#mudfoot

Something else is watching

So in general, I give ShadowClan cats big eyes and very long whiskers, plus a lot of facial hair. Mudfoot and Deerfoot both have a classic ‘shadowstache,‘ a bundle of short whiskers around the mouth. I also wanted Lizardstripe to have green eyes because I always see Tangleburr with that color, and she got a bit of an overbite (which Deerfoot inherited) because there’s not enough cool dentition in Warriors.

Lizardstripe

She’s very, very different from canon. Instead of being just a sour, abusive mother, Lizardstripe is one of Bluestar’s oldest friends and used to sneak out to hang out with her friend group, the Forget-Me-Nots.

Lizardstripe was the first Forget-Me-Not to die, taken out in a battle over the Mothermouth moorland, before Brokenstar took power.

She was a young mother, not ready for the experience nor particularly happy about it, but she did still love her children. When she was bored, she would go on ‘exercises‘ and bring her kittens along, resulting in them being in Yellowfang’s den a lot for scrapes and dings.

She agreed to nurse Raggedstar’s motherless son for him when he still needed milk, but didn’t raise the little guy.

Mudclaw Mudfoot

Wasn’t the best mate, but a decent father. He was particularly close to Deerfoot, passing on many of his skills.

He was one of the best builders the camp had ever seen. They used to joke that he could out-dig a badger and still come back with a rabbit. He died of greencough and general weakness during the last winter of Raggedstar’s reign, shortly after which all three of his kits started to drift apart.

Deerfoot

Inspired by a red stag, I wanted him to look noble, but not in a ThunderClan way. His brow whiskers are thick and brush back like antlers, with a big bushy ‘stache (he’s proud of it. Tangle makes fun of it) and dark paws like hooves.

While he supported Brokenstar at first, it quickly becomes clear that him and Runningnose are bending the code to fit their needs. But, he got the same smarts that his brother Runny did, and learned quickly to shut up and get sneaky. Sure, he’s loyal, sure, he follows orders... to the letter. And the rules didn’t say anything about sneaking a few mice to the exiles. Mice full of herbs. Birds full of messages. Frogs full of rebellion.

He’s principled and honorable. He can have a fair amount of the good old ShadowClan dark humor in his fangs, but he gets tired of nonsense very quickly. He honestly regrets a lot of the things he said as a kit, and gets frustrated that Tangleburr never seemed to grow out of being a bully. After one too many comments that went to far, he stopped talking to her entirely.

They had just begun to reconcile when TigerClan took power, and Tangleburr became a fast loyalist. Deerfoot organized the rebels, just as he’d done before, resisting tyranny at every step. After helping the half-Clan cats escape, he was the only one captured and put on trial. He refused to name his co-conspirators and was brutally executed.

Jaggedtooth, Mosspelt, Dawnflower, and Reedwhisker, just some of the cats who owe their lives to him.

Tangleburr

DUMB! AS!! ROCKS!!!

I needed her to look like the funny little guy she is. She’s a little fluffy. A little chunky. She’s got this little tail and these big teeth and she’s always grinning. Her whiskers twist over each other, tangling at times. Sooo many appearances of her make her brown and white so I decided she needed ALL of the colors. Heterochromia also.

“Think before you speak“ but Tangleburr has never had a thought in her life. She’s all emotion. Swat first and ask questions later. She never has a good idea of boundaries or what the appropriate thing to say is.

In contrast to Deerfoot, Tangleburr was a loud and proud supporter of Brokenstar’s leadership up to the bitter end. She was ready to take over the entire forest, with no regard for how much space ShadowClan could actually use, or the suffering of other clans. After all, they’d never have peace as long as there were borders to battle over. She happily ate up every excuse and loophole Runningnose came up with-- she felt lucky to have such a smart brother and powerful leader!

As you’d expect, this caused a lot of tension between her and Deerfoot. When he cut her off, she blamed him at first for being stuck up all the time. Later, when they reconcile, she comes to realize that she was destroying the clan she loved, and that she’d lost so many clanmates while she’d been gone. When Deerfoot died, Tangleburr was distraught and could only think to keep him alive with her actions

She started asking herself what Deerfoot would have done, letting her paws be guided by his actions. This lead to a strong connection with StarClan (for a warrior, at least) and she became a good friend of Tawnypaw’s. She’s “No good at saying good, wise stuff, but I got two ears and one mouth! If you want a listener, I mean. Yeah.”