Dark Forest Residences: Flightfur & Lilybeak
Flightfur
Aliases / Nicknames: Love
Gender: she-cat
Sexuality: pansexual
Family: unnamed mother, unnamed father, Lilybeak (daughter), Birchkit, Sunkit (sons), Tadpoleclaw (mate, formerly)
Other Relations: unnamed mentor, unnamed apprentice, Softbark (mother-in-law)
Clan: ThunderClan
Rank: warrior
Characteristics: loves racing, good reflexes, tends to get over emotional (positively and negatively)
Murder Motive: protect her daughter
Number of Victims: 1
Number of Murders: 1
Murder Method: clawing
Known Victims: Tadpoleclaw
Victim Profile: her former mate, her daughter’s attacker
Cause of Death: throat ripped out, murdered
Cautionary Tale: ??
Story:
She was on her own the moment she became expecting.
She was delighted at first, until she shared the news with her mate and saw his face fall.
She had lost one kit the day that they were born, and her remaining son was incredibly sick, requiring attention at all times. Flightfur wasn't able to sleep for days, her worry wouldn't let her.
Her son--Birchkit--didn't live past more than a moon.
Flightfur shrank into her grief, becoming bitter and angry. Bitter at the world for stealing her children, angry at her so-called 'mate' for never comforting her or visiting them before they died.
How dare he?
How dare he bow his head at the vigil? How dare he give a speech about his poor dead children, who he never bothered to see?
All the moons Flightfur spent exhausted, ungroomed, on the verge of a breakdown!
All the times she went to him, begging for help, and he came up with excuses or promised to help 'later,' but never would.
All the worries she expressed, wishing that he would just come see his kits before it was too late, to just be with her again.
How dare he be pretending to feel the pain that was tearing Flightfur up inside?
It ate her up completely--the rage, the sorrow, the grief. It left her a shell of her former self, living day by day staring into space.
While she suffered in her misery, Tadpoleclaw moved on just fine not even a moon after his kits were in the ground.
After....how long? Moons...Years? Her daughter, her last surviving kit, was an adult now. She was walking in the forest alone, when she spotted Tadpoleclaw and Lilybeak writhing on the ground. At first, she thought that they were training, when the spray of blood hit her.
In a flash, she realized that her daughter was in danger. In that same flash, her instinct kicked in and she sprang forward, ripping Tadpoleclaw from her baby and tearing at him with her claws, screaming her hatred as she tore and tore and tore, unleashing all her hatred for him and all that he's put her through.
His face and chest were unrecognizable, marred completely by long red, ragged lines and pools of blood. When her ears stopped ringing, she heard voices behind her and sprung around to face a shocked patrol.
She tried to explain, stammering, but her heart was beating so fast and she still wasn't sure what had happened, it was all a blur...
She looked to her daughter for help. She could tell them what was going on.
Her daughter kicked that bird skull that she's been fascinated by since kithood, before telling everyone that Flightfur attacked Tadpoleclaw unprovoked.
Flightfur didn't have any time to speak a word before Tadpoleclaw's new mate leaped from the crowd and bit into her throat.
Lilybeak
Aliases / Nicknames: Weirdo, Lilyfreak, Skull-lover, Dungpelt, other various insults
Gender: she-cat, agender-leaning (she/they)
Sexuality: asexual, panromantic
Family: Finchfur (mother), Tadpoleclaw (father), Birchkit, Sunkit (brothers), Softbark (grandmother)
Other Relations: unnamed mentor
Clan: ThunderClan
Rank: warrior
Characteristics: essentially “blind” to societal norms, loves the smell of rot, loves birds, loves her skull, obsessive of her skull, always lets her skull decide her fate
Murder Motive: the skull said “negative”
Number of Victims: 6
Number of Murders: 6
Murder Method: neglecting help, lying
Known Victims: Tadpoleclaw, Finchfur, several unnamed Clanmates
Victim Profile: her father, her mother, cats in danger
Cause of Death: eye puncture, murdered
Cautionary Tale: ??
Story:
Her father was never really in the picture--it wasn't until she became an apprentice that Lilybeak even knew which warrior was him.
Her mother...Well, she was in the nursery with her, but that's as far as their interactions went, not including formal greetings or patrols. Lilybeak didn't blame her. She had lost one kit the day they were born, and Lilybeak's remaining littermate was incredibly sick, requiring attention at all times.
He didn't live past more than a moon, but instead of turning her attention to her last surviving kit, she shrank into her grief, becoming bitter and angry.
That was okay. Lilykit had her grandmother. Softbark taught Lilykit to wean, to walk, and every other important thing a young cat must know. She also taught her granddaughter special skills, like how to perfectly pluck a bird of its feathers or clean the meat completely off the bones so that nothing is wasted.
Lilykit was so proud of herself when she had finished her first--successful--clean of a crow. Softbark pulled the skull from the rest of the body and passed it to her, encouraging her to always look at it in a time of need or confusion.
She had meant for Lilykit to remember her success, but the kit took it literal.
That skull was everything to her, moreso when her grandmother passed.
Lilykit could never be sure if her mother ever heard her questions, or if she just didn't care enough to provide answers.
But that skull...She could always be sure that it was there. It would always help her, guide her.
It was simple enough. When she was plagued by a question or choice, she would gently kick the skull. If the mouth laid open, it was affirmation of the positive. If it closed, negative.
When the only guiding figure in your life is the skull of a long-dead animal, you're bound to be off when it comes to...societal norms and thought processes.
When a warrior had tried to take her skull away, thinking it junk, she had wailed and bit onto his tail so hard, she hit bone.
Her peers teased her for it, calling it gross and weird and pretending to gag at the smell when she curled up beside it while asleep.
They tried to take it from her one day as a joke...Lilypaw had to spend half a moon's worth cleaning the elders from ticks, but at least she got her point across. No one ever bothered her about her skull again. Weird glances, sure. Whispers, whatever. Lilybeak didn't care.
While others voiced their disdain of her new name, Lilybeak was delighted! Lilybeak, just like her friend!
Then that warrior...her father? Yes, she remembered, her father asked to go on a walk. When the skull confirmed that she should go, she did so, holding it delicately in her jaws.
Tadpoleclaw tried to act understanding and patient at first as he attempted to explain how strange Lilybeak's obsession was, but when Lilybeak refused to listen, he became frustrated. He asked her why she had to be so weird, doesn't she know they whisper about him too, as her father? What cats think of him to have her as a daughter?
He shouted at her to get rid of the skull or he would. Lilybeak told him that she had to ask it first. That enraged Tadpoleclaw and he tore it out of her jaws, throwing it to the ground. Then he placed a paw on it, pressing down..
Lilybeak shrieked and shoved him off, and they fell into a whirlwind of tooth and claw.
Before Lilybeak knew it, Flightfur had killed Tadpoleclaw, and a patrol was demanding what was going on. Flightfur looked at Lilybeak pleadingly, so Lilybeak gently kicked her skull to see what she should do.
It was closed. Negative. She couldn't go forward with telling the truth. So she raised her chin and announced her mother's crime.
It would only be the first time the skull had lead to someone's death.
Three times, a Clanmate was in danger--hanging from a broken branch, trapped on icy water, and faced against a badger. All three times, those Clanmates died because when faced with the choice to help or not, the answer was negative.
Not always. Sometimes it was positive, and she sprang into action and saved the cats in danger.
Whether she saved someone or didn’t had no affect on Lilybeak’s conscience. She was merely following what she was being told—that skull was for her, no one else. It was in her best interest to follow everything it told her.
If she didn’t help someone, it was probably because she would only be putting herself in danger. If she did, it meant she was safe enough to do so.
If she had told the truth about Tadpoleclaw’s death, maybe she would have been blamed as well, instead of treated as the lucky survivor of Flightfur’s rampage.
Then Lilybeak took her skull into battle. It would be hard to fight and worry tugged at her, but she needed it with her always.
Then she saw a Clanmate getting attacked by two opposing warriors. She kicked the beak…negative. She turned away.
But she hadn’t been without audience. That cat’s father had seen her neglect. He was farther and couldn’t help in time, but Lilybeak could have easily stepped in if not so obsessed with that weird beak.
Consumed by rage and grief, he snuck over to her nest that night. She slept a tail-length away from everyone else, the only one unbothered by that smell.
He picked up the skull that she loved so much, and slammed it down.
Additional Information:
—Was initially just gonna be Lilybeak, but I started writing and realized the mom has a strong motive. Flight was chosen because did her similar fur pattern.
—Lilybeak was suggested by @meowstival and @colonies-of-the-shells-and-fish !
—Because she was killed by the beak as well as buried with it (out of respect for her strange love), she has it with her in the Dark Forest.
—Both Tadpole and the dad that killed Lily are in StarClan.
—The dad slammed the skull down blindly, not really sure where he was going because cats aren’t really used to stabbing with items in their mouths. He ended up puncturing Lily’s eye, deep enough to kill her!