Spottedleaf and Tigerclaw have a reason to be close: Vicky's Ultimate Fuckup Book with a little more intervention
This is a post that came out of a conversation with @warriorsredux, who often let's me rant at her like this thank you ever so much you are the best!
So we all know that The Novella That Shall Not Be Named is... creepy as hell. It deals with an adult hanging around a little kid a bit too often. Which wouldn't be a problem if he weren't trying to mold her into a child soldier when she wanted to be a healer! What the fuck, Thistleclaw?! Why can't you respect boundaries?!
And the way he went about it was... hair-raising. Like seriously that book set off all my alarms. And nobody knew anything? Really? So I wrote a different storyline.
That Book happened, (the one where Thistleclaw is basically a pedophile in fuckin canon I can't even with that shit)
But Tigerpaw caught onto it Because "hey, my mentor is not actually mentoring me. I'm nowhere near close to getting my warrior name. What the fuck?"
He doesn't know exactly what it is
Remember, Thistleclaw never actually did anything physical to Spottedleaf
It was all emotional manipulation
But he talks to Goosefeather
"I know you hate me for whatever reason but you need to get Spottedpaw in your den as often as possible because she's hanging around my mentor and she's too soft for the stuff I'm learning"
Or something like that better yet, Featherwhisker
He talks to Featherwhisker, who goes to Sunstar, who tracks Thistleclaw, can never actually confront him because, like with Tigerclaw in the actual books there's no real proof and no active sign of what's happening.
So he goes to the elders and queens like "theoretically, if a warrior started hanging around the nursery to impress the kits but latched onto one kit in particular, what could be done about that warrior? The kit isn't being hurt, I wouldn't say, but they are spending an unusual amount of time with this one cat. More than any other Clanmate."
The queens flip their shit.
No one wants to believe it's Thistleclaw. “He just lost his mate and his kit is ignoring him, of course he's feeling paternal.”
"but his kit is ignoring him... that might be a sign. We should keep an eye on the apprentices"
So meanwhile nobody can find any evidence on Thistleclaw because he takes Spottedpaw out with all the apprentices. (Switches up his routine) so Tigerpaw acts as a barrier because he knows Something is up.
And tells Bluefur what he suspects. She's dealing with her own problems but sets her stuff aside to help her best friend
(Thrushpelt, who she can never repay because you don't get that kind of loyalty anywhere and she might not love him as fiercely as she did Oakheart that one night but she loves him all the same)
Keep an eye on his apprentice. Her kits are pretty much eating meat by now so she's alright leaving them with the rest of the queens (who are super overprotective if all young cats now) and going through her warrior duties with Thrushpelt, Spottedpaw, and the other apprentices. None of the apprentices other than Tigerpaw know what's up because ThunderClan is ultra "do not speak of anything around the children" so Redpaw, White paw, and Willowpaw are all confused as to why they keep getting taken out in groups by cats who aren't mentoring them.
This goes on for almost a moon.
Tigerpaw is not ready to be a warrior, but can't shake the feeling that something is wrong with Spottedpaw now. One night, he wakes up early and notices her sleeping. She's rattled by something, clearly, and she keeps muttering
"he said he loved me he wouldn't do this" over and over again. And then scratches herself in her sleep.
He wakes her up and takes her into the forest. They end up near Sunningrocks by the time he gets her to stop shaking and whimpering. He tells her that he heard what she said and asks who she meant.
She breaks down and tells him about her night in the Dark Forest. That Thistleclaw let someone attack her and then told her to flail around and hurt herself so that it'd be less suspicious.
Thistleclaw follows them. Some RiverClan warriors are on a night patrol. Oakheart among them. Recognizes them both from gatherings as cats Bluefur spoke proudly of. 'but wasn't the tortoiseshell supposed to be a medicine cat? Why is she all-? Oh Foxdung!'
Because Tigerpaw confronts Thistleclaw. Demands to know why he picked Spottedpaw. So the RiverClan cats are at Sunningrocks now because Those Kits Are In Trouble So Fuck Clan Boundaries!
Thistleclaw attacks them, of course, after telling Spottedleaf that he truly did love her and wanted to be with her. He thought she shared his ideals and would be a better match than Snowfur. That's how he dies. Don't mess with kits, okay? You die like that.
