#smalljump

What if that mentor understood and confided in her that he felt incompetent as a mentor, not being able to handle his apprentice's behaviour? Curlear begins to reassure him as a teacher, and he reassured her as a mother.

They grew closer and closer, never officially mates, but pretty close to it in everyone's eyes.

Then she realized she was pregnant, and told him. He was over the moon! Already spilling with names--

when Smalljump and a patrol burst through the entrance carrying Rubblefall's injured and barely-living body.

A devastating accident, they were sure. Her now-mate would visit Rubblefall often, with Curlear a shoulder to lean on.

It was during one of these visits that she fretted how Smalljump had come so close to dying too, and how she wanted to tell him about her pregnancy soon.

But for some reason, her son's name made the Rubblefall stir...She woke, and told the most horrid tale.

The next thing Curlear knew, her son was being exiled for murder and attempted murder.

And her whole world crumbled.

Her son, her precious baby who couldn't hurt a fly, turned into a monster.

He was a murderer, and he was the one to cause permanent damage to her love's apprentice.

He felt betrayed that she would still care so much for her baby after what he did, how she mixed his nest with hers, making him have to smell that traitor's stench as well.

So she was alone, with only her newborn Daisykit to keep her company.

-----

Smalljump noticed Gorseheart approach, and knew what was to come. He had gotten used to being the scratching post for the Dark Forest warriors when they didn't feel like going after an opponent that could hold their own.

No doubt, Gorseheart, with a kill count so high his pupils were a deep red, would't want anything different. Smalljump couldn't help but shiver, seeing his body criss-crossed over and over in scars.

Sparktail, his friend and, although he hated to admit he needed one, his protector, blocked his path, ears flattened.

Gorseheart glanced at her, then looked directly to Smalljump. "Twin Oaks. Tomorrow, same time if you can tell it. Don't keep me waiting."

Sparktail and Smalljump shared a glance. "Is this so you can bring him to some twisted game and beat him up in front of a giant crowd?" Smalljump shrank at the thought. "Well don't think he's going!"

Gorseheart flashed a grin. "No fun for me in that. I will give you this offer once and once only."

"What offer?" Smalljump asked from behind Sparktail.

"Training lesson."

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Smalljump fell. His heart quickened, knowing that the impact would come, before the breath was knocked out of him and mud sucked at his fur.

"Hey!" Sparktail was over him in a flash, claws out, fur bristling as a snarl rumbling from deep within her throat. "I knew it! You just wanted to knock him around!"

Gorseheart stood calmly atop the oak, which bent in the middle so that the trunk became a log half-way up in the air. "Training comes with wins and losses," he replied. "Smalljump, tell me what you did wrong."

"Are you not going to see if he's okay?" Sparktail demanded. Smalljump gently pushed her off of him. "I'm okay," he assured them. He shook out his fur, now sticking out in multiple places. "I tripped."

"Uh huh," Gorseheart responded in a tone that indicated he wanted to hear more.

"You drove me back--" Smalljump began, then stopped as Gorseheart narrowed his eyes at him. "I was driven back. I wasn't watching where my paws were going."

"No, you weren't," Gorseheart agreed. Sparktail growled. "Tell me what you should have done."

"Uh...." Smalljump wondered. He thought back to when he was an actual apprentice, but he had spent most of that time hiding from his bullies, or being bullied, or worrying about being bullied. Stars, how had he ever become a warrior in the first place? Pity?

Sparktail leaned over to his ear. "Firm backpaw placement. Fight with your fronts. Don't be driven back."

"Do you want to try again with what she told you?" Gorseheart suggested. He was out of earshot of her whisper, but he must have guessed from the obvious that she had given Smalljump tips.

Smalljump flipped over his offer in his head. The training was tough, but nowhere near as tough or humiliating as he had expected it to be. And what Gorseheart was offering him was huge, at least in terms of everything else everyone did for him. He thought of all the times he was shoved to the ground, laughed at, beaten in life and in death.

Besides, he already knew what falling to the ground would feel like. His muscles ached, but he was otherwise fine. He heaved a breath. "I can keep going."

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Smalljump flattened his ears in defeat. Sparktail laid a paw on his shoulder, while glaring death at Gorseheart.

Gorseheart leaped from the tree, landing neatly as though the ground were firm and not slippery mud. He padded over to Smalljump, who shrank back, expecting ridicule for being thrown to the ground five times. "Good work today."

Smalljump blinked at him. "What?"

"Did you get mud clogged in your ears?" Gorseheart asked, causing Sparktail to lash a paw at him. "You did well."

"But.." Smalljump was confused. Why was Gorseheart being so nice? "I didn't win."

"No, but it took longer for you to lose. We can meet again if you want to, or we can finish here."

This time, Smalljump leaped at the offer. "Again. Uh, tomorrow." He paused as Gorseheart lifted a brow. "if you're able to."

"I am not," Gorseheart replied. "Next day works. Meet here again. Got it?"

Smalljump dipped his head. "Got it."

Gorseheart nodded, then turned and padded away. Smalljump waited until he was out of sight, then collapsed onto the ground.

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Gorseheart leaped forward the second he heard the yowl. Zigzagging through the trees with the speed of a falcon, he was at Emberdawn's side within a few heartbeats. He licked at her fur quickly before looking over her pelt. "What is it?" he asked urgently.

"I don't know!" she gasped out. "My stomach feels like it's been twisted inside out!" she let out a wail of pain.

Gorseheart hopped from one foot to the other, unsure what to do. Emberdawn couldn't be disappearing, they were both very much solid. Maybe.... He pushed the idea away, but seeing his mate writhe, her spine sweat, it only kept returning.

This couldn't be happening. So long, he had prayed to one day become a father, but he already had kits to take care of now, and further than that, he didn't want to have kits here, born in the Dark Forest, where they were weak and fragile and doomed to suffer forever.

He took in Emberdawn's trembling form as he curled around her, and wondered, heart sinking, if this process was more painful than anything a living mother would have to endure.

A twig snapped on Gorseheart's side, and instantly he whirled his head around to hiss at it. Seeing Smalljump staring at them in shock, he snapped, "get Fadingstar, or Fleathistle! Any medicine cat you can find! Go!"

Smalljump did so quickly, hurrying away into the blackness.

Emberdawn's eyes squeezed shut, her wails of agony mixing with cries. Gorseheart pressed as close as he could without hurting her, grooming the space between her ears over and over. He prayed Smalljump would make it back soon.

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Smalljump had no idea how to act in such a horrible situation, or any situation, really. But he wouldn't feel right not acting, or worse, avoiding. Gorseheart was a good, if not unexpected close friend of his since the more experienced tom had offered to train Smalljump, who was much weaker than him. It didn't matter to Smalljump nearly as much as it did Sparktail that the lessons weren't particularly gentle. Gorseheart still did them for him, for no other reason than to help him.

Smalljump had to return the favour somehow, no matter that those sessions had ended moons ago, and a time as dark as this seemed like the best place to start. The only question was how to start. What do you say to someone who has just lost two kits?

He found Gorseheart easily. He was wandering aimlessly beneath some pines, distant enough from his den to hear and see his remaining kits or Emberdawn if they needed him. His fur was a mess, sticking up in many places and matted with dirt. Smalljump wondered how long it had been since he groomed himself.

"Hey Gorseheart!" Smalljump called. He was several tail-lengths away, yet the words made Gorseheart jump. Seeing his gaze, Smalljump could see how red his eyes were, and the several bags sitting snug beneath them. He didn't respond, stopped his walking and nodded a greeting.

"I...I wanted to..." Smalljump wasn't sure where to begin. Should he explain right out that he wanted to check up on Gorseheart because both his son and daughter had died? That seemed rude, and an unnecessarily painful thing to bring up. His shoulders slumped. Just out with it. "How are you holding up?"

Gorseheart sighed. "Word spreads quickly." His voice was hoarse from misuse. "I'll manage."

Smalljump couldn't meet the hurt shimmering all over his face, so he looked to the ground. There, he noticed dried blood on Gorseheart's paws. "Are you okay?" he asked, pointing to them.

Gorseheart looked down too. "Huh." He was apparently surprised to see that he was injured at all. "I guess I've been walking a lot lately. Getting out of the den. You'd think it would feel less stuffy now, huh?"

Smalljump frowned. "What were their names?" That detail he hadn't heard.

Gorseheart smiled faintly, but it dropped as quickly as it had appeared. "Fressiakit was our little daughter. Jaykit was her brother. He had his first word, you know? He called me dad for the first time. Uh, 'da.'" He let out a strangled laugh. "Hardly two moons old and he already knew that I was his father, that I was his protector." He snorted. "Didn't do much to protect them, did I? Still faded. Still nothing now."

"You can't be sure of that!"

"Can't I?" Gorseheart bared his fangs, making Smalljump shrink into the ground. "You think they would have gone to a second afterlife? Think! They're gone! They're dead and gone and nothing will ever bring them back!"

The effort of the snarling had a toll on the already exhausted Gorseheart, and he collapsed to the ground with a thump. Smalljump wasn't sure what to say, or if he should leave, so he just stood there, frozen, while his mind raced and his heart ached for the pain his friend had to endure.

He didn't know everything about Gorseheart's past, but he knew enough that it was horrible, something no one should ever have to endure all while his closest friends turned their backs on him when he needed them the most. Now, Gorseheart was going through a whole different kind of horrible pain, and Smalljump was not about to abandon him too.

"When did you last sleep?" Smalljump asked when he noticed Gorseheart stifle a yawn.

"Dunno."

"I think you should now," Smalljump suggested tentatively. It was what his mother would have told him if he were in the same–or at least similar–situation.

"I'm fine."

"I think you're wrong." Smalljump lifted a paw, prepared to step back in case Gorseheart snapped again.

Instead, Gorseheart whimpered. "I can't," he said brokingly, then huffed a laugh. "Maybe you can tell Sparktail to set me afire. Then I'll fade too, and can either find them or disappear and never have to feel any of this again. He shuddered. "But I can't leave. I have to stay strong for them. Emberdawn feels just as bad as I do. The kits...Stars, they have no idea what's going on, but they cry just the same. I can't...I can't handle them breaking just like me."

Smalljump held back a gasp. "If..." He didn't like the question, but his stomach had dropped when the sentence was said, so he had to know. "If they weren't an issue....?"

"I'd have jumped into a Fool's Puddle the second I lost them," Gorseheart finished. Then, glancing at Smalljump and spotting his frown, narrowed his eyes. "Don't feel sorry for me! I taught you to be strong. Being strong here means caring for yourself. Maybe that would have saved me all this heartache."

Smalljump shook his head slowly. "You taught me because you cared for someone else. I...." He paused for a long time, searching for words. "I don't know what to say other than that. I'm so sorry for your loss, Gorseheart. If....If there's anything I can do, anything at all, let me know and I'll do it!" He cracked a smile, hoping to lighten the mood, or make Gorseheart feel even a little bit better. "Maybe I can watch your kits for you. I can probably fend off all those teeth, right? You taught me."

Gorseheart smiled, a brief, but certainly real moment of genuine happiness in the midst of his suffocating grief. "Thank you," he sobbed.

Smalljump dipped his head, relieved that he had said the right thing. "What can I do now?"

Gorseheart thought for a moment, then asked, "stay with me?"

"Of course," Smalljump replied. Settling onto the muddy ground, he laid with his side pressed to Gorseheart's in silent comfort

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Honestly they probably see each other as brothers at this point, and Sparktail a very protective sister.

Aliases / Nicknames: ??

Gender: tom

Sexuality: homosexual

Family: unnamed mother, unnamed father, Pebblekit (sister), Barkkit (brother)

Other Relations: N/A

Clan: WindClan

Rank: kit

Characteristics: impulsive, afraid of heights, afraid of birds

Murder Motive: wants quiet

Number of Victims: 1 (unintentionally)

Number of Murders: 1 (unintentionally)

Murder Method: leaving in the open for a hawk

Known Victims: Gorsekit

Victim Profile: noisy kit

Cause of Death: shock

Cautionary Tale: ??

Story: 

He didn't understand.

He knew that it was cold outside, and that's why he had to stay in the nursery, especially during the night. But nothing had to be explained to him further than that; he didn't want to go outside when it was cold anyways.

So he didn't know the dangers.

He didn't know that you could die.

When Littlesplash had her litter of kits, the tiny things were so noisy!

Batkit was awed at first to see cats so small, and was amazed that he had been so small himself, but soon enough the little things showed irksome behaviour. In particular was Gorsekit, who cried for no good reason day-in and day-out.

Too, it seemed everyone in the nursery was a heavy sleeper--everyone but Batkit.

He had enough. He wanted some rest, and to get the noise away from him. So he picked the little kit up and plopped him outside of the nursery, where the den walls would muffle his cries. And maybe the cold would teach him to be quite!

Then he was gone.

Batkit woke to the alarmed wailing of Littlesplash, who cried that she couldn't find Gorsekit anywhere. The Clan searched around and, feeling guilty, Batkit did as well.

But soon it became clear that Gorsekit wasn't still in the camp. Had he run away? Had Batkit upset him that much? Now that he wasn't so irritated from a lack of sleep, he felt bad for what he had done, made worse by everyone's panic.

Still, he didn't tell them the truth, too afraid of being scolded. Instead, while everyone was distracted, he snuck out of camp in search of the little kit.

There was no scent trials. Batkit was getting lost.

A shadow loomed over him, and before he knew it, he was being carried into the air. He screeched, alarmed, which caught the attention of Littlesplash and a patrol, who had left the camp earlier to search for her son.

The queen leaped into the air, unbalancing the hawk. It dropped him, then grabbed him again by the tail while Littlesplash clawed at it. It gripped onto him tightly.

Littlesplash slipped, but managed to grab onto Batkit. She pulled him down, trying to free him at the same time that the hawk jerked upward. Then there was a tearing, and an awful pain that made him screech, then they were falling to the ground.

Batkit and Littlesplash survived the crash thanks to the cats below catching them, but something was wrong. He was breathing quickly, everything was distorted. Cats around him were panicking, and soon, it was all dark.

Additional Information: 

--If not for the shock, he would have survived his injuries--though his apprenticeship would definitely have to be delayed.

--Story inspired by both A Thief in ThunderClan and Tallstar's Revenge.

In TS, Stagkit took Tallkit out of the den because he kept crying, and Sandgorse found him.

--Gorsekit was out in the open, small, and loud, so a hawk quickly found him and took him in a heartbeat. I figured that if they didn't smell the hawk in ATiT, they wouldn't smell it here, and not when it was a blink-in-the-eye swoop.

--He is adopted by Tarantulastar and Hummingbirdstar (likely seeing the Gossamer Trees as somewhere a bird could never get him because of all the mesh). He is adopted when he is three moons old. Charkit/lynx, his adopted brother, is also three moons old, though they do have an age gap of roughly two weeks. This also makes him an adoptive Smalljump grandbaby!

Gorseheart is then met by a line of cats, each giving him one bone. The cats are his mates, Smalljump, Batlight, maybe his older kits, (maybe Sparktail?) and everyone that Gorseheart listened to back when he was the Resident Therapist (tm) (he still occasionally checks in on them).

And Gorse thinks about back when the Foxbreeze incident happened. How not one of his friends bothered to listen to him about what happened, how he was constantly silenced and ignored, how he had no one but himself and Emberdawn. He had felt unloved, so strongly that it was the catalist that turned a once golden-hearted warrior into a bloodthirsty, angry monster. 

And how now his family cared enough to lure that evil cat to the Dark Forest and tear him apart. And then them and his friends loved him enough, were furious at his pain enough, to want to give him the gifts of Foxbreeze’s bones. 

They acknowledged a pain that he had held in for so long. They didn’t just listen, but did something. And then after that, they gave him gifts to heal, each bone a way of saying “you are here, and he is dust. He can never hurt you again, and I love you.”

And he just.

Breaks.

@starfalcon555

Emberdawn’s head swung in a desperate glimpse to catch who had clawed her, only to find no one. Growling in warning, she began to continue forward, only to crumble to the ground as another spasm of pain took over her. What was happening?

—------------------

Gorseheart leaped forward the second he heard the yowl. Zigzagging through the trees with the speed of a falcon, he was at Emberdawn’s side within a few heartbeats. He licked at her fur quickly before looking over her pelt. “What is it?” he asked urgently.

“I don’t know!” she gasped out. “My stomach feels like it’s been twisted inside out!” she let out a wail of pain. 

Gorseheart hopped from one foot to the other, unsure what to do. Emberdawn couldn’t be disappearing, they were both very much solid. Maybe…. He pushed the idea away, but seeing his mate writhe, her spine sweat, it only kept returning.

This couldn’t be happening. So long, he had prayed to one day become a father, but he already had kits to take care of now, and further than that, he didn’t want to have kits here, born in the Dark Forest, where they were weak and fragile and doomed to suffer forever. 

He took in Emberdawn’s trembling form as he curled around her, and wondered, heart sinking, if this process was more painful than anything a living mother would have to endure.

A twig snapped on Gorseheart’s side, and instantly he whirled his head around to hiss at it. Seeing Smalljump staring at them in shock, he snapped, “get Fadingstar, or Fleathistle! Any medicine cat you can find! Go!”

Smalljump did so quickly, hurrying away into the blackness. 

Emberdawn’s eyes squeezed shut, her wails of agony mixing with cries. Gorseheart pressed as close as he could without hurting her, grooming the space between her ears over and over. He prayed Smalljump would make it back soon.

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--So the baby stuff got me thinking. 

--Emberdawn most likely got pregnant before they knew they could have kits again, but is giving birth after.

Tarantulastone having the nickname Tulip

It started because Mallowblight's siblings, who he was nursed alongside, had trouble pronouncing tarantula

They could only pronounce the Tula part, and someone (probably Birchflight and Foxfire) commented one day that it sounded like Tulip

Everyone else thought it was hilarious, and despite Tarantulakit's protests, it stuck

So you have this big terrifying cat with a deepass voice and a ton of scars, and then a bunch of other cats come up to him without fear and start calling him Tulip

And he just

Takes it

(Anyone who isn't his family that calls him that gets clawed across the face.)

and imagine hearing about this guy named Tulip who is Smalljump's son (notoriously weak and baby) and you think ah ok so he's a wimp