Bristleshadow 1~ Open Evil Bristlefrost AU MAP

Notes & Credits

1 Ivypool is gazing lovingly at Flipkit, Thriftkit, and Bristlekit. Bristlekit yawns. 2 Ashfur (as a ghost) is standing in a corner of the nursery. No one can see him, except Bristlekit who smiles at him. He smiles back. 3 Skip five moons. It’s Bristlepaw’s Warrior assessment, and she’s stalking a mouse. She catches it and smiles at ghost Ashfur, who’s been with her all along. 4 Bristlepaw is back in camp, with Bramblestar. He gives her the warrior name Bristleshadow. Ghost Ashfur watches from the edge of the clearing, invisible to all but Bristleshadow. 5 Skip 2 days. Bristleshadow goes hunting. To her clan mates, she’s alone. But really, ghost Ashfur is still with her. She talks to him about her worries of not being able to serve her clan properly. 6 Ghost Ashfur sees this as an opportunity to manipulate her. He tells her that Squirrelflight dismissed him for Bramblestar when he was alive, and she tried to burn Hollyleaf, Lionblaze, and Jayfeather. This isn’t true, but Bristleshadow doesn’t know. 7 He then tells her that Hollyleaf ambushed him by the river and k!lled him. Bristleshadow looks at him with sympathy, and now anger towards Squirrelflight and Hollyleaf. Hollyleaf was dead, but Bristleshadow could always get revenge on Squirrelflight. 8 Bristleshadow notices a shrew and leaps at it. She returns to camp with it, on the way she finds another one, and catches that one too. 9 Bristleshadow lives many normal days, helping around camp, going on hunting and border patrols, and constantly thinking about how to avenge Ashfur. 10 A few moons later, she ends up on a hunting patrol with Squirrelflight, Lionblaze, and Ivypool. She suggests to go hunting alone with Squirrelflight. The rest of the group agree, not knowing this will lead to their clanmate’s death. 11 Bristleshadow leads Squirrelflight to a tree with sharp branches. Squirrelflight is about to ask where they should try first. As she turns, Bristleshadow grabs a huge branch and stabs it through Squirrelflight. 12 Squirrelflight drops to the ground with a yowl. Bristleshadow crouches down near her, pretending to console her. Bristleshadow nudges Squirrelflight closer to the tree. 13 The rest of the patrol come running, then notice Squirrelflight and Bristleshadow. Bristleshadow looks up at them with feigned terror and sadness. She says Squirrelflight got too close to the tree and the branch stabbed through her. 14 The patrol know Squirrelflight is dy!ng. They carry her back to camp, where she gives her dy!ng breath. Everyone thinks she went to Starclan. And yet, she remains a slave in the Dark forest, because of whatever Ashfur did to Starclan. 15 Skip a few moons. Bramblestar suddenly feels very sick while on patrol. Bristleshadow had put deathberries in the prey he’d eaten earlier. He passes out. 16 Bramblestar gets moved to the medicine den and lays there. A few days later, he loses his first life. He doesn’t return to his body, instead he goes to the Dark Forest as a slave. 17 Bristleshadow watches as Ashfur takes over Bramblestar’s body, hiding a smile. 18 Ashfur announces he’s back, pretending to be Bramblestar. He smiles at Bristleshadow. Bristleshadow smiles back. Just like all those moons ago, in the nursery. To be continued…