Dappledrain died after labour and Aspen

Her rise to leadership was not one planned, not for her nor for the cat who appointed her as his deputy, Mothstar. During her time as a warrior, Nettlehawk's clan was a part of a petty dispute over a decent chunk of territory that was currently Oreclan's, kicked off by Mothstar. Within the four clans, the clan that gains three victories gets whatever they were fighting for. However, unsatisfied with giving her territory up over a reason she doesn't know, Juniperstar, leader of Oreclan, kept on sending battle patrols. Vineclan was in no desperate need for more grounds, and Juniperstar wasn't going to uphold tradition over something so undefined. Nettlehawk had no murderous quality to her, it wasn't something she ever considered but, when a part of an endless back-and-forth with two stubborn individuals at the lead, one gets annoyed and irritated, even more than she already is. Others debated whether or not Nettlehawk intended to, was she just careless? Or was it predetermined? The only fact that was obvious was a senior warrior of Oreclan was dead.. Both sides hoped this would make Mothstar come to his senses or hope Juniperstar surrendered. But to no avail, the battle for the strip of territory still went on.

Giving his all to make even worse decisions, Mothstar appointed Nettlehawk as his deputy after the passing of Aspenshell, who was Mothstar's best friend as well as Nettlehawk's and Smokeseed's father. It was not because Mothstar thought Nettlehawk would make a good successor, far from it. He just knew her presence at the couple peace meetings he'd have with Oreclan's high ranks would be enough to make them uneasy, and make it clear Mothstar wasn't going to back down.

Nettlehawk knew this, and well, she wasn't thrilled by it. Being a deputy would put her into more social situations. But, she was going to put an end to the fighting. It wasn't just Mothstar who would do anything to get his way, the deputy of Oreclan also was done with the fighting and didn't care which side won. Seeing as Vineclan had the higher hand, Birchbark [placeholder name], spoke to Nettlehawk in private, knowing what Juniperstar thought of the newly appointed deputy and asked to do something in return for a favor, Birchbark was just desperate to put a stop to this. One choice led to another and after being told by her sister just how many lives Juniperstar had, Nettlehawk made her mention it during one of the "peace talks".

However Nettlehawk played it off as a lucky guess, it was known Juniperstar only had two lives and that put her into an even tougher spot. In the end, Juniperstar gave up the territory as well as the position of leader, allowing her deputy to succeed her. That wasn't the only change in leadership though as Mothstar's death would come sooner than expected, before he could come around to demote Nettlehawk.

Being a deputy was a different experience than being a warrior, it wasn't as bad as Nettlehawk had expected. The way Mothstar led only convinced her that leaders could do whatever they wanted, lead how they wanted. So that's what she did.

Nettlestar wasn’t a bad leader but she wasn’t a good one either. She appointed Sootbark as her deputy who still wasn’t pleased with where Nettlestar was in life but she accepted the position.

Much to Nettlestar’s disappointment, Smokeseed pushed even harder to have a relationship with her, especially now since “she’s achieved her goals!” Smokeseed wanted to celebrate, wanted to tell her sister how proud she was, she just wanted to talk to her [again].