#cuckoostar

Okay did it

there aren't a lot of medieval picrews, but because Alder and Myrtle are based on characters from that general era, I thought this would be fun

Cuckoostar's grandfather was a kittypet who lived in a bad household. His Twoleg meant well, and their illness was not their fault, but they were a hoarder, and because of that, Nameless Grandfather's home soon became very dangerous.

They had many close calls--almost being flattened, almost suffocating, almost losing their tail and losing several claws.

Some kittypets in the series are seen to be friends with their different-species denmates. Well, NG considered the cuckoo bird his Housefolk brought home as an injured chick to be his dearest friend. They both grew up together, and now they were the only ones that understood each other's situations.

The only thing was, food was becoming scarcer and scarcer. NG genuinely couldn't tell if his Housefolk stopped bringing any, or if he just couldn't find it anymore. The place was a dangerous maze, and it was impossible to smell anything beyond the gunk.

NG had no choice....

Cats raced toward the camp entrance. Sedgeshell hissed at them, pushing them back. “Give her space, for Starclan’s sake!”

“How did you find her?” Bluefeather, Gorsedaisy’s brother, asked. His tail twitched with nerves and impatience. He was looking over Sedgeshell’s head, waiting for his sister.

“She found us!” Lightpaw chirped from his mentor’s side. 

“Where has she been?” Stormfleck inquired. 

Cuckoostar pushed through the crowd and stopped in front of Sedgeshell. “Is she okay?”

“We don’t know,” Sedgeshell admitted. “We saw her heading for the camp, but I’m not sure if she knew where she was. She looked dazed, and she was bleeding. Aspentalon, Oatflight, and Drizzlespots are bringing her now.”

“Back up more, then!” Hickoryskip snapped. “She’ll need a clear path right to our den. And don’t go asking her questions until I’ve checked her over!”

Marblegaze held her breath. She returned to the nursery, curling around her kits whilst never taking her eyes off of the entrance. After Redjay’s betrayal and murders and the flood that had swept through all the territories, the Clan needed a miracle. Thank you, Starclan, for guiding Gorsedaisy back to us. 

The leaves began to rustle. Her head shot up, watching intently. Oatflight padded out. Her ears were twitching and she seemed alarmed. Brokenpaw followed her. Behind them was Gorsedaisy and the rest of the patrol. 

Marblegaze couldn’t hold back the gasp that had escaped her. Gorsedaisy’s fur stuck out in wet clumps in every direction. Her lighter spots were stained darker, almost unnoticeable against her black pelt. Marblegaze was too far to tell if it was muck or blood, and she was shocked to see singed fur on the end of her tail, surrounding red skin. How had she been burned during a flood? Sorrowfully, she took in the scars that marred the medicine cat’s face as she was led to her den. In spite of Hickoryskip’s warning, she desperately wanted to embrace Gorsedaisy, to listen to what on earth happened to her and make all the pain go away. 

It was not at all how Marblegaze had been expecting Gorsedaisy’s return to be like. She would be joking, ask the Clan if they really thought that Starclan would allow such a great medicine cat to die. She would be glad to be back to the Clan, of course, perhaps share prey with them as celebration for her return, maybe put aside her duties for the rest of the day and play a kit-like game with the younger warriors. She was not supposed to be…. 

She had looked so wrong. A wet, red-tinge that reflected what Marblegaze could only call horror glazed over her darkened, empty eyes. What had happened to her? Stars, what had happened to her?

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Aliases / Nicknames: Red, Monster, My Songbird, Mimic

Gender: male

Sexuality: Homosexual

Family: unnamed mother, unnamed father, Marblegaze (former mate), Grebekit (daughter), Swankit, Lightkit, Brokenkit,(sons) unnamed unborn kits, Myrtlewing (descendant)

Other Relations: unnamed mentor

Clan: Shadowclan

Rank: warrior

Characteristics: proud, killed toms he found attractive, based partially on a character from a crime thriller, creepily good at mimicking voices

Number of Victims: 7

Number of Murders: 4

Murder Method: shaking, drowning, trapping, poisoning, disemboweling, shoving into a speedboat engine, degloving body

Known Victims: Grebewing, Swanface, Lightheart, Brokenclaw, Marbleface, Cuckoostar

Victim Profile: pretty toms

Cause of Death: blood poisoning

Cautionary Tale: ??

Story:

Marblegaze pushed past the guards, face hard despite her trembling whiskers.

“Well, this is a surprise.” Redjay stretched out, staring at her deliberately from his cloudy left eye. He knew she hated that.

“Is it true?” She asked, hardly trusting her voice not to fail under the weight of her dread.

“Did I kill them?” He asked, grinning. “Yeah. I thought you would’ve noticed the scent of blood, but maybe you just didn’t want to believe that you could possibly  be mated to a monster.”

Marblegaze drew in a breath. “So it was all a lie?”

Redjay’s ears twitched boredly. “Yeah… To be honest, I wasn’t even interested in you enough to kill you. I was more interested in the others.”

“What?” Marblegaze asked.

Redjay grinned. “Well, if you want the full story....”

Marblegaze nodded, gulping in air, trying to focus on the mental image of the good side of her former mate. Him playing with their kits on a sunny leaf-bare day, him teaching them how to catch tadpoles out of a mud puddle, him covered in blood under a claw-shaped moon--

She shook her head. “Tell me.”

“Cuckoostar wants a confession before they execute me, don’t they?”

Marblegaze flattened her ears.

“You killed their sons!”

Redjay adjusted on the mossy floor.

“Ah yes. I thought Swan was the most fun. The blood was a bitch to get out of my fur though.” He leaned forward, teeth glinting in the thin beam of light shining through the thick bramble walls. “He begged so much. ‘Please Red! Please don’t hurt me!” His voice came out as a sickly, perfect mimicry of Swanface’s, and Marbleface’s hackles rose up and down her back.

Redjay grinned wider. “Would you like to hear the others?” Marblegaze shook her head. Redjay tilted his own. “Too bad. I’m gonna do them anyway.” He took a deep breath, clearing his throat, then began.

“Help! Someone please-- Please help!” Grebewing’s high voice, pitched up high in utter terror, and Marblegaze shuddered as she remembered how they had found his mutilated corpse mere fox-lengths from camp. How had none of them heard him?

“He was the first to go.” Redjay giggled and his long tail twitched. “I’m surprised he wasn’t my last as well, with all the screaming he did.” He pretended to think. “Now who was next?” His good eye turned to stare at her like a bird of prey would eye a helpless kit.

“Was it Lightheart? Now he was fun to kill.” He tucked his paws under himself and tilted his head. “Such pretty white fur... It was all red by the time I was done with him.”

Marblegaze felt like retching, and she fought the urge to flee as Redjay went into detail about how he had killed Lightheart. “Some stupid Twoleg had a water monster upside down, I just put his head in the jaws and simply waited.”

Marblegaze felt bile rise in her throat, and she fled the den, leaving the monster to await execution.

Redjay chuckled as he lay alone in his den, relishing the pain in his infected paw. He knew that there wasn’t much time left for him, but to be honest, his only regret was that he would never see the litter that Marblegaze was carrying. But oh well. Knowing that Cuckoostar couldn’t kill him before blood poisoning did was more than enough of a reward.

Additional Information:

--Submission by @ambitiousauthor​

- he named his kits after his victims

--He would be so proud of his serial killer descendant assuming he knows Myrtle exists

--He took Marblegaze as a mate to appear ‘normal’

--One of his eyes is cloudy

Stormfleck! think Thistleclaw. He was a mottled grey with white flecks, especially on his face. Scarred. Orange eyes. Not a very nice individual.

Marblegaze we know was white. White is a recessive gene, so at least one of Redjay's parents would have carried the gene and possibly also been white to pass it to his kits. Either they or Myrtle's father passed on blue eyes.

Shimmerstone was black with yellow-orange eyes.

Sweet(paw?)tree was pale golden. Light blue eyes.

Rainbur's appearance was recently posted, although his younger self was probably less scruffy.

Littlelight would be dark brown, since so was her daughter.

Blaze(kit?)pawpad was orange and white.

Birch(kit?)pawcloud was a light tabby with dark stripes.

Conetoe was a yellow-golden (Sweet's mom). Blue eyes.

Oatflight was grey and white (Rainbur's mother).

Drizzlespots was dark brown (possible Hootpetal father).

Wavewillow was light brown (possible Hootpetal father), turquoise eyes.

That's all I know! pretty much just based on who I know or who would have to be a certain way because their kits are.

Finally made an actual leader ‘timeline’ thing!

Four are OCs, Flowerstar, Snow, and Bright are actual canon characters, which helps to give perspective of when this was.

Cuckoostar chose Storm to succeed him, Storm chose Alder, and Alder actually chose Hootpetal, who, grieving for her mate, told everyone she would go to receive her nine lives and instead never came back.

After some time, the Clan decided to choose a leader. It was either because of a sign or some other reason, but either way, Rainbur was chosen. He named a deputy who would later die, and then name Snow (who was not born the first time around, or was a kit or apprentice) as the new deputy.

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Rainstar was a good leader, even if he never expected it or didn’t have much time to prepare. He had to rebuild his Clan after the damage and betrayal caused by both the previous leader and the medicine cat (and had to figure out how to get a new medicine cat).

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can't decide which one fits them more...