Dark Forest Resident: Timberfoot
Aliases / Nicknames: Tumblefoot. Tiiiiimbeeerrrfoot
Gender: male
Sexuality: homosexual
Family: unnamed mother, unnamed father, unnamed aunt, Lightkit (adoptive daughter)
Other Relations: Acornlight (close friend)
Clan: ShadowClan
Rank: warrior
Characteristics: externally confident, internally anxious, self-doubtful, friendly, suffers from seasonal depression, misses his friend
Murder Motive: vengeance
Number of Victims: 1
Number of Murders: 1
Murder Method: poisoning
Known Victims: Needletoe
Victim Profile: those that caused his friend's death, those that caused his friend's kits' deaths, those that caused his adoptive daughter's death, the medicine cat
Cause of Death: hyperthermia / heat stroke
Cautionary Tale: listen to your patients when they tell you something is wrong
Story:
It was nothing, at first, just a mild headache, a weak stomachache. Acornlight went to the medicine den, and all was well.
She soon found out that she was expecting kits. She and Timberfoot were delighted! Though he was not the father and they would never consider even raising kits together, she was still happy and he was happy for her.
They were good friends, have been for many moons. They would goof off together, share jokes and laughs. But it wasn't all fun and games, they would also have serious conversations. When Timberfoot's mate broke up with him, it was Acornlight he sought out for comfort, and she provided it. When Acornlight was nervous about anything, she went to Timberfoot for advice before anyone else.
Acornlight had even saved Timberfoot's life. That was how they became such good friends, when previously they had simply been amicable Clanmates.
During a battle, Timberfoot had slipped, hitting his head and knocking him unconscious. Seeing this, Acornlight had raced over to him and stood over him protectively, chasing away anyone who dared go near until at last the fight was over and she and a few other Clanmates were able to drag him to safety.
Timberfoot was in the medicine den with her--due to the wounds she got while fighting cats off--and the two realized how similar they were.
How ironic that such a pleasant memory could become so vile.
Initially, they had thought that Acornlight's sickness was a result of her condition. But the stomachaches and headaches kept coming back, worse and worse and worse.
It became clear that this wasn't just pregnancy sickness. Something was wrong.
She tried to talk to Needletoe, but after the first several visits, he dismissed her. Clearly, she was becoming too reliant on the herbs and just needed to rest. He couldn't keep spending his precious medicine on one cat who was probably just overreacting.
Acornlight was miserable, and Timberfoot couldn't stand seeing her in such a state. It got to the point where she couldn't leave her nest. Sweat soaked into the moss of her bedding. Moans of pain filled the nursery. Her eyes were always screwed tight, until she couldn't even muster the strength to so much as furrow her brows and just laid there, struggling to breathe.
She was burning. Timberfoot knew it from when she was still able to speak. Everything burns. It's-I'm on fire, everything's on fire. Her words had become screeches clawing through her throat as she rolled desperately in her nest, trying to make the excruciating pain end. It burns! It burns! It burns!
Timberfoot's heart broke, seeing her in such agony.
Yet Needletoe still did nothing. He gave her poppy seeds to help her sleep, and promised to get her something more if the pain continued, a promise he never kept.
Timberfoot rarely ever left her side, only leaving for necessities and to hound Needletoe into finally doing something useful.
Then the kits came.
But Acornlight...she was so gone. Her eyes were glazed over, her claws unsheathed for so long, thrashing and gripping that they had become stuck.
She was dying. There was no denying it. Timberfoot felt sick all the way to the bones, a nausea that threatened to flood his entire body.
He never witnessed kitbirth before, but he knew enough that it was one of the most painful things a cat could go through, yet here Acornlight was, not even reacting, in too much pain to even move anymore. Or maybe she was already on her way to StarClan...
Timberfoot stayed with her all the way through, grooming her in comfort, murmuring encouragements, even though he knew it didn't matter anymore. He still wanted to hold onto his friend for as long as he possibly could.
Needletoe didn't seem bothered at all by this, focused on delivering the kits. Timberfoot watched, frozen, unable to breathe or blink, hoping for the best but fearing--knowing--the worst.
The first kit, a beautiful little tom. His ribs poked out of his skin, and his muzzle was short and his tail bent. Dead before he was even born.
The second kit, another tom, had the same fate.
Timberfoot didn't think his heart could sink any lower, but somehow, with each stillborn kit, it dug deeper and deeper.
Meow!
One little kit had survived. A she-kit that looked just like her mother. She was weak and abnormally small, but she was alive. She would be nursed by Specklemist, a Clanmate who had recently become pregnant and would be moving into the nursery shortly.
But though she would be nursed by Specklemist, Timberfoot would be the one to raise her. He made a vow in that moment, to the little kit and to Acornlight.
He only left her with Specklemist long enough to sit vigil for Acornlight and her fallen kits, and to bury them in her favourite spot beneath the pines.
As soon as he was done, he returned to Lightkit, who was full, and curled around her in a clean, comfortable nest, hugging her close as his tears fell silently.
When he woke up, she was cold and still.
And he was furious. Losing Acornlight was enough, but this--this sent him over the edge.
Needletoe killed her.
Needletoe killed Acornlight.
Needletoe killed Lightkit.
Needletoe killed all of the kits.
Acornlight spent two moons in excruciating agony until it finally killed her and all of her kits. It killed her and took everything that was left of her with it.
All because of Needletoe!
Timberfoot wanted to kill him, wanted to make him suffer. He was going to make him suffer.
It burns! It burns! It burns!
And he knew exactly how he would do it.
Simply killing Needletoe with fire wouldn't be enough. It was far too quick, and there was too great a risk it would spread to innocent cats.
No, Acornlight had felt fire scorch her insides, and that's exactly what will happen to Needletoe.
He patrolled, trying to think, or to distract himself or just get away from it all. That's when he overheard a mother kittypet talking to her kits about the plants in their garden. She warned them not to eat it, that it would burn them up inside and make them incredibly sick.
Timberfoot didn't trick the medicine cat. He followed him on his way to the Half-Moon meeting, and when he was in a perfect spot--too far for the camp to hear and too far for the other medicine cats to hear--he struck, pummeling and slashing at Needletoe until he was too weak to stand.
Then, he presented him with the 'herbs,' telling him exactly what they would do, and that if Needletoe didn't eat them by choice, then Timberfoot would break his jaw open and stuff them down his throat by force. Seeing the look in his eyes, Needletoe could not see a single word of a lie.
It is interesting to think that just two moons ago, heck, even less than that, Timberfoot would have never imagined doing something so cruel. It wasn't who he was--back then, at least. He was not one to even the score, to deliberately hurt someone and find satisfaction in their pain.
But something in him broke when Acornlight died. Any light that was left in his life faded to nothing when her only surviving kit perished with her and Timberfoot woke up to a cold and lifeless tiny body in his embrace.
Now, he saw the red streaks that marked Needletoe's body and craved slashing him more until he was completely red.
Now, he watched as Needletoe screamed, struggled, and convulsed, all with a blank expression.
Needletoe vomited, first something yellow, then pink, and then fully red. He finally stopped moving just before the sun rose.
Leaving his body there, Timberfoot followed the horizon. Though he still had other friendships and connections, he was a shell of himself now. There was nothing left.
He walked endlessly for days on end.
Then he began to burn.
Additional Information:
--His nicknames come from when he slipped in battle, and also because @meowstival suggested the name Tumblefoot
--The plants he gave to Needletoe was a mix of stinging nettle and either pain bush or manchineel, both of which cause painful blisters. Don't know if they can cause those internally, but for the sake of the story, let's say they do. Manchineel can also cause strong allergic-like reaction.
--The two plants are not native to the Clans, but the Twolegs brought them for their garden. It's all a mix of circumstances and right place, right time for Timberfoot to find them and to hear that kittypet.
--Needletoe wasn't malicious, just a terrible, terrible medicine cat.