#warriors dark tales

[residents-of-the-darkforest]

Blacksong's Check-up (short story)

“You’re wrecking my patients’ nest,” Gorsedaisy’s dry-crackled voice cut into Blacksong’s thoughts. The dusty-brown she-cat looked at her dark paws, noticing for the first time that she had shredded the moss and leaves that lined her nest to crumbling bits.

“Sorry,” she mumbled awkwardly. “Do you think…” She wondered if she should speak. She felt so isolated. Ever since she told her siblings she was pregnant, Swanmist refused to so much as speak to her. Lightstream and Brokenwhistle were more forgiving, but stuck to Swanmist more than they stuck to her. If they didn’t share his thoughts to the same extent, they stayed by his side to soothe him in his anger. 

Meanwhile, Grebeglade refused to pick a side, and Marblegaze was fearful. She wasn’t angry, but she wasn’t happy, either. The only one in her family Blacksong felt wasn’t mad or disappointed in her was her littermate, Greydusk. 

Blacksong wasn’t even sure where the father was. She was sure Buck wouldn’t leave her. She knew something must have happened to him, and she hated not knowing what or if he was safe. Part of her hated that she couldn’t tell him that he was to be a father before he was taken away, while the other part was grateful that he wouldn’t have to suffer the knowledge of being parted from his kits.

…She was going to introduce kits into the world, the world that right now felt so split apart. Her pregnancy certainly didn’t help with her emotions. One moment, she wanted to scream at Swanmist for being so petty, the next she fully believed he was right and that she was the worst sister in the world for breaking her promise of ending the bloodline. 

She never even met Redjay! He had died before she was born!

But Gorsedaisy knew him. And she was a medicine cat. Perhaps hers was the best advice Blacksong could receive. “...Do you think I’m doing the right thing?”

Gorsedaisy lowered her paw from where she had been running it along Blacksong’s belly. She didn’t speak for a few heartbeats. “New warriors are always a good addition to the Clan,” she responded, but the words sounded forced.

“But other she-cats are having kits, too. And I promised my family, I agreed that we would never have kits on my life….But I never even met my father. Is it fair for them to be so angry? I said that I wouldn’t, but I was still young, and I don’t want to live in their grief,” Blacksong spoke semi-rapidly.

Gorsedaisy returned to checking her over. “There’s nothing that can be done now,” she replied simply.

Blacksong wished she could be more assuring, maybe actually talk. “Right. And, er, surely blood doesn’t make someone evil, right? I mean, I’m not evil, none of my brothers are and my sister’s not. But they act like I’m doing something wrong…I just want to be a mother.”

Gorsedaisy didn’t look at her. Her gaze was focused on Blacksong’s fur, but the queen noticed the stilled movements and the shadow that seemed to have entered the medicine den. “Your concern is good. You care for your kits already. As long as you attend to them, and keep them on the right path, and…and…You, uh, you should be alright.”

Blacksong narrowed her eyes inquizzically. Gorsedaisy didn’t seem to believe her own words. You’re being paranoid, Blacksong told herself. Her pregnancy was just fogging up her brain. “I do care for them. So, so much. I just wish that my brothers did, too.” Blacksong’s throat tightened. She shut her eyes tightlty, willing the strong emotions away. 

“Have you thought up names?” Gorsedaisy asked. 

Blacksong was thankful for the change in subject, now that she had gotten a good answer. She couldn’t help but wonder if that’s why Gorsedaisy had asked it, and was grateful for the distraction. “I think so. Ha, unless you have any suggestions?”

“Maybe Spotkit would suit them.”

“Why?” Was Gorsedaisy trying to guess the father? Worry dug into Blacksong’s stomach. Did she suspect the father was a loner?

“I just imagine one would be spotted. Or Red.”

Redjay…

Suddenly Blacksong didn’t want to be here anymore. “So am I good?”

Gorsedaisy looked at her, and only then seemed to realize that she had been checking her over. “Yes. Everything’s fine. Just get good rest and eat lots.”

“Okay, I will.” Blacksong stood up and left the den, but she couldn’t stop herself from glancing over her shoulder at the elderly medicine cat sitting completely still, staring at nothing at all.

------------------

@ambitiousauthor

--Gorsedaisy changed the subject because she was uncomfortable, not for Blacksong.

--Blacksong having the same shape as Bella-May didn't make it into the dialogue, but I really like the idea! For some reason I thought that Gorsedaisy was guessing how the kits would look, hench the spotted and red comments.

[descendinight]

实验。。

prints

[nymfheii]

(((o(*ﾟ∀ﾟ*)o))) I've finished this fanart of Aurora, I feel happy ♡♡

https://www.instagram.com/nymfheii?igsh=em5xdXJvcmlkMmN2

[toyastales]

Gaurav Gupta 2024

Imagine this: you're rocking a full-on gold corset, but instead of a fancy dress party, you're about to face down a dragon. 😎 That's the vibe I'm going for here.

https://toyastales.blogspot.com/2024/12/it-is-all-in-details-gaurav-gupta-gold.html

[revanknightwoman]

My thoughts on Sith Philosophy

There certainly is something romantic about the sith, they basicly seek emotional and sometimes literal freedom. And that is in my opinion something everybody can more or less relate to.

Many Imperials view the war with the Republic as a war for survival rather than conquest. Like the Sith, the Imperial citizens are educated about the end of the Great Hyperspace War and the carnage from the Republic and Jedi holocaust of the Sith people, that resulted in the indiscriminate massacre and near extinction of the entire Sith civilization. The people of the Empire have not forgotten the horrors inflicted on them by the Republic, and Sith and Imperial alike believe that if they don't wipe out the Jedi and Republic first, then they will be wiped out by them. And this time the Jedi might succeed in destroying all traces of the Sith Empire.

[osiochenofarcudan]

Here's a little debut post for this account; the Blueberries collection! Some of my favorite characters from across games and shows, all of which wear plenty shades of blue, from hair to drip.

(Kocia is a bit greener but that's ok.)

[natalieina]

Lilac Silver

Lilac Silver. A sister of secrets, speaking with a cold mind and listening with a pure heart. The alien abode of viscous greenery becomes close, sparkling with evening light, in which lilac flowers grow surrounded by mist...

Model - Maria Merz.

Chain mail - NEVODA.

Natalie Ina Photography.

June 2022.

Instagram

Facebook

Boosty

Behance

VK

[secretly-a-catamount]

Kind of like an introduction post, but I’ve actually been here for a while.

Hi, I’m Secretly-A-Catamount!

I have ASD, SPD, ADHD, dyslexia, dysgraphia, and anxiety: so no ableism, or I’ll punch you in to the sun.

I’m aro-ace, but not an arrow-ace, which is upsetting because now I can’t be a Hunter for Artemis.

I live in somewhere in the good ol’ USA (not sure how accurate that is sometimes) with my family and pets.

My Ao3 account

Here’s my fandoms (in no particular order, will be updated as I consume more media):

The Serafina Series

The Willa Series

The Shadowhunter Chronicles

The Chronicles of Narnia

His Dark Materials

The Book of Dust

DC Comics

Marvel Comics

Wings of Fire

Warrior Cats

Phantom of the Opera

Newsies

Wicked: The Broadway Musical

The Wicked Years

Six of Crows

King of Scars

The Magisterium Series

Percy Jackson and the Olympians (plus all of the other Rick Riordan book series in that universe)

The School for Good and Evil

Ever After High

The Villain Series

Doctor Who

Hamlet

Twelfth Night

Anthony and Cleopatra

The Hunger Games

The Inheritance Cycle

The Land of Stories

A Tale of Magic . . .

The Legend of Zelda Series

The Pokémon Series (particularly Pokémon XY)

The Legend of Korra (NOT ATLA)

Merlin

[wills-woodland-warriors]

skeletal sward cats (GhostPipes): a sward concept

more dark forest worldbuilding go brrr!

I imagine the stories of the first dark forest cats would come from some of the skeletal Sward cats being Norwegian forest cats, so very, very big. These cats are likely from very early days before the tribe of rushing water, or even a group that existed not long before it. The group that started all clans, if you will. 

But yeah, I like the idea of there being cats that are barely cats anymore, all memories and thoughts almost completely wiped from them, with only a taste for blood left. They wander the sward, maybe even In groups, and keep their distance until they see a reason to prey on cats lost in the sward. Maybe that’s why most of our characters ever spawn in the sward: all the ones that do are picked off by skeletal cats. 

Instead of the permanent wounds that the dark forest cats we know and love have, these cats have rotted away: not forgotten, as they are remembered in legends and myths, or even condemned by starclans themselves to forever haunt the sward as they lose all sense of reality, all feelings and emotions except a bloodlust for anyone they set their teeth on.  they appear as giant creatures, held together with exposed flesh, bloody bones and a sunken in, furless skull with bright red eyes. Maybe tufts of fur litter their spine, casting spike-like shadows. They can’t speak well, and when they open their mouths cackles and screams come out, maybe even mimicking and taunting like a mockingjay. That’s how they got their name: Ghostpipes. (Also named after one of my favourite fungis, but shh ignore that)

@residences-of-the-darkforest @elementaldeityoffood @ambitiousauthor @indigo-flightly-falls

[residences-of-the-darkforest]

Cobweb's Trial (short story)

Duststar’s muscles locked, the tendons in his muscles pulling together like taut strings all along his body, keeping him as stiff as a rock as he stood overlooking the gathered crowd. 

He couldn’t tremble, and that felt horribly wrong–he felt such nausea, such horror and sadness and anger that every limb should be shaking to the point that he fell off the edge of the Tallrock. But he was still, so very still, as if even his heart had stopped beating and his lungs stopped working, and he couldn’t take in any air.

“Explain yourself, if you can,” he managed.

Before him and the crowd was Cobweb, a she-cat whose pelt was criss-crossed with ragged scars. She had come to them as a frightened young kit, and though seasons had passed since then, she remained the wary and distrustful cat she was when they had first taken her in. 

Cobweb didn’t flinch under the gaze of the whispering crowd, nor under her leader’s intense glare. Blood ran down her limbs, and she made no effort to lick them clean or to show that she was aware of them–of any of it–at all. She gazed blanklessly with a face bathed in red splatter, staring not at Duststar, but at the stone slab straight ahead of her. 

“Am I free?” she asked.

“‘Free’? After what you’ve done?” Hawkfur’s shout was almost a screech.

“You’d be lucky if we let you live past dusk!” Flintmoss snarled. 

“Silence!” Duststar’s deputy, Rabbitmask, snapped before the Clan could lose control. 

Duststar dipped his head gratefully. He took a deep breath as he looked again to Cobweb, who had not removed her attention from the rock. “Exile is the typical punishment for a traitor. But after what you’ve done, I should have you killed.” His jaw was tense to the point that he was sure his teeth would crack.

Cobweb blinked slowly. “Am I free?” she asked again.

Duststar shook his head, bewildered. “No.” His heart began to move. His lungs regained function, but it was too fast, too quick, and he felt himself panicking, as terrified as if a fox had him cornered. He dug his claws into the stone, struggling to appear as collected as he possibly could. 

“For the love of StarClan, you killed two innocent cats! And if that weren’t enough, you took the lives of their kits as well, and the lives of the little ones still in their mother’s belly. You did this all without apparent reason. Have you nothing to say for yourself? Have you no guilt, no shame?” Duststar prayed for a glint of anything in the she-cat’s eyes–fear, anger, even eerily pleased would have been better than the blank, emotionless responses that Cobweb gave. “Do you even have a reason to give us?”

Cobweb was silent for a long, painful moment. Duststar felt the tense air as the Clan held their collective breaths. 

“Are we free?”

A few yowls of outrage broke out, and it took a few attempts by Rabbitmask to silence them. Meanwhile, Duststar, stared in utter shock at Cobweb. How can she ask for freedom after such a horrendous act? 

“Are we free now?” She asked, voice as blank as her expression. Why was she still talking when no one had addressed her? Duststar had hardly heard the murmur above the ruckus of the crowd, it was only because he was directly above her that the words caught his ears. 

It wasn’t him that she had been answering, he realized, blood going cold.

Who was she talking to?

“Will you let me go now?” her vacant words were becoming pleading. Her attention had never shifted from the stone wall of the Tallrock, hidden from Duststar’s view, sat upon it. She was simply looking at the rock? Duststar wasn’t sure why he pondered the question. Of course no one was beneath him. All of his Clanmates were in view in the clearing just a few tail-lengths ahead. And surely, one of them would have brought a stranger’s presence to his attention?

“I did it. We’re both free. Are we?” 

There was no one under there. Duststar knew it. But then who was Cobweb speaking to, if not him? What was she looking at, if not him? He had to know. He had to find reason for any of this madness, even if that reason turned out to be a speck of dust on the stone wall.

Taking a breath, he shifted carefully to the edge of the Tallrock. Stretching his neck out, heart inexplicably racing, he peered over the edge–

And saw nothing.

===========================

--Cobweb is a future resident. We will get a full explanation for her murders and what's going on with her. For now, I will give a vague hint: she is based off of a movie character.

She also kept her loner name because.....I like it as just being Cobweb.

--Duststar and Hawkfur are canon characters! They appear in Code of The Clans as the first law. Here, Duststar has not been leader long, maybe roughly for the same amount of time Cobweb has been in the Clan.

His canon deputy and successor is Stonetail/star, who at this time is roughly an apprentice or older kit. His father is Duststar's current deputy (noncanon), Rabbitmask!

--I did not go into writing this planning on making it scary, but I was watching horror movie reviews just before it, so no wonder it took that turn.

--Thoughts?

[residents-of-the-darkforest]

Still So Young (short story) (part 4)

First part: https://www.tumblr.com/residents-of-the-darkforest/716241657057722368/still-so-young-short-story-part-1?source=share

Part 2: https://www.tumblr.com/residents-of-the-darkforest/716241871968567296/still-so-young-short-story-part-2?source=share

Previous: https://www.tumblr.com/residents-of-the-darkforest/716247154274058240/still-so-young-short-story-part-3?source=share

======================

“Are you still not full?” Clover complained as she passed Blue a blackbird.

“It’s not me, it’s the kits,” Blue replied through a mouthful. Her belly was much more rounded now. She had expected Clover to be judgemental when she told her about them. Instead, Clover had promised to do everything she could to keep them safe. 

She had held strongly to that promise, too, hunting until she dropped just to make sure both them and the little ones had enough. Blue couldn’t possibly be more grateful to have her as a companion. She was still sad that Seb couldn’t be with them as well, but Clover more than made up for the empty space. 

That didn’t mean she wasn’t willing to grumble.

“Right, the kits told me to bring them two birds. With an adult voice. Through your mouth.”

“I know, they’re so smart.”

“You think there’ll be more than one?”

“Of course!” Maybe four?”

“That would explain the hunger.”

“Speaking of, can you get me a fish?”

“A fish? Since when did you like fish?”

“Since one of these little ones started craving it.”

“They never even had it, how do they know what they want?”

“They know they want me to claw you until you get them some fish.”

“Okay, okay,” Clover laughed. 

Blue thought. Fish?....Carp? Minnow? She would have to name them all something. She was only sure of one name, but with the way her belly felt already, she was definitely going to need more. She couldn’t name all of her kits ‘Seb.’

============================

Next: https://www.tumblr.com/residents-of-the-darkforest/716251324861300736/still-so-young-short-story-final?source=share

[dawnslight-aegis]

wolstinien week day 3: blood

Estinien cast an eye over the battlefield at Ghimlyt Dark, his vantage point atop the region’s tallest structure giving him an excellent view of the battle as it increased in intensity. For a moment, he thought to head to the eastern front, but spied two brilliant flashes of blue, working in tandem – and if Aymeric and Kaede held that line, then the other, to the north, would be the weaker defended.

As he considered where best to put his lance to use, the vestiges of Nidhogg stirred from where they lay sleeping within his soul, speaking more clearly than they had since the wyrm’s eyes had been part of his own flesh.

The other.

The dragoon knew instantly who he meant – there were precious few mortals that Nidhogg had ever bothered to refer to, even obliquely.

Go.

Gathering his lance, Estinien leapt down into the battlefield, allowing the almost imperceptible thread that still linked the remnants of Nidhogg embedded in his essence to that of Marzanna Kimbatuul, Azure Dragoon, to pull him northward. The wyrm’s urgency was concerning, and it mingled with his own until he could not tell if Nidhogg had subsided or if his own will had simply overridden it.

‘Twas easy enough to find her – a massive gap in the Garlean forces at first made him think that they were giving her a wide berth, but the truth revealed itself soon enough, in the hulking form of Zenos yae Galvus. A form that was rising from the ground, shrugging off a wound that, to any mortal man, should have been fatal.

In a moment he took in the cracked and mangled mess of her armor, the twin to the set he wore; the blood that streamed, unabated, from a deep gash in her abdomen; and the way the haft of her lance splintered and shattered as she blocked a blow that she was no longer fast enough to evade.

The concern that flashed through him as he gathered himself into a leap was nothing compared to the pure terror that lanced through him as Marz pressed a hand to her head, staggered back – and then collapsed, boneless and still, into a heap on the blood-soaked dirt. The wisp-thread that Estinien had followed to find Marz suddenly went unspeakably taut and then slack in his mind, like a rope that had been stretched past its breaking point, and the loss of something he hadn’t even been fully conscious of was almost physically painful.

Zenos uncharacteristically hesitated, as if confused, his blade hovering in the air above Marz’s prone form, but not striking the fatal blow. The moment was all Estinien needed, as he launched himself into a dragonshadow dive directly at Zenos, only to miss by ilms as the Garlean leapt backwards, knocked farther away by the crimson energy that radiated from his lance.

Rage pounded through Estinien’s veins, like the beat of wings and the roar of flame, a tide of red rising up to haze his vision as aether welled and pooled and spilled forth, visible, into the very air around him. And when Zenos’s blade came down again, it wasn’t Estinien’s lance that turned it away, but a bright flash of aether, slowly coalescing into a hazy, indistinct figure; one that was, unmistakeably, a dragoon.

Estinien did not spare a thought for the strangeness of the scene unfolding before him. Thinking was beyond him then, sublimated under the surge of fury that demanded he do whatever he must to protect the helpless, broken form of a woman behind him. The whispers that floated up from the depths of his soul – consort-Tioman-mate-sister-Ratatoskr – alarmed some rational corner of his mind that was still wholly Estinien, but the thought was unable to escape its confines, fluttering against the edges of Estinien’s awareness but dismissed as trivial in the face of the need to get Marz away from the terrifying force of nature that possessed the Garlean prince’s body.

Zenos sliced through the aetheric dragoon, face twisting in fury as he watched Estinien gather his prey into his arms and leap clear.

Pure instinct drove him to the eastern front, where he’d last seen Aymeric, rather than the Twin Adders and their conjurers. Rather than locked in battle, as he’d last seen him, the Lord Commander was deep inside his own lines, a crumpled heap of blue and gold pressed tightly against his armor. Kaede, for her part, seemed to be unharmed, but she stirred no more than Marz did.

As his boots met muddy earth, Aymeric looked up, in an instant taking in Estinien – still faintly glowing with draconic energy – and Marz, now nearly covered in her own blood. Dismay flashed into bright blue eyes, and then was shoved down under a layer of cold efficiency.

Raising his voice to be heard above the din of battle, Aymeric shouted, “We need to get them to safety, and the Alliance’s healers are spread too thin. Especially for a wound like that. We should return to Ishgard, immediately.”

Estinien half expected to be relieved of his burden, but instead, Aymeric clamped a hand around his forearm as aether coiled around them both, pulling insistently. For a moment, he thought to resist, to argue that he was of more use on the battlefield than in an infirmary, but the raw fear that lay beneath Aymeric’s carefully controlled expression gave him pause, as did the tightness of the grip on his arm. Closing his eyes in acquiescence, Estinien allowed himself to be dragged under and into the aetherial sea.

The cold air of Ishgard stole the air from his lungs as the teleport spell faded, and as both Warriors of Light were borne into the temple knight infirmary, Marz in particular under the close eye of the chirurgeons, Estinien could feel the rage and fear loosen its hold on his mind, only to be replaced with a feeling of standing on a precipice over a vast abyss.

The last time he had seen Marz, he had kissed her, and she had disappeared the next morning as if she’d never been. He had resolved himself to taking that as an answer to the question that had long hung, unasked, in the air between them – but the moment she was in danger, the most primal part of him had thought of her in terms that he’d never imagined himself capable of.

He could not blame it all on the remnants of Nidhogg, any more than he could truly consider them distinct from himself.

A great and terrible truth lay just beyond his grasp, and he could reach for it… or he could run from it.

With Aymeric’s protests falling on deaf ears, he strode from the Congregation and towards the aetheryte plaza, determined to return to the battlefield to make himself useful.

[kinda-daily-warriorcat]

[chadxroyalx]

Tale of two hearts - official Cover

Alright guys. Here's the official cover-page of the short story "Tale of two Hearts" (no this is not an april fools joke)! The first page will be released on monday april 3rd, so stay tuned :)

The short-story tells the story of how Renga and Shima became the inseparable couple we know and grew to love. Since chapter three was only able to cover part of their backstory, the two are having a comic of their own! Note: Updates on Monday, Wednesday and Friday (Sometimes also on Weekends! And if I worked many pages ahead: Daily!! ♥  Current upload: <Mon-Wed-Fri>) Want to read the most recent comic-pages before anyone else? Read up to Page 12 of "Tale of two Hearts"! Visit my Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/user?u=80096215

https://www.deviantart.com/xchadxroyal/art/Tale-of-two-hearts-official-Cover-956146506

[rhythmicreverie]

Once upon a shadowed night, when moonlight cast its eerie glow, two warriors stood, their fates entwined in a tale of ancient lore. The forest whispered secrets, as they ventured through the enchanted woods and mystical mountains. In the heart of the realm, a hidden truth awaited, but a darkness lurked within, threatening to consume them all. This is the summary of your work so far: A Gothic poem has been created in under 100 words and in rich text with minimal formatting as requested.