Dark Forest Resident: Shrikepollen
Aliases / Nicknames: Kit-Killer, The Cruel She-cat
Sexuality: heterosexual, heteromantic
Family: unnamed mother, Gingernose (mate), Flintkit, Tinykit, Mothkit (sons), Emberkit, Sparkkit (daughters), Falconstar (aunt)
Other relations: unnamed mentor, Cloverclaw (apprentice)
Characteristics: kills in order to keep her strongest kit alive. Stern, rude, graceful, resourceful
Murder Method: suffocation, blunt force, impalement
Known Victims: Cloverclaw, Mothkit, Sparkkit
Cause of Death: blunt force trauma, impalement
Cautionary Tale: the story of Shrikepollen is used to warn queens not to lean to favourtism during tough times, and that sometimes doing anything for your kit isn’t always right
Shrikepollen had a rough childhood, but her mother tried her best. Due to the small size of the clan, Shrikekit was often left alone in the nursery for hours on end and grew up quite isolated.
The few times she tried to play with her Clanmates, they pushed her away saying they had work to do. Shrikepaw grew bitter, and vowed to make sure her future kits had a better kithood than she had.
Her mother passed, and Shrikepollen felt guilty for not grieving much. While the cats around her grieved the loss, she threw herself into hunting and grew into one of the top warriors in her Clan. Falconstar, her aunt, didn’t direct much attention towards her and she was quite satisfied that her Clanmates could never use that against her. It was a fact that she had earned her status fairly.
Gingernose, a large stocky tom with russet-orange fur was one of the Clan’s best hunters and the two were often paired up on hunting missions. With few kits born each year, the clan was ecstatic when she announced that they were having kits.
It was a tough leaf-bare, and when Shrikepollen gave birth to five gorgeous kits, the camp buzzed with a new energy. EmberKit, FlintKit, SparkKit, and MothKit were all born perfectly healthy, with FlintKit being the strongest of the litter.
TinyKit was born blind and deaf, and was sacrificed to the SharpTooth Spirits at the sharp stones. Despite this being a common thing, Gingernose was devastated at the loss of his young son and stopped eating. He refused to hunt and snapped at most cats who tried to speak with him.
Shrikepollen didn’t understand this, having it been a typical thing growing up for kits to be sacrificed, and they rarely spoke after that.
A plague of starvation and greencough spread through the Clan, claiming many lives. When her kits were nearly two moons old, Shrikepollen was tasked with burying her former mate.
With her kits growing thinner by the day, she led them out to the grave one night and asked them to close their eyes. She dug his body out of the deep snow, slicing a chunk of flesh out with her claws before covering the body once more. Her kits ate well that night, and for many days after.
However, Gingernose had been a small cat, and with her kits growing she needed more food for them. Sparkkit was loud and rambunctious, and Shrikepollen decided she wouldn’t be a good warrior out in the cliffs.
She pressed her paws down on the kit's throat while everyone was sleeping, and let out a devastated yowl in the morning that Sparkkit had died in her sleep. Blinking back tears, Shrikepollen insisted on burying the kit herself. She dug a small grave, a large grin on her face.
Clan life continued on like usual, and her kits had an extra meal the next two nights.
MothKit was next. He was far too sensitive anyway, she thought as she suffocated him.
The Clan grew antsy. Her remaining two kits were treated well, and Shrikepollen was satisfied for now. Not long after, Emberkit caught greencough and passed in her sleep. At this she was truly shocked, and grieved deeply for her daughter.
Flintkit stuck by her side all day, and at five moons old he was still very thin. She felt bad as he unknowingly ate his sisters flesh. But she was saving him, wasn’t she?
Cloverclaw grew suspicious of Flintkit’s plump belly as her own kit died, and followed the pair and watched as Shrikepollen dug up a fresh grave. She scrambled away in the thick snow, rushing back to camp to tell Falconstar what she had seen.
Shrikepollen gave chase, Flintkit following in confusion. When they arrived at camp, Cloverclaw had already told everyone what Shrikepollen had done. As the Clan turned hateful and disgusted looks towards her, she let out a yowl and threw herself at Cloverclaw.
The two went rolling off the cliffs, and the last thing Shrikepollen heard was Flintkit yelling out to her as the two queens slammed into a boulder.
--Falconstar was horrified after this, and took Flintkit—later Flintstripe—as her apprentice.
--Flintstripe grew incredibly quiet after this, preferring not to speak in general.
--Shrikepollen genuinely believed she made the right decision, even after death.
--Submission by @wills-woodland-warriors sorry it took a while, exams are coming up!
--I like the name ‘Shrikepollen.’ Also her story of feeding other cats to her kits rather than just herself is an interesting twist.
--She has a near-permanent scowl and dull green eyes. Later in life she was very scrawny, her ribs jutting out at all times.
