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The Way The River Flows

Summary:

Two kits, born from two great leaders. A world of expectations to live up to, with very little room for error. And the hints of a lingering curse, stemming from a broken promise.

A retelling of the original six books from a different perspective - with one minor change. (...Well, maybe it's not so minor.)

[Title is subject to change.]

Notes:

(lol I read these books in fourth grade and I'm only just doing this now haha kill me)

Some background: I've been a longtime fan of the Warriors series for over a decade now. I tore through the original series (Into the Wild through Darkest Hour) and then read each book as they were released (including Super Editions) up until the end of Omen of the Stars, after which I realized they had been churning these books out for a while and gave up actively following the franchise. The most recent Super Edition novel I've read fully is Tallstar's Revenge. The Super Edition I actually enjoyed the most was Crookedstar's Promise, so that's what I decided to use as a basis for this fic over six years ago.

Well, sort of. The real catalyst was when my sister and I discovered our 'official' Warrior names and Clan, and the gears started turning from there - 'what would happen if we were actually there when the story happened', etc. So it's...sort of self-insert, but not really. There's a certain stigma associated with self-insert stories that I'd prefer to avoid, so I've done a lot of work making sure these characters are compelling enough to blend into the story organically and still stand on their own. You guys can be the judge of how well I accomplish that.

But more importantly, this fic is (or at least is meant to be), in many ways, my love letter to the original series - it may be written and marketed as a children's series, but underneath the cartoony concept of anthropomorphized cats are some startlingly well-executed themes, plot twists, and character arcs (as well as what may still be the best villain death I've ever seen in literary fiction). Far more than one would expect from a book series sitting in a grade school library. This fic is my attempt go back to the roots of the franchise, back before it started relying way too heavily on magical powers and evil warrior spirits to create a compelling plot line. (DISCLAIMER: I actually have a much more complex opinion about the series (including each subseries, individual book, SE, etc.) that I'm boiling down to immense simplicity here, so don't just assume I've written off every book after the first six as garbage, lol. I'm just trying to get to my point.)

Why did it take me so long to start actually writing this thing? Well, it started out as a collaboration between my sister and myself, and for all intents and purposes it still is. But our timing wasn't great - we started this project right as I was preparing to head off for college, and once that happened, stuff like this had to be put on the backburner, where it stayed for a long time. As a result, pretty much all of what I have written down now is from six years ago. I don't even remember all the details we once had planned for this story, and I was about ready to scrap it. But my sister reached out recently, wanting to know if we could still finish it someday (or even start it, really), and I looked at all the work I'd already done and went 'alright - what the hell.' I really don't know how it's going to turn out at this point, but I've decided to at least post some of what I have and see what the reception is like.

Anyway, here's an overview of what to expect heading into this: It's going to cover the same general timeline as books 1-6. It is intended to be both a standalone story and a supplement to the original series, and will strictly follow canon events (this is not meant to be an AU). It will be told through two 'main' characters, both OCs, based (extremely loosely) off of myself and my sister, using our 'official' warrior names. And it takes place in RiverClan.

Now although Crookedstar's Promise is probably my favorite SE, it's certainly not without its flaws. In the case of inconsistencies between it and the main series (of which there are many), we will generally defer to the main series for accuracy. However, there is a rather extensive list of assumptions and revisions that had to be made in order for this story to work at all. Which is literally all this 'chapter' is. I'm posting this, the allegiances, and the prologue all in separate 'chapters' to kind of test the waters. Most of what I have now is pretty much set in stone, but I'll take any and all suggestions on what kind of direction the story should take from here - I've got a pretty clear plot baseline from the original series and a whole lot of character notes, but not much else!

If you've read this far and you're still interested, please let me know! I'm going to be relying a lot on user feedback to keep this story going. (And I promise the author's notes won't always be this long.)

Thanks~

Chapter 1: Assumptions & Revisions

Chapter Text

We will assume that the time between the end of Crookedstar’s Promise and the start of the prologue is between 6-12 moons, based on the estimated ages of Silverstream and Leopardfur in the main series.

We will assume that Mistyfoot and Stonefur are new warriors at the start of the prologue, not much older than Silverpaw.

We will assume that Brambleberry died between the end of Crookedstar’s Promise and the start of the prologue, leaving Mudfur to take over as the sole RiverClan medicine cat.

We will assume that many of the senior warriors in Crookedstar’s Promise have died or become elders by the start of the prologue, including Rippleclaw, Timberfur, Echomist, Owlfur, Ottersplash, Cedarpelt, Piketooth, Lilystem, Fallowtail, and Lakeshine. We are basing this around Graypool’s own elderly state in the main series, and the fact that she was younger than all of the cats mentioned previously.

We will assume that the remaining unlisted warriors—Shimmerpelt, Softwing, Whitefang, Voleclaw, Beetlenose, Petaldust, Sunfish, Frogleap, Skyheart, Reedtail, and Sedgecreek—are all still alive by the start of the prologue, and we will include most of them in the story despite the fact that there is no mention of them in the main series.

We will ignore the fact that Shimmerpelt, Softwing, Whitefang, Voleclaw, Beetlenose, and Petaldust are also supposedly older than Graypool, because the authors did not give us enough RiverClan cats to work with in the main series, and because it is simply unrealistic to assume that over half the Clan would die off in the span of 6-12 moons barring some sort of plague.

We will assume that Crookedstar had his kits with Willowbreeze fairly late in his life, in an attempt to close the gap in age between Mistyfoot, Stonefur, Silverstream, Wildheart, and Leopardnose.

We will alter the relationship of Oakheart with his kits in Crookedstar’s Promise to better match the one depicted in the main series, as it was made clear that Mistyfoot and Stonefur knew from the start that Oakheart was their father.

We will neglect to mention Mudfur’s warrior history, or to acknowledge that that he is Leopardfur’s father, because it makes no sense for a number of reasons. First of all, if Mudfur was already an older warrior when Crookedstar was still a ‘paw, he should have been long dead by the beginning of the first main series, let alone the second. Secondly, Mudfur’s history is not consistent with his history in the main series, and conflicts directly with another super edition, Yellowfang’s Secret, in which he is introduced as a medicine cat apprentice right from the start. Furthermore, Mudfur has never been renowned as a fighter, and there is no evidence to suggest his supposed former warrior status in any of the other books. Lastly, there is absolutely no mention of Leopardstar being Mudfur’s daughter, and no connection between them other than that of a leader and medicine cat. Every fact given about Mudfur in Crookedstar’s Promise is unsupported and goes against everything else we know about him from the main series, and even the other super editions. Therefore, we will assume that Mudfur has trained as a medicine cat for the entire duration of his life, is in fact younger than Crookedstar (let’s say one of Lakeshine’s litter, as this coincides nicely with his medicine cat apprenticeship, making him the brother of Sunfish instead of Frogleap) and that Brightsky died giving birth to Rippleclaw’s kits instead, of which only Leopardkit survived.

We will assume that Dawnkit and Mallowkit died in the story as was stated rather than becoming Dawnbright and Mallowtail.

We will assume that Grasskit is a she-cat and change her name to Greenkit, to account for the mention of a RiverClan queen named Greenflower in the main series.

We will assume that Blackclaw and Sedgecreek are the parents of Heavystep, Shadepelt, and Whiteclaw.

We will assume that Petaldust and Loudbelly are the parents of Mosspelt.

Finally, we will omit Skyheart, Frogleap, and Vixenpaw from the story because they are unnecessary and received little to no character development in Crookedstar’s Promise.