Me: Ooo lemme write a short little thing about some of my lore!
Seven Google doc pages later:
(Btw if it makes the reading experience more enjoyable for anyone, Wolfspider's voice claim is Ryan Reynolds as Deadpool)
“My head…” Twistedvine groaned, blinking his eyes open as he looked around the clearing. “Where am I?”
He slowly rose as he continued to observe his surroundings. The last thing he remembered was a stinging, sharp pain in his neck and chest, a twisted snarl and rage-filled amber eyes, set in red-and-white fur. Was this StarClan? Why did it resemble the clearing he’d died in?
He whipped his head around as a squirrel darted into the clearing, followed closely by a large, black-and-white tom. He ducked down, expecting a collision. One that never came.
He opened his eyes and looked back at the familiar tom, now able to get a clear look at him.
“Stoicclaw! I must be in StarClan if you’re here!” he approached the tom, but was ignored. Or at least, that’s what he thought at first. The other tom didn’t address or even look at him, and Twistedvine chalked it up to him still being upset about the circumstances between the two.
Until he heard his voice, or more specifically, where it came from.
“I am over here, Twistedvine…” The tom spun around to be met with a more ethereal Stoicclaw, one that was actually looking at him.
“What… but then, who is…? Where am…?” he fumbled with the questions before Houndstar, the toms’ former leader, stepped out beside his old deputy.
“You’re witnessing the reality behind how you were killed, Twistedvine,” he informed him, watching the living image of the deputy as he seemingly admired a dandelion.
”Haretail was right, they really are quite beautiful…” he meowed, the sound echoing in Twistedvine’s ears. Haretail, his mate… Bloodedsnow had mentioned how distraught she was over his death…
As if on cue, a loud rustling came from the bushes behind him, and out came a lithe, small brown-and-white tom. His green eyes glittered with malicious intent as he approached the deputy of the time.
“Ah, Snaketwist, have you found any prey yet? I’ve only been able to catch this squirrel so far,” Stoicclaw meowed as he approached the tom. Snaketwist grinned tauntingly at him.
“Really? Tell me, how have you managed to become deputy with such poor tracking skills?” he questioned as he circled the larger tom, which only served to annoy him.
”As far as I can tell, your luck has been worse. Tell me how you think you’ll ever be deputy if you keep speaking to me like that?”
”Oh, Stoicclaw, such a simple mind you have! How does a new deputy get appointed, do you think?” Snaketwist continued to circle him, his tail flicking. ”When the leader dies, the former deputy must appoint a new one in case of their death premature to leadership,” he stated matter-of-factly, watching the tom with a gradually less-focused gaze, seemingly getting bored of his antics.
”And how else?”
The large tom rolled his eyes. ”If the current deputy is exiled or killed.”
”Exactly.”
Stoicclaw, nor the witnessing cats, had any time to react before Snaketwist lunged from the side, biting lethally into Stoicclaw’s neck before kicking off of his shoulders, pushing him down with the momentum. Stoicclaw attempted to struggle to his paws, his green eyes filled with fear and rage. He attempted to protest, the sound coming out as a horrible, gurgly choke. After a few mere seconds he’d stopped breathing completely.
The three starry toms watched as Snaketwist bounded out of the clearing toward a nearby stream, presumably to clean himself off.
Shortly after, Bloodedsnow, the very cat that had killed Twistedvine seemingly minutes before, emerged from the bushes, her face filled with confusion, anger, and, most prominently, fear as her gaze shifted from where Snaketwist had disappeared to where Stoicclaw laid. She bent down towards the deputy’s body, before pressing her cheek into it, teardrops rolling down her cheeks.
“Father… how could he be so selfish…?” she murmured, and Twistedvine swore he felt his heart shatter in his chest, and one look at Stoicclaw betrayed the fact that he felt the exact same way.
”How could he do this to you…?” her voice began to fill with rage as her tail bristled. ”To our family, to us? To Mother? To my sisters? To our brother? To me, to our Clan, even?!” She raised her head as she looked around, before her gaze returned to her father’s body.
”I must tell mother about this,” she snarled before running off.
“The poor dear, she’s distraught…” Twistedvine heard a gentle voice say and turned to see Merryclaw, Snaketwist’s mother, had joined the group, alongside the small tom’s father, Lizardspot. “I cannot imagine the emotional burden she must be bearing… Or I suppose, was bearing. It’s hard losing someone you’re close to… Imagine witnessing it as well.”
“There must be something we can do…” Twistedvine pleaded, but Houndstar shook his head.
“We are witnessing events that have already happened. I’m afraid there is nothing we can do to change the past,” he reasoned as he walked up to the brown tabby.
Instantly, they were back at camp. The cats around them were clamoring as they were crowding in front of the leader’s den.
Oh no, I remember this…
Wolfspider emerged from the den, his gaze downcast and hopeless. He lifted his head to meet the gazes of the quieting cats, although the look he gave them spoke volumes.
“It’s too late… I couldn’t save him. Houndstar, as strong as he was, couldn’t beat this bout of greencough. But it’s okay!” he raised his voice over the panicking cats who’d just been informed of their leader’s death. Just beyond them, Twistedvine could see himself, exiting the medicine den unnoticed and joining the crowd of his clanmates as they began to quiet once more.
“It’s okay,” Wolfspider repeated, “because any minute now, Stoicclaw is going to walk through the camp entrance, and then, we will CALMLY inform him that Houndstar is dead and that he’s leader now. Alright? It’s not the end of the world, it’s just the end of one leadership. A lot of us have done this before! It’ll be fine! Look, there’s Snaketwist now, Stoicclaw’s gonna be close behind, alright?” The tom motioned to the camp entrance where, sure enough, Snaketwist padded in, seemingly in a rush. Twistedclaw could see the expression on Wolfspider’s face change as he noticed the pace, before the tom turned back to the crowd for a moment.
”Just, give me a second,” he requested before darting up to the small tom.
”Snaketwist, where is Stoicclaw? Houndstar just died and we could really use the deputy and his weirdly calming voice to settle the Clan down,” he demanded quietly, glancing back at the crowd.
“Is my voice really that calming?” Stoicclaw asked quietly, to which Houndstar answered, “I think that’s just a Wolfspider thing…”
The crowd of StarClan cats watched as Snaketwist fumbled for a moment before finally speaking.
”Stoicclaw’s dead…”
”HE’S WHAT?!” a voice sounded from the crowd, unidentifiable as the crowd was thrown back into chaos.
”He’s- He’s kidding! You’re kidding right? Please tell me you’re kidding,” Wolfspider almost begged, but Snaketwist shook his head.
”No, I-I just found his body out in that clearing near the border! It looked like a rogue had killed him, I ran back to tell Houndstar so he could appoint someone else!”
”No… no, this can’t be happening! Houndstar’s dead, Stoicclaw’s dead! Who’s going to lead ShadowClan if there’s no one to take over?! Oh my StarClan, that must’ve been the feeling I had when I delivered Saltkit!”
“Saltkit?”
“Haretail just had her kits- well, kit, the others didn’t exactly work out at the whole becoming kits thing, so she just had one. I had a feeling of dread when he came out, like he was going to be important in a really really bad way. Oh, StarClan, Haretail! I have to tell Haretail! No, later, right now, I need to go see StarClan. Uh, let’s see, someone young…” he looked out over the cats, still switching from topic to topic so quickly it nearly gave Twistedvine whiplash, “Sunsethop! Graysquirrel! Get ready to escort me to the Moonstone, I’ll need protection while crossing into WindClan and I know you two have a friend there!”
“Yes, sir!” the young warriors affirmed in unison as the medicine cat disappeared into his den.
“No, wait!” Twistedvine called out uselessly. These cats couldn’t hear him. He was witnessing something unchangeable, something that would alter the course of history.
And it was all his fault.
And sure enough, he saw Wolfspider emerging from the den, clutching a twisted snakeskin in his jaws. Relief and worry both took home in his eyes as he turned to the two young warriors he’d asked to escort him.
“Stand down, boys, it looks like StarClan is one step ahead of us,” he told the two who sat down with disappointed expressions, each of them mumbling their grievances
“Aww, no Moonstone trip…”
“Never get to be part of anything important…”
Wolfspider, ignoring the two, turned out to the crowd, setting the snakeskin down. A few of the cats came forward, notably Blacksand, Brittleflame, and their apprentices, the siblings Riverpaw and Bloodpaw. The two apprentices inspected the shedded skin before them.
“It’s a snakeskin!” Riverpaw remarked, Brittleflame responding with a mumbled “Evidently.”
“What kinda snake is it?” Bloodpaw asked Blacksand, who shrugged.
“I’m not quite sure, I’m not much of a snake watcher. That title goes to your father,” he gently reminded the tan she.
“It doesn’t matter what kind of snake it is, because it’s all twisted up, see? It’s a little obvious who StarClan wants as our leader,” Wolfspider told them before turning his gaze to Snaketwist, who looked genuinely surprised.
“Me?!” he questioned as a clamor rose up from the surrounding cats once more. ”StarClan wants me to lead ShadowClan?”
”It seems that way. But, are you going to accept that offer, Snaketwist?” the medicine cat asked as he stepped towards the small tom.
”O-of course, I mean, it would be an honor! I will gladly take over as leader,” he responded, bowing his head towards the medicine cat.
”Good, great, perfect, I’ll pack the travel herbs! Disaster averted,” the black and white tom mumbled the last part as he returned to his den.
Twistedvine watched as Snaketwist went to sit next to his past counterpart. He listened in as they had a hushed conversation that was all too familiar…
”A sign that chose me as leader! Why do you think that is, Twistedvine?” the small tom looked up at the taller tabby.
”Because I planted it there, obviously,” he snarled softly, his own ghost from the future mouthing with his words. ”When Wolfspider went into Houndstar’s den, I knew it would be bad news when he came out. I planted the snakeskin there because I knew we’d have little, if no time to choose a new deputy. Houndstar was too old to make it through this one…”
”That’s why I’m going to appoint you my deputy; always thinking one step ahead!” Snaketwist praised him. Oh, how Twistedvine loathed how warm it had made him feel.
”Thank you, Snaketwist. Now hurry back over, before anyone gets wise,” the large tabby warned, gently nudging the smaller tom with his tail.
Shortly after, Wolfspider returned to the clearing, beginning his rambling announcement.
”Alrighty, everyone. First thing’s first, we need to prepare for the more tragic event before we can get to the good part. Forestfire, Bloodedsnow, can you do us the favor of retrieving your father’s body? I’m asking you two because it’s a more personal loss, and I know you two, at least, will want to see him one last time before he’s all gussied up for his funeral. Believe me, I wish I could’ve seen my mom one last time before the medicine cats got to her… In fact, bring the shorty twins, too-”
”We’re not short!” Cloudednight protested, despite her and Snowynight being noticeably smaller than both of their other sisters, and their parents. If it hadn’t been for their colors and eye colors, cats may have spoken ill of Haretail’s fidelity.
”Yeah, I get it, just go get your father before he’s been medicine-ified,” he told them, and the four shes walked out of camp to retrieve their father’s body. Twistedvine realized he hadn’t even seen Bloodedsnow return. In fact, now that he thought back on it, he didn’t remember having seen her leave camp initially… for a brightly colored cat, she sure was sneaky.
”Now, everyone else, clear the area. Even though Houndstar is dead, he’s still highly contagious, and I have to do a special cleaning process before he’s cleared for a vigil. Now, move your tails back to your dens because I don’t feel like preparing more bodies than I have to this moon!” he warned the others, and slowly the other cats, including Snaketwist, retreated to their dens, Snaketwist returning to the warrior's den.
Twistedvine stepped up to Wolfspider as he watched the tom lower his head with a sigh before slowly dragging out Houndstar’s body. Houndstar padded up beside him, watching his own former, matted, black-and-brown pelt be meticulously groomed by the medicine cat, before he retreated to his den, moss tucked under his chin and an odd container of oddly-smelling liquid clenched tight in his jaws.
The StarClan cats watched in solemn silence as Wolfspider managed to wet the moss with the odd liquid before dabbing it all over the leader’s body, mumbling about how nasty it smelled to ‘most useful thing to come from a twoleg’ to his travel plans for going to the moonstone.
Soon enough, the patrol of sisters had returned with Stoicclaw’s body in tow, their faces all a trained, neutral expression, although now that he could witness it, it was painfully obvious that it was a mask they’d donned to hide that they knew.
Did Bloodedsnow tell them? Or did they smell Snaketwist’s scent on him? Are they going to tell Haretail? Why aren’t they saying anything to Wolfspider? Why aren’t they saying anything to anyone?! Twistedvine thought as they set him down.
”Thanks, girls, now, if you’ll head over to the warriors den so I can get these two set up, that’d be awesome,” the medicine cat requested, but Forestfire looked over her shoulder at her sisters.
”If it’s all the same with you, we think we’d better spend some time with Haretail… she’s probably taken this news the worst… Great StarClan, I feel so bad for her. I mean, losing Dad is hard enough, I couldn’t imagine losing what was going to be kits, too…” the tall tortie-and-white she requested. Wolfspider nodded.
”Oh, yeah, I get it, go comfort your mom, she’s going through a lot. Spend some time with your new brother, too, while you’re at it, after all, it’d be good if the first things he sees are his mom and sisters,” he assured them, and the four filed into the nursery.
Twistedvine watched as Wolfspider reached to drag the body over, before stopping with his open mouth hovering just over his scruff.
Oh no…
Wolfspider pulled back, worry and confusion decorating his gaze. He leaned in for another sniff, as though confirming.
He knows…
For the first time Twistedvine could remember, he saw Wolfspider silent. Speechless, even. The tom looked back at the warrior’s den, then back at the body before him. Despite his wordlessness, he saw how Wolfspider had all too many thoughts behind his eyes before he sighed and pulled Stoicclaw’s body next to Houndstar’s, giving it a similar treatment as before.
“It is… odd watching your own body being prepared for a vigil,” Stoicclaw remarked, making Twistedvine jump a little, realizing he hadn’t heard the tom padding up.
“It is indeed… But it’s a part of becoming a StarClan cat,” Houndstar reminded him.
Am I going to witness my own vigil? Twistedvine thought, but another, more worrying thought came creeping into his mind. Will I even make it to StarClan…?
Suddenly he found himself in front of Mothermouth with the other cats, evening setting upon the cave as Snaketwist and Wolfspider waited for the sunset. Snaketwist was jumping from boulder to boulder, while Wolfspider was… oddly quiet. He knew this was just before Snaketwist would go in to receive his nine lives.
”Who do you think will be there? Obviously Mother, Father and Houndstar, but who else?” the brown-and-white tom asked, thinly veiling how unnerved he was with the other’s silence. However, the harsh glare he received silenced him for a moment.
Granted, it was only a moment.
”Mind telling me the problem? You’ve been oddly hostile since the vigil…” he pressed, and finally the medicine cat with a mouth used it.
“You’re not getting any lives in there. Not after what you’ve done,” he snarled.
”I… can’t believe I’m saying this to you of all cats, but can you… elaborate, maybe?” Snaketwist asked, visibly worried.
”I know exactly what you did. You left your scent all over his body. Was this all part of your plan? Kill him when Houndstar died so we’d be forced to pick an all new leader? Did you fake the sign, too?!” he demanded, his voice filling with rage as he stood nose-to-nose with the other tom.
Snaketwist forced a sly smile onto his face as he responded.
“Actually, the plan was to kill Stoicclaw, and have so little time for Houndstar to appoint a new deputy that he’d panic and take advice from anyone, and end up choosing me. But thankfully, my new deputy thought ahead. He falsified the sign, making it look like I was chosen. And if you know what’s good for you, you’ll keep quiet about everything. I don’t want to have to appoint a new medicine cat just because you’re too annoying to train an apprentice…” he warned, and Wolfspider’s expression shifted to resignation.
“I have no intention of telling anyone… I know better than to try anything with you. Besides, StarClan will stop you themselves. You were never meant to become a leader, and they’ll never give you those nine lives.”
“But to the rest of ShadowClan, I’ll be Snakestar, nine lives or not. Besides, you won’t tell them, will you?” the small tom reminded him, and Wolfspider sighed.
”Let’s just get this disappointment over with. I have cats to actually care about…” he murmured as the two finally stepped into the cave.
“He… never got his nine lives?” Twistedvine asked as he turned to the others.
“No, we could never do that… not even for him,” Lizardspot finally spoke, lowering his gaze. “We were too angry at him. After what he’d done, he didn’t deserve them.”
“I understand…” the brown tabby murmured. “I’m… sorry I ever helped him.”
“Don’t apologize just yet, Twistedvine. We have one more event to witness,” Houndstar informed him, and suddenly the cats were back at the camp, this time near the nursery. He recognized the four sisters and their mother, all huddled together, speaking in hushed voices only themselves and the five StarClan cats could make out.
“I saw him, Mother. It had to have been him. He killed Father… he’s the reason Saltkit will be raised never knowing the feeling of having a father,” Bloodedsnow reasoned, her voice filled with pain and anger, the very emotions reflected in Haretail’s eyes as she began to cry.
”We have to act, we cannot let him lead the Clan like this!” Forestfire urged, but her mother spoke up.
“No! We can’t, we can’t tell anyone! The worst they’ll do is exile him, to avoid seeming as bad, and then he’ll come after us! He’ll stop at nothing to gain the power he so desires, and we all know if he’ll kill once, he’ll kill again! And I…” she began to shudder as she sobbed, “I can’t lose you, too… I can’t lose my girls, I can’t let Saltkit grow up alone! You five are my entire world… He can never know what we know…”
The four younger shes pressed closer to their mother, trying to comfort her as sobs racked her once-strong figure. Twistedvine hated how it hurt, seeing how the very cat he’d covered for caused so much distress. Haretail, a cat he knew as a fierce, loyal warrior and yet the most caring cat he’d ever met, seemed just a shell of her former self, a shadow of a cat who once stood tall and unwavering in the face of any threat brought her way, bowing to this one simply because she felt if she didn’t, her family would literally be torn apart around her. He wanted to apologize, to take it all back, just to see her stand tall like that one more time.
He watched as Stoicclaw moved forward to sit in front of his mate, and for one single moment, it looked like she could see him. Her eyes sparked and she sat up again and looked at her daughters.
“Snaketwist’s karma will come to him… until then, we need to keep him from finding out we know, which means we cannot tell anyone. We cannot trust anyone with this information… And we must keep a close eye on Saltkit. If Snaketwist sees too much of a resemblance between him and his father, who knows what he’ll do…” she told the four, who all nodded in tandem.
“I’ll hold an audience with Snaketwist when Saltkit gets older, and maybe I’ll be lucky enough to convince him to let me mentor the little guy…” Bloodedsnow added quietly, and Haretail nodded.
“Hopefully we can just keep eachother safe for now,” Forestfire added. ”But first, we all need to rest. Today has been too eventful for us to stay standing around all night, especially you, Mother. We shall speak again in the morning,” and with that, she retreated to her den, followed by the twins, and then Haretail, who went to the nursery. Bloodedsnow sat alone a while longer, looking up at the stars.
”If StarClan doesn’t take this into their own paws, then I will,” she promised, before finally following her sisters. Finally, Twistedvine found himself in an unfamiliar forest. He looked towards the other cats, and Houndstar stepped forward.
“Anything you would like to say before we finally step into StarClan, Twistedvine?” he asked the tabby, who nodded.
“I am… truly and deeply sorry. To all of you. I suppose all I wanted was for Snakestar to look at me the way I had looked at him for so long. I didn’t think I’d have caused so much harm. I understand if you would rather cast me out for ever having followed him… for ever thinking of him in that way,” he meowed, lowering his head as the former leader padded up to him.
“As long as you understand what you’ve done is wrong, there is no way for any of us to keep you out of StarClan. As I know you cannot change your feelings towards him on a whim, we will help you work through them. Many of the cats here have been in similar situations. After all, Snakestar isn’t the first cat to have caused events like this to unfold. Come, Twistedvine, and we shall show you how to move on…”
And with that, the cats walked into StarClan to help set Twistedvine on his path.
Little did they know, Bloodedsnow had just set her brother down a path of his own…
