Dark Forest Resident: Crunchsnow
Aliases / Nicknames: Crunch
Gender: molly
Sexuality: bisexual, demiromantic
Family: Lucky (mother), Pear (father), Charm, Flake (sisters), Cheerio (brother), Slatescratch (mate), Candykit (daughter), two unnamed sons
Other Relations: Mia (twoleg), Ice (Dark Forest mentor, abuser)
Clan: Kittypet, Lilacclan
Rank: den cat, assistant herbalist
Characteristics: insecure, strong connection to Starclan
Number of Victims: 6
Number of Murders: 6
Murder Method: fox wire, blood loss
Known Victims: Dustpaw, unnamed clanmates
Victim Profile: those who insult her, cats who her Dark Forest mentor manipulates her into killing
Cause of Death: blood loss from labor and a severed paw
Cautionary Tale: be careful to check up on new queens, because they might be going through a lot more than meets the eye
Story:
Ever since she was a kit, Crunch always had dreams about a shadow-cat telling her to go to the forest.
He called himself Ice.
She almost left a few times, but when her siblings were taken by twolegs—supposedly to find new homes—Crunch was alone with her mother, Lucky, and her sister, Charm.
Charm apparently was staying with their twolegs, and for a while Crunch thought she was too.
But alas there was a day where she was adopted, and the new twoleg took her to a small shop on the lakeshore. The fields stretched out as far as the eye could see.
The shop was a gift shop, filled with lots of things for her to explore—shiny, colourful rocks to line her nest with, soft cardigans to bury into, and her favourite item—rabbits foot keychain.
They only had one when she was a kitten, and they never got another shipment of them, but that memory of the soft dangling toy stayed in her mind for a very long time.
She was content, and loved her twoleg. Things were amazing until the shop caught fire one day, and Crunch got out.
Dazed and confused by the smoke, she wandered into the fields before collapsing from exhaustion.
Four wild cats found her, and took her back to their Clan.
Crunchpaw fit in well, and when she mentioned the prophetic dreams, they switched her to helping the medicine cats.
Except her dreams didn’t feel starry, and she’d told the shadowy cat many things about herself.
Ice mentioned that her Clanmates had very pretty paws, and that they would look good as the rabbits’ feet toys.
She was horrified, but he convinced her. Seeing all the amazing coat colours—the amazing paw colours—she got an idea.
She lured Dustpaw into the forest, down the creek to a fox trap she’d found. He stepped in, and she faked running for help. She hid in the bushes for hours, and was relieved when Dustpaw began chewing.
His paw was severed, and he bled out. She took the paw back to a small den she’d dug, and left it in the cool dirt.
She ran back to camp in tears, saying they were attacked by rogues and that the rogue had knocked her out and did that to Dustpaw.
Her Clan comforted her, and the next day she snuck back to the small den. The paw was soft and fun to play with, and she used a poultice over the open wound.
She did it again, and again. She fell in love with a warrior from another Clan who helped her keep the paws hidden, although he didn’t support her.
She was young, and now in the Dark Forest she would look back at it with regret, but she started expecting kits.
Crunchpaw was seven moons old, and going to have kits. Her Clanmates looked down on this, talking behind her back.
So more paws were added to the collection. Her mate’s paws joined the pile after he suggested she eat poisonous berries to get rid of the kittens.
Ice became her best friend, offering her advice on what to do. Who to target.
She didn’t even notice as the ideas fed to her became more absurd. He started talking about kitten paws. Tiny, soft kitten paws.
Crunchsnow earned her warrior name, and the same day a queen made a loud comment about how stupid she was. She ran out of camp, trying to ignore the nagging feeling of pain in her stomach.
She ran down the creek, the pains growing more intense. She turned to go back to camp, thinking something was wrong, but she tripped and felt something cut into her paw.
Crunchsnow yowled in pain from her stomach and paw, and turned to chew as she had the panicky realization that her kits were coming.
Unable to walk, her back paw holding on by a string of flesh and tendon, she pulled herself into the little den and shoved the paws as far away as possible, and hoped Starclan would spare her kits.
Additional Information:
--Submission by @wills-woodland-warriors
--She NEVER would have hurt her kits, and she stopped communicating with the Dark Forest cat when he suggested it.
--The queen, Minnowthroat, wasn’t being rude to Crunch, she was talking about a queen from another clan who got pregnant purposely to spite her mate even though she had a health condition that almost guaranteed her kits and her would die in labor. Minnowthroat has a tendency to be dramatic, and when Crunch walked in on the conversation, she thought minnow was talking about her.
--Crunchsnow and her family were named after cereals! Captain Crunch, Lucky Charms, Frosted Flakes, Cheerios.
--Her kits went to the Dark Forest because Starclan is a bitch.
--Two of her kits died in the Dark Forest after her Dark Forest mentor attacked them.
--”Yes, I misread her name as Crunchsnow and not CROUCHsnow. No, I do not care. She will forever be mrs captain crunchy snow.”
--”I wanted to note that I 100% do NOT support the whole rabbit foot keychains thing. A lot of those keychains aren’t always ethically sourced, and as someone with two pet rabbits I will never, ever support the making, selling, or buying of them.”