characters in order of appearance: thunder clear sky gray wing rainswept flower misty river ripple tall shadow thunder wind runner sorry this took so long haha SO a synopsis of this au (tldr at the end because i'm in "good writer" mode): after bright stream's death, clear sky is rightfully devastated, so nobody blames him when he goes off into the forest as soon as they get to the new territories. "he needs his space, leave him alone," gray wing hears so many times. too many times to count. so he's happy when he hears his brother has settled down and found another mate in storm. he deserves this. he deserves his kits that will be born soon. because clear sky deserves the world. he was going to get it, anyways. but storm is persuasive. incredibly persuasive. what could be wrong with her going to visit her good friend gray wing? until she gives birth to her kits. not alone, at the other camp, and it goes well, but of course gray wing gets to see clear sky's own kits before clear sky even knows they were born. because maybe clear sky deserves the world, and maybe he was going to get the world, but gray wing has it now. and clear sky wants a turn. but for now, he's just excited to see his kits. they send a patrol to bring the kits, storm and jagged peak in the front carrying a kit each, and gray wing in the back carrying the future leader of thunderclan - his tiny, helpless nephew. he looks more like a lion than he does any of his family. this doesn't help him. or his sisters, his mother, and his young, impulsive uncle, when the branch falls. and that's how jagged peak broke his leg, storm broke her back, the kits broke their skulls, and clear sky broke his heart. again, naturally. but it's okay, he thinks as he sobs, because heartbreak naturally comes in threes. gray wing stands there and just shakes. then he runs back to the camp to get tall shadow. but by the time they get back, clear sky has too. he agrees to take the young thunder in. gray wing almost didn't expect that. but he complies. because if he didn't know then, he knows now - his little brother deserves the moon and the stars and the sun and the mountains and all the good things in this plane of existence. but clear sky can't stand it. if he can't care for anyone, if they're all going to die anyway, what's the point in keeping them alive? so he attempts to kill thunder. he doesn't succeed, but ends up injuring his leg permanently. and thunder runs. he runs and runs and runs to gray wing, all the way on the other side of everything thunder knows. and gray wing listens. but before he can convince himself that clear sky doesn't deserve everything anymore, clear sky attacks. gray wing's last thought is 'he still deserves more of the world than me.' clear sky never imagined this would be so easy, but so hard. killing a random queen for trespassing on his fragile territory and even more fragile ego. killing his childhood best friend who he hasn't talked to in moons. and gray wing. who said he deserved the world. clear sky lies low when one eye comes around. at least around one eye. his daughter is perfect in clear sky's eyes. the feeling is mutual. gray wing smiles bitterly from the stars above. but one eye dies, and slash comes along. and clear sky gets more controlling towards the other groups. star flower runs. slash dies. and clear sky gains the rest of slash's group. he's a successful demagogue, to say the least. he continues to run the whole forest with an iron paw. tall shadow can't handle the pressure, and becomes some kind of joint-leaders with wind runner. their clans are overpopulated, run-down, and refuges. that doesn't change the fact that tall shadow still gets so scared at night that she goes into her friend's den and curls up at her side, silently shaking. river ripple almost entirely closes his borders, and who could blame him? he was only in this for gray wing. and gray wing is gone. he reminds himself of this every day and night. and thunder. oh, thunder. thunderclan isn't a clan of bravery but a clan of ragtag traumatized cowards who thunder can barely trust. because thunder's trust was so broken, all those moons back. it didn't take threes, because trust was more fragile anyway. tldr: clear sky is more of a jerk than in the books. he tries to kill thunder and successfully kills gray wing. heck if the clans are functional. also a lot of ships are now canon. anyway that was totally hinted gray wing/river ripple look i'm not saying he never loved turtle tail or slate he doesn't have to choose because we stan communication guys GUYS their ship name can be riverwing is that not perfect
