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mayflowers515 · 1 month

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(Wholesome Cartoon AU) Smiling Critters' Families

Wanted to make this to go more into depth with the Critters' families and their thoughts on them. I mentioned some aspects about some families already in my lore headcanons, but here the information relating to them will be more organized and may have some extra details not brought up before.

Note: For the purposes of cartoon logic, real-life lifespans of animals won't apply here when it comes to the parents (since their ages are definitely beyond what ages they typically live by-)

I also have headcanons for all the families, and I will update this if I think up more for them :)

🧡☀️DogDay☀️🧡

Members:

NoonHound - father; 32 years old

Bio: Works as a cartoonist and is very passionate and easygoing.

DandieDawn - mother; 31 years old

Bio: Works as a daycare teacher; she is very caring but a bit of a worrywart.

DogDay - older brother; 11 years old

SunnySpot - younger sister; 6 years old

Bio: Filled with endless curiosity and bubbly charm, but can be a smart allec sometimes.

DogDay loves his parents a lot and respects all of what they do for him and his sister. He only wishes they could all spend more time all together. That doesn't happen too often due to his mother and father working busy jobs. As for DogDay's relationship with Sunny, he cares a lot about her, too. Sometimes, he can get a bit too overprotective of her in cases where it may not be needed. Even then, he likes to play games with her whenever she asks about it. She's very playful after all.

DogDay's parents, Noon and Dawn, work a lot to care for him and Sunny. They used to all live in a more drab town where the job quality wasn't the best. They stayed there to improve their financial situation until finally they could move to a better town to work better jobs. Though they can still be busy at times, the parents now have much more initiative to take a break compared to before. As for Sunny, she really looks up to and admires her brother. Though she gets annoyed whenever he overly coddles her, and she occasionally plays smart with him.

Headcanons:

Sunny has learned how to solve a Rubik's cube at a young age. In general she is good with completing brain puzzles, but solving a Rubik's cube is her favorite one.

Dawn's experiences as a teacher is part of the reason for being a worrywart. Due to the way the kids at daycare act, she tends to have this persona of her slip whenever she tends to DogDay and Sunny. She is often out of work very exhausted and tense, but she still loves her job.

As a kid, Noon drew cartoons as he has always wanted to be a cartoonist. However, he doesn't really like looking back at them since he views them as "cringy". If his kids were to see the comics he created, he would laugh at them as a way of acknowledging how "cringy" his previous work was, even if this may not have been the case.

Dawn and Noon have known each other for a long time, as they were next-door neighbors in their childhood town (not the same as the drab town I described, though). They were childhood friends for a long time, but Noon had harbored feelings for Dawn for a long time even before they got together. By the time their high school's prom came around, he confessed his feelings for her, which she reciprocated (turns out she felt the same way Noon did, but he was oblivious to this thinking she was just being shy originally).

Dawn's hobby whenever she isn't working is landscape work. This ranges from gardening to decorating. She gets really into it, too, often taking a long time to finish her landscaping work to fit a certain occasion (especially the case when holidays roll around). Noon likes to help with decorations sometimes because of his own passions relating to drawing.

DogDay's appreciation of his father's drawings is also what makes him so interested of other people's art, even though he himself isn't as artistic of a person.

🩷🍎PickyPiggy🍎🩷

(I'm changing my mind about the status of Picky's parents. They never disappeared now- I didn't like the original idea I had for them looking back at it; may put what I planned for them previously in another timeline though, but I'm not sure atm)

Members:

PerfectPiggy - father; 36 years old

Bio: The main cook of the family's kitchen; has good leadership skills and charisma.

PetitePiggy - mother; 34 years old

Bio: The co-cook and gardener of the family's kitchen; not afraid to get messy and is hard-working.

PickyPiggy - older sister; 10 years old

PerkyPiggy - younger twin sister; middle; 7 years old

Bio: Takes a lot after her mother and loves outdoor activity. She and her twin brother commonly bicker.

PowerPiggy - younger twin brother; middle; 7 years old

Bio: Though very reserved, he is stubborn and goal-oriented. He and his twin sister commonly bicker.

PlayPiggy - baby brother; youngest; 6 months old

Bio: A very happy infant who loves to play games.

Picky has a lot of respect for her parents. They were the reason she has such a passion in gardening and especially cooking. As a result, Picky is a bit closer with Perfect than Petite, but she is always enthusiastic at both learning new recipes and growing new crops. She has learned a lot about responsibility and discipline from them that reflects in the piggy she is. Picky has a motherly attitude towards her siblings. Whenever her parents can't take care of them due to being busy, Picky usually volunteers to help. She is a peacemaker to her siblings if Perky and Power get into fights or whenever Play starts to get upset. She also caters a lot to their basic needs. She doesn't deny any of them for any reason, though she can sometimes act slightly mean and sarcastic towards them depending on her mood. She usually apologizes when she goes too far with this attitude, however.

Picky's parents love all of their children equally. In the case of Picky, they are especially happy that she takes interest in their work. They secretly want Picky to help run the business with them when she's older, and potentially even inherit it if and when they retire. As for Picky's siblings, they have a lot of respect for their older sister. Especially because of what she does to make sure they get taken care of whenever their parents can't help for whatever reason. Perky and Power usually have Picky play with them when she can because she can also let loose and play with them just like any sister can. Though not much is known with how Play feels about Picky due to being so young, he appreciates her company just as much as everyone else's. He especially loves the games she plays with him.

Headcanons:

Before their start as a local restaurant business, the Piggies took their food service slow. They helped out in any food drives and potlucks they came across. Their favorite place to help out is in homeless shelters and orphanages. Picky especially likes to help out in the orphanage (I imagine this is how she and Bobby met all that time ago).

Both Perfect and Petite were into cooking, and they naturally took interest in each other when realizing during high school that they both planned to go to culinary school. During their time in culinary school, they fell in love and eventually became a couple.

Perky and Power aren't into cooking as much as their older sister or their parents, but they still occasionally help out in the kitchen, especially if it involves their favorite food. They can't help out in the same room, however, since they bicker even in the kitchen.

Perky is VERY messy whenever she helps out in the kitchen. She often has flour and ingredients all over her clothes after helping out. This would annoy Power, who is much less messy in the kitchen.

Whenever Power is in the kitchen, he is very by the book. He does a good job keeping track with the details explained in the cookbooks, but he will question whenever something goes against what he expects would happen.

Perfect sometimes cooks the food he makes for the restaurant business as a surprise for the family. To save money, they usually eat store bought food whenever those surprise days don't happen.

Petite probably has a lot of injuries due to what she has to work with in her garden. She especially hates wasps since they sting her a lot whenever she tends to the garden.

🩵🌈CraftyCorn🌈🩵

Members:

King SpeQuine - father; 41 years old

Bio: A very demanding presence in the kingdom and always strives to receive the best in everything.

Queen PrisMare - mother; 38 years old

Bio: Known to be emotionally distant and no-nonsense. She cares a lot about keeping the kingdom afloat.

(Princess) CraftyCorn - daughter; 11 years old

Crafty's relationship with her parents is... complicated to say the least. While she doesn't hate either of them, she doesn't exactly respect them either. They always talked down to her for interests that didn't relate to royalty and they also talked badly about anybody that didn't share their status, and Crafty disliked that. Despite this, Crafty always tried to please her parents so she could feel accepted by them. She was often talked down to for not fulfilling their expectations. Eventually, Crafty had enough of this and ran away in the middle of the night. She was accompanied by a knight who took pity in her situation. She doesn't like talking about her parents ever since she ran away from them. This is also the reason why she's so sensitive on the topic of her upbringing.

Crafty's parents didn't really love their daughter as a daughter. Rather as someone that could help them with the kingdom's reputation. They always nitpicked her for not fulfilling the visions they wanted for her to be. SpeQuine would especially be more nitpicky with his daughter. PrisMare is the same, but she has a sense of coldness whenever she does the same thing. Mainly because she doesn't know how to show love in the traditional sense, since she was always so focused on her kingdom and her kingdom only. These attitudes caused Crafty to run away. Not much is known about the parents' reaction to Crafty besides the fact they are desperately trying to search for her, unaware of her current location.

Headcanons:

Queen PrisMare actually used to be a big artist as a young girl, but she was bashed for these interests in a similar manner that Crafty was. PrisMare herself doesn't realize her own hypocrisy because there was a point in her life where her family would convince her that art was nothing but a waste of time. She commonly uses those experiences to convince Crafty to do what she and SpeQuine want her to do. Even so, I feel deep down, she would've secretly been proud of Crafty and her artwork, but doesn't show it so she can be a "good example" of "proper royalty".

King SpeQuine grew up in a rich family that spoiled him rotten before getting married to PrisMare. He was always taught that he always deserved the best of the best at all times, even if that realistically couldn't always happen. Due to the way he was raised, if he wasn't getting into a relationship with PrisMare, he would've stayed with his parents and never got a chance to work. His parents didn't care about the severity of running a kingdom at the time. They only cared that their son got with a royal because of the reputation it gives them.

Though they aren't seen or heard of much in the events of the cartoon, there are implications that the finding of their daughter is getting more widespread. These implications would grow more and more as the cartoon goes on (probably during a point where Crafty is going through an arc).

The natures of both PrisMare and SpeQuine also caused them to clash and not have as healthy of a relationship with each other either. They hid this from Crafty as much as they could to set a good example for her.

The only reason the parents got together at all is because PrisMare was pressured by her family to find someone to marry for their kingdom and SpeQuine's parents wanted him to marry a rich lady to upgrade their own status. Both PrisMare and SpeQuine seldom treat each other like married couples typically do. They may have a slight hint of care for each other, but this never extends to true love.

💛⭐KickinChicken⭐💛

Members:

CooperRooster - father; 40 years old

Bio: A social butterfly who likes to live in the moment. Can get too over his head at times, though.

WendyHen - mother; 39 years old

Bio: A sweet but self-conscious hen who wants the best for her family.

StrikinChicken - older brother; 17 years old

Bio: He is generally chill and agreeable. He likes to tease Kickin a lot, but he also likes helping him.

KickinChicken - younger brother; 10 years old

Kickin doesn't show it around others, but he is very clingy to his parents. He is especially clingy towards Cooper since he often spoiled him and his brother ever since they were young. Despite not being as close with Wendy, he still appreciates her a lot and usually tries to help her when she has her episodes of self-doubt. As much as Kickin looks up to both of his parents, however, it doesn't compare to the amount of admiration he has for his brother, Strikin. They have always been really close, and Kickin wants to be as cool as his brother. He worries whenever he feels he can't reach Strikin's level of cool, but Strikin usually reassures him whenever he feels this way.

Kickin's parents care a lot about their son, but they deep down worry a lot about him. He was picked on a lot at a previous school he was at, and they feel Kickin gets a lot of his own hidden self-consciousness from those experiences. As a result, they reassure Kickin that he will always be a star to them. Strikin also feels this way, but he is very close to Kickin. He checks up on him a lot, and he feels bad whenever he feels he couldn't do much to help him with his doubts, even when Kickin is just happy Strikin was there for him at all. Deep down, Strikin worries about how Kickin will feel once he leaves for college...

Headcanons:

Strikin plans to major in engineering once he graduates high school and goes to college.

Cooper used to be in a garage band when he was younger. He still has a rock guitar reminding him of those times. He hopes one of his sons pick up on his skills sometime.

Wendy likes to scrapbook in her free time. She may also have some embarrassing photos of her sons when they were really young. Strikin doesn't really mind, but Kickin would absolutely get embarrassed if his mom ever showed anyone those photos-

Wendy and Cooper had BIG crushes on each other during high school, but neither one of them knew about it.

When they did get together, I imagine it happened in a really funny, coincidental fashion. Like, when they were teens, they took part in a spin-the-bottle game, and Cooper just so happened to land on Wendy, which she was TERRIFIED about at first because she thought she would be way out of Cooper's league yet he still pursued her. They hit it off ever since that night-

Though I wouldn't be able to straight out say it in the AU (since I hc the cartoon was created in the early 90s where rep wasn't exactly normalized yet), it is very much implied that Strikin is gay. Probably what made Kickin himself feel more comfortable about realizing he was bisexual (this would also be implied).

Strikin has a BIG comic book collection with comics he doesn't even read anymore. He plans to give those comics to Kickin once he moves out to college (he doesn't give it to him sooner because he wants to surprise him).

💙💡Bubba Bubbaphant💡💙

Members:

(Ben) Benvolio Bubbaphant - father; 42 years old

Bio: An outgoing, fun-loving elephant who likes seeing the bright side of things.

Bridget Bubbaphant - mother; 43 years old

Bio: A kind, calm elephant who usually likes to reminisce on the past.

Bubba Bubbaphant - son; 11 years old

Bubba cares deeply about his parents, but he hasn't always been so trusting of them. For some time (prior to the series), he thought the relationship he had with his parents was "off", as if they couldn't be his real parents due to how different they are from him (size, color, etc). Eventually he realized the reason why, and he has become much closer to them ever since. He always appreciates how much they support his academic interests, and they always strive for him to achieve the best he can. Bubba likes Benvolio's energy, but he sometimes gets annoyed when he doesn't take certain things seriously. As for Bridget, Bubba admires how calm and wise she is. They also like to reminisce on old memories together.

Bubba's parents care a lot about their son. They originally were concerned for him because he would barely open up to them at a certain point in time. Once they realized why, they took extra time in making sure they valued their son for being himself and that they would always care for him. Benvolio has always made sure to do what he could to cheer up his son whenever he felt hard on himself. Meanwhile, Bridget usually helps Bubba whenever he wants insight on certain decisions he's about to make (he wants to make sure he's doing the right thing).

Headcanons:

The reason Bubba distrusted his parents so much in the past was because of how different their genetics seemed to be. He accidentally slips up on this distrust one time when he had an argument with them. Benvolio and Bridget open up about why this is the case. It turns out they are still his real parents despite how different they seemed. Just their genetics made him turn out to not be as similar to them. This discovery was part of the reason as to why Bubba has become much more inclined to learning new things nowadays. Afterwards, he starts to trust his parents more.

This misunderstanding led to Bubba's own fear of his lack of knowledge on certain things. Benvolio and Bridget are aware of this, and always let him know that there's still a lot for him to learn and that it's normal to not know EVERYTHING. Though this doesn't personally help Bubba very much, he would appreciate the support anyway.

Benvolio was NOT good at school back in the day. However, he would barely ever get any help due to the discrimination on him being so small for an elephant. This is eventually how he met Bridget, who was the only one who would help tutor him (she also had similar problems being rejected for her differences). Though they did clash sometimes, they eventually became high school sweethearts.

Bridget had a lot of achievements for her work in school back in the day, but this wasn't capitalized on as much during the time due to the discrimination following her. They have been given much more recognition as she grew older whenever anyone found out due to their world becoming more accepting of these differences.

The Bubbaphants loved to play board games together. They don't get TOO chaotic, as to them it's all just harmless fun to them. Sometimes, Benvolio likes to be silly about the way he plays and is usually the most dramatic whenever they play.

❤️❤️Bobby BearHug❤️❤️

Members:

Beckett BearHug - adoptive father; 34 years old

Bio: A tough-looking bear who has a bleeding heart on the inside. He has fighting experience.

Barbara BearHug - adoptive mother; 33 years old

Bio: Looks snobby, but she is actually very empathetic and gentle. She is known to have a rbf.

Bobby BearHug - daughter/adopted daughter; 9 years old

Bobby loves her parents a lot. She doesn't see them for their outward flaws, but rather as the parents she wished she was born with a long time ago. The truth is, these aren't her real parents. They adopted her after she was dropped by her real parents who neglected her. Due to her previous experience with those parents, Bobby gets really scared and apologetic if she feels she is being too much with Barbara and Beckett or if she isn't good enough for them. They always give her reassurance that they love her no matter what. Bobby sees them as her real parents because of the love they've given her that she needed all along.

Barbara and Beckett care a lot about their daughter. They always wanted to have a child of their own, but they were unable to for some time. They were glad to have the opportunity to raise Bobby after realizing her situation. As a result of realizing what she went through previously, they take extra care in being as kind and reassuring to her as possible. This is so she can know that they won't leave her or neglect her like her previous parents did. They love Bobby unconditionally as if she was their biological daughter.

Headcanons:

Bobby's biological parents are Homer HoneyComb and Cara HoneyComb. They had Bobby at a young age and at the time, they weren't at all ready to have a child. They kept her anyway due to pressure from both sides of the family, but they seldom gave her any attention outside of the bare minimum. This left Bobby starved for love at a young age, and as a result, she was more clingy to them. Homer and Cara took this clinginess as an opportunity to make her a scapegoat whenever they fought and brush her off as a "nuisance". They also used it as a reason to eventually abandon her. This all happened when Bobby was at the age of 5, and she was placed in an orphanage for some time after this. When she was 7-8 years old, she finally found loving parents in Beckett and Barbara.

Beckett is heavily trained in martial arts. He someday wants to teach this skill to his daughter, but he knows she may not want to do that at this point (she doesn't like to get her hands dirty). Beckett is patient about this aspect of Bobby.

Beckett's side of the family runs a honey farm that is far from the Smiling Critters' hometown. Whenever Beckett visits his parents, he makes sure to bring back honey to share among him, Barbara, and Bobby.

Barbara and Beckett met sometime when Barbara visited Beckett's family's honey farm. They related to each other a lot due to being misunderstood by others, and they eventually fell in love as a result.

Barbara actually works as a teacher at the school the Smiling Critters go to. To avoid bias, however, she agreed to not have Bobby in the same classroom as her. She occasionally checks in on her daughter whenever she is on break to make sure she's okay during the day.

Barbara and Beckett allows Bobby to visit the orphanage sometimes due to her positive experience with the fellow orphans there before getting adopted.

💚⚡Hoppy Hopscotch⚡💚

Members:

Scott Hopscotch - father; 36 years old

Bio: Passionate and a little aggressive. He can have a bad temper at times.

Rebecca Hopscotch - mother; 36 years old

Bio: Excitable and optimistic. She can be pretty reckless outside of parenting decisions.

Harley Hopscotch - older sister; 16 years old

Bio: Reserved and a bit shy, but very protective when it comes to her family's safety.

Hoppy Hopscotch - younger sister; middle; 10 years old

Holly Hopscotch - younger sister; youngest; 4 years old

Bio: She is carefree and imaginative, and her innocence is still very present.

Hoppy respects her parents a lot. They usually encourage her to follow her dreams of being a sports star. In fact, she was inspired to do it because of her mom's role in sports during high school and winning many medals. Hoppy also cares a lot about her sisters, though she wishes they would be more willing to play the kind of games she wants to play. That doesn't happen often since their interests are inclined in different directions. Hoppy would get protective of them if something happened to them.

Hoppy's parents are very happy with their daughters. Specifically for Hoppy, they appreciate the amount of energy she brings to the dynamic. Also happened because of their influence and their own energy. Hoppy's sisters also look up to her in their own right. Though Harley can act very cautious with Hoppy due to how reckless she can be, she appreciates what she does whenever she doesn't feel up to doing things. Holly really looks up to Hoppy despite not being into sports like she is. Holly usually likes piggy backs from her or Harley.

Headcanons:

This family seems to have a habit of cursing. Scott and Rebecca curse often whenever they're mad (mostly for Scott) or feeling intense about something (mostly for Rebecca). Holly and Hoppy usually have to be taken out of the room so they don't pick up on their cursing habits (Harley is the only one allowed to listen). Hoppy listens in anyway, so now she has a habit of occasionally cursing just like her parents. Obviously since the Smiling Critters is intended to be a kids cartoon, the swear words aren't actually heard by the viewers. They're coincidentally and comedically blocked out by something or someone every time. Ironically, Hoppy's parents would get mad if they heard their daughter cursing (secretly a bit proud at the same time, though). She usually tries not to curse in front of them anyway, but she occasionally slips up.

Family game nights are likely very, VERY chaotic with this family... Think like that Odd1sOut Monopoly scene-

Speaking of game nights, imagining this is how Scott and Rebecca met. One time they just had a game night with their high school friends. They basically had a game respects game attitude towards each other and grew very close ever since.

Harley wants to major in English once she makes it to college.

The sweater Hoppy has wrapped around her waist was given to her by Harley as a hand-me-down. Hoppy loved it so much that she has worn it ever since it was given to her. If she were to wear it, it would likely look a bit oversized on her-

Despite Hoppy getting in on the chaos of her parents, she will usually partake in making sure Holly keeps her innocence since she's so young. Basically like a "No! Not the baby!" situation like in Amphibia whenever something that would ruin Holly's innocence is about to happen.

💜🌙CatNap🌙💜

Members:

MewZizz - father; 34 years old

Bio: A calm, quiet guy who likes to play music for anyone willing to listen.

FeLune - mother; 33 years old

Bio: The resident "crazy lady"; She has a mysterious aura, but is she really what she seems?

CatNap - son; 11 years old

CatNap isn't by his parents often, but he still shows appreciation for what they do. Sometimes he can be a little embarrassed by the antics of his mom, but he will help her with any errands she needs done. As for his dad, CatNap appreciates the music he comes up with. He occasionally stops by to see his dad perform whenever he's awake.

CatNap's parents care deeply about their son. MewZizz is worried about his son's mental state sometimes, suspicious of the fact that he sleeps so often throughout the day. Though he knows why, he sometimes tries to convince him of better ways to go about the stress. This doesn't usually work since CatNap is so convinced that he just has to stay as calm as possible through proper sleep. Meanwhile, FeLune nags CatNap out of her own worry. Also because of a lot of the many traits they share with each other... She worries about CatNap going through the same judgement she went through, but she attempts to help him whenever he feels stressed about this.

Headcanons:

FeLune had a love-at-first-sight experience with MewZizz. She was always a part of the audience watching his performances. Eventually, she mustered the courage to talk to him, and they shortly got into a relationship afterward. For MewZizz, he loved FeLune's support and the quirks she had, so he quickly fell in love with her in a similar way.

The poppy gas CatNap has as his second scent came from FeLune's side of the family. FeLune herself had to deal with poppy gas, but she managed to control it to a healthy level. However, before she did, she would often get flak for having this ability, being deemed a monster by many for having it. As a result, this affects the way she feels about her son's poppy gas. She worries a lot about if people found out about this. Little did she know, her excessive worry about it is also what drove CatNap's own fear of the others finding out about his ability.

MewZizz often played lullabies for CatNap when he was younger. CatNap has fond memories of these lullabies, and he even hums them himself whenever he helps put others to sleep.

MewZizz and FeLune are very openly romantic in public. They do a lot of PDA, and sometimes this gets on CatNap's nerves because of how openly they do it.

FeLune was able to have their home installed with their own observatory. Besides his own bedroom, CatNap finds the observatory to be his favorite place to unwind.

(Phew... This took so long to make with the designs and descriptions =v=' I'm sorry for not posting about the AU in a while. I hope this makes up for it- Also tried to not be exactly the same as the existing family dynamics other people came up with for their own interpretations of the Smiling Critters- It's their original OCs after all- I did still get inspired by some things. If anyone has an issue with this, let me know and I'll work something out with my own characters since I don't want to copy off of anyone T^T)

Hope you guys enjoyed this (long) post!

🩷❤️🧡💛💚🩵💙💜

#smiling critters au #smiling critters #justsomepersonalhcs #dogday #pickypiggy #craftycorn #kickinchicken #bubba bubbaphant #bobby bearhug #hoppy hopscotch #catnap

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darktreeroots · 9 months

Text

Moonstar's Resolve

8.0k

Important characters will be revealed as you read.

Moonswallow is wrong. There is something wrong with her and she doesn’t know how to fix it. She has her father’s eyes and her father’s strength and her father’s red-hot blood. When she attacks she doesn’t do so with grace, just raw power. Her mother turns up her noise at her, her father has long grown disinterested with the novelty.

She pretends that none of it matters to her, she presses her eyes closer to her head, stands up taller, uses spare stones to sharpen her nail until any BroadleafClan cat that dares cross their border doesn’t have a chance to scream out to StarClan. They like her more anyhow, she hears them whisper in her ears as she lays out in the long grasses alone.

Moonswallow opens her eyes and sees that moonhigh is on its way. She knows that she’ll be torn apart a hundred times over for coming home too late but it’s not as if she’s coming home empty-handed. She has three rabbits to show for her efforts, and a squirrel that she’ll dig up tomorrow. It’s a good assurance if she doesn’t find something tomorrow. She picks up the rabbits by their ears, lifting them just high enough that they don’t drag against the ground as she makes it back to camp.

She doesn’t come across anyone in the grass, and if any cat had decided to chose it over the dens back at camp then she didn’t see them.

Moonswallow strolls into camp, rabbits aloft. She tries to keep quiet at first but a quick glance to the surrounding dens makes it clear that no one is awake any longer.

“It’s almost moonhigh.” Except for Whitebreeze, of course. The elder looks out at her with undisguised disdain with blue eyes so light they were nearly hidden in his white pelt. Moonswallow just bares her teeth around the rabbit ears and walks off to place the rabbits on the fresh kill pile. It’s rather skimpy at the moment so she knows that Needlestar won’t have a reason to complain about her coming back so late come morning.

Unlike Whitebreeze who was hurried coming out of the woven grass den, a thunderous expression on his face before he slammed his face into Moonswallow’s fur, breathing in deep.

“Stop that.” Moonswallow hisses, barely repressing the urge to claw her father, “Whatever you think I’m doing out there, it’s the same thing that everyone else is doing while they’re outside at night. When is the last time that you even saw Nightspark?”

“Nightspark is none of your concern.” Moonswallow swallows back her retort, but just barely. She longs to dig her claws into Whitebreeze’s neck and cast him away but doing that would be unacceptable. No cat was allowed to throw their clanmates, even if said clanmate was their horrible horrible father.

It would probably break a few bones.

Moonswallow swallows hard and digs her paws into the ground, trying to remind herself that the thought shouldn’t be so alluring.

“Are you done? Found no BroadleafClan scent on me?” She hisses as Whitebreeze finally steps away, looking unsatisfied, “As if I would ever fall for one of those forest dwellers?”

Whitebreeze’s nose twitches.

“Don’t be so sure about that.” He snaps at her. She rolls her eyes and turns her back on him, “And don’t forget that there are other things out there. That fox killed Dropstalk yesterday, we were able to confirm it this afternoon. His…remains were far out, closer to BroadleafClan’s Queen’s Edge than our own land.

That would be the twelve cat that the fox has killed: Mintbelly, Rabbitpaw, Haredash, Tumblewhisker, Sunnyspots, Clearpaw, Perchpaw, Sandyface, Sleekheart, Yellowtail, Ashpaw, and now Dropstalk. She would miss them all truly but—

“You think I need to be warned? The fox only attacks at night, and then only sleeping cats. It won’t ever catch me unaware.” Moonswallow flexes her muscles and puffs out her fur, the action taking her from one of the largest in the camp to the largest without doubt. The only cat would could possibly match her side was Longwillow who was far more fur than cat, “Watch out for yourself.” Moonswallow hisses.

“Mintbelly died during the day, I’ll have you know.” He lets out an irritated hiss, “So ungrateful—you’d die without a vigil.” Whitebreeze snarls at her retreating back as she enters the medicine den, “You should learn to keep some of your thoughts to yourself.”

Oh I am. Moonswallow thinks as she settles down and casts her tail over her eyes, effectively ending their conversation, If I wasn’t, then I would have told you that I wished the fox got you next.

“Moonswallow? Moooooonnnnswaaaaa—” Moonswallow hits Honeypaw with a well-aimed swat.

“Oh I’m sorry. You surprised me. I didn’t mean to hit you.” Moonswallow says as she fakes a yawn, “You shouldn’t be that close to me when I wake up or else I might do it again.”

“Sorry Moonswallow…” Honeypaw apologizes, huge green eyes watery, “But Needlestar wanted me to find you.” Moonswallow just manages to swallow her huge sigh as she starts to get to her feet.

“You go first. I’ll be right behind you.” Moonswallow nudges Honeypaw out of the warriors den before taking a moment to stretch out her limbs. There’s only a few cats in the den right now, but their scents tell her that they’ve already been out and have come back for a quick nap.

Isn’t it too early for a nap? Moonswallow trudges after Honeypaw as the morning sun hangs overhead. It isn’t sunhigh yet and won’t be for a little while—so for Moonswallow who went to sleep after moonhigh she’s barely conscious much less willing to deal with whatever Needlestar wants from her this time.

“Needlestar! I brought her!” Honeypaw calls out as she trods towards the small hole in the back of camp, an indent first found there by ancient HillClan and then expanded until it was a den big enough for a few cats to come in and have a meeting. Though today, their size was only two because Honeypaw quickly retreated after a tail flick from Needlestar, pushing back the grass barrier before leading them alone.

“So I’ve heard that you were out late last night.”

“Have you also heard of the three rabbits I brought?” Or did you think that StarClan itself had sent them flying along an errant breeze?

Needlestar gives her a level look with golden eyes, even though she tried so hard to keep her tone respectful, “You shouldn’t come back to camp so late.”

“You’re sound like Whitebreeze.” Moonswallow replies, “And have you seen Nightspark either? Because if you haven’t, then I’m going to begin worrying.”

“She’s on a border patrol.” Needlestar says, looking irritated but it’s not directed at her. Moonswallow doesn’t show how pleased she is on her face—Whitebreeze can only dig himself in deeper and deeper holes. It’s better not to listen to him and gives his words as much weight as a seed carried by the wind. Listening to him and his opinions is what made her life so skyless after Rainpaw died.

Needlestar falls into the same trap over and over again. It’s really pathetic.

“Well, you should know better.” Needlestar blusters, puffing out his fur. Moonswallow doesn’t roll her eyes, but just barely. This was also one of the worst parts of Needlestar—he never made mistakes cats just did things that caught him off guard and his reactions were never his fault, “And I want to send you on this afternoon’s border patrol.”

“Border patrol? With who?” Moonswallow says calmly through gritted teeth after a long inhale.

“I’ll leave that up to Burrpelt but—don’t make that face at me, Moonswallow. I can see it just fine. Have faith in Burrpelt, he is your deputy after all.”

The last time Burrpelt assigned me on patrol I was nearly abandoned for a hawk to take—and that was only a moon ago! Moonswallow holds her response if only because she knows that Needlestar already knows. That was the first thing she told him after the latest attempt on her life by her own clanmates. It’s gone beyond irritating and beyond emotion.

It’s like second nature for everyone involved—Burrpelt stupidly sends her out on a border patrol, her clanmates are so lost in the past that they ignore larger dangers and turn on her, a nearby predator takes note, and then her clanmates abandon her to the beast. Then she either just runs or takes a few swings at it to deter it and then runs all the way home to tell Needlestar and he then ignores the attempted murder.

It would be comically if it weren’t her life in the balance. StarClan’s sake, Rainpaw would have been the type of cat to laugh in their faces after it was all done.

But she was not Rainpaw. Moonswallow turns with a sneer and leaves the den. She doesn’t stop for a moment before she digs her face into the fresh-kill pile and grabs one of the her rabbits before stalking off to the corner of camp nearest the apprentice den. It was the part of their territory that she was safest, other than the lands near MountainClan territory.

The apprentices knew less. They knew less of Moonswallow and Whitebreeze and Nightspark and Rainpaw and Rainbright. The younger ones wouldn’t even recognize their names, the older ones have been around her long enough to know that she isn’t like the stories the elders used to tell.

She wishes that she found this place earlier. She wishes that her father retired earlier, she wishes that she was able to put up with the cruel stories and sharp glares of the elders for less time.

Sometimes, she even wishes that Rainpaw and Whitebreeze and Rainbright never existed.

She knows that means nothingness for her as well, a death without life.

Moonswallow is unwilling to accept that. She wants to exist without them. Not not exist at all.

“Moonswallow!” Honeypaw calls out, prancing over with Gorsepaw—the apprentice of her kin—and Sunpaw right on their heels, “Can I have some?”

“Of course.” Moonswallow purrs, leaving some space for the smaller cats and ignoring all of the angry stares she gets for daring to be close to children.

There is a fox on CloudClan territory that lusts for cat blood. It attacks quickly in the dead of night and brutalizes any cat that happens to find itself under its blunt claws and large teeth. The threat of the fox circles over every cat, but they all pretend it doesn’t. They all pretend that their traditions can survive like this, they all pretend that they can still sleep in the fields and listen to StarClan from afar instead of being sent there directly.

They all pretend that it is through StarClan’s power that they are able to continue on, as if the event doesn’t prove that StarClan’s power is lacking.

If I die here, then all my faith has been for naught. Moonswallow thinks to herself as her head perks up, ears closing to whatever years-belated argument Fognight and Slipwhistle were having with her as she picks up the scent of fox on the breeze.

It’s faint, very faint but as Moonswallow turns in that direction she sees that the fox is there, only a few fox-lengths away. Hunting them.

Hunting her.

“Run.” Moonswallow whispers, backing up slowly as she watches the fox. Slowly, the rest of the patrol comes to stare at it, freezing one by one as the fox moves closer. It’s clearly their fox, no other fox would have those many scratches and ever dare to mess with a cat ever again. She can see the hunger in each eyes, to it it’s always triumphant.

“Run home!” Coppergale calls out but Moonswallow doesn’t have the time to correct the younger cat before he turns tail and runs, with Hopmist and the rest of the patrol not far behind. Moonswallow curses under her breath and unsheathes her claws.

Out of the corner of her eyes, she can see Hopmist hesitate for a split second. Moonswallow doesn’t keep him waiting, quickly lashing at empty air for a moment before turning tail and fleeing, hoping that was enough to deter the fox—after all, didn’t it only attack at night? She didn’t need to see Hopmist’s eyes widening to know that it didn’t work, she can hear the fox on her tail.

It’s panting with excitement, nearly cackling behind her.

She curses the soft dirt under her feet, the kind that allowed BroadleafClan’s forest to flourish but was now sticking to her feet, flying out behind her in some clumps. The only good part about is that they seemed to be hitting the fox, when Moonswallow glances behind her the fox has a few clumps of dirt on its fur. It looks no less eager for the chance, however.

“Don’t run back to camp!” Moonswallow screeches as she catches up with her Clanmates with her long strides, “It’ll just follow us back!” Coppergale looks horrified, clearly not having considered that the camp was only a fortress against other Clans.

“Then what?” Hopmist asks, swiftly leaping over a log. Moonswallow is a moment after them, and sees the vast prairies outstretched in front of them with no small amount of trepidation, “What should we do?”

“Don’t ask her?!”

When Moonswallow was little, all she wanted to do was be like her mother. She looked exactly like her mother, even down to the fluff in her ears.

There were five of them for only a moment: Whitebreeze, a well-respected senior warrior with a cool head and cunning mind, Rainbright, a beautiful warrior who had more charisma than even Needlestar who half the Clan would give up their lives for, and then the children. Nightspark, who looked nothing like the pure white Rainbright or the white tabby Whitebreeze. Instead she was a pure black, a remnant from Rainbright’s maternal grandmother.

Moonswallow though? She was an exact carbon copy of their mother.

So was Rainpaw.

And then Rainbright died. Not immediately, not immediately. It took a few moons for the life to drain from her mother. Whitebreeze decided that she should live on in the cat that was most like her, the one that shared her slight frame.

It might as well have been a curse.

Rainbright was beautiful and charismatic but also cruel and petty and selfish. She took from the cats around her and then did it again and again. Rainpaw was the same, more than willing to convince Thistledawn and Whispclaw to leave their mother’s side and starve so Rainpaw could have some more milk for herself.

And Moonswallow followed her.

Because Rainpaw was Rainbright. And Rainbright was the cat she should grow up to be, to replace the cat they killed. Nightspark didn’t follow them—Whitebreeze had little care to give the cat that couldn’t replace the love of his life.

It is hard for a cat to know when they have their face pressed into the mud when there wasn’t claws in their back to keep them down.

Rainpaw…used ever single cat around her without abandon. There wasn’t a second of hesitation as she lead a cat on just so they could give them their cats just for Rainpaw to grow bored of them and move onto a cat that interested her more. Moonswallow couldn’t even list all the cats this happened to, it was probably the entire Clan.

And it’s not like Mintbelly ever tried to stop her, instead he seemed to annoy all the popularity that came with his apprentice. Maybe he knew what she was doing, maybe he didn’t.

Maybe him letting her get carried away by a hawk that day was a bit of revenge.

For all the cats she’d hurt.

For making him miss his chance to become deputy by Rainpaw purposely failing her final assessment over and over again, simply for the sake of it.

Or maybe it was just an accident.

It’s not like Whitebreeze ever took it like that—as far as her father was ever concerned, Mintbelly killed the cat he loved all over again. Not Rainpaw, no, Rainbright. Moonswallow doesn’t know if Whitebreeze ever saw Rainpaw as her own cat and not a replacement.

Moonswallow doesn’t know that if Whitebreeze had gone about things a different way, then he might have gotten Rainbright all over again. In her.

She had been a petty, vicious, cruel child because that is what she thought she must be. It’s what she was told to do, it’s how she was told to live. She was to follow Rainpaw in every thing she did and support her blindly, but always make her look better than Moonswallow. Moonswallow should trip over her own feet, grow too large, have a figure far larger than the rest of her family to support Rainpaw. Rainbright. Or rather, the amalgamation that was her mother her sister and herself.

Moonswallow doesn’t know if Rainpaw purposely meant to fail her first assessment. Maybe Rainpaw would have told her if that was planned. Or maybe she wouldn’t have.

Moonswallow never got to know Rainbright. She never got to know Rainpaw either.

Moonswallow could only claim to know a fake cat that lived in between those two cats.

And she could only claim that she no longer deserved the hatred that she got from the Rainpaw—Rainbright creature because she had tried to make up for it every day for several seasons straight. She lowered her head she went on patrols she was kinder she was selfless.

It was hard to repair the damage when she didn’t have the charisma that her mother and her sister had. The elder warriors started turning on her, feeling betrayed for what Rainbright had done and made them do in the past, the warriors that she had grown up with had started digging their claws into her heels, trying to drag Rainpaw out of her.

Trying to fall back into Rainbright’s orbit.

They also turned on her soon enough.

So now. She has no one but Nightspark but then even barely.

Moonswallow wishes—she wishes that Rainbright and Whitebreeze didn’t exist.

She wishes that Rainpaw existed as her own cat.

Moonswallow wishes for the impossible so she grabs her dreams in her jaws and shoves them down her throat.

“Separate.” Moonswallow breathes before turning and charging along the edge of the treeline, dancing back and forth across the BroadleafClan border. She knows that the rest of the patrol scatters in directions back towards camp. She planned on it, actually.

All she had to do was throw off this fox. And while she might not be the fastest runner or like the damp underground that made up BroadleafClan land, she was the cat with the sharpest claws.

Moonswallow pushes herself harder and harder, feeling the hot breath of the fox on her haunches. Of course it chose her, she’s the biggest meal after all. She might be a struggle to get down, and taste a bit like gristle after all this running but it’s better some cat than no cat, right? Moonswallow has been hunter before, she understands what the fox is thinking.

She sneers like a rabbit as she scrambles up the first tree she can find. It’s hardly more than a bush but it’s sturdy enough to support her weight and while the branch she chose might be low it doesn’t threaten to break under her weight and it’s just low enough for the fox to jump up and get a faceful of her claws.

Moonswallow feels her claws dig into the fox’s eye cavity, going in one end and then hitting the other side. She quickly lifts her paw to prevent it from getting lodged in its head, it comes out with parts of the fox’s eyes clinging to her claws. Viscous fluid runs down her paws, presses against the branch and squelches when Moonswallow takes a step back as the fox howls and howls.

It paws at its shredded eye, as if it could heal it with enough effort.

Then its whimpers dies off and it just. Looks at her with its black eye. No longer with malice. Maybe with respect.

Moonswallow gives it a quiet hiss.

The fox gives her a low bark in return. And then its head suddenly snaps up, looking at the place where BroadleafClan scent has begun to grow stronger and approach them. It takes a little step away and Moonswallow backs onto the trunk to get back on the ground and get back on her land before she can see just how welcoming Morningstar is right now.

The fox lunges at her, crossing the distance between them in the blink of an eye but Moonswallow is back up the tree in the flash of a swipe, sneering at the fox as it bangs its head into the tree a tail length to the left of where she had been.

She hisses at it once more, loud and drawn-out, puffing out her fur and showing off her claws.

The fox slinks away as they start to hear BroadleafClan on the breeze. She waits for it to be gone deeper into the forest before she jumps off the tree and runs back across the border. Her paws ache like they’ve never ached before, she swears that she can feel splinters in all her pads.

“Are you the trespasser?” A cat calls out to her from behind before she can crest a hill.

“Sorry I didn’t get torn apart by a fox to keep your borders pure!” Moonswallow spits back before she climbs over the hill and the other cat is blocked from her view.

No one expected her to survive.

When she strolls into camp, exhausted and with blood on her claws, the first thing several cats do is stare at her blankly. She doesn’t pay them any mind as she stumbles toward the medicine den, watching her back left and front leg paws which have begun throbbing. She’s not sure that when she lost a claw—was it before or after she took out the fox’s eye? Or was her missing claw lodged somewhere in that fox’s face?

“—Swallow! Moonswallow!” Someone calls out but she can’t place it until she sees her sister running over to her, barely managing to skid to a halt before slamming directly into her, “You…You’re alive?”

Moonswallow smiles and gets a scratch to the heart when Nightspark flinches. She has the same smile that Rainpaw had.

“Unless you believe that the wind is able to bring me into camp in this condition, then no. If you don’t believe that—”

“Don’t play with me, Moonswallow.” Nightspark cuts her off, voice choked, “Don’t look at me like that don’t talk to me like that. I hate it.” Nightspark lets out a fake laugh, “It makes it really hard to be glad that you’ve come back when you sound like her—that. Like that.”

Moonswallow simply bows her head.

“Go to the medicine den.” Nightspark says, still for a second before she pushes her pelt against Moonswallow’s, “I’ll help you.”

“I don’t need help.”

“You’re getting it.” Nightspark snaps. Moonswallow can feel her tail lashing, “And you can step back.”

Hopmist, who had been slowly creeping up, stops in his tracks.

“Nightspark—” He starts, but the cat he had fancied for seasons easily turns her back on him, forcing Moonswallow to rest most of her weight on her. He calls out her name on last time, but Nightspark is too busy following Moonswallow into the small grass-covered overhang that was the medicine den.

“So she—”

“Finish that sentence, Spiralheart.” Nightspark hisses. The orange cat gives her a shocked look before cowering away under her fiery glare. He keeps his head lowered as he looks Moonswallow over with more care than he ever has.

“I’ve also lost a claw.” Moonswallow mumbles as Spiralheart inspects all of her feet, tutting quietly under his breath.

“I can’t tell if you came out of this worse for wear or far better than expected.” Spiralheart mutters, as he drops her back paw, “She’ll live.” He tells Nightspark.

“Of course I’ll live.” Moonswallow remarks with a eye roll.

“You say that without knowing how much blood is on you.” Spiralheart replies with just as much snark, “Just because you weren’t mauled doesn’t mean that the fox didn’t scratch you. Your haunches are torn up.”

“Oh, are they?” Moonswallow twists to see and just as she was told, the white fur on her behind has been stained red, “Oh.”

“I suspect that it managed to get some scratches while you were fleeing. Do you feel it?”

“My back legs, or the scratches.”

“Both.”

“I feel all my legs.” Moonswallow wiggles her toes just to make sure, “But I don’t—wait.” Moonswallow lets out a sharp hiss as pain slowly starts to creep in. It only grows stronger the longer she looks at the blood, “I feel them both.”

“I’m surprised that you’ve held off the pain for this long.” Spiralheart remarks as he grabs a bundle of herbs and starts to make a poultice, “Most warriors would have been sobbing for their families by now.”

Moonswallow and Nightspark share a glance.

“Ah. Apologies.” Spiralheart says before applying the poultice and turning away. She hisses as the sting seeps into her skin, “I’ll leave you to it. And I’ll direct some…visitors your…way…” Spiralheart understands that it’s better to stop talking and slinks off before he can embarrass himself any further.

“He’s a fool.” Nightspark mutters.

“A knowledgeable fool.” Moonswallow corrects, “Yewflower never bothers to check my pads.”

Nightspark gives Moonswallow a concerned look, but wisely chooses not to follow up on that statement and instead pivots to, “What happened?”

“I ran.” Moonswallow begins before giving Nightspark a short account of what happened. Her sister only interrupts to ask if the fox had gotten any BroadleafClan cats, Moonswallow pushes away her worry. Their fox had always liked CloudClan blood most. Or perhaps it liked the blood of all cats and BroadleafClan simply had never made it known.

Moonswallow wouldn’t put it past the new Morningstar, at least.

“Once Spiralheart tells me how long I have to spend in camp, then I’ll move out of here and back to the warriors dens. No more patrols for a few days…or at least until Burrpelt forgets that I was injured the last time he sent me on patrol and tries to do it again.”

Try to have more faith in him. Nightspark had said the first time. She didn’t say it the second. Nightspark was not stupid.

“They’re all idiots. I could do their job better than them.” Nightspark hisses.

“You give yourself too little credit.” Moonswallow says with a laugh, “I could be them better than them. They’re incompetent, Burrpelt never remembers anything and Needlestar never thinks about what he does remember. They’re embarrassments to CloudClan.”

So what is it about them that keeps me here?

Loyalty, of course. Moonswallow wasn’t well respected by her Clanmates, nor was she ever willing to become a queen and make a family of her own, but she wasn’t willing to leave either. Spending just a few moons in the nursery, or even less if her potential mate was willing to take her place once the children were weaned was a thought that hurt more than the wounds that covered her.

“What are you thinking about?”

“Toms.”

“Ooookay.” Nightspark says and Moonswallow rolls her eyes, ready to change the subject before Nightspark shifts from sitting beside her to on top of her, “What about toms?”

“About how they’re all idiots.” Moonswallow snaps but she doesn’t thrash to get her sister off, “And how I could be a tom better than them easily. It wouldn’t even take any effort. I have the frame, I have the strength.”

Nightspark stays quiet.

“I could be them better than they could be themselves.” She flexes her paw, “Though I guess that’s a common thought?”

Nightspark’s head shake says a lot.

There is a fox on the edges of their territory and it must have infected her because she’s grown wild and rabid in the ensuing moons.

It’s a chance noticed by even the youngest apprentices, because the cat they had always known as so mild has shown off his fangs. It takes Honeypaw the least amount of time to notice that Nightspark no longer referred to him as a brother, and when Honeypaw does something, the rest of the apprentices follow. Or rather, Honeythistle and the young warriors.

The fact spreads through the clan slowly, that the largest she-cat was now the largest tom. It helped that once you knew, he wouldn’t tell you twice. Any mistake made would get you a face full of claws.

Spiralheart didn’t like it, and Yewflower was ambivalent, but their new apprentice, Tallpaw, was outwardly terrified of him. Moonswallow didn’t mind—after all, he was only doing what he needed to. Others negative thoughts and emotions had nothing to do with him.

He always felt as if there was something wrong with him.

Instead, he knows that there’s nothing wrong with him. There has never been anything wrong with him, his existence was never incorrect. What was incorrect about him was the corpse that had been layered over his existence, rotten blood flowing into his eyes and obscuring his vision.

“My daughter has grown haughty and annoying.” Whitebreeze remarks as Moonswallow sticks his head into the elder’s den. He sits alone because the rest of the elders are sunning themselves and no one wanted to invite him. After all, there is one cat in which Rainbright lives.

He hopes that his father chokes on the fetid blood. He’s hoped that for seasons actually, but he has never gotten what he wanted.

“Your daughter wants to go out on a walk with you.” Moonswallow says, watching his father as he sighs and gets up for his woven nest. It strikes Moonswallow just how similar they look as they leave camp. He can’t imagine that they don’t look like the exact same camp as they leave camp. His father has his scars, but they’re mostly hidden by the white fur. The same can be said for Moonswallow.

As they walk over the hills to the edges of the territory near BroadleafClan, Moonswallow cannot imagine that most creatures would have a way to separate them.

“The stench of BroadleafClan is awful.” Whitebreeze mutters because even his old and worn nose can recognize their enemy. A bit late however, because they are only a few tail-lengths from BroadleafClan now. In fact, when Whitebreeze had been a warrior, this patch of land belonged to BroadleafClan despite being flat land. It had only been regained recently, in part due to the unknown factor that had interrupted the battle.

“Father, what did you first feed to the fox?”

Whitebreeze pauses for a moment, eyes wide before he recollects himself, “What on earth are you talking about?”

“I’m talking about the fact that you fed the fox that keeps on killing our Clanmates.” Moonswallow says calmly, putting his tail over his feet as he sits down. He keeps his gaze pinned on his father as his fur begins to puff out.

“I did nothing of the such!”

“You knew when Mintbelly was killed. Remember you told me that, moons ago? That Mintbelly had been killed during the day, and thus I should be careful?” He lowers his eyes until he’s glaring, “How could you have known that? We don’t know when cats are killed, just that its usually cats that sleep outside and that we tend to find them in the morning.”

“Just because Honeythistle got mauled during the battle doesn’t mean—”

Moonswallow mimics him for a moment, “‘Mintbelly got Rainbright killed!’ Isn’t that what you thought of him?” He tilts his head at his father, “After all, aren’t you the reason that cats killed by the fox don’t get a vigil? Weren’t you the one that said that they shouldn’t get one until the fox had been dispelled?”

He lets out a short, barking laugh, “Didn’t you say you’d dedicate yourself to killing the fox? Didn’t you retire early soon after?”

“I am not the only one—”

“I know you’re not the only coward—” Moonswallow snaps, “But it makes too much sense, doesn’t it father?”

“You’re being a raving she-cat.”

Moonswallow’s ear twitches, “I would say that I’m being quite logic. After all, I believe it would have attacked you by now if it truly didn’t know you.”

“What—” Whitebreeze starts before he snaps around, staring at the fox a few tail-lengths away that Moonswallow had glanced at. His fur puffs out, instinctively hissing and unsheathing his claws, “Rainbright. Run.”

“Hmpf. ‘Rainbright’.” Moonswallow lifts his tail from his paws, revealing his unsheathed claws, “Even now, you’re obsessed with your mate. You should have joined her long ago.”

“Are you suggesting that I kill myself?” Whitebreeze says, whipping back against to glare at him. The speed with which the haughty look on his face fades was glee-inducing. Moonswallow playfully flexes his paw, letting his claws glint in the light.

“Yes, I was. It would have been easier for you. But, this is more fun for me.” Moonswallow sneers before he lashes his father’s face, tearing his muzzle and causing it to spurt out blood. The fox is hungry. The fox is always hungry, always unsatisfied, half blinded by him and fully blinded by all the corpses that hang over it.

The fox lunges for Whitebreeze and barely misses tearing out his throat.

Moonswallow should have noticed sooner why Whitebreeze’s mention of Mintbelly was so suspicious. Most foxes weren’t as torn up as their fox, yet it only attacked at night? The scars must have been from Mintbelly, conscious as he was led into a trap. It matches with the damage that Whitebreeze is doing right now, desperately lashing out his paws to keep the fox from closing the distance between them.

The fox grabs Whitebreeze’s paw and yanks it, unbalancing him.

His father screams, lashing out with all his remaining limbs.

“This is for Mintbelly, Rabbitpaw, Haredash, Tumblewhisker, Sunnyspots, Clearpaw, Perchpaw, Sandyface, Sleekheart, Yellowtail, Ashpaw, and Dropstalk. This is also for Rainpaw. This is also for Nightspark. This is also for me.” Moonswallow hisses at his father as the fox flips him over and tears his stomach out. His words can barely be heard over his father’s screaming, “This is our revenge.”

“Please…Rainbright…” Whitebreeze calls out one last time before the fox’s jaws close over his heart.

Moonswallow watches passively for only a moment. The fox begins to eat his father, fully tamed by him. The fox doesn’t expect for Moonswallow to leap on it a moment later, using his weight to crush the weakened animal before closing his mouth around his neck before snapping it. The fox falls limb. A fox rises and drags the corpse back home.

Whitebreeze is left to rot.

The morning after the vigil, Moonswallow slinks into Needlestar’s den without being asked. His leader starts, ready to attack before he realizes who it is.

“Oh, Moonswallow, what—”

“I want to be deputy. I don’t care if I’m not immediately after Burrpelt, but I am going to be leader after you.” Moonswallow turns and leaves the den. He takes a nest at the edge of the warrior’s den, as usual. Though not as many cats try to avoid him now.

Nightspark lies right beside him.

Nightspark comes over the hill and stops mid-pawstep. She can’t see her brother through the thin layer of snow because the sun hasn’t risen yet, but she knows her scent like the back of her paws. Even the cold air can’t hide his scent from a few fox-lengths away.

“So, this is how you’ve been spending your time?” The deputy of CloudClan says, purposely flicking his tail to get his sister’s attention, “With a BroadleafClan cat?”

“Ah, well.” Nightspark replies, lowering her ears in embarrassment, “It’s not been much so far. Just a bit of time we’ve been spending together.”

“It’s been seasons.” Moonswallow corrects. Nightspark glowers at him, “If you want to lie to me and say that I’m incorrect, then do so.”

“Well, fine. Maybe it was! What is it to you! It’s not like you would ever want a mate.” Nightspark bites out, “If you want to yell at me, yell at me back in camp. It’s cold out here.”

“No.” Moonswallow says. The first few beams of light begin to appear on the horizon, stars disappearing as he continues to speak, “As you have just admitted to breaking code two: loyalty to your clan above all else, I am invoking code ten.”

“You can’t do that!” Nightspark yowls, puffing out her fur until she’s a fluffy slice of the night, “You aren’t the leader. Your word isn’t the code.”

“Do you want to admit your crimes to Needlestar? Do you think he’s going to make a separate decision?”

“I—” Nightspark begins before turning away, shaking her head as if there’s something out of balance inside, “Moonswallow. I am your sister. Your only sister. You cannot invoke code nine and claim the entire clan is more important than me!”

“Is it not?”

Nightspark steps back as if Moonswallow just clawed her, “Moonswallow—”

“I want you gone from our territory by the next dawn.” Moonswallow gets to his feet and dusts off some snow, “For you are no longer a CloudClan cat.” Nightspark takes a few steps backwards, staring like she expects Moonswallow to take his words back.

Then, she turns and runs.

Moonswallow bites back his emotions and turns before trudging back to camp.

“You can climb it, if you want.” The MountainClan cat says. Moonswallow didn’t ask their name and the cat never offered it. They were an errant cat, for the rest of the clan had been in the area. Moonswallow had seen them from a distance as they were approaching, but only a single cat had approached them.

Their pond scum green eyes were disconcerting.

“There’s no need to climb it.” Yewflower responds in turn. The MountainClan cat takes no note of her irritation and instead just flicks their eye and turns around.

“Good luck, Moonstar.” The cat says before leaving. Moonswallow unsheathes his claws, ready to attack the cat for having such information but the elderly Spiralheart interrupts him.

“The dead speak in the ears of MountainClan cats.” He says, “What you are about to see is something that they live with all the time. In a way, of course, but—”

“Doesn’t matter.” Moonswallow interrupts as he approaches the silver tree that stretches up so high that when he tries to look to its top, he ends on falling on his back instead. He hisses and scrambles to his feet quickly, baring his teeth at Yewflower and Spiralheart so they will never mention this to every one.

“Just press your nose to it.” Spiralheart says, “And try to relax.”

Try to relax. Moonstar thinks to himself with a derisive snort as he presses his nose up against the tree, I haven’t been relaxed in—

When he opens his eyes, they’re filled with stars. He’s back in camp, but instead of the midday sun overhead, there’s just stars. The moon hangs high overhead, looking straight down at him. There are dozens of ghostly cats lining the walls of the hollow, and with a start, Moonswallow realizes that he’s in the complete center of camp.

“Moonswallow.” He whips around to see an unfamiliar face looking back at him, “I am Galescrap. When I was younger, I was your mother’s first friend. Bow your head.” Moonswallow does as he’s told, and barely manages not to flinch as the wave of emotion that settles in him when Galescrap puts her muzzle against his head, “With this life, I give you self-respect. Use it well, you aren’t like most cats. Not in emotion, nor in action.”

Galescrap gives him a heavy look for a moment.

He knows she’s waiting for an apology.

“Who is next?” Moonswallow calls out, turning around to look at the collected cats. When he looks back, Galescrap is no longer there, and Gorsespeckle has taken her place.

“Don’t turn away.” The younger cat tells her, “Or else I’m going to go into Honeythistle’s dreams and tell her that she should have taken your offer to become deputy because her leader is a coward.”

“Don’t you dare.” Moonswallow snaps back, but there’s no anger in his voice as he gazes on at Honeythistle’s dear twin brother.

“Bow your head, Moonstar.”

“Don’t call me that yet.” Moonswallow says, before doing as he ordered as planting his claws in the ground as an unknown emotion sweeps through him.

“With this life, I give you a renewed ability to make connections with other cats. Use it well.” Gorsespeckle peels away to look at him, “I know now why Nightspark had to leave. While I don’t hold that against you—you were a good mentor to me as her replacement—I can’t help but worry about you. You have no kin left, so you must regard the entire clan as your family.”

“I will.”

Gorsespeckle nods, looking to Moonswallow’s side.

He comes to face the next cat and recoils as he looks into a mirror.

“You.”

“Me.” Rainbright says. She has his voice. She has his face.

Moonswallow flexes his muscles, making their only disparity even larger.

“If you react to me this way, then you’re going to be even more upset later.” Rainbright says, voice soft and lilting and cloyingly sweet, “Lower your head, my erstwhile son.”

Moonswallow thinks about rejecting this life for a long time. He never knew his mother, not really. But despite that, Moonswallow had to live under her shadow for most of his life. To this day, he worries about the rotten blood in his eyes.

In the end though, he does lower his head.

“With this life, I give you the ability to know when you’ve being taken for a fool.” The floor drops out from under Moonswallow and he nearly sinks to the floor and yowls. There’s no ground, nothing to hold him upright. All there is is him, that’s the only cat he can look to for support, “Use this life to support your clan. You are leader, you must not fall to simple half-truths.”

Rainbright looks down at him, blue eyes glinting with no emotion underneath.

His mother leaves him and Moonswallow is barely able to remain on his feet.

“Behind you.” A similarly soft voice says.

“No. No. Not you.” Moonswallow cries out, ready to fall to his feet before that same cat comes to support him, keeping him upright.

“I should have expected this.” Rainpaw says, looking exactly like Rainbright looking exactly like their mother looking exactly like Moonswallow, “But it still hurts you know, to have my own brother despise me so.”

“You were awful.” Moonswallow says, lowering his head and turning away but before he can reject this life, Rainpaw touches her nose to his forehead.

He braces himself to be swept off his feet, but instead comes a gentle feeling that reinforces his connection to the ground.

“With this life, I give you kindness. Use it, both to supplement what you were so cruelly deprived of, and to pass on to the future of your clan. Though, mostly the first.” Rainpaw says, as she steps back with a bright smile, “Can you blame me for being a bit selfish if it’s for my little brother?”

“Rainpaw—” Moonswallow reaches out for his big sister as she steps away.

“My name isn’t Rainpaw.” The cat says.

“Then what?” Moonswallow asks.

The cat opens her mouth, and says nothing. Her eyes twinkle when Moonswallow understands what her big sister had done.

“Thank you, Nameless.” Moonswallow says earnestly. The pure white cat disappears back into the ranks of StarClan.

“Well, I have to follow that up.” Says the next cat.

Moonswallow bows his head to his former mentor without asking, and Emberdot sighs, “You’ve gotten so straightforward. To imagine that I would ask that of you so often yet miss it when I get it. With this life, I give you clearsightedness. Use it to protect your clan from threats, don’t rush into situations.”

Moonswallow nods. That life hadn’t even hurt. Instead it felt like if he wanted, he could look all the wall to the Moonhole and see his body sleeping at the roots.

Sparkpaw comes up next. Moonswallow is shocked to see the other cat. They had been apprentices together, but the sickly cat had been easily taken by sickness in apprenticehood. He hadn’t thought about the yellow cat in many seasons.

Moonswallow lowers his head, “With this life, I give you resilience. May not a single life go by without a fight.”

Moonswallow nods, with renewed energy. He feels as if he could take the fox on all over again, could tear it to pieces without a seconds hesitation. He flexes his paws in wonder, revealing in the strength that runs through his veins.

“I know that you aren’t happy to see me.” Says the next cat as they stroll up as if they hadn’t tortured Moonswallow as long as he was alive, “But I have an important lesson for you. One that actually matters this time.”

“Get on with it.” Moonswallow grunts, lowering his head so Rabbitleaf, one of the elders who lived alongside Whitebreeze and tortured him ever second he could, could give him a life.

“With this life, I give you bravery. Use it well to defend your clan.”

Moonswallow gives Rabbitleaf a dull look.

“Look,” Rabbitleaf explains, “I know that you’re braver than I ever was. But someone needs to give you a life for that because it’s basically tradition and I was the one who volunteered.

“Dear StarClan, you talk too much.” The next cat says, interrupting Rabbitleaf before he can talk himself in circles. Mintbelly bows his head first before Moonswallow can. When he raises his head, the satisfied smirk there is surprising, “Rabbitleaf just wanted to be part of this because he thought it would be exciting.”

“Well, I’m here for something important. Lower your head.” Moonswallow does as he commands, and when his muzzle touches Moonswallow’s forehead, he jerks. This life hurts, which isn’t uncommon, but then it settles in his gut and feels…familiar, “With this life, I give you vengeance. Use it to make sure that crimes don’t go unpunished. Never let someone get away from justice. Chase them to the ends of the world if you need to.”

“Mintbelly—”

“Thank you.” The tom says, as he walks away, “By only wish is that you had gotten him sooner.”

Before he can respond, Needlestar is there to take his place.

“I know.” Needlestar begins, “I failed you, time and time again. But, it is only customary for me to give you your final life.”

“Get on with it then.” Moonswallow says before lowering his head.

“With this life, I give you strength.” Needlestar says, gently pressing his head to Moonswallow’s. Vitality flows through her, and what he had mistaken as strength from Sparksky is absolutely nothing in comparison.

Needlestar steps back and Moonswallow stands tall, “I hail you by your new name, Moonstar. Your old life is no more. You have now received the nine lives of a leader, and StarClan grants you the guardianship of CloudClan. Defend it well; care for young and old; honor your ancestors and the traditions of the warrior code; live each life with pride and dignity. Do you promise to do so?”

“I do.” Moonstar replies, raising his head and standing up high.

StarClan calls out his name. It’s still ringing in his head as he opens his eyes.

Moonstar curls his paw together, before closing it. Then he gets up and commands his two medicine cats to get him back home. He has a clan to run.

#warriors au #warrior cats #allseeing eyes close #warrior cats oc #kitty talking #moonstar

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