#tendrilkit story

[residents-of-the-darkforest]

Unexpected Reunion (short story)

Shallowfig’s chest heaved with panic, his mind whirled as his eyes tried desperately to find movement in the undergrowth around his den. Surely his kits couldn’t have gotten too far? He itched to run after them as soon as possible, but Racemekit was still inside, and he didn’t want to leave him alone. What should he do? Stay with his son or go after his three lost kits?

Making up his mind, he dragged branches of the nearest bushes to block the entrance, then darted away–or planned to, but just as he turned around, he saw his kits stumbling on their little legs toward him. He was more relieved than he had ever been, that was certain, but now what made him freeze was who had accompanied them. A face he had not seen since kithood, yet that had always occupied his brain.

Banshee didn’t say anything, apparently just as surprised to see Shallowfig. 

“Daaad! You ‘twigged the ent-ance!” Tendrilkit complained loudly, breaking the silence. Shallowfig wordlessly moved to pull the branches out of the way. 

“These are your kits?” Banshee asked. It was strange hearing her voice after so long, and so different from how Shallowfig long remembered it. He realized that the same could probably be said for Banshee when he answered. 

“Go inside,” Shallowfig told his kits, shooing them in with his tail. “Yes,” He said to Banshee, turning around to sit.

Banshee shuffled her paws. “They were pretty far from home.”

Shallowfig flattened his ears. Was Banshee accusing him of being a bad father? “They slipped away while I was distracted. I was looking for herbs.”

“Oh. Are you a medicine cat now?”

“No, one of my kits is sick,” Shallowfig replied, glancing sorrowfully at his den.

Banshee’s eyes rounded sympathetically. “Is it….bad?”

“I’ve asked everyone I know who works with the ill. They all say it’s benign, but he’s had–whatever it is that he has since before he opened his eyes.”

Banshee paused for a heartbeat, then padded forward. Shallowfig’s fur rose suspiciously, but he allowed Banshee to get close. She came to a stop beside Shallowfig, pressing her pelt comfortably against his. Shallowfig let out a long, heavy breath. “What does their mother say?”

“Nothing. Gone”

He felt Banshee stiffen against him. “I’m so sorry for your lo–”

“Not dead. We were never as close as mates should be. The kits, blessings as they are, were an accident. We decided to break things off before they were born. She would stay until they were weaned, then I’d take them in.”

“Oh..so you’re raising them by yourself?”

“The family offers help,” Shallowfig replied, feeling the rough aches in his shoulders. He wasn’t sure they would ever fully go away. He doubted it.

“Doesn’t seem like enough.”

“No, then again, kits always sneak out.”

Banshee nodded slowly. “Yeah. I slipped from my mother’s nose more than a few times. Of course, you already knew about that.” She smiled fumbly. 

Shallowfig suspected this would come up, still it caught him off guard and he was unable to think of a reply. 

“I even snuck out a lot more than I was supposed to, really. There wasn’t much of a point to it, though. It wasn’t like who I was running to meet waited for me anymore.”

Shallowfig felt mingled feelings of guilt and irritation. They were kits! Couldn’t Banshee let that go? At the same time, Shallowfig had never truly forgotten their friendship either, or the guilt he had held for abandoning it. 

“Yeah,” he chuckled tensely. “I never did apologize for that, did I?”

“I’m more interested in an explanation,” Banshee admitted, sounding awkward. “I just–want to know.”

“I get that,” Shallowfig responded. “My family found out where I was going. They would have found out sooner, but my nephews and nieces were helping me keep the secret. It was fine until they found out….” he trailed off. How should he tell Banshee about her mother?

“Found out?” Banshee prompted.

“They said that your mother was dangerous. That she was the one to…do you remember when I told you about my brother and sister? The ones with the scars?”

“That…! That can’t be right!” Banshee trembled. 

“You told me your mother’s name was Plague, right?”

Once again, Banshee stiffened. She was silent and still for so long that Shallowfig would have thought that she had died from shock if he couldn’t feel her breathing against him. “Dark stars,” she finally exclaimed. “I thought you just grew tired of me–I never would have thought!--I didn’t think you were afraid!”

“It was my brother’s fear more than mine,” Shallowfig explained, heart twitching at the memory. “He wasn’t okay when he heard about us. If we could meet, it meant she wasn’t too far away, and he was really scared. I couldn’t give your family a reason to want to stay as close as you did. I’m sorry.”

Banshee’s eyes met his, glistening with shock and misery and too many things to name. Then she laughed a heavy, beaten sound. “Look at me! Complaining about how we parted as kits when you just told me your own kit was sick. How pathetic!”

“Enough of that!” Shallowfig snapped, rising. 

Banshee smiled. “I see you’re still defensive of friends who speak badly about themselves.”

Shallowfig blinked, then sat back down. “I guess I am.”

Something seemed to cross Banshee’s mind. She rushed to her paws. “I overstayed my welcome,” she realized. “I should go.”

“No!” Shallowfig exclaimed before he could stop himself. “Uh–I mean. Yeah, you probably have a family to get back to, huh?”

Silence. “I don’t.”

“Oh. That’s goo–Uhm. Okay.”

Banshee smiled softly. “Be seeing you.”

“Yeah. Be seeing you.”

–

For a little bit, curled in his nest with his kits clambering on top of him, Shallowfig’s perpetual emptiness was a little lighter, a little more far away, like a rainstorm that had been looming over him had passed, distant enough now for his fur to avoid the rain, but close enough for the cold weather to bite his skin. 

He hadn’t expected to run into Banshee again, nor for their meeting to bring him such warmth. Sure, he had imagined their reunion quite a few times as a kit, and a few more as an apprentice, and, alright, once or twice as a warrior. But they had been kits then. Even if they could be friends now, which still didn’t feel all too likely, it wasn’t like they would be….

“I smell fish!” Tendrilkit’s high-pitched voice broke into his thoughts, and perhaps broke Shallowfig’s ear. 

“Don’t be silly,” Shallowfig yawned. “Come here, you got dirt all over your fur.” He held a squirming Tendrilkit between his paws and resisted the urge to rest his eyes, as he knew he would only fall asleep again. 

More awake now, a scent caught his nose. Fish? Was Tendrilkit right?

“Stay here,” He instructed the four little ones, before going to poke his head out of the den. A pile of minnows on the ground greeted him. Banshee stood just behind them, sharp-smelling herbs dripping from her jaws. She set them down. “I thought maybe you would like some help?”

The corners of Shallowfig’s lips curled upward. He nodded to the inside. “Come in!”

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

@elementaldeityoffood

--I like to think that the reason they both felt such strong feelings about their relationship, even in adulthood, is that when they were together, they felt like they could be themselves. Their greatest supporter was the other, they felt the best they could be when they were with each other. 

The exact memories may fade away (some stay), but that feeling stays with you, and with it’s gone, you only wish for it to come back.

--Shallowfig has four kits! One son (Racemekit [ra-seem]), and three she-cats. So far Tendrilkit is the only one I named.

--Shallowfig lives in a half-buried rock formation. His family suggested blocking the entrance with thorns, but he thought they were too dangerous for the kits. He adds them when they’re older.

#shallowfig #shallowkit #racemekit #tendrilkit #eye-out family #wc plague #wc banshee #wc banshee story #banshee story #shallowfig story #tendrilkit story #eye-out story #wc #wc dark tales #dark forest tales #dark tales #warriors #wc story #warriors story

[residents-of-the-darkforest]

Sisters (short story)

Banshee felt warmer than she had in moons. She blinked blearily, her sleepy state making her forget where she was, and she wondered why she felt small bodies pressed against her. Then it came rushing back, and she felt warmer than ever, gazing lovingly at the two kits curled against her, and at the two curled against her mate laying beside her.

Stars…her mate! The word gave her a rush, and she purred, shifting to be closer.

“Still no thorns? It’s like he’s begging to be invaded.”

She stiffened before she got there. There were voices outside! 

Quickly, she stood up and unsheathed her claws, standing over the kits. Shadows fell over the entrance. They were getting closer! 

A grey-and-black cat emerged. Banshee wasted no time, yowling, she leaped, shoving the unsuspecting cat to the ground. She bared her fangs, drool slipping down her chin.

The cat did something Banshee wasn’t expecting–she laughed. “Brother, you have the best guests!”

“Br….?”

“What’s going on?” Shallowfig gasped.The yowl had woken him up, and after pressing the kits against a hidden small alcove, he hurried to join Banshee’s side and fight with her. But as soon as he saw the apparent invader, he only raised a brow. “Funnelquail? What’s going on?”

Sensing that this wasn’t an attack, Banshee got off of the grey she-cat. Funnel…did she hear that before?

“You should probably announce yourself before you enter a sleeping cat’s home,” a second voice spoke up. A moment later another, light-and-dark brown she-cat came into view. She nodded at Banshee. “Who’s your bodyguard?”

Shallowfig rolled his eyes. “Hello, Funnelquail and Hemlockpine, please come into my den.”

It hit like a sharp stone. These were Shallowfig’s sisters!

Banshee’s fur bristled self-consciously. “I’m his–Uh…I’m his…m-mate.” 

The she-cats’ ears perked up. Banshee flinched back, preparing for an argument to break out. Shallowfig’s family being against their relationship was why Shallowfig and Banshee had ended their friendship as kits in the first place. She didn’t expect them to take kindly to them becoming mates.

“Can we come out now?” Tendrilkit called. Looking over, Banshee saw her peer from the stone wall she was hidden behind. Immediately, her eyes lit up, and she bounced across the den in a few, large bounces, her smile wide and open. “Aunties! Aunties! Aunties!”

“Kits! Kits! Kits!” Hemlockpine responded humorously. 

The other kits came scrambling after in a mini stampede, almost making Banshee trip on her paws. Hemlockpine rolled onto her back and allowed Tendrilkit and Pollenkit to lay atop her. 

Funnelquail was now laying, too, resting on her side and lifting her tail as Mylingkit hopped to reach it, while Racemekit had climbed into the space between her forepaws. She gazed at Banshee. “So, you finally found a she-cat to share these kits with, huh?” Her eyes became sharp. “You are staying with him, aren’t you?”

Banshee was taken aback. “O-Of course!” She stammered.

Funnelquail dipped her head, but didn’t seem satisfied. “Good. Because, well,” she chuckled, “you’ll know what will happen if you don’t.” Next to her, Hemlockpine drew a claw across her throat.

Banshee swallowed.

Shallowfig stepped forward, blocking their way. “That’s enough! Don’t joke about that. Banshee’s not Rosebee, she’s not gonna–” he stiffened. With him, Banshee realized what he had said. It was possible the sisters hadn’t realized who Banshee was, after all, they had been kits when Shallowfig and her played together, and she only glimpsed the sisters before. Now, there was no denying it. 

Clearly, by the narrowing of their eyes, Hemlockpine and Funnelquail noticed it too. 

“Ain’t that the she-cat you’re forbidden from seeing?” Hemlockpine asked.

Shallowfig shifted from one paw to the other. Then he straightened. “Forbidden from playing with when I was a kit.”

Funnelquail shrugged. “True.”

True? Was that it?

She smiled at Banshee, and it was starting to look more genuine. “So are you the new kitmama then?”

Banshee’s skin turned a bright red, and she was grateful for her grey coat that covered it up. She took a breath and faced them. “I’m Shallowfig’s mate now, and that means that these kits are as much mine to take care of as his. If you don’t like that then…then…stick it up your tails!”

The sisters looked at her, then at each other, then at their brother, then at last they burst out laughing. “I like this one!” Hemlockpine giggled at the same time as Funnelquail snortled “such sass!”

After a little, they stood up. “I’m not sure what the family will say,” Hemlockpine warned them, “and frankly I don’t really care. But until you’re ready to tell them, your secret is safe with us.”

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

--Writing bad because it’s meant to be more funny than serious and also I’m about to fall asleep.

But anyway the sisters! The three siblings are very close, so of course they had to make an appearance in a ShallowBanshee story.

--Redbee is the kits’ bio mother who gave full custody to Shallowfig. Due to her leaving, the sisters are protective of their brother and wary of Banshee.

@elementaldeityoffood

#wc banshee #shallowfig #bansheefig #shallowfig story #banshee story #wc banshee story #funnelquail #funnelquail story #hemlockpine #hemlockpine story #dark tales #dark forest tales #wc dark tales #tendrilkit #tendrilkit story #racemekit #racemekit story #poppykit #poppykit story #mylingkit #mylingkit story #eye-out family #eye-out story #eye-out family story

[residents-of-the-darkforest]

Dead Dream -- part 1: Enter The Wooden Teeth

Shallowfig came to a halt, flicking his tail to tell his family to do the same. Ahead of them was a dead blackberry bush with leaves as dark as its namesake. It was only that, a bush, yet the gaps in the branches lifted the fur along Shallowfig’s spine. He stared at the dark dapples, and a face stared right back. Whether it was from a trick of the lighting, or his mind playing tricks on him–as it had been ever since Plague tried to kill Hootpetal and Banshee–he couldn’t tell.

“What is this place?” Tendril asked from behind him. Shallowfig just barely avoided jumping.

He  took a breath and a step back, moving his mind to wonder how long they would have to wait, but before he exhaled, Bella-May poked her head out from between the thin branches. “You’re here!” she exclaimed excitedly. “Come in, come in!”

Shallowfig stepped back, motioning for Banshee and the kits to go through the normal rotting bush, and then followed at the tail. He had not visited his older kins’ home before, though they had visited him as a kit, and he was curious to know what so many of his family had made their homes to be, if it reflected something in Shallowfig–some indication of their blood relation, somehow. Did they both enjoy hanging vines?

But before he could look around, he found himself suffocating on fur. Legs squeezed around his neck. He panicked, struggling for a few seconds before Bella-May pulled back, and he realized, almost laughing at himself, that it was only his great-great-grandmother embracing him.

“I heard what happened,” she mewed sorrowfully, licking his ears. “If I had been there, I would have ripped that she-dung’s tail off and stuffed it down her throat.”

Banshee flinched. Shallowfig touched his tail to her side to calm her. 

“I….I have a favour to ask,” Shallowfig began.

“Myrtle  told me,” Bella-May responded as he searched for the right words. “You lot can stay here for as long as you need, darling.”

Shallowfig let his shoulders sag, soothed by her kind voice. He looked over his shoulder, at his kits. Racemekit, Tendrilkit, Poppykit, Mylingkit, and their younger half-siblings, Glasskit and Pagruskit. Cold ice slithered down his spine, gripping his bones and veins and causing his body to shake and heart to fall. He had come so close to losing them. Never again will that happen.

“They need to be trained,” Shallowfig explained. 

“I’m not much of a mentor,” Bella-May replied. Shallowfig understood that, she had been a loner. “But I won’t turn down time with the little kitties.” She blinked warmly at the kits, emitting a soft chuckle when Poppykit squealed when Glasskit bit her tail. 

“They don’t need to train to hunt or the ways of Clan life,” Shallowfig told her. The daily routines of the Clans were foreign to him as well. “They need to know how to protect themselves. They need to know how to….deal with attackers and dangers.” He didn’t want to say it out loud, for the sake of the kits’ and his own ears. He couldn’t say that he wanted his kits to be trained to be killers to keep them from being another victim of Plague, that he was willing to let them grow to be monsters, risking the lives of anyone or everyone they may hurt, so that they couldn’t be.

Thankfully, understanding flashed in Bella-May’s eyes. She smiled widely. Shallowfig tried not to focus on her glinting fangs. “I thought kits didn’t train until six cycles.”

“The four are half a moon from that,” Banshee spoke up, gathering their wrestling kits around her. “The two are two.”

Bella-May tilted her head far to the side. “My question appears to stand.”

“It doesn’t need to be intensive or harsh,” Shallowfig went on. “Preferably, it isn’t, not…at least…not while they’re so young.” He knew that to give them the best chances of survival, training had to push them further than any other cats could bear. Just not yet. They could be kits for a while yet.

“Some pouncing and sneaking lessons should do,” Bella-May thought. “We can make them games.” She swept her tail slowly, enticingly around. Racemekit took the bait and waggled his hips before leaping  for the ginger-tipped tail. Bella-May flicked it out of the way in a flash, grabbing Racemekit with sheathed paws, just before he could land, and pressed him to the ground to make chewing noises against his belly. Racemekit kicked out, squealing and giggling.

Shallowfig allowed himself a few heartbeats to watch and enjoy the moment. Then Pagruskit’s yawn brought him back. They had to rest. “Are you sure it’s not trouble?” he checked. “We could stay somewhere else–”

“Absolutely not,” Bella-May responded firmly. “You ought to stay here where great-ma can keep an eye on you.”

“Is it not too much–”

“Hush,” Bella-May cut him off, blocking his mouth with a paw while Racemekit growled and bit on the other. “Before your droning puts the little ones to sleep.”

“How many know we were coming?” Banshee asked nervously. She had a tendency to anxiety when she was around those she didn’t know. Shallowfig would have stayed with her family, but that was exactly who they were hiding from.

“Everyone,” Bella-May answered cheerfully. “And they’re so excited to meet y’all! Now come along, come along, let us show the nests we made for ya.”

Banshee took the lead once again, the kits following in a ragged line behind her. Shallowfig looked behind him, through the gaps in the bush. He no longer saw the eyes, yet the fear in him remained the same. He was seeing, too far to really see, his old den where his kits were born, where Banshee became his mate, where his mother nearly died. He was seeing himself as a fun-loving kit without a care in the world, and he knew, knew as well as he knew that the fur on his pelt was pale golden, that he was likely taking away that for his own kits. 

He turned his head back and padded after his family. Ahead, Tendrilkit sneezed a high-pitched sound, and Glasskit opened her little jaws in a massive, pink yawn. Shallowfig’s eyes pricked. They were so precious now, so perfect and innocent. Whatever happened in the future, whether or not by Plague’s doing–Dark Stars hope not, sending the kits to train the way that they would be was going to change them forever. Shallowfig could only hope that he was making the right choice, and that it was worth it.

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

@ambitiousauthor

@elementaldeityoffood 

#shallowfig #shallowfig story #wc banshee #wc banshee story #bella-may #bella-may story #eye-out family #eye-out thorns #dark tales #wc dark tales #dark forest tales #dead dream #warriors dead dream #glassriver #pagrusrose #tendrilkit #racemekit #poppykit #mylingkit

[residents-of-the-darkforest]

What Are Their Names? (short story)

“Hey! Break it up, you two!” Shallowfig ordered when he slipped back into his den, Banshee following just behind. The kits looked at him, then at Banshee, then their eyes lit up when they saw the food, and they scrambled to their stubby paws and raced after.

Immediately, Banshee was unnerved by the kits swarming around her legs. 

“Alright, alright, give her some space,” Shallowfig told his kits, sweeping them away with his tail. He took the minnows and set them on the ground a few pawsteps away, to give her room.

“And you got herbs!” one of them noticed, mouth and cheeks already messily stained with fish guts. “Do you smell ‘em, Racemekit?”

“Yeah,” Racemekit confirmed, sounding tired. His eyes were glazed and he chewed slowly and without vigor, contrasting his littermates, devouring the several minnows in ravenous gulps that had Shallowfig concerned that they would choke.

“You bringed them?” Tendrilkit asked Banshee. 

“Uh, yep!” Banshee confirmed. Shallowfig wondered if she had ever spoken to a kit before, and that thought made him wonder when the last time she spoke to anyone–passerbys not included–before. Was she still close with her mother? Shallowfig shook his head. Best not to think about that now.

“We would have first,” Tendrilkit went on moodily.

Shallowfig tilted his head. “Is that why you snuck out?” Did they want to get medicine for their brother? Shallowfig had thought they were simply doing what all kits do, ignoring what their parents’ told them and going on an adventure.

Tendrilkit huffed. “No! You was asleep and didn’t see us!”

Shallowfig hid his smile. “Well, we have the medicine now, so don’t do it again. Come here, Racemekit.”

Racemekit did so. He seemed doubtful as he looked down at the large bundle of herbs, but he took them anyway, as slowly as he did the food.

Shallowfig’s nerves crackled, as they always did when he thought about his son. Already, his sickness was making him more somber each day. It took everything in Shallowfig not to hold his son close every second. He knew Racemekit would not want to be treated any differently than his littermates, even if he might…..No. It was benign.

Shallowfig remembered suddenly that he had a guest–who was watching the kits with interest. Knowing he should speak, and wanting to get out of his own head, he spoke with a smile. “Guess I should introduce you to them, huh?” He nodded forward, to where Tendrilkit was nibbling on a small rib. “Fire-spirit there is Tendrilkit. She’s as much a pawful as you probably think, if not more.” He blinked at Racemekit. He wasn’t going to call him the sick one. “My son here is Racemekit.”

Banshee followed his gaze warmly. “I see you went with the plant names.”

“Yeah,” Shallowfig responded. He didn’t know why his cheeks were warm. He returned his attention back on the kits at the minnows, and instantly frowned. “Pollenkit is the one that will need a bath.”

“Is she the one that’s–”

“Rolling in fish guts? Yes.”

Banshee chuckled before pointing with her snout toward the final kit, who had dragged her share to the other side of the den as to not be disturbed by her rambunctious sisters. “And her?” 

“She doesn’t really live up to her name,” Shallowfig told her, heart filling with love for each and every one of his kits. Even if they were different from each other, they were all equally dear to his heart.

Then it sank in just what he named the final kit, and his mouth went dry. 

Banshee looked at him expectantly. 

“....Bansheekit.”

“Oh..”

Shallowfig tried to chuckle, but it came out like splintering wood. “I suppose I’ll have to rename that one if you decide to stick around, wouldn’t I?”

Banshee looked down.

“!...Not that you have to stick around if you don’t want to, but if you do–Uhm, I guess maybe just Banshkit? Or Sheekit? Or you know what, how about a different name altogether? I think Woodkit suits her–” His rambling cut off by a paw pressed on top of his own.

“It’s a great name,” Banshee told him, eyes glistening. “I should know. My mother called Myrtlewing a Samca–you know what? Maybe we shouldn’t go with that. I can’t imagine it means anything good. Maybe Mylingkit? Lwakit? Hupiakit?”

“Can’t say I know what any of those mean,” Shallowfig murmured.

“My mother had some interests in her group when she was alive. Probably why mine and Ursula’s names are so….different. But I–I can understand not wanting to have anything to do with her.”

Shallowfig pressed, ever distantly, against Banshee. “The names don’t have to relate to her. I can pick the names because I want to. They sound really good. Which one is your favourite?” It dawned on him that he was asking Banshee to name one of his kits, and by the looks of Banshee’s face, it dawned on her, too.

“I think I like the name….”

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

--Yep, leaving it on a cliffhanger because I can’t decide on a name!

@elementaldeityoffood

--Wasn’t planning on doing a follow-up, but gotta introduce the kits, right?

--I wonder what a Samca is

#wc banshee #shallowfig #bansheefig #eye-out family #wc oc #wc dark tales #dark tales #dark forest tales #shallowfig story #banshee story #eye-out story