#eelpaw

MOON 37 - PART 4

Rubble, Speckle, and Talon... the family Lake left behind.

Aliases / Nicknames: Gillkit, Gillpaw, Gill-cat, Gilly, River Cat, Freak of Nature

Gender: nonbinary 

Sexuality: demisexual, panromantic 

Family: Streamwillow (mother), Specklepelt (father), two unnamed littermates

Other Relations: Cricketclaw (mentor) 

Clan: Prairieclan

Rank: apprentice 

Characteristics: kills cats who have disrespected the environment, has a congenital abnormality that makes it look like they have gills, loves water and nature 

Number of Victims: 5 

Number of Murders: 5 

Murder Method: drowning 

Known Victims: Cherrypaw, Jaypaw, Lizardpaw, Shrewpaw, Redpaw 

Victim Profile: fellow apprentices, bullies 

Cause of Death: parasitic worm infection, neglect

Cautionary Tale: cats should respect their natural environment; those who don't will be dragged underwater by the Gill-cat, never to be seen again

Story: 

Curse. Freak. Abomination. That's all they were known as from the day they were born. 

Eelkit was the result of a forbidden relationship between Streamwillow, the deputy of Oceanclan, and Specklepelt, the bastard half-brother of both the leader and the medicine cat of Prairieclan. That alone would have outcasted them enough, but there was also the fact that Streamwillow had died giving birth to them and their stillborn littermates, dooming them to PrairieCcan, where they were despised for who their father was. 

But more than that, they were despised for their gills. They were born with them, but even if the medicine cat could be half-assed to not snarl at their bastard half-brother's sealogged spawn and actually look at them, they wouldn't be able to figure out why Eelkit had this strange defect anyway. Just another result of them being cursed, the medicine cat--and the rest of the Clan--decided. 

It wasn't much of a shock that Eelkit tried to get out of camp as much as possible, to avoid the sneers and taunts of their Clanmates. As a result, they spent quite their time in the grasslands that dotted surrounded Prairieclan’s camp, and grew immensely fond of all of the natural beauty they held. 

Being half-Oceanclan, they were especially fond of the streams that twisted and turned through the grasslands, and spent a lot of their time swimming or just staring at the rippling water. But they also noticed the increasing amount of Twoleg junk strewn about the grasslands and sunken to the bottom of the streams. They tried their best to clean it up, hoping that the Clan would respect their efforts. But instead, they got laughed at even more. 

The only two cats who encouraged their efforts were Specklepelt and Specklepelt's best friend from childhood, Cricketclaw, who helped the now-single Specklepelt to raise Eelkit. Cricketclaw even went to the leader and requested that Eelkit become his apprentice, which the leader reluctantly approved of.

Eelpaw was over the moon at this, and it was the one big positive for them becoming an apprentice. Unfortunately, Eelpaw very quickly learned that there was a bigger downside to being an apprentice--five bigger downsides, in fact.

Cherrypaw, Redpaw, Jaypaw, Lizardpaw, and Shrewpaw. They had already been rude to them when they were all in the nursery together, but now that they were apprentices, not held back by the mildly disapproving glances of their mothers, they ruthlessly tortured Eelpaw to the ends of the prairie and back.

They started off relatively mildly at first, calling Eelpaw a curse, a freak, and an abomination as they had several times in the nursery. As they learned more fighting skills, they progressed to beating them up in sparring matches with their mentor's encouragement and despite Cricketclaw's best efforts. 

But the worst part was yet to come. The other apprentices approached Eelpaw one day, acting oddly nice, asking then if they wanted to see a pretty spot they had just found. Overjoyed that they had finally accepted him, Eelpaw had accepted without hesitation. 

Instead, the apprentices led Eelpaw to one of their favourite streams, which they had filled with Twoleg junk as a cruel prank. Their sick laughter bounced off of the water, reflecting only disgusting Twoleg junk instead of the gorgeous pebbles and fish, and landed right in Eelpaw's ears. And it broke something.

They wanted to treat them like a monster? Fine. Then they would play the part of a monster...

They started with Lizardpaw, easily the dumbest of their bullies, purposefully aggravating them during training until they demanded a fight near the stream that night. Lizardpaw easily fell for it, just like Eelpaw wanted. Once in the water, their Oceanclan blood allowed them to get the upper paw over Lizardpaw, holding him down at the bottom of the stream until his eyes glazed over. 

Shrewpaw was Lizardpaw's twin, and thus only slightly less dumber than him. His grief actually made it easier for him to fall for Eelpaw's taunting, and the twins were reunited sooner rather than later. 

Jaypaw, their brother, was the only one with any brains in the litter, and quickly confronted Eelpaw soon after, demanding for them to tell him what they had done to his brothers. Oh, Eelpaw did more than just tell him--they showed him exactly what they had done, same fate and all. 

Redpaw fell for the same trick as Lizardpaw and Shrewpaw did, and that only left Cherrypaw. Admittedly, Eelpaw did feel pretty bad about killing her--she had always been the nicest to them out of their bullies, and that niceness intensified as all of the other apprentices "disappeared.”

But they couldn't trust her after how she had participated in the cruel prank. She would probably just put more trash in the streams anyways. Cherrypaw begged and pleaded with Eelpaw as they held her under, saying she would help them clean up all of the trash. But Eelpaw wasn't a fool anymore. They knew she was just trying to trick him. So they just held them down even harder. 

With their goal accomplished, Eelpaw set their sights on being the best warrior they could possibly be. But less than half a moon after Cherrypaw's death, Eelpaw started to feel something wriggling within their gills, and saw pale yellow-white heads sticking out of them. Parasitic worms.

The Clan hated Eelpaw even more after the deaths of the other apprentices, and despite Specklepelt and Cricketclaw's desperate pleading, the leader and medicine cat refused to have them treated. The worms spread further and further down their body. eventually getting into their lungs. From there, the end was thankfully swift and painless.

Additional Information:

--Submission by @starfalcon555​

--Originally wanted to make them more of a Gill-man, but added Swamp Thing aspects for a stronger motivation.

--Their gills are supposed to be on their neck and not on their shoulder, but, you know, picrew.

--Eelpaw got a parasitic worm infection because they liked to eat freshwater snails, which are notorious for being filled with parasitic worms.

--Cherrypaw actually had a crush on Eelpaw, but was goaded by her brother Redpaw and the three brothers into bullying him instead. She always regretted it and wanted to get closer to him, but by the time the bad influences were gone, it was too late for them to forgive her.

--Had they lived to warriorhood, Eelpaw's warrior name would have been Eelpelt, partly for their very thin fur that's as smooth as an eel's skin, partly after Specklepelt.

--They’re probably going to make Cricketclaw a future resident bc they really like his name.

--In the Dark Forest, parasitic worms hang out of Eelpaw's gills 24/7. I Basiltooth would grow fond of them because of this, and he and Smalljump would be like older brothers / fun uncles to him.

My littlecloudbot children! They’re supposed to be kits in this drawing but by now they’re well into their apprenticeships. They grow up so fast,,,

MOON 37 - PART 8

the dust settles...

MOON 36 - FINAL

Fisher's initial hesitation is explained when he finds the camp that evening, his daughter at his side. he and Eel are welcomed into the Garden, and Eel changes her name to Eelpaw at the invitation of Creekpaw and Olivepaw.

MOON 36 - ALLIEGENCE

wow !! the allegiance has officially become more than one page !! it's been a whole year since our last one, and even though there is a face noticeably missing, the garden sure has grown a lot.