Tbh I think that the reveal of the 3's parentage would have been better if instead of Squirrelflight revealing the 3 weren't her kits, Ashfur did. Idk how he would have found out, but it really adds a new layer to Hollyleaf killing him.
She kills him not only to keep him from telling others the truth but also because he is the one who turned her life upside-down, he is the one who ruined her perfect idea of her family, if he had just kept his mouth shut, hollyleaf would still be happy and unaware. She just needed him to shut up. She kills him wishing she could have done so before he had ever spoken those world shattering words. She kills him wishing she could be killing the very concept of the truth.
Also I just can't really understand the logic of "you can't hurt me that way they aren't my kits". Like obviously she is lying, their deaths will still hurt her. She raised them as her own. I have a hard time understanding why Squirrelflight thought that would make Ashfur let them go, and also why it worked??? But thats a whole other issue...
No because a real world example of this literally my dead grandmother telling her ex-lover that killing my mum and my uncle won't hurt her because they're not her BIOLOGICAL kids. As if my mum and uncle dying wouldn't hurt her like, say, my sibling and I died would hurt my mother.
Because I'm 100% sure it would have.
My mum and uncle are adopted, because my grandparents couldn't have biological kids due to grandmother's health issues, and they're literally the only parents my mum and uncle ever knew (grandfather has also passed). So to connect it, pretty much my grandparents are my mum and uncle's Squirrel and Bramble, except they're in no way related to my grandparents biologically.
Like, MAYBE Squirrel was just saying it to get Jay, Holly and Lion safe, but like??? if Ashfur really thought about it, it couldn't be true. The 3 were raised as her kits, and thus her heart would still be shattered by their deaths??
i think it's hilarious that Bluefur's kits "disappeared" from ThunderClan, and some moons later, Oakheart's apprenticed kits that looks JUST LIKE BLUEFUR aren't even looked at twice by ThunderClan. Or any clan, as I'm sure news of lost kits must have spread through the forest like a fire.
this fact is even more funny to me because at one point, we see firestar go "oh stonefur actually does kinda look like bluestar" about him, or Mistyfoot, one of the two. like, he looked into lost kits and all, then bluestar's like "oh yeah i gave my kits to their father" and then he told them during a battle.
im also sure crookedstar was like "huh, my brother's kits look like my old friend", but apparently not.
even when fireheart revealed their parentage to ThunderClan, they STILL didn't believe it.
same geos for The Three (Jay, Holly and Lion). I haven't read the third arc yet, but from what I've heard AND seen, hollyleaf is almost a spitting image of crowfeather albeit she has green eyes and he has blue.
i guess you wouldn't think too much into the parentage of your clanmates when you're trying to survive in the wild when you're no higher than a human knee and have to protect your found family.
for a clan of warriors who hunt, patrol and fight for their clan and a living, they aren't very perceptive with parentage.
Hollyleaf is technically explained by bramblestar grandmother leopardfoot. I like to imagine she was someone tigerstar spoke about to him either as a kit or while in the df.
Yep! So all three kits are explained rather easily. Holly could be explained by leopardfoot which I'm a firm believer that atleast goldenflower told bramblestar about her. Firestar could of handedly mentioned cloudstar to bramble. Plus they don't know much about firestars other family so they could've assumed he had gray in his family. After all cloudtail is pure white.
I think cloudtail's dad is actually a pure white! I've seen art of his parents, but Oliver might be any other coat colour to be honest. and lion could've gotten his light ginger genes from sandstorm anyway, since he's a little darker than her I think.
now that I think of it, blue's kits could've been easily explained through oak as rainflower was a gray (and possibly a little blue??).
Yeah but bramblestar didn't know that. For all he knew it could've been firestars side. Also did riverclan even know those kits were his biologically or did they just think he'd adopted them with graypool and asked for them not to be told they were adopted.
tbf bramble didn't know ANYTHING about the three's origins. his wife at the time literally rocked up with her sister, holding kits like "oh yeah, we're parents now".
I like to think RiverClan assumed he adopted them with Graypool, since they kind of just appear out of nowhere after Graypool's actual kits die?
I think we get an Oakheart special edition that focuses on him raising stone and misty, I wanna know.
Actually no thunderclan knew squilf was "expecting" kits. They just said she decided they wanted to go out and kit on her own. We got a line in one of the super editions mentioning squilf had to eat alot to appear pregnant.
Still funny that the clans didn't think twice. I guess it is a world of talking, magic cats. Also, TC looking at squilf probably thinking "she's getting bigger" but not interpreting it as maybe she's pregnant?
To be fair, if my cat suddenly started getting bigger, I would just assume it's his fur (not that he can get pregnant anyway).
tbf, there's not much talk of goldenflower's family nor any special editions. Like tigerstar I got pinestar's choice for a special edition novella and maybe his own novella in comic form too?
i think it's hilarious that Bluefur's kits "disappeared" from ThunderClan, and some moons later, Oakheart's apprenticed kits that looks JUST LIKE BLUEFUR aren't even looked at twice by ThunderClan. Or any clan, as I'm sure news of lost kits must have spread through the forest like a fire.
this fact is even more funny to me because at one point, we see firestar go "oh stonefur actually does kinda look like bluestar" about him, or Mistyfoot, one of the two. like, he looked into lost kits and all, then bluestar's like "oh yeah i gave my kits to their father" and then he told them during a battle.
im also sure crookedstar was like "huh, my brother's kits look like my old friend", but apparently not.
even when fireheart revealed their parentage to ThunderClan, they STILL didn't believe it.
same geos for The Three (Jay, Holly and Lion). I haven't read the third arc yet, but from what I've heard AND seen, hollyleaf is almost a spitting image of crowfeather albeit she has green eyes and he has blue.
i guess you wouldn't think too much into the parentage of your clanmates when you're trying to survive in the wild when you're no higher than a human knee and have to protect your found family.
for a clan of warriors who hunt, patrol and fight for their clan and a living, they aren't very perceptive with parentage.
Hollyleaf is technically explained by bramblestar grandmother leopardfoot. I like to imagine she was someone tigerstar spoke about to him either as a kit or while in the df.
Yep! So all three kits are explained rather easily. Holly could be explained by leopardfoot which I'm a firm believer that atleast goldenflower told bramblestar about her. Firestar could of handedly mentioned cloudstar to bramble. Plus they don't know much about firestars other family so they could've assumed he had gray in his family. After all cloudtail is pure white.
I think cloudtail's dad is actually a pure white! I've seen art of his parents, but Oliver might be any other coat colour to be honest. and lion could've gotten his light ginger genes from sandstorm anyway, since he's a little darker than her I think.
now that I think of it, blue's kits could've been easily explained through oak as rainflower was a gray (and possibly a little blue??).
Yeah but bramblestar didn't know that. For all he knew it could've been firestars side. Also did riverclan even know those kits were his biologically or did they just think he'd adopted them with graypool and asked for them not to be told they were adopted.
tbf bramble didn't know ANYTHING about the three's origins. his wife at the time literally rocked up with her sister, holding kits like "oh yeah, we're parents now".
I like to think RiverClan assumed he adopted them with Graypool, since they kind of just appear out of nowhere after Graypool's actual kits die?
I think we get an Oakheart special edition that focuses on him raising stone and misty, I wanna know.
Actually no thunderclan knew squilf was "expecting" kits. They just said she decided they wanted to go out and kit on her own. We got a line in one of the super editions mentioning squilf had to eat alot to appear pregnant.
Still funny that the clans didn't think twice. I guess it is a world of talking, magic cats. Also, TC looking at squilf probably thinking "she's getting bigger" but not interpreting it as maybe she's pregnant?
To be fair, if my cat suddenly started getting bigger, I would just assume it's his fur (not that he can get pregnant anyway).
i think it's hilarious that Bluefur's kits "disappeared" from ThunderClan, and some moons later, Oakheart's apprenticed kits that looks JUST LIKE BLUEFUR aren't even looked at twice by ThunderClan. Or any clan, as I'm sure news of lost kits must have spread through the forest like a fire.
this fact is even more funny to me because at one point, we see firestar go "oh stonefur actually does kinda look like bluestar" about him, or Mistyfoot, one of the two. like, he looked into lost kits and all, then bluestar's like "oh yeah i gave my kits to their father" and then he told them during a battle.
im also sure crookedstar was like "huh, my brother's kits look like my old friend", but apparently not.
even when fireheart revealed their parentage to ThunderClan, they STILL didn't believe it.
same geos for The Three (Jay, Holly and Lion). I haven't read the third arc yet, but from what I've heard AND seen, hollyleaf is almost a spitting image of crowfeather albeit she has green eyes and he has blue.
i guess you wouldn't think too much into the parentage of your clanmates when you're trying to survive in the wild when you're no higher than a human knee and have to protect your found family.
for a clan of warriors who hunt, patrol and fight for their clan and a living, they aren't very perceptive with parentage.
Hollyleaf is technically explained by bramblestar grandmother leopardfoot. I like to imagine she was someone tigerstar spoke about to him either as a kit or while in the df.
Yep! So all three kits are explained rather easily. Holly could be explained by leopardfoot which I'm a firm believer that atleast goldenflower told bramblestar about her. Firestar could of handedly mentioned cloudstar to bramble. Plus they don't know much about firestars other family so they could've assumed he had gray in his family. After all cloudtail is pure white.
I think cloudtail's dad is actually a pure white! I've seen art of his parents, but Oliver might be any other coat colour to be honest. and lion could've gotten his light ginger genes from sandstorm anyway, since he's a little darker than her I think.
now that I think of it, blue's kits could've been easily explained through oak as rainflower was a gray (and possibly a little blue??).
Yeah but bramblestar didn't know that. For all he knew it could've been firestars side. Also did riverclan even know those kits were his biologically or did they just think he'd adopted them with graypool and asked for them not to be told they were adopted.
tbf bramble didn't know ANYTHING about the three's origins. his wife at the time literally rocked up with her sister, holding kits like "oh yeah, we're parents now".
I like to think RiverClan assumed he adopted them with Graypool, since they kind of just appear out of nowhere after Graypool's actual kits die?
I think we get an Oakheart special edition that focuses on him raising stone and misty, I wanna know.
i think it's hilarious that Bluefur's kits "disappeared" from ThunderClan, and some moons later, Oakheart's apprenticed kits that looks JUST LIKE BLUEFUR aren't even looked at twice by ThunderClan. Or any clan, as I'm sure news of lost kits must have spread through the forest like a fire.
this fact is even more funny to me because at one point, we see firestar go "oh stonefur actually does kinda look like bluestar" about him, or Mistyfoot, one of the two. like, he looked into lost kits and all, then bluestar's like "oh yeah i gave my kits to their father" and then he told them during a battle.
im also sure crookedstar was like "huh, my brother's kits look like my old friend", but apparently not.
even when fireheart revealed their parentage to ThunderClan, they STILL didn't believe it.
same geos for The Three (Jay, Holly and Lion). I haven't read the third arc yet, but from what I've heard AND seen, hollyleaf is almost a spitting image of crowfeather albeit she has green eyes and he has blue.
i guess you wouldn't think too much into the parentage of your clanmates when you're trying to survive in the wild when you're no higher than a human knee and have to protect your found family.
for a clan of warriors who hunt, patrol and fight for their clan and a living, they aren't very perceptive with parentage.
Hollyleaf is technically explained by bramblestar grandmother leopardfoot. I like to imagine she was someone tigerstar spoke about to him either as a kit or while in the df.
Yep! So all three kits are explained rather easily. Holly could be explained by leopardfoot which I'm a firm believer that atleast goldenflower told bramblestar about her. Firestar could of handedly mentioned cloudstar to bramble. Plus they don't know much about firestars other family so they could've assumed he had gray in his family. After all cloudtail is pure white.
I think cloudtail's dad is actually a pure white! I've seen art of his parents, but Oliver might be any other coat colour to be honest. and lion could've gotten his light ginger genes from sandstorm anyway, since he's a little darker than her I think.
now that I think of it, blue's kits could've been easily explained through oak as rainflower was a gray (and possibly a little blue??).
i think it's hilarious that Bluefur's kits "disappeared" from ThunderClan, and some moons later, Oakheart's apprenticed kits that looks JUST LIKE BLUEFUR aren't even looked at twice by ThunderClan. Or any clan, as I'm sure news of lost kits must have spread through the forest like a fire.
this fact is even more funny to me because at one point, we see firestar go "oh stonefur actually does kinda look like bluestar" about him, or Mistyfoot, one of the two. like, he looked into lost kits and all, then bluestar's like "oh yeah i gave my kits to their father" and then he told them during a battle.
im also sure crookedstar was like "huh, my brother's kits look like my old friend", but apparently not.
even when fireheart revealed their parentage to ThunderClan, they STILL didn't believe it.
same geos for The Three (Jay, Holly and Lion). I haven't read the third arc yet, but from what I've heard AND seen, hollyleaf is almost a spitting image of crowfeather albeit she has green eyes and he has blue.
i guess you wouldn't think too much into the parentage of your clanmates when you're trying to survive in the wild when you're no higher than a human knee and have to protect your found family.
for a clan of warriors who hunt, patrol and fight for their clan and a living, they aren't very perceptive with parentage.
Hollyleaf is technically explained by bramblestar grandmother leopardfoot. I like to imagine she was someone tigerstar spoke about to him either as a kit or while in the df.
i think it's hilarious that Bluefur's kits "disappeared" from ThunderClan, and some moons later, Oakheart's apprenticed kits that looks JUST LIKE BLUEFUR aren't even looked at twice by ThunderClan. Or any clan, as I'm sure news of lost kits must have spread through the forest like a fire.
this fact is even more funny to me because at one point, we see firestar go "oh stonefur actually does kinda look like bluestar" about him, or Mistyfoot, one of the two. like, he looked into lost kits and all, then bluestar's like "oh yeah i gave my kits to their father" and then he told them during a battle.
im also sure crookedstar was like "huh, my brother's kits look like my old friend", but apparently not.
even when fireheart revealed their parentage to ThunderClan, they STILL didn't believe it.
same geos for The Three (Jay, Holly and Lion). I haven't read the third arc yet, but from what I've heard AND seen, hollyleaf is almost a spitting image of crowfeather albeit she has green eyes and he has blue.
i guess you wouldn't think too much into the parentage of your clanmates when you're trying to survive in the wild when you're no higher than a human knee and have to protect your found family.
for a clan of warriors who hunt, patrol and fight for their clan and a living, they aren't very perceptive with parentage.
Hollyleaf is technically explained by bramblestar grandmother leopardfoot. I like to imagine she was someone tigerstar spoke about to him either as a kit or while in the df.
I figured it would be cool to do this for the valley clans.
TigerClan, living in a dense rainforest-like habitat far from the canonical five clans, very much love bulky with tabby stripes like their ancestors before them. The bigger the warrior, the more likely they are to catch much harder prey like deer. However, this beauty standard is more typical for toms, as a majority of the TigerClan toms are genetically bigger than LeopardClan or PantherClan, but smaller than LionClan. The she-cats have a different standard—while the bigger the better standard still stands, the stripes aren't as important for she-cats. All TigerClan apprentices are taught how to swim, as they use the rivers in their territory for prey and exercise. So, while bulk is liked by she-cats for toms, it is harder for toms to swim swiftly is they are bigger or fluffier. Because she-cats are trained from apprenticeship to be able to climb, they're less expected to hunt and fight from the ground. For both toms and she-cats alike, the more you are able to camouflage from prey and predators, the more likely you are to fit the standards. Torties are very well liked for this reason. While size is a major standard for TigerClan standards, Panthereye is the most desired she-cat in the clan, for her tortie pelt makes it easier for a blend in (a requirement for TigerClan in a territory with predators). For the standards of toms, Dawnstar would probably be an icon of it—being a large, fluffy tabby, and large in the muscular sense. While not born in TigerClan, Oakheart and Redtail also meet these standards for different reasons. Oakheart reminds Crabstorm especially of a tiger—while not a dark tabby per se, but the brown of his pelt is very similar to the brown of the tigers in Crabstorm's visions. The fact Redtail's a tortoiseshell is a main reason he's thought of as attractive—though not as much as Oakheart by TigerClan she-cats—as well as his thicker stature.
LeopardClan's standards are relatively similar in terms of patterns. However, spotted tabbies are more preferred in she-cats especially. A LeopardClan cat's spots are a sense of pride for them, and the more spots the more desired a cat is. Cats like Leopardstar would be well-liked in LeopardClan. As most of the members of LeopardClan have spots, none in particular are really held up high for meeting the beauty standard. Most of the standards hold up that your spots express your individuality from your clanmates. As long as you are fast and more so lean (therefore able to be faster than TigerClan or LionClan warriors), LeopardClan beauty standards are met. However, Dawnstar and Panthereye's sister had been regarded as not overly attractive by LeopardClan standards.
Unlike TigerClan and LeopardClan, LionClan beauty standards are much against patterns like spotted or classic tabby. As their territory is a dry plains compared to the forests the other two clans live in, pale and even golden pelts are more desired. The less markings you have, the more likely you are to blend in and catch more prey. The beauty standard is more preferred for the she-cats, as they're the hunters of the clan, while the toms hold positions such as leader, doctor and priest. The toms' standards aren't as well defined as the standards for the female warriors, however a large build is often sought out with LionClan toms. Smaller LionClan cats are often thought of as weak and poor hunters, and they tend to take on camp centred roles for this very reason.
PantherClan, while the other clans don't really know or care for their preferences, are much like LionClan. Most warriors aren't terribly lean like LeopardClan cats, but not thick or bulky like TigerClan or LionClan. As for their standards fitting their territory, darker grays fit more into the clan's dark and dead territory. Living on the old battlefield, much of the territory is dry and crust. So long as you can survive off what the territory provides, appearance ISN'T all that important to PantherClan cats. Very much basic, marking-less coats are liked in PantherClan, though. Lakepelt (even though TigerClan born) is a prime example of PantherClan not caring much for appearance. As a young warrior, he'd been bulky and bigger than his clanmates, but as time passed, he kept his height but was thinner than before. Growing up in TigerClan's territory with an abundance of prey, Lakepelt had grown plump and was incredibly fluffy due to genetics, and with the lack of abundant prey, he lost a lot of weight and his fluff became more droopy as he groomed it less.
what i don't get is the choice the Erins made to label Snowkit as essentially useless, purely for being deaf.
my cousin's cat is pretty much exactly like Snowkit and Cloudtail, a part from being a girl, in the sense that she's pure white with blue eyes.
its, in a sense, like being around a deaf person. there's visual cues you can use with a deaf cat that lets them know you're giving them dinner or looking for cuddles with them.
a specific instance of this is when my cousin and his fiancée look to get her attention and she's not physically looking at them, they tap the (hardwood) floor with their feet. i guess it would be harder to make the dirt shake in the wilderness. but they also tap on her tail, back or head if they're close enough to her.
and no one can tell me visual cues can't be used with a warrior. im pretty sure speckletail used them with her kit (please correct me if im wrong), and there's a headcanon that shadowclan use visual cues to communicate while hunting as to not disturb the prey.
all the visual cues ThunderClan would've had to use could be done by tail or head movements.
i dont have any deaf friends, nor am i deaf, but my friends and i use head gestures to communicate when we just dont feel like speaking in the moment.
like a head tipped back would mean "come here" and gestures to the right or left would be "look there" or "they're there" with eye movement too.
it's be harder for a warrior to patrol and hunt, sure, but they wouldn't be rendered useless.
on the topic of my cousin's deaf cat again; the last time we visited them, the cat brought a caught, dead bird inside after she'd been let out to pee.
speckletail did in fact use them with snowkit! when cinderpelt was doing her little exam to see if snowkit was deaf, she instructs speckletail to call him over. speckletail does verbally call for him, but she also beckons him with her tail, which he knows means she wants him to come to her!
and shadowclan's visual cues aren't just headcanon, they're canon! the tail cues alone make up a good portion of a whole language, so the basics are already there.
with these two canon- and i must stress that they are canon- pieces of evidence alone, there's no legitimate reason for snowkit to be treated as useless, or as an example why a deaf character could never possibly survive in the warriors world.
it's just straight up ableism.
(also ps- just because snowkit was deaf doesn't mean he wouldn't have noticed everyone running to cover to avoid the hawk. he would have felt the pawsteps or seen cats freaking out. also, someone could have just grabbed him????)
thanks for letting me know the Speckletail and ShadowClan examples are canon!
also I just don't understand why no one grabbed him?? especially speckletail with mother instincts, but you know— literally anyone in the vicinity of him could've even just swiped him towards the closest den since he was a literal child and i doubt very big where he couldn't be knocked over unexpectedly.
The Erins have hinted on many occasions that the cats can sense other cats' emotions, and cats irl can sense when you're upset or in pain! So, it doesn't make sense that Snowkit couldn't sense the panic in his clanmates, even if he didn't know what it meant.
i think it's hilarious that Bluefur's kits "disappeared" from ThunderClan, and some moons later, Oakheart's apprenticed kits that looks JUST LIKE BLUEFUR aren't even looked at twice by ThunderClan. Or any clan, as I'm sure news of lost kits must have spread through the forest like a fire.
this fact is even more funny to me because at one point, we see firestar go "oh stonefur actually does kinda look like bluestar" about him, or Mistyfoot, one of the two. like, he looked into lost kits and all, then bluestar's like "oh yeah i gave my kits to their father" and then he told them during a battle.
im also sure crookedstar was like "huh, my brother's kits look like my old friend", but apparently not.
even when fireheart revealed their parentage to ThunderClan, they STILL didn't believe it.
same geos for The Three (Jay, Holly and Lion). I haven't read the third arc yet, but from what I've heard AND seen, hollyleaf is almost a spitting image of crowfeather albeit she has green eyes and he has blue.
i guess you wouldn't think too much into the parentage of your clanmates when you're trying to survive in the wild when you're no higher than a human knee and have to protect your found family.
for a clan of warriors who hunt, patrol and fight for their clan and a living, they aren't very perceptive with parentage.
i love the thought of Redtail being Fireheart/star's StarClan guide, since he was trying to prove Redtail's murder.
i also considered "what if sandstorm's half-kittypet and all of her kittypet tormenting to firepaw/heart kinda backfires?"
so like, fireheart learns more about redtail, his kittypet mate, how sandstorm came to live in ThunderClan, and redtail helps fireheart try prove to bluestar that tigerclaw killed him.
my favourite concept is that cats can't move on until their deaths have been avenged, in the cases of murder, or they accomplished what they wanted in life.
redtail, as above, couldn't join starclan until fireheart proved his murder, and he saw sandstorm grow up.
brindleface couldn't join starclan until she was sure her kits would be fine without her.
runningwind took a moment to join starclan, because he was conflicted if sandstorm still needed him*.
lionheart was worried for his kits, but he knew frostfur would protect them as best she could. once he knew cinderpelt was sure of herself as a medicine cat, and saw that brightheart had cloudtail by her side, he could join StarClan.
*I headcanon that Redtail and Runningwind were so close, they raised sandstorm together :)
what i don't get is the choice the Erins made to label Snowkit as essentially useless, purely for being deaf.
my cousin's cat is pretty much exactly like Snowkit and Cloudtail, a part from being a girl, in the sense that she's pure white with blue eyes.
its, in a sense, like being around a deaf person. there's visual cues you can use with a deaf cat that lets them know you're giving them dinner or looking for cuddles with them.
a specific instance of this is when my cousin and his fiancée look to get her attention and she's not physically looking at them, they tap the (hardwood) floor with their feet. i guess it would be harder to make the dirt shake in the wilderness. but they also tap on her tail, back or head if they're close enough to her.
and no one can tell me visual cues can't be used with a warrior. im pretty sure speckletail used them with her kit (please correct me if im wrong), and there's a headcanon that shadowclan use visual cues to communicate while hunting as to not disturb the prey.
all the visual cues ThunderClan would've had to use could be done by tail or head movements.
i dont have any deaf friends, nor am i deaf, but my friends and i use head gestures to communicate when we just dont feel like speaking in the moment.
like a head tipped back would mean "come here" and gestures to the right or left would be "look there" or "they're there" with eye movement too.
it's be harder for a warrior to patrol and hunt, sure, but they wouldn't be rendered useless.
on the topic of my cousin's deaf cat again; the last time we visited them, the cat brought a caught, dead bird inside after she'd been let out to pee.
speckletail did in fact use them with snowkit! when cinderpelt was doing her little exam to see if snowkit was deaf, she instructs speckletail to call him over. speckletail does verbally call for him, but she also beckons him with her tail, which he knows means she wants him to come to her!
and shadowclan's visual cues aren't just headcanon, they're canon! the tail cues alone make up a good portion of a whole language, so the basics are already there.
with these two canon- and i must stress that they are canon- pieces of evidence alone, there's no legitimate reason for snowkit to be treated as useless, or as an example why a deaf character could never possibly survive in the warriors world.
it's just straight up ableism.
(also ps- just because snowkit was deaf doesn't mean he wouldn't have noticed everyone running to cover to avoid the hawk. he would have felt the pawsteps or seen cats freaking out. also, someone could have just grabbed him????)
thanks for letting me know the Speckletail and ShadowClan examples are canon!
also I just don't understand why no one grabbed him?? especially speckletail with mother instincts, but you know— literally anyone in the vicinity of him could've even just swiped him towards the closest den since he was a literal child and i doubt very big where he couldn't be knocked over unexpectedly.
what i don't get is the choice the Erins made to label Snowkit as essentially useless, purely for being deaf.
my cousin's cat is pretty much exactly like Snowkit and Cloudtail, a part from being a girl, in the sense that she's pure white with blue eyes.
its, in a sense, like being around a deaf person. there's visual cues you can use with a deaf cat that lets them know you're giving them dinner or looking for cuddles with them.
a specific instance of this is when my cousin and his fiancée look to get her attention and she's not physically looking at them, they tap the (hardwood) floor with their feet. i guess it would be harder to make the dirt shake in the wilderness. but they also tap on her tail, back or head if they're close enough to her.
and no one can tell me visual cues can't be used with a warrior. im pretty sure speckletail used them with her kit (please correct me if im wrong), and there's a headcanon that shadowclan use visual cues to communicate while hunting as to not disturb the prey.
all the visual cues ThunderClan would've had to use could be done by tail or head movements.
i dont have any deaf friends, nor am i deaf, but my friends and i use head gestures to communicate when we just dont feel like speaking in the moment.
like a head tipped back would mean "come here" and gestures to the right or left would be "look there" or "they're there" with eye movement too.
it's be harder for a warrior to patrol and hunt, sure, but they wouldn't be rendered useless.
on the topic of my cousin's deaf cat again; the last time we visited them, the cat brought a caught, dead bird inside after she'd been let out to pee.
I have been pumping out chapters of Journey of Red and Oak (Oakheart and Redtail live AU), so I'm going to put a hold on that. If anyone would like me to continue, of course, let me know or it will be in hiatus for a while.
Second,
I've had another idea for "____ lives", which has been very popular around the fandom, as I've noticed. If you haven't guessed by now, it's Shrewpaw Lives. Now, with the last AU, I made the mistake of going right into it. I hadn't and still haven't planned very far ahead into the story for me to write around, hence the need to pause it.
This time, a proper storyline will be written out and the story will actually follow lyrics to one or random songs. I know that it will most likely be based on Lay All Your Love On Me, but the Mamma Mia version of the ABBA song. I can't say JORAO wasn't even loosely based on a song or two, because at least one chapter was (Hamilton).
And for the song to be based on Lay All Your Love On Me, there'd have to be an OC somewhere. And I just love making them, I cannot be blamed. I have decided that the OC is a kit of an already existing character, but you'll just have to wait to find out who and what Shrewpaw's warrior name would be.
Thank you all, for the support you have shown JORAO, and I hope you'll like this next series! <3
Warnings: Mention of leaving a newborn to die, mention of possible abuse, Panthereye hating on a child
Author's Note: I did warn you that there would be Hamilton references. The start of this is heavy on Hamilton because I was listening to Meet Me Inside when I wrote it.
Timeframe: 7 moons since Redtail and Oakheart joined TigerClan.
°°°
Redtail tucked his tail under his belly as he sat on the second floor of the doctor's den. His ears twitched to Panthereye's pawsteps climbing up the tree. "Leafbare is hard enough without fighting one of your clanmates."
"Honeyspot was wrong. I called her bluff."
"You did nothing," Panthereye hissed. "You anger your own ally."
Redtail's tail twitched in annoyance. "You're right. I should've attacked her mouth, it would've shut her up."
"Watch your tone. I'm not a queen in need of defending," Panthereye eyed the tom as she began to pace around her den.
"Dawnstar, Honeyspot, they lie about your mind, use your name to symbolise great health."
"My name and health's been through enough. I can take it."
Redtail stood, taking his chance. He noticed Dawnstar and Brushstorm always looking for Panthereye and Crabstorm when they made choices that would later affect the clan. "I don't have your name, I don't have your title. But if you tell-"
"No."
"Tell Brushstorm to give me command of a patrol into PantherClan's territory, I could teach them not to start a war with TigerClan."
Panthereye whipped her head around to Redtail, "or you could die, and the clan needs you alive."
"I am more than willing to die for the clan."
"Your apprentice needs you alive; I need you alive!"
"Who are you to stop me from fighting for my clan?!" Redtail hesitated, his paws slipping slightly as he stepped back. He didn't mean to yell at Panthereye, and the look in her eyes made the fur on his spine stand.
Panthereye raised her head, ears forward and tail relaxed against the floor of the den. "PantherClan has taken enough from my clan. Go to your den, Redtail. That's an order."
"Panthereye-" He'd never seen her so stern. She'd been kind and gentle, soft even, when Redtail and Oakheart arrived at the clan, but this she-cat was different. Looked just like his Panthereye, but it wasn't her.
"Go to your den."
Redtail nodded, creeping down to the main floor of the den and slipped out the main entrance of the doctor's den. He noticed Oakheart watching him from between Mintpaw and Firepaw, but he shook his head and found his nest in the warrior's den.
He heard Oakheart's heavy pawsteps enter the den, and the brown tabby curled by his side. "...what did she say?"
"I wanted to take a patrol out to PantherClan's territory, to teach them a lesson..." Redtail answered softly. I need you alive. "I don't think she'd want to be my mate now...after I yelled at her."
Oakheart winced behind him, "yeah, we heard. Dewfish and Honeyspot are hunting right now, but she'll be sleeping in the apprentice den for now and I'll be mentoring Finpaw until Dawnstar sees that she can return to her warrior duties."
"I should have just ignored it."
"Well, yeah. Even a mouse could tell you that."
Redtail sneered at the ground beside his nest, "she needs help. Mousepaw, as a wonderful apprentice as he is, doesn't see that she's struggling."
"Then ask her." The brown tom coughed. "To be your mate, I mean. She'll have someone in her den if she ever needs to talk, then."
"Medicine cats can't tell StarClan secrets to warriors, Oakheart."
"Clearly you're as blind as mole. Panthereye isn't exactly a medicine cat. She only heals the clan, but Crabstorm is the cat that communicates with StarClan." Oakheart bit Redtail's shoulder, ushering the smaller tom to stand. "Go ask. The worst she could say is no."
Redtail shook his body, his shoulder aching from the nip he received. "Or she scratches me."
"Or that. Go."
He hated to admit when he was wrong, but Redtail wouldn't deny that Oakheart was right. He wouldn't actually tell Oakheart that, considering it was Redtail who'd said Panthereye would scratch him.
She did, and then she purred that it took him long enough. Before ordering Redtail to go back to his den.
Once she'd told Dawnstar that he could leave camp again, Redtail began hunting twice as much. He wanted to prove that Panthereye didn't make a wrong choice in taking him as a mate.
Redtail had seen Brushstorm and Panthereye eyeing Oakheart a few times in the last moon, so he genuinely believed she would've turned him down. Thank StarClan she didn't.
"Are we going hunting again?" Mintpaw asked her mentor, as she followed Redtail out of camp. "Actually, we're going to secure the border. Make sure the other clans aren't breaking through our scent markers."
Panthereye padded through the entrance of the camp, holding a bundle of herbs in her jaw. "Redtail, take these. I need a few more of each."
He gently took the herbs from her mouth, taking a whiff of each. "I'll get you plenty."
"Thank you," she purred, rubbing her head against his neck and shouldered back into camp.
"Is she your mate now?"
Redtail bristled at the question for a moment, before calming his fur. "Now she is."
"Finpaw and Firepaw were talking about Oakheart being taken as her mate. Or Brushstorm's. Maybe it was Brushstorm." Mintpaw frowned, shaking the falling snow from her back.
It'd only been a quarter moon since the Gathering, and in turn, Panthereye and Redtail's argument. He figured that maybe the beloved doctor would have talked to Brushstorm making Redtail in charge of a patrol to PantherClan's camp.
While he'd never actually seen the camp himself, Redtail knew the scent of PantherClan as well as any one of his clanmates. Oakheart and Panthereye had been covered in it after the battle with Panthereye's brother, Lakepelt, and his patrol.
"Redtail! PantherClan!" Mintpaw shivered, crouching down in the snow as her nose sniffed at a bush beside her.
The warrior tom crouched beside her, prodding the bush with his nose before pushing through. A PantherClan queen panted, crouching in the snow. Her panicked eyes searched the area around her, and her ears twisted back in realisation. "No no no no, we can't- Dawnstar will kill us."
"She has kits with her," Mintpaw mentioned softly, nodding at three small bundles of fur Redtail could only recognise as kits. Their tiny mews would have been the only tell, if the largest of them didn't lift its head blindly for it's mother. "Dawnstar won't kill kits...would he?"
The doubt in the young apprentice's voice should worry Redtail, but he couldn't blame her. He'd been relatively distant from the clan, and Wheateyes especially. The entire clan knew that where the only queen was, their smitten leader would be only a pawstep away. Dawnstar was spending more time in the doctor's den than he had in the nursery for moons.
Redtail gestured with his nose for his apprentice to hide further into the bush, "stay here. Move when I tell you to, and don't look back if I tell you to run."
"What are you going to do?"
"Queens are fiercely protective of their kits, Mintpaw. She might attack me because I'm from TigerClan, but also because I'm an unfamiliar tom. She might think I'd steal her kits."
"Would you?" Mintpaw glanced at the fretting queen. "She's letting her kits freeze in the snow...Wheateyes never let me out of the nursery when it snowed."
Redtail nodded, but didn't speak. Instead, he slowly crept out of the bush and towards the queen. "You're in TigerClan territory, PantherClan."
"I-I know," the queen stuttered. "Lakepelt- he-" She looked around frantically, as if the named tom would attack her at any moment. "He said it was too much a risk if I kitted in camp, so he chased me out." The young queen licked at the largest of her kits, "please, be merciful. I think this one's blind, and he's shivering more than his sisters." The two she-kits wriggled around each other to keep warm. "I can't carry all three on my own, and I just kitted...knowing your Clan's doctor and leader are the littermates of my kits' father, I thought they'd be kind and take us in. At least until I'm well enough to travel back to my clan. Without the kits."
Redtail paused. He remembered Panthereye's outbursts, and Dawnstar's distant eyes from his clan in comparison to the adoring eyes for his sister. Would they really take in their littermates kits and mate? He picked up the largest, calling for Mintpaw to pick up one of the she-kits. "Come, it'll start to snow down again soon. We need to get this one warm."
The queen thanked him profusely as she picked up her remaining kit and Redtail led the way back to camp. Thankfully most of the snow had been cleared by the apprentices, and Redtail safely placed the tom kit onto the cool ground, holding his paws gently on each side of the kit's belly.
"What is this?" Dawnstar's voice hissed, having smelt the strong scent the queen was carrying from his den. His blue eyes cast frustration down at Redtail from his branch. "Redtail, I thought much better of you. You are Panthereye's mate, and yet you bring a PantherClan queen and three kits back to our camp. Is this your way of telling me you never truly loved my littermate?"
"No, I-!"
"They're not his kits, Dawnstar. He and the apprentice were helping me carry them," the queen excused. She stood over her kits, staring up at Dawnstar. "They're Lakepelt's kits."
Murmurs spread around the clan like fire, as the TigerClan cats watched for Panthereye's appearance. The she-cat padded from her den, Mousepaw at her flank, as she approached that queen and kits. She crouched to each of them, sniffing at their wet fur. "I'm willing to look past their parentage."
"Panthereye-" Dawnstar started, standing as well he could on his branch. "They are of PantherClan."
"And they are our kin, so they're also of TigerClan," the doctor hissed at her leader, before halting in front of the grey and white tom kit. Her ears pinned back and her pupils turned to slits. "The she-kits can stay, but this one will die."
"What?!" The queen wailed.
Dawnstar stayed silent as he watched his sister snap at the new queen. Redtail felt bad for the young she-cat and pressed his cheek to Panthereye's shoulder. "Perhaps you could be more lenient."
"Why should I?" His mate hissed, pushing away from him. "Lakepelt tried to kill me, his own sister. I shouldn't even pay an ounce of respect to that crowfood of a warrior after what he did."
Dawnstar stayed quiet, as Redtail pressed his nose to Panthereye's cheek. "He's only a newborn kit; when he's old enough to be apprenticed, he'll be able to get back to PantherClan's camp on his own."
The she-cat watched him wordlessly, before nodding at the queen. "As long as you keep him from my sight, the kit can stay." She looked up at Dawnstar, "what does Wheateyes think about having a denmate?"
The leader looked towards the nursery, as the ginger point queen appeared. She sent a silent message before returning to the warmth of her den, her belly swollen with kits once more.
"Honeyspot, Finpaw, help Larkwing take her kits to the nursery." Dawnstar ordered, before dismissing the clan and making his way to his sister. Redtail stayed a tail-length behind them, as the siblings entered the doctor's den. "Those kits are just as much kin to us as Mintpaw is."
"Mintpaw doesn't look like her father," Panthereye hissed, shaking her fur to smoothen. "And why do you even ask for my advice anyway? You barely listen to me as is and when you do, it's only for the good of the clan."
"You're my sister. And my only kin left in the clan."
The tabico she-cat swatted her tail at the tom. "Those kits are your kin, and so is Mintpaw, or need I remind you about what you said to me?"
"No." Dawnstar murmured, nudging Panthereye's cheek with his forehead and padded out of the den.
Redtail purred softly, his body warming at her side. "Mintpaw's your kin?"
