#maybe pinestar also takes night

[epiphlyte]

silly little swap au ive been cooking up!!!

the main idea here is that pinestar takes tigerkit with him to twolegplace in order to raise him away from the clans so he doesnt destroy them, or whatever that prophecy was about (still think its strange that starclan would set up this child like that but whatever). tiger sneaks away one day but is attacked by fuzzypelt/paw (haven’t decided - if nobody remembers fuzzypelt is ravenpaw/dustpelt’s dad! although hes a morally good background character in canon). from there tiger takes up a scourge-like role, assembling cats in twolegplace in order to someday enact his revenge on the clans.

so essentially au tiger = canon tiny/scourge, au fuzzypelt = canon tigerpaw/claw. ^^!

[warrior-cats-rewritten]

leopardfoot thoughts or hcs? i’ve always thought she was underused, since she’s literally tigerstar’s mom

I think about her a lot. Preferably without That One Line from Pinestar's Choice. I like to think she's got huge lynx feet. I also like to think that Tigerstar misses her.

I personally think she passed during whatever horrible unseen event happened between Bluestar's Prophecy and Into The Wild. The thing that took Stormtail, Thrushpelt, Adderfang, Swiftbreeze, Fuzzypelt, Windflight, Stonepelt, and Robinwing. The biggest plausible theory is that this was a horrific Plague of Greencough, the very same that would kill the cat who tried to treat it: Featherwhisker.

I headcanon her as quite conservative. I want her to be angry with Pinestar for ditching her after a horrible pregnancy and birth. For never interacting with his children, not his tiny daughters who sniffle every breath and struggle to nurse and not their sweet little son who cries until he's cuddled to sleep every night.

Tigerstar was a kitten once. Though Tigerpaw learned brutality from Thistleclaw, but he learned Clan jingoism from his mama.

WCR!Leopardfoot is a hard codeist. Tiger Law did not exist by name yet. She was relatively nice towards Bluemoon and her friends sure, but that kindness would never extend towards outsiders. A busy woman with goals in mind- a strong, prideful family. Daughter of Adderfang and Swiftbreeze, both families without much reputation. She wanted to carve her place in Clan history. Pinestar's noble bloodline appealed to her.

She fell in love with Pinestar as a young warrior, and confessed to him without a hint of shame. She really caught him off guard! At first he thought she was telling him she was dying. Pinestar struggles with social cues and really struggled with things like romance. His mother told him love would find him... Was this what she meant? Should he reciprocate? He had only seen her as a clanmate, the same way he viewed everyone...

He agreed to become mates. He wanted it to be a more co-parenting thing rather than super lovey-dovey couple stuff, and while Leopardfoot was a tad disappointed, the thought pf being the leader's mate and having kits of a regal bloodline was too exciting!

Then, reality hits. She has given birth too early, and all 3 children are sickly and weak. Her son can barely raise his head. Featherwhisker is trying his best, Goosefeather seems to be NO help, and Pinestar's distant all of a sudden! Dude, what the hell!? What happened to 'let's have kits together'?!

She has a similar reaction to Dewy Leaf when he leaves. Sure. Leave. I'm telling our kids about what a coward you are, and how you'll ruin Thunderclan. Go ahead, leave me, I'll make you the devil in every story I tell our children, and I will make sure they're angels.

Nightkit dies 3 days later. She didn't wake up. Leopardfoot was losing hope. She has the heavily pregnant Rosetail watch her children, while she sneaks off to the Moonstone, begging Starclan. Take her. Spare her children. Please. She wasn't a good person but she believed that Starclan ruled over all, she was incredibly pious. If anyone could save her babies, it would be Starclan.

I can't tell you if Starclan answered. But Mistkit and Tigerkit grew strong afterwards, grew into Mistpaw and Tigerpaw, mentored by Dappletail and Thistleclaw. Thistleclaw was at Leopardfoot's personal request. She would have a perfect, strong son. Mistpaw was forming a really strong bond with Dappletail beforehand, and Sunstar was a softy for that sort of thing.

The day Tigerclaw became a warrior, Leopardfoot died. She fell asleep, and never woke up. I also cannot tell you what killed her. Her body just... Stopped. Maybe Starclan made good on their promise.

Maybe something else did.

Maybe it was all a sad coincidence. Tigerclaw loved his mother deeply, she had made him want a big family. Mistpaw, soon to be Mistfang, wasn't always super close with her mom, but thay didn't mean it didn't ache.

Leopardfoot did go to Starclan, as Starclan is biased and she technically didn't break any laws. She may later enter the Dark Forest to be with her son and daughter, or enter it after Pinestar joins, as he is able to claim a spot after a long, loud trial.

If she leaves, she is part of Tigerstar's Plans with the trainees, probably training Larkwing, providing a mother to the young girl that her mother refused to be.

In fact, I think that's where she is going.

[wc-confessions]

TPB is my favorite series like the basic ass mf I am but. BUT. It also contains one of my biggest personal pet peeves in all of Warrior Cats. Which is saying A Lot with how botched this series’s writing is is in places.

Nightpelt not getting his nine lives while Tigerstar does??? Make it make sense. Genuinely what the fuck Starclan. We know they knew exactly how Tiger would turn out but somehow decided that poor Nightpelt, who was just trying to guide his fractured and weak clan through Brokenstar’s wake, and through even more tragedy and misfortune afterwards, wasn’t worthy enough Apparently. What did Night even do for them to hold him in such contempt? Besides *checks notes* being middle-aged and having a chronic illness?

There’s the fact that Brokenstar was still alive and on his last life yeah, but so was Pinestar when he left Thunderclan and that didn’t seem to be an issue other than Sunstar only getting eight lives (which is still way better than no extra lives). Brokenstar also broke the Warrior Code seven ways to Sunday before being exiled so it feels weird for them to still have recognized his authority.

For a long time my headcanon was that Starclan didn’t *actually* give Tiger his nine lives, he lied about it when he became Shadowclan’s leader, and when Scourge killed him, it was his one single life ending in such a jarring and gory way that it just *looked like* he died nine times in a row. Even if it was kind of flimsy, it was still more acceptable than what canon said.

With what has been written since though, this headcanon falls apart pretty badly. First, Tiger’s destiny to be evil - even if there’s a strong argument to be made that it was a self-fulfilling prophecy by how adults like Pinestar, Goosefeather, Thistleclaw, etc acted around him or directly treated him as he came of age - has been known about from his birth to the point where they tried to get his own father to commit infanticide! Starclan has had plenty of time to communicate amongst themselves about it, let alone watch over what has been happening to all the living and recently-deceased cats.

Second, we see Tiger’s nine lives ceremony. While we only know the backstories and full motivations of a couple of these characters, there are at least nine named cats who support him being leader enough to grant him a life. Even though these lives are meant to symbolically help in areas he’s lacking, and could be read as just acting in the best interest of the living cats within the leadership decision already being made as opposed to meddling in it… why didn’t they offer Nightpelt the same chance? Why weren’t they like “here’s the areas you need to work on and the life lessons you need to learn, and we’ll respect the circumstances created by the living” to him, too?

The only answer that feels somewhat satisfactory to me is that Starclan isn’t a hivemind and that while many of the cats were cheering during Tiger’s ceremony, cats like Redtail and Goosefeather were in a corner somewhere bashing their heads against a metaphorical wall.

Content warning for US politics ahead.

This also relies on Starclan Tiger supporters to be the Warrior Cats equivalent of Trump voters. Maybe not all of them are bad people but they are at least very easily manipulated into the ideal image of making their nation “strong again,” and are emotionally pulled in by the idea of someone who isn’t going to take shit standing up for “normal people” who they perceive to be like themselves, and are willing to put a vocal bully with a history of opportunistic, shady, and malicious behavior in a seat of power to make that happen. I could see Badgerfang falling into this camp. We know he’s just a kid who was forced into combat too young and that he isn’t a dick but is a victim of circumstance and had his worldview colored by the adults around him. He could have a more optimistic view of Tiger as someone who isn’t going to take shit from another Brokenstar, while simultaneously having a blind patriotic streak because again he was just a child and doesn’t know better than to question the system even if it failed him (based on how he describes his own death as giving his life up for his clan). Someone like this could easily be sucked into wanting the “strong” leader over the one they perceive as “weak” even if the “weak” candidate is more qualified and responsible, or has a more appropriate personality for leadership. (Side tangent I wonder how much Starclan foresaw about how Tiger would die. “Beware small cats” is so… specific.)

Starclan isn’t just a handful of jingoistic Shadowclan cats (+ Pinestar), though. There still should have been enough vocal outcry to make it not seem so cut and dry with Nightstar/Tigerstar, with the information in canon that the reader does get.

I know I’m reading way too far into this silly series with its million plotholes and inconsistencies and retcons, but I just want some answers. Thank you if you endured my pet peeve Night/Tiger rant.

.

[bonefall]

Yeah the Shadowclan family tree is so messy, glad it’s been gutted

Some ideas and questions:

Maybe Finchflight is Lizardstripe’s father or brother, I’m not sure how to link him to Clawface.

With the Littlecloud thing, I don’t know why but Cloudpelt comes to mind. Maybe he had Newtspeck. With Littlecloud’s name it’s interesting honestly.

With marigoldkit and mintkit, Runningnose saying that Yellowfang wanted to do her sister a favor since Marigold is blind, saying how if she’s willing to kill her family, none of them are safe from her. Honestly maybe they try to have Yellowfang killed but she managed to escape.

However that could wrench the genepool so it would probably be better to swap NewtFrog to Poolcloud instead with Ash taken out. Foxheart and Wolfstep could have unknown unless you want to tie them to any of the older cats from Yellowfang’s secret.

How many kits would Fernshade and Wolfstep have aside from Ivytail?

Amberleaf seems pretty old if we’re going by Yellowfang’s secret. I think Ratscar and Snowbird are better as her grandkits from Appledapple. Honestly Battle torn Ratscar trying to help raise his little sister after their mom died makes me soft.

Depending on how old you want Darkflower, I think Darkflower would work fine as Crowtail’s daughter. Speaking of which, would any of Darkflower’s kits (Whitethroat, Wetfoot, Brownpaw, Cedarheart) have any descendants?

Finchflight could easily be Lizardstripe's father, that would work well. I could also make Finchflight into Clawface's mentor instead of Rowanberry's.

On that note, Rowanberry and Nutwhisker are probably going to end up being younger siblings of Yellowfang, by a few years. Yellow is going to be looking at 13 years of age in TPB, so it would work well if her siblings were just starting to think about retirement, around 8-ish

(i should make a guide to age in warriors, I have something like that in my drafts... but basically you're a senior warrior at 5, and the elder's den is for 10+)

(also while I'm mentioning age gaps, I'm trying to keep them in the general ballpark of 0 - 4 years; and NEVER between mentors and apprentices. Older than that and it's not romantic, but could just be surrogacy when I can't make the ends meet, such as with Pinestar and Leopardfoot.)

Toadnettlepool

Yeah... I'm really liking the idea of Littlecloud being named after Littlekit somehow. I'm leaning towards moving Newtspeck and Frogtail into the Toadnettlepool litter, and then deciding if Night/Claw or Fox/Wolf get shuffled to someone else.

On one hand, Clawface would have kits with Rowanberry, which would mean Toadnettlepool is going to be inexorably mixed with the Bright/Bracken descendants. That doesn't have to totally be a bad thing though; Tigerheart's litter with Dovewing is 4 clean generations removed at that point, which is plenty separated to have them re-enter the ShadowClan gene pool without being too gross.

On the other hand, I think it would be neat if Wolfstep and Foxheart were actually descendants of Houndstar, only because the names are cool. They could be the children of Mousewing and an unknown queen.

On this note, Wolfstep might either end up younger, or Fernshade might end up older, just to fix the age gap a bit. Leaning towards Fernshade being older because it would be a nice dynamic with Blackstar, considering the changes to their parents.

The Marigold/Mint Plot

Something about it doesn't feel like it clicks enough yet. The basic premise of Marigold being born blind works really well, but something about the details feels too... deniable. Runny is smarter than this.

I'm thinking that maybe Yellowfang was treating Marigold using some sort of red berry. Currants, cherries, razzberries, something, and Mint was coached into saying they were deathberries.

"That's ridiculous. No medicine cat keeps deathberries in their larder where small kits could get to them. I just use raspberries because Marigold won't take her medicine without a treat."

And THEN Runny accuses her of poisoning Marigold on purpose, acclimating her to taking berries with her medicine to poison her.

Does that work better? ...ignoring that cats can't taste sweetness. Maybe raspberries can be used as a sort of pill capsule, or a holder for a poultice.

Still working on it

Fernshade and Wolfstep's kittens

I considered having their kits be Whitewater and Ivytail like that Vicky statement, but ultimately decided I would like Whitewater to have been a senior warrior in TNP.

If there's another kit in the litter, it's probably Owlclaw. They're around the same age; I won't commit to it until my modern ShadowClan chart is complete though. Badgerfang, Owlclaw, and Ivytail makes for a good amount of kits for them.

Darkflower's descendants (and then i waffle about tangleburr)

Darkflower is definitely going to have descendants, the biggest question is going to be if Wetfoot stays in her litter or not.

There's a high chance that Cedarheart will be having kittens. Depending on how influential those kittens are, I might remove Wetfoot from her litter again to have more fresh blood.

I'm going back and forth on if Scorchfur is a son of Cedarheart, or Tangleburr. It would help fix the age gap between him and Snowbird if he was born during the TNP journey, but also, I'm not sure if I'd like for the xenophobe to be Tangleburr's child since she has a whole arc about rejecting the influence of Brokenstar.

So, if Scorch is the child of Cedar, I might move Wetfoot out of the litter (Giving him to Ashheart and Cinderfur) and make him older to be a viable mate for Tangle. Or even have Tangle invoke the Queen's Rights and have a sireless litter.

Boulder is also a good option, especially if I want to have an excuse to keep him alive and relevant, because I like him so much for some reason... Stumptail is also a possibility... WLW Tangleburr is also possible.

If Tangle isn't the mother of Scorchfur, she might have Pinenose and Weaselclaw, making her the grandmother of Slatefur and Puddleshine.

Ratscar and Snowbird

Yeah, it's shaping up that they're the children of Appledapple. I also do want this particular litter to also have a father, to have that father tragically die in the same battle and be buried together with Apple. It might be a fitting end and a good sendoff for Boulder, one of my background blorbos.

Amberleaf -> Boulder x Appledapple -> Ratscar & Snowbird

Plus, then I don't have to worry about surprise family, since Snowbird genetics are going to be so prolific.

I'm also very soft for the idea of big, battered, terrifying Ratscar raising his baby sister. Keeping it together through all the grief, eventually losing the whole forest together only about a year later. The sort of sibling relationship that really makes you understand why Snowbird still trusts him, even after training in Hell.

He'll be a great uncle to her early litters, too.

[writingathesisonthoseweirdcats]

LOG 4

Just coming back from Pine Starr’s den, and I think it will take a while for me to stop shaking.

In the admitted goal to know more about this little fucker’s den and why he basically never moved from it except to go to the Starr’s garden (and recently to the Appleby’s: I saw him frolicking with their cat Shawnty the other day), I went to his location around midnight.

Luckily, I didn’t make much noise. And the wind was blowing in my direction. Otherwise, when I stumbled upon a large clearing, with half a dozen bushes organized around a pile of rocks, and all... so many cats... all of them asleep in those bushes - seemingly by age groups, too! - except for one, back on me, staring at a gorse tunnel... If I were mad enough to believe those cats as smart as humans, I’d say it was a guard, dutifully looking out for invaders.

Anyway according to my GPS tracker, Pine Starr was in a den under all those big rocks. I thought it would be way too dangerous (not even mentionning data disrupting) to risk being seen or senced by those cats so I came back home and here I am writing my thing. Time to check the cameras, I didn’t have the time before I went.

*

Oh shit that was violent. I’m even more glad I didn’t wake any of Pine Starr’s friends. By the way that’s way too long to write let’s call him Pinestar it will be way more fluid to the hand.

Anyway one of the cams near the river has caught something in infrared at night - maybe they are nocturnal actually? - and boy was it something!

So to give you an idea - why do I even adress my notebook as “you” smh - we’ve got a small group of big, bulky, thick-furred cats, five of them, crossing the river at the beginning of the night. They are swimming quite well. The leader of the... pack (?) is a grey one. I’m pretty sure I already saw him, probably that one time when I erupted on all of those cats in Druid’s Hollow. They disappear out of the cam’s field. Two hours later they come back running, with two kittens in their jaws. Two of them cross the river and run away, the other three turn back to fight against five other cats I’ve never seen. The leader of this group? A big light-brown tabby - although it is difficult to say with the infrared filter and all, but this is top notch material baby and it says the little guy was brown.

So anyway the brown leader whacks the grey one on the head so hard it stuns him, and then when unstunned, the grey one just... drags the brown one in the river and bloody pushes him down until he drowns! At some point someone from the grey’s own group had to intervene, and boy was it weird to see. The brown came home standing on his own or almost so I assume he’s not too badly hurt.

Anyway I’ve got screenshots of all the ten guys plus the two kittens, I’m going to give them names but also use my facial recognition algorithm to profile them.

H41L-5T4R, that’s the name of that one riverside cam. Guess it’s time for Grey Leader to become Hail Star. Funny how Pine and him have seemingly the same “family name”, so to say.

As for the others... I was going to name Brown Leader Reed (for the reeds on the river) Drowner or something but then I realized he looked a lot like the kittens and renamed him Reed Feather. Wait no father. Oh well Reed Feather is kinda cute too. Let’s go with that.

Anyway I wonder what’s the deal with the kittens. Were they kidnapped? Why would wildcats kidnapp kittens?

Many questions for another day I guess.

[warriorsbutnotreally]

Adding to the drama

Shanty living longer than in canon (Maybe Pinestar does manage to save her this time), being worried sick for her son after her mate tells her ThunderClan took Tigerkit away.

She tries to fill the void in her heart by playing with neighbour kits and regularly visits Quince after her litter is born, her and Pinestar being aunt and uncle figures to Socks, Ruby and Tiny

Then one day she hears that Tiny is missing. Worried, she goes to look for him and arrives just to see Tigerpaw pinning him to the ground, claws out

She shields Tiny and then tries to talk to her son, tell him that she is his mother, how she missed him, how much she loves him, but Tigerpaw only hisses and rejects her

Thistleclaw almost attacks her, when Pine arrives at the scene and protects his mate. He also tries to talk to Tigerpaw, explain, what really happened the night he tried to take him away, but in vain. They leave, both rejected, with scared Tiny.

Neither of them ever see their son again in their lives.

They watch him with deep grief from the afterlife.

^^^^

THIS

Thistleclaw would def make sure they didn't get off without a couple scratches

And Bluefur stopping him and giving Pine and Shanty a chance to bring Tiny to safety and Thistleclaw calling that he'd kill them if they ever came back

And the heartbreak of Tigerpaw copying his mentor's sentiment and glaring at his parents so ruefully

[thistleclaws-hatred]

Chapter Three

Previous chapter         Next chapter Thistlepaw had found himself a nest in the far corner of the apprentices’ den. His sisters slept on the opposite side of the den, facing away from him. Thistlepaw felt alone. He wrapped his tail around his muzzle and drifted off to sleep.

When he opened his eyes again he found himself surrounded by darkness. A damp, musty smell filled his maw when he stood to his paws. Looking around he saw no cat anywhere. He was alone. This must be a nightmare. 

Thistlepaw took a few cautious steps forward, he wasn’t sure where he was going, but he knew he had to get out of this forest. He could hear no prey, no rushing water, no cats. Thistlepaw was terrified, tucking his tail between his legs as he continued to wander around this mysterious forest.

“This way young one,” a dark voice spoke behind him. The apprentice fluffed up his fur and spun around.

“Rushtooth!” Thistlepaw let his fur lay flat.

The brown tom dipped his head and beckoned for Thistlepaw to follow him through the dense undergrowth. Thistlepaw fell into step behind him, still unsure of where he was. “Where are we?”

Rushtooth didn’t answer. Instead, the older warrior began to run through the forest. Skillfully leaping over roots and bouncing off of protruding boulders, he left the ThunderClan apprentice behind him.

“H-hey wait up!” Thistlepaw called out after him. He shoved his fear away and ran after him, trying to follow Rushtooth’s exact path. Thistlepaw couldn’t match his speed and ended up tripping more than once over the intertwining obstacles that laid in his path.

In front of him, he could see Rushtooth sitting in an open clearing, patiently waiting for Thistlepaw to arrive. He blushed awkwardly when he finally made his way out of the undergrowth and looked at Rushtooth.

Rushtooth again said nothing and looked over at the two other cats that sat in the clearing. One was a large mottled ginger tom, his left eye was missing and Thistlepaw could see the trees behind him so clearly, it was as if the tom wasn’t even there. Next to him was a faded tortoiseshell she-cat, her eyes bore holes in Thistlepaw’s pelt. “One Eye and Mapleshade.” Rushtooth introduced the two to the apprentice.

“Thistlepaw,” the apprentice looked away as he spoke, his voice barely above a whisper.

“This is the one you brought to us? He looks more afraid than a mouse,” One Eye spat angrily at Rushtooth.

“Without any battle training, I witnessed this apprentice leap onto the back of a ShadowClan warrior. Zero hesitation,” Rushtooth defended Thistlepaw.

“No battle training?” Mapleshade was suddenly interested.

“None.”

“Then we will train him the correct way,” Mapleshade purred. The thick-furred she-cat walked over to Thistlepaw and wrapped her tail around his throat, tickling the skin under his chin.

“You guys will train me how to fight?” Thistlepaw asked, his ears perking.

“Of course young one,” One Eye smirked at him. “Mapleshade and Rushtooth, battle each other. I want the two of you to show Thistlepaw here how real warriors fight.”

Rushtooth took his position across the clearing from Mapleshade, eyeing the she-cat uneasily. Thistlepaw sat next to One Eye, watching the battle with interest. Rushtooth nodded at Mapleshade and the two warriors unsheathed their claws. Thistlepaw suddenly felt a pit of dread fill in his stomach.

Rushtooth launched himself at Mapleshade, knocking the she-cat into the dirt and locking his claws into her shoulder. Mapleshade turned her head and snarled, biting hard into his forepaw and yanking him forward. Rushtooth fell into the dirt but countered quickly by kicking out his hind legs. Mapleshade ducked under his kick and headbutted his chest.

Rushtooth went face-first into the ground and felt Mapleshade’s sharp claws slash across his spine. His blood splattered across the clearing. The tom reared up and caught Mapleshade’s head with his paw, sending her reeling. The she-cat turned to attack but was met with Rushtooth’s claws across her chest instead. 

If Rushtooth had been any closer, Mapleshade would’ve suffered a fatal injury. Thistlepaw thought to himself grimly. Mapleshade bent down and lashed out with a forepaw, catching Rushtooth’s front legs and knocking him forward once more. She leaped forward, jaws open and ready to crack the tom’s spine.

“Enough.” One Eye ordered.

“She almost killed him!” Thistlepaw gasped.

The two warriors split apart from each other, each one bleeding from different wounds. “We train like real warriors here.”

“Real warriors don’t need to kill to show their strength!” Thistlepaw countered, standing and glaring at One Eye.

“You’re a fool. Rushtooth, you brought us a coward,” Mapleshade spat, “Real warriors know when to kill and when to make your opponent bleed red into the dirt. Real warriors show no mercy. Loyalty can only get you so far if you want to protect your clan you can only do so properly with bloodshed.”

“You’re wrong! Cats who have already passed on cannot tell me my own loyalty!” Thistlepaw argued.

“You’re already blinded by your precious warrior code. But you’ve seen what true strength is now. You’ll come back, they always come back,” One Eye sneered, his voice low and slow.

Thistlepaw shook his head, “Never!”

------

Thistlepaw shot up, kicking Lionpaw awake as well.

“Thistlepaw?” Lionpaw wheezed.

“S-sorry Lionpaw. Bad dream,” the younger apprentice admitted, sitting up straight.

Lionpaw huffed but said nothing else as he drifted back to sleep. Thistlepaw looked through the cracks of the den, seeing the amber hue of the rising sun. Maybe I can go on a dawn patrol or something. Anything to get them out of my head. 

Thistlepaw carefully crept over his fellow apprentices out into the clearing. He could no longer see Snowfur and Bluefur at the entrance, but could see the rest of the camp starting to come to life. The apprentice was pleasantly surprised to see that Adderfang was already awake and sharing tongues with Nightfang.

Thistlepaw stood awkwardly outside of the apprentices’ den waiting to see if Adderfang would notice him. Luckily, Sunfall did instead. “Awake already?” the deputy asked.

The fluffy apprentice turned to face the ginger deputy, “I wanted to get a head start, get out before my sisters,” he lied.

Sunfall purred with amusement, “You’re a tenacious one, Adderfang sure does have his paws full.”

“I want to be the best warrior ThunderClan has ever seen. I just want to do my training the right way,” Thistlepaw said, flicking his tail with uncertainty. 

“Adderfang!” Sunfall called over the warrior, “Dawn patrol, me, you, and Thistlepaw.”

Adderfang said his good-byes to Nightfang and walked over to join the pair, “Sounds great. Thistlepaw still needs to see the east side of our territory. The Owl Tree and the thunderpath.”

“Perfect. We need to keep a close eye on our ShadowClan border anyway. Let’s head out,” Sunfall emphasized his comment about ShadowClan.

Thistlepaw walked side by side with Adderfang, trying to absorb every bit of information the older warrior was saying about the forest. His legs still felt tired and his back ached, almost as if he had been running the whole night. Sunfall added in his own comments here and there, mostly addressing ThunderClan’s advantages over the other clans.

The apprentice heard a twig snap and hissed, jumping behind Adderfang in fear. His mentor looked at him in surprise, “Are you alright?” he asked, concern flooding his voice.

Thistlepaw noticed the broken stick beside Sunfall, who was also looking at him with worry. “Uhm, I’m fine. Just a little more tired than I thought I was.”

Adderfang and Sunfall shared a look, but the deputy said nothing as he continued towards the ShadowClan border. “Once we get back to camp, I want you to rest for a bit, eat something and relax. Later in the day I’ll take you out for some hunting training.”

“Okay Adderfang, I’m sorry,” Thistlepaw felt a wave of embarrassment crash over him.

“I know you’re eager to become a warrior, but over-exerting yourself on your second day of your apprenticeship isn’t the way to do it,” Adderfang chastised. “I’ll train you to be the best warrior, don’t you worry.”

Thistlepaw fell silent beside his mentor. Alone with his thoughts he was brought back to the musty forest that had filled his dreams. Mapleshade’s snarling filled his ears and Rushtooth’s yowls of pain echoed around him.

Thistlepaw didn’t even notice that Sunfall was talking to him until he was yanked backward and an acidic smell filled his nose. “Thistlepaw! That’s the thunderpath, monsters run across it all hours of the day. A single monster could end your life in an instant!” Adderfang snarled impatiently.

Thistlepaw cowered when another monster raced in front of them. “Across the thunderpath is ShadowClan’s territory,” Sunfall continued. “We’ll remark the borders here and head home.”

“Cutting the patrol short?” Adderfang asked his deputy.

“Thistlepaw needs to go home.”

Thistlepaw felt hot and uncomfortable, his fur standing on end and his mind still racing, “I’ll just head back. Don’t skip out on your warrior duties because of me. I just need to sleep some more I think. I’m sorry for ruining this patrol.” Thistlepaw spoke up.

“You didn’t ruin the patrol Thistlepaw,” Adderfang corrected, “You just need to know your limits. In a few weeks you’ll be able to find your limits and push past them, but right now, you are incapable of doing that.”

The bushes next to the trio shook and out stepped Halftail and Thrushpelt. “Pinestar sent us out hunting,” Thrustpelt began, “We can finish this patrol though so Adderfang can take Thistlepaw back to camp.”

“You two need to hunt,” Sunfall said.

“We already did, our kills are buried a ways back. We can dig them up on our way back,” Halftail explained. The tom nudged Thistlepaw back into the woods, “Now send this apprentice back to camp.”

------

Thistlepaw laid adjacent to the apprentice’s den. His stomach was growling but he refused himself any food for his incompetence today. Why isn’t Adderfang punishing me? He thought grimly.

“Thistlepaw, are you okay?” A familiar voice asked him. He looked up and met Snowfur’s bright blue eyes.

“I’m a mouse-brain,” he sighed.

“What’d you do?” The she-cat asked, sitting next to his slumped form.

“Almost walked directly out onto the thunderpath when Sunfall was explaining the dangers of it. I didn’t even hear him talking,” the apprentice mumbled.

“All new apprentices do mouse-brained things. You’ll learn,” Snowfur comforted. She laid down next to him, brushing her fur up against his. Thistlepaw looked at her again and folded his ears back.

“I think Adderfang is mad at me for it,” he confessed.

Snowfur hummed softly in response, lapping her tongue across Thistlepaw’s ruffled fur, “You think too much.” she meowed.

“I just want to be the best warrior. I’m already as big as some fully grown warriors. I’m even bigger than Smallear! I know I have to train, but I want to train correctly, not forcing myself to disobey tradition,” Thistlepaw cried out.

“What do you mean?”

Say a word, I dare you. One Eye’s voice sounded in the distance. You already know what we can do. 

“I just...I’m afraid of my...strength,” he lied.

“That’s understandable,” she responded. Thistlepaw looked surprised. “You’re a strong tom, already stronger than some warriors. I bet brute force to brute force you could beat Thrushpelt, you just lack the training to control your strength.” Snowfur said in between her grooming.

Thistlepaw’s stomach answered before he could speak. He blushed. “I uh, think I should probably eat something. Then Adderfang said he wanted to take me out for some hunting practice.”

Snowfur licked between his ears one last time, “That’s a good idea. I’ll talk to you later Thistlepaw. Keep your head up.” 

Thistlepaw tried to stifle a purr as he watched her walk away. In the distance, he could see Bluefur looking at him, a blank expression on her face. What’s her problem? He thought bitterly.

-----

“Keep your tail still. Mice will hear you before they see you and if your tail is swishing around it’ll let them know that you’re there,” Adderfang instructed.

Thistlepaw fell into his crouch again, focusing on stilling his tail and keeping his pawsteps light as he stalked forward. “Much better.”

Thistlepaw beamed at the praise and sat upright, stretching out his muscles again. “Your body will adjust, now let’s go see if you can apply that crouch.”

Thistlepaw and Adderfang headed away from the sandy hollow where they had been training. It had seemed like a lifetime before Thistlepaw had finally gotten his crouch down well enough for it to be put in use.

“Mouse, under that tree, to your left,” Adderfang whispered.

Thistlepaw perked his ears to pinpoint the mouse and could see its gray body sticking out among the dead leaves. He crouched low to the ground and took careful steps as he approached. About a fox-length from the mouse he bunched the muscles in his hind-legs and prepared to pounce. His timing was off however and when he leaped forward he missed the mouse by a whisker and it when scuttling into the forest.

“You’ll get it next time,” Adderfang said.

Next time do a scooping motion to scoop the mouse into the air, that will stun it so it can’t run away. Mapleshade’s familiar voice hissed in his ear. Thistlepaw shook her from his head and turned to follow Adderfang.

“There’s another one.” Adderfang pointed with his tail to a mouse hiding under some branches about four fox-lengths away.

Thistlepaw sucked in a breath and crouched low, silently stalking up on his prey. You will be mine! He thought to himself, getting ready to pounce. Against all better judgment, when he leaped forward he scooped the mouse into the air like Mapleshade told him and once it landed he swiftly killed it.

“Excellent! I didn’t teach you to scoop though,” Adderfang tilted his head.

“Um, instinct? I guess? I wanted to stun it before it could get away like the other one,” Thistlepaw defended.

I told you so. Mapleshade whispered.

Thistlepaw tried to ignore her gloating, but couldn’t deny the fact that her technique had gotten him his first kill. 

“I’m impressed. Keep using your instinct and you’ll be a warrior in no time,” Adderfang praised.

Thistlepaw smiled at his mentor and buried his prey, ready to hunt for more. “Gotta feed the clan.” He said to his mentor as he walked off into the woods.

----

Thistlepaw had managed to bring a mouse and a squirrel back to camp. While slightly disappointed with himself for missing two other pieces of fresh-kill (rabbits were a lot faster than he had thought), Adderfang had told him that for his first hunt, what he managed to catch was very impressive.

“First hunt?” Fuzzypelt asked the apprentice, who nodded eagerly in response. “That’s very impressive. Between you and me, I’d bring that squirrel to Weedwhisker, that’s his favorite type of fresh-kill.”

Adderfang took the mouse from Thistlepaw and nudged him off towards the elders’ den. Thistlepaw cautiously entered the warm den and saw the graying brown tom sitting off in the corner grooming himself. “Weedwhisker? I brought you a squirrel.”

The elder perked up and looked at the apprentice. Thistlepaw dropped the squirrel in front of him and smiled, “First hunt?” the elder asked.

“Yes, sir,” Thistlepaw meowed.

“Impressive,” Weedwhisker yawned. The elder said nothing else and after several heartbeats, Thistlepaw left the elders den to join his sisters.

“Thistlepaw!” Sweetpaw cried out happily, “How was your first hunt?”

“Caught a mouse and a squirrel, but a rabbit escaped me,” Thistlepaw answered honestly. He graciously bit into the mouse Sweetpaw offered him.

“Lucky, I only caught a sparrow on my first hunt yesterday,” Rosepaw muttered, shoving her brother off-balance.

“Yesterday? I only went on a partial tour yesterday!” Thistlepaw complained.

“Yeah, yesterday I was shown the ShadowClan border,” Sweetpaw interjected, “Those fox-hearts smell like death itself.”

“Today, Tawnyspots brought me to the RiverClan border. I don’t know how those fishfaces eat that stuff, the smell itself is more than enough for me!” Rosepaw laughed. “Bluefur came with us though. She’s super cool, said that she likes to patrol the RiverClan border since they can’t seem to stay off of sunningrocks.”

She’s not that cool. Thistlepaw thought angrily, “RiverClan hasn’t been near sunningrocks in moons though, at least that’s what I overheard Robinwing telling Leopardpaw,” he said.

Rosepaw shrugged, “I don’t know. We’ve only been apprentices for two days!”

[silverhawk]

blaines warrior cats human au masterpost

ok ok so i said i would do this and i will but i need everyone to know beforehand:

ok now that that disclaimer is out of the way - this is focusing on my warrior cats human au, which i’ve been building for literal years and making content for. this human au is looong and detailed and i wanna let ppl know beforehand that this has supernatural elements bc i can and bc it’s hard if it doesnt. anyhows, this will be going by time period and i’ll split it up by arcs/super editions, ok?? 

also note that the time periods are not set in stone, and some characters ages will be shifted around [not too much, just slightly.]

OKAY LETS DO IT!!

dawn of the clans era [maybe around the 1600s (yes u read that correctly)]

founders of the clans are born; the events of dotc are relatively the same, occupations/history of the founders aren’t known yet, but all were influential to their respective living areas

clear sky/skystar makes a deal with a demon to bring back his lover [storm]; this backfires, demon ends up killing clear sky, clear sky comes back as weird demon/human hybrid [this is important i promise]

he and starflower’s kits are demon-human hybrids; clear sky is known as the first demon/supernatural element of this era

everything else is as follows in the arc, thunder is human and unaffected by demonic powers like his half-siblings

the “great battle” or the first battle, whichever, is notable for being rumored as a “not all human fight” aka a bunch of ppl from the 1600′s fighting off demons?? oh yeah yeah

thunder was a demon hunter, know that

cloudstar’s journey/skyclan being kicked out arc [around early 1900′s]

[tw for cults here]

cloudstar is related to clear sky/skystar; he has a vague “sixth sense” due to having demonic heritage [which he wouldnt know about]

he’s sorta treated as the “town weirdo” in a way bc he can sense/see things others cant - noted as being able to see ghosts/things of that nature, although many dont believe him

the concept of skyclan takes place as a sort of cult, almost; cloudstar’s ability to see/sense ghosts was noted by some ppl, and skyclan sorta took form as an organization who believed him?

it was more like a small organization rallied around his beliefs; cloudstar is sorta of an unintentional leader here

the whole idea is that he’s one of the first ppl since the 1600′s in this area who actually notices that theres somethin up w/ this small town, something supernatural

cloudstar leaves one night, no word, no note, just ups and leaves; birdflight and their children never really know what happen to him

[this is important, i promise] other “members” of cloudstar’s cult/organization slowly begin to disappear as well, symbolizing skyclan’s dwindling numbers

no one knows what to make of it, it’s a noted odd occurrence/tragedy by others

birdflight’s children [gorseclaw, spottedpelt] dont have as strong of paranormal sensitivity/sixth sense; it’s a gene skipping thing, more on this later

goosefeather’s curse [around late 1930s-1940s]

not much to say here other than goosefeather is one of the only ppl outside of the skyclan line who has any sort of paranormal thing/sixth sense

unlike the clear sky line, however, goosefeather’s isnt brought on by demonic interference; it’s an isolated incident/maybe a family gene completely separate

his is extremely strong, however, and much like cloudstar he’s sorta treated as a weirdo in the town

he’s a mixture of being haunted by what he sees/accepting it; moonflower notes throughout her childhood that goosefeather would talk/play with ghosts, etc etc

goosefeather can sense demonic shit tho in a second; he’s more of a spiritual doctor in a human au rather than a medical one; his ‘job’ is really talking to ghosts and connecting them to their living family members [he’s basically the ghost whisperer] 

mapleshade’s vengeance era [around 1950′s] 

oakstar [pinestar’s father, tigerstar’s grandfather] has his first kids [birchface, frecklewish]

meets sweetbriar [pinestar’s mother] when his children are in their preteens; eventually divorces wife

accomplished, a-list actor, relatively well known; sweetbriar is a sweet british lady whose also getting her hands into acting

mapleshade is born from an undisclosed time period; just sorta shows up one day? she’s just sorta there and everyone is a little wary of her, but she does her thing and isnt a bother

her and appledusk have a relationship, as u can guess; it’s not forbidden, but he’s very obviously cheating/not a good dude

mapleshade’s kids [adopted here] do die like in canon; she’s still dies in an undisclosed way during this time period

she never had to lie about having a relationship with oakstar’s kid, birchface [who dies at this point], but oakstar is still very notable in maple’s life here...for undisclosed reasons ho ho

pinestar is born sometime after, they marry not long after he’s born

pinestar starts to show signs of having that ‘sixth sense’ ho ho

tallstar’s revenge era [around 1940s-1970s]

tallstar is born to sandgorse and palebird; sandgorse is a miner struggling after the great depressions effects, dies in cave in, palebird is left as a single mother to tallstar

tallstar takes up acting in order to help support his mother; his story is relatively normal so far

talltail meets sweetbriar, a kind british actor a few years his senior who knows he’s gay/helps him 

he’s a closeted gay actor in this time; he meets jake at a gay bar, they have a relationship, fall in love, all that good stuff

tallstar and jake eventually break up on good terms bc tallstar’s busy at work and jake wants to travel, to move across the country, etc;; they’er wonderful friends and still love each other, and promise that maybe one day they can meet again and be together

crookedstar’s promise era [around 1950s-1960s]

crookedstar is born, gets into his accident, all that good stuff

he’s born only a few years after mapleshade died; no one talks about her and she’s treated as a ghost story almost

however, as you can guess, lil crookedkit does end up meeting her....although she’s obviously a ghost [or so she says at first]

the story is the same; crookedpaw is lonely, he talks with mapleshade and considers her to be his only friend, and he never questions anything about her other than if she’s actually a ghost or not

he still makes that promise of his, but after he does so, the bad things/deaths in his life occur

strange shit starts happening, he starts actively researchin’ mapleshade to figure out WHAT  actually happened those years prior....and sorta figures out that maaayyybe shes not the friendly spirit he thought she was

confronts mapleshade after willowbreeze’s death, asks her WHAT she is, she reveals that nah dude she’s not a ghost, shes a demon

soooo crookedstar made a deal w/ a demon on accident, spends the rest of his life protecting himself against her/trying to like EDUCATE others on this, and is the first outside of the skyclan family line to realize that this little town they all live in sorta has some supernatural shit in it and isnt so small and peaceful

bluestar’s prophecy era [1950s-1960s]

[tw for infant death]

like crookedstar, her life is sorta the same?? not much needs to change here at all

her parents are in a loveless marriage, stormtail sorta disappears a lot and moonflower wishes to divorce, bluestar and snowfur are just sorta Hanging Around trying to make the best of it

the events in her life still happen; moonflower still dies, but stormtail allows sunfall/sunstar to take custody of the twins due to stormtail’s “grief” [he’s just not a fatherly dude thats the real reason]

bluestars life is basically the same regardless; she does lose people the same, the poor girl basically has a hard life ://

she does fall in love w/ oakheart, although it’s not forbidden; but bluefur wants a political career, she doesnt feel a strong maternal attachment and her post partum depression after losing mosskit [mosskit was probably stillborn here, or died from SIDS :(((], she gave oakheart full custody of them

it was a closed set of circumstances; bluefur said she didnt want contact, and oakheart just accepted that she probably just couldnt do it and wanted them to have a better life

bluestar’s later life [when firepaw comes around] becomes notable, though, because that’s when “the gene” or goosefeather’s circumstance starts to show up in bluestar

she’s a late bloomer and later in life becomes sensitive towards the sixth sense ho ho ho

pinestar’s choice era [1950s-1970s]

[sorry for the shift, but i promise theres a reason why this comes after]

so pinestar is born to oakstar and sweetbriar, two high-profile, A list actors; he’s born into fame, basically

nothing really notable happens in his life at first, aside from the fact that, as you can guess, he starts to show signs of that sixth sense that cloudstar had

like cloudstar, he’s sorta terrified of it; he chooses not to speak about it, but at the point of pinestar’s mid to late thirties his physical condition seems to get a little weaker from stress

now here’s where things get weird; so yeah, before i get into details, tigerstar is half demon. he’s not pinestar’s biological son through blood, lets just. lets just get that outta the way

you still w/ me?? ok so yes, he does look like pinestar [there’s demon gene technology there somewhere] but the idea is that leopardfoot did have a thing w/ one of the demons ‘following’ pinestar

you cant blame her; leopardfoot and pinestar were together, but their two daughters died in infancy and leopardfoot wanted a child; so her n this demon had a little thingy do [pinestar knew about it, he didnt really care bc he wanted leopardfoot to have a child]

of course, after tiger’s born tho, he’s half-demon. a cambion [that’s the proper term], and pinestar starts to crumble after realizing the repercussions of what he allowed to happen; leopardfoot defends tigerkit fiercely, but this is why pinestar leaves eventually - he genuinely is like “oh damn i made. i really made a mistake.”

and THAT weirdness is why that had to come last nkgfd

FINALLY the first arc era [1980s-1990s]:

still w/ me??? ok now:

so firepaw sorta comes here into this town; i imagine maybe his mother passed away, and he and princess went through foster care. firepaw gets a new foster mom in this town aaaanndd....ITS BLUESTAR [the shift between her not wanting kids/wanting kids is a little important to the whole prophecy plot]

basically, everything is sorta the same??? firepaw sorta is considered kinda runty at first, meets graystripe and ravenpaw, goes to school with them, jams out, all that

except instead of the whole “figuring out a murder” plot, it’s “figuring out a murder + figuring out the supernatural shit going on in this place”

fireheart sorta just feels like the only one who notices the weird shit going on here; graystripe and ravenpaw are just sorta here and they’re used to it, but fireheart swears this stuff is not normal, he knows normal, this aint normal

tigerclaw having killed redtail sorta goes onto the backburner; fireheart doesn’t have as personal of a relationship w/ him, but he does figure out that tigerclaw’s an ass and gets him ARRESTED

the deaths/births here are all the same btw

however, tigerclaw gets out of prison and starts acting....sorta more strange than usual, unbeknownst to fireheart, the sixth sense gene/the fact that tigerclaw is half-not human catches up to him and he starts to realize, in his own words, that he’s a LOT different and more powerful than just any ‘ole human

so basically, this is fireheart the human verses tigerclaw the shitty half-demon and hell yeah fireheart brings holy water everywhere with him [tigerclaw’s unaffected by that tho]

everything is the same as mentioned; however, “the pack” is actually a pack of werewolves??? u heard me. werewolves, not dogs

brightheart would have a minor form of lycanthropism , im sorry to reference it but imagine bill weasley from harry potter [im sorry thats the only way to really convey it i apologize]; she has some sort of werewolf instinct and gets aggressive during the full moon, but she’s not a full werewolf

so tigerstar dies, yada yada, and firestar THINKS that everything is done, exceeeppttt

yeah. the dark forest? that’s a buncha demons. and now that tigerstar is dead, his human half sorta just “sheds away” and now he’s a full fledged demon

FOR NOW THAT’S IT bc goddamn this is so long, i think u guys can kinda tell what will come next in the story; tigerstar is weak and needs human help to get stronger; people make deals w/ demons way too much; this little town they all live in is haunted and has werewolves and demons and vampires and ghosts and yeah

IF U HAVE ANY QUESTIONS feel free to ask, if anyone thinks this is nifty i’m honestly gonna be shocked

[houndleap]

Pinestar’s Choice | Chapter 1

“And this, young Pinepaw, is Twolegplace!” Mistpelt pointed with her tail to the tall wooden fence that ran along the edge of the trees.

i actually really like how this story begins with what seems to be in media res! i feel like most warriors books choose to begin with things at more of a lull, where things aren’t really happening; for example, off the top of my head i remember goosefeather’s story began with him just sitting around with his mother

[and speaking of him, i know he exists around this time so i’m sure we’ll see him in this novel too]

by contrast, we’re starting here with pinepaw being introduced to everything that’s going on, which i think is an excellent choice

I think they wanted to mark their border, just as we mark ours, but they’re too lazy to send out patrols. Just like any other Clan border, you must remember that we are not welcome on the other side.

i really like that mistpelt is theorising why humans do what they do. having the kitties make hypotheses about things we are familiar with, turned into an alien perspective, is always fun! 

i also think i remember hearing that the kittypets at this point of the timeline tended to be hostile and better at fighting, which i assume is what the warning here is alluding to

They didn’t seem as alarming as the kittypet because he knew they never left the hard black stone.

it’s really fucking funny to me that right now pinepaw is more frightened by the cat he saw glaring at him a little through a hole in the fence than cars that can and will run him over - and i’m pretty sure will cost him someone he really cares about later in the book, too

but that’s getting way ahead of myself! this boy hasn’t even started training yet

“Oakstar sent a patrol out here last night.

oh yeah i forgot oakstar was pinepaw’s dad

first of all i fucking hate this guy and i hope he knows this. second of all it really doesn’t make sense to me that oakstar is still alive, this implies that mapleshade’s whole story is like way sooner in the timeline than everything else made it out to be - but that’s not surprising, because i don’t think warriors has figured out a timeline properly once before in its life

case in point, i’m pretty sure jake shows up in this book. and as a result, i’m pretty sure, also throws tallstar’s book way out of wack

one day maybe the erins will get to sit down with each other and outline everything

The river! He had heard so much about it and tried so hard to picture it. He burst out of the ferns and stood on the shore. It’s like a watery Thunderpath, he thought, feeling slightly disappointed. From the way the elders talked about it, the river seemed like a terrible place, waiting to suck young cats under the surface. The fact that RiverClan warriors liked to swim just made them more sinister and terrifying.

i just think this part is really cute. pinepaw was so excited to see this horrible horror story place. truly this is just how kids are

“Of course he was,” rumbled Oakstar, coming to join them. His dark brown fur gleamed in the sun, and his eyes were warm as he gazed at Pinepaw. “My son is going to be the finest warrior this Clan has ever known!”

hey remember when you sent three children out to die with their mother for the crime of existing you monstrous bastard

erin hunter might not hold you accountable for your sins but I Will

“You must listen to everything Mistpelt tells you about training for battle. I want you to be ready to fight those mangy RiverClan cats!” Oakstar meowed. “They will not take another son from me!” 

Pinepaw watched his father’s eyes cloud with sorrow. He had never known his half brother Birchface; he just knew that Birchface had died in a battle with RiverClan.

since you have THIS continuity you better fucking have mention of him, again, Sending Out Three Children To Die 

Pinepaw took the opportunity to cuff his broad head, and the cat sank to his knees.

it’s kind of hard to envision a cat sinking to their knees... i’m not sure their legs even work that way

and that’s the end of the chapter! it was actually way longer than i was expecting - i was starting to wonder if this novella even had chapters or if i was just going to end up reading the whole thing in one go

i think i also had a lot to say which contributed 2 this long long post... but we r finally done