Paresse joins Oakclan
---
Silverclaw watched as the lanky tom came out of the little flap on the Twoleg Den. He was strange, for sure, but not unlike Sunshadow back in the clan. Born as a she-cat, but preferring to be called a tom. Something to do with his last owner always calling him a tom before she passed.
His current owner... well, he can see the lines of Paresse's ribs even from all the way across the yard... There's a reason clan life seems so nice to the kittypet.
The tom hops up onto the fence, already purring. They bump heads. It certainly isn't wise for Silverclaw to make these trips out, but the trip across the creek back would wash away his lover's scent. They spend the night together, he'll be exhausted come morning, but his apprentice won't suffer for it. She's practically a warrior already.
Silverclaw has taught Paresse how to hunt along the little patches of trees in the area, ways he can get himself food. Has taught him how to protect himself, especially with other stray toms who can't control themselves around an intact she-cat. Or... a cat who can have kits. He caught on very quickly. Very quickly. Not to mention he can move without rattling the bell on his collar. He's not perfect, he's yet to sneak up on him, but it's good.
He'd make a fantastic warrior. It's just a matter of convincing Whitestar and Shellclaw, his deputy, to take in a kittypet. He sighs.
Paresse flicks an ear, "What's wrong, Silver?"
The warrior smiles and starts to purr again, "Nothing, I'm just thinking. I want to bring you back to camp, but I have to--"
"Then let's go!"
Silverclaw's ears fold back a little, "I have to talk to the leader first. I have to make sure they won't just outright kill you...--"
"I won't let them. You taught me how to fight and --"
"Paresse, you've known how to fight for maybe three moons... these are cats that have been fighting for their lives for many times that..."
Paresse sighed and flopped his head onto Silverclaw's shoulder, "...Kia ran away from her owner. She still comes around to say hello every so often but... I'm so lonely..."
Silverclaw's ears fold back a little. He knows. By Starclan, he knows, "Heh, you'd have to be to seek the company of a tom like me, eh?" He starts to groom Paresse's side, trying not to think about how he can feel the individual bumps on the cat's spine.
---
The next morning there's a horrible screeching from the front of the camp. All the warriors bolt from their dens to see what the matter is. To see Firepelt dragging in the flurry of claws and fur of a strange cat. Hisses and growls erupt from all around the clan, queens chase their kits back into the nursery.
Silverclaw's heart is in his throat as he watches the scene unfold. It's Paresse that Firepelt unceremoniously drops in the center of the camp. He must have followed his scent back. He scrambles to his feet, his hind still bleeding from the fight. He stands his ground, tail a bottle-brush and his eyes wildly jumping from cat to cat. The bell on his collar is jingling madly with how he whips around to hiss at anyone who comes too close.
Whitestar, however, approaches without even acknowledging the hissing. He's an almost pure black, longhaired cat, save for the white blaze on his chest. He stands over Paresse as the tom makes himself small, but doesn't relent in growling.
"How did a lone kittypet manage to get so close to our camp, hm?"
Paresse licks his nose, "There's a lot of you and you stink." He spits, "It wasn't exactly hard once I got close."
"Why were you trying to find our camp?"
Paresse barely blinks, much less moves, "I want to join the clan. I want to fight with you."
"You're a kittypet. Surely you don't want to leave your Twoleg den and all your soft comforts..."
"My owner-- my twoleg doesn't feed me, and when he does it hurts my stomach. He yells at me. There aren't any other cats I can trust. There are no soft comforts."
Whitestar slowly starts circling him, "You're a kittypet." He spits, "I'm not sure what we can do with a she-cat who can't hunt or fight--"
"I can fight! And I'm not a she-cat, I'm a tom!" Paresse starts to stand up, his long legs trembling, but standing.
Whitestar glances to Firepelt, who is admittedly bleeding from a gash above one of his eyes. The large orange tom flicks an ear. Little more than that, but it's an acknowledgement that the kittypet can throw some claws.
"...Very well." But there's a cruel look in the leader's eye as his gaze passes over Silverclaw.
He knows.
He turns his back on the kittypet and walks over to an elderly ginger she cat. They speak briefly, but then the leader leaps up onto a root that juts out from The Heart Oak, "What is your name now, kittypet?"
"...Paresse."
"Paresse." The leader grimaces at how the foreign name rolls off his tongue, "Let all cats who can catch their own prey gather here, beneath the Heart Oak!" He announces, his voice a powerful boom across the small clearing.
Paresse looks hopefully around, but knows better than to let his eyes linger on Silverclaw. A meeting is called for this. He lets out a shaking sigh and sits down, looking hesitantly up at the leader.
"Spirits of StarClan, you know every cat by name. I ask you now to take away the name from the cat you see before you, for it no longer stands for what he is."
The now nameless cat swallows thickly, tail curling around his paws. There was a catch to this, there had to be. To be so easily accepted into the ranks.
"By my authority as Clan leader, and with the approval of our warrior ancestors, I give this cat a new name. From this moment on he will be known as Pinepaw."
Pinepaw's ear prick up. 'paw. Right. He was going to be an apprentice. That makes sense. It'll suck, being treated like a kitten for a while, but he'll prove himself--
"For him, I have chosen the role of medicine cat apprentice, since he will not be able to hunt nor fight, he will serve the clan by tending to the weak and sick and sharing tongues with our ancestors. Berrytail will be your mentor, and you will make the journey to the Dragon Stones on the next halfmoon."
Pinepaw's nostrils flared with anger. He can hunt! He can fight! But he swallowed his pride. Fine. If it meant he could get food in his belly and be with his mate without fear for either of them, then so be it. Besides... he always like plants anyways, right...? But there was a strange feeling in his gut. Something wasn't right here...
Still, he stood, and bowed his head, "Thank you."
A devilish smirk comes across the leader's face, "You are all dismissed." He jumps from his perch and slinks away.
Silverclaw's ears are folded to the side as he approaches the new medicine cat apprentice. Pinepaw immediately perks up, "I told you I'd be accepted in, I--"
"Hold your tongue!" Silverclaw hisses, "Let's not speak out here... Follow me." He nudges the new clan cat over to a corner of the clearing, out of range from the curious ears of cats Pinepaw didn't know.
"Silver, th-- er, Silverclaw, why do you look so upset? This means we can--"
"No, it doesn't, Pinepaw... Medicine... Medicine cats are forbidden from having mates... or kits..."
Pinepaw's ears dropped, along with his heart, "...oh."
"Whitestar probably knew. He's punishing both of us with this..."
"...so what?" Spite bubbled in Pinepaw's throat.
"What...?"
"We won't be able to be openly mates. But it'll be easier now. You won't have to sneak so far out of camp."
Silverclaw frowned deeply, but he can't say anything else, as the plump ginger she-cat that is Berrytail approaches.
"Well then, Pinepaw." She grumbles out, "I'm your mentor, then. Let's get you familiar with the territory and I'll give you some starters on what plants to avoid..." She gave Silverclaw a dirty look out of the corner of her eye, "You have patrol duty. Best not keep your deputy waiting."
Silverclaw nods and gives Pinepaw a small smile before turning to go rejoin the gathering dawn patrol group.
---
The rest of his day is spent trailing behind her, carrying various things too and fro, learning about deathberries and the many uses of moss and cobwebs. The bitter sting is still fresh in his mouth, but he tries to enjoy the work. He tries to get familiar with the other cats. He's only met a few, and most dislike him.
Save for the big orange maine coon he fought, it seems like.
"If it weren't for your collar, I would have taken you for a rogue! You fought like a fox!" His toothy grin is comforting as Berrytail shows him how to treat the very wounds he'd inflicted, "Don't listen to Whitestar about not being able to fight. Even medicine cats know how to fight and hunt. Hell, I'll help teach you myself!"
Pinepaw laughed softly, "Thank you, I'd appreciate it. Silverclaw offered help as well, earlier..."
"Ah, is that what he pulled you off to tell you? Huh! Here I thought he was threatening you. Meanest son of a fox I've ever met. Musta been impressed just like I was!" Firepelt laughed, a robust thing. It makes Pinepaw smile all the wider, "Say, speaking of your collar, you got one of those jingly things on it. How'd you sneak up on me, ah?"
"Oh." Pinepaw remembers the little bell and jingly little pieces of metal on his collar, "If I'm careful, I can walk without it making noise."
Berrytail interrupts them with a 'harumph!' and nudges Firepelt's side, "Alright, enough lollygagging. You two can chat when it's time to share tongues. You have guard duty to get back to."
Firepelt sighs and gets up, shaking his fur out, "Yeah, yep, I'm going. See you later, Pinepaw!"
Said tom sighs softly as the other leaves.
"I know."
"Huh?" Pinepaw looks up at Berrytail.
"About you and that warrior, Silverclaw. Caught him sneaking back in once." Her ear flicked, "And I know why Whitestar let you in."
"...to punish us."
"No, Pinepaw." She sighs, "Because he wants to keep an eye on you. As a medicine cat, our duties go beyond healing and nest making. We share tongues with our ancestors, Starclan. They give us advice and warnings... and visions and prophecies."
Pinepaw makes a face. He doesn't believe that. How can he believe that? Talking to dead cats? Getting prophetic visions?
"That's why he named you Pinepaw." Her ear flicked, "Many moons ago, I received a vision. A vision of our clan shrouded in darkness as the sun was snuffed out. Only weeks later, an eclipse darkened the skies. Whitestar's only daughter was born during it. She's not unlike you. She was born a tom and asks to be called a she-cat." Her eyes closed as she reminisced, "Soon after, I received another vision. One of a thin, pale cat with differently colored eyes, standing in a snow covered pine forest, with many cats laying dead around him and Whitestar dying at his feet."
Pinepaw just stares at her, half in awe, half in disbelief.
"He accepted you in because he believes he can save himself if he can control you. He made you medicine cat so that you can have no children who could fulfill the prophecy in your stead. I don't know if he knows about Silverclaw and you. But I know my leader. I've known him since he was a kit."
"...I'm angry at him, but I'd never... I want to be part of the clan, not destroy it!" Pinepaw stared at her, eyes wide, "Why would he do all that? Just because of some vision?"
"...You will know, when we share tongues with those who came before us. With Starclan. You will know our ancestors still watch over us more than any warrior or kit. Half-moon is but a few nights away."
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MOON 5
Current knew he was meant to be paying attention to Sand and Shell. He should be doing what Splash was doing, sitting with his tail curled over his paws, ears pricked, listening to the two older cats’ instructions. And yet, his gaze kept slipping away from them, down towards the tidepool at their paws. No way. Was that…?
He leaned down, ignoring Shell’s annoyed growl, to peer more closely at the water. He watched, trying to keep his eyes from popping out of his head as the creature became visible. It was! He’d been right! It was another one of those awful octopi. Disgusting, and yet mesmerizing.
“Splash!” He growled, jabbing the tall tom in the side. The older apprentice looked down, annoyance curling his lip until he saw what Current was gesturing at with his tail. “Look at it!”
Splash’s eyes went wide, his jaw dropping in that same mix of disgust and fascination that Current felt every time one of these things crossed his path.
“What is it?” Splash hissed softly, Sand and Shell both utterly forgotten in the thrill of seeing such a disgusting creature.
“It’s an octopus,” Current hissed back, “like I told you about last moon, remember?”
“I remember,” Splash breathed, “but I didn’t think it would look like that!”
“Isn’t it so gross?” Current growled, “you know, Sand told me that this thing used to be a cat, once. Then it got cursed for breaking its vows, and was turned into this thing.”
“No way!” Splash’s exclamation did away with the last remaining semblance of subtlety.
“Are you two even listening?” Shell growled, “you’re supposed to be apprentices, not kits on their first trip out of the nursery!”
But neither tom was listening to her rant, too consumed by their fascination with the slimy, pink beast.
“So Sand said that once, there was this ship’s cat…”
AN: And we're done with Moon 5! This might not be all that important to the story, but it was too great a moment for me not to include it.
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Lays down.
So. I'm like. Planning out like families and stuff like who's related to who in the Warriors AU... And.
Yeah this is basically about to become something only vaguely attached to ULTIMO cause like.
TL;DR, Fusataro and Vice are basically siblings and their uncle is Kaizo. Yeah.
SO. Whitestar is (Fusataro)Sunshadow's dad. So I had to make up a 'mom', and I settled on Mousewhisker, who would be (Kaizo)Volepelt's sister.
Why?
WELL ABOUT THAT--
I know that Whitestar didn't react well to Sunshadow being born during an eclipse. I wanted an all-out panicking, trying to rip the kit away from her mother's belly thing, but someone protects them.
Who, though? Well, maybe the medicine cat who would be there for the birth, but Berrytail is notably weak maybe a sibling as well?
Okay, so sibling. Don't wanna make a whole new character, who's an adult cat now? Volepelt. He's the elder when Pinestep's story starts, so he was probably a warrior still during this time, and also it gives Volepelt more relevance to the story, so all around hurrah!
(Vice)Shellstar's story is he and (Ultimo)Featherstar were found abandoned as newborns along the river by the medicine cats and were separated to take one to each clan.
Okay, so there needs to be a surrogate mother to take him in. Ugh, again I don't wanna make a new character, sooo... Maybe Mousewhisker is the only one in the nursery and she's got plenty of milk because she only has one kit. Maybe Sunkit(Sunshadow) is a little bit older and kinda big-sisters him?
So yeah. That's where we're at.
I mean it's not THAT odd, I've already specified (Orgullo)Firejaw as the father of (Hana)Petalkit and the step father to (Mizho)Owleye and (Jealousy)Spidergaze SOOOOO...
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