The leader had just caught a break from his children and wanted nothing more than to lay in the sun near the freshkill pile. Due to his close proximity he is subjected to Bayhowl's concerns. In the past he may have tuned them out, but he is Riverclan's leader. He must listen to his clanmates. They are the cats he serves and without them Riverclan wouldn't thrive. He needed to listen now more than ever due to the council being so small. Pebblesream is the first to respond. She shares similar concerns. Then Coyoteclaw voices their concern and blatant hatred of Thunderclan.
I'll let Frostmoth know to keep her away from any Thunderclan patrols in the future. Juniperpaw is the last who speaks. Hoping for peace between all their clans.
In the silence that follows, he decides to join their conversation.
"Owlbark... Is a complicated tom, but I have no doubt that his decision pained him. I can see that he cares for Juniperstar. Even at the party between our clans, he watched her closely. I can understand Juniperstar's decision to keep him as her deputy. I would also argue they have self-respect. Juniperstar could've fought with Hawkstar at the gathering or denied dying altogether. She didn't. She accepted judgement from Hawkstar, even if it was meant for another."
The notion that Thunderclan was becoming blood thirsty felt wrong. Even if he did hear about the skirmish (not in great detail), he found it hard to believe that Juniperstar would allow such a thing to happen. She was one who sought peace, her act of sacrifice did not scream a molly who craved blood.
"If that was true they would've attacked our clan by now. Thunderclan attacks, but only when provoked. I believe that was the case the first time there was conflict between Sky and Thunder? It was a skyclanner, Rosebelly who chased prey into Thunderclan territory. It was Rosebelly who struck first. Owlbark had every right to attack Rosebelly."
Was the Thunderclan deputy supposed to sit there and allow himself to be attacked on his own territory? He couldn't blame Owlbark for defending himself. Rosebelly should have turned back. He was no longer in Skyclan territory, he had no protection.
Why did you do it? Why did you attack Owlbark? Why was that your first choice?
Unfortunately, he would never know. The only one who had an answer for that was no among the stars. Besides, it was not his place to know. He was a stranger to the young warrior. The only reason Pikestar knew a little more about the boy was because of his mother, Flowercloud. He sighs,
"While I don't agree with the choice of killing a young warrior, I'm sure it was by pure instinct as Owlbark explained."
There had to be times his clanmates struck first without thought. Sometimes it would be out of regret, but in most cases it saved their very lives. Would they blame their own instincts for kicking in? Would they blame themselves or blame the one who attacked them? It was pointless to think about, some of them already had their opinions set in stone.
"After all, the cat Owlbark killed was the son of Skyclan's deputy. If he had known, I doubt he'd resort to killing the skyclan warrior."
Even if they all had particular feelings about Owlbark, they most know his decisions were made logically. He scarcely gave an inch. If it appeared that way, it was on purpose.
The leader turns to Juniperpaw, and offers a small smile.
"We can only hope that they've learned their lessons, but I doubt their heads have cooled since then."
It pained him to tell her these truths, but it felt cruel to say otherwise. He simply couldn't promise that everything will turn out alright.
"All we do is take care of ourselves. At the next gathering we can stick to ourselves or speak with the other clans if we want to, but we would have to be careful."
The last thing he desired was for any of them to incite conflict between Skyclan and Thunderclan. Matter of fact, any clan. They were steadily recovering from the mess Shadowclan and his own actions have caused the clan. Fighting now would diminish their herb stores.
Pikestar then proceeds to turn to Bayhowl.
"I'm not sure how long our clans will be friendly with each other, but I hope we'll be friendly through leafbare."
