#to write the story of each cat that gives petalfang a life

[west-tokyo-incidents]

Firepelt/jaw(Orghullo) writing. Started as a word vomit. Ended up editing it and messing with it. Now it's a short story of his fucking LIFE.

Firepelt is a fighter. Ever since he was a kit, he always prides himself in his prowess and blood thirst. He is a powerful and strong warrior under both Whitestar and Shellstar. Son to a hardened father called Dogheart and a brazen, proud mother named Redfoot.

He manages to keep a very boisterous and happy attitude despite this, mostly due to his aunt Berrytail's gentle teasing and his father's dry humor in the face of turmoil. Still, he doesn't go easy when training his apprentices. He follows Shellstar's trials and sees them as tests to make the clan as strong as the Heart Oak.

He is certain his path lies in this violence and that one day he will go out in a blaze of glory and flying fur.

And then he finally meets Owleye and Spidergaze's mother. Once just Blossom, now Blossomsky; She's a beautiful seal-point cat with short fur, with many scars from her time in the city, fighting off intact males. She never crosses much with the big clan-born male. Not until he has to help patch a hole in the Nursery.

And she's so very soft spoken and kind.

He falls instantly.

She's a forever queen, looking after kits when their mothers can't and making sure the nests are all lined with the softest moss. She helps Berrytail and then Pinestep with deliveries.

And all of a sudden this rough and tough fighter is in and out of the nursery himself, helping her carry large loads of moss and patching the branches that protect the den, even reinforcing them with thorns.

They have a litter together, to absolutely no one's surprise. A big litter, of seven! The biggest Oakclan has seen in a long time. Pinestep reads this as a good omen from Starclan. Little Mousekit and Bearkit had also been born only a few days prior.

And then came the drought, and the fire. A fire that caught and refused to die down. Firepelt is on a patrol when it starts. It's someone else who smells the smoke, and it's Spidergaze who comes clawing through the underbrush, in an uncharacteristic panic.

The nursery caught fire.

Firepelt, ignoring everything else, ignoring the fire that catches his long, dense fur, throws himself into the burning den.

Pinestep is in a panic, blindly dashing between the little bodies and ordering his mates around. They take all of the bodies to safer, wetter ground by the rivers.

He drags them out, all of them. Their coats blackened and nearly unrecognizable. He burns his jaw on coals he assumes are yet another kit, but continues even so.

Only Petalkit, Mousekit, and Bearkit survive.

Firepelt is a mess, unable to speak through his bleeding mouth. But, he is crying all the same, even as he curls around the tiny Petalkit and Pinestep tries to treat his wound, he presses his face into Blossomsky's charred fur.

Volepelt, the old tom and father of the other two, is much the same, though less injured and thanking Firepelt over and over again for saving them.

Once it's clear he will not fully recover from his wounds, Shellstar--in a strange streak of kindness--calls for their ancestors, even the recently deceased, and renames Firepelt to Firejaw. To honor his courage to tear flames away from their kits with his bare teeth and offer him retirement into the elder's den.

He only agrees to take it... if he may still help in the Nursery and assist in his daughter's mentoring.

Obviously, he's allowed. Even though he's still technically in his 'prime', his wound keeps him from being able to deliver a proper bite to prey to kill it, and one of the apprentices' tasks is to shred meat off the bones for him to be able to eat. The apprentices don't tend to mind, because he'll tell them stories while they do. Oakpaw especially loves listening.

One day, he does pass. Peacefully. Beartooth suspects an infection that settled into tissue he couldn't feel in his mouth until it was too late. The cat who once thought he'd go out in a blaze of glory, dies in his sleep, surrounded by kits and family.

He does get to see Petalfang become Deputy, but doesn't live to see the dog attack that takes Shellstar's final life and leaves her as leader.

When Petalfang opens her eyes in Starclan to receive her nine lives, her family is waiting. Her mother and siblings she only remembered as smells and soft noises, and her father, his eyes full of happy, proud tears. He's honored to give her her first life as a leader. For courage to do what it takes, no matter the cost.

He chants her new name the loudest.