#hollyleaf was a queen gone too soon

[keroseneinhalers]

my favorite part of warrior cats is the grotesque story of squirrelflight, ashfur, and the extended cast of cats that sound like they came out of an ajj song

this gal named squirrelflight flirts with a guy named ashfur a few times. typical 80s romance song. its quick, its fleeting. squirrelflight gets together with brambleclaw. its all real lovely. brambleclaw gets promoted to leader after squirrelflights dad goes into retirement and makes his deputy the chief. brambleclaw is now bramblestar

(before the promotion and after the marriage, brambleclaw leads the entire 4 clans to a new territory. not relevant. he also stabs his brother in the neck with a tent stake)

and then squirrelflights sister leafpool, who is a medicine cat and sworn into celibacy, has sex with a guy from windclan named crowfeather. this is something all the cats are sworn not to do. double illegal.

crowfeather is a bit of a whore because he was previously in love with another girl who went on a magical journey with him when he was a child. (brambleclaw was there for that too. brambleclaw is eternal and everywhere) the girl crowfeather was in love with got impaled by a falling stalagmite while protecting a tribe of savage feral cats with names very similar to english translations of a few native american names i know. interesting. racist? there was a mountain lion involved

yeah so they have sex and leafpool gets pregnant. but since she did two crimes in one she gives the kids to squirrelflight and pretends they belong to her and brambelstar. theres an uncomfortable birthing scene because the kids decided to emerge from her cat uterus in the middle of a snowstorm. this is very telling of their characters after birth

theres three kids. jayfeather lionblaze and hollyleaf. jayfeather is very angry. lionblaze is angry but in a brave way. hollyleaf loves rules. they are a legendary trio

theres a thing about superpowers, and a prophecy or something. jay is sickly and blind and can see peoples thoughts. lionblaze never loses any fights, ever, and he maims ashfur a little while theyre trianing. hollyleaf doesnt have any powers, but she is absolutely obsessed with the warrior code and gets caught up with a guy named sol who says the world is gonna end. none of this is relevant except the "bootlicker hollyleaf" thing

ashfur is stewing. ashfur has been stewing for years now. long enough that they literally brought all 4 clans across the continent to a new territory kind of stewing. hes lonely. he misses the girl he was madly in love with, and shes married to the coolest guy in town. hes in agony. (over in windclan, crowfeather has a new girlfriend. manwhoring as long as he lives)

theres a big fire. thunderclans entire territory sets on fire. everyone is escaping, except for squirrelflight and her three kids. jayfeather, lionblaze, and hollyleaf, who is contemplating becoming an antivaxxer or something

imagine this: a clearing on the edge of a pit. the pit is where the cats live. everything is on fire around this clearing. there is one log running across the clearing, and squirreflight and her fake kids are going along it to escape. theyre the last out

ashfur appears he stands at the other end of the log. hes pissed. hes crying. he hates squirrelflight. he hates her so much. his rage is all consuming, like the fire that burns around them. he says he wants her in as much pain as possible, and he knows how: taking the only thing she loves in this world. her 3 kids

we all know something ashfur doesnt. the kids arent hers. squirrelflight, though non an omnipresence, is gifted with this knowledge herself.. she sees ashfurs twisted evil mind and tells him, flat out that they arent hers. she doesnt love them. he can kill them, they mean nothing to her. they are, after all, just her sister leafpool's. why would she care for them?

ashfur is stunned. he gives up. he leaves. squirrelflight and her three kids leave. its a bit awkward. imagine the thanksgiving dinner table after a particularly bad argument. thats all this is really

anyways. hollyleaf is broken from this. shes the daughter of a medicine cat and a manwhore from a clan that only eats rabbits. she cant take it. much like ashfur, she snaps

there are these big clan meetings, once every month. everyone goes, except the old people and the dying people and the kids who just want juiceboxes and lunchables. thunderclan is heading out to the Meeting Island. they find a body in the river. surprise! its ashfur

they go on to the gathering despite finding the body of one of their finest, most mentally haunted warriors polluting the stream with the blood seeping out of his slit throat. the three kids are there. squirrelflight is there. leafpool is there. bramblestar is there

this story has very weird heathers energy to me. its there, but it isnt coherant. like a bad remix of 100 gecs, sort of. this part is no exception

hollyleaf runs up to the big tree the clan leaders stand on and monologue. shes not allowed to do this. perhaps the sense that she lost her identity with her illigitimate birth turned into something real, that the warrior code didnt matter anymore. perhaps she was just tired of being kind; she wanted to go apeshit

she confesses. to two things. number one - the muderder of ashfur. how tragic. number two - leafpool. leafpools affar with crowfeather. squirrelflights lies to her for her entire life. theres chaos. thunderclan is like stan twitter after a minecraft youtuber said something racist 8 years ago. the 3 other clans are trying desperately to get in on this drama. the hot tea of the hour if you will

hollyleaf says her share. she runs away. lionblaze and jayfeather chase after her all the way back to the thunderclan territory. she yells at them. she runs into a tunnel and gets crushed by rocks. thats the end. shes dead.

jk jk that was a lie shes alive and shes living in a huge cave system with a ghost cat. remember the native american coded mountain tribe? yeah, they had ancestors. the ancestors lived at the territory the 4 clans moved to after squirelflight flirted with ashfur and before she got together with bramblestar. they used to drown little kids in the tunnels. jayfeather is the entire reason why the ancestors moved to the mountains and became the racist mountain tribe. i wont explain the timeline of this, and i dont think i could if i tried

up above hollyleafs slowburn romance with a transparent cat, theres a new girl with superpowers. prophecy fulfilled yadda yadda. her sister is annoyed that she isnt #quirky and so she joins a fighting cult run by the cats in hell. i cannot stress this enough its literally every cat from the 50 some books before this who went to hell. they have an army of children. theyre training them. the sister kills one of her classmates and becomes equals with the hell cats. my second favorite plotline in the series

the hell cats come to the land of the living. the sister betrays them. theres a big battle, and its supposed to be the end of the series but you know theyre gonna continue it for at least 20 more books. (they did). hollyleaf appears, and i dont think its ever explained how or why. but shes back, and she joins the battle. everyones too busy with the literal hell cats to care much about some kid with a body count of 1 appearing randomly

hollyleaf fights a bit. she gets mauled to death. thats the end. its just over. she dies and she doesnt come back. rip to a queen

i think my biggest question besides why would someone create this ad continue to do so for fifty plus books, is how the fuck brambleclaw stabbed his brother with a tent stake when he literally doesn’t even have hands. what.

[warriors-aus-and-such]

Evil! Lionblaze

(( Sorry in advance for the excessively long post and points, this au includes two arcs of detailed story ))

- Lionpaw, first of all, doesn't stop training with Tigerstar. Ever. Spurred by bitterness towards the contempt from his waking mentor, Ashfur, and the need to live up to his leader grandpa and deputy father, Lionpaw strives to be the ideal warrior, even by training in the dark forest. He's so blinded by his need for validation and ambition that he began to kill in the dark forest, without even considering the lives he'd destroyed. He thought it wasn't real, and the cats he murdered would wake up all fine and dandy.

- He becomes "evil" slowly, his ill will towards the clans and the cats in them sprouting from the that that he never received the validation he so desired, but from who it counted. No matter how powerful he grew, no matter his invincibility, Ashfur seemed to hate him, and Brambleclaw didn't seem to care. On top of this, Tigerstar planted an idea in Lionclaw's (he was named after his adoptive father, as kind of a joke family name) head when he revealed his power to his "grandpa". The idea was that Lionclaw could conquer the clans, show those that didn't appreciate him properly that he deserved their admiration because he was so powerful and important. Show the likes of Ashfur and Brambleclaw that he deserved their love.

- Lionclaw becomes sort of a living legend among dark forest cats and trainees (some of whom started probably more around his age as opposed to Ivypool's), holding as much power and respect as the likes of Tigerstar and Mapleshade, because of the uses of his power in that environment, his closeness to Tigerstar, and being one of the first still-living trainees. He even commands the respect of the asshat known as Breezepelt, and the half-brothers grow close, with a bond forged by similar motivations and a friendly rivalry. They were practically joined at the hip during their nighttime training sessions, and even the revelation of Lionclaw's parentage changed nothing in their relationship. If anything, it brought them closer and gave more meaning to their brotherly bond.

- Lionclaw who kills Ashfur instead of Hollyleaf, driven to the bloody crime by the pain and rage he felt over his mentor, the cat that was supposed to act like a third parent and a gentle, supportive figure in his life, hated him so. Even despised him to the point of trying to murder him. When Lionclaw told his birth mother and littermates, he proudly and almost in a scary tone of voice justified it as "paying the favor forward, only this time I wasn't afraid to get my paws bloody"

- At the following gathering, Lionclaw made the grand, dramatic announcement that shook his family and the clans to the core, but it wasn't the same one that his sister had made in the main series. He announced that he had killed his own mentor, that he had been training with Tigerstar and co., and when he commanded the crowd's attention once more, he revealed the prophecy, and his power. He challenged the clans as a whole, if any one cat or group could defeat him in battle, he wouldn't take over the clans and kill every cat that didn't fall into line. The gathering descended into chaos, and Lionclaw was barreled off the tree he'd made the announcement from and was promptly jumped by cats that thought they could overpower him. Among the cats he fought and wound up killing were all leaders and deputies, Tigerheart, Tawnypelt, and, in the end, he even killed Hollyleaf. These murders weremore spread out, with Lionclaw killing Brambleclaw and Hollyleaf back in ThunderClan. They didn't have the heart to attack him right away at the gathering, so he put them out of their misery.

- Many cats left at the urging of cats who had run ahead, like the elders, medicine cats, and some of the more morally grounded warriors. Pregnant queens (so not Daisy or Ferncloud) didn't have the time, stamina, or generally felt unable to run away, and when Lionclaw returned they were kept as prisoners so they had kits. Cinderheart was forcibly dragged back and made to become Lionclaw's mate, Jayfeather was taken prisoner as Lionclaw didn't want to lose his brother after killing his foster father and littermate, and any cats that hasn't run, they were either taken prisoner or forced to pledge their loyalty, Darktail style.

- During his takeover of his WindClan, Breezepelt joined forces with Lionclaw, becoming like his "deputy". Many cats that didn't know about their bond were baffled and a little scared by this, and rightfully so. The two of them combined commited worse at atrocities than any combination of previous villainous leaders.

- Lionclaw, after having been forsaken by a terrified StarClan, gained leader lives from Dark Forest and took the name Darklion. The Dark Forest became the kind of replacement StarClan after it's revealed that Darklion had gained these lives, but instead of being respected and beloved, they earn their respect through fear. They even chase StarClan out of their hunting grounds one night, thanks to the help of their trainees and Darklion. (Note: Breezepelt is also named Darkbreeze, but without the lives. He just had to command more respect because of his authority over the WindClan + RiverClan territories)

That's just the Power of Three arc

- The Omen of the Stars arc starts off right away with and introduction to Darklion's expansionism, and the aftermath of him taking over ShadowClan. He already had WindClan, and RiverClan was the last clan that had gone unattacked. Dovekit and Ivykit are like fresh eyes and an introduction to how miserable, violent, and terrifying clan life is. Ivykit seems to be thriving in the environment, in some ways, but Dovekit is constantly stressed and anxious. She's too soft and kind to bear living in the very same camp as Darklion.

- There's a leader Darklion assigned in each area of the new LionClan - Darklion in ThunderClan + ShadowClan and Darkbreeze in WindClan + eventually RiverClan. The two sections are unified and as harmonious as they could be, but most cats kept to the territory of their birth clans and the apprentices are the only ones that truly feel open and happy to casually traverse the old clan borders.

- Darklion winds up having his kits with Cinderpelt Much earlier, against her will of course, and she's confined to the nursery throughout nearly the entire series. The first litter are named Tigerkit (Fernsong), Maplekit (Sorrelstripe), and Hawkkit (Hollytuft)

-Suspicious of both Dovepaw and Ivypaw, Darklion apprentices Ivypaw to himself and Dovepaw to Darkbreeze, effectively shunting her off to WindClan and getting her away from him. Darklion is the one who first convinces Ivypaw to go to the Dark Forest and train there, and he winds up training her waking and sleeping. Ivypaw thinks this is great, and brags about how only special warriors like her get to train where she was. In this arc, she's the special one, the golden child. Training with the evil cats is a privilege, and their stories are told as tragic and heroic tales because Darklion wouldn't have them otherwise. Dovepaw is the one that believes StarClan is good, she's the one with the big heart and the strong moral compass, and therefore she must be the evil one.

- Darkbeeze eventually reports to Darklion that he figured out that Dovepaw has powers and she is the third prophecy cat. Darklion panics and immediately and permanently banishes her to Darkbreeze's territory, as opposed to before, where she could still visit her parents and sister from time to time, if she got the chance to slip away from her intensive training. Darklion continually tells Ivypaw that her sister is terrible and evil, like the cats they must kill to keep their clan safe and happy. Dovepaw is the enemy. Dovepaw is evil and wrong.

- Dovepaw, in WindClan, is starved and tortured by Darkbreeze and her younger clanmates, causing her to become weak and resentful, but unable to fight back. Nobody would help her because of a belief that StarClan were the evil cats and they gave her the power, or out of sheer terror at the prospect of angering Darkbreeze. The cats knew full well that if they helped a cat like Dovepaw, they'd be held prisoner, or even killed.

- One night, as she lay in bed, Dovepaw heard the plots for her own execution. On that full moon, all the clans, even RiverClan, having been taken over, gathered on the island. The prisoners in particular were made to watch as an example was made of a poor, defenceless apprentices. The cats were forced to watch as Darklion stripped Dovepaw's name from her, not even leaving her as Dove, but a nameless, faceless enemy that none could or should sympathise with. Ivyfang, having earned her name, brutally tortured and murdered her own littermate following that. It was disturbing, the delight and joy Ivyfang found in murdering for own sister. Cats like Whitewing, Birchfall, Cloudtail, and Brightheart had special front row seats, even closer than the prisoners. The victim's blood even splashed onto them, and Darklion reveled in their discomfort.

- Jayfeather has been silent for most of the arc, but that had been the last straw for him. On the new moon after Dovepaw's brutal murder, Jayfeather escaped his brother. Only one cat had been guarding him, so the blind cat slipped out under the cover of the new moon. He eventually found his way to the others who had fled, updated them on the situation, and had tearful reunions with the ragtag group of escaped cats. He spent time in recovery from being starved and abused, but was soon back on his feet and plotting against his own brother without fear or regret.

- Near the end of the arc, the dark forest manifests itself in the physical realm, beefing up the authority of Darklion and Darkbreeze and preparing all cats to kill their old clanmates if they were to attack. Tigerstar encouraged Darklion to tour around his territories and torture, blackmail, or kill any cats that didn't present unwavering loyalty. He followed their advice, and eventually the only cats left either believed in Darklion or were too terrified not to obey his power. The only disloyal cats that were spared were pregnant or nursing queens, but they were seprated from their kits at the earliest possible moment, and not allowed to talk to them without a loyal cat to moniter the conversation and make sure the queens weren't speaking ill of any dark forest cats, or planting the wrong ideals in their kits' minds.

- The climactic final battle the PO3 and OTS arcs build up to come from a conflict with the clan cats and the dark forest fighting against the cats that had previously fled and StarClan. Many good cats are slaughtered mercilessly, but it all comes crashing down when Leafpool, Squirrelflight, and Jayfeather work together to drown Darklion in a great "this is revenge for all the cats we loved and you killed" moment. Breezepelt dies not soon after, killed by his own father after running away from Darklion's corpse in a panic. As the news was spread around tbd battlefield, everything came to a standstill. The cats that had been scared into commiting immediately abandoned ship, turning to their attackers and begging for their lives, explaining that they'd been coerced. They were quickly accepted back, and all that has truly believed in Darklion perished in the battle of the aftermath. This unfortunately includes cats like Ivyfang, and all of Darklion's kits.

- This is the end of the Warriors series. As the book and our childhoods come to a conclusion, the living cats are bedraggled, injured, and exhausted, exchanging glances and questioning what to do next as the bloody evening fades into a moonless night, and the book series draws to a close

[thunders-warcats-stuff]

Enter Darkness Chapter 14

Firepaw walked toward the fern tunnel. Cats crossed the clearing around him, carrying sticks and twigs in their teeth. While he had been grooming Yellowfang, the camp had grown active. It had been like this every day since Bluestar had announced WindClan’s disappearance. The queens were weaving twigs and leaves into a dense green wall around the sides of the nursery, making sure that the narrow entrance was the only way in and out of the bramble patch. Other cats were working at the edges of the camp, filling in any spaces in the thick undergrowth. 

He was reminded painfully of how Dustpelt and Cloudtail had taken charge of keeping their camp fortified as they got older. Leaky den? Hey Dustpelt. Loose twigs in the barrier that made up the entrance? Dustpelt was there. Wanted more moss for your nest? You'd get it yourself but Dustpelt sure could point you in the right direction. Firepaw had believed that every cat had their strengths. Cloudtail was a brilliant tracker, Sandstorm was the best hunter, Dustpelt was the one to go to about camp defenses. Hollyleaf kept the Clan on track rule-wise. Jayfeather was grumpy as ever, but if you had an emotional problem, he was the cat with a solution. Squirrelflight and Brambleclaw worked best as a team. Leafpool noticed things that not everyone else did.

He snapped back to himself and recognized that even the elders were busy, scraping out a hole in the ground. Warriors filed steadily past, piling pieces of fresh-kill beside them, ready to be stored inside the newly dug hole. There was an air of quiet concentration, a determination to make the Clan as secure and well supplied as possible.

If ShadowClan made a move on their territory, ThunderClan would shelter inside the camp. They would not let themselves be driven from their hunting grounds as easily as WindClan had been. Darkstripe, Longtail, Willowpelt, and Dustpaw were waiting silently at the camp entrance. Their eyes were fixed on the opening to the gorse tunnel. 

A patrol was just returning, dusty and paw-sore. As soon as the warriors entered the camp, Darkstripe and his companions approached and exchanged words with them. Then they slipped quickly out of the camp. ThunderClan’s borders were not being left unguarded for a moment.

Firepaw headed down the fern tunnel that led to Spottedleaf’s den. As he entered the clearing, he could see Spottedleaf was preparing some sweet-smelling herbs.

“Can I have some mouse bile for Yellowfang’s ticks?” Firepaw mewed.

“In a moment,” replied Spottedleaf, pawing two piles of herbs together and mixing the fragrant heap with one delicately extended claw. He didn't recognize those.

“You seem rather busy?” Firepaw offered, settling down on a warm patch of earth.

“I want to be prepared for any casualties,” Spottedleaf murmured, glancing up at him with clear amber eyes. Firepaw met her gaze for a moment before she turned her attention back to the herbs. Firepaw waited, content to sit quietly and watch her work. Between her and Yellowfang, his herb knowledge was growing rapidly. Maybe one day he'd be able to put it to use. Hopefully not, though. He didn't want to hurt anyone. He was no medicine cat.

“Right,” she mewed at last. “What was it you wanted? Mouse bile?”

“Yes, please.” Firepaw stood up and stretched each back leg in turn. The sun had warmed his fur and made him feel sleepy.

Spottedleaf bounded into her den and brought out a strip of bark with bile-soaked moss on the other end.

“Don’t get any in your mouth, or you’ll have a foul taste for days.” She reminded him. “Press it onto the ticks and then wash your paws—in a stream, not with your tongue!”

Firepaw nodded and trotted back to Yellowfang.

“Hold still!” he mewed to the old she-cat. Carefully he used his forepaws to smother each tick.

“You may as well clear away my dirt now your paws are already foul!” she meowed when he had finished. “I’m going to take a nap.” She yawned, revealing blackened and broken teeth. The warmth of the day was making her sleepy too.

“Then you can go and do whatever it is you apprentices do,” she murmured.

When Firepaw had cleared away Yellowfang’s dirt, he made his way to the gorse tunnel. He was keen to get to the stream and rinse his paws.

“Firepaw!” a voice called from the side of the clearing. Firepaw turned to see Halftail.

“Where are you off to?” meowed the old cat curiously. “You ought to be helping with the preparations.”

“I’ve just been putting mouse bile on Yellowfang’s ticks,” replied Firepaw.

Amusement flickered through Halftail’s whiskers. 

“So now you’re off to the nearest stream! Well, don’t come back without fresh-kill. We need as much as we can find.”

“Yes, Halftail,” Firepaw replied.

He made his way out of the camp and up the side of the ravine. He trotted down to the stream where he and Greypaw had hunted on the day he had found Yellowfang. Without hesitating he jumped down into the cold, clear water. It came up to his haunches, and wet his belly fur. The shock made him gasp, and he shivered.

A rustle in the bushes above him made him look up, although the familiar scent that reached his nose told him there was nothing to be alarmed about. “What are you doing in there?” Greypaw and Ravenpaw were standing looking at him as if he were mouse-brained.

“Mouse bile.” Firepaw grimaced. “Where are Lionheart and Tigerclaw?” “They’ve gone to join the next patrol,” answered Greypaw. “They ordered us to spend the rest of the afternoon hunting.”

“Halftail told me the same thing,” Firepaw mewed, flinching as a chilly current of water rushed around his paws. “Everyone’s busy back at camp. You’d think we were about to be attacked at any moment.” He climbed up onto the bank, dripping.

“Who says we won’t be?” mewed Ravenpaw, his eyes flicking from side to side as if he expected an enemy patrol to leap out of the bushes at any time. Firepaw looked at the heap of fresh-kill that was piled beside the two apprentices.

“Looks like you’ve done all right today,” he mewed.

“Yeah,” mewed Greypaw proudly. “And we’ve still got the rest of the afternoon to hunt. Do you want to join us?”

“You bet!” Firepaw purred. He gave himself a final shake, then bounded into the undergrowth after his friends.