Elkfeather: “...Oh we just...ran into each other going the same direction in a nowhere field.”
Elkfeather: “I must have gotten lost in a strange part of the moor. It was such an ugly place, the air was stagnant and sour. I couldn't even scent the heather on the breeze. It felt like there should be wind but there wasn’t, it was just as far as I could see...a lot of nothing.”
Some time ago...
A none-specific amount of time, but probably not too long... Probably. Oh, you get the gist of it by now
In any case, yes, a lot of nothing was a good way to describe it. The sky was dark, without the colors of dusk. The field swept wide in every direction, the grass felt brittle and dead. There were no mountains peaking above the horizon; it was on a flat empty plain. It was unfamiliar, and unusually devoid of features, even more than she was used to. But no matter. A dignified queen always kept her head on even in the most stressful of situations.
…Nearly every situation anyway. But this one was different. A WindClan cat should feel at home on the moor! There is no danger on their territory they can’t outwit or outrun. It is their greatest pride after all, they do not cower or creep beneath brambles or thickly woven trees. The endless exposed sky faces them and they embrace the feeling of open land and unhindered wind.
So why is it that on this moor she felt so...afraid? Without the sight of the horizon, the world felt so empty. The sky was blank, there was no sight of the sun and no sight of the stars that usually brought her comfort. There was nothing looking down on her. But...it was a moor all the same, right? She should have felt secure here. And yet nothing could have been further from the truth. She felt exposed. Watched. But there was no one around. She scented the air. Nothing. Not a scent. Not a rustle. And yet…. And yet she was not safe. Her heart thudded hard in her chest, every instinct drilled into her mind screamed in her head in unison that she was in terrible danger, that something here meant her harm, and no matter how fast she ran she would not escape it. Eventually she tried running anyway, aimless, uncontrolled, desperate to find something, anything in this empty moor. She thought for a moment that this must be what it felt like to be a rabbit stalked by an unseen hunter.
The indignity of her frantic panic pained her but she was helpless to stop it. She ran as fast as her paws had ever carried her before, but everything continued to look the same. She had the feeling if she ran until she dropped dead she would find no familiar landmarks, and never outrun whatever she felt was watching her. But she continued nonetheless. Until eventually, something else stopped her as the earth vanished below her paws.
If the situation could get worse, it somehow had. She was completely stuck. The soil felt like it was trying to eat her and thorny roots clawed into her skin. It was suffocating and all the while there was that persistent pesky feeling that something was right on her heels, getting closer and bound to pounce at any moment. She thrashed and struggled and felt a sharp painful jab in her spine. Then there were real claws on her back and she yowled so loud it hurt her throat.
There was suddenly a scraggly row of trees towering above her that somehow (perhaps in her confusion?) she hadn’t noticed herself coming towards, nor had she noticed the loose soil of abandoned rabbit burrows that she’d apparently caught herself in. Regardless, she tumbled backwards out of the hole and cam up swinging wildly at the claws that had pierced her.
Elkfeather: “Back! Get back, I’ll shred you! Just because I'm a queen doesn’t mean I've forgotten how to defend myself! ”
Plumtooth: “Agh! Sorry, geez! I thought you were a rabbit kicking around in the dirt like that. Excuse me, next time I’ll just let you flail around in a collapsed burrow!”
Elkfeather: “I didn’t need your--! Wait...who are you?”
Plumtooth: “Who am I? Who are you? I was just patrolling the border and I come across you, in a place you’re not supposed to be! So you’d better get off ThunderClan land before the rest of my patrol catches up to me.”
Elkfeather: “Excuse me? Does this look like ThunderClan’s forest to you?”
Plumtooth: “Well it’s um...T-there’s no WindClan scent markers, so yes, it is still our land. But I’m...actually not supposed to fight with queens, I think? Are you supposed to be escorted home or something?”
Elkfeather: “I don’t need a cat clearly hardly out of apprenticeship escorting me anywhere. Why don’t I just wait for your patrol, then?”
Plumtooth: “What--? Oh right, yes my patrol! They’ll be here er... soon. Any moment now.”
Elkfeather: “I knew you were bluffing. I should have guessed. I don’t need ThunderClan assistance, and I don’t have time for you, so good day!”
Plumtooth: “F-fine! Works for me! I hope you have a bad day!”
It’s fascinating how even in the most obviously dire of circumstances, clan cats from rival clans have a remarkable ability to keep being as unreasonable and standoffish as possible, even when there’s absolutely nothing to be gained from behaving in such a way. Something really needs to be pressing a claw to their throats in order for anything to get done. Fortunately, (or perhaps unfortunately), there was currently about a dozen claws pressing hard against every side.
Something about this place made one feel so alone, and small, and terribly vulnerable. So, without a better alternative in sight...
Elkfeather: “Actually, I have decided for your own sake, some cat should make sure you don’t get into trouble since you’ve clearly lost your patrol.”
Plumtooth: “Well I just decided-- for your sake-- that you being a queen and all, some cat should act as your guard until you find your way back to your own territory.”
Elkfeather: “For StarClan’s sake, I told you I still know how to fight for myse-- Oh forget it. We are in agreement then, and after this we will never have to see one another ever again!”
What do you guys remember about life before this weird forest? Anything at all?
Blueheart: “Well of course we all remember our clans, no warrior worth their whiskers could ever forget that!
“Life for me before was…well relatively normal, as normal as it can be for a clan cat, I think? I have vivid memories of my family, I remember this one day walking along the river with my little sister. Cottonpaw was born deaf you see, our mother was as well, it’s how I got so good at talking through signs. I was taking her fishing while her mentor was busy, Cottonpaw was a brilliant fisher, she had sharper eyes than any cat I know. I remember telling her, it won’t be long until you’re the one teaching me! Me and my brother were both so proud of her…”
Blueheart: “I remember that specific day so clearly, right down the faint smell of coming rain in the air that morning…But I know that couldn’t have been the last thing that happened to me. It was moons ago, i’m sure, that was soon after Slatestar’s death after all, before…oh…who became leader after him? That’s an absurd thing for me to forget, I mean, Slatestar died ages ago!
“Sigh…for some reason I can’t for the life of me remember what I was doing before I woke up here. To tell you the truth, I don’t even really remember waking up here at all, I was just…here. I feel like I’ve been here for a while, but I can’t actually think of how much time has passed. I wonder if I bumped my head at some point…
“Say Russet, what about you? Have you remembered anything new about what you were doing before you got here?”
Russet: (uhm… Well yes, I remember taking a walk in the woods for…some reason, I think I wanted to clear my head, and before that I…)
Russet: ……………..
Russet: (I-I don’t know. I don’t know! It not like it matters, none of it provides any clues for why I’m here now!)
Blueheart: I know, but maybe– oh, you’re already leaving.
Blueheart: “Yes…I think it’s the same with the others. To varying degrees.
”It’s…a funny thing, you know? It’s like so many parts of my memories are…a dream. Not literally of course, but they have the same… fuzziness around the edges. I remember my apprenticeship, my warrior ceremony, all that important stuff. And I know there were many moons after that, my ceremony wasn’t that recent. Er, I think?
“But you know how when you try to remember a dream, the more you think about it, the more you try to put the pieces together about how that dream went, the faster it slips out of your mind? It hurts my head a bit to tell you the truth. Ha… my brother used to tell me I was bound to hurt myself if I thought about anything too hard. Maybe he was right. I miss him… I hope they aren’t too worried about me.
”Based on what I’ve heard from Plumtooth and Elkfeather, me and Russet seem to have it the worst as far as shoddy memory goes, but what’s consistent is that up to a certain point things get harder to piece together. All of us remember home of course, we can recall many things we’ve done, but there’s a big gap missing between there and here. But…I don’t think they really want to talk about it. Admitting so many important things have been forgotten, even acknowledging it to yourself….. It’s scary.
“Warriors are raised to be proud, to hide our fear and pain from everyone–especially cats outside your clan. I think we’re all more scared than we want to admit. I can’t blame Russet for being cagey. I suppose it’s easier to just focus on pushing on ahead.
”Even so, I don’t want to despair over it. StarClan would never allow anything to happen to me that wasn’t meant to happen. Wherever my paws have been set, I trust my ancestors to be watching over me–all of us–and protecting us. No strange force in the world could stop that from happening…I must have faith in that.”
Elkfeather: Oh? Me? Well, thank you, I always thought they were lovely myself. I don’t spend each morning grooming for nothing!
Plumtooth: they’re not so nice when she gets bundles of thistles stuck in them. Then she looks like she’s got hedgehogs attached to her feet
Elkfeather: Hush! It’s hard to keep up on grooming in this place! Ugh...There was never so many thorns and burs to deal with on the moor. Certainly not in the nursery... I do hope the apprentices have remembered to keep the den clean without me...
It doesn’t seem like silence this thick should be possible, does it? like all the sound in the forest has died. Or perhaps the young tom has gone deaf somehow. It is difficult to tell.
Then faintly, very faintly, a small noise disrupts the quiet; a mere breath so still he wasn’t sure if he had really heard it, or if it was his own conscious desperately trying to wake up; to warn him.
You aren’t supposed to be here
His eyes shoot open in an instant. He’s lying curled up in a ball on dry dusty earth. Black trees tower above the rust colored tom, reaching so far up he can’t tell where the tops are. They simply fade into nothingness above his head. Where is he? He doesn’t recognize this place at all.
That grating whisper scratches at the back of his head.
Is that voice even being spoken aloud? Where is it coming from? There is no one around that he can smell, in fact he can’t smell anything living at all. But the nagging whisper persists all the same
Something feels wrong doesn’t it?
He opens his mouth to reply. But something is wrong.
He has no voice
he has no claws
In fact he...who even is this pitiful cat?
What’s wrong? Don’t you remember where you are? Don’t you remember anything? What about your name? You can’t even remember that, can you? What a pathetic mess you are
It buzzes like a mosquito in his ears, and he bats at them in a vain attempt to get that obnoxious sound to just shut up for a moment so he can think!
Of course I remember my name, of course I do, it’s Russet-!...Russet, uh…
Russet-...what? What is his earned name? The one his clan leader gave him-it was such an important day, he can’t have simply forgotten it!
And yet he has. In fact, he has forgotten nearly everything. He is completely and utterly alone here, and can’t remember a thing that had happened leading up to this moment.
My clan...that’s right, my clan! Where are they? Where is...anyone? How did I get lost from them, I have to find them! He thinks
After all thinking is all he can do now, it seems. No matter how he tries to call out, not a sound comes out of his throat
???: You have become awfully lost, haven’t you? It has been ages since I’ve seen someone like you here.”
Russet jumps a half a tail length in the air with a start at the voice; this one definitely not in his head. A withered old beige and brown tom sat perched on the curled root of an oak tree that Russet could have sworn was vacant a moment ago. He wears a pleasant calm expression on his face as he observes the bewildered young cat.
???: A warrior is nothing without their clan. Where is yours? Oh, I suppose you’ve lost them. Yes, that’s not surprising. Most cats who come through here have. You’ll need allies if you want to find your way back safe and sound. But be careful,
A twig snaps under foot,
???: There is danger lurking everywhere in these woods. Those who wander here would do anything to find their way back to the forest of the clans again.
Russet squints into the darkness at a lean lanky blue-ish tom with cold piercing yellow eyes who grins back at him with curled yellow teeth. He instinctively takes a step back. He has no claws after all. The strange tom sneers at him
???: And only one of us is going to get to that exit. It’s going to be me. Are you the one I have to beat? You’ve got to be joking! You can’t even fight. You can’t do anything.
???: I have big plans to take care of, and you certainly aren’t going to get in my way.”
With that he vanishes as fast as he had come, leaving Russet bewildered and unsettled. Whatever that weird blue cat was going on about, it can’t be good. Where did he even go? Russet can’t see a thing through the impenetrable darkness of the forest. He is used to the darkness, at least he thought he was, but this is different. Unnatural almost, like the blue cat had been swallowed whole by the shadows
The old tom hardly reacts at all as he sits still purring quietly on his root.
???: You’d better run, little one. 'Can’t stay here for the rest of you’re life, you know. Perhaps one of my friends will be willing to help you!
???: After all, this isn’t a story that can be told alone.
Poor Russet doesn’t know where he is, or why he is here, though I suspect he will soon enough. Right now all he knows is this: He must find answers, and he must find help. He has to get out of these woods at all costs. Worst of all, he can’t shake the creeping feeling that he may already be running out of time to do so...
Well our hero has found himself in quite the predicament, hasn’t he? Ideally the best first step would be to find someone less cryptic and creepy to ask for help. Or at least for directions. Hopefully the cats around here understand sign language.
Russet hasn’t had to be completely on his own since...well, never. Perhaps that’s just another downfall of living in a clan. A cat can completely lose his sense of how to survive without depending on others. And they mock kittypets for being spoiled!
The feeling of being so helpless and exposed is simply maddening. He could be ambushed. He could fall into a hole and break all his legs, with no way to crawl out.
Would anyone ever even know if he died out here?
No, no, let’s not to dwell on those thoughts. It’s best to just keep walking.
Is that a break in the trees up ahead? Someone is sitting there. A rather pretty gray-ish spotted she-cat has her back to him as she stares absentmindedly into the twisting shadows. She is alone as well. Russet pads forward a couple paces, thinking of what he should try to say. Before he can do anything, she speaks first.
???: Oh, it’s you. I heard you a mile away. Weren’t you ever taught how to be light on your paws?
Her voice is sweet and soft and laced with adder’s venom.
???: You’re looking for an exit I suppose. Don’t be silly. That’s a pointless effort. Darkness is the only thing that prevails in this part of the forest, surely you should know that much.
Ivythorn: I think...you’d be much happier not fighting it. You could always stay here. There is dignity to be had in accepting your fate.
Well that wasn’t very helpful. It’s…probably better not to ask anything of her. The look in her eyes makes Russet…incredibly uncomfortable. She says nothing more as he turns and leaves, but he feels her gaze burning into his pelt long after the brambles have covered her from view.
From there the forest only grows thicker.
What was that? A quiet rustling from above catches Russet’s attention. In the small amount of light he sees only an agitated tail swishing back and forth.
Will the cat notice if he just sits there for a while? The ginger tom seems very focused on muttering angrily under his breath. Would getting his attention just make him even more angry?
A pair of harsh yellow eyes dancing with fire flick downwards, glaring fiercely into Russet’s with such anger and intensity that he can’t help but shrink back.
???: What!? What could you possibly want!? Oh. Oh right, I bet you were going to ask for help. Is that what you want? Help? You’re hilarious. You’re as good as dead already, y’know that? You think I’m going to risk what’s left of me for you?
Flaretail: No. You heard me, get lost! I’ve done enough trying. Go die on your own somewhere far away from me!
Oh dear. Not off to a great start are we? What is wrong with the cats around here? Nothing they say makes any sense.
Russet leaves there in a hurry and now has been walking aimlessly for a good while. There’s no sun or moon in sight to light his way. It must be incredibly cloudy, yet there’s no scent of coming rain. The forest floor is as dry as old bones and prickly dead thistles scrape at his sore pads with each step.
Great now he really can’t see where he’s going. He can’t even see his own nose! There should be a limit to how dark it can be. It’s like whatever light there was has been forcefully sucked into the ground.
Oof!
Incredible, he’s managed to trip over his own paws. How in StarClan’s name did a cat like this even survive out of kithood?
???: Um…
Looking up with a start Russet is met with an odd sight. The forest trail ends, dropping down into a large still pool of deep inky black water. A plump blue-gray spotted tom with soft hazel eyes regards him with surprise. He blinks sleepily as if Russet had just woken him up from a nap. The tom has perched himself on a single stone peeking out of the murky water, his fluffy tail lazily drifting over the surface. He doesn’t look angry at having been disturbed, only curious and perhaps a bit concerned.
???: Hello? Are you lost too?
???: I’ve been here for a long while myself. Oh, be careful not to step into the water! It’s very...heavy. It will suck you right to the bottom no matter how hard you try to swim. I found that out the hard way. And it tastes just awful. Supposedly there is better water somewhere nearby, but I've never been able to find it.
Russet doesn’t know what to say. Part of him wonders if he should run away again. He has yet to meet a cat in this place that he wants anything to do with. But the idea of turning back into the trees to keep wandering alone frightens him more than he wants to admit. Sensing Russet’s hesitance, the gray tom pushes himself to his paws and hops over onto solid ground, surprisingly agile for such a clumsy looking cat. He helps nose Russet to his feet, and smiles sheepishly.
???: I... heard you might be looking for a way out. I’m not sure I believe it’s possible, to be honest with you. But you seem awfully troubled. I suppose....I suppose I’ve sat here long enough. I certainly don’t expect anyone else to find me. See, I’m not sure if I can be much use to you. I’m not the toughest or strongest or most clever cat around,
Blueheart: But...I’ll go with you if you’d like. Come on, we can at least walk together awhile.
*knocks on the door softly* hello??? anyone still home??
full disclosure, I really did fully forget this time. But I'd really hate to leave something I actually started unfinished. SO, at risk of forgetting for even longer, here all all of my remaining notes~
Ok so now we get to how the actual….story line?? Was sort of going to go…admittedly saying that I knew how I wanted it to end may have even been a bit of an exaggeration. I had a very loose and blurry shape of how I wanted it to end and explaining it is a bit difficult because mostly I have some disconnected half-formed ideas that I never figured out how to fit together. I’ll just attempt to describe each concept individually
First off, I made some additions to StarClan and The Dark Forest (that frankly I think drift quite a bit away from feeling like “warrior cats” but w/e)
And as preface, ALLL of this was scribbled down a year before the broken code came out, so any overlap with that lore is a funny coincidence.
StarClan and the dark forest have some minor “deities” for lack of a better word. They are spirits that resemble cats just sort of born out of the magic innate to these afterlives (which all originated from the clans faith, because in this world belief/memory can manifest things into existence, like canonically thats how it seems to works). They have little jobs that keep their little afterlife realm running smoothly. Some over see dreams, other over see receiving prophecies, if I knew about the concept of starclan trials I probably would have said thats mostly made up of starclan born spirits as well. They are probably in charge of enforcing rules, and some starclan cats don’t agree with starclans judgement of morality. So keep that in mind.
One of them is a guardian between starclan and the dark forest, that being oakpath. He is apathetic and has grown to dislike starclan. Oakpath guards the barrier between the worlds, and you met him briefly at the start.
I had this idea that, similar to how little spirits have manifested in starclan, the dark forest has also manifested spirits. The clans imagine the dark forest like an entity that has a will to do evil, and so in response those scary stories brought the dark forest itself to life, and it’s further fueled by the hatred and bitterness of former-clan cats banished there. The Dark Forest can manifest as anything, usually a shadowy cat, but also as a bird, as prey that refuses to be caught, and as the trees themselves--and they are growing powerful/intelligent enough to learn how to make their own little dark forest born spirits, similar to the ones that come from starclan. The shadowy cats that attack the group might be old vengeful ghosts, but mostly they are half-formed cat-shaped dark spirits
The Dark Forest is the narrator of this story, he is omniscient and aware of everything all the time in his forest (hence why the story is told in present time 3rd person, and why it has a mocking tone, it's meant to be like he is watching and describing the events as they happen. He is just amusing himself. He plays around with the cats trapped in his woods when he’s bored, and this is one of those instances. He is very enamored with the concept of stories, stories are after all how the clans keep their spirits alive, and the very thing that created/maintains starclan and the dark forest. He’s kind of mocking the main cast with how he talks about them, as if he’s treating their afterlives like a simple story told for the amusement of kits.
This also leads to one of the more important characters--Starsight
Starsight was based on my mew in game……..which i guess I should explain. I did have an exception to my nuzlocke rule, this run was initially inspired by me researching all the crazy glitches you can do on the gen 1 games, including this one that lets you get a level 7 mew (normally it is completely unobtainable in this game, it was never meant to be caught by any player! It was just added in for fun at the end…research mews origins for yourself sometime, BOY these old games are so buggy it's unreal).
Anyway, I wanted to play through a game with a mew on my team, but gen 1 is sort of boring so I decided to make the rest of it a nuzlocke, the exception being the part of the game where i’d glitch everything to make a mew appear.
In the story, I interpreted this as Starsight is a StarClan-born spirit who doesn't like the way things are done in the clan's afterlife. She doesnt like the dark forest at all and doesnt think every cat there deserves to be there forever. She has a small amount of starclan cats who agree with her and she decided she wanted to prove that even cats who had done bad things could become better and prove themselves if given the chance. She is strong enough to maintain her spirit in the dark forest, but it is very dangerous for any starclan spirit as (in this world) the dark forest is one of the only places where they can be permanently destroyed.
Mostly it was family and friends of my dark forest cats who decided they wanted to see their lost loved ones again. Starsight had a flashback scene with Foxrunner, who desperately wanted her daughter back (her relationship with Elkfeather was going to be a whole thing. I doubt she’d ever want to be around her mother, but she would be willing to help her find her own place in starclan if, and only if, Elkfeather could safely bring her daughter (plumtooth) back to her.)
So, it’s canon StarClan spirits maintain themselves on memory of some kind, otherwise they peacefully start fading (or at least go dormant. I believe this is more of a choice on their part than a forced phenomena). Dark forest cats hardly even have the opportunity to fade naturally. Their fear always shocks them back to consciousness, and difficulty fading is perhaps part of the punishment. It’s all a very cruel existence. I was trying to reason out some logic along the lines of like…so these old spirits were banished from the memory of their clans and former family because of their misdeeds, so they are very weak spirits. If they are remembered at all, it is only as echoes in monstrous scary nursery tales, and that being their only anchor to the living was not something acceptable for StarClan warriors. They would have a hard time surviving the journey between StarClan and the Dark Forest without destroying themselves, and even more difficulty maintaining their spirit in StarClan, if they did not have some kind of new anchor in the living cat's memories--some kind of story of their own that would be worth telling and passing down. Starsight saw an opportunity to bring cats out of the dark forest when one cat, a talented storyteller, slipped into despair and unconsciously put himself into the dark forest because he thought he deserved to be there (or maybe the Dark Forest Spirit took him down there, he was close to dying and maybe comatose or something so…I think the dark forest is also trying to kill him?). Starsight thought he could wake up again and tell the story of every cat he met and journeyed with in the forest, because they still mattered and then they all could become strong enough again to find a place safely in StarClan. If he manages to wake up, of course.
The Dark Forest wanted to send someone to steal his body and then use that agent to spread chaos, to spread stories with their own agenda that will give them a more vivid memory in the clan's collective consciousness and nightmares, and maybe add more cats to the dark forest. Just for fun. His long term goal is another war like the one from OotS to build up, enough fear in the living cats minds to give them the power to manifest in the living world again. So all this between Russet and the mysterious rude blue cat he met at the start is a race to claim Russet’s comatose body (keep in mind this was before the broken code came out…i thought the body snatching was a little too silly but now, with the exception of the dark forest being an entity, most of this, including wandering around as a ghost when you’re in a near-death coma, is perfectly plausible within current wc canon, so, lol)
Starsight has a limited time to help, not just because of the danger to herself but because the rest of StarClan knows of the risks, and they want to just kill Russet's body for the greater good so no one can have it. The StarClan warriors on Starsight's side are stalling them.
Anyway the dark forest is not at all happy about Starsight, because Starsight is cheating and ruining his game. She, as the only character aware of everything, is also the only other character who is as omniscient as the Dark Forest narrator and she can talk back at him. Her introduction was really funny in my head.
[alt text: A soft light breaks through the dark, shining blue eyes peered back at Russet as--wait.
Wait a minute. What? Oh no. You have got to be joking. What is this? This isn’t allowed! This is not even remotely allowed! You're ruining everything!
Starsight: And yet, here we are! Hello, hello, Russet, right? I’ve been following your scent and I think I can be of help!]
She would probably snark back at the narrator multiple times throughout the story, and everyone would look at her strangely as she was speaking to the empty air. (and. Slight tongue in cheek reference to the fact that her existence on my pokemon team was breaking the nuzlocke rules lmao.) She wouldn’t be able to tell them the truth, she would just guide them away from unnecessary dangers. They have to discover who they are and become better cats on their own, or else the spirits would have no chance of escape. If they knew they could get out, they would just act better for the sake of a reward.
I’ll be honest, Russet’s backstory is one of the big things I couldn’t figure out. I know he was a storyteller. His hidden last name “-song” is a reference to that (I suppose I interpreted -song as a poetic way of referencing legends and story-telling in the clan). Taking away his name was mostly about taking away his confidence in himself, as the weaker his will is, the easier he’d be to body-snatch. The Dark Forest wanted him to forget what he was known for, forget what it was like to feel like a full member of a community, and generally feel like a nobody who could slip away into death easily and unnoticed. I don’t know what exactly happened in his life to make him so depressed and disillusioned with everything he held dear. Whether or not bad cats can be redeemed or deserve to be remembered needed to play a part somehow in his life in order to tie in with the overall theme. I never really worked it all out. But remembering his name would coincide with remembering why he should try to live as well. The stronger his will, the stronger his uncanny scent showing them all the way out--his spirit is trying to guide itself back to his body, hence why only he has a vague sense of what direction to go. But it is not very reliable, the Dark Forest is always getting to him and weakening his hope.
I never ended up finishing the pokemon game this was story based on, I stopped somewhere between badge 7 and 8, so who knows how many would have died. (as it was, only two actually died in my game. Honeyhawk the beedrill, and a pikachu called Sparkleap) All I know is in the end, they would discover the truth and every character would have gone through some big personal trial to face their past mistakes and learn how to be better people. Starsight would slowly help lead them to the edge of the dark forest, which would become more and more clear the more the characters developed and did good deeds or something.
Russetsong would eventually get his memories back, and find his way back to his body with help from Starsight and his new friends, and when he wakes up he carries memories and stories of the cats who strove to become better than they had been. He can pass those stories on and give their spirits something to hold onto--memories living on where they are more than merely forgotten monsters. Starsight would use it all as an argument that dark forest cats CAN change, and they should be let into StarClan.
I am uncertain if every single character would be redeemed. I think at the start I envisioned everyone who's pokemon counterpart survived would be given a redemption arc, where everyone who died would fail the test and turn on the group to join The Dark Forest's side--but i’m too good at nuzlockes and p much no one died sooooo oh well. This sort of thing probably should have been based on a COMPLETED game, because I was coming up with story lines and arcs when I didn’t even know who the final cats would be yet!
Anyway! That’s all I have on this story. Don’t know why it took so long to get this out, but if you actually managed to read all these long word dumps, thank you!! It’s fun to look back on this story. Apparently the first post is like…over 5 years old?? Good lord it doesn’t seem like it was so long ago… But at the same time it feels like I wrote it ages and ages ago. I have long since moved past it, but i'm happy to give some uh...vague conclusion at last. It was fun to work on--the handful of times I managed to do so. Sorry I never managed to turn this into a finished story, hopefully I will have some completed writing/art projects some day in the near-ish future! (Follow me on my current main blog yarrowleef to see if that ever happens~)
if you have any follow up questions, feel free to send them! I may not have detailed answers to everything, but I will attempt to answer!
See I didn’t forget i’m just very very very slow lmao
I’m going to answer this in more than one post to account for length, and because it’s a little difficult to organize all my very scattered information!! This thing never got a cohesive outline
Well, to begin I can show the last ask I outlined since I’m not sure where else to put it! it’s only the script, as I never got to the art. (Yes that ask does say 2 years ago)
Blueheart: I got the feeling Plumtooth is younger than either of us
Elkfeather: i’d hardly know it, the way she grooms her pelt makes her look like a haggard elder, but somebody doesn’t like listening to me
Plumtooth: there’s only so much time in a day and I don’t have time for grooming, get off my tail! You’re not my mom!
Elkfeather: Lucky i’m not or i’d have given you the worst chores in camp for moons. Anyway, I was the nursery caretaker in my clan. I had a litter of three of my own, and I remember my two brave wonderful flawless boys, they were the strongest kits any cat had ever seen when they were born. Model warriors in every way! Of course, my kits are grown now, thankfully. I look over our young cats and help struggling young mothers. I had an apprentice, who I desperately hope is taking her duties seriously and keeping the nursery clean. We are scheduled to have a large litter of kits soon, so StarClan help me I’d better be back there before long.
Russet: [to blueheart]: (if she's the same here as at home I fear for her apprentice. She snapped at me this morning for having a dirt clump behind my ear. Something about hiding fleas.)
Elkfeather: Do you think I can’t see you back there? I know every word you say as well as Blueheart. Gossip is a rotten habit, hasn’t your mentor taught you basic manners yet?
Russet: (My what? I’m an adult!)
Elkfeather: …Pardon? you’re really a warrior?
Plumtooth: Wait...what did he say? really? I honest to StarClan thought you were a new apprentice apprentice at your size!
Russet: (I’m not!)
Blueheart: don’t listen to them Russet, even the apprentice sized cats in my clan were fine hunters, or--wait, that came out wrong
Elkfeather: hm. Interesting. I must have us hunt soon, you're clearly not catching enough for yourself. Also, don't walk so hunched over! That’s certainly not helping the matter at all. ShadowClan and their terrible posture…
Russet: (if this is what you’d call doting, i fear for the kits in her nursery as well! I think if I was a kit I'd just be scared of her.)
--Aaand that was the last bit I had fully written out. Onto the rest of the outline.
For starters, the characters are all lost in the dark forest. I assume that was obvious, I never expected it to be a well kept secret to the audience if you have any knowledge of the warrior cats world. The suspense was more meant to come from “but why? what will they do about it? how will they react when they realize?”.
Which yes, does also mean that all the characters are actually long dead ghosts!!! only for some reason none of them remember dying, nor do they realize they are ghosts. It’s possible some of them have a creeping suspicion that the place they are lost in looks an awful lot like stories of the dark forest. I think at least Russet and Blueheart definitely suspect this somewhere deep down, but they are not ready to admit it to themselves, let alone say it out loud. Besides, none of them remember dying, so they don’t understand how they could have come to a place where only dead cats should be. And as dead dark forest cats, all of them have done bad things in their lives to earn them a place here. Where they started going wrong in life is roughly where their living memories cut off.
Russet is the exception to this. He is the only one who is not actually dead, though it will take him time to realize this, because naturally he assumes he is in the same boat as everyone else. But we’ll get to that later.
I wanted all of this to be revealed gradually, first they would start finding visions (I don’t know how they experienced visions together, I suppose because the Force Behind The Dark Forest wanted them to. Chalk is up to magical nonsense. We’ll also get to that later.) first they would find bits and pieces of some of their party members' lives, I believe Plumtooth and Elkfeather would come first, and they’d see the bad things they had done. Eventually they would start seeing their deaths as well. And as they find these visions, they’d come to the inevitable conclusion that this isn’t unique to Elkfeather and Plumtooth, they are all dead and they all have horrible pasts they’ve forgotten, waiting to be revealed to them. The Dark Forest seems to be mocking them with this knowledge.
So, let's go through the rest of the significant characters and what their stories were (at least as far as I got)--and the ~hidden dark pasts~ of the characters we already know
The first backstory that would have been revealed was Elkfeather’s, and then Plumtooth’s. When her story is revealed, some of the cats have started to secretly suspect they are really long dead spirits, but they refuse to believe they could deserve the dark forest--until they are at last given details of one of their forgotten memories.
This was a story told to the group like a nursery tale, in a vision where they were gathered together around a speaker who curled around them like a loving mother would, with a face too dark and cloaked in shadows to properly see. This was a tale of a terrible queen
Elkfeather
Elkfeather was a perfectionist. She took a lot of pride in her social image, and even more pride in the image of her long awaited kits: two strong sons, and one small daughter. She had always wanted a daughter, and had high hopes hers would follow in her pawsteps. Little Palekit had a rebellious streak, and Elkfeather thought it was best to keep her at her side in the nursery, where she could make sure her daughter wouldn’t embarrass herself--or more importantly damage their perfect image. After all, no cat could be worthy of training her daughter save for herself. Palekit was frail, but still beautiful. Her fur was a faded dusty orange, but her eyes were vivid and striking--copper as blood, bright as a flickering flame, with a fierceness as sharp as the edge of a claw. They were lovely and almost frightening, as a great warrior and queen should be. But when apprenticed, Palepaw did not share in the desire to stay and attend the nursery with her mother, and this upset Elkfeather a great deal. Elkfeather ended up lashing out at her in little ways the more Palepaw disobeyed her wishes. She often compared her unfavorably to her talented brothers, talked down to her, punished her with unnecessary embarrassing tasks, and refused to allow her to become a warrior--always insisting she wasn’t ready. Elkfeather told herself she did it for her kit's own good, that she just wanted Palepaw to stop rebelling and come to her senses. It had the opposite effect.
Some moons after Elkfeather’s other two kits became warriors, a terrible accident occurred resulting in both of their untimely deaths. Elkfeather was miserable to be around after this, and in needing some cat to blame, Palepaw often found herself on the receiving end of her mothers ire. She was already crushed at the deaths of her siblings, and this was an additional weight she couldn’t stand. Palepaw ran away from the clan not long after. It turned out she had struck up a friendship, and later a relationship, with a ThunderClan cat, and she left her miserable life in WindClan behind to be with them.
Elkfeather couldn’t stand this blow to her ego in addition to her grief. Her own kit rejected her publicly, and worse, she had abandoned her clan for a mate amongst their rivals. This reflected very poorly on Elkfeather, as both her mother and her mentor. She somehow truly didn’t see it coming, and had no idea why Palepaw had done this to her. To add further insult to injury, she later heard that Palepaw had taken a new name in her new clan: Foxrunner. This was the final cut to their relationship, to take her given name that was chosen for her so lovingly and erase it. Foxrunner was sending a message that she intended to cut Elkfeather from her life entirely. Elkfeather was inconsolable, alternating between directionless anger that she usually took out on her clanmates, and days of wallowing alone in quiet misery.
Always the proud cat, Elkfeather could not admit any fault in herself. It was easier to be angry than to regret and be sorry.
When she heard Foxrunner was pregnant with kits, Elkfeather was at her breaking point. She had dreamed of having a daughter in the nursery with her, so she could help raise her future kin--it was why she had been so grateful to have a daughter in the first place. Now with her beloved sons’ dead, these kits were to be her only legacy, and she decided that her irresponsible daughter couldn’t be trusted with anything, let alone with something as precious as Elkfeather’s grandkits. Elkfeather had no kin left. She needed these kits in her life. The idea of them being raised in ThunderClan infuriated her. She snuck her way into ThunderClan to track down her daughter, and tried to convince her to give the kits to WindClan so they could be raised properly. Foxrunner had at this point been subjected to enough guilt and abuse from this cat. She firmly refused Elkfeather’s demands and told her mother she never wanted to see her again, and her kits would never have anything to do with their awful grandmother.
Elkfeather lashed out. It’s unclear exactly what happened, but when it was over, Foxrunner was lying dead at her mother’s paws--having accidentally broken her neck when she was pushed down a rocky slope. Elkfeather was horrified at what she had done, but she was far beyond thinking straight now, she just took Foxrunner’s two young kits and fled back to WindClan territory with them. Of course, her scent was all over the crime scene and they weren’t far from ThunderClan camp, so it didn’t take long until there was an angry patrol at the WindClan border.
It was an early leafbare and the snow fell fast and thick. Both ThunderClan and WindClan were desperately trying to find the delirious queen. Elkfeather wouldn’t go back to camp where her leader would surely insist on giving the kits back to ThunderClan. The kittens were slowly freezing with her out on the moor, but Elkfeather had convinced herself she could raise them on her own if she had to. She was certain they needed her now more than ever, and she would die before she let any other cat have them.
Then from out out the flurrying snow, she saw a pale orange shape coming towards her. She saw black lips drawn back over the long barred teeth of a hungry fox. In a heartbeat, the monster had descended upon her.
WindClan’s once cherished queen, a mother to so many cats, a provider, reduced to mere food for a mindless beast on the moor. This was no way to die. And yet, as with many deaths, she had very little say in the matter. Those cursed kits lay still, in the open not too far away. She couldn’t help wonder, why hadn't the fox taken that easy prey? It wasn’t sensible. Why her? Why had all of this happened to her, was all she could think through the flurry of pain and torn flesh and the stench of her own life blood draining from her. It was not a quick death. It was as if the monster wanted more than food. It wanted her to suffer. That snarling stinking creature, with more fury in its’ fangs than any mindless predator had business having toward its’ weak prey, stood over her, silhouette blocking the light from the sky. A fox's hungry gaze would be her last sight in the world. And in that hazy instance before the light faded, Elkfeather could have sworn that fox’s eyes glared back deep into hers. As copper as blood, as bright as a flickering flame, as cold and sharp as the edge of a claw. Almost lovely, but mostly just frightening.
Those eyes were the last thing she saw, before she saw nothing but darkness forevermore.
[this story is written in the most detail because it would have been the first told, the rest are less fleshed out]
Plumtooth
Plumtooth is Elkfeather granddaughter, the only surviving kit of Foxrunner, who actually was revived from the cold when the clan found the bodies. I never fully figured out what it was that led her to the dark forest. I think her father may have died trying to find her in the snow as a kit, and she always felt like some blamed her for it. Like the clan had traded him for her, and she wasn’t enough to make up for it. No one mistreated her, but she was generally very insecure and often tried to overcompensate by acting recklessly and dangerously to show off. She wanted deputyship some day, and was in a fierce rivalry for it with one of her foster siblings. Some stunt she pulled (I don’t think I decided what it was) to try and win the leader's favor and also make her foster sister look bad went very badly, and it ended up getting someone killed, and perhaps this is the event that got Plumtooth killed as well. Plumtooth’s trial that sent her to the dark forest was a complicated one, and a lot of cats were in disagreement over it. Some argued she acted selfishly for her own glory, and it was against everything warriors stood for--thus she hadn’t earned a place among them. Others said it was an honest mistake that got out of control and it's not fair to damn her when she never even got a chance to try and make up for it because her life was cut short. Was that not punishment enough? For whatever reason despite the protests, whoever led her trial decided she hadn’t proven herself worthy of being a StarClan warrior.
This is one of the overarching problems of this story, StarClan had gotten very strict with who they let in--after the fiasco with the dark forest, they wanted to be sure they could trust all who walked among them. On top of that, they were making sure it was more difficult for Dark Forest cats to find each other.
Honeyhawk (Beedrill) of SkyClan
[pay no attention to how far this creature strays from the concept of “cat”, she wasn’t important enough for a second draft asdwhbafeefhsfe]
Honeyhawk would have been the next to join the group. She attacked them out of fear when they accidentally stumbled upon her hideaway, and then started following them because…well, she didn’t know where else to go and they were the first cats she had come across in a long time.
She was also the first death in the group. In the game, not long after I evolved the beedrill, it immediately got killed by a trainer in a nearby cave. On one hand, I was sad I had wasted a cool name, on the other, beedrill can’t learn any good moves in red version and was a virtually useless party member.
To reflect this, when the group finds a dark tunnel they have no choice but to cross through, Honeyhawk proves to be even more useless at fighting then Russet when they are attacked by a bunch of strange shadowy cats. She tries to push Russet into one of them to save her own skin, and when she turns to flee, she is killed by an attacker.
In her forgotten life, Honeyhawk was an aggressive, selfish, and cowardly little warrior. She left an apprentice to die because it was easier to run, and she didn’t go for help because she didn’t want to look bad for running. She valued her pride over a life, and was banished from her clan. Honeyhawk quickly realized how miserable it was fending for herself without other cats to mooch off of, and she cursed her clan and vowed revenge on them for making her suffer like this, and for (in her mind) unfairly blaming the apprentice’s death on her (it’s not her fault the stupid little tom didn’t recognize a badger den! He was basically asking to be eaten!) She tried to strike a deal with a bunch of rogues, coax them into tormenting her clan by ambushing their patrols, stealing prey…a lot of violent petty things. But unfortunately, they just took the prey she brought them as a bribe, and promptly killed her because they found her annoying. In the end, she was too incompetent to become a real threat to the clans, but her failure certainly wasn’t due to lack of desire.
Since this character died so quickly, I’m uncertain if her backstory ever would have been revealed.
Rockfall (Graveler) of ShadowClan
The next to join the group, right when Honeyhawk died actually. Rockfall appeared and chased off the straggling shadowy cats that killed Honeyhawk. He’s a gruff and powerful tom of few words. He does not like helping cats from other clans at all, but once he hears Russet is from his clan and is also the cat they are unofficially following as the “leader”, he immediately pledges himself to Russet and declares himself his bodyguard who will follow every order without command. This makes Russet a tad uncomfortable, and puts Rockfall at odds with Blueheart--who was Russet’s companion first. Blueheart is a pushover, and Rockfall eventually makes peace with him. But because Blueheart is a RiverClan cat, Rockfall keeps trying to convince Russet to be wary of him, until Russet tells him to knock it off because he LIKES Blueheart. Rockfall takes the order unquestioningly and shuts his mouth quickly…maybe a little too quickly. Everyone gets the impression this guy may have lost a few marbles from being alone in the dark so long. But he is undeniably strong, and easy to ignore because he talks so little, so they let him come along.
In life, Rockfall was the muscle and right hand deputy of a horrible leader. Since he was young, he was taught that bravery and loyalty in service of your clan was all that mattered. To him, his leader was his clan so that was his sole purpose. He did not ponder on morals, his leaders' morals were his morals. This, he believed, was what made a true warrior. As deputy, he wasn’t so much second in command as he was a constant yes-man to a leader who took up all the duties herself. He had no opinions, he was not even cruel on his own, he was just an extension of his leaders claws. He was a terrifying fighter, and on top of being his leaders personal guard, he was later her executioner who killed anyone that got in the way of their commands. Rockfall became disillusioned towards life and everything except his duty. He had been dedicated to it for so long, it was too late to question it now. His leader needed him, she told him so often. He was loyal to a fault. Eventually, he was killed when the other clans, and a rebellion within their own clan, rose up against the tyrannical leader and took her down. He gave his life trying to protect her and prevent her banishment, an effort which ultimately amounted to nothing. She was forced out of the territories, and he was left dead without vigil or mourners.
Nightstep (Gloom/Vileplume) of RiverClan
A gifted former healer. Nightstep was sweet and gentle, and also eccentric and experimental. Secretly, the position was a bit of a power-trip for her and she loved that she held her patients' lives in her paws. It made her feel needed. She started playing with poisonous plants, testing the effects--how quickly they worked and how easy they were to disguise. She even experimented on killing her own clan’s elder, justifying it to herself that he was dying anyway of an illness. One day she got news that another clan's medicine cat had died, and per custom so one clan would not fall, a different clan's medicine cat came to train a new apprentice. She was the one chosen. This clan had been a threat to hers before, and a cat she was very fond of even died in a battle with them. So, she intended to use the opportunity to poison and kill the fiercest warrior who had the most RiverClan blood on his paws, and blame it on the new apprentice by hiding poison in prey and herbs. Her plan worked, the warrior died not long after ingesting the poison, and they never even traced it back to the herbs because he was set upon by a scavenger bird. But the apprentice she had made her unwitting accomplice had watched her prepare the poison. The apprentice trusted Nightstep fully, why wouldn’t she? So she copied her method, and gave the medicine to other cats. Many innocent cats died, and the apprentice was permanently scarred when she realized what she had accidentally done. Nightstep fled the clan in fear, and died trying to leap across a flooding river in her haste to escape.
Rowanscar (Fearrow) of WindClan
Wily and aggressive to all outsiders, but within his own clan he was mild-mannered, polite, and endlessly kind. He loved his clan and longed for its prosperity so much he grew to despise everything else. He grew up in a famine, and regularly had to starve himself so others could eat. He did anything to get prey from others. Eventually he began crossing borders, and then stalking enemy clan hunting patrols, even killing them in order to take their prey--and limit his clan's competition in the future. He had a very high body count, including young apprentices, and it’s a miracle he got away with it for so long. His clan had no choice but to banish him for so many accounts of egregious code breaking, though it caused many of them pain for he had suffered so much to take care of all of them. The other clans of course found out, and some angry warriors tracked down and killed him in revenge for all the lives he took.
Bearfoot (Snorlax) of ThunderClan
A massive cat with a massive appetite, he was greedy and had little respect for the code, often stuffing himself with prey before taking any back. He probably would have left to become a kittypet if twolegs were anywhere nearby. Although he wasn’t fun to be around, he was a big and powerful fighter--which the clan needed when a famine made rivals more of a danger. But one terrible leafbare when his clan was starving, everyone was on edge and fights broke out in his clan. It was difficult to think of anything but survival. When the hunger got worse, Bearfoot tried to convince everyone to consume the bodies of those who died of starvation so that they could live. The clan was horrified by the suggestion, but Bearfoot did it anyway in secret. He had offered to take the bodies away for burial himself since he was the only one still strong enough to lift them at that point. Only StarClan knew of his crime. He died not long after of a stomach sickness.
In the Dark Forest he is cursed a bit differently than others. Prey comes to him eagerly in a way it doesn’t anywhere else in the forest, more than any cat could ever want. He can catch it easily and give it to others, but if he tries to eat any of it himself, it turns to dust between his teeth. He can only watch others eat. (may have tied into the story and how he attempts to improve. the rest of the group is wary of him at first, but he becomes invaluable as he is capable of feeding all of them, which is a relief since they have not been able to find any food and only hadn’t died of starvation/exhaustion due to dark forest magic keeping them just on the brink of it. I think I planned for him and Rowanscar to have some kind of enemies-to-friends arc)
Bonestar/Bonefang (Rhydon) of ShadowClan
(regretfully I seem to have lost her art)
Bonefang was born weak and skinny and expected to die. She has oddly patched fur (looks a bit like a lyokoi) and always appeared sickly. However, she grew into a large terrifying she-cat, and had just as terrifying a temperament to match. She reveled in her ability to cause fear in her enemies. Her skill made her rise to leadership in her clan. Even though she had little fur to protect her, she shook off egregious battle wounds and kept fighting, soaked in blood and licking it from her lips. Some outsiders nicknamed her the bloody faced leader. She lived for the glory of winning each fight, and got herself and her patrols into many unnecessary battles to invoke fear. She launched raid after raid focusing on one clan at a time to bend them into submission. A group of rogues hungry for their own power caught her attention, and she tried to join her clan with them so they could become even more feared and powerful. These cats had no respect for life or the code obviously. Bonefang, for all her faults, cared about the warrior code surviving, and for the safety of the young cats in her clan. She realized she may have gone too far when she saw how careless the strangers she brought in were, and how cruel they were to her own weaker clanmates, and she tried to drive them out. By then her clan had had enough, and eventually she was overthrown and had her title stripped from her by a group that wanted peace and was tired of marking their boundaries in blood.
She was furious, but more so devastated that so few cats spoke up for her. She had lost her clans love in her crusade for power. But even then, she refused to leave her clans territory, and waited in the shadows. She died as she lived, furiously attacking another clans patrol who came to invade her clan in vengeance for past attacks. She looked so haggard the invaders thought she was a vengeful spirit, and she managed to chase them off single-pawed, although she would die of her wounds not long after. Her last gift to her clan was providing them, for once, with one less bloody battle to suffer through. She lived on in the nursery horror stories from all the clans about the bloody faced leader. In the dark forest, she hears these stories, slowly realizing that what she left behind for her clan was a legacy of distrust and pain that left them always without allies. She never had her memories hidden from her, she accepts her place in the forest most easily, and wanders in regret.
It will be revealed that Rockfall was actually her deputy, the only cat who remained loyal to her. She has difficulty facing him even though he wants to serve her again as soon as they reunite. She blames herself for what became of him, she took a loyal and true warrior and twisted him into a monster--and still he wants to offer her his service. (Part of their arc would involve Rockfall finally disobeying an order from her in order to do something good and rescue someone else in the group--even though they were of a rival clan.)
Blueheart
At last, a little about Blueheart…What about him?? How could dear sweet Blueheart have ever done anything bad in his entire life? That’s certainly what Russet thinks, and Blueheart’s past would have been the last revealed.
Well for all his disdain of Rockfall, he found he could actually understand the tom more than he wanted to admit.
Blueheart was always an endlessly kind and open hearted cat. He couldn’t stand needless violence or cruelty to others, even outsiders, and would do his best to negotiate peaceful solutions for everyone. Although he would speak for what he believed was good, he was easily swayed and over powered by even more determined and outspoken cats, to avoid harsh conflict. His younger sister discovered their brother's plot to do something bad in order to gain power in the clan, and she had threatened to tell on him. So, their brother arranged to have her killed. Blueheart didn’t know of this, he found her body in the forest and his brother tricked him into thinking it was the fault of a rogue that Blueheart had previously taken pity on. Blueheart blamed himself, if only he had listened to his brother and driven that rogue away instead of helping them, they wouldn’t have had a chance to hurt poor Cottonpaw. His brother allowed him to go on thinking this, and it badly shook his morals. The guilt made Blueheart very easy to control. Blueheart became a follower to his brother, who he loved dearly as his closest surviving kin. His brother grew more ambitious and violent and made Blueheart help him scheme his way to power. Blueheart never killed anyone directly, but he covered for his brother, he let him lie and hurt cats because he was too afraid and weak willed to say no to him. His dear littermate *had* to have good reasons. After all, what did Blueheart know? things that seemed good to him (like helping a sick rogue) could turn out worse in the long run, and get more cats hurt. So maybe his brother was right when he talked about the greater good, and how it would all be worth it and save more lives in the long run. He was soon a husk of his former self, leaving all decision making to his sibling. He didn’t have the will left to question it, and the longer it went on, the more unwilling he was to see what his kin was becoming--it had to be worth it.
In the end, Blueheart was banished with his brother, for he had spent moons covering crimes and forced into lies that lead to so much unnecessary strife. Later when his brother died of infected wounds, Blueheart died beside him, thinking he deserved this fate. He would not even face StarClan for a trial; he simply let himself sink into the dark forest.
I played with the idea of making the “rival” blue cat turn out to be Blueheart’s brother, Tealsong. Blueheart’s arc would involve finally confronting him with Russet’s help. It was either that, or the cat was just a manifested spirit of the dark forest
So that’s the first chunk of my notes---most of what I had actually written was dedicated to character backstories since that's what I enjoy writing. In the game I was playing, I’d catch a pokemon and name them and if I intended to use them I'd start thinking of their background and general personality as I went. The overarching narrative actually tying them together and doing things with all those elements and potential arcs was an after thought...that’s part of the reason why continuing this became difficult. But in the next part I’ll talk a little about Russet, and a few other key characters and what the (very) rough idea of the dark forest story was going to be
But, as a quick added bonus, there were a lot more potential characters. As I said, i only developed character based on the pokemon i ended up actually using, but i named everything I caught, so here were some more pokemon/cats that didn’t end up with a definite planned appearance so they didn’t get art…but i did have fun coming up with names and a couple potential ideas.
Lapras- Azureheart, RiverClan (mother of Blueheart? Might have found a way of using her)
Doduo- Twoface, had a split face pattern, originally cast out from WindClan but joined a different clan. was a medicine cat --bad at medicine but great and interpreting signs. His clan was afraid of him and he used this to his advantage to undermine his leader and get his clan to do his bidding under threat of harm from the stars. Twoface wasn't his true name, but the nickname he was called for his deceit (i wanted to use this guy because I liked his concept, and would have if Rowanscar ever died, but that didn’t end up happening)
Pikachu- Sparkleap: this is one I intended to make a significant character cause I was really excited to have caught it, and maybe use him as a foil to Russet. but almost immediately after I caught it and started brainstorming ideas, the stupid thing died to a random bird so it didn’t have a chance to go anywhere (I was very angry. Do you have any idea how rare it is to get a pikachu in these early games in a nuzlocke?? and dying to a BIRD of all things. unbelievable) I tried to think of a way to use that, have them be an also alive cat like Russet that ended up failing and dying horribly in the dark forest, sort of to show the stakes to Russet and “this is what could happen to you if you aren’t careful.” Idk never fully figured it out. Too bitter about it dying immediately.
Eevee- Sparkpaw (was somehow connected to Sparkleap, maybe a younger sibling? I had an idea that they weren’t a dark forest cat but a starclan cat that got lost there by mistake and the gang has to help save them and get them back to StarClan. I would have given them a full name when/if I decided on an evolution, but I didn’t end up using it)
Hitmonlee- Adderleg
Ditto- Marshpaw
Drowzee- Shadebelly
Staryu- Rubyshine
Oddish- Hollydust
Magikarp- Riverwish
Koffing- Smokebreath
Venonat- Lavenderdust
Krabby- Crabpelt
Krabby- Hollysnap
Gastly- Blackmist
Geodude- Stonefoot
Spearrow- Appletalon
Pidgey-Finchthroat
Pidgey-Alderbeak
Pidgey- Birchbreeze
Pidgey- Fuckwings (.....look I was real sick of getting pidgey’s at this point)
The ache in Russet’s paws hasn’t let up. It feels like they’ve been walking for days. But he hasn’t once seen the sun come up, so perhaps it hasn’t really been long at all. His sense of time is slipping away without the stars to guide him. Blueheart keeps his spirits up much better than Russet, despite his rather pessimistic outlook when they’d first met. The tom as it turned out understood signs quite well, much to Russet’s relief, which certainly made communication easier. Even so, Russet can’t think of anything to say. He's far too busy moping.
Blueheart: “Last time I looked, I swear I scented fresh water somewhere near this area”
Russet isn’t sure he can even remember the smell of water. His nose is too full of dust.
Blueheart: “What’s that? Oh, how can I tell? I can usually find water from a long distance off! The scent of the plants and rocks around it change. It’s one of the first things they teach you how to find in RiverClan”
RiverClan? That...makes sense, actually. He can’t detect the usual fishy odor on Blueheart, but his bulky form and thick fur should have given it away. How would Russet’s clan feel about him working with an enemy warrior?
Blueheart: “And you’re from ShadowClan right? You look it, anyway. You must be doing better in these dark woods than I am-”
Russet is distracted from Blueheart’s small talk when a low creaking sound catches his attention. He whips around and narrows his eyes into the shadows behind the dried brown undergrowth. Was something blinking back at him?
Blueheart: “Hm? What’s the matter?”
Russet gestures to the bushes with a flick of his ears
Russet: (Didn’t you hear that?)
Blueheart: “Hear what? I haven’t-”
There isn’t time to even finish the sentence before a dark blur of fur and teeth has shot out of the bushes with a furious screech
Russet hits the ground hard, cracking his head against the parched earth.The cat’s breath is rancid like crow-food and the stench makes his head swim worse than it already was from the impact.
Blueheart: “What the-!? Oh no, hold on!”
The weight is suddenly lifted off of him, but Russet’s vision is too blurry to see clearly what’s going on
Blueheart: “Pick on some cat your own size you-you! smelly... jerk!”
Russet is still lying uselessly on the ground, trying to get his head to stop reeling. Whatever that horrid creature is, it smells terrible. A dusty scent of decay, like prey bones that had been left in the sun, hits the roof of his mouth and makes him gag. Surprisingly as soon as Blueheart smacks it, it stumbles off hissing and disappears back into the trees.
Blueheart: “Well! that wasn’t too hard. I’m a little out of practice, but I can still hold my own. I guess there are more rogues around here than I thought. I certainly didn’t recognize their scent from any clan.”
That cat hardly smelled like a cat at all. Russet gets shakily to his feet at last and gestures to Blueheart that they should keep going. He didn’t want to stick around to see if the rogue had friends.
Suddenly he catches a different scent in this still air. A fresher cleaner scent amidst the stale dust, like damp soil and the earthy smell of stones after it rains.
Russet: (It’s water! I can smell it now...there must be a stream nearby, I can feel it. It’s this way we have to keep going)
Blueheart: “Are you sure? I’ve been looking this whole time, but I haven’t scented anything yet. But...if you think so, lead the way. I’ll follow.This direction is as good as any other.”
Further along the trail, the fresh smell of wet living plants grows neither stronger nor fainter. Russet is beginning to question whether he’s really smelling anything. After all, if Blueheart couldn’t find it...Could he be imagining it? It’s possible, he did bump his head after all. Perhaps he is finally completely losing it!
Wouldn’t that be a shame?
Blueheart: “Say Russ, I know you’re awfully busy concentrating, but I can’t shake the feeling we’re being watched again.”
Russet: (What? watched by what?)
Blueheart: “I dunno, it’s just a nagging feeling I have. You ever get a feeling like that? Like when you’re walking through your territory and suddenly it feels like there’s eyes on you from somewhere out of sight, and you don’t see anything but no matter how far you go the feeling won’t go away? You ever feel like that? ‘Cause I’m really-AH!”
Oh for StarClan’s sake, this again? One wasn’t enough?
Plumtooth: “Halt! I’ve caught you red-pawed, intruder! Think you can just go trodding through my territory?”
Blueheart: “T-territory? I didn’t smell any scent markers!”
Plumtooth: “Well I...haven’t got around to laying them yet, but I was about to do it! So it’s still intruding and-hey is this pipsqueak with you? What are you doing, teething on my tail?”
No good. Russet’s teeth are the only weapon he has and he still can’t seem to do any damage with them. The she-cat effortlessly whisks her tail out his mouth and cuffs him on the head.
Plumtooth: “You’re not off the hook either, whoever you are! No rogues on my territory!”
Blueheart: “But we’re not rogues! We’re just lost!”
???: “Oh for goodness sake, Plumtooth.”
A disgruntled brown calico she-cat stalks through the scraggly reeds. Her fur is sleek and windswept and her faint heathery scent is distinctly reminiscent of WindClan.
Elkfeather: “Stop being ridiculous, it’s not our ‘territory’ if we just got here!”
Plumtooth: “But I was about to make it my territory, and they’re scaring off all the prey tromping around like that! come on, back me up Elkfeather!”
Elkfeather: “Prey? What prey, we haven’t seen any prey in ages! This place is no better than the last one.”
Plumtooth: “Exactly, there’s no prey because it’s been scared off. You’re just cranky ‘cause you’re hungry-hey what is that little red guy waving at me for?”
Blueheart: “He’s asking if you’re lost as well.”
Plumtooth: “Psh, as if. ThunderClan cats don’t get lost. We can always find our way no matter where we are!”
Elkfeather: “Except for right now.”
Plumtooth: “Right, except for-hey I never said we were lost, I just said I needed a moment to figure it out!”
Russet flattens his ears in annoyance. He should have guessed that the cocky she-cat would be from ThunderClan, although her short wiry form doesn’t quite look it. How is it that he can find a cat from every clan except his own? Maybe if he saw a familiar face it would make things more clear...
Blueheart: “Listen, I’m sure this is a bit of an awkward situation for us all, but we’re clan cats all the same and none of us are on our proper territories. Maybe we can-”
Plumtooth: “You lot are clan cats too? I feel like it’s been ages since I’ve seen any others! Except for Elkfeather here, and she’s such a stick in the mud. How’d you end up here?”
Blueheart and Russet look at each other.
Blueheart: “Well, we’re...not really sure. Russet here woke up lost fairly recently, and I’ve been here much longer by myself before I was told to find him.”
Elkfeather quickly shoved past Plumtooth and stuck her nose in his face.
Elkfeather: “Told by who? it wasn’t that weird brown spotted cat was it?”
Blueheart: “Well...yes, actually. I don’t remember everything he said I just sort of...felt that I should do what he asked. And I think it was the same for Russet-”
Plumtooth: “Ugh! That scrawny old flea-pelt, I bet he wanted us to get lost! Oh well...I guess it can’t be helped. I’ve decided even though you guys are from other clans, I suppose I can let you travel with me. I am one of the best fighters in my clan you know.”
Blueheart: “Gosh that...sure is generous of you.”
Russet: (I can’t believe this…)
Russet tried to keep his tail from twitching in annoyance. That she-cat is awfully full or herself and Elkfeather seems a bit harsh, but he has to admit... if the territory they were in was dangerous, he’d much sooner take traveling with other clan cats over facing the rogues by himself. Especially in his current state.
So our group increases from two to four. Perhaps they’ll start a tiny clan of their own! They agree to keep heading northward, following Russet’s nose without much more lead to go on. In the meantime, although Russet feels slightly more secure with company, he is still left more confused. None of them knew who that brown spotted cat was. He had no clear scent, but he seemed to know more than he was letting on. What motive could he possibly have for pointing them to each other? Did he know that blue-ish cat that had threatened Russet as well? What if this was some kind of trap that they’d been led into? So many questions, so few answers.
For now, there is nothing more to do than march onward and hope that luck finds them soon, before hunger or thirst or more strange rogues get to them first.
