#elmfoot

[foxglovesound]

Does harrierpaw know how abusive elmfoot is 😭

posting beneath the cut since it mentions some of elmfoot's abuse vaguely!

yes unfortunately he's aware ! roseface, cricketpaw, hollypaw, duckpaw, and emberpaw caught elmfoot mid-act and roseface kinda wailed on him while duck went to go get help (bringing lampreyface and another patrol along in the process). when rose told plum about what happened and the apprentices verified it, elmfoot's actions were laid out for the rest of riverclan to know and he was driven out sooo yeah harrierpaw is aware

his reasoning for why he still keeps in contact with elmfoot though is that he's his dad and he feels an obligation, plus he always admired elmfoot as a warrior and it's hard for him to let that go. on the darker side, he also believes that elmfoot had good intentions in what he was doing which is uhhhhhh bad

[foxglovesound]

why did windclan take in elmfoot after he was exiled(?)? does he try to reach out to his kits at gatherings or do riverclan stop him from talking to them?

elmfoot fled to windclan during the period when the windclan-riverclan war was still going on (which, in fact, is still technically going on by the start of the comic). yellowstar (at the time, yellowbreeze) was the one who vouched for him joining windclan as a strategy point: elmfoot had an intimate knowledge of riverclan, from their battle strategies to their battle formations and layouts to the very heart of their territory, and he could absolutely provide to windclan some excellent knowledge and an advantage on riverclan.

of course, he wasn't exactly welcomed in with open arms. even cats like yellowbreeze who vouched for him were still wary of his intentions. he joined as a low status known as preyblood and wasn't really incorporated into the clan as an official warrior until some time had passed. he wasn't even allowed to leave the camp without an escort for a while too, nor did he go to the first few gatherings after joining

that being said, elmfoot does try to reach out to his kits, sorta. otterpaw he obviously doesn't try to communicate with (and even if he did, the adult warriors of riverclan would intervene before he even got close), but he did try to communicate with cricketpaw and harrierpaw at first. cricketpaw steadfastly decided she wants nothing to do with him so she turned down any approach elmfoot managed to weasel in, and while harrierpaw does want to contact his father, the rest of riverclan isn't too keen on letting elmfoot around him during the gatherings... that doesnt stop harrierpaw from sneaking out to windclan's border at night though >>

[foxglovesound]

C̵͜͝ó̷̬̩͂͘ẗ̵̢̥́̓͘t̴̻̄o̴̥̒̆n̷̨̟͇͌̈́ť̸̥͔͖͛̃a̶͚͌͊̕i̶̞̱͊͝l̴͍̰̜̽̅̂ ̶̦̥̎o̶̘̻͊ͅf̵͚̃ ̴̜͖̾̌Ṫ̴̛̥̫h̴͓͇͌ǭ̵̱͉ȑ̵͓̀͆n̵̥͓͘w̵̠̆ỏ̶̬̓ŏ̸̗d̶̰̤̰͋͛ ̶̖̩̓S̶̜̿̾ǫ̷̔̊̄u̴̡̺͉̅n̸͔̙͝ḏ̵͔͑̋

Murrelet of Openheath Hillock

Name: Murrelet Past Names: Cottontail  Age: 50 months (4 years) Rank: Fellow Identity & Pronouns: CIS tom, he/him  Orientation: Heterosexual 

Family:

Unnamed Thornwood Sound parents

Lampreyface || ex-wife, Thornwood Sound fellow

Otterpaw || son, Thornwood Sound student

Harrierpaw || son, Thornwood Sound student

Cricketpaw || daughter, Thornwood Sound seer’s student

Residency: Murrelet’s Residency 

[foxglovesound]

Can we get more info on Holly and Ember's relationship? What about Lamprey and Elm's? I'm also curious about otterpaw and that kitten that had a prophetic dream earlier in the comic, I don't remenber their name.... Only that he had the biggest hair bang... Love them honestly

oh oh sure :D!!

Emberstorm + Hollycloud: These two!! Actually have a lot in common! Their fathers died when they were young (Burnetpelt for Holly, Skipperscale for Ember+Copper), they had close family members who were manipulated by Snowstar (Gorsefang and Copperclaw), and also their personalities kinda round each other out! Emberstorm is a rambunctious and pretty fiery lass, whereas Hollycloud is much more calm and level-headed (he’s very slow to anger -- i think the only time he actually got vicious in the comic itself was when he smacked snowstar in the face and the final battle scenes). They’re already pretty close friends, having bonded through their loss of a parental figure, and eventually Emberstorm helps Hollycloud move on from Otterflower (the two still remain best friends of course :>) and she+hollycloud end up as a couple instead ^v^! very very quick rundown but i dont wanna ramble too much, but theyre a very fun dynamic i hope i can explore some more in writing and art ! an underappreciated friendship :]  Lamprey + Elm: They were pretty close when they were younger. Elmfoot was surprisingly nice to Lampreyface (for reasons unknown to either of them, Lamprey’s pretty sure it was just because she was pretty and could kick his ass); he was a bully to other cats when he was younger, but when Lamprey was around she usually tempered his shitty attitude and she was quick to comfort cats who he picked on (like gorsefang.... gorsefang resented her for a little while but came back around to her when she stuck up for them, and then grew closer to her when their sons became best friends). Elmfoot had signs that he was a shitty dude but with how sweet and doting he was to Lampreyface, she hoped it was just a kinda “jerk with a heart of gold situation” -- when they had kits and Elmfoot started acting weird, she got suspicious. When it was found out how he was treating Otterpaw, Lampreyface flew off the handle and had to be restrained from almost killing him during his exile -- she’s pretty disgusted with him and how he hid his true colors, and if she ever saw him again (which she does eventually) it’d be on sight :’) it still hurts her though because he had been so kind to her at first, the shift came slow but terrifying nonetheless so shes got complicated good memories as well as horrible horrible memories with him. shes opted to just not talk about him at all though which is why lamprey never told cricket about her father 

Otter + Cricket (the kitten with the prophetic omen in the beginning): Cricketkit is Otterflower’s baby sister! She was born like, a little bit after Elmfoot was gone (he was exiled at the very beginning of Lamprey’s second pregnancy). Otterflower absolutely adores his baby sister and since he was training to be a caretaker during her time in the nursery, the two of them were exceptionally close and he absolutely adored her (and she’s probably the closest to him out of any of her brothers). Eventually, Cricketpaw would be apprenticed to Cuckoochirp which Otterflower would naturally greatly support -- her full name was gonna be Cricketshine due to her knack for prophecy and omen deciphering / openness :]c

[foxglovesound]

oooh can you go into what your plan was for the story of snowstar's supporters who lived? i'm especially curious about acornbee, since her connection to snowstar made me realize that you don't often see villains such as snowstar who have a healthy romantic relationship with someone. (it at least appeared healthy in the comic!)

 EEP THANK YOU it was intended to be a healthy relationship! OR WELL I’m not sure if it would be healthy truly considering Acornbee did like, enable Snowstar a lot, and they were two toxic people placed together, but I did want to portray in the comic that they did genuinely both love each other. They loved each other and they actually would have been pretty decent parents to their kits had they stayed around (but that doesn’t change the fact that Acornbee straight up abandoned them sooo... no matter how many ifs or buts they aren’t good people for sure) but that was an intentional thing! I wanted my villains to be rounded, so while they weren’t good people at all, they still had some interesting qualities that balanced them out, you know? Not pure evil, but just because they had the capability of doing nice things from time to time that did not justify or excuse at all what they did.

As for the villains and supporters!! I’ll do a brief little list right here under the cut :>!!

Acornbee - Touched upon it a bit already, but essentially she would try to kill Minkstar as an act of revenge and when that failed, she would have run away from the territories and never returned. Her kittens would be taken in by Minkstar and Blackcloud to raise instead, and Acornbee would essentially just fall off the radar, living the rest of her days as a loner. 

Copperclaw & Gorsefang - While not necessarily villains, I do consider these two antagonists in the comic because they do support Snowstar at first! They’re separated from the rest of the villain cast though because they weren’t really doing this of their own free will; at first they looked up to and admired Snowstar, but later they began to realize she was wrong and doing horrible things, but at that time Snowstar began threatening the lives of Hollycloud and Emberstorm so neither Gorsefang nor Copperclaw felt safe enough to rebel against her. Gorsefang would end up being spurred into action against Snowstar by Blackcloud’s support and comfort and would end up killing Raintail -- the tom who had the final killing blow on Burnetpelt, as well as executed Antfoot, and also was friends with Elmfoot. Copperclaw would end up tackling her sister Emberstorm during the final confrontation to beg her to stop fighting and then would run off once she realized Emberstorm was fighting against Snowstar. Copperclaw was very young and manipulated by Snowstar so she was very conflicted, scared, and confused over what happened; she spent a few moons away from RiverClan but came back around before the third moon arrived. Minkstar takes her back in and Copperclaw works to rebuild her standing in RiverClan, whereas Gorsefang stayed the entire time and spent that time also working to rebuild their standing in RiverClan. Gorsefang and Chubstream would actually end up finding love with each other too and they’d become romantic partners :>

Raintail, Toadtail, Elmfoot, Commapelt, Sandwhisker, Harrierheart & Loachpelt - Grouping them all together since they’re supporting villains/back-up villains. Raintail would be killed off by Gorsefang in the final battle; Toadtail would be killed off by Owlfoot in the final battle; Elmfoot is killed off by Otterflower and Hollycloud in the final battle; Commapelt runs away after the deaths of Laurelstar and Snowstar, as well as the retreat of Yellowstar; Sandwhisker is killed by Roseface in the final battle; Harrierheart runs away permantly from the territories like Commapelt; Loachpelt is killed by Nightthroat when he and Batfoot stage a rescue mission to save Vervainstripe from being held as ThunderClan’s prisoner. 

Laurelstar & Whimbrelthroat - Together since they’re ThunderClan’s baddies. Essentially, Laurelstar would be cornered and killed off by Lionstorm after confessing she was in on the whole thing during the final battle. Whimbrelthroat would track down Vervainstripe in the middle of the final battle and attempt to kill him off, but Whinchatwhisker would rescue him and kill Whimbrelthroat instead, taking out years of pent up rage and resentment out on her sister who was at the source for all of it. There’s an old doodle on here of Vervainstripe staring in shock with a blood splatter across his face which is specifically referencing this scene of Whinchatwhisker rescuing him from Whimbrelthroat. 

Yellowstar & Redflower - After like, ages of being horrible, Yellowstar and Redflower get their comeuppance. Redflower is cornered by Vervainstripe and Nightthroat and attacked pretty badly by the both of them (though it’s not,, uncalled for considering Redflower literally uh tortured Vervainstripe :| ) and Redflower retreats, badly wounded but alive. Yellowstar also ends up retreating from final battle alongside Redflower. There’s some details provided in the screenshot below but as an abridged version: basically, she and Redflower have kits for the sole purpose of carrying on Aspenstar’s lineage. Redflower succumbs to his injuries soon after and Yellowstar still isn’t being treated for her wounds; she ends up having her kits and they get taken to RiverClan much to her hatred. She confronts Roseface again (which, fun fact btw: she and Sandwhisker are the ones who ripped out his eye so by this time in the timeline he has scars just like Minkclaw’s -- which pissed yellowstar off MORE), they have a fight, and Yellowstar ends up dying of her wounds alone and stranded from the Clans.

So, basically, a lot of the supporting cast antagonists do actually die, just not all right away !

[foxglovesound]

28!

28. something about [them]

“Way to lose to a kittypet, Burnetpaw!” Elmfoot sneers from where he stands across the clearing, and one of the mentors overlooking the training session shoos him along, telling him that if he’s just gonna point and laugh then he can go make himself useful doing something else.

Gorsepaw hops off of Burnetpaw, trying to keep their dejected mood from reflecting in their expression, but to no avail - Burnetpaw catches on and lightly taps his tail against Gorsepaw’s.

“Don’t let Elmfoot get to ya!” The lanky apprentice grins, his nose crinkling up in that endearing way, “Ever since he got his warrior name, it’s like all the sense in his head got replaced by hot air and sheep fluff.”

Gorsepaw snorts at Burnetpaw’s comment, before eyeing the bushes that Elmfoot disappeared behind, still rustling from the previous moment, “I have no idea what Lampreyface sees in him.”

“Me neither,” Burnetpaw shrugs, “But he’s nicer to her than he is to everyone else. I guess there’s just something about him that she likes.”

There’s just something about him. That phrase strikes a cord in Gorsepaw’s chest and they don’t know why, they simply laugh and nod along and pounce on Burnetpaw once more, teasing him for not paying enough attention on the battle field. 

There’s just something about him. The thought echoes in Gorsepaw’s head as they trot back into camp, laughing alongside Burnetpaw, watching with a warming feeling blooming in their chest as the light casts Burnetpaw in a glowing golden light, almost as bright as his laughter is to Gorsepaw’s ears.

[foxglovesound]

hey. this was the first thing ive drawn in like 3 days. 

[sadly-unfortunate]

💙