#i like rootspring bc hes a little dumb and perpetually distressed and i can relate to that

[goosewhisker]

russetfur vs. the entirety of skyclan || ch. 1

read this on ao3 || read this on fanfiction.net

summary:  After enduring months of Turtlekit and Kitekit's abuse, Rootkit finally snaps and accidentally awakens his powers. This has the unfortunate side effect of reviving the ghost of an angry Shadowclan warrior who: 1) is personally offended by Skyclan's existence, and 2) has magnanimously taken it upon herself to relieve the world of that burden. Or something.

so this is an au that @xbloodywhalex and i came up with, its finally being written (sort of). i have a few more chapters ready which will go up eventually so keep an eye out for those

There's a grave in the camp.

Well - it's not really a grave per se, that's just what everyone calls it.

It's a little hidden and out-of-the-way, tucked between the elders' den and the nursery - a perfectly round patch of dirt where the grass doesn't grow. If you press your nose to the ground and sniff, it smells like sweat and anger and blood, no matter how often it rains. Hawkwing said once that when Tree first joined Skyclan, he'd taken one look at the circle and declared it haunted, and everyone else had steered clear of it since.

Rootkit's a little skeptical. Sure, there's something weird about the grave, but haunted? Honestly. If there was a ghost in the Skyclan camp, it would've shown up by now, and even his dad has to admit he's never seen anything. He's only sensed it, whatever that's supposed to mean. It's not like you can smell a ghost.

Anyway, no one knows how old it is or if someone died there or even who it might've been; the grownups say it was there before Skyclan arrived in the forest, which was so long ago that even his dad was hardly born yet. Rootkit can't imagine it.

Even though he doesn't think it's haunted, he still ends up back there a lot. Most other cats are wary of the grave and won't go near, which means Rootkit can hide there anytime he wants without being bothered. Usually, he's hiding from Kitekit and Turtlekit, but sometimes it's the unfriendly looks the older cats give him that send him creeping behind the nursery. They look at him weird because of his dad, he knows. Sometimes, all he wants to do is sink into the ground and never talk to anyone again.

Needlekit pretends not to care, but he caught her crying on top of the grave one time, so he knows it bothers her too.

Rootkit's thought about trying to talk to her, once or twice, but she's trying so hard to act strong and he can't ruin that for her. And his mom will just lick his ears and tell him they really don't think he's weird, dear, and he'll see the lie in her eyes. And as for his dad - he can't talk to his dad. So he talks to the grave instead.

"Kitekit pushed me down, today," he'll say, or "Turtlekit put ants in Needlekit's nest and blamed it on me, and Reedclaw believed her." Once, he tried to explain why his dad aggravates him so much, but halfway through he choked on frustrated tears and gave up. Maybe next time.

The point is that he talks to it, a lot, and sometimes he says things that maybe he shouldn't have.

So when Kitekit overhears him talking about how his dad was trying to teach him to think like a bush (and as if that isn't the stupidest thing he's ever heard, seriously), and calls Turtlekit over to for let's-all-make-fun-of-Rootkit-time, it's really just what he deserves. After all, he's the weird son of the one cat who talks to ghosts and had to have an entirely new role invented for him; if Rootkit's talking to piles of dirt now, he's just carrying on the family tradition of being an absolute loon. According to Kitekit and Turtlekit, anyway.

"-I'm just saying, if you want it to talk back, maybe you're just not going at it the right way," Turtlekit suggests, a sneer curling her lip.

"Yeah," Kitekit chimes in. "Maybe you should try thinking like a bush. Just like your dad, right?"

Rootkit glares at his paws, watching them shake with barely repressed fury. "Can't you leave me alone? I don't care what my stupid dad does!"

His tormentors laugh. They both sound identical, vapid and inane and carelessly, needlessly cruel. He hates them, Rootkit realizes, and something inside him wavers on the verge of a breaking point.

"You might not," Kitepaw says. "But everyone else does. Leafstar does. She's just letting you guys stay here 'cause of your mom. Do you really think she'll let a weirdo like you be a warrior?"

Rootkit's head snaps up against his will. He knows better than to give them a reaction like that, but this is his dream; he wants to be a warrior so badly it hurts. Leafstar wouldn't actually keep him from being a warrior, would she?

Turtlekit snickers. "Maybe, when you finish your apprenticeship, she'll just kick you out. After all, there's no way you'll be a decent warrior, and we don't need another useless cat dragging the clan down." Another cat like your father goes unsaid, but the implication makes Rootkit dig his claws into the ground.

"And your worthless sister, too," Kitepaw adds, and within Rootkit something snaps.

"That's enough," Rootkit snarls. Kitekit jerks back in surprise, but Rootkit doesn't care. The hatred welling up in his throat burns like something physical; if he were any angrier, he'd spit acid. "I've had enough of you people! Every single day, every single day you treat me like garbage, when I've done nothing to you! I hate you!"

Kitekit's eyes go wide as he backs away. Turtlekit mouths a word, but Rootkit can't hear it over the blood singing in his ears. The heat rushing through every nerve in his body is making him giddy; he feels high on power, watching his enemies cower before him.

"You think you can say whatever you want to me," Rootkit hisses. "You think you can say whatever you want about my family! Guess what - starting now, if you ever mention my mom or my dad or my sister again - I'll kill you!"

The last words seem to echo with a throaty reverb through the air. All of Kitekit's fur is standing on end. Turtlekit is cringing to the ground, ears flattened back so far that they've disappeared into her skull. Rootkit grins, and it's more a baring of teeth than a smile.

"Now go," he breathes. Kitekit and Turtlekit stumble over each other in their haste to flee, for once uncoordinated and clumsy as they'd always accused Rootkit of being.

Rootkit sits back on his heels to watch them run. He'll probably get yelled at later, but finally letting loose had felt good. "That was fun," he says aloud, and almost jumps out of his skin when someone laughs coldly behind him.

Rootkit screams. He'd like to say he didn't, really, he would, but the noise he makes is too high pitched and panicky to be called anything but a scream. A particularly shrill squeak, maybe.

The strange she-cat looming over him looks like she'd probably agree. She's tall and russet and bone-thin, with a narrow face torn by battle scars. Her scent is cold and musty and reminds Rootkit of the time he'd stashed a mouse and forgotten about it, only to find it again weeks later after it had rotted.

Rootkit swallows and finds his throat has gone dry. "W-who are you? And how'd you get into the camp?"

The she-cat eyes him disdainfully. Rootkit shrinks back, regretting his question immediately. Kitekit and Turtlekit's scorn had infuriated him to no end; this cat's gaze makes him want to crawl under a rock somewhere and die.

After a moment, the she-cat speaks. "You smell like a rogue. What are you doing on Shadowclan territory?"

On what? "What?" Rootkit says dumbly.

The she-cat's lip curls back. She's starting to look considerably less amused and considerably more irritated. Rootkit shivers and longs for his mother.

"This clearing is Shadowclan's, brat," she snaps. "I'd have thought the scent marks would be enough to get the message across, but I'm not one to shy away from... more direct methods of communication." Her scent flares with something like bloodlust, and Rootkit abruptly gets the feeling that if those direct methods involve her claws, he's not about to stick around and find out.

"Mom!" Rootkit shrieks as loud as he can. The she-cat winces and he seizes that split second to sprint out from behind the nursery, still screaming. He gets halfway across the camp before slamming into absolutely the last person he wants to see.

"Woah, kid. Something wrong?" Tree's amber eyes blink down at him and for a moment Rootkit just wants to curl onto his dad's chest fur and cry.

Then he remembers his more urgent problem.

"Dad, I-" Rootkit pauses to glance around the camp. No one's quite looking at them, but he can tell they're all eavesdropping avidly. Rootkit's resolve hardens. "Dad. We've got a- a you problem."

Tree looks amused. "A me problem?"

"Yes!" Rootkit growls with frustration and throws himself against his dad's legs, pushing him towards the grave. "You know what I mean!"

That stupid amused look won't get off his face, but thankfully he doesn't say anything and lets himself be pushed. As they pick their way through the brambles behind the nursery, Rootkit breaks away and situates himself securely behind Tree's leg. If the she-cat wants him, she'll have to go through Tree, and Rootkit might have issues with him but he knows that his dad will kill to protect him.

As it turns out, he doesn't have to. The gravesite is empty.

Tree turns to Rootkit. "What am I supposed to be seeing, here?"

Rootkit gazes past him, aghast. "I don't understand!" He scrambles underneath his dad to pace around the little circle, looking for any evidence of the interloper. There's no trace of her but the musty smell of rot. "She was here earlier," Rootkit mutters, mostly to himself. "She smelled like something dead. I think she was... she was..."

"A ghost?" Tree asks. Horrified, Rootkit turns to him to dissuade this particular train of thought, but his dad is already nodding. "I've always wondered if you or Needlekit would inherit my abilities," he says. "It seems like you might have awakened your own. How'd it happen?"

Rootkit looks at the ground and thinks of his earlier outburst, of the heady rush of power that had surged beneath his skin. "No idea," he mumbles.

Tree seems to take him at his word. "That happens sometimes. This ghost, did she say anything?"

Rootkit thinks back to the encounter. "She said... something about Shadowclan. That I smell like a rogue. Not much else, she didn't even tell me her name."

"Huh." Tree looks contemplative. "Well, this was Shadowclan territory, once. She probably died a while ago, so it'll probably be hard to help her move on. Meanwhile, let's both keep an eye out, hmm?" He nudges Rootkit gently. When Rootkit doesn't meet his eyes, Tree sighs. "Well, let me know if you see her again, kiddo. I'm going to talk to your mother."

Rootkit watches his dad leave with some resentment. He's going to go straight to Violetshine, and tell her all about Rootkit's creepy new powers, and by sundown the whole camp will know and any chance Rootkit has of not being treated like a freak will be gone. Figures.

Rootkit slumps to the ground. All that, and his dad didn't even help with the ghost problem, 'cause the dumb lady took off before he even got there. What a waste of time.

At least he got to freak out Kitekit and Turtlekit. Rootkit snickers into the dirt, remembering the looks on their faces, and abruptly goes stiff with an eep as a freezing wind cuts through the fur on his shoulders. A cold chuckle echoes through the air, and right by his ear, the she-cat's voice whispers, "My name's Russetfur, brat."

Rootkit shudders.

He doesn't move until the she-cat's icy laughter has faded completely, and her dark presence has disappeared from the grave. Once he's sure she's absolutely, entirely gone, Rootkit clambers to his feet, eyes narrowed in determination.

He has work to do.

#warrior cats #warrior cats fanfiction #wc #warriors #rootspring #tree #russetfur #kitescratch #turtlecrawl #i think thats their names anyway #i like rootspring bc hes a little dumb and perpetually distressed and i can relate to that #@xbloodywhalex ITS HERE