Frostfur & Snowkit AU (1/?)
The premise of this idea is that Frostfur and Goldenflower’s litters change. While I love the canon Frost+Lion family, this is purely a what if idea that I’d like to explore. Anyway, in this alternate timeline, Frostfur is still mates with Lionheart and she gives birth to four kits: Cinderkit, Brackenkit, Snowkit, and Mistlekit. While this happens, Goldenflower gives birth to three kittens instead of just one. Now, she is the mother of Swiftkit, Thornkit, and Brightkit. I chose to separate out this generation of cats to better distribute the amount of kittens in each litter, as well as hopefully fix the issue of Thornkit and Brightkit being apprenticed moons after their original littermates.Â
Additionally, I heavily disliked the notion of killing of Mistlekit and Snowkit as a means of pushing Speckletail out of the nursery. There is no reason why she would not be able to serve as the head of the queens until she passed herself. Speckletail’s knowledge and empathy toward queens and kits makes her invaluable at helping protect the clan’s most vulnerable. With her, or any highly experienced cat there (such as Ferncloud or Daisy in later arcs), I believe that the mortality rate for kits goes down exponentially.Â
In any case, making Snowkit and Mistlekit be Frostfur’s children makes more narrative sense. Snowkit being her child fits more than if he were the son of Speckletail, a pale golden tabby, and Smallear, who is solid gray. Fireheart is told that it is common for white furred cats with blue eyes to struggle with hearing. Frostfur is extremely lucky to not be deaf herself. With Frostfur as his mother, Snowkit receiving the genes to be born deaf is more narratively compelling. Frostfur knows that she is the exception to the rule and would not have wanted any of her kits to have to face the extra hurdles that being deaf or hard-of-hearing would present in clan life. Knowing that it was from her that Snowkit got his looks and that he would not be able to hear like she could would inevitably lead to a feeling of guilt and serve as a driving motivator in being extra protective of her litter. This would only be compounded on when Lionheart is killed in the first battle with ShadowClan, leaving her to raise the four with just the help of the queens. I imagine that Speckletail, much like in canon, would not allow her or the others in the nursery to give up on Snowkit easily and would likely encourage Frostfur to speak with Spottedleaf and later Yellowfang about ways to train the little tom.Â
As for how Snowkit being Frostfur’s kit would affect the story longterm, I imagine the biggest differences would occur when Clawface steals the kits. Being deaf, Snowkit would be at a far greater risk of being harmed by Brokenstar should his lack of hearing be discovered. Frostfur would be absolutely distraught but I think that when Graypaw, Ravenpaw, and Firepaw leave to track down the kits and Yellowfang, they would not be alone. It would be extremely interesting if, because of her role as the head queen in the nursery, Speckletail decided to take action and follow three suspicious looking apprentices sneaking out during the storm. She confronts them and listens to their explanations, surprising the trio by saying that if they are telling the truth and they successfully recover the kittens, she will personally make sure that Ravenpaw is protected by the queens. They understand that her declaration carries a massive amount of weight, given her position in the clan hierarchy and Ravenpaw agrees. Together, the four cats track Yellowfang to where they find her in the book. The dialogue is slightly different given Speckletail’s presence, and I imagine that she would not hold back from threatening Yellowfang quite descriptively, something that the hardened medicine cat would respect. The battle goes much the same, with the kits being rescued. Cinderkit, Brackenkit, and Mistlekit, in a show of courage and intelligence, distracted attention away from Snowkit who was hidden underneath them. As a result, Brackenkit has a torn ear and Mistlekit a deep claw mark across her flank but they are otherwise safe.
When they return to the camp and hear Tigerclaw openly suggesting that Ravenpaw and Yellowfang were responsible for Spottedleaf’s death and the theft of the kits, Speckletail speaks up against him and publicly declares her support and approval of the two. Frostfur and Goldenflower, the other active queens, back her up immediately, to Tigerclaw and his supporters surprise. The rest of the clan is unsure on who to back as both Tigerclaw and Speckletail hold significant pull and are respected members of the clan. With the support of the nursery as well as the medicine den once Yellowfang steps up as the medicine cat of ThunderClan, Firepaw feels that the tides are changing for them. Now, as a note, I do not believe that any of the three apprentices should be made warriors so early into their training so in this AU they will not receive their names just yet.Â
Part 2 coming soon.