BLUESTAR SPEAKS: ThunderClan
Like all of the Clans, ThunderClan has been shaped by the nature of its home, by the dense forest and prey rich thickets that lie between its boundaries. My warriors are the most skilled predator of any Clan, able to make themselves silent and invisible in order to hunt tiny furred and feathered creatures that live among us. They can stalk over fallen leaves and brittle twigs without making a sound, and from a standstill they can pounce with enough strength to bring down a full-grown rabbit. We are descended from the cats who were most adept at hunting beneath the trees, who were undaunted by branches blocking out the sky and the need t fight enemies at close quarters when there was no open space in which to escape an attacker. This battling in close quarters gave us courage and confidence in our abilities to defend ourselves, and we knew the forest was the right home for us.
It was the warrior code that let us grow as a Clan and let us maintain our beloved forest territory. No Clan guards the code as passionately as ThunderClan. To our dying breath, we know it will protect us from injustice, cruelty, and needless battles. The code tells us to check our boundaries daily, and prohibits hunting on another Clan's territory, and we follow this. The other Clans might call us cowards for avoiding constant border skirmishes, but we would fight for our territory as fiercely as any of them--just not when a more peaceful answer can be found by obeying the code that we share.
When we lived in the forest beside Twoleg place, our greatest border quarrel was with RiverClan over Sunningrocks. When cats first came to the forest, these rocks were an island in the middle of the river, accessible only to those peculiar cats who were willing to swim to it. But the river changed its course, and the rocks were soon attached by dry land to ThunderClan territory. The only logical conclusion is that they should be absorbed into our borders. RiverClan, those fish-eating mouse-brains, insisted that this was unfair and tried bitterly to reclaim Sunningrocks. We won more of those battles than we lost, which speaks for itself. When my warriors know they are in the right, they will fight like lions.
But we also know what it is like without the boundaries of a Clan. Living so close to Twoleg place in the forest, we met more kittypets than the other Clans, and had more rogues passing through. I tried to teach my Clan to treat them as cats just like us before judging them from where they were born. Compared to some of the dark-hearted warriors clawing at our borders, there are better cats who have no belief in StarClan at all. Cats can learn to follow the warrior code, but they cannot always learn the compassion that comes from faith.
It was the warrior code that let us grow as a Clan and let us maintain our beloved forest territory. No Clan guards the code as passionately as ThunderClan. To our dying breath, we know it will protect us from injustice, cruelty, and needless battles. The code tells us to check our boundaries daily, and prohibits hunting on another Clan's territory, and we follow this. The other Clans might call us cowards for avoiding constant border skirmishes, but we would fight for our territory as fiercely as any of them--just not when a more peaceful answer can be found by obeying the code that we share.
When we lived in the forest beside Twoleg place, our greatest border quarrel was with RiverClan over Sunningrocks. When cats first came to the forest, these rocks were an island in the middle of the river, accessible only to those peculiar cats who were willing to swim to it. But the river changed its course, and the rocks were soon attached by dry land to ThunderClan territory. The only logical conclusion is that they should be absorbed into our borders. RiverClan, those fish-eating mouse-brains, insisted that this was unfair and tried bitterly to reclaim Sunningrocks. We won more of those battles than we lost, which speaks for itself. When my warriors know they are in the right, they will fight like lions.
But we also know what it is like without the boundaries of a Clan. Living so close to Twoleg place in the forest, we met more kittypets than the other Clans, and had more rogues passing through. I tried to teach my Clan to treat them as cats just like us before judging them from where they were born. Compared to some of the dark-hearted warriors clawing at our borders, there are better cats who have no belief in StarClan at all. Cats can learn to follow the warrior code, but they cannot always learn the compassion that comes from faith.