#thriftsnow

[residents-of-the-darkforest]

Dark Forest Residences: Juniperbelly & Thriftsnow

Juniperbelly

Aliases / Nicknames: Wicked Snake

Gender: she-cat

Sexuality: heterosexual

Family: unnamed mother, unnamed father, unnamed ‘fling,’ Thriftkit (daughter), Thriftsnow (adoptive daughter), Bluestream (adoptive granddaughter)

Other Relations: unnamed mentor, Thriftsnow (apprentice), two unnamed apprentices

Clan: Thunderclan

Rank: elder

Characteristics: possessive of Thriftsnow, manipulative

Motive to Harm: wants to keep her daughter close, at any cost, wants a daughter

Number of Victims: 3

Number of Murders: 2

Murder Method: snapping necks, slitting throats

Method of Harm: poisoning

Known Victims: Cleo, Finn, Thriftsnow

Victim Profile: her adoptive daughter, her adoptive daughter’s parents

Cause of Death: poisoned by Thriftsnow

Cautionary Tale: ??

Story:

It wasn’t supposed to be like this.

It wasn’t supposed to be like this.

It wasn’t supposed to be like this.

Thriftkit, her precious daughter, was dead. She had only been born earlier that day, with complications that caused her to be brought immediately to the medicine den. 

Juniperbelly, exhausted, had fallen alseep , only to be woken and discover the worst.

Juniperbelly wandered around the territory aimlessly. Then she heard voices, and spotted two kittypets--one tom, one she-cat--with a tiny kit sheltered beneath some overhanging ferns.

It was a she-kit...and kittypets cannot survive in the wild, let alone take care of a kit.

She curled around the little one as it wailed for milk, which luckily Juniperbelly could give, blocking her view of the bodies. Then she carried the little one back to camp, explaining that she had found the kit crying beside the dead bodies of her parents.

She named her Thriftkit, in spite of the questioning looks she was given. Starclan had made a mistake when they took Thriftkit, and now they were giving her back!

Her darling daughter had returned to her. She could suckle, sleep against her mother’s belly, run to her mother when another kit was teasing her. 

But then she reached five moons, and Juniperbelly realized that very soon, her daughter would be taken away again. She would start her training, make friends with her denmates, and very soon, she would barely have time for her mother. Worse, she could be killed in battle, or a hunting accident, or by infection due to a wound....

She couldn’t lose her again.

It was for her own good. 

She snuck the herbs into her food, and when she got really sick, mixed them with her daily medicine as well.

Thriftkit found it increasingly difficult to run, then to walk, then to move with her back legs. Finally, the leader came to her and explained that she likely won’t be able to become an apprentice.

Juniperbelly argued, claiming that she could be her mentor, since Thriftkit needs constant care, and Juniperbelly already provides it. The leader reluctantly agreed, though warned her that her daughter would likely never be a normal apprentice.

Juniperbelly hated that her daughter was so upset, but it was worth it. It was.

Her training wasn’t the same as others’. She couldn’t hunt, but she could learn about different animals--prey, predators, anything harmful or poisonous. She even earned her warrior name, and spent much of her time informing the apprentices of these facts--which animals to avoid, what to be careful of, how to best hunt certain things.

But all good things cannot last.

Thriftsnow witnessed her mother sneaking the poison into her food. 

Juniperbelly had tried to convince her with everything in her that it was for her own good, that it was for her, but Thriftsnow, unsure at first, became hostile. 

She didn’t tell the Clan anything, but she refused to eat anything that she didn’t pick from the fresh-kill pile herself. She didn’t talk to her mother ever again, either. 

Without Juniperbelly’s influence, Thriftsnow got better. Her legs were still incredibly weak, and it was unlikely that she would ever gain full mobility in them again, but she could walk, and to her, that was a miracle.

Without her precious Thriftsnow, Juniperbelly wasted away. There was no reason to fight for anything anymore, so she retired early.

Soon after, she began getting really sick, to the point that she could no longer leave her nest to so much as visit the dirtplace. 

She could have jumped in surprise if she weren’t so ill when she saw Thriftsnow limp into the den, a mouse in her jaws. She sat it next to her mother, then began talking to her, talking about her own daughter, Bluekit, and how she currently has an obsession with anything coloured black.

Thriftsnow was begininning to think that her daughter has returned to her once again, when the mouse was pushed closer and she was told to open wide.

Thriftsnow

Aliases / Nicknames: Beautiful Little Kit, My Kit, My Precious Daughter

Gender: she-cat

Sexuality: pansexual

Family: Cleo (mother), Finn (father), Juniperbelly (adoptive mother), several unnamed littermates, Snowkit (adoptive sister), Rippleflake (mate), Bluestream (daughter)

Other Relations: Juniperbelly (mentor)

Clan: Thunderclan

Rank: warrior

Characteristics: permanently damaged by her adoptive mother’s poisoning, could never fully get over the mental harm caused by Juniperbelly

Murder Motive: vengeance

Number of Victims: 1

Number of Murders: 1

Murder Method: poisoning

Known Victims: Juniperbelly

Victim Profile: her adoptive mother, her abuser

Cause of Death: redcough

Cautionary Tale: ??

Story:

Her whole world was flipped upside down the day she was told that she could never be a normal apprentice. 

Then it was flipped a second time when she spotted her mother, who she spent every day with, placing a peculiar herb inside her food. 

She was never meant to see it, either. Rippleflake, her ‘not quite mate, but close enough to be teased by the other warriors about their relationship’ had forgotten something in the warriors’ den. It was supposed to be a surprise for Thriftsnow, a snow-white rock in her nest. 

A surprise was certainly what she found.

Her whole life was stolen from beneath her paws. She couldn’t live the life of a normal warrior, couldn’t go to gatherings, or hunt, or fight, or anything that makes a warrior a warrior. She has to drag herself around the camp, which she couldn’t leave. 

And it was all thanks to her mother.

She wasn’t entirely sure why she didn’t tell the leader, or even Rippleflake. At first, it felt like she was protecting Juniperbelly. But the anger wouldn’t leave her, the despair. 

Then her entire identity was lost to two gossiping senior warriors. They were discussing how sad it is to have a useful warrior retire so early, and how it was a long time coming after her daughter died. 

Her daughter--Thriftkit.

That’s why Juniperbelly ‘cared’ for her so much. She didn’t really love her, she grieved for her kit and put that on Thriftsnow. Even her suffix came from someone, being named after Juniperbelly’s father, Snowstripe. Thriftsnow didn’t even have any white on her!

Her mother didn’t really love her.

She wasn’t even her real mother!

So when Juniperbelly moved to the elders’ den and it became the apprentices’ job to give her food, she would pick out the fresh-kill to give to them--after giving said fresh-kill certain flavours.

Even with her mate and a daughter of her own, she couldn’t move on. She wanted Juniperbelly to suffer, as she did, to spend moons and moons in misery. 

She only decided to end things entirely when Bluekit asked to visit her grandma. No way in Starclan will Bluekit be seeing Juniperbelly and be influenced by her.

Juniperbelly was gone. 

Thriftsnow got better still. She knew her walk would likely never fully recover, but she could actually hunt, now!

Hunt, she did, for many seasons. She watched her daughter grow up and get a mate of her own, a jokester she-cat named Dawntail.

When Thriftsnow got sick again, she was paranoid. She wouldn’t eat anything anyone--even the medicine cat--gave her, not her mate, not her daughter. If she was to die, she would do it on her own terms.

But she did allow them to get close to her. Her final moments were spent wheezing out blood and cuddling with Bluestream and Rippleflake.

Additional Information:

--One of those cases where no one is really the villain, they’re more just very broken.

--Yes, Thriftsnow can do more even with her disability, and even if she can’t that doesn’t define her, but I’m giving this a Warriors’ view.

--Thriftsnow’s parents were kittypets whose kits were taken away. They left together so that they could keep the last one, but were killed.

--’She’s not her real mother’ is not about adoption, parents who are not biologically related to a kid can absolutely be their parents. But Thriftsnow was not only lied to her whole life, but also her adoptive mother was pretending that she was her birth daughter.

--If Thriftsnow allowed the medicine cat to give her herbs, it’s possible she would have survived. But her trauma was too severe to trust anyone.