Dark Forest Resident: Hillfeather
Aliases / Nicknames: Mom, Fiona
Family: unnamed mother, unnamed father, Lampreypelt (‘mate’) Tigereyes, Frecklepelt, Cinderfoot, Kitewhisker, Leechkit(sons) Thorndapple, Hibiscusdrift, Nightpurr, Lampreykit (daughters)
Other Relations: unnamed mentor
Characteristics: kills in revenge, lashes out at the son of her abuser, formerly a kittypelt, lashes out at the son of her abuser, noticeably dull eyes
Known Victims: Streamfleck
Victim Profile: son of her abuser
Cause of Death: killed by Gorsebriar
She never wanted to go into the forest.
But when Lampreypelt squeezed in through the cat flap and suggested it when she was barely six moons old, how could she resist the promise of adventure? A full grown wild cat as her guide? Things couldn’t be better!
Then he got more insistent, refusing to let her leave the woods, promising that her new life would be better, and then ‘think about how our kits would feel if they were raised in a twolegplace!’
There was another queen in the nursery when Fiona became Hillfeather and moved into the den.
Gorsebriar. She was calm, collected, and didn’t take any nonsense. Hillfeather almost admired that until she saw Gorsebriar’s son. He was small and sickly, and-- worst of all-- he had the same dappled legs as Lampreypelt.
Hillfeather hated him from that point on. Hated the blood that he shed all over the nursery.
She smacked him if he came anywhere near her precious babies, sending him crying to the medicine den to see his mother.
Soon enough he learned to stay away, but-- just in case he didn’t take the hint, she taught all of her babies to attack any silver cat. They took the lessons to heart, and gleefully jumped at any silver cat that came near their mother. They even clawed at their father once, until he sent Tigerkit flying across the nursery, snarling at his children that if they ever so much as unsheathed a claw against him, he would make them regret being born.
Tigerkit had looked at his mother with wide eyes, and she had to look away, to hide her shame somehow.
When Streampaw finally received his apprentice name, Hillfeather was excited to have the nursery to herself. She was pregnant with another litter, after all, and could’ve used the space for her first litter.
Gorsebriar decided to keep her darling baby close, rather than putting him in the apprentice den where he belonged.
That was the straw that broke the camel’s back. Hillfeather began to unsheathe her claws when she chased him away.
Finally, she had peace and quiet.
When her first litter finally left the den, when they finally got their warrior names, and her second litter was born, tragedy struck before she could even name them.
Tigereyes led the patrol back into camp, gripping a bleeding Streamfleck in his jaws like a mother carrying a kit. Frecklepelt was beside him, carrying the corpse of Hibiscusdrift.
Hillfeather’s world stopped.
When it started again, when Lampreypelt hissed at her to move, she wailed and rushed to her baby.
The leader decided on exile after a too-long deliberation.
Hillfeather snuck past the guard, shushing Streamfleck’s pained noises as she dug her claws into his flank. Soon, her paws were coated in blood. Blood created by Lampreypelt.
She could hear her two newborns crying in the nursery as she groomed blood off her paws the next morning. Heard the anguish in Gorsebriar’s wail as she found her son’s corpse.
“A life for a life.” She murmured to herself.
Little did she know that Gorsebriar heard her.
--Submission by @ambitiousauthor
--BITCH, and hypocrite. Streamfleck was just as innocent as her own kits.
--If she never met Lampreypelt, she would’ve gone to Starclan