professional squirrelflight stan

Nightheart

hey remember a long time ago when i said i was gonna hold off on designing the starless clan protagonists until the book came out

because i was afraid i was gonna do what i did with rootpaw and make a design that didn’t fit their character

but then i caved and drew frostpaw/flamepaw anyway and made flamepaw a black and orange tortoiseshell

and gave him a bunch of cool flame-shaped markings.

because his name is FLAMEpaw.

lionblaze was 100% stoked to be a big brother while jayfeather, despite being fully grown, had spent his entire life being the youngest sibling of the family and was much more “://////” about them at first. but one day squirrelflight says “hey lionblaze is out on patrol and leafpool is gathering herbs, can you take care of them for a second?” and it’s all downhill from there. turns out, jayfeather is a fantastic babysitter. he spends the entire day teaching little alderkit about herbs (and YES he’s very interested in it!!) and letting sparkkit play with his tail. even his snarkiest comments get a laugh out of the littermates. when squirrelflight comes back from her patrol she finds the three of them curled up for a nap in the sunshine, sparkkit sprawled on top of jayfeather’s back and alderkit nestled snugly against his chest. jayfeather’s a lot less reluctant to watch his little siblings after that, and suddenly the grumpy medicine cat isn’t so scary to them any more.

leafpool absolutely spoils her new nieces and nephews. she’s always the first to bring alderkit a pretty flower or find a big feather for sparkkit to play with. squirrelflight gently chastises her sister time and time again. “you’re spoiling them,” she laughs. leafpool purrs and shakes her head before bringing them their latest plaything. she’s the first to bring her quiet, reserved nephew out of his shell, sitting and talking with him in the medicine den while the more rambunctious kits playfight. truly, his aunt is his best friend. one day the little ginger tom toddles up to her and quietly mews “can you tell me about hollyleaf?” leafpool pauses before smiling sadly and telling him stories of his big sister: how she journeyed all the way to the mountains as just an apprentice, how she cleverly learned to hunt and survive underground, and how bravely she fought and sacrificed herself in the great battle. alderkit, tucked against her flank, hangs on her every word, and at the end of her stories asks leafpool if she could take him to the moonpool to meet hollyleaf. leafpool smiles and purrs. “maybe one day.”

lionblaze, on the other hand, is far less reserved. squirrelflight finds herself scolding her oldest son like he’s an apprentice again for getting sparkkit and alderkit into mischief. does he ever learn his lesson? absolutely not. sparkkit absolutely ADORES him though, and she looks up to her big brother as her idol. he’s always up to give the little she-kit a badger ride or play mossball or sneak into bramblestar’s den to play leader and deputy (sparkkit is the leader, of course). even though he’s lost his power, lionblaze is still the greatest warrior the clans have ever seen in sparkkit’s eyes. “i wanna be just like you when i’m a grownup!” she squeaks joyfully one day, bouncing around him and swatting playfully at his tail. lionblaze doesn’t know why, but he very nearly becomes choked up after that and nuzzles her affectionately.