#kitewillow

[residents-of-the-darkforest]

Dark Forest Residences: Ivoryburn & Applepaw

Ivoryburn

Aliases / Nicknames: Starclan’s Claws, Dark Leader, Liar

Gender: she-cat

Sexuality: pansexual, grey-panromantic

Family: unnamed mother, unnamed father, several unnamed littermates

Other Relations: unnamed mentor, two unnamed apprentices

Clan: Windclan

Rank: deputy, temporary leader

Characteristics: truly believes in what she does

Murder Motive: allows Starclan to take those who are undeserving

Number of Victims: 16

Number of Murders: 12

Murder Method: clawing and biting, then allowing those wounds to go infected

Known Victims: Emberpaw, Cricketpaw, Breezepaw, Applepaw, several unnamed warriors

Victim Profile: those she saw as unworthy or who needed to prove themself

Cause of Death: throat torn out by Kitewillow

Cautionary Tale: ??

Story:

She first got the idea as a young apprrentice. Her denmate, poor Beechpaw, whispered to her that her father had clawed her. She explained that he wanted Starclan to heal her without the help of herbs, and if she doesn’t get sick, then it is proof they hold her in favour.

Beechpaw passed that same moon. Ivorypaw was upset, to be sure. But she was thinking. What if Beechpaw really was unworthy? She wasn’t the most polite cat in the Clan, maybe the laziest. 

It didn’t help that both of her parents and mentor held the Stars in extremely high favour, deeming anything against the code intolerable. 

When she became the deputy, she knew it must be that Starclan knew the ideas that had been brewing in her mind since her training days. They wanted her to take charge. To implement a new law and set the foolish ones in line.

She didn’t even have to wait until leadership. Her leader, Dewstar, had gotten incredibly sick. 

Ivoryburn knew not to start things suddenly. So she did it slow. Rules gradually became more strict. Cats could talk about certain things and not others, then less of others.

Finally, she could do it. She had heard Emberpaw talk badly about Chickpaw, an apprentice who happened to be Ivoryburn’s niece, and so Ivoryburn whirled around and clawed Emberpaw across the cheek. It was unplanned, but it provided the perfect opportunity. 

She claimed to the shocked Clan that the action had not come from her, simply Starclan guiding her claws. She told the medicine cat, who had rushed over, to leave Emberpaw alone. She had made her choice to badmouth a Clanmate and place her loyalty in question. Starclan is strong. If they want her to heal, she will heal, herbs or no herbs.

Ivoryburn believed it, too. She was the vessel for Starclan to take care of the heretics and code-breakers. Perhaps that is why it was so easy to convince her Clanmates. They weren’t happy, which came to no surprise, but what did surprise her was the supporters. 

She failed to notice how afraid everyone became. They were being respectful, keeping their distance. Or perhaps because of how many cats died, they realized how many cats Starclan deemed unworthy were among them.

Because of this, she kept mostly with her supporters. They agreed with her ways and defended them, even kept one eye on their Clanmates to report back to her. 

But one night, when she was snoring in the Warriors’ den, she realized that not all of those supporters had been true to their word. 

Applepaw

Aliases / Nicknames: Weakling, Foolish Apprentice

Gender: tom

Sexuality: bisexual, demiromantic

Family: Kitewillow (mother), unnamed father, Emberpaw (sister)

Other Relations: unnamed mentor, Haremaw (Dark Forest mentor)

Clan: Windclan

Rank: apprentice

Characteristics: only wants to prove himself and survive

Motive to Harm: survival

Number of Victims: N/A

Number of Murders: N/A

Murder Method: N/A

Method of Harm: training in the Dark Forest

Known Victims: N/A

Victim Profile: N/A

Cause of Death: drowned, killed by Haremaw

Cautionary Tale: ??

Story:

It seemed so fast that everything so horribly turned upside down for Applepaw. He was a bright apprentice who looked forward to his future and played with his equally excited sister.

Then she was gone. Even if she had been laying in her nest, unable to move for a quarter-moon, it felt so sudden. 

Applepaw knew that every eye was on him, was on everyone else. Before he enjoyed pulling jokes on others that weren’t quite pranks and would make them laugh with him. He would try to sneak the biggest prey from the pile, he would hide behind a tree stump to avoid chores.

But now he was terrified. He had watched his sister moan and struggle to breathe for days on end. 

Then he watched as the same thing happened to his best friend, Cricketpaw.

Then their mutual friend, Breezepaw.

Applepaw had to do everything right.

He had to clean the nests so that every strand of fern and moss were fresh and soft. He had to go to his den early and wake up early. He had to catch at least twice as much as the average apprentice normally would. He could never say anything that wasn’t about making the Clan better. Or else he could be the next one wriggling in the nest, denied by Starclan. 

He had even tore his skin on a branch in hopes of building up immunity. 

Warriors died too, and he also feared that one of his parents could be next.

So he went to the only place he knew could help him. He went to the Dark Forest. But he hadn’t expected the training to be as harsh as it was, and her certainly hadn’t expected his mentor to hold his tail as he hanged from a tree, head dunked into the water unless Applepaw could curl his back so that he could bend out. But Haremaw wouldn’t let go, and on and on it went. Applepaw couldn’t fight it anymore.

In a way, he was lucky. His remaining denmates and the medicine cat shook him awake, spluttering and gasping. If he had died there, he would have disappeared completely. 

It was horrible knowing that Starclan had rejected him.

Additional Information:

--Ivoryburn was drawn by and her name was suggested by @saffronscales​

--Applepaw’s ref comes from: https://www.deviantart.com/yarrowleef/art/Free-Cat-Lineart-802898923

--Kitewillow was only a ‘supporter’ to be on the inside and try to help control things so that she could protect her family. She snapped when Ivoryburn didn’t announce the death as a tragedy, but as a victory--Starclan clearly wanted him, why else would he die randomly in the middle of the night?

Kitewilllow snapped then, and decided to kill her.