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residents-of-the-darkforest · 4 months

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Dark Forest Resident: Furzerose

Aliases / Nicknames: ??

Gender: she-cat

Sexuality: bisexual, demiromantic

Family: unnamed mother, unnamed father, Sweetkit (son)

Other Relations: unnamed mentor, Frostpaw (apprentice)

Clan: ShadowClan

Rank: warrior

Characteristics: tends to show dramatic facial expressions

Murder Motive: vengeance

Number of Victims: 2

Number of Murders: 1

Murder Method: leading into dangerous situations, dog

Known Victims: Frostpaw, Shrewfly

Victim Profile: the daughter of who she wanted to hurt, the warrior that took her kit from her

Cause of Death: blunt force trauma, head injury

Cautionary Tale: ??

Story:

While the prospect of becoming a mother came as quite the surprise, Furzerose came to love the kits that she would have. She spent days just thinking about them. What would they look like? How many would she have? Should she name them now or wait until she saw them?

For just a moon, they were her entire life. Feeling them in her belly became so normal. Much as she disliked the discomfort, she loved any reminder that her kits were right there! They would be coming so, so soon. She would be a mother!

She should have been a mother.

ThunderClan had invaded the camp. Most of the ShadowClan warriors were away on patrol. Furzerose had to help her Clanmates--she tried to be as careful as she could, but then a ThunderClan tom grabbed her, slammed her to the ground--

Her son was born dead. Her precious little one, her Sweetkit...There was no better name for him. He was her sweetheart, her baby, her little one...and he was stolen from her before they could ever even meet.

Furzerose was numb. She remained in the nursery for a couple moons longer while she processed her grief, before slowly being coaxed into the warriors' den.

Then one day, while picking a lizard from the fresh-kill pile, her jaw dropped and the reptile tumbled to the ground.

That warrior!

That warrior was being escorted in by a patrol. The warrior introduced himself as Shrewfly and pleaded to join the Clan, as one of the ShadowClan she-cats--one of Furzerose's supposed allies, mind you--was pregnant with his kits.

He was going to be a father.

Furzerose was going to have to see him every day, happy and carefree while he got to see his kit everday, while Furzerose's last memory of her son was a corpse.

She made her distaste known, making comments against Shrewfly's origins whenever she could, and refusing to help at all with his and that traitor's kit, Frostkit.

Truthfully, she didn't care all too much which Clan he came from. But he was the one that killed her Sweetkit. She wanted to make his life as uncomfortable and hard as she possibly could.

Then Frostpaw was apprenticed to her.

Furzerose could see later how it was clearly due to her strongly held opinions. Dawnstar likely wanted her to bond with Frostpaw so that maybe she would become softer towards her parents.

At the time, though, Furzerose saw it as a blessing from StarClan.

Her kit was stolen from that fox-heart, and now here she was, in complete control and power over his own kit.

She let her live for two moons. If she killed her right away, it would be suspicious. It was hard to contain herself. Every time she saw that vile little fox-kit, she was reminded of her son. When Frostpaw's tail flicked, Furzerose thought of Sweetkit's undeveloped nub. When Frostpaw bounced on her paws, Furzerose thought of how Sweetkit's were surrounded by worms. Away, in the dirt. Away from her.

But keeping her alive for two more moons meant two more moons of Shrewfly loving his daughter, spending time with her, growing his love of her...making it harder to get over her.

Frostpaw was nervous, but had complete confidence in her when Furzerose ordered her to fight the dog when it came charging towards them.

Frostpaw tried at first, then quickly turned-tail and climbed up the same tree that Furzerose was taking shelter in. Furzerose wasn't going to let her get away that easily!

She grabbed the apprentice and threw her down to that dog. But she lost her grip and Frostpaw pulled at her--they both tumbled to the ground.

Furzerose would land on her head. Everything would go black the moment she smacked against the uneven ground.

But the few seconds before, as she fell from the branch, she could hear the terrified and painful screeching of Frostpaw as the dog's jaws grabbed her from the air, and she fell smiling.

Additional Information:

--This takes place just before Cloudstar's Journey. The kits he had that he left with the Clans at the end would be older apprentices by the beginning of this story.

--Shrewfly didn't notice that she was pregnant because of the rush of battle. If he had, he never would have touched her.

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residents-of-the-darkforest · 3 months

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Shake (short story)

“Kits, little darling kits…” Brightsway sang sleepily. She hardly allowed herself a wink, afraid she would miss something important, but at last she had drifted away.

“Where’s Shallowkit?” Furzerose’s mew woke her with a start.

“Right here!” Brightsway told her as if the answer was obvious, beaming with a smile, but when she looked down at the three little bundles of joy, she saw that there were only two little bundles.

She jolted to her feet, almost knocking the napping kits over if they had been any closer. She looked around in a panic. “He was just here!” She wailed. “I was watching him, I promise.”

Furzerose’s eyes sparked with fear. She leaned and touched her chin lightly to Brightsway’s head. “I know, honey,” she responded, panic taught in her voice. “He can’t have gone far.”

It was only a few heartbeats. A few, agonizing heartbeats that burst little sharp pieces in Brightsway’s chest, so strong and overwhelming that she nearly vomited onto the curled-over ferns….The ferns….There!

Relief washed over Brightsway.

Little Shallowkit was wobbling around, hidden behind the leaves. She wasted no time in grabbing him by the scruff. So relieved and wanting to get him back to the others as soon as possible, she raised him quickly and spun around, racing to the nest.

“Brightsway, stop!” Furzerose’s yowl made her freeze in her tracks. Her mate’s eyes were wide in horror.

“What?” She asked, already shaking.

“He’s not…Is he breathing?”

Brightsway set their son down as quickly but cautiously as she could. She stared at his still form, throat tightening–

“What’s happening?” Sparktail asked. She and Doesong emerged from the undergrowth that kept their home hidden, Myrtlewing following behind–thank StarClan!--or, thank whoever that Myrtlewing was meant to give the kits a check-up today.

“He’s not breathing!” Brightsway cried. “I didn’t–I don’t think–Did I hurt him?” Her voice cracked. Did she hurt her son?

“Give me room,” Myrtlewing nudged the mothers away. He settled onto his stomach and inspected the kit, holding him with a paw. Immediately, he began compressions, pumping a paw expertly on the little one’s chest…he seemed so small…Was Myrtlewing hurting him? Brightsway expected his paw, so massive compared to the kit, to crush through his tiny ribs.

Forever seemed to pass, fur growing white and whiskers so stuff that they fell off.

Then…“He’s breathing,” he said, breaking the silence, and all four let out a breath they had each been holding. “Did you shake him?” he asked.

Brightsway wanted to sink into the ground, thinking about how eagerly she had grabbed him–swung him–ran with him in her jaws–She was such an idiot!

“Did you shake him?” he repeated, more firmly.

“I might have…” Brightsway’s voice was small.

Shallowkit coughed, a dribble of phlegm leaving his jaws. Myrtlewing ran his paw carefully along his little spine.

“What are you doing?” Doesong asked, a tremble in her voice.

“I need to make sure there’s no spinal injury,” he told her.

Spinal injury? I’m a monster! A terrible mother!

When Myrtlewing had finished, he turned Shallowkit’s head to one side. “His spine is intact, and it doesn’t look like he hit his head,” he observed aloud.

Sparktail couldn’t stop the whimper that escaped her lips. She curled tightly around the two other kits, holding them close.

Shallowkit began wailing, cries splitting the air.

“That’s a good thing, right?” Doesong asked hopefully.

Myrtlewing’s gaze remained focused on the kit. “Not necessarily,” he answered.

Doesong’s tail drooped.

Myrtlwing gently–as gently as Doesong had ever seen him–opened Shallowkit’s eyes with a steady toe.

“What are you doing now?” Furzerose looked over his shoulder.

“There’s no bleeding in the eyes,” was his response.

Brightsway squeaked. “Bleeding in the eyes?”

After what felt like an eternity, Myrtlewing rose into a seated position. He eyed the kit for a few more moments before Brightsway couldn’t stand the silence anymore. “Is he okay?”

“It’s hard to say.”

“Why?” Sparktail demanded.

“Because kits who are shaken suffer the most damage to the inside of their heads. I can only see so much.”

“What do we do?” Brightsway gasped.

“Support his airways and keep them clear as much as you can.” He looked over his shoulder, in the direction of his home, far from eye-sight. “I’ll tell my family that I’ll be staying around here for a while to keep an eye on him. And I’m sure Alderstar would want to do the same,” he added. Of course. Alderstar was the donor.

“Is there anything else we can do to help him? Anything at all?” Doesong wanted to be sure.

“I’ll have to discuss medications with Fleathistle,” he responded. “Other than that, if he seems to get worse at all, we may need to consider internal treatment.”

“What’s that?” Furzerose could hardly keep herself together enough to ask.

“I’ll need to fix him on the inside,” Myrtlewing responded. “I’ll have to open him up.”

“You will not!” Sparktail snarled, showing her fangs. “Don’t you dare!”

“Only if it is necessary,” Myrtlewing replied, undeterred.

“Have you done that before?” Brightsway asked. Tears stained her cheeks.

“Not on a kit,” Myrtlewing answered. “But yes, I have done it plenty of times in the past. Cats here are less susceptible to brutal injuries unless in the living world. I’m sure many of you remember those games of Hide-and-Seek.”

Doesong flattened her ears, face screwed up in distress, thinking of organs…her little one’s organs…

Myrtlewing decided not to tell them that he would most likely need to check Shallowkit’s head, an area that, unlike most of the other organs, was especially sensitive. “One final thing,” he spoke up. “Shallowkit has a high chance of surviving, but there’s also a high chance that certain effects will follow him.”

“For how long?” Furzerose whispered.

“Forever.”

Myrtlewing turned to leave, telling them that he would return soon after talking with Fleathistle, and then left.

The mothers could only stand incredibly still…then Shallowkit began to cry, soon joined by the others, who Sparktail began licking urgently.

Carefully, as carefully as she possibly could and with the slowness of a sleeping snail, Doesong picked up Shallowkit and carried him to his siblings. All she-cats curled tightly around them, except for Brightsway, who still hadn’t moved from her spot.

=================

--This is how I imagined the scene looked. Myrtle of course being Sarabi.

--In which Brightsway's idiocy truly hurts someone....Or maybe this would have happened to anyone, but surely Brightsway wouldn't think the same thing.

--He wobbled so far because, while still very young and small, the kits are in the 'crawl and explore' stage. He wasn't extremely far, but it was far enough for Bright to run for a short burst.

--I imagine that Shallowkit (yes, named after Shallowrun) survives! He'll need to be watched for a while, and he MIGHT need the 'cat surgery' thing that Myrtlewing was mentioned before to be an expert in (I'll let you decide that and maybe right a story for it).

--I was inspired to write this because I'm in a Child Development course in Psychology rn and I'm currently reading about things that could harm babies, so I wrote this inbetween studying. It just so happened that Brightsway recently had babies, so boom! Inspo.

--Myrtlewing's seen as a good guy for once (I also wanted to write him being an expert medicine cat).

--It's possible that Myrtlewing knew what to do here, in spite of this being a rare occurrence in Warriors and probably not studied much, because of Marigoldpaw and her litter being so weak and easily hurt.

--Problems that Shallowkit could potentially have include partial or total blindness, developmental delays, learning problems, or behavioural issues, and intellectual disability. Of course, these could all also happen by chance...but Brightsway can never be sure.

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