#jayfeather inherited his from crowfeather

[tempest-midnight]

did that one trend of drawing Jayfeather based on jays that you can find in your area, which in my case is the stellar jay

at least i think its a stellar jay.

[bonefall]

Cat? Gray. Eyes? Blue. Hotel? Trevago.

Design babble stuff below

BLUESTAR

Good god it's been over a year since I last drew her. I can do so much better now

I give her a wolf motif for BB, because in my mind it's about the myth of the lone wolf. Lone wolves aren't normal, they're pack animals. At first, Firestar sees her as this ideal, strong leader who stands independently of everything... but he's wrong!

She's NEVER acted fully alone! She's always been devoted to her family, even as it dwindled. Her ruling style is to protect other Clans, unlike any leader who's come before her. In BB, she even had a mixed-Clan friendgroup called the Forget-Me-Nots.

She helped to depose ShadowClan's tyrant. She sent Firestar to fetch WindClan, even against the wishes of the other two. She even fought Nightstar and Crookedstar when they tried to drive them out again.

She even takes the code SO seriously that she refused to kill Brokentail, extending a mercy that ended up backfiring.

And Firestar learns everything about leadership from her. Grace, diplomacy, fairness... and she was fair to a fault.

Both her and her apprentice would eventually face down Tigerkin, Bluestar during the coup and Firestar even lost a life after defending Hawkfrost for several books.

The only time Bluestar ever became a "lone wolf" was in her cruelty arc, when she was dragging everything she ever stood for down with her.

Her wolf motif shows up in her entire family, to connect them. It's in her nephew Whitestorm, her uncle Goosefeather, her daughter Mistystar, even all the way down into Curlfeather and Frostpaw who are descended from Reedwhisker in BB.

The scar comes from her fighting a badger to rescue Darkstripe and his sister, Cricketclaw, when they wandered off as kittens.

CROWFEATHER

He's a mix of spiky and swirly, as a cross between his dad Deadfoot and his mother Ashfoot.

He's older in BB to change that he was an apprentice on the Great Journey, and also to fix an inconsistency where his dad would be dead when he was conceived.

I think it was a huge missed opportunity that Crowfeather's bond to his mentor, Mudclaw, is barely mentioned in-canon. In BB they were VERY close and Mudclaw was incredibly influential to his personality.

Deadfoot is dead-- Mudclaw was like a father to him.

Crowfeather is torn between the influence of his mother, who was a Forget-Me-Not in her youth, and the hard ideology of his mentor. All the while, the ego boost he got from being selected to go on the Great Journey massively affected him, in a bad way.

He ended up taking Mudclaw's side in the rebellion-- not because he believed that ThunderClan had told a lie (in fact he defends his friend's honor) but because he believed Mudclaw would be a better leader.

But eventually, he found himself surrounded by cats he didn't want anywhere near WindClan. Good intentions or not, Mudclaw was willing to work with cats like Blackclaw and Hawkfrost-- people who want a second TigerClan.

Crowfeather betrayed the rebellion, running to fetch Brambleclaw and ThunderClan reinforcements. In the fight, his nose was scratched in a chevron, the shape of Mudclaw's stripes.

I like the idea that he carries it with him, but always tries to put it off his mind. He mistreats and misuses other people, ignoring the reminder that he is a fallible person that's carved onto his nose.

died of infection. Sad!

All of his kits resemble him in some way. Lionblaze inherited his tail, Hollyleaf has the spikes, Breezepelt has the build, Jayfeather is a miserable git has the ear swirls

He was head of Kitchen Patrol until BB!OotS, but I'm actually planning for him to NOT be deputy in BB. His character growth feels a lot more satisfying in realizing he really doesn't handle power very well, and should stay away from it.

He has old relationships and burned bridges to mend, and staying part of Kitchen Patrol seems like the way he should plan to do that.

I talked about him a lot in Nightcloud's summary and he's going to be coming up in the outline of Nightcloud's Pannage a lot. Much as I love taking potshots at him, he's got a very kind arc laid out.

CINDERPELT

She is the daughter of LIONHEART whY don't you people give her A MANEEEE

let her be THICK

In BB, the Frostfour are actually from two different litters. Cinderpelt and Brackenfur were in the older one.

Frostfur was head of Kitchen Patrol at the time, and very overworked lmao

So Cinder and Bracken both have an "older sibling" energy. Their mom was usually involving them in every little activity to get some help. Brackenfur is over-responsible, and Cinderpelt was always trying to help out other people and prove herself.

Of course, it also lead to her running right into Tigerclaw's trap which was set for Bluestar-- she wanted to be helpful.

The injury didn't heal right and she has chronic pain. She has severe mobility issues in the hip, and usually keeps the leg bound to her body so it doesn't drag or hurt.

She could have still been a warrior if she wanted to, but discovered while healing that she loved working with Yellowfang. I also interpret it this way in canon, to be fair, but TNP decided to remember it completely differently.

After saving Littlecloud's life they became absolute best friends. They worked on a mobility device for Wildfur together.

They style their manes in a similar way, pushing it up into that "spike" on their heads and out of their faces.

ASHFUR

Moonkitti's blonde Ashfur remains iconic, I fear

I draw him like a cheetah so he has the funky cheetah cub hair

I'm a HUGE fan of what the Erins did with the direction of Ashfur's story, with him being an obsessive spurned lover, but that's not really the sort of story I tell in BB!

So I approach his obsession on Squirrelflight as being very... Judge Frollo-esque.

Frollo's ultimate goal isn't to possess Esmerelda. He wants her, but it's a wrench in his plans to commit ethnic cleansing using his religious justifications. Hellfire is about how he finds a way to shift the blame for his own lust onto her, and offers an ultimatum; "She will be mine or she will burn (along with everyone else I plan to slaughter)"

In Frollo's mind, he "forgives" her for what she's "done to him." For what she is. He sees what he's doing as giving her an "escape."

It's not for her benefit. It's for HIS. By giving her this "escape," if she takes it, he gets to think of her as redeeming herself (and thus being worthy of him).

If she does not... then it's no skin off his back. He's Done His Part. Everything was always her fault. He is blameless.

Either way he gets to walk away feeling justified.

All that to say-- that's how I approach BB!Ashfur.

He wants to punish codebreakers. He wants the Clans to suffer for how far they've fallen from where they should be. They've become vulgar, ungrateful, unworthy of StarClan's grace.

He tried to kill The Three because he'd learned of the Fire and Tiger prophecy, and was only trying to protect the Clan. If Squirrelflight had CHOSEN HIM, then none of this would have happened.

He was righting a wrong, you see, and StarClan understood, in his eyes.

When Hollyleaf slaughtered him, violating the Code, it only confirmed he had been right all along.

And again and again and again, he offers Squirrelflight what she needs to redeem herself. He wants her. He wants her to "be better."

When she lets him down... then it's not his fault. She's forced his paw.

SO the blonde hair isn't totally just a fun reference, I also find it fitting because aside from the cheetah motif, he sees himself as angelic.

It's also why I don't portray him as "grubby" like some folks do, BB!Ashfur is much more vain than Canon!Ashfur, caring immensely about his appearance. Thinking about it, he probably won't even let his Bramblefake vessel fall into disrepair, he'd feel more grossed out than usual.

He also gets a very cool boss fight form at the end of BB!TBC which I still need to design lmao.

[troutfur]

How differently are non-augur patricians treated by their Clanmates? Does their distance from their closest augur ancestor affect the respect they receive?

Non-augur patricians are in a rather awkward spot. They are treated with respect for sure, you never want to piss them off lest you tank your reputation. But at the same time they are treated as if they are very fragile which can lead them to be outcasted from warrior peers in a way.

Because of the interbreeding situation the patrician caste has a set of neurodivergences and congenital disabilities that run pretty strongly in the family. Hip dysplasia, diabetes, epilepsy, ADHD, autism, etc. This is called The Gift of the Patricians or just The Gift for short, and any patrician cat who displays them is called gifted.

The view on these is mixed.

On the one hand the neurodivergences are seen as overall an advantage because they're interpreted as a sign of their closer connection with StarClan. Having a special interest related to plants or healing or going through periods of ADHD hyperfocus where they get super into the religious side of their duties can be quite the advantage in this job afterall.

But the physical disability side of The Gift also often constrains their warrior careers. It's not uncommon for them to have to retire young or just not make it through their training. Hardly any patrician becomes deputy or leader in spite of the status, cases like Onestar (son of Hawkheart, brother to Ashfoot and Morningflower, uncle to Kestrelflight and Crowfeather) are the exception not the rule.

A patrician's place is inside the augurs' den. That's both a statement of their privilege and of their limitations.

Regarding the second question: patricians who are children rather than grandchildren of augurs are absolutely given more weight, doubly so if they are the children of the matriarch/patriarch (senior augur of the Clan).

The children of the matriarch/patriarch are of course next in line to inherit the position. And children of augur patricians are of course more likely to be chosen for the position over children of warrior patricians. More often than not if they are considered at all important to the game of dynasties it's as pawns.

Spoilers for to Aaron and his sons ahead, if y'all care:

For an example, consider how ThunderClan acted after Jayfeather did not send one of his daughters back to be the ThunderClan heir as originally agreed. Rather than go for the older litter of patrician kits, Hollytuft, Fernsong, and Sorrelstripe, it was the sole kit of Crowfeather and Leafpool's second litter, Breezepaw, who got to be trained.

...Sort of. Harestar cashed in his cupon for one free ThunderClan patrician to cover for the fact Kestrelflight turned out infertile. Whoops.

But still, it wasn't any of the Lionkits. The only one of them who was relevant was to the game of dynasties was Fernsong who was sent to RiverClan to marry one of his cousins in order to produce the heir to be sent back to ThunderClan.

I call it spicy FernIvy. If you wanna complain about them so bad, I'll give y'all something to complain about.

[bastart13]

#oh these are excellent#i think jay could still be a gray tabby bc i think if memory serves#either crows mom or dad was gray. which should mean jay would get 2 copies of the dilute gene#i think?

This is the fun thing about the ginger gene: the only way you get a pure ginger or not cat depends on the mum/the X chromosone. Since Leafpoof is ginger here, she can only have ginger or tortie kits because she had to pass down her X chromosone. Jayfeather inherits two dilute genes from his parents (Crowfeather is dilute and Sandstorm passes dilute onto Leafpool) so he's still a grey tabby, but he's also cream (dilute ginger)

This has been tried about a thousand times, but it really is fun trying to see what a genetically-realistic Warrior Cats would look like!

For my attempt, I went in terms of introduction order, like how it would have been built as the writers go through each book.

Firestar and Sandstorm are described as ginger cats in the first arc, so Squirrelstar and Leafpool end up ginger in the second. Then Firestar and Princess being described as siblings, so their mother has to be a tortie but Jake cannot be ginger or Princess would also be tortie.

I still tried to make every cat as accurate as I could to their original description, so Jayfeather and Hollyleaf are described as a grey tabby and black cat respectively, so they become low-red torties.

(You have trans headcanons because it suits the character, I have trans headcanons to suit cat colour genetics. We are not the same)

Also, my changes tended to be additive rather than subtractive. Jayfeather and Crowfeather are described with blue eyes, so I added white to make that more plausible vs changing their eye colours.

[moss-path]

Firestar’s family tree for my PO3 AU!!

To go with my Dappletail and Mapleshade tree.

Notes below the cut :)

Crystal has Jake, Ferris, and Whiskers. And Jake has two litters with Quince and Nutmeg respectively. I’m considering making Quince and Nutmeg mates and having Jake as a donor for both. Maybe Scourge and Firestar knew each other when they were kits, making Scourge younger?

Switching up TNP and PO3 relationships, Squirrelflight and Crowstorm (Crowfeather) have a fling that results in Alderheart, Jayflight (Jayfeather), and Sparkstorm (Sparkpelt). At the same time, Leafpool is in a relationship with Mothwing, and they have Lionblaze, Hollyshine (Hollyleaf), Juniperkit, and Dandelionkit. The two litters are born at the same time and the five surviving kits are raised together by Squirrelflight with no stated sire.

Brightheart and Thornclaw are found abandoned as kits. They’re raised by Frostfur alongside Brackenfur and Cinderlight (Cinderpelt).

As she is now much older than (and related to) Larksong, Sparkstorm has her litter with Toadstep. Ferncloud, Toadstep, and Flickerkit die in the Dark Forest battle when a cat gets into the nursery. Whitewing fosters Finch and Flame while she’s grieving.

Brightheart and Cloudtail have their second litter much sooner than canon, between Ferncloud’s second and Sorreltail’s first. Ambermoon and Dewnose are born during the journey while they stay with the tribe.

On the other hand, Whitewing and Birchfall have another litter at the time Brightheart canonically has Amber, Dew, and Snow. The litter is only Snowbush.

Cinderheart is instead Emberheart, to remember both her aunt Cinderspark and her uncle Sootfur who die in the fight against the badgers. The reincarnation plot does not happen. She is mates with Ambermoon; they have Hollytuft, Fernsong, and Brackenstripe (Sorrelstripe) together.

Instead of Sorreltail, it’s Brackenfur that dies in the Dark Forest battle. Sorrelstripe is now Brackenstripe.

Tigerheart is now Goldenheart, after his grandmother. He never becomes leader of ShadowClan. Blackstar dies soon after Sol is chased out and Russetstar (Russetfur) is leader when the Kin take over. Tawnyclaw (Tawnypelt) becomes leader after she dies.

Dovewing and Ivypool are older than in canon. Their first gathering is the one after Hollyshine (Hollyleaf) disappears.

For now I’m keeping Rowankit’s original gray tabby description. I imagine I’ll end up changing her to a tortie in the future. I’ll also change Dovewing to a dilute tortie, inheriting the red gene from Whitewing, which is hidden beneath a dominant white. I do like the gray better tho...

Blossomfall and Ivypool are mates. Both have litters of kittens with loners and raise them together. Bristlefrost looks up to Stemleaf as an older brother figure.

[blorboclaw]

Not to re-invent the concept of Pope, but I think the eldest medicine cat in the forest/around the lake should have a particular, higher status than the others. Be the one who directs the group on the way to the Moon-stone/pool, be the one to say "now stop gossiping, we must commune with Starclan", be the one to give their new name to a medcat apprentice... If a medicine cat has a doubt about something, be it a moral question or what herb to use for this rare sickness, it's the cat they'll be looking for.

Not necessarily the eldest though. The most respected or one who did something extraordinary or one chosen by starclan would do too.

In the old forest, Hawkheart was the leader of the medicine cats, because Goosefeather was crazy. But when he killed Moonflower, although in a state of legitimate defense, or so he argued, the mantle went to Sagewhisker. She tried to make her apprentice inherit it, arguing that Yellowfang's capacity to feel the pain of others was a sign from Starclan, but when she was exiled, it went to Barkface. During the Great Journey, he let Cinderpelt assume his duties because he had to care for Tallstar. But then Leafpool was the one who found the moonpool, and despite her young age, she got to bear the charge of being the leader of the medicine cats.

Then Leafpool left with Crowfeather and Cinderpelt died, and Leafpool was stained because she broke her vows. Littlecloud took on the charge, because Barkface couldn't: you can't become leader of the medicine cats more than once, unless Starclan itself brought a sign.

Littlecloud held the charge for longer than many medicine cats before him. When Flametail died, he resigned because grief was too strong. Mothwing was designed by the other cats because she was the most senior still eligible. But she refused, and said it was time for Leafpool to be forgiven her past mistakes. "You can't be the leader twice." Barkface objected. "Unless Starclan sends a sign, and they sent one the first time. So now it's like it was her first time." Mothwing answered.

Leafpool was the senior medicine cat for a long time. When she died, Mothwing finally endorsed the mantle of leader of the medicine cats, as a tribute to her friend. And after all, even if she was critical of Starclan, she believed in them again. This time she was ready to assume the duties.

When Mistystar exiled Mothwing on the impostor's orders, Tigerstar II was delighted to let her in his clan... who controls the leader of the medicine cats controls all of the medicine cats. The only problem was that the medicine cats couldn't talk to starclan at the time. But it was still a power move.

When Shadowsight was tired of being criticized by Mothwing, he bit back his remarks. Not because he didn't want to answer to an elder and to another medicine cat. But because she was the leader of all medicine cats. Puddleshine defered to her and didn't dare question her when she started reorganizing his herbs.

When Mistystar died, Mothwing was too busy with other duties and abandonned her charge. Jayfeather picked it up by sense of duty more than anything else: you can't let Kestrelflight be the leader of the medicine cats now can you? Maybe was it also a way for him to honor his mother's memory.

Pope but for cats.

[muddshadow]

excuse you I need to know right now who your favorite warrior cats are and what your opinion of crowfeather is (🌲🌲🌲🌲💕💕💕)

OH GOSH. okay @pinespittinink i will preface by saying i only read up until the clans settled in their new home at the sundrown place. i might’ve gotten a bit into The Power of Three but it’s pretty foggy after that lol. but nothing sticks with you like a childhood obsession!!!

favorite cats <3

YELLOWFANG. extremely crotchety but cunningly wise characters are some of my absolute faves and i can probably trace that appreciation back to Yellowfang lmao. girlboss vibes

RAVENPAW. i loved this nervous wreck. Tigerclaw did him so dirty. although i liked that he was able to find a good home with Barley<3

CINDERPELT. she had the biggest heart and a vibrant personality and it broke my kid heart when she couldn’t achieve her warrior dream. also apparently she is reincarnated?????

SQUIRRELFLIGHT. tough, sassy, and annoying. what’s not to love. i loved her sister dearly as well but i always felt like the authors favored Leafpool and that made me like Squirrelflight more.

BRAMBLECLAW. bro had a tough upbringing, and i loved his broody vibes and inherited sense of duty. plus his extreme daddy issues gave him a terrific character journey. liked Tawnypelt as well<3

SCOURGE. OKAY this one is because i owned all of the graphic novels (still do, somewhere in storage...) and I became a little obsessed with Bloodclan’s backstory. PLUS that scene where Scourge ripped Tigerstar open and took all nine lives in one swipe STILL lives in my skull (it was a cheap plot shot but still. objectively badass.)

JAYFEATHER. the braincell among his siblings, and a truly interesting character from what I can remember. his dream-walker ability was NEATO. i might be slightly invested in medicine cats

opinion on crowfeather: he has one of my favorite names. i know he went on the original journey to find a new home, but can’t really remember what he contributed...? based on my memory he was a smidge of a whiny brat but had a sensitive heart. Leafpool was too cool for him though. i looked up his wiki to clarify (also i figured he was controversial somehow if you asked skskshdfd) and he is NOT father of the year. if graystripe can father kits from a different clan and not be an ass about it then crowfeather should be held to the same standard

[official-hawknose]

Hollyleaf

im moving my hcs from the tags if i remember from now on

- The rockfall did leave her with brain damage, and as a result her eyes are dilated wrong all the time.

- She crouch walks primarily out of habit from the tunnels, and needing to hunch down to be able to navigate to the fullest.

- Had she been born in Windclan during the tunneler/moor runner time, she wouldve been made a tunneler due to her long tail and sturdy claws. I hc that Crowfeather comes from a long, long line of former tunnelers, though he doesnt fit the bill fully with long legs, Hollyleaf inherited the sturdy body, long tail and thick claws. Jayfeather, however, inherited Crowfeathers body type much more than his siblings did.

[duck-era-lexi]

when crowfeather tells breezepelt, “i never hated you!” in the last hope i call utter BS. crowfeather’s entire thing is hating breezepelt. 

he never really loved nightcloud, and she’s not someone who’s easy to befriend. and when their son was born, crowfeather just cant bring himself to love his son, no matter how much he tries. breezekit looks like nightcloud, but nightcloud looks like him and crowfeather hates himself. hates himself because every single thing in his life has gone wrong and somehow, he’s ended up making it worse by marrying nightcloud. 

breezepelt’s a living reminder of his failures, of his mistakes. he’s dark grey, nearly black, not light brown tabby striped or silvery grey. he’s a reminder that every love crowfeather has ever had has fallen apart and he has nothing to show for it. breezepelt inherits his short temper, mixed with nightcloud’s & her toxic parenting. imo, i feel like usually a kit is raised by the clan as a whole, but since no one really likes nightcloud(+later by extension, crowf and breezepelt) they kinda just let the three of them split off from the rest of the clan. 

except when leafpool has secret kits, it turns out he does have something to show for it. he doesn’t know them that well, but lionblaze and hollyleaf are respected warriors, and jayfeather is a talented medicine cat. better than he could ever do. breezepelt sucks, and crowfeather watches his son grow worse and more violent by the day. and he knows, it’s his fault.

___

i’d rewrite it like:

“This has to stop!” Crowfeather pinned Breezepelt to the ground. “I will not watch you harm a whisker on that cat!” 

Breezepelt writhed, snarling. “I always knew you hated me!”

Crowfeather hesitated. “Maybe I did,” he admitted quietly, but his voice quickly sharpened as he pushed his son further against the soil. “But this, you going and fighting alongside the Dark Forest? That was your own choosing.”

*en commence*

[cloverpurr]

warrior cats headcanons bc why not!

these are mostly design headcanons but ehhhhh whatever

1. crowfeather and jayfeather look extremely similar. i like to think that jayfeather got crofeather's lanky, skinny and tall body type. he looks more like a typical windclan cat than a thunderclan cat, and is definitely taller than his littermates (and even leafpool!) hollyleaf is definitely up there in height and got crowfeather's windclan genes too, but she passes more as a thunderclan cat than jayfeather. lionblaze on the other hand is big, bulky, stumpy, much like leafpool. i also like to think he looks a bit like his great grandfather jake

2. crowfeather carries a silver and gray/black feather and a jay's feather behind his ear, to honor feathertail and jayfeather. jayfeather does the same with a single crow's feather. idk i just like to think that crowfeather isn't ALL that much of an asshole and doesn't completely disown his and leafpool's kits

3. dovewing and ivypool both have heterochromia! dovewing has a green right eye and a blue left eye, while ivypool has a green left eye and a blue right eye!

4. instead of all of bluestar's kits looking like her (with the exception of mosskit, but to be fair she doesnt look all like oakheart either), stonefur's body type is much more similar to oakheart (bulky and somewhat muscular), and he has yellowish/amber eyes. mistystar is almost a carbon copy of bluestar with the exception that she has lighter more icy blue eyes than bluestar. i like to think mosskit looks the same as her canon description but one of her eyes is half yellow/amber and half blue

5. hollyleaf inherited squirrelflight's single white paw, and has the same color eyes as squilf (and by that i mean like......same shade and everything. basically identical.) once she found out about squirrelflight not being their mother she would cover her white paw in brambles and holly leaves, trying to cover it up as best as she could. eventually she took the brambles and holly leaves off, after finally coming to terms with everything

6. briarlight and jayfeather would go out for walks, early early during the morning, when barely any cats were awake. not only just to get briarlight out of the den and to exercise her legs, but because she liked to describe everything she could see to jayfeather

7. when firestar first came into the forest and met tallstar for the first time, the first thing tallstar thought of was jake, and how much firestar looked like him. he knew immediately that this was jake's kid lol

8. brightheart and jayfeather liked to decorate briarlight's nest with flowers and feathers and all sorts of stuff while briarlight was asleep. her reaction is always priceless, like she never expects a thing.

9. tigerstar and brambleclaw WOULD'VE looked exactly the same......if it wasn't for goldenflower. brambleclaw is much more golden tinted and fluffy, more similar to goldenflower, which is what sets him apart from tigerstar. despite looking like a fluffy boy he is still an asshole

10. i havent even READ the broken code yet, but i like to think that when ashfur possesses brambleclaw, he changes like......a lot. his eyes change from amber to blue, and he definitely looks more like a ghost than a real.....cat. the tabby stripes on his pelt change into spots/flecks (similar to ashfur's darker flecks of fur), and occasionally little specks of ash will fall off of him, or if he shakes he'll spray bits of ash everywhere. just a little nod to him actually being ashfur, i suppose

and those are all the things i can think of! feel free to reblog this/reply to this and add more!

[averytiredghost]

Leafpool and Crowfeather :]  what a fuken mess

there's nothing much to say about Crow, his importance to me starts and ends with him being the father of the three, so i'll keep it nice and short for him, from the wiki:

Crowfeather is a dark, smoky-grey, almost black tom with blue eyes.

1.Marks

I kept pretty much everything (not that there's much) and just added a few stripes on his back cause i love the Erins, i really do, but how are these two gonna have three kits, and have only one kinda resemble the parents?? Jayfeather's grey comes out of nowhere that's mostly what bothers me, so i gave Crow a few lighter marking - he has a lighter tail tip, eyebrows, and nose. I also gave him some tabby stripes on his back.  

2.Build

I imagine Windclan cats to be muscular, but skinny and mostly with short fur. if i really wanted to be realistic I'd go as far as to make most of them beige, or with light orange-y colours. we're not doing this tho, Heathertail is gonna be purple just wait.

I made Crowfeather skinny and tall. some of his design (his face shape + his big ears) are inspired by shorthair oriental cats. He has big shoulders, and strong, muscular paws, fit for running. His sharp face and dark colours make him look kinda mysterious, and if you're Leafpool, i guess you'd be into that.

For Leafpool i have more. From the wiki:

Leafpool is a small, lithe, pale brown tabby she-cat with amber eyes. She has a white chest and paws.

1. Marks.

Leafpool looks like more like sandstorm - the colour palettes are super similar and the tabby marks are soft and fluid. Leafpool inherits her mother's tuxedo gene - she has white cheeks, paws, belly, and inside part of tail.  

Her tabby patches are similar, but there's no dividing on her front paws and the patches on her hind legs are un-even. Her stripe color actually comes from her dad - i colour picked from Firestar's darkest red, made it a bit colder + lighter and that's where this comes from.

She also has her dad's eye makeup and lighter eyebrows! theres not much space for me to add any of Fire's design cos she is just a brown tabby, so im super excited for the small similarities she shares with him. I made her eyes yellow, like the wiki says, but i added quite a bit of green in there and gave her Sectoral Heterochromia. idk if its genetic, but her mom has it, so i thought it'd look cool and it doesn't really change anything so

2.Build

The wiki says she's small and lithe, that being said in my headcannon (and im pretty sure in the books too) Lionblaze and Hollyleaf are big so i just made her a normal sized cat. Leafpool is a medicine cat, so she received a minimal amount of fighting lessons and isn't vey muscular.  

She has her dad's small paws and her mom's sleek(ish) tail and ear tufts. I've drawn her in her younger years - before she carried the three - but if i were to draw her again I'd probably make her a little chubbier and hang her head a tad lower. I like to think that the cats that have these dust specks, as I'm gonna call them, kinda grey. Their spots get lighter as the time goes by.

[malkumtend]

Meeting.

Crowfeather X Squirrelflight AU. (Belongs to @lonely-ghost-606)

Soooo after the angst ridden fireball that was “His Blood”, I couldn’t resist adding a follow up to it. So here we are, a direct sequel to that one shot (which I would highly recommend reading before this one).

So in case you’re unaware: this follows the AU of my friend @lonely-ghost-606​ where Crow and Squirrel fell in love during the great journey, only to separate after Squirrel couldn’t find the heart to leave Leafpool after she was injured in the badger attack. They met up once again and have seen each other for many nights since then. But now secrets have been revealed and blood has been spilled.

It’s time for Crowfeather to meet his kits, face to face.

...

He waited with his heart in his mouth. Windclan wouldn’t believe their eyes if they could see him so visibly worried, pacing back and forth, his fur on end; this wasn’t the reserved, silent cat that ran through Windclan, the one who didn’t look like he would even be able to spell the word ‘smile’.

But, then again, he had ran away like his life depended on it when Onestar announced what had happened at Thunderclan camp.

He knew that Nightcloud would understand. He knew she was scared as well.

She just wasn’t as...ugh...sensitive as he was about his mate’s safety.

He’d have to make an excuse up to Onestar later, but that was at the back of his mind for now. All that he could feel now was just the unknown fear and horror that surrounded Thunderclan’s cats. 

Then again, it wasn’t so much Thunderclan he was worried about. Only four cats.

The air around the border was cold and dark, only rippling on the hazing fear crawling across Crowfeather’s back. Inside his mind, burning, scorching destruction exploded, screaming possibilities that made his stomach churn and rise. He screwed his eyes shut, hissing to rake the images away, but they only rasped and boiled harder in the darkness.

He let out a low groan. He hadn’t felt this for moons, this fear and grief that he still didn’t entirely know was warranted, it had been on the first night he’d retraced his steps to this border that he’d had to suffer from that. But after, when hope and passion that he’d been stark off since he was young was finally returned to him, it all felt worth it.

But now, he wasn’t sure if he’d ever feel that again if what he feared came to spite him as true.

It wasn’t just that the one cat that he had ever been blessed to love could be dead. But, his children too. The children whose lives he’d been denied. The children where his sole moments of pride came from hearing about their growth from the mother able to share the lives that he had never seen.

Maybe would never see.

Again, Crowfeather wracked with soul crushing fear. His eyes searched through the darkness, along the unmarked tree trunks, and the thorns that mockingly lined the whispering mist. Anything for a sign. 

He wished he had the courage to race to Thunderclan camp and see for himself, confirm that he was truly terrified for no reason. But two things held him back: The knowledge that if he attempted it, he would only brew a maelstrom of anger and suspicion that could ruin so many lives. And the unimaginable dread that he could be right, and that so much of the quaint allowance of what he held precious could be gone.

Crowfeather didn’t have the heart for either.

He could only wait. It was one of their nights. And it was a night he hoped wouldn’t change everything he had longed for.

He had traced the line of the border so many times, and he would continue to do so until the sun rose if he needed to. He ignored the rain that rattled his fur and made him shiver under his light coat. In fact, he welcomed it. If the rain had put out the fire that he had heard was ravaging Thunderclan camp, he could maybe feel just a little easier. What a luxury. 

They had to be okay. He repeated that over and over again. They had to be. Thunderclan was many things, but their cats were well prepared. They must have found a safe area by now. And he knew she would never rest if she knew her, their, kits were in danger.

It felt strange for him to rely on such optimism. But she’d always had that effect on him. 

Almost as if rewarding his newfound hope, a new scent drifted along his whiskers. A scent he recognised.

His heart leapt, his eyes widening with astonishing reprieve. He actually smiled, true and bright, as he turned to where he knew she was approaching from. His mouth, wired by a mind too delirious with elation and affection he was too often denied, began to move before he could fathom what he was saying.

The glint of her emerald eyes made him blissfully hysterical.

“Thank Starclan, you’re okay! I was so worried! After Onestar told Windclan about the fire, I couldn’t just-”

More eyes blinked and burned in the shadows.

More scents lingered over his senses.

Crowfeather’s smile left him, bringing back the harsh line associated with himself.

She was at the front, not showing a twitch of the happiness that was meant to fill these nights. Her head was low, her tail dragged along the floor. Behind her, four sullen faces followed.

Crowfeather’s heart sank. He recognised them all.

One belonged to a tom that Crowfeather knew from his youth. A massive brown tom that looked so much smaller now than he size augmented. He also carried responsibilities Crowfeather felt he deserved more than any Windclan cat. 

Deputy and parent. Even though he wasn’t truly the latter.

Three he only saw on the rarest of occasions. He had never spoken to them, yet they were linked to him in ways that only the disapproving eyes of Starclan could see.

One as black as night, kept close to Bramblestar, unmissable hostility flashing in bright green eyes that were clearly reminiscent of her mother. Crowfeather gawked at how much she looked like him, from the wide shape of her ears to the short spikes of fur along her back.

Beside her, a light grey cat shimmered blue under the cool moonlight. His blue gaze sparkled, but was blankly angry, staring ahead but not seeing anything. He stood on refined legs and his body was sleek and streaming. Unmistakably Windclan by all accounts. If only he knew that.

And just behind Squirrelflight, a huge golden tom looked warily ahead at Crowfeather, his amber eyes glowing dimly, trembling. The thickness of his coat was clearly inherited from his mother, but now it looked flat and still, making him look so much weaker than he was.

Hollyleaf. Jayfeather. Lionblaze. 

Three cats. His kits. The cats he’d wanted to meet for so long.

From how they were looking at him, it seemed Crowfeather should have been careful what he wished for. 

His pelt prickled uncertainly, stiffening as he began to take in Squirrelflight's expression. He hated seeing her anything other than happy; now, she looked utterly heartbroken, for the both of them.

She dragged her gaze up to him, something revealing glinting inside them. The look of prey that had been caught. Crowfeather's head began to whirl.

They knew. All of them, even Brambleclaw...

Squirrelflight caught his realisation with a slow, dreading nod. She'd clearly been crying. She stopped a whisker away from him and Crowfeather could now see the raw emotions all around her.

For the first time, he could call himself their father and be recognised as it.

It suddenly felt like even the stars were burning their silver eyes on them.

"So this is the cat," Crowfeather broke away, turning to the icy voice that belonged to his daughter. She looked up and down slowly, seeming to grow more disgusted as she did so. "Doesn't look like much."

There was such bitterness in those few words that Crowfeather couldn't help but grimace.

"Hollyleaf." Lionblaze frowned, exhaustion draining the anger from his voice.

"What?" She demanded, lashing her tail.

"We're not here to start a fight." Jayfeather mewed, though his voice still carried a miserly unease. Lionblaze nodded, pointing his sister with a glare.

"I'm not the one who started it!" Hollyleaf growled, sending a much more venomous glare to her true parents.

Crowfeather couldn’t stop a snarl becoming caught in his throat as he saw Squirrelflight flinch, hiding her eyes from the hate their daughter was forcing on her. He sucked it back though, he needed to keep calm. So he just sat down, his tail waving patiently.

“It’s nice to finally meet you all.” He said, hoping it sounded as genuine as he meant it to, but the eeriness of the atmosphere was rendering him toneless. “Your mother told me so much about you.”

“Of course she did.” Hollyleaf grumbled, turning away as Brambleclaw whipped her back with his tail.

The brown deputy padded ahead, his amber eyes unreadable. “I assume you heard about the fire.”

“Yes.” Crowfeather nodded, still uneasy about his former friend. Last he’d heard, Brambleclaw was under the impression that the three were his, that thought still made Crowfeather’s stomach curl a little, so the fact he looked so... empty right now was extremely disconcerting. Unwittingly, Crowfeather felt his spine tense in case Brambleclaw had any ulterior motives here.

But as long as Squirrelflight was by his side, he didn’t think he had much to worry about.

“I’m glad to see you’re all okay.” Crowfeather mewed genuinely, using his tail to press gently against Squirrelflight’s pelt. “Were there any losses?”

At that, every cat suddenly turned grave; an unknown darkness louring over the Thunderclan pack.

“One.” Brambleclaw said, hollow, unnerved. “That’s really why we’re here.”

“Apart from the obvious reason.” Jayfeather snapped in with a mood that Crowfeather recognised greatly. Brambleclaw silenced him with a harsh look, then he sighed and began to speak. Explain.

Fire. Secrets. Threats. Death. Anger.

So much anger.

All the while, Crowfeather’s face darkened and his tail curled more and more protectively around his mate as he sensed the tears coming back into her eyes.

By the end, he felt so much. Anguish for his love. Fear and relief for his kits. Twisted appreciation for Brambleclaw. Unbelievable hatred for this Ashfur character! 

He’d wanted them to someday find out that he was their real father. But not like that! Not as if it meant that there lives would be lost because of it! A stupid guilt coiled into Crowfeather, a wish that he could have been there, that he could have been the one to protect them.

He was jealous. Jealous that Brambleclaw had the opportunity to act like the father he never had been.

But still, even though it stung him to be, he had to be grateful to the brown tom.

He had saved his kits. He had saved his mate. And he had kept their secret.

“How long have you known?” Crowfeather sighed.

Brambleclaw hissed softly through clenched teeth, his eyes were screwed shut like it hurt to think. “Since the night you found out they were yours as well.”

That long? Fox-dung. Crowfeather couldn’t help but be shocked. He looked up with real questioning; Brambleclaw knew that Crowfeather hated being the one in the dark. “Why?”

The Thunderclan deputy heaved his impressive figure with the indication that he weighed as heavy as a mountain. His eyes darted to the three cats beside him, all silent and tortured with thought, the he looked back at Crowfeather. Levelly, but challenging. “I didn’t want to lose them.”

Ah. That was right. They were still his to lose. Crowfeather wanted to feel sympathetic to the tom that had clearly loved these kits with all his very being. But he didn’t have the power or graciousness to do so. 

He only scowled at the ground, sour resentment making his tail lash. Feeling the familiar unfairness that he was and was not the father of these kits. The cruelness of reality and consequence biting him with the sting of loss that twisted him every day.

A sharp grunt came from Jayfeather. “You’re not the one who deserves to be upset! We’re the ones who’ve been lied to the most!”

Crowfeather’s gaze drew back up, his mouth opening. How had he..?

He felt Squirrelflight quiver, her face met her son’s desperately, stark with pain. “Jayfeather please, it’s not his fault! He never even knew you were his until you were apprentices!”

“He didn’t try to say anything after though!” Jayfeather snapped back.

“And we’re not his!” Hollyleaf cried, looking furious at the very thought. She took a deliberate step towards Brambleclaw, her tail lashing with satisfaction at the wounded look that crept across Crowfeather’s face. “He didn’t raise us. He may be the one that Squirrelflight made the mistake to betray her clan for, but he is not my father!”

She spoke with amazing clarity. Toxic assurance. Crowfeather tried to hide the way it made his heart ache. This was the first time he was meeting his only daughter, and she spoke to him like he was a rogue.

Worse still, he had enough sense to understand her. Why should she see him as her father when he was never there? He may not have known about them when they were kits, but he’d never made the effort once he had found out.

But how could he? How could he let his kits know that they went against the Warrior Code just by existing? He felt a spiting anger for the stars. It wasn’t fair. All he and Squirreflight had done was be in love, and the kits they’d had had grown into Warriors that Crowfeather would be proud of no matter what they did.

Squirrelflight had told him about the strength of Lionblaze, about the loyalty of Hollyleaf, about the skill of Jayfeather, his medicine cat son. Of course Crowfeather had a right to be proud! He couldn’t take away the pride of their clan by telling them that it was him that was their father instead of the strong Deputy.

At his side, Squirrelflight stiffened, fixing her daughter with a firm stare despite the tears running down her cheeks. “I have made many mistakes in my life, Hollyleaf. But being with Crowfeather is not one of them!” She moved closer to him, her ginger fur mixing with his grey. Crowfeather’s felt something swell inside him. “Being with him made me happy and it gave me you three, that will never be something that I regret.” There was an edge to her voice that Crowfeather only heard in rare times. Most of them had come in their earliest days, when they had hated each other before finding out how much they truly liked the other.

Hollyleaf’s face coiled with astonishment, then filling back with the bitterness and anger. “Don’t talk about us like you cared! If you did you would have revealed this long ago.”

“That is a mistake I made.” Squirrelflight nodded, her voice still firmer than before, but laced with sadness. “I should have told you myself but I was worried about how it would affect you.” Her green eyes slowly found Brambleclaw. “How it would affect all of you.”

Brambleclaw bristled with something unknown, turning away.

“How it would affect us?” Hollyleaf laughed with resentment. “We go against Starclan, because of you two!” She glared at Crowfeather now. “How could you do this to your clan? Why in Silverpelt would you do this?”

Anger began to twitch across Crowfeather’s whiskers again. Her words sounded so much like the doubts that had kept him unhappy for so long. “Do what? Fall in love? It’s not really something I had a choice in you know!”

“But why her?” She whirled on Squirrelflight, her anger now sounding much more pleading. “Why him?”

Crowfeather’s eyes narrowed. His tail joined with Squirrelflight’s. “She made me happy.” They wouldn’t accept that, Crowfeather knew, They couldn’t possibly understand how much that meant to Crowfeather. Hazily, Squirrelflight nodded to join Crowfeather’s answer.

Hollyleaf made a deep sound in her throat that seemed to be in-between a growl and a sob. “Why couldn’t you be happy and normal as well?”

Every cat cringed at her words. Crowfeather did it out of true, remarkable hurt. 

Normal. Was that what she thought he went against? Or was it what she thought she went against now she knew she was his?

Was that what he did to her in the few hours he was her parent?

Crowfeather knew that he shouldn’t, but he felt truly distraught at that prospect.

Squirrelflight looked dismayed as well. But it was clearly not something Hollyleaf hadn’t said to her before.

“Were you happy?”

They all looked Lionblaze’s way. Crowfeather just now realised how quiet the cat had been. His amber eyes were low and stinging with something, but at least he was actually looking at Crowfeather without complete hate. 

“What do you mean?”

Lionblaze looked to the side, fighting to keep a straight face. “Were you happy when you found out we were yours?”

Hollyleaf’s pelt prickled. “What in Starclan does that mat-”

“I wasn’t asking you!” Lionblaze snapped, there was such strength in the way he shouted, a fire igniting in his glare, that even Crowfeather flinched. Hollyleaf, true to form, snarled but she said no more. The golden cat huffed, turning back to Crowfeather. “Well?”

Had Crowfeather been happy?

“No. Because that meant that I’d never been there to see my own kits grow.” Crowfeather hoped he was exulting just how painful that was. Lionblaze’s face softened. “It meant that I’d missed the most important moments of your lives.” 

When he saw Squirrelflight sink down, guilt tainting her beautiful face, he purred against her to show that he never blamed her actions. “But when your mother told me about you three, that made me a little happier to know what amazing cats you’d all become.”

Crowfeather didn’t notice Jayfeather feeling everything off of him. Feeeling the truth. He didn’t see the young cat’s anger slowly fading as he saw all the moments his parents had shared, the genuine love they held for each other, and for their kits.

“She talked about us?” Lionblaze asked.

Crowfeather smiled, pressing his nose against her neck making her stifle a laugh. He ignored Brambleclaw looking away with a sigh. “Every time.”

Lionblaze glanced at Squirrelflight, and she shrugged with a small, sad smile. The golden tom scuffed the ground with his paw. “W-What did she say?”

Crowfeather actually found the effort to laugh slightly. “How long have you got?”

Jayfeather’s hard line across his mouth broadened, but his eyes were gentler. “Long enough.”

Crowfeather spoke about all he could, all the pleasant memories that Squirrelflight had felt and experienced and shared with him. Their first kills, Jayfeather’s experiences in the medicine den, their warriors ceremonies, all the Thunderclan cats who spoke so well of them. Then eventually Crowfeather was able to mention pride that he himself had experienced.

Lionblaze blushed when he was told that Heathertail had spoken so well of him.

Jayfeather softened when Crowfeather spoke of how Kestrelflight was amazed by the things the blind cat could do.

Hollyleaf didn’t react when she found out that many Windclan cats had admitted she was one of the forest’s strongest warriors.

For a while, the atmosphere seemed relaxed. Not enough to seem like they were truly a father and his kits talking, but well enough to match what Crowfeather had imagined this moment of meeting would be like.

Crowfeather felt something warm as Lionblaze began to loosen, the tuft of fur around his neck puffing a little as he looked back at Squirrelflight. Perhaps he was able to hear the clear joy that Squirrelflight felt when she’d told Crowfeather about them. Perhaps he could feel the yearning in Crowfeather’s voice and the true pride he radiated when he thought of them.

“Th-That’s a lot.” Lionblaze admitted when Crowfeather was finally finished. The large cat looked amusingly small when he was so quiet.

Squirrelflight let out a tender laugh. “There was a lot to tell.”

For a second, it seemed that Lionblaze was about to smile. But a wilt came over him as he looked to the ground. “But no to us.”

Crowfeather and Squirrelflight both felt his betrayal. They lowered their eyes.

“Why? Couldn’t you have at least mentioned it?”

“We couldn’t.” Crowfeather said coolly. He nudged for Squirrelflight to be quiet when he was sure she was going to take sole blame again. He wasn’t going to let that happen. They’d take this together. “We didn’t want to tell you in case certain cats found out.” He took a brief look at Brambleclaw that made the brown tom clench. “We didn’t expect they’d react well.”

“But what about us?” Lionblaze pleaded, his tone becoming firmer. 

Squirrelflight stepped forward, pressing her head against her eldest’s. Crowfeather was relieved that he didn’t pull away. “I didn’t want to take away the pride that Thunderclan gave you. You were all so happy to be accepted by the clan, I didn’t think it would do any good to tell you the truth.” Again, she looked gently to Brambleclaw. “And I didn’t want to hurt you.”

Brambleclaw lashed his tail in clear skepticism.

“Brambleclaw, I am sorry for what happened.” Squirrelfight padded over to her friend and Crowfeather swallowed down his stupid jealousy. He didn’t want to admit it, but Brambleclaw deserved credit. “I could never say anything against how you raised them. You have always been a wonderful father to them, and nothing could take that away.”

“It doesn’t change what happened though.” Brambleclaw said bitterly, but there was true hurt shaking in his eyes.

Squirrelflight nodded gravely, her ears folding back. “I know. Not telling you in the first place has always been one of my biggest regrets.” Brambleclaw didn’t respond, but it was clear that it wasn’t anger surrounding the cat, but deep pain. “And now that I know that you actually kept quiet even though I never told you, I’m beginning to see just how right I was to choose you to raise them.”

Crowfeather smiled even though every word she said sounded like a whip against his skin. But he suspected the truth did hurt like this. How could he argue? He’d spoken about how proud he was of the cats his kits had become. Brambleclaw had been an amazing parent to them. Neither he nor Squirrelflight could ever deny him that.

He just wished he had been given the chance to prove himself to them.

The deputy didn’t move a muscle, but it was clear that there was no more real anger surrounding him. Just pain. Pain that he knew these kits would never really be his own. A pain that Crowfeather felt as well. It was a paradox they shared, a tragedy they couldn’t escape. They had to deal with the fate that life had bestowed on them.

A piercing yowl broke the silence, making every cat draw away at the cold fury in its wake. Hollyleaf began to step back, shaking her head. “I can’t believe what I’m hearing.”

Squirrelflight began to tremble again, she took a step towards her daughter. “Hollyleaf-”

“So what?” The black molly shrieked, halting her mother in her terrified tracks. “What does it matter how you feel?” She glared back at Crowfeather, “Why should I care that you know so much about me? You’re not my father! Just some mongrel who was stupid enough to fall for this traitor!”   

Crowfeather didn’t reply. He was frightened it would reveal just how much her words hurt him.

Lionblaze frowned, clenching his teeth as he took a forceful pad towards Hollyleaf. “Would you calm down?”

Jayfeather braced himself.

“Don’t you tell me to calm down, you mouse-brain!” Hollyleaf yowled. A wind began to rush through the forest, making the rain sting as it hit the cat’s faces. “Have you gone mad? How can you sit there and act like this is okay?”

“I never said that-”

“Why should we sit here and listen to what these two talked about?” Hollyleaf didn’t let up, if anything her voice became louder. Her eyes blazed with green fire. “They’re nothing but a couple of selfish fox-hearts who betrayed everything we live by! They don’t deserve a second of our time!”

Squirrelflight’s eyes filled again with wet tears. Crowfeather frowned, his neck fur rising. “Hollyleaf, please listen-”

“No! You can shut up!” Hollyleaf advanced, swiping the air with unsheathed claws. They clearly weren’t meant to hit her, but Squirrelflight still jumped back like she’d been struck. She already looked like she was bleeding!

That was it! Crowfeather leapt over to the Thunderclan side of the border, placing himself between his mate and his daughter. He glared, knowing he wouldn’t dare hurt her, but promising he wouldn’t let her hurt Squirrelflight. Hollyleaf hissed at him meancingly.

“Enough of this. Whatever you think, your mother has only ever had your well-being in mind! She would never want to hurt you, surely you know that!”

“What would you know? You’ve never been there!”

Crowfeather’s lip curled, “I was there long before you were. I know your mother and she was only ever thinking of the best for you!”

Hollyleaf stiffened, turning away with a bitter growl and a swift swipe of her tail. “Then she never knew the best for us! If she did, she never would have seen you in the first place!”

Crowfeather growled deep in his throat, his tongue ready to strike again. Then he felt a light push on his side, Squirrelflight forcing herself ahead of him. “Crowfeather, calm down.” The urgency was back in his voice, a bite.

The Winclan tom stiffened with upset. Squirrelflight noticed this, sighing, and rubbing her tail along his pelt. She spoke up again, gentle and loving, “Please.”

A snarl of utter loathing forced them to look ahead. Hollyleaf’s fur was spiked with revulsion, she cast them another snapping glower. “I don’t have to see this! This was a waste of time!” She began to storm away.

Squirrelflight braced, her fur rising in despaired alarm. “Hollyleaf, please!”

“No!” Hollyleaf didn’t even look back.

The ginger molly began to tremble, tears spilling out of her eyes as she watched the icy back of her daughter slink away into the darkness. “Please just understand,” Squirrelflight cried, her voice rising in one last desperate mewl. “I did everything I did because I loved you, I still do and I always will!”

Hollyleaf looked back, green eyes fiery in the ebony shadow of the trees, but she didn’t stop leaving the cats. “If that’s what your love means, then I don’t want it!” She snapped her head away screaming into the trees. “That stray will never be my father!”

Squirrelflight let out a broken sob, stepping back as she felt the rejection course all over her. Crowfeather felt it too, burning his skin. There was no room for forgiveness in the ferocity of his daughter. She hated him, and Crowfeather knew she meant it with every strand of her fur.

Crowfeather’s throat was dry and he felt he had no words left. Not for this. A haze of consequence and blame sank around him, and he didn’t know if it would ever be lifted.

He’d been so happy to know he had a daughter. Now he wondered if he truly did, or ever would.

He knew that she never wanted him to be her father.

Movement twitched in the corner of Crowfeather’s eye and he saw Brambleclaw begin to follow Hollyleaf’s steps. “Where are you going?” Lionblaze questioned, his voice numbed by his sister’s reaction.

Brambleclaw stopped, looking back at the golden tom with a connection so deep that Crowfeather suddenly knew he could never match it. “I’ll talk to her about this. I’ll try to help her understand everything.” His voice lowered with a gentle tragedy. “Hopefully she’ll calm down if it’s me.”

Crowfeather bit his lip, focusing on the question on his mind. “Why?” Why would he want to help them? After all this. Why would he want to help the cat he once saw as his own realise she was another’s?

Brambleclaw’s muzzle contracted back, “I’m not doing it for you!” He snapped, bitterness on his fangs. “No matter what you say, I will always see them as mine!” He promised, staring right into Crowfeather’s glare. The grey tom didn’t hold back despite his knowledge that Brambleclaw could send him down with one paw. They both met each other with the strong mutual dislike.

Then Brambleclaw shifted his gaze to look at Squirrelflight. He mellowed. The ginger cat looked at her ‘mate’ with vulnerable wonder. “But, no matter what, they’ll always be hers as well.” He looked vulnerable too, breathing heavily, glancing back and forth between the cat he still loved and the cat he realised she loved instead. “She’s their mother, and I don’t want her, or any of you, to forget that.” He meowed, casting his once believed sons a desperate glance. A fatal resolution, perhaps his last request as a father.

“I’m not saying that what she did was the right thing.” Brambleclaw dipped his head with a small moan, it sounded like something that the cat should never make. “But I don’t believe for a second that she did anything that wasn’t out of love for you. You know she isn’t that kind of cat.”

When Squirrelflight found Brambleclaw’s gaze again, it was the most loving she had ever looked at him. Grateful, but aching.

The two young toms kept the deputy’s eyes a moment longer. Jayfeather looked away with a curled lip and Lionblaze stared painfully at the cat that was once his father.

Brambleclaw grit his teeth like a blizzard was stinging every atom in his bones, “She will always be your mother, and she will always love you.” Something seemed to bite his mind as his ears flicked back, “Please, don’t waste that.” He twisted to meet Squirrelflight, but his eyes were devoid of anything but emptiness. 

The ginger cat stood still, but the way she looked at him might as well have been her purring against him. “Thank you, Brambleclaw.”

“I don’t want you to thank me.” Brambleclaw said stonily, “Just make sure that these young cats do not get hurt in the future.”

Fire erupted in the Thunderclan molly’s eyes, “I never would.”

“I believe you.” If there was anything else he wanted to say, he didn’t say it, he stalked away, fading away as he went back to Thunderclan camp. Crowfeather almost felt guilty when he felt a twitch of relief that the cat was gone. He owed a debt to the cat, whether they wanted it or not.

“I’m going to make my way back as well.”

Those words might as well have been a kick to Crowfeather’s gut. 

Jayfeather stood still on his paws, glazed eyes unseeing but obvious with thought. His tail swung lazily from side to side, contemplating, but Crowfeather only felt the bite of dismissal again. Was he expected to take this from two of his kits before he could see them truly for a second time? The stars were truly cruel to him.

“Don’t be such a sad lump of fur. I’m not Hollyleaf!” Jayfeather snapped, this time straight at Crowfeather.

The Winclan cat looked up again, Jayfeather stared at him with an expression changing almost as quickly as Crowfeather’s emotions. Again, how did this cat seem to know so much?

His son’s grey fur laid flat and unnerved on his back, a soft sigh escaping him. “Don’t let your mind slip, I’m still angry with you both!” He clarified, his tail swiping the air like an unsheathed paw. “Neither of you had any right to lie to us for this long.”

Crowfeather groaned, “We weren’t trying to-”

“I don’t care. I’m still right.” There was such a short temperament yet a fiery certainty in his voice that Crowfeather couldn’t help but feel the slightest pride that his son had clearly taken after him.

Even if it was some of his worst qualities.

Jayfeather let his anger set, then it began to cool, his tail curling down on the floor. “But, I don’t hate you. I barely even know you after all.” 

It was hard to tell if that was a joke or a jab, so Crowfeather didn’t react.

Actually that wasn’t true. Crowfeather felt the smallest appreciation and vindication. He didn’t hate him. Why did that mean so much when it could hardly be considered a compliment? It was complicated and confusing. Of course it was. That was all Crowfeather’s life seemed to be.

So he did what he always did now. He accepted it. It was all he could do. These were all the product of his own choices and he had to take them in his stride.

“I’ll go back with you as well.” Lionblaze mewed, stepping beside his brother. Seeming to feel the dread creeping back into his parents, Lionblaze swiftly gave them a pointed look, his tail rising.

“I don’t hate you either!” He said quickly, a sheepish glow rising on his whiskers. “I-I think I understand why did what you did.”

Crowfeather knew he didn’t really. But it was enough when he saw the answer made Squirrelflight’s misery begin to construct into something wonderful again. A bloom rippling on her tear stained cheeks.

Then Crowfeather felt his stomach sink when Lionblaze’s gaze dropped again, now conflicted and strangely... guilty? “But I-I don’t want to lie to you.” The golden tom stepped towards Crowfeather, already a whisker above his father’s height, and the Winclan tom lowered a little more when he saw the lack of recognition, the frailty of true acceptance.

“I-I’m sorry but, Brambleclaw will always be my father. He’s the one who raised me.”

There it was. Now Crowfeather really began to feel it. Lionblaze’s words pounded in his ears, a torture that the cat clearly didn’t want to submit the older cat to. Be he was. Renunciation seared around Crowfeather, branding him with the reality that it was truly too late for that kind of relationship to blossom.

It was the same for Jayfeather as well as Crowfeather saw him nod slowly.

It burned like the stars above. The truth that Crowfeather suspected but had tried to avoid; why had he expected anything different? He had never been there. Be it his fault or not, it was a fact. Why should they reject Brambleclaw for a father that they would never really see?

He wanted to lash out, he wanted to blame them, but he couldn’t. Once again, it was a consequence of the life he’d taken. No one was to blame.

He just had to keep his head down, bite his lip, and take it. 

He felt Squirrelflight curl against his side, and hoped that would make it a little easier.

“I do want to see you again though.”

The burning stopped, if just a little. Crowfeather let true shock come over him as he found his son’s gaze again. The golden tom stood tall, lacking any resemblance of recognition, but still luminous with something else. Kindness? Pity? Forgiveness? Whatever it was, it made Crowfeather bask in something he, for once, knew was good.

“If that’s alright with you? Could we be able to speak again?” There wasn’t anything demanding in his voice, just hope. True interest. Friendliness. Lionblaze looked on patiently, eager, trusting.

Why was it this... this that made Crowfeather’s throat hurt instead of Hollyleaf’s hostile rejection?

Crowfeather took it in, the dismissal and the yearning. The opportunity he was still mercifully granted. His stomach felt like it had the day he had received his Warrior name, or the day he found out the cat he held so closely wanted the same things he did.

And now, his son wanted something from him, not what Crowfeather really wanted, but how could Crowfeather deny the rare hopes he was gifted.

“I’d like that.” Crowfeather said raggedly.

Lionblaze smiled. A real smile. Actual happiness. It was swarming. It only grew as Lionblaze slowly padded to his mother and didn’t hesitate to press his forehead against hers. “No matter what,” He purred, “You will always be my mother.”

It was contact that Crowfeather knew he’d never receive, but his heart still soared when the blazing, flaring relief twisted Squirrelflight’s face and made her cry. She rubbed her muzzle beside her son’s, afraid to break away as if it could mean she would come so close to losing him again.

But it was clear now. She would never lose Lionblaze. That was something.

Once Lionblaze had stepped back, still beaming with love, Jayfeather took the brief moment to press his forehead against his mother’s. Her shock was minimal compared to the cats around her. “There’s a lot we still need to talk about.” Jayfeather tried to sound hard, but the quaver was unmissable. His tail wrapped around her. “But... I’ll try if you will.”

Squirrelflight held her son close, crying still, promising she would.

Crowfeather would try as well, whatever chances he was given. Jayfeather didn’t say a word to him, which made Crowfeather’s pelt feel cold, but he accepted the small nod his son cast in his direction.

It was hard to tell what the nod held, but Crowfeather needed to be hopeful. It was all he had left.

“We’ll see you back at camp, okay.” Lionblaze mewed to his mother. He spoke gently, like he was still grasping onto her with his forepaws. 

She nodded, shining.

Lionblaze nudged Jayfeather to his side, then he sent one more look Crowfeather’s way. “See you later.” It wasn’t curt or unfaithful, it was a promise.

Crowfeather promised back, he swore on Deadfoot’s memory that he would never let go of the little he had. He never took his eyes away as his sons padded softly back to the clan they’d been raised in. Their true home...

Crowfeather swallowed. They were trying. He had to as well, even from the shallow end of the river. He was their father, he had to be proud of whatever choices they made. Respect the Warriors he would have been proud to call his own.

He didn’t know if that was possible.

His attention turned back to his mate, she watched her sons walk off as well. She was wiping away the tears from her eyes with her tail. Crowfeather remembered another duty he still had. One that he had made his own. Purring deep in his throat, he bent down to lick Squirrelflight’s cheek. “That face never suited you.” He joked tenderly.

She let out a ragged laugh, sinking into his touch. Her smile was sparkling. “Oh, don’t you start with that. I’ve seen you cry like a kit too many times.”

“That’s different. You’re made of stronger stuff than me.” Crowfeather began running his tongue along her head.

“Oh am I?” She giggled.

“How else could you have raised such wonderful cats?”

She must have caught the twitching loss in his tone as she pressed against him, rubbing her muzzle against his neck. “It’s going to be alright. You should have seen how they were looking at me hours ago.” He felt her grow still, relishing in their rare embrace. “They’ll understand soon. Brambleclaw will help.”

“I know.” Crowfeather said, his voice hollowing, but he never moved away from her. He didn’t have the will to hate the deputy anymore. “That’s because they’re his.” It was painful yet fulfilling to say it out loud. Relieving to accept the truth.

“They’re yours as well.” Squirrelflight lulled.

“No. You were the only one of us that was there, Squirrel.” Crowfeather accepted, his head sank away to smile down at her. Proud to call himself her mate. “They’re yours more than any cat’s.”

Squirrelflight stared up at him, sadness tainting her again. 

Crowfeather did what he could to calm her. “But that’s fine.” He mewed, then he pressed his head against hers playfully, “Because I’m still yours right?” He teased, rubbing her fur with his own.

Squirrelflight began to laugh, though it did almost sound like crying, she pulled her head away, green eyes glinting lovingly up at the cat she had chosen. Then her lips met his. And Crowfeather remembered why he had chosen the life he had. Why he didn’t regret a moment?

She broke away, smiling. “You shouldn’t ask questions you know the answer to, it’s not polite.”

“Was that a lesson you taught them as well?”

It was moments like this where they could forget the harshness of what surrounded them. Because for these brief moments, everything that went against them seemed to fall into a perfect balance with the many things that held them together.

It was why they could accept what would come. Be it bad or good, the beginning had been worth it all.

...

So that was that. A nice little mix of angst and fluff, I believe. I enjoyed writing it, I hope you all enjoyed reading it.

Please send some much deserved praise to @lonely-ghost-606! They created the ideas for this AU, I just helped flesh them out!

Thanks for reading!

[thunders-warcats-stuff]

Leafpool Headcanons

Canon stuff

I think she was supposed to take after her aunt, Princess, and that's really cool, but unless you remember Firestar's siblings, you have to wonder where her pattern came from. She's a pretty good medicine cat, the first I've ever seen as wanting to be a medicine cat even if she recanted in favor of her feelings.

That rule is stupid. Do medicine cats have to give up their parents and siblings and friends as well? Make that the rule and I get why breaking it is such a crime. Pull the whole "you must give up all earthly things" thing that they have monks and other similar religious leaders do and I'll believe for a second that she deserved a trial. We didn't see Yellowfang or Bluestar get one. We didn't see Raggedstar get one for enabling Brokenstar. What the fuck, Erins?!

I wish her relationship with Crowfeather was more fleshed out. We got more of her oogling Mothwing and pages upon pages about how pretty the golden she-cat was but Crowfeather might as well have been a one-night-stand that she got pregnant from.

Like Bluestar.

Which makes it a lot more hypocritical that Bluestar and Yellowfang were at that "trial."

Goodness, StarClan is driving me up the wall.

The Erins did such a good job of portraying Mothwing through Leafpool's eyes that I'm actually not surprised there's a Mothpool fandom. It actually makes sense here. Leafpool didn't wake up one day and say the RiverClan medicine cat was pretty, she thought that gal was smokin from the get go. All the favors they've exchanged throughout the books could be because Mothwing doesn't believe in StarClan, but it's also a really good indicator that they're in love.

Lesbian medicine cats, WOOHOO!

Let these cats have feelings, Erin!

I really wish she had advocated for Jayfeather. I wish he wasn't forced into the medicine den by "destiny" (fuck you, Spottedleaf. And StarClan's warped version of Yellowfang.) He could have helped her out with herbs or interpreted a message but he didn't have to be a full-time medicine cat. He fought her every step of the way and it showed every single book.

Also: naming your son after the father he's not supposed to know he has is a major fuckup. Leafy, my girl, what are you doing?!

Speaking of major fuckups, are we just going to floss over the fact that Hollyleaf tried to kill her relative(aunt-turned-mother)? Yeah,it was a sign of her breakdown after she found out The Secret but damn, the words that spilled outta Leafpool's mouth made me wanna scoop her up. She and Squirrelflight inherited Sandstorm's tongue, for sure, because they are extremely good liars when desperate.

I think all of Squirrelflight's Hope was stupid so that's what I've got to say on that.

AU stuff

I wish she and Squirrelflight had the same pelt. Maybe a reddish brown. That'd be cool.

I think she and Crowfeather would have been better off as friends built up over time. Maybe he could help her navigate a relationship with Mothwing, but they never showed any true indication of wanting to be with each other. Crowfeather was getting over a broken heart and Leafpool was happy to go with it. Could they be friends? Absolutely. But as lovers... Either let them run away together or let them figure out they're not good for each other.

My personal AUs have Leafpool as a character who orients herself around others. She encourages cats. She heals them. She gives great advice. But taking for herself is foreign to her when she's spent so much time in service to others as a medicine cat.

Don't get me wrong, she's not subservient. She's just as feisty as her sister and in one of my fics she stands up to Firestar when he goes too far trying to keep Squirrel and Bramble from figuring out the message StarClan sent Bramble. She's a messenger for StarClan and she takes that seriously. But maybe she's a bit too serious about that.

Sorreltail remains a friend of hers. Leafy delivers everyone's kits but she coos extra hard over Sorreltail's.

She helps Brightheart and Cloudtail figure out what's up with their relationship. Cloudtail isn't in love with Daisy, he's ecstatic at the chance to prove that outsiders can make it in ThunderClan. He was given a lot of shit in the books so of course he would attach his success to Daisy and her kits. It's not something Brightheart picks up on because the Clan has always rallied around her and treated her well. But Leafpool knows stories that her father won't tell anyone. Mostly about his childhood and how he didn't fit in. It helps every now and then.

The medicine cats are more like co-workers than anything else. They're doctors and religious interpreters, so of course they'll side with each other over their Clans and turn to each other for advice. But their mileage varies. Cinderpelt, Little loud, Mudfur, and Barkface had different relationships with each other than their apprentices. So on and so forth.

In all of my fics, the "medicine cats can't have kits" rule is challenged. It's either abolished earlier than the first book because Mothflight's issues no longer apply, or spread to encompass all relatives and abolished later on because it proves to be a strain on mental health.

Leafpool tells her parents that she's pregnant in all iterations of my fics. Some of them, Squirrel tells Bramble. Some of them, Squirrel doesn't know and really does find them in the forest. She always suspects in those but surely her sister would never!

[everybody-loves-purdy]

Another personal headcanon I have is that Jayfeather’s ability to sense the emotions of the cats around him was partially inherited from Leafpool, who had the ability to sense what Squirrelflight was feeling. With Leafpool’s ability being very limited, I’m wondering if StarClan heightened Jayfeather’s inherited senses to fit his role into the Power of Three prophecy. If this was just strictly hereditary, Jayfeather’s senses should be barely nonexistent (Crowfeather has no ‘powers’)

I really like this hc! It would definitely explain why Jayfeather is more op than the rest of the three lol. Then maybe after the battle he retained this ability a little bit although it’s not as strong as before because now it’s purely inherited?

[chemistfail]

Uhh warrior animatic animation ideas, if I stop being a depressed piece of shit

Triggered, Chase Atlantic- Ashfur being an angsty bitch baby

Cirice, Ghost- Ivypool in the dark forest making some MISTAKES

Broken Crown, Mumford and Sons- either brambleclaw and tigerstar or Crookedstar, Oakheart, and their shitty ass mom

Mom, Highly Suspect- Sol and his shitty ass mom

i wanna be your girlfriend, Girl in Red- Leafpool and Mothwing

Unfinished Business, White Lies- honestly idk. Everyone who died before they were ready? Maybe Spottedleaf and Fireheart/star, Crowfeather and Feathertail, Silverstream and Greystripe, Jayfeather and Fallen Leaves. Idk

Heir of Grief, the RichaadEB cover- Lionblaze. Idk. I like the idea of him grappling with the fact that he has lost so much, his mother and his sister and then the love of the family he thought he belonged to. From either side of his family, no matter how you look at it, he has inherited the pain and grief of those who came before him. The legacy of violence from his adoptive father, the violence of grief from his mentor, loss from his birth father, idk. Basically I wish more was done with him

[catsanonymous]

Leafpool’s Direct Family

This is a collection of my genetic headcanons for Leafpool’s direct family, complete with stock photos + notes which may be added to at any time.

I’ll be making multiple ones of these to be used as writing + art references, so feel free to use whatever you like or ask questions.

For detailed information on Firestar, Sandstorm, and Squirrelflight, check out their posts.

Firestar- sorrel somali mix

Sandstorm- fawn mackerel tabby domestic shorthair

Squirrelflight- sorrel somali mix

Leafpool- cinnamon mackerel tabby shorthair somali mix

(See detailed notes on Leafpool in my post on Firestar’s family)

Crowfeather- solid black Oriental shorthair mix

Crowfeather is basically a spitting image of his father, Deadfoot.  He’s described in the books as being dark gray, not black, but for the sake of realism I’ve decided he’s black but perhaps has a grayish undertone to his fur.  He’s also said to be small, but I personally believe he had a late growth spurt and is quite tall after the Great Journey.  His mother, Ashfoot, is a bit confusing to me because she’s described as being broad-headed, which is not at all how I would describe the oriental-type cat typical of WindClan.  Regardless, I’m just going to go with Crowfeather being a quintessential oriental. 

Lionblaze- cinnamon mackerel tabby somali / oriental longhair mix

Okay I’m sorry but this is NOT what Lionblaze looks like. See the bottom of this post for the TRUTH.

Hollyleaf- solid black oriental longhair mix

Hollyleaf doesn’t look much of anything like Leafpool, really, or any ThunderClan cat for that matter. She’s very tall and long-haired, so that helps, but I imagine Squirrelflight makes something up about her kittypet heritage to explain away her stranger looking children.  Note that, while she is a longhair, orientals are similar to somalis in that they aren’t nearly as longhaired as, say, a Persian, and are more accurately described as semi-longhair.  You can see that most of her fluffy is localized around her neck and tail.

Jayfeather- blue mackerel tabby oriental shorthair mix

Jayfeather doesn’t have heterochromia, obviously, so ignore the two different eyes, even though they’re beautiful.  Like Hollyleaf, Jayfeather very much looks like a WindClan cat.  He’s small and skinny and I’m sure some cats got a little bit suspicious.  I imagine that each of the Three has something A Little Strange about their appearance that marks them as Special, which for Jayfeather would be strange rune-like tabby markings (unlike the normal mackerel tabby pictured). 

So that’s all fine and good, except THE TRUTH is that Mothwing, a trans molly, is the one who sired Lionblaze, not Crowfeather.  Cats can carry kittens from two sires at once, so the physicality is no problem, and it also explains Lionblaze’s size, coloration, body type, and Tigerstar’s interest in him, since he’s now a direct Tiger descendant.

Mothwing- cinnamon mackerel tabby Tonkinese point Maine Coon mix

Note that this cat is not cinnamon, as I was not able to find a good image of what I imagine. This specimen’s body color is correct, but its points should be a darker golden reddish brown. Besides that, the body type is exactly how I imagine Mothwing, down to her tufted ears. 

Lionblaze- cinnamon mackerel tabby domestic longhair / somali mix

Now THIS is what Lionblaze looks like.  He’s absolutely huge, fluffy, and happens to look a lot like Tigerstar, which helps the case of being Brambleclaw’s son. He also looks a lot like Firestar in the face (unlike in this photo).  His special mark of the Three is that he’s gigantic, the largest cats in the Clans by the time he’s full-grown, which takes an unusually long time to happen.  By the time’s he’s two years old, he’s reached his full adult height of [insert tall cat height here] and weight of nearly twenty pounds. Also, he inherited Tigerstar’s huge front claws, so really he’s just extremely intimidating. He also has ear tufts like the rest of the Tiger lineage (unlike in picture).

Feel free to suggest anyone whose family you want analyzed!