#patchnose au

[law-of-jaskier]

Patchnose AU part 3

Previous parts x  x

- Some time passes and the kitty cat society is doing pretty good besides the occasional dog on their territories or other casual stuff. Oakstar is beaming with support for the three apprentices, in fact, the whole clan is. Ravenwing too, although he’s been getting a little fidgety lately near Mapleshade in particular. Petalpaw sees this and acknowledges something might be wrong, but she doesn’t really know what exactly. 

- Larchpaw is now known in the clan as one of the fiercest apprentices there ever lived, as he’s done many honorable things for his clanmates well being, including chasing a few dogs off with nasty scars by himself, and solving a few border squabbles. He himself has earned a scar across his cheek, one that never really faded, but he’s proud of it. He says it’s the sign that he’ll be a good asset to the clan. His mentor couldn’t be more proud of him, and often says he’d already be a warrior by now, but Larchpaw keeps getting distracted during his warrior assesments, and fails them every time, thus his ceremony getting delayed.

- As for Patchpaw, he’s not really doing much. He’s just trying to live his life peacefully, not really caring about becoming a warrior too early, but at his own pace. This causes Larchpaw to sometimes lash out at him, but he hopes it’s just because of the stress. After all he knows how much Larchpaw tries to impress everyone, so it’s only natural he wants to be one already. Patchpaw has also been sitting around with Petalpaw for a while now, and Ravenwing often has to chase him away to actually let her learn stuff.

- Speaking of Ravenwing, he’s now had the dream about the reeds flooding camp or stuff. He connects the dots, but decides to confront Mapleshade about it first, before doing anything else he knows he might regret, as he cares for Petalpaw dearly as his apprentice. Only, in this case, Mapleshade doesn’t just straight up tell him yeah, they’re Appledusk’s, no, she actually tries to lie further. During this time she and Appledusk actually got into a fight on the border, where she almost managed to claw his eyes out, but was ultimately stopped by a Riverclan patrol approaching. So she doesn’t want to let the possibility of having a good life for that piece of rotting crow food. Ravenwing sort of wishes he could believe her, but seeing the anger in her eyes, isn’t so sure about this.

- The next time he and Petalpaw go to the Moonstone he tries to find Birchface himself and ask about it, only to be greeted by some other cat. Petalpaw on the other hand, is visited by none other, than Birchface himself. He wants to finally meet her, and, once she gets to know it’s her supposed dead father, she nuzzles close to him. The tom’s not surprised by this, he knows how her upbringing looked, even if it’s from another perspective. He also brings her the message to ‘ Beware, for the stream is more twisted than it looks.’ She doesn’t understand it, but wakes up before she can ask for any more guidance. She sees Ravenwing already left, and goes to meet him at the entrance to Moonstone. He seems irritated with something, but dismisses her questions, and orders her to start the journey back to camp alone. 

- Warriors are distressed when they see her entering alone, without her mentor. They think something must’ve happened to Ravenwing, and Oakstar joins in quickly, once hearing the commotion outside his den. Hearing her side of the story, Larchpaw chimes in, saying he’ll go himself and look for the medicine cat, only to be shushed by both Oakstar and Frecklewish, who don’t want anything to happen to any of their clanmates. This leaves Larchpaw angry, and Petalpaw swears she can almost hear her brother hissing under his breath. He goes out of the camp anyway, excusing himself to the sandy hollow. 

- Patchpaw runs after his brother to ensure nothing bad happens to him, of course getting Frecklewish’s approval first. When he catches up to the cat, a conversation happens.

“ Larchpaw, Oakstar is worried for your safety. What if something happens to you? It’s outside Thunderclan territory, and we don’t know what happened to Ravenwing. Please, let’s just go back to camp together and we can find a way-”

“ So what if Oakstar says so? He’s just an old cat.” Larchpaw growled, turning his head around to face his brother. “ It doesn’t even matter what he says. I know how to fight far better than him. I should be a warrior already, and leader after him.” His tail whipped in anticipation, but Patchpaw only looked on in horror, as he realised what that meant.

“ You can’t possibly think that. We’re his grandkits! Birchface was Oakstar’s son, he cares about you just as much as Petalpaw and me!”

“ Oh, hasn’t Starclan told you or her yet like they did to me?” The brown tom took a step towards Patchpaw, who suddenly felt very tense, and, irrationally, spiked the fur on his tail. Larchpaw noticed, and quickly stopped in his tracks to glance at his brother’s face. “ Birchface isn’t our father. Never was. “

- At this moment he’s cut off by Ravenwing suddenly showing up. The dark tom  heard what Larchpaw said, and is furious. He knew it was true, but never thought he’d hear it from one of the kits themselves. 

- Patchpaw tries to defend his brother, stating that he’s just jealous of not being let go to search for him, but Ravenwing pushes himself behind Patchpaw, standing in his way to Larchpaw. Note: Larchpaw is the biggest of the three and has some weird fur condition where it sticks like crazy, but also makes him seem even bigger. He’s already Raven’s height, and he’s younger than him. So, whereas Ravenwing seems scary to Patchpaw, he’s also much more terrified of how Larchpaw’s gaze darkens while looking at the medicine cat. He also sees his tail start switching slightly, as if getting ready to strike. This realisation charges him with enough energy, to run full speed into Ravenwing’s body, thus sweeping the tom off his feet, just as Larchpaw lunges into the spot where the cat just stood. The two apprentices tumble onto the ground, with Larchpaw spitting insults at the smaller cat. 

- Meanwhile Ravenwing runs straight to the camp, Patchpaw has given him enough time to escape and go get help, in case he didn’t manage to calm his brother down. What he didn’t think of though, was Larchpaw silently getting up, and chasing after the medicine cat. Now Patchpaw starts panicking, both cause of what his brother said, and of his actions. How would he dare attack a cat with such authority? Would he do the same to Petalpaw? Or worse, Oakstar? He tries following them to camp, but finds blood stains about halfway in. Running into the camp he finds Larchpaw standing in the centre, blood flowing from the gush on his shoulder, and Frecklewish separating him from Ravenwing, who’s laying on the ground in shock. He sees Petalpaw trying to comfort her mentor, but he only hisses at her to stay back. At this moment, Oakstar comes into the clearing and jumps to his usual clan gathering spot. With calm voice, he says

“Cats of Thunderclan. Today we’ve encountered a betrayal from one of our closest, most skilled companions. I’ve been told things I’ve never thought I’d hear, especially from a medicine cat. Larchpaw, from this day forward, you have no entrance on the Thunderclan territory. You’ve lost your privelleges as an apprentice the second you’ve decided to lay claws on Ravenwing. Leave, and never come back. As for you, Mapleshade” he turned his head to the shocked she-cat, who’s just walked to her son’s side “You’re welcome to join him for all the lies you’ve told your clanmates.”

[law-of-jaskier]

Patchnose AU part 2

First part here

- about a few more nights / weeks since the gathering Patchpaw notices his brother having troubles with sleep. He can’t figure it out by himself and decides to ask Petalpaw to give him some seeds that would maybe somehow ease his nervousness that has appeared because of this.

- Petalpaw is a smart girl and actually tells her brother that it’s not a good idea as something bad could happen. Ravenwing actually told her the consequences of using some of the herbs and/or seeds without much thought and she’s not going to make stupid mistakes now.

- Seeing her disagree kind of lets Patchpaw down but again, what did he expect? He’s not training to be a medicine cat like her, he wouldn’t know. So instead he turns to the next smartest cat (in his opinion) he knows, auntie Frecklewish. 

- Frecklewish is worried about Larchpaw just as much as he is but she knows it would probably pass with time. This leaves Patchpaw out of options, since he doesn’t want to worry their mother even more than she already is for them.

- Meanwhile, Larchpaw is getting hostile. Not directly to his clanmates of course, but there’s a slight change in his movements during dawn patrols both he and his brother are assigned to. His muscles seem to tense at every sound, be it a branch cracking under his paw or a rustle from the bushes. 

- He also has been growing much more curious about their border with Riverclan. He always wanders near the river, careful not to attract too much attention to himself though. One time when Petalpaw and Ravenwing are gathering the herbs she swears she can see his tail dissapearing between the trees, his scent following. 

- She excuses herself to her mentor and follows her brother, only to see him on the Thunderclan side of the border, with a fish between his paws, his fur wet,  and an angry Riverclan apprentice swimming in his direction. 

- Turns out that not only did he steal the prey, he also tried to brutally drag the Riverclan cat down in the water, almost drowning the poor cat. Larchpaw however explains himself to his sister, speaking about how he wanted to give the young cat a lesson, since they were already accused of stealing prey from not only Windclan, but Thunderclan as well in the past. 

- Petalpaw promises not to tell anyone, although she is sceptical about it all. But Larchpaw couldn’t do it on purpose, right? He’s a good cat. He’s her brother. Mapleshade would be sad if she found out about this, Oakstar too! They’re Birchface’s kits after all! 

- Ravenwing is told that Larchpaw fell into the river because of a slip. Riverclan apprentice takes the fish back to camp. Appledusk can feel Larchpaw’s scent on it.

[law-of-jaskier]

Patchnose AU part 1

Basically everything is the same to the point when Mapleshade gives birth to Patchkit, Larchkit and Petalkit. Don’t get me wrong, I do LOVE Mapleshade as this psycho villain that went crazy after her kits drowned, but I do kinda want to find out what would’ve happened if things didn’t escalate this quickly. 

- right after their birth, Frecklewish is all over momma Maple and her new kits, as she thinks Birchface is their father. Mapleshade has support of her whole clan, as well as Oakstar, who’s both Freckle and Birch’s father. 

- Ravenwing is still suspicious of the kits, as none of them really resemble Birchface in any way, but decides not to speak about it too soon. Mapleshade does notice the way he acts and often gets nervous when the medicine cat is nearby.

- After the kits meet Appledusk the first time, they are fascinated with the riverclan warrior, they see how big and powerful his paws are, the way he acts. What they don’t notice, is the loving look their mother gives him. He doesn’t really look at her though, and comes right back to his territory.

- Important fact: Ravenwing doesn’t get the dream about reeds until the three kits are apprentices. 

- Petalpaw gets Ravenwing as her mentor, as he doesn’t have an apprentice at this point of the story, and, in canon, he never did. It’s important for the clan to have a medicine cat, and Petalpaw seems to be perfect for that. He’s not entirely sure about this, but soon the she-cat shows him that she won’t give up that easily on the challenges this lifestyle gives.

- Larchpaw gets either Thrushtalon or Oakstar, both very experienced warriors, and he’s ecstatic about it. Despite being unable to jump as high as Birchface could, he still gives all he can to impress his mentor.

- Finally, Patchpaw gets aunty Frecklewish as his mentor. She always makes sure he’ll stay out of trouble, and sometimes does have a request or two from his mother. Patchpaw is also really excited to learn, although he does wish that their sister, Petalpaw, was with them like she was in the nursery. 

- About a moon into their training, when they’re taken to their first gathering. They meet Appledusk, who, this time, barely even looks at them. Larchpaw seems to be very dissapointed in this, as he always wanted to show him what he learned since their last meeting when he was a kit. Mapleshade’s here too, and she goes to discuss something with the riverclan cat. But her kits only see her being furious at him, and they can’t figure out why. 

Part 2