#wormau

OOF... onestar is the only leader left, tho i would say the whole experience was at least a wakeup call for him, and he realized he had been. petty firestar's death hit him the hardest, because he'd never gotten to apologize, or reconcile, never got to tell firestar how much he missed him anyway, there isn't exactly much leading to be done, cats all just sort of. do what they know has to be done his clan probably tiptoes around him for a long while, bc they've never seen their leader like this, like the fire in him died along w his old friend. it's probably sorreltail or ivypool who eventually pulls him out of this, mayb even cinderheart. he'd become close w the remaining thunderclan cats after that, and he'd try to become a kinder leader the thunderclan cats are all so subdued at first, bc they lost so much; their leader, their med cats, the 3, their families. sorreltail helps brightheart look after amberkit, how could she not? it gives both of them comfort, and they become very close in their mutual grief. they heal together, and probably help cinderheart through her grief too ivypool, tho, is a mess, she keeps thinking how she could have prevented it, how she could have saved them. she's inconsolable for a while, no matter what her clanmates tell her, she still feels like they blame her, but mostly she blames herself, especially bc of dovewing. eventually, i think, she finds unexpected solace in kestrelflight. he's soft and patient and tho he lost a lot, it was. distanced from herself and her personal grievances. he's exactly the sort of cat she needs, and he becomes like a brother to her reedwhisker feels so lost. his leader; his mother, is gone, as is most of riverclan. as a deputy he feels like he should be doing something, but like i said, there's not a lot of leading to be done. besides, since onestar is the only surviving leader, it makes sense that ashfoot would be the deputy now. he probably mostly finds comfort in the other surviving riverclan cats shadowclan. is scared. blackstar was so strong and confident, always reminding his clan that shadowclan is strong, that it will survive. and now he's gone, and maybe they remember stories of what happened to shadowclan last time they'd been left without a leader. applefur, ofc, feels the most guilty, having trained in the dark forest, and maybe webfoot does resent him a little at first for that, but it wouldn't last long. he seeks out the only other surviving dark forest trainee, ivypool, and maybe he even ends up talking to kestrelflight as well. if he did, i think kestrel's gentle nature would enamor him. maybe they'd become mates, and kestrelflight could share his troubles with applefur like he couldn't with ivypool- not when she was grieving so much stoatpaw probably hangs around applefur a lot, being one of the only other surviving shadowclan cats, and maybe when he sees kestrel working with herbs, working to heal, mayb he'd decide he wants to be a med cat spiderleg and harespring work themselves to the bone, and i think eventually reedwhisker starts doing it too. it's really all they know to do, just keeping busy, and there's so much to do ashfoot, like everyone, is grieving for so much, but she grits her teeth and pushes it aside to do all she can to help the poor, anguished cats left, to make sure the clans remain, bc that is what matters most to her now