#rushtree

[residences-of-the-darkforest]

Rushtree would LOVE Basiltooth's bugs because Martenstep taught him to respect and be curious about all creatures

then through him he would meet Sparktail and cats would be like "careful, Spark, you'll scare him if you light a fire, you know how others are"

and Rushtree is like "no, no, that's so cool! You can make fire?! Can you show me how??"

because just like his mentor, he is also just a big ball of friend

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@elementaldeityoffood

[residences-of-the-darkforest]

Another apprentice that Rushtree takes under his wing!

Don't know their name yet, but they are based off the indri lemur! Markings change slightly, so I went with this specific picture.

He's a cis male and grows to be big and muscular, with a constant angry-face as his normal face. He also has fantastic eyelashes and will show them off. He also likes being called "pretty" over handsome.

He doesn't have to choose between the stereotypically masculine rough-and-tumble lifestyle with a deep voice and broad body and the stereotypically feminine traits of loving+talking about his looks, being petty at times, and being very loving and talkative. He can and will do ALL those things, thank you very much.

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He also likes snakes, even though (if he's a Dark Kit), he never saw one for himself, and likes to ask Doesong about them.

@elementaldeityoffood

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Base: F2U Cat base by hendrixdoodles on DeviantArt

[residences-of-the-darkforest]

I was thinking....

What if Rushtree DIDN'T leave StarClan voluntarily?

What if he was exiled?

But what would someone as kind as him do to be sent to the Dark Forest?

Maybe a justified murder? Maybe he saw another StarClan cat was fading, in pain and suffering, and he tried everything to help them to no avail, so he, at the cat's request, did the only thing he could do to help them. The cat was fading anyway, soon they would disappear. Isn't a quick death (or as quick as the death of a spirit can be) more merciful than one that may span for several more, agonizing years?

So he does it, even though everything in him screams not to. Because he doesn't want anyone to hurt. And he lays with them as he does, comforting them as they disappear.

Then he's tackled.

[residences-of-the-darkforest]

Some concepts for Rushtree’s adoptive younger siblings that he takes under his wing

Redkit/paw, designed after the red-ruffled lemur, and currently nameless character designed after the fork-marked lemur

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Brown base

Red base: https://www.deviantart.com/syivii

gonna make an indri!

[residences-of-the-darkforest]

That did make me realize that, not including their children, Cricketfur is the only one of the group who actually belongs in the Dark Forest

Martenstep is innocent and only joined to be with him

Daisydust is innocent and only joined from StarClan to have kits

Rushtree is innocent and only joined from StarClan to help others and see the brothers again

[residences-of-the-darkforest]

is rushtree in the dark forest?

Okay initially he wasn’t and wasn’t meant to be

buuuuut

joining a place where many suffer in the hopes of helping them and wanting them to suffer less is 100% something Rushtree would do PLUS the added benefit of seeing his closest friends against

If he does go, it’ll probably be during the “StarClan cats can go to the Dark Forest see to have kits” part in new Clan history, so it wouldn’t be right after he died. Definitely after Martenstep and Cricketfur’s kits were all adults (possibly save for Martenstep and Daisydust’s litter)

I also imagine that he would have a group of Dark Forest kits and apprentices that he looks after. Possibly as a parent, But more likely as their surrogate big bro

[residences-of-the-darkforest]

since Rushtree’s design is based on a lemur I want to give him a family where everyone has a design based off a different lemur

[residences-of-the-darkforest]

Rushtree becomes the golden mentor.

He was incredibly grief-stricken for a long time when his two mentors died close to one another (official and unofficial), mentors who were like big brothers to him.

But after a long time of working through it and accepting it and feeling happy again, he becomes to apprentices what Martenstep and Cricketfur were to him.

He's patient as a saint. He listens to apprentice's questions without judgement or ridicule and responds to what they need or want. At the end of every training session or lesson, he asks them how they are doing, if there's anything they want to keep working on, if there's anything they want to talk about--related to the lesson or not.

He would be a wonderful mentor regardless of his loss, because that's just the kind cat he is, but he also does it to honour Marten and Cricket and their memory.

Sometimes--whenever he can, really, he tells stories of the brothers. He would talk about all the important stuff they taught him, he would make it clear what amazing Clanmates and friends they were, so much so that on more than one occasion a younger cat would say "I wish I could have met them!"

Too, he talks about all the fun stuff--all the times they played together, all the pranks that were pulled, the jokes that were made--all tales that never failed to make the listeners crack up when he told them.

And every time he talks about them, he can't help but feel their presence with him, warm and loving. And he knows that even if he can't see them, even if they are physically gone, the true part of them, the spirit of them both, are still right there with him.

At least, that's what he believed.