Timelines enrage me

Solos, of course:

Ermm, my excuses this time is that uuhh I wanted to learn how to draw dynamic lightning (I think I did pretty swell for my first time) and to use the proper design @rustingsunau made for Longtail (so now it's most definitely fanart). gulp.

Sketchless variant, no extra lightning around his paws and facey (so we can see his handsome mug), one with a dark background; in case you’re looking at these posts in a light background (??? why?), and one with Longtail’s regular colors (:

I know you haven’t set in stone your Longtail design yet but,, um Iw anted to draw the really cool ‘Longtail’ markings </3

I psycho analyzed Tigerclaw and Charredpaw’s designs to color Longtail’s so it could sorta pass as one of your own but then I,,

I wanted to add my own colors too so I gave him the nose bridge brown. I’d be very much fine with revisiting this piece to recolor him however you do decide to design him though!!

The singles, both sketchy and not, of course;

Crossposted on Deviantart, here’s the non-sketch and sketch variant singles (without the shading and backgrounds…)

Sunningrocks is dangerous for any cat, experienced or not. He just became a warrior two days ago, and Splashheart of RiverClan can already feel the fur on his neck rising; the claws in his paws unsheathing, at the sight of glowering eyes from across the river in the foliage.

He had just caught his second fish of warriorhood, proudly presenting it to his mentor, Reedshine, and asking if she would be so kind to share it with him. They finish the catch, whether it was a border or hunting patrol, or even a simple walk before, it would quickly devolve into a battlezone when the two RiverClan warriors noticed ThunderClan's cats. Splashheart yells in panic to Reedshine to alarm her, and she orders him to not cross the river; she'll return with reinforcements.

Splashheart, somehow is able to fend off any attacks, perhaps the river was rushing too much for cats inexperienced with swimming to cross. Darkstar the First launches herself from the bushes, other RiverClan warriors behind her as they engaged in battle with ThunderClan warriors.

Easy pickings are in the youngest members, and Splashheart attacks an enemy apprentice. A ThunderClan warrior shoves him off of his attack on the apprentice. Reedshine swoops in helping Splashheart shake off the warrior, but she's unfortunately injured in the process. Darkstar orders Reedshine to the sidelines, and Splashheart frets over getting her back to camp himself. She scolds him. Warriors fight for their land. Going AWOL would do no good for RiverClan, and Darkstar commands him to continue fighting off ThunderClan with his clanmates. That's something any warrior would be expected to do, especially if someone close to them was injured. She states this whilst looking at a particularly frightened and trembling Eeltail, despite having just chased off a ThunderClan molly. He thinks the battle will be lost.

The battle party manages to drive off ThunderClan, and check over wounded. Splashheart, weary, finds an ominously transparent cat had been speaking to him throughout the battle until it was won. Congratulating him, she introduces herself as Aspentail, an ancestor to his elders. Perhaps he's hallucinating after the adrenaline and sudden exhaustion of battle, or maybe he's simply dreaming. Has he died from the battle? The voice of Aspentail had warned him of a sneak attack aimed at Eeltail before, so she couldn't be malicious. Aspentail says she fought for Sunningrocks the same way he had, and will continue to fight for it despite her death (if you would like to interpret this as an odd time travel situation similar to Jaypaw being isekai'd back as Jay's Wing, be my guest. Sunningrock's blending time and battles together that it can't tell apart, cats like Tigerclaw seeing and fighting off an oddly Appledusk looking cat? War stories relating to the paranormal would be fun). Splashheart agrees to continue to fight for Sunningrocks with her, and she disappears before him.

Blackbee, a clanmate of Splashheart, notices him speaking to seemingly no one, and asks if he's alright. He has noticed that the battle's over, right? Are you injured in anyway? She would fret. Perhaps that's why he's talking to himself, it seems out of character for Splashheart to do so. I'm fine, Splashheart would reassure her. The battle was won, Sunningrocks continued to belong to RiverClan for this generation. Darkstar attributes the win to the elders, and the third law of the Warrior Code is soon implemented; Elders, queens, sick or injured cats, and kits must be fed before apprentices and warriors. Unless they have permission, apprentices may not eat until they have hunted to feed the elders. Perhaps RiverClan had been low on warriors, and relied on the elderly and sick to win the battle.

While it might have been nicer if the RiverClan battle was against SkyClan, Beechstar of SkyClan is mortally wounded either way. He lay on his death bed of moss, den stale and musty from wounds and herbs that fail to save his remaining life. He doesn't die alone, Maplewhisker, his loyal deputy, Robinwing, one of his warriors, and his son and deemed successor, Mothpelt. It's noted that in these ancient times, leaders often chose their children to become the next leader over their deputy. Perhaps that was why Featherstar wept so much over Pebblefur. Duststar certainly is headcanoned to be Dust Muzzle, and it would make sense that he would understand the repercussions of halfclan relationships from his sister, Moth Flight's experience.

Unfortunately, Beechstar tells Mothpelt to continue the battle SkyClan has with RiverClan. He promises to fulfill his dying wishes, and does so with little thought for his surrounding clanmates. He would see his dying father's words through. He would honor him. He would see the downfall of RiverClan, and do so when his father's spirit may yet linger.

Robinwing watches Mothpelt plan, devise and set out to lead a battle patrol to RiverClan waters. Robinwing frets to Maplewhisker, he will not be a good leader, he whispers. Maplewhisker agrees, he will still need our support yet, he is simply following the words of his late father and the honor of SkyClan. Nervous and both doubtful, they follow Mothpelt to the raging rivers, clearly flooding and ready to devour any cat it sets its waves on.

Despite the rapids, Mothpelt persists and trudges on, with most of his clanmates following suit. Squirrelfur gives a look to Maplewhisker, but also follows his appointed leader. Spiderpelt, in opposition of Mothpelt's ideals, stays behind with Maplewhisker, Robinwing, and Rubblepaw. The named apprentice looks worriedly to his mentor, Robinwing, stuttering his fears of the river being able to reach them from up here and dragging them down to the depths below. Robinwing reassures him, all will be well.

He lied. The moment Mothpelt had led his cats close enough to the claws of the floods, cats were swept up, including him and Squirrelfur. Maplewhisker immediately started ordering for the cats both on land and in the waters to link with each other, biting tails and claws into pelts, anything to bring the cats together. She, Spiderpelt, Robinwing, and Rubblepaw connect each others teeth to tails, and would begin dragging cats out of the rapids.

Squirrelfur had just been saved in the nick of time, exhaustion having crept up on him to where he could barely keep his head above water. No warrior nor apprentice were lost, thankfully. Mothpelt also returned, most likely very scathed both physically and pridefully. With Maplewhisker's quick thinking, cats began to support in the change of leadership from Mothpelt to Maplewhisker. Whether Mothpelt was against or for this, is unknown. But he was alive, wasn't he? They would get to battle RiverClan another day. The ordeal leads to the eighth law of the Warrior Code; The deputy will become Clan leader when the leader dies, retires, or is exiled.

p.s. It's noted and commonly believed that Maplewhisker from Code of The Clans is Maplestar from Cloudstar's Journey

Images, in order, found here; McLoughlin1, Nasyrov1

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Leafbare is always harsh on the Clans, a greater degree in some Clans than others. ShadowClan, however, struggled through a particularly harsh season. Prey was scarce, other predators were hungry.

Driftkit and Fallowkit were going to be warriors, the former would make sure of it. Despite the wet campsite, they knew that their mother, Splashnose, would clean and warm them up in a jiffy. Splashnose was a protective queen, maybe to a greater extent than others, but there's no doubt she loves them. Even if they were spoiled.

Kits can always be a little too much to handle, though, so Splashnose would let her kits play in camp. They were rambunctious, but driven, especially Driftkit. He vocalized his dreams of becoming a warrior, lofty fantasies of being a war hero. They would have to practice, Driftkit would tell Fallowkit, who nodded in agreeance almost every time. What better to practice with than a real piece of prey? It's not warm, sure, but it's flesh to dig their claws in either way. They couldn't use claws when playing with each other, so this was the next best thing.

It was a measly mouse. No cat would miss it. They tore it to shreds, practicing battle moves and pouncing onto targets. The mouse wouldn't be able to run and hide in tunnels or swim away, climb trees or use its size to fight the kits off. They would become the best warriors ShadowClan's ever seen, legends that stories would be too grand to encapsulate.

Sunnytail caught them. It was the last piece of prey they had, she said. The warriors would bring back more prey, Driftkit would think. Fallowkit is asked where their mother is by the deputy, who now hearing the scolding her kits are receiving, has become visible from the nursery. Sunnytail and Splashnose begin to argue over the now ruined piece of prey. The Clan would go starving until the next hunting patrol returns, Sunnytail would force those words into Splashnose's mind, if they returned with prey that is. Splashnose defends her kits, and the two bicker until Lilystar enters the scene.

Lilystar lightly scolds the kits, much to Sunnytail's annoyance and Splashnose's attempts to still defend the kits. Driftkit and Fallowkit are asked if they understand the dire circumstances. They say they do. Whether it's true or not doesn't matter. An owl would swoop down upon the camp, the gathered cats scurry off, Fallowkit dashing after her mother to the nursery. Driftkit was stuck in place, fear having overtaken his little body that just moment ago had felt the rush of triumph after a mock battle like a warrior might.

The owl takes the mouse instead, leaving a frozen Driftkit there, petrified. Lilystar says it's a sign from StarClan to respect the prey they send to cats. Driftkit doesn't care about that now, though. Now under his mother's worried warmth and shielded from the sky's, you would wonder if he ever became a warrior after that at all.

The next gathering, Lilystar proposes the forth law in the Warrior Code; Prey is killed only to be eaten. Give thanks to StarClan for it's life.

Lilystar was forgiving and kind to the kits, all things considered. Blizzardstar, her successor, would not be the same way. War was war, they needed all the helping paws they could get, especially against Hazelstar of WindClan. The two Clans were now at war, whether it's due to accusations of stolen prey, or a dead warrior at the border, it didn't matter now. Both Clans enlisted their younger members, noted to be trained by the senior warriors for battle.

It's not specified if there were previous battles leading to this specific one where kit-apprentices were utilized. Most likely not, although I would bet there were many battles between both leaders when they came to power. Perhaps they grew a little desperate with the rising number of casualties. What's one more dead body?

Daisytail, a WindClan queen and proud mother of the 3 moon old apprentice, Specklepaw, watches him train with Adderpaw, an older WindClan apprentice. It was hard for Daisytail to watch, despite Adderpaw letting Specklepaw win their mock scuffle and Slatepelt, her son's mentor, offering words of encouragement, this just wasn't right. Her son was far too young to go to battle. Slatepelt says that Specklepaw would need to learn to become a warrior quick, Hazelstar would not let ShadowClan continue to steal rabbits.

Disturbed and concerned, Daisytail goes to meet with a fellow queen who had kits a little younger than her own son, Hawkfoot. She tells Hawkfoot of her worries regarding Specklepaw, and soon her own litters, future in battle at such a young age. The other queen is more receptive, but she points out their job is to provide their Clan with warriors. What is the use of sending apprentices to training when they will die even before their warriorhood? That shut Hawkfoot up. The two decide to visit the other queens in ShadowClan to help them stand against their leaders. Perhaps they meet at a gathering, or get messages through fellow warriors, or at the moonstone with medicine cats, but they get the job done.

ShadowClan and WindClan warriors, including the kit-apprentices, are lined up and ready for battle. Daisytail, Hawkfoot, Oakleaf of ShadowClan, and other unnamed queens (but I personally like to think it was just these three) halt the battle. They warn against using their kits barely old enough to hunt in such a way. Blizzardstar questions and mocks the WindClan warriors of being too scared to fight, but is refuted by Oakleaf that the queens of ShadowClan support Daisytail's beliefs. The kits are too young to fight, and too young to even be thought of as warriors, much less treated as such. Blizzardstar and Hazelstar eye each other down. Daisytail, despite seeing her own son hide behind his friend, Adderpaw, with a frustrated and annoyed look, states that a kit should be at least 6 moons old to be made an apprentice. Blizzardstar and Hazelstar reluctantly agree. It would be folly to lose our Clan's future, Hazelstar would reason. That it would, Blizzardstar mirrored.

The two leaders would propose the new law at the next gathering; Kits must be at least six moons old before beginning their training as apprentices. Daisytail, comforting little Specklepaw, would say he is still her little warrior.

Apprenticeship in general would get another update. After the death of WindClan's deputy, Pebblefur, due to an unknown lump in his belly, Featherstar would assign his apprentice as his successor in deputyship. Acorntail, still young and clearly uncertain in his new role, promises that he'll do the best he can in his position to a clearly grieving Featherstar.

Unfortunately, Acorntail is more than lackluster in his role. His mind is scrambled and indecisive most days when assigning patrols. Quickpaw, a judgemental and bitter apprentice that his mentor, Morningcloud, didn't get chosen for the position, expresses his disdain for the cat openly. Regardless of their opinions, they are assigned with Acorntail on a hunting patrol.

Inexperienced, and yearning to prove himself, Acorntail scents a ThunderClan patrol near the border. Morningcloud has split off with Quickpaw to hunt after a rabbit, and since he was the patrol leader, he decided to confront whatever the ThunderClan warriors were doing near their borders. Acorntail smells prey on the enemy cats, and notices an apprentice has rabbit fur stuck to their nose. He accuses them of stealing prey, and when Morningcloud and Quickpaw return, orders them to attack the patrol before throwing himself into a cat to initiate a battle. No other cat begins to fight, though. Acorntail glares to Morningcloud, asking what she is doing, and she informs him that she wouldn't put Quickpaw in danger for rotten prey. He's angered by her words, ordering the two, again, to attack. They stay put, and Morningcloud reiterates that the dead rabbit was on ThunderClan's territory. Why hadn't you informed me? Acorntail would question. You didn't give me the chance. Morningcloud responded.

The patrol returned home, a shamed and embarrassed Acorntail heading to Featherstar's den. He murmurs of the patrol, saying that Morningcloud would have been a much better deputy than he. Featherstar listens quietly, and reassures him that cats make mistakes. He did not know how to be a warrior when he first became one, nor an apprentice fresh out of kithood. You will mentor one of Cherryfeather's kits, Pricklekit, Featherstar declares. Come next gathering, we will add a new law to the Warrior Code regarding deputies having to mentor at least one apprentice before ascending to the role.

Despite Featherstar's understand nature with Acorntail, she isn't so much a fan of her non-clanborn warriors. At a later gathering, after the law is set into place and during another harsh Leafbare, Featherstar accuses those in her clan that had kittypet origins of being unable to keep up and provide for the clan like her natural born forest cats. Owlstar the Second of ThunderClan refuted her claims, for if non-clanborn cats were banned from entering the Clans, their future generations would weaken and die. What was important was a cats loyalty to their Clan, regardless of origin. After this ordeal, and despite the rule Featherstar proposed being rejected, Owlstar the Second faced scrutiny and rumors regarding his origins. Was he a bastard son of a kittypet and a ThunderClan mother? He could have been found orphaned by ThunderClan, it wouldn't surprise anyone. Gossip aside, the Clans had more pressing battles to worry about instead of fussing over blood purity.

Images, in order, found here; McLoughlin1, McLoughlin2, Mcloughlin3

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Forbidden romance between RiverClan and any other Clan is basically the M.O. of the writing team. So, to not skip a generation, Cloudberry of RiverClan took up her princessly duty of starting the tradition and getting with one Ryewhisker of WindClan. They frolic around streams and rivers, challenge each other. Cute couple things done on dates when you're cats residing in different colonies. They're young and stupid, refreshingly so, but are still perceptive to the blights the Clans are dealing with. RiverClan just had a bad greencough epidemic last Leafbare, so their kits would be a welcome addition. Ryewhisker also states that Emberstar never minded him visiting the campsite. He would be there for their kittens' birth. Besides, he'd continue, Emberstar's best friend was Thistletail, a ThunderClan warrior, so he'd clearly understand. Ryewhisker couldn't keep his big mouth shut on his dreams of the kits coming to live with him in WindClan when they're older. Uncomfortable with the notion, Cloudberry and Ryewhisker return to their respective Clans without any other words on the matter.

Unfortunately, the Clans' societies just got settled two generations ago, and the series is called "Warriors", and it wouldn't be so if there weren't any wars going on.

Cue Emberstar of RiverClan (who also just so happens to be Cloudberry's father), accusing Duststar of WindClan for stealing RiverClan's fish. What does the average tom in Warriors do when accused of something? We go to war!

Duststar and Stonetail, his deputy, lead a fight against Emberstar and RiverClan. Cloudberry is in attendance of the battle, and so is Ryewhisker. Hawkfur of WindClan is about to attack Cloudberry, only to be stopped by his clanmate and friend, Ryewhisker. Pinned down by his friend, he's informed of their relationship (and offspring) and is expectedly surprised at the news. One could either take his surprise being for the halfclan relation (but it is mentioned previously that Ryewhisker at least visits the RiverClan camp, with Emberstar's knowledge) or that RiverClan would send a pregnant molly to war. Either works for me, but I personally like the latter.

Despite Ryewhisker defending Cloudberry from his own, an unnamed RiverClan warrior strikes him down then and there. The battle ends after his death.

Soon after the battle, the gathering arrives, and with the other three leaders in agreement, Emberstar and Duststar implement the first law of the Warrior Code; Defend your Clan, even with your life. You may have friendships with cats from other Cans, but your loyalty must remain to your Clan, as one day you may meet them in battle.

Not a year later, ThunderClan and ShadowClan would also be fighting over prey and borders. Hollystar of ShadowClan's successor, Brindlestar, proved to be a very hotheaded and accusatory molly. It's noted that she is the leader to first jump upon the gathering rock, despite her being the youngest. Emberstar of RiverClan, the eldest and rightful first speaker, is unable to speak against the blatant disrespect. She accuses ThunderClan of stealing prey, misinformation quickly refuted by Whitestar the First himself. Brindlestar continues to say that ShadowClan is struggling to find enough prey to feed both their old and young. Whitestar simply replies that it isn't his fault ThunderClan chases off any raiding parties from their lands. Brindlestar claims they aren't stealing prey, because how else would they be able to survive since ShadowClan land doesn't have much to begin with.

They argue to the point where their deputies, Vinetail of ThunderClan and Lakestorm of ShadowClan, get into the fray as well. Vinetail questions Brindlestar harshly and Lakestorm states that ShadowClan deserves to have rights to ThunderClan prey because they're starving on their own. Stonestar of WindClan comments that every Clan struggles to find prey during Leafbare, not just ShadowClan. He is backed by Birchstar of SkyClan, who states every Clan lives in the environment best suited for their hunters.

StarClan doesn't take too kindly on all of the arguing, however, and a tree branch breaks off from one of the Great Oaks surrounding the sacred space, crashing onto the clearing below. Piles of snow are sent up onto the surrounding cats.

Birchstar is the first leader to call out to his deputy, Rainsplash, who informs him that every SkyClan cat is accounted for. Emberstar is the second leader, stating RiverClan's distance from the fallen branch wouldn't have killed anyone, followed by Stonestar's deputy Mudpuddle's reassurances, then Brindlestar, and Whitestar checks with his own deputy last. No one died despite the massive range of the branch ecompassing most of Thunder- and ShadowClan, however the sign was clear to the leaders that a new rule regarding borders was to be added to the Warrior Code; Do not trespass or hunt on another Clan's territory. All 5 leaders were unanimous in the addition of the new law. Brindlestar, however, gets one last word in, stating that StarClan must not want ShadowClan to eat inferior prey that runs rampant in other the other Clan's territories.

Images, in order, found here; McLoughlin1, Nasyrov1, Nasyrov2

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