"Don't tell me you want me to kit-sit so you and Sandstorm can go out hunting," Cinderpelt joked. "I don't think I could possibly stop Squirrelkit from getting into the herb storages if she really wanted to."
"Not quite," he said. "Leafkit wants to be a medicine cat. I wanted to ask if you would take her on as your apprentice.
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Firestar asks Cinderpelt if she'll take on his daughter as her apprentice.
https://archiveofourown.org/works/77451331
I haven't posted my own writing/warrior cat stuff for months I think? It WILL happen again. Anyway, here's a one-shot I wrote! It will also be under the read more.
The leaves on most of the trees in the forest were still green, but a chill in the wind betrayed the fact that greenleaf was losing its battle to leaf-fall. Firestar sat under the Great Sycamore, eyes closed, listening to the rustling of a nearby mouse.
Suddenly, there was a loud crunch as another cat pounced and landed on a few leaves which had already fallen. He opened his eyes to see Cinderpelt with a pawful of sycamore leaf. "Aw, mouse-dung," Cinderpelt said. "I almost had it."
"There'll be another mouse," Firestar said, taken back to several seasons prior when she had been his apprentice and would have barely been able to stop talking his ear off to try and pounce on a mouse. Now, she readied herself again, shifting slightly uncomfortably to keep her balance.
"Hold on for a second," he said, and she sat up. "I've got something I want to ask you."
"Don't tell me you want me to kit-sit so you and Sandstorm can go out hunting," Cinderpelt joked. "I don't think I could possibly stop Squirrelkit from getting into the herb storages if she really wanted to."
"Not quite," he said. "Leafkit wants to be a medicine cat. I wanted to ask if you would take her on as your apprentice."
"I don't know if I'm old enough for an apprentice."
"Neither did Spottedleaf. I hope you live for seasons and seasons, but we can never be too careful." Cinderpelt was still hesitating, so he continued, "I can't make you take her, but you know her. You know she doesn't want to be a warrior."
"I know. I just don't know if she knows what she's getting herself into." Cinderpelt sighed, and she looked far older than her 24 or so moons, far older than the wide-eyed apprentice Firestar sometimes still saw her as. "The life of a medicine cat is a lonely one."
"She'll always have Squirrelkit," Firestar said. "And she'll have you, too. I can think of no one better to trust my daughter with."
"It's not just that. It's StarClan, too. That's not a thing I can teach, and..." Cinderpelt stared up at the canopy of the forest. "I wish Yellowfang was still here."
"I do too." He looked up as well, wondering if she could see them. As he watched, a lone yellow leaf fluttered off the Great Sycamore and landed gently on Cinderpelt's nose. She stared at it for a long moment, nearly cross-eyed, til the wind blew again and it flew off.
"I'll take her," Cinderpelt said. "Leafkit will be my apprentice." A hint of mischief crept in her voice. "After all, I've learned from the best."
"You flatter me."
"Not you, mouse-brain. Yellowfang!"
Firestar made an "oof" noise, feigning offense. Cinderpelt purred with amusement, before suddenly going stock-still, ears pricked. Firestar had barely had time to straighten up and listen himself before she leapt, and this time came up with a brown field mouse.
"Maybe you learned something from me after all," he said.
Cinderpelt turned toward camp with the field mouse dangling from her jaws. "Don't count on it."
I haven't seen much of the worst surrounding Moonpaw and her lineage, but if you're out here calling the kitty cat the r-word, or believe Moonpaw deserves to fucking die because of her being inbred, or making jokes about her being deformed, or any of that shit?
Unfollow me now.
I won't stand ableists and bigots on my blog, and if I find out, I'll block you first.
I generally don't get involved in warriors disk horse because I'm here for a good time and have other things to do than fight about cat books, but I've seen a couple takes (not going to hunt down screenshots or anything) recently that I feel like I need to say something about.
Thrushpelt is not a groomer just because he interacts with Bluepaw in a positive manner like one time while he's a warrior and she's not. (I checked Bluestar's Prophecy-- they have three interactions with each other before she becomes a warrior, all while she's an apprentice. The first is that he's impressed about her catching prey her first time out hunting. The second is him saying that she can't challenge the medicine cat. The third is him saying "may StarClan guide your paws" to her and Snowpaw when they go hunting together. They don't interact at all when she's a kit). If you think a mildly positive interaction between a child and an adult is equal to grooming, that's something you should probably do some thinking about.
In a similar vein, it's not "creepy" for Thrushpelt to not correct people when Bluefur lets the Clan think the kits are his because he's "in it to make people think they're mates". It's not some "doing the bare minimum" thing. It's helping out a friend of his for no benefit of his own because he's a nice guy. Again, if you think some guy doing a favor for someone he once had a crush on is somehow creepy and him trying to make a move, that's a reflection on you.
You're allowed to not like characters for "no reason", but you don't have to go out of your way to give yourself "a good reason" that's in no way supported by the narrative.
time for my semi-regular firing a shotgun to keep the property values low:
Squirrelflight did not cause Ashfur's breakdown (and even if she had, that's not worth trying to kill her kids over) and did not deserve the treatment she got from Brambleclaw/star
If you could move a villain from one arc or super edition into a different arc or super edition who would you move? Do you think they'd be more or less effective?
hmmm.... thinking about it, it might be cool if tpb ended sort of inconclusively. maybe tigerclan got disbanded or maybe never just got off the ground, but tigerstar is still leader of shadowclan and he's a menace but he's not really doing anything super turbo evil, and then the new prophecy rolls around, and he takes the great journey as his time to take over all four Clans once and for all, positioning his kids to take over thunder and river for him. tallstar keeling over and dying might kick things off but it's more of the straw that broke the camels back
after all, there is a whole thing where firestar leads the four clans during that winter. maybe in the chaos of journeying as one group tigerstar pulls in his old friends and just kinda goes "new territory, new way of doing things :)"
i think it would be a fun arc. probably more political, at least at first, but you could get tigerstar in full charismatic glory, something i think we were really told about more than shown in tpb
WindClan World Building (Pre-Heatherstar, the "Golden Age")
WindClan was once one of the largest Clans, maintaining one of the largest territories. The moor-runners and the tunnelers almost function as separate Clans in day-to-day life, though they
WindClan has two deputies, a moor-runner and a tunneler. They're known as "first" deputy and "second" deputy. First deputy almost always is from the opposite group as the leader (so if the leader is a tunneler, the first deputy is a moor-runner) and the second deputy is almost always from the same group as the leader (leader is a tunneler -> second deputy is a tunneler). First deputy is usually the one to become the leader on the current leader's death. This serves to keep the leadership unbiased toward one group, as the leader is expected to serve the entire Clan, while the deputies serve as the voices for their respective groups.
Additionally, all apprentices must train as both a moor-runner and a tunneler until such a point where they can pass a minor assessment from both groups. At that point, they are allowed to choose which group to finish their training under, and are at last assigned a proper mentor. Prior to that point, they are trained in general knowledge by any cat in both groups who is down for the task, although it usually ends up being the messengers. As a result, WindClan apprenticehood lasts substantially longer than the other Clans'.
Speaking of the messengers, both the tunnelers and the moor-runners have a "messenger" role, which is filled by the fastest cat in the group. This cat serves as the one to come ask for help during fights, as well as carry messages to and from the groups to the leadership, back at the main camp in the center of the territory. Many cats in WindClan do not stay in the main camp outside of kithood, elderhood, and sickness, although they will come back for urgent Clan business or for ceremonies. These cats instead stay at smaller camps set up around the territory, leading to an easier time when working on something far from the center of the territory.
