Dark Forest Resident: Fishoat
Aliases / Nicknames: Fishoaf. Fishbreath, Riverclan’s Cruelest Mentor
Gender: genderqueer
Sexuality: bisexual
Family: unnamed mother, unnamed father, unnamed littermates
Other Relations: Rosehop (mentor), Applepaw (apprentice), unnamed apprentice
Clan: Riverclan
Rank: warrior
Characteristics: killed those that annoyed them
Number of Victims: 1
Number of Murders: 1
Murder Method: leading to traps, leading to heron
Known Victims: Applepaw
Cause of Death: pecked to death, killed by Goldenbirch
Cautionary Tale: ??
Story:
They would be in Starclan if it weren’t for that brat.
Their life was not particularly unique. They had good friends, good family, a good mentor. If only they had a good apprentice.
Applepaw, the greatest pain in Riverclan. She was okay when the training started, but as she became older, she became worse. She stopped listening to what her mentor said, started talking back.
Everything they said was wrong, and somehow the half-trained snot knew better. Worse than ignoring them, she argued against their methods, even in front of the other mentors. Fishoat had tried to go to their den early, avoiding their whispers, but the sound still carried deep into their dreams. No, nightmares.
It didn’t help that Fishoat had a short fuse. They tried to be stricter, even came close to hitting Applepaw, claws unsheathed, but her uncle and adoptive father ripped them a new one after.
The look of Applepaw sticking her tongue out at them as they were humiliated in front of the Clan could set their lungs ablaze.
The Clans were going into shambles. When Fishoat was an apprentice, if they were hit by their mentor, they earned it, it was for their own good.
They became soft! Why do they have to put up with this snobby brat?
Then it hit them.
They don’t.
They didn’t start out so cruel, trying to talk to the leader to give Applepaw to someone else, then when that didn’t work, asked the medicine cat to convince them, also to no avail.
Yes, they could wait until she earns her name, but at the rate they were training at, that could take a year.
Of course, when you think of ‘getting rid of someone,’ even simply by associating with the words, you come to a certain dark conclusion. Horrible, maybe. Despicable, yes. But does it work? Well, unless Applepaw came back as a ghost to taunt them, yes!
It took a moon of planning, or of planning and failure. They couldn’t just kill her. They couldn’t even do so and cover her scent or leave her by the border to make it look like someone else killed her. Everyone knew the pair didn’t get along, it wasn’t worth the risk.
They would have to make it look like an accident.
A tree fell.
She dodged.
They led her into strong currents.
Too bad they taught her to be an excellent swimmer-- in the early days when she didn’t think she knew better.
They were on the verge of quitting when by chance, they saw it. A heron by the water, pecking at fish. But how to get her to get close to it? They could only trust that for once in her life, Applepaw listened to them.
They told her a fib, how their leader killed a heron on his own, and some say that’s way he became leader. But don’t worry, they’ll kill it with her, and she can have all the credit. She deserves it, for putting up with how mean they had been to her.
All they had to do was sit back and watch as the gigantic bird pecked her apart, resting calmly in the shade while she screeched for their help.
Her family was distraught, of course. Fishoat made sure to cut themself on some rocks to give the appearance of a struggle. Their story was simple, able to be made up while they carried what remained of her body. Applepaw had run off-- not uncommon for her character-- and when Fishoat found her, she was being attacked by a heron. Oh, how they tried so hard to save her.
Things were peaceful once more. The grief of Applepaw’s loved ones bothered them, so Fishoat avoided them the best they could.
Time passed, they got a new, better, apprentice that they even grew close to.
When Goldenbirch wanted to go for a walk, they thought nothing of it. That is, not until they saw the familiar white feathers. They screeched for help, but Goldenbirch only sat back in the shade.
Additional Information:
thanks to @purplegr33n for the idea!
--Goldenbirch was Applepaw’s uncle/adoptive father. He witnessed her murder and decided that instead of revealing it, he would kill Fishoat as brutally as they had killed. It just happened that a heron didn’t show up for a while.
--I like to think that the second heron is the baby to the first one.
--Fishoat goes by both he and her, and leans more on he.
