Teffen had a dream. It was a dream of the rogues abandoning their impossible life, abandoning their every cat for himself policy, abandoning irregular meals and danger. It was a dream of coming together and forming a clan. With his friend Savvy, he plotted and dreamed, and now it seemed as though plenty of cats really wanted to join a clan. He'd sent runners to the other clans, and now that they'd mostly returned, he knew where his plans stood. He'd called this meeting, and, to his great joy, nearly fifty cats turned up. Most were young, healthy, strong adults, and they wanted this clan as much as he did. Every eye was on him with rapt attention, and, wriggling his ears quickly for confidence, he began to speak.
"Friends, there was once a clan in Domoria. Once. They were harsh, and violent. That is not what we need to be. Yes, the land here is difficult terrain, but if we band together and cooperate, sharing food and responsibilities, we will succeed. It won't be easy; we will have our troubles. But we will have help. The Serealie clan intends help us; all but one of our runners who went there have returned, and we have news from them that Dunlia stayed there to tell them about us and our plans. It seems that a small minority opposes us, but their leadership seems to love the idea. They will help us get started, and we will be friends with them. This will be good, for we are not without adversary; the Sahar wish for us to be crushed before we begin. They think we want to restart the clan wars! Though we did our very best to assure them that we only want peace and safety, they refused to believe us. I fear that we will face great adversity from them at the start. We must prove to both them and ourselves that we only want peace. Peace and democracy; there is no wrong with this!"
He took a breath and scanned the audience for Savvy. She was smiling at him, and his courage was bolstered. "Now, I will not insist upon being your leader. I'm an organizer; I spread the word, and I get the ideas out. We will have a completely democratic election for leader, and we will have help setting up a government. This whole process isn't just my project; it's everybody's. We have to band together to work this out. I'd like you to decide amongst yourselves what you would like to do, and how you would like to help. Each and every one of you is important! You, and nobody else, will build your own future." Did that sound stupid? Did it sound impossible? Would anybody want to step forth and take the initiative?
"The sun will be up for many hours yet; we can get started on this clan today! Or you can wait a few days to think about it before deciding on your role, it doesn't matter to me. But I'd like to be able to send more runners at the end of the week to tell the Serealians what kind of help we need, and also to inform the Shadowmane clan of our progress and try to get them on our side. Perhaps if both groups trust us, we can convince the Sahar that we are harmless. So," he concluded, taking a deep breath. His paws shook; he could hardly believe he'd made it this far without stuttering or panicking.
"Questions? Comments? Concerns?" He caught his friend's eye again, and she nodded in encouragement. Bolstered by her encouragement, Teffen grinned. His vision was finally becoming reality. Soon... soon... soon...
Soon, he'd have a real home and a real family.
"Friends, there was once a clan in Domoria. Once. They were harsh, and violent. That is not what we need to be. Yes, the land here is difficult terrain, but if we band together and cooperate, sharing food and responsibilities, we will succeed. It won't be easy; we will have our troubles. But we will have help. The Serealie clan intends help us; all but one of our runners who went there have returned, and we have news from them that Dunlia stayed there to tell them about us and our plans. It seems that a small minority opposes us, but their leadership seems to love the idea. They will help us get started, and we will be friends with them. This will be good, for we are not without adversary; the Sahar wish for us to be crushed before we begin. They think we want to restart the clan wars! Though we did our very best to assure them that we only want peace and safety, they refused to believe us. I fear that we will face great adversity from them at the start. We must prove to both them and ourselves that we only want peace. Peace and democracy; there is no wrong with this!"
He took a breath and scanned the audience for Savvy. She was smiling at him, and his courage was bolstered. "Now, I will not insist upon being your leader. I'm an organizer; I spread the word, and I get the ideas out. We will have a completely democratic election for leader, and we will have help setting up a government. This whole process isn't just my project; it's everybody's. We have to band together to work this out. I'd like you to decide amongst yourselves what you would like to do, and how you would like to help. Each and every one of you is important! You, and nobody else, will build your own future." Did that sound stupid? Did it sound impossible? Would anybody want to step forth and take the initiative?
"The sun will be up for many hours yet; we can get started on this clan today! Or you can wait a few days to think about it before deciding on your role, it doesn't matter to me. But I'd like to be able to send more runners at the end of the week to tell the Serealians what kind of help we need, and also to inform the Shadowmane clan of our progress and try to get them on our side. Perhaps if both groups trust us, we can convince the Sahar that we are harmless. So," he concluded, taking a deep breath. His paws shook; he could hardly believe he'd made it this far without stuttering or panicking.
"Questions? Comments? Concerns?" He caught his friend's eye again, and she nodded in encouragement. Bolstered by her encouragement, Teffen grinned. His vision was finally becoming reality. Soon... soon... soon...
Soon, he'd have a real home and a real family.
