Not sure I’m going to write an update for every moon for Rumbleclan because I’m learning that’s not how I like to play, but anyway. An update under the cut in case you’re interested.
A former kittypet named Pollenfur joined Rumbleclan during Moon 1. She and Longstar got really close over the next several moons.
Longstar still loved his mate Finchirp, but he and Pollenfur both equally adored each other (like over 50 in their romantic like bars). Pollenfur was even very platonically close with Finchchirp as well. So the three of them could have been very happy together. For some reason though the two never confessed their feelings or became mates.
Longstar and Finchchirp found and adopted 3 orphaned kits. Which eventually grew and got apprenticed.
One of their kits, Brakenpaw got yellow cough and then shortly after Pollenfur got a broken bone from fighting a badger.
Then during moon 23 they both hecking died.
And I would have thought that because Longstar and Pollenfur had such high platonic and romantic like that the game would have given Longstar the greiving condition, but it didn’t.
(I tried to code it in myself but it made the game crash when I tried to progress time so…)
Then during moon 24 another one of Longstar’s kits got taken by twolegs.
Two cats meet for the first time under not great circumstances.
It was a quiet night to die.
Longlegs lay at the base of a dead tree - trunk split by a lightning strike long ago - and gazed up at the clouds lazily drifting above him. One particularly slow moving cloud partially obscured the moon cutting it into a half circle and causing the night around him to dim. Now that it was leaf-fall, most of the noise making insects, the crickets and cicadas, had gone silent, so Longlegs had nothing to listen to except the breeze in the grass and his own ragged breathing.
There was a wound in the side of his neck where one of his clanmates - former clanmates - had clamped down and torn flesh. The pain of it muted the other injuries, a bite on his tail, on his hind leg, a tear in his left ear. But even the opening in his neck had begun to go numb, pain dulling to more of a buzz in the back of his head. Longlegs could feel his lifeblood warm in his fur, slick on the ground beneath him and knew he was dying.
He wasn't really afraid of death, not really. Joining his ancestors in Starclan was a much preferable alternative to living another nightmarish day as a warrior of Teethclan. It was just that, Longlegs felt like he had never really gotten to live. Fighting every day in Teethclan just to keep his head above water couldn't really be called living. He was only 45 moons. Only 45 moons and had done nothing notable in his life except be left for dead by the cats he'd once called his clan.
Longlegs flinched as there was a sudden pressure against the wound in his neck. His eyes fluttered open - he didn't remember having closed them - and a strange cat was sitting next to him, pushing moss against his wound.
Longlegs blinked slowly, he didn't recognize this cat. Not a member of Teethclan for sure, a member of one of their neighboring clans? The strange cat was smaller than Longlegs - but nearly every cat was - and calico in coloration, small patches of orange and white splashed on a black background. Their long silky fur was tangled with burs in some places, the spots that were hard to reach. Whoever this cat was, it looked like they had been on their own for quite some time.
Sensing Longlegs staring, the other cat grinned down at him and Longlegs was struck by their bright, two colored eyes, one yellow and one blue. There was something behind those eyes, something alive that Longlegs had never seen before in any other cat, even the most avid warriors of Teethclan. Something inside him told him that whatever was there was dangerous, but a louder part told Longlegs that he could trust this strange cat.
"Hey, fella. You picked the wrong fight huh?" The calico said. Longlegs frowned, his meows were strange, an accent he had never heard before. It was slightly difficult to make out what the other cat had said.
"I didn't pick the fight," Longlegs replied. He flicked his tail anxiously but then stopped wincing in pain.
The new cat crouched down and began licking the blood from Longleg's fur without asking. "Hey!" Longlegs hissed, he would have pulled away if he had the energy, "what do you think you're doing?"
The calico side-eyed him but didn't back away. "I'm sorry," he mewled between licks, "I wasn't aware you wanted to attract predators with the scent of your blood."
"I don't even know you!" Longlegs retorted, forcing down a shudder at the feeling of the other cat's tongue on his skin.
"Hmmm," the calico considered this then pointed out, "that's a fair point I guess, but I don't know you either."
"I'm Longlegs," Longlegs replied, "now you give me your name."
The other cat licked Longlegs' blood from his lips. "My housefolk called me Biscuit," he replied, the energy behind his eyes sparking, "but if you call me that I'll open a new hole in your neck that will be sure to kill you." Longlegs believed him, the teeth behind the strange cat's lips were razor sharp. "Now are we properly introduced enough for me to continue?"
Longlegs simply hummed in response and allowed the calico to continue grooming his fur. "So you're a kittypet?" he asked as the other cat worked.
"Not anymore," he replied, "they dumped me awhile ago."
"Oh," Longlegs didn't know what to say to that, "I'm sorry."
The calico pinned him under his piercing gaze again. "Why?" he meowed, "I'm glad. I hated every second I had to spend in that damned twoleg den."
"Have you been on your own long?" Longlegs wondered.
The other cat moved down Longlegs' back and this time he couldn't help but shudder. "A pawful of moons," he replied, "I've been traveling around."
"By yourself," Longlegs mewed, "Haven't you thought about joining a clan?"
The calico shrugged, "Never really got the whole "clan" thing. Why rely on others for things you can do yourself?"
"But-" Longlegs took a moment to organize his thoughts, "You're helping me. If I was by myself I would have died."
"You still might die," the other cat pointed out.
"I still might die," Longlegs agrees, "but at least I have a chance of living now. So why did you help me?"
The calico considers for a moment before saying simply, "Just felt like it, I guess."
Longlegs narrowed his eyes, of all the answers the other cat could have given, that was not one he expected.
"Well," the calico stood up and Longlegs’ eyes followed the movement, "I'd better go catch something for you to eat." Longlegs didn't reply, he just watched the other cat silently pad into the shadows of the sparse forest.
Laying there quiet and still, Longlegs chewed on what the odd cat had said. He had never known that there were cats like him, cats that would help a stranger just because they "felt like it". If a Teethclan cat had ever come across someone wounded, they likely would have toyed with the poor cat before delivering the finishing blow, they definitely would have never stopped to help.
Longlegs wondered if all former kittypets were like the calico, or perhaps this sort of kindness was very strange for any cat. He thought that he would like to find out.
