardstar by @rorys-regular-blog Rockwatcher by my bestie @leafbonesss Canarysight by @pigeonf1sh Blizzardfawn by @direclan Beetleface by my girlfriend @smiagg Glowdapple by @trailblazer-clangen-comic Curlewshade by @stitched-howls Butterflypaw by @a-song-upon-the-waves-wishclan

(And here's one with the tags relatively close to the cats so you know which one is which... sort of...)

I updated Clangen with the new fresh-kill system but I really don't know how to feel about it yet. I'm not sure if I will just ignore it as I started TidalClan before the update or just slowly somehow integrate it if things like starvation really affect the plot. I may have to include it for my upcoming Dark Forest Challenge run (In progress and woo boy).

a new character has entered the arena!

no finally you have no idea how happy i was to get a new character in. it seems like a short time only 6 moons but still, survival kinda requires new blood

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TidalClan Updates + Dark Forest Challenge Updates

ello ya'll it's been a while since the last TidalClan update. Unfortunately, my work life and my personal life have clashed together and I haven't found a lot of time to continue the Moons. I don't have any plans to discontinue TidalClan (I'm up to Moon 25!), but updates will likely be sporadic and not entirely scheduled like I initially wanted them to be. This is just better for me as to not feel pressured by something I wanna take my time with and enjoy. So to fans of TidalClan, you'll get something soon. Moon 10 is gonna be fun ^^

And I didn't forget about the Dark Forest Challenge Poll I made a while back...

I've already begun planning out the settings and background characters of my Dark Forest Challenge run. I will be following the rules outlined here. @/gray-thistleclan was a huge inspiration for this, so please give them and their series a follow. ^^ The blog isn't up yet, but here is a sneak peek of the upcoming map!

I'm looking forward to starting this ClanGen run and I hope everyone is looking forward to it too! But for now, I'll see you all next time!

Leaders 2 + Edits

MORE leaders (or adjacent) from clangen blogs i follow!

TW for flashing/flickering in the video, blood, and eyestrain for close-ups. Those close-ups, credit @'s, timestamps and extras below.

0:00 - Splinterstar, 0:38 - Amberstar/feather, 2:57 - Honeystar

@songclangen

1:02 - Cinnamonstar

@silkclan

1:37 - Ashpaw/sight

@ashpaw-is-alone

2:01 - Rapidstar

@horizonclansfate

2:30 - Dancingstar, 2:39 - Partridgestar

@silverclangen

3:25 - Poppypaw

@lostclanwc

3:41 - Kestrelstar

@echoes-in-echoclan

4:08 - Froststar, 4:35 - Branchstar II, 5:14 - Brindlestar

@through-frost-and-flames

5:38 - Fallenstar

@poppyclangen

6:16 - Pearlstar

@aphidclan-clangen

7:05 - Shadestar

@tidalclan

7:29 - Flyquiver/star

@clanoflotus-clangen

7:54 - Pythonback

@rise-of-littleclan

8:16 - Brownleaf

@the-path-of-dreamers

9:02 - Leapstar

@nectarclan

9:48 - Messing with backgrounds

Notes:

-forgot to save the image without my watermark on all the cats... so had to go back and redo it all

-redrew Twistedeyes because of the 3d effect on her, and redo Fogstars/Foamstars fade effects

-generally fixing little mistakes from the first batch

-had to go back thru Songclangen because HONEYSTAR

-lots of forgetting to resize these cats

-forgot to record for a few

-went back and fixed Leapstars face, didn't like it

-messed around with placements a lot

Edits:

@fallenclan, @whispering-clan, @juniper-clan, @we-are-dogclan, @bitterclan

What exactly happened to make Shade, Light, and Cold leave their previous clan?

So obviously I didnt answer these questions right away because I knew the comic would answer these questions later on. So sorries for the probably very late reply, but here's the written version since we've not gotten to that point.

Back when Shadestar was a 'paw in BlazeClan, she unexpectedly received a very disturbing dream. She doesn't remember it very well, but there were voices speaking, and the scent of smoke and seasalt. Thinking it might've been from StarClan, Shadepaw approached their medic cat, Duckcry. Duckcry was shocked to hear Shadepaw had such a dream and was immediately brought to Thornstar. In their private meeting, Shadepaw learned that both Duckcry and Thornstar have had the same dream. But while Duckcry urged to heed the warning, Thornstar dismissed it completely. He demanded that neither cats tell anyone about it, even threatening to punish them.

Unable to truly ignore the dream, Shadepaw convinced Lightpaw to follow her. As they snuck out of camp, the only kit born in the season, Coldkit, had followed them out. Shadepaw wasn't able to convince her to go back, and decided to lead the two cats out of BlazeClan territory, towards the sea.

She had always planned to return if she was wrong about the dream. But when she received her nine lives and heard the voices again, she had a feeling that this new arrangement was permanent. And when she saw the dark smoke in the sky, there was no doubt that BlazeClan was destroyed.

She still doesn't know why she received the dream, or why Thornstar denied a warning from StarClan, but she doesn't believe it was StarClan's will to see BlazeClan destroyed. She firmly believes they were trying to warn them.