Welcome! This is an interest check for a bird-based RP I may work on, Leader of the Flock! This RP is a heavily simplified version of a cancelled RP that I made a long time ago, Of Birds and Cats, except that Leader of the Flock is only about birds (absolutely no cats included anywhere in the lore) and the lore has been heavily changed! ✯ -- What it's about... Five years ago, there lived one thousand birds in a forest. That may seem like a lot, but there were much more in other forests just nearby. The forest that these thousand birds live in were called The Tanager's Forest. One day, a dark storm came, with thunder and rain and lightning. It rained for weeks and weeks, and many birds passed away. (I know it doesn't make sense but keep reading it'll make sense) After the storm, there were only around forty birds left. The Tanager's Forest was lacking in birds, and Silver River, a wood thrush, decided to do something to bring in more. She rounded up every bird in the rainforest. She counted them all. Including herself, there were exactly 45. Then, she said to three wise and brave birds, Prancer the northern cardinal, Tulip the blue jay and Canopy the chipping sparrow, to head out of The Tanager's Forest and into new ones to find more birds to populate this now-quiet rainforest. One week later, only two came back. Tulip was taken down by an aggressive bird in another forest who didn't like outsiders... for some reason. Prancer went to a rainforest named The Forest of Warblers and found 22 birds. Canopy went to some woodlands called The Robin Wood and gathered 20 birds. In total, The Tanager's Forest had a population of 86 birds. It wasn't as big as the old 1000, but it was good for a start. Silver River decided to make a group. She called it Silver River's Ferns. She made Canopy and Prancer special birds called elders, which are old birds who have served greatly in some way. Many birds decided to join in Silver River's Ferns (also known as The Ferns in short), but some refused such a life and became outsiders, which are free to do their own thing. The goal of Silver River's Ferns is to regrow the population of The Tanager's Forest's birds once again, so everyone can hear their songs and see their plumage as easy as it was in the start. However, up in the stars, there was a scarlet tanager who was the creator of The Tanager's Forest a long time ago, and watched everything that had happened since its beginning. He knew that there was no storm. It was a sudden wipeout. A wipeout caused by the tanager's enemies which caused him to make the forest, Whirlpool the giant cockatoo and Snake the deadly macaw. He didn't know how he made them want to chase him, but if he wanted to get rid of those two birds, he left the ground and left a seed of his life to grow into a forest below, as he rose into the stars. Whirlpool and Snake were never seen again. And thousands of years later, Whirlpool and Snake decided to start a wipeout. Why? No one knows. And that was the real reason behind the Great Loss of The Tanager's Forest. Yet, no one in the land knew that. The storm story was the only one they trusted. Until a year later after it all happened. (Four years ago) A few weeks after the very first elders (the three birds who brought the other birds from the forests) passed away, two blue jays, Clam Shell and Misted Waters, went to find food for Silver River's Ferns (although Silver River has passed away now, Blackberry (also a wood thrush) is the new leader). When Clam Shell and Misted Waters were getting home, a large fox chased them. Although it wasn't any old fox. It was white, with a large yellow tail that had a red tip. Suddenly, the jays saw a vision. The wind was strong. It made a vision in the dark night, and the wind created a moving picture. It looked like two birds chasing one bird. The singular bird flew away, leaving a dot which became a patch of trees, and the two birds disappeared within the trees. The trees filled with lots of birds. Then, the two birds were seen again, and all at once, the birds in the trees disappeared. And once the vision went away, the fox had disappeared. In its place was a feather. A large, white feather, with a the top being yellow and being tipped with red. Clam Shell and Misted Waters knew that they had to get to Blackberry right away. They took the feather and returned to camp. The jays told the whole group about the vision. Once they told an elder, Rising Wave, a northern cardinal, about it, he told them to go visit a nursebird (basically medic birds) named Dusty who has been recently promoted. They went to Dusty, a female American redstart. She told them that the vision was linked to a prophecy she received when she became a full nursebird. And this was the prophecy: "Under a dark night when food is scarce, two birds will see the truth of the beginning. (cont. n&c)
✯ -- Continues from the instructions... Through the day and through the night, the whole forest will know the truth of the beginning. Across the trees and through the stars, everyone will understand. And soon enough, after many years of discovering the truth, the forests will be reunited, and the two birds will regret their run, finishing their chase at the end of true life." A few weeks later, Clam Shell and Misted Waters were chosen to hunt together for some food. It was really misty, but it was expected because lately, the patrols' conditions matched the birds' names. (Clam Shell went on a patrol with an American robin named Sea Salt a few days ago and ended up finding lots of clams nearby a salty lake!) As the jays reached a flowing river, they saw something in the mist... It wasn't visible, but it was somehow there. It told the two to become mates and have chicks. A year later (3 years ago), the chicks they had, Splashy, Tinge and Hopper, had grown into fine strong jays. Unfortunately Splashy's life was taken to the stars after a bear attack which also took his mate, Minnow. Tinge became very brave, and Hopper was very strong. He became deputy after Blackberry's passing - Blossoming Springs became the new leader, since she was deputy at the time, and chose Hopper as the new deputy. One day, Hopper was out looking for food as the sun began to set. He saw an outsider bird who strictly wanted nothing to do with Silver River's Ferns. However, things about him were soon found out. He was a red-eyed vireo named Leaping Wolf and was part of an outsider group which he didn't want to state. Then a real wolf came. He pounced on Hopper, but he didn't feel any pain. Instead, he was sent to the stars. He didn't pass away, he was just having a vision that took him to the stars. A red-eyed vireo named Mouse stated that he used to be a nursebird before he passed away. He said that he will do all the work with Leaping Wolf, and that he didn't have to worry about him. Mouse said that he would be fine. But when Hopper's vision ended, Leaping Wolf was gone. A quick flash of glow was seen where he stood, however. A few months later, Hopper noticed something. Everyone seemed to be acknowledging the first vision (not the Mouse vision) as if they trusted it was a true story. What did Mouse do with that outsider? It was interesting. Misted Waters seemed to have passed away too. It was weird of how she was here before the Mouse vision happened, because when Hopper came back, MW was gone. Clam Shell reported that MW just became a wisp of starlight and rose into the stars. What was happening? Today, no one that was here around 4 years ago is still here in The Tanager's Forest. The new leader is a Steller's Jay named Peach, and her deputy's a chipping sparrow named Smoke. Their goal is to fulfil the prophecy and also find a way to the destiny that Silver River's Ferns had at the beginning of the group's creation: repopulate The Tanager's Forest with a thousand birds. Sorry, that's a lot of words! I think I went too far when I was supposed to just write an about section... ✯ -- Ping List! Interested in joining this RP? Just ask for pings in the comments to get information on when sign-ups are on! - @-Mariqold-- - @-Lemon_kid- - @FrostPool92 - @Emperor_of_Existance - @UnknownFeline - @ZorbCats4life - @dhjsadksn - @jester_pirate--34 - @ ✯ -- Credits @OfBirdsandCats is the roleplay that I took the idea for Leader of the Flock for! (I made OBAC by the way, but it was cancelled...) I'll be taking many projects from that account and fitting them to this RP, just a heads up. Art by me, created in FireAlpaca!
