Dark Forest Resident: Badgerthistle
Aliases / Nicknames: Skyclan filth, Fox-hearted Poisoner
Gender: nonbinary
Sexuality: demisexual-pan
Family: unnamed mother, unnamed father, unnamed sister, unnamed brother, Baydust (mate), Larchfoot, Pinecloud (sons)
Other Relations: unnamed mentor, two unnamed apprentices
Clan: Skyclan
Rank: warrior, loner
Characteristics: claws with poisoned-covered claws in battles and fights, wants to protect their kits
Number of Victims: 21
Number of Murders: 8
Murder Method: poisoning wounds
Known Victims: Rowanshade, Larchfoot, unnamed Thunderclan and Riverclan warriors
Victim Profile: warriors they fought in battles and skirmishes, their son, their son’s mate
Cause of Death: poisoned
Cautionary Tale: ??
Story:
The first time they were sent into battle, they were still rather young. They had only one moon of training, and got jumped by a warrior of Thunderclan, which Skyclan had been fighting for herbs on the other side of the border.
Badgerpaw left badly scarred, but more than that they had been angry. What kind of warrior claws up an apprentice so badly that their scars become permanent?
Other fights in battle didn’t exactly offer better experiences. Badgerpaw, and then Badgerthistle, gathered many notches and scars over the seasons, splitting one of their ears almost entirely in two.
During this collection, Badgerthistle and Baydust grew close. They had been good friends when they had trained together, and with time, that friendship turned into romantic interest.
It wasn’t long into their relationship that Baydust grew expecting.
Then, Badgerthistle became concerned. They had grown used to the brutality of battle, but knowing that it would face their kits was something else entirely. They knew that they couldn’t just prevent them from fighting all their life-- a parent’s dream, but unachievable. However, they could prevent the other Clans from daring fight Skyclan.
Fighting as viciously as they could can only do so much. So how to do it? Starclan message?
That is what they had planned to do, a reason they were walking in the forest with the medicine cat, Eagleleaf, to help gather herbs. The two had entered a Twoleg garden rich with plants. They were about to pick at one batch of small white flowers, mistaking it for regular herbs, when they were shoved away by Eagleleaf, who explained that it was poison--hogweed, to be exact.
Eagleleaf told them that it was a horrible plant, causing harm even without being ingested.
Badgerthistle thought that that was very interesting.
It wasn’t long before the next battle came. Skyclan was going to invade Riverclan, who had denied them hunting rights. They hurried first to the Twoleg garden, carefully digging their claws into the leaves’ juices, just deep enough that they didn’t reach the skin of their toes.
At first, it was hard to tell how succesful they had been. Badgerthistle didn’t know how long the poison took to take effect, and how much of the pain was covered by adrenaline.
Three days later, Riverclan gave Skyclan the hunting rights. Badgerthislte was happy with that until it turned out to be a fluke for the Riverclan cats to attack them, and another battle ensued. This time, because they hadn’t thought it needed, Badgerthistle hadn’t covered their claws.
They decided not to make that mistake again, coating their claws every chance they deemed appropriate. They continuously used it in battles, and even in minor border skirmishes.
One warrior they ended up harming was Rowanshade, who, after a confrontation with Larchfoot, turned out to be their son’s secret mate. He was furious at his parent for hurting her, while Badgerthistle was enraged that their son chose to frolic with the enemy.
The argument escalated into a physical fight, and reacting instinctively, Badgerthistle swung, forgetting that their claws--so often unsheathed as to not irritate their skin--were exposed. Worse, that they were covered in poison.
They realized the mistake the moment their paw made contact. Instantly, they helped drag Larchfoot--who was at first confused by their reaction, until they began to feel the effects--back to the camp, but it was too far too late, and Larchfoot collapsed to the ground just outside of the camp entrance.
Still desperate to help their son, they explained to Eagleleaf the poison they had accidently attacked Larchfoot with, and in doing so admitted to their Clan what they had done to the warriors of Thunderclan and Riverclan.
They were allowed to stay in the Clan until the end of the next day, when Larchfoot succumbed to the poison, before they were exiled.
As a loner, Badgerthistle’s fight lost them, not that much fight was needed, after they had eaten a mouse after catching it in their claws.
Additional Information:
--They once again forgot about the poison when catching the mouse, likely again reacting on instinct.
--Most cats survived the poison, like Rowanshade.
--This was possibly during a time when battles for the Clans was especially rough, which was way they got beaten pretty badly.
--Was actually planning on making this cat for a while, so I guess I did think of poisoning wounds in some way before.
--Riverclan suspected Skyclan to be the reason their warriors got sick right after the battle (likely finding evidence in their wounds) and wanted revenge, which was why they bothered setting up the trap at all.
