#I have a few sketches for some ashstar au art

[nightly-ruse]

Overly complicated Ashstar Au: Part 1

(Spans over TNP, PO3, TBC. In this I don’t think OOTS would happen since the conflict is changed and AVOS would happen but in a shorter span of time, in like a super edition or short series)

Inspired a lot by @lockandkeyhyena ‘s au! Go check him out he’s making a animatic currently and it looks awesome for his ashstar au. Part 2 here!

Bramble becomes deputy of TC like in canon, he and Squirrel are mates but problems ofc are there bc he doesn’t like Ashfur and he’s her friend. But Squirrel doesn’t trust Hawkfrost and Bramble is being a little pissy boy about it, punishing her a lot. Very toxic already. (For technicality’s sake I’m saying he trained Whitepaw while Ash trained Birchpaw)

While Ash is now dating Hawk he does still have this attachment to Squirrel. And definitely hates seeing how Bramble treats her.

Hawkfrost crafts his plan to test his brother, either he kills Firestar or he betrays him and if he does then Ash is to leap from the bushes behind him and knock him out. What they get planned for was Brambleclaw attacking Hawkfrost. Caught in surprise he couldn’t roll out of the way of the stake going through his chest. Ashfur is horrified and leap out, but he has to act fast so he rescues Firestar who was coming back from receiving his life and told him that Bramble was working with Hawkfrost to kill him and become leader just like Tigerstar did! Fire is shocked but remembers Tigerclaw doing the same to Bluestar so long ago so he denounces Brambleclaw as deputy and makes Ashfur his deputy instead.

Squirrelflight is obviously horrified, she suspected Hawk of being untrustworthy but never her own mate. She breaks up with him and cries to Ash about it, who can’t help but love that he’s the one she turned to. Though ever beat of his heart reminds him of Hawkfrost. He felt this airy love and warmth with him. His hatred to Bramble is solidified even more. Now Brambleclaw is treated as a cat in their clan, not a clanmate but just there. And Ash makes sure to make his life even harder by giving him many unwanted chores, keeping him away from Squilf, and always making him do Dawn and Dusk patrols.

A bit after this and still reeling from the shock of her ex mate trying to kill her father she agrees to go with Leafpool, and immediately takes in the three for her. When she returns she never states who their sire is, some believing it’s most likely Brambleclaw and she just didn’t want to associate him with her kits. But Ash, looking at the small gray spotty tom with soft blue eyes can’t help but wonder what if their his? Immediately he feels unsure but keeps up the act of a uncle figure to them, helping out when Leaf isn’t there since she’s always so cold to him.

Squirrelflight asks her dad to make one of them apprenticed to Ashfur, a gesture by her to show she cares a lot about him helping her raise the kits (tho it’s purely platonic on her end). As such he gets Lionpaw, the overly ambitious, quick to act, and roaringly loud young cat just as his namesake. While he does try to be a good mentor Lionpaw is a handful and he gets real tired of the guy, sometimes being a bit too harsh though he tries to be nice. He does notice the toms fighting skill and learns that battle training is the best way to keep him interested.

Then he overhears it, walking back to drop off his squirrel and take a nap, he hears whispering form the healer den. Curious he gets closer and sneaks forward to hear. Inside Squilf and Leaf are talking in hushed voices about the three. “We should tell them Leaf it’s not right to keep them in the dark! Plus their almost warriors.” He hears in a anxious tone from Squilf though Leaf’s reply was sharper and clearly a no “Squirrel if anyone finds out who really fathered them I’ll lose everything, they’ll hate us don’t you know? Their whole world would break if they knew!”

He jumps back and drops off the squirrel, shaking the bristling down his spine and trying to stay cool. Too emotional he takes a walk instead, going down to the lake to think. Ash knows they aren’t his now. The little hope of a life after feels like it was shattered. All he can feel is the anger bc if he’s not the sire to them, then their Brambles. The cat who killed his mate here at the lake and hurt Squirrel. Sorry excuse of a mate for her at all when they were together. She chose him? Anger fuels him and he wants vengeance. He would make them feel the pain he did at losing everyone around him.

(For note, no Squirrel never “chose” Brambleclaw over him this is deluded thinking that she is his and any relation to him would be cheating. She didn’t and she is completely innocent just trapped in the crosshairs of two horrible nasty guys who like to control her)

He gets a flaming branch, one he found while checking camp after it was struck by lightning and brought it to a bramble bush near camp, where he tossed it to start the fire. He plays up being the deputy by helping everyone out, going in to ‘save’ the remaining cats who he knows are just Squirrel, the three, and Bramble.

There it is. The three trapped, Squirrel having trouble to push the branch to them. He helps but before they reach the other side he pushes it over, hanging them over the fire on this teetering branch, any moment able to catch on fire and crash them into the fiery flames below. Squirrel shrieks “What are you doing?!” And he just scoffs as he hold the branch steady. She can’t push him away or he’ll lose his grip and the branch will fall along with the three shaking cats she called her kits.

He screams his feelings out. He hated them. He hated her. But most of all he hated the blood that ran through them from their monstrous father. He’s about to lift his paw and let them plummet but Squirrel says the truth. They aren’t her kits. They aren’t Bramble’s most definitely. She took them in because their mother couldn’t. She raised them as her own but she wasn’t the one to kit them. The three are shocked, Ash is surprised. But he can’t let them die now. They don’t deserve that. They didn’t lie or share any blood with the cat who murdered his mate. And they just learned their mom wasn’t even their blood mother. He lets them over, Lionpaw saving Squirrel from a branch as they fled that tried to fall on her but they all make it out with few burns.

None of them speak of what happens as he crafts his plan to hurt the one who really deserved it, not some kits who were innocent of it all. He’s at the river, staring at its moonlit reflection. Memories of laying on his mates back as they floated on the waters surface (like otters), the bright eyes his frosty eyes look at him. He’s swirling his paws in the light when paws slam into his back, pushing him into its depths. He can’t breathe. The waters filling his lungs. But he wasn’t weak, pushing up he launches the cat off his back but they quickly bounce back to finish him off. They wrestle, the only discernible feature of his attacker being hostile glowing green eyes. He’s pinned as claws sink into his throat. He’s about to die. But he can’t yet. No matter how much he missed Hawk he couldn’t see him till he fulfilled what they couldn’t.

“I know who your parents are! I know who really kitted you!”

#long post btw #crazy ​ashstar au #yes I’m leaving this on a little cliff hanger u can’t stop me #ruse au’s #ashfur #hawkfrost #squirrelflight #leafpool #the rest gets even crazier trust me #while this is all a massive au in how much it changes I love it #I have a few sketches for some ashstar au art #ruse’s warrior cats #warrior cats au #power of three au #power of three