Chapter 29

Yay, another chapter! Sorry this one took so long, loves; it was supposed to be a Christmas present, but things got rather out of hand, ya? Call it a New Year's present. :D

Now, questions. Almost everyone asked the same thing: What the Dark Forest was Blackmoon thinking?

This one I can answer, and it is precisely why the Blackmoon chapter came before it; Blackmoon's having a crisis of faith. He's always known being a medicine cat would cost him Rosedapple; that's why he let Graywing be medicine cat. However, StarClan played a cruel trick upon him by taking Graywing and making him the medicine cat. He just had a chat with Stonestar about improving the Clan; if word gets out that he allowed Silverstreak to escape, Stonestar would no longer trust him and the chance to improve PeakClan would be gone. Blackmoon feels he needs to make up for that, to prove his loyalty, and he does so by capturing Silverstreak. He doesn't believe she'll be hurt, only held while they figure out how to get rid of the rogues.

Basically, he had a choice between StarClan and PeakClan, and he's really not feeling too friendly towards StarClan. StarClan asks so much of PeakClan, without paying attention to them; StarClan's busy with the original four Clans (right about now, Bluestar is probably still in her mother's belly) as well as all the trouble with FrozenClan and the others. PeakClan has been neglected by StarClan. Not only that, but he now knows that Lightstar was never even given nine lives; StarClan wouldn't even recognize him as leader. And now they're expecting PeakClan to sit idly by while newcomers seize their territory; StarClan is favoring one Clan over another. Blackmoon cannot let that stand, not while PeakClan is in danger. A string of corrupt medicine cats led PeakClan to where they are now, while StarClan concentrated on tougher things. Blackmoon feels it is his place now as the newest medicine cat to change that, to bring PeakClan to where they should be. When he feels PeakClan has returned to their traditional routes, then he will accept StarClan's judgment. But until then, he feels he must do what is best for his Clan, instead of being StarClan's plaything.

Hope that helps you guys; Blackmoon is honestly a sweetie at heart, and a good cat. I'd hate for him to get a lot of hatred when his intentions were good. Of course, so were Northstar's (kind of) but....xD

Queen of the Pens offered an opinion as well:

I think Stonestar should have given Silverstreak a chance to speak and defend herself. After all, I thought he was less comfortable with Northstar than Lightstar had been.

Now, that does make sense; it's true that Lightstar was fonder of Northstar than Stonestar is. But, at the same time, Stonestar respects Northstar. First, he saved Rosedapple's life; then later he saved Rabbitpaw's (even though it was kind of his fault). Northstar stayed with Rabbitpaw while she was healing, and now she is his apprentice; Stonestar respects that and is closer to Northstar because he is so close to his daughter.

Also, it wouldn't make a difference if Stonestar had allowed Silverstreak to speak; she would basically say what Northstar said, since Northstar used his own story to accuse Silverstreak. Because Silverstreak is the intruder, the enemy, if she repeats the same story as Northstar but accuses him, the Clan will hate her more than they already did. Even Stonestar would be more likely to believe Northstar than some random rogue.

Lynxeye:
Oh, and I wanted to ask how long your story will be. It's pretty long already, but I can't really see the end now, with so many characters and plots that still have to be linked.

Honestly, I'm not sure; this story is much longer than I thought it would be already. We're about half-way through the timeline (although I intend to skip through some of the middle stuff) we've got a lot of major events to cover still. It's amazing to me that this story's been going on for at least six months...hopefully it won't be six more. xD

Shimmertail:
I was wondering if you would ever consider doing a sequel to Snatched about Lume and Lightpaw re-forming Fear's group. Would you ever consider doing one?

Now this is an interesting question, because I've been considering so meting like it (probably not what you think). Basically, my plans for the next story are either a sequel to Shattered, or a Scourge story. I'll eventually post a poll for you guys to vote on the two ideas (after Shattered is over). But I can unveil the Scourge story now:

Basically, Scourge is reborn (like TR, but...not) although it has nothing to do with the will of StarClan. He's not born into a Clan, but to his own mate (he's his own son, basically) at the exact moment of his death. With Scourge dead, a power struggle takes place, and his mother is forced to flee, taking her kits with her in hopes that they'll survive. Baby!Scourge must attempt to survive, and hopefully retake his father's empire, while trying to learn about the strange memories that afflict him.

The story will be a bit odd; Baby!Scourge will basically follow his old life (the storyline of Rise of Scourge, the manga) only with twists on each major point and some of my own invention. Along the way he'll run into Lune and Angel, and we'll see how they're doing...they'll be very important.

It sounds a bit strange (putting ideas into writing is so hard D:) but, y'know. Anyway, short and sweet: If I write the Scourge story, we'll indeedly see Lune and Angel.

Numbuh 28

Aight, here we go like usual!

Now, there were several good questions, but Queen of Pens was one of the best; normally I don't wonder why a character does/does not do something, just that they do/n't. She asked why Northstar didn't just kill Blackmoon. I thought about it a bit, and realized that killing him would be an awful blunder. I'll post her question/reasoning, and walk ya through it~

Queen Of The Pens: I don't understand why Northstar doesn't go ahead and kill Blackmoon. After all, Blackmoon knows all his secrets and Northstar is already very twisted - he's killed his father and quite a few others. Is it because he actually, genuinely cares for Rosedapple, or is there some other reason behind him not killing Blackmoon? Northstar just doesn't seem like a character who would care for other cats.

Let's go through this step by step, eh? In amazing bullet form!

*Firstly, Blackmoon does NOT know Northstar's secrets. He basically knows that Silverstreak has some history with Northstar, and also that Forest was almost killed by him. Neither of those are really cause for concern, since PeakClan has always been brutal when handling rogues; PeakClan would probably applaud him for it. That isn't a whole lot to hurt Northy's rep; in fact, he uses it to his advantage in Chappy 28, as we see.

*Northstar has only very rarely killed with his own paws. Don't get me wrong, he's an incredibly brutal fighter when it comes right down to it, but he has a bit of finesse. He never took a single life from his father himself, and he always manipulated others into doing distasteful things; he even made other cats kill the medicine cats of the forest Clans! Why would he kill Blackmoon himself?
*He does care for Rosedapple. They're close, especially since he sort of equates her situation with his own mother. She's grown on him, like Rabbitpaw; why else would he make her promise not to end her own life? Why else would he warn Blackmoon to keep away from her?

*Blackmoon doesn't suspect Northstar of killing Lightstar, either, because of what he says to Silverstreak in this chapter; Northy killing Light would make no sense, from an ambitious stand point, because he'd just have a new leader with nine shiny lives to defeat in order to climb his way up the totem pole.

*It would be an incredibly bad idea to kill the only cat that can heal anyone in your Clan (he has no apprentice, remember!) especially with your arch-enemy and her group of rogues lurking around. Remember, he has no idea how many of them there are, or how strong; he has to assume that at least Ravenwing and Frostfeather are with her, and Eaglestrike, plus perhaps Brownfur and Silverstar, since they're also missing. And he knows how persuasive she can be, so he has to assume she has a large group of rogues aspiring to be warriors with her, probably being trained in butt-kicking. As such, Blackmoon is the only cat who could tend to anyone if anyone was hurt, or if a sickness decided to rear its ugly head -- remember, it's during leaf-bare.

*He knows Blackmoon's secrets are a little juicer than his own; he could turn Blackie against Rosedapple completely if he chose. Blackmoon won't risk that.

Hope that cleared some stuff up for you; enjoy your reviews like always, Queen. :)

The other main question is from another loverly reviewer, Lynxeye.

Lynxeye: I wondered why Lighstar didn't appear to give Stonestar one of his lives. Is it because he didn't want to tell him how he died? Or is he ashamed?

A little of both, really. Lightstar popped straight into StarClan, because he was honestly a good cat, even though he should have never been leader. Once in StarClan, though, StarClan had all the time in the world to show him all of his mistakes, everything he did wrong (Graywing, going to pieces after her death, Rosedapple, etc.). So he's filled with shame, from all he did wrong. (Fun fact: His warrior name was Lightheart, but not in a "beacon of gloriousness" kinda way, more in a "everything's a joke :D" kinda way, although he was a very good warrior). That and he was ashamed of how much he completely went crazy and offed himself, meant that he couldn't face Stonestar at that moment. He might talk to him later, but Lightstar has to come to terms with his own faults and accept them before he could bear facing any of his Clanmates.

C-c-c-chaaaapter 27!

Yo! Chapter 27's up and beautiful!

Sadly because I didn't get as many reviews this chapter (loved yours again, lynxeye; I'm really grateful you take the time to go through it again to get everything :)), there aren't many questions. Lynxeye was wondering about Sandpelt, so I'll just gab a bit about him.

Firstly, you're right, we haven't seen Sandpelt, which is precisely the point. You had it right when you said Stoneheart was sensible; he's smart, strong, and loyal to the warrior code; a real pillar, you could say. And because of that, he picked a cat who is equally loyal. Let's face it, Stone didn't have a lot of options; Dapplefern's yucky, Fawncloud's too soft, Foxclaw's a crab and hard-headed, and most of the others are on their first apprentice right now. Sandpelt has already mentored an apprentice; not only that, he's really quite smart, and is honestly a good cat. He keeps his head down, never causes any real ripples of unrest in the Clan, and he's good at heart. He makes for a reliable deputy, but he's a little out of place in a leadership position, so he'll listen closely to Stoneheart. After Lightstar's abrupt demise and the troubles he left behind, the last thing Stoneheart needs is a deputy who will contradict him; Sandpelt won't. Sandpelt doesn't know much about leading, so he'll follow Stoneheart's own lead; only if Stoneheart is way out of line will Sandpelt attempt to check him, and Stoneheart /does/ recognize that he might go overboard attempting to straighten the Clan out. So really, Sandpelt is an excellent choice.

And there you have it! That's about all for this chappy, I guess...except one thing I noticed. The first few Peaky chappies, everyone called the rocky outcropping "the Pillar". Now it's transformed into "the Peak". Weird. @.@

Tripe Chappy Update~

It's been awhile since I updated this, so here we go! Questions & Answers for Chapters 23, 24, & 25!

Rainshimmer: Will Tremor's group appear again? Will they join Silver & Co.? What's Maggot gonna do? Is Nightshade ever gonna get some sense whacked back into her? She's not gonna die soon, is she?

Firstly, I think we'll see Tremor's group again; they can't let three murders just slide, right? As for whether or not they'll join Silver, I can't say (I might or might not have not even decided yet xD). Maggot will most likely ally with Slaughter rather than be taken over forcefully; by being an ally, he'll know more about Slaughter's plans and goals. As for Nightshade, I guess we'll see. :3

Lynxeye: Are those bosses Eaglestrike mentioned the same kind as they were in Snatched? Or is it even the same city?

They are the same "kind" of bosses; I'm sure that every city has a few boss cats that keep tabs on everything. Some of them are as strong as, say, Scourge or Ruin; some of them are weaker and thus there are more. This is not, however, the same city as the one Snow & Co. went to.

Insane: Blizzardkit's name changed, so why didn't Buck's or Jag's or Shimmer's?

Blizzardkit is too young to really even know what his name means; he won't even remember being 'Blitz'. He'll be raised as a warrior would, with a warrior name. Shimmer, Jag, Buck, and anyone else who joins, however, are raised in a completely different manner. Their old names are a part of them; until they're willing to let that part go, they cannot be re-named. The older cats have to learn the warrior code and adapt to being in a Clan before they earn their warrior names. Shimmer is an interesting case; she's too old to forget her old life, but she's willing to adapt to a new one. Silverstreak is simply going to wait until she becomes an apprentice to rename her, since it's less than a moon away anyway.

Also, I'd like to thank lynxeye especially for her amazing review, but I want to thank the rest of you guys as well! They really make me feel loved and I think they help me improve too. <3