Crowtooth
Windclan Tunneler | He/him | 49 Moons
Power Card: Cold Gust
Art by Marigoldwhisper
Whoah lotta questions this time! Not that Crowtooth was upset, actually he was quite happy about the interest, despite the terrifying subject matter. The tom went to address the questions in order.
Mosspaw got a sad look and an admitted "I dont know exact numbers but even before Dirtstar did his major strike it was at least a couple of full patrols of cats worth of deaths. Warriors and apprentices both were killed by vultures and riverclan warriors and given hunting was less possible hunger took a couple of our weaker elders. This affected everyone, even the cats sheltered below and hidden."
Rabbitkit got a grin for his enthusiasm, if a bitterweet one. "Well maybe once Dirtstar wasnt as horrible and just let things corrupt him. See clan life is hard, cats will die and sometimes grief warps cats if they dont hold hope and care for others even if theres risks of loosing them. Dirtstar probably knew he was a bad leader, and feared if someone was a good deputy they'd overthrow him because everyone knew they'd be a better leader. He didnt care if he was lonely, leaders like that only care about power."
As for the other questions..... "Well you see Rabbitkit we and maybe others would strike back against this, but no one knew about what riverclan was doing. They'd hidden their tracks so everyone only thought it was vultures plaguing windclan, not cats."
This lead into Bravebirds question, the tom shifting to look at his friend after a parting "Well if youre interested in tunneling Ill probably be teaching you in the future!" to Rabbitkit. Bravebird, familiar with Crowtooths moods and expressions could probably read both the pride, fury, and sorrow in his gaze as he simply responded "Had it been an actual fight, in the tunnels or above oh they wouldve been crushed. But they knew that and made sure it wasnt a proper fight."
The toms face was grave, looking out over the crowd.
"Riverclan descended upon the sedgewater valley, Dirtstar once more too cowardly to take part of the attack, and with the sudden invasion managed to force all our warriors inside the tunnels. They couldnt gain ground further after that, as every fish foolish enough to try and invade our burrow camp was killed with ease by superior skills, and Nettlestar was even in the process of planning a charge from a river bank exit for a counter attack to drive them out.
However their plan had never been to fight. It'd never been to attack our camp honorably. Their plan had been to corner us in our camp all along so that Dirtstar could trigger his vile plan."
Crowtooth let the words hang, letting the listening group realize Riverclan had basically trapped an entire clan in their own home like hunted rabbits stuck in a warren.
He let them realize themself that whatever Dirtstar had planned for windclan, it didnt leave any mercy for the kits, queens, or elders also sheltered in the camp. That'd his plan had been to wipe out the whole camp.
"Windclan was stuck underground with Riverclan blocking all exits, even caving them in when possible, and upstream Dirtstar and a patrol were messing with the river. What they did, I do not know, but the effect was first noticed by Flutterbug.
The lowest levels of our burrow camp were flooding with the waters rising."
It was a devastating thing a flood, but one only made worse by the underground nature of things. Flooded tunnels collapsed.
"The clan burst into motion, fighting no longer an option and the routes to other landmarks were found to be salvation. In efficient motions the camp was evacuated and all cats ran to a higher landmark with not one left behind, with the tunnelers rushing to collapse the routes after the last cat so the floodwaters could not follow them.
It was dangerous work, as wet tunnels collapse at random or flood faster then a cat can run, and two tunnelers alongside Nettlestar died, with only one having the extra lives to come back. However Flutterbug managed to complete the lost cats heroic work, and even carried Nettlestar out after he fell, and in the end for an entire clan against a worst case disaster only two died to Riverclans vile scheme to wipe out the entire clan."
A miracle, one born of quick thinking and pure skill, but couldve easily have been the end of windclan just like that.
"We escaped the waters, the riverclan force above stamping on the wet and softened ground to collapse it further, but lost our camp herbs and prey to their cruelty.
Even now when you go to the sedgewater you can see a large indent, sunken into the valley inbetween large roots, the remains of our old home below your paws.
A tragedy but now we finally knew who the enemy was, and in the end justice was had without us even needing to lift a paw."
Though Crowtooth really wished they had lifted a paw, wished Windclan couldve shredded riverclan and got their revenge for how that clan had wronged them, but could understand why it hadnt happened. The loss of the camp had to have rocked the clan, forced them to build up from nothing and focus on surviving rather then attacking, especially given what'd happened to riverclan after their vile actions.
Still, it stung.