Stormstar's Family

Stormstar's Family

Maybe I'll write this story out, maybe I won't but since Bluestar's Prophecy, Redtail's Debt and Crookedstar's Promise all happen at the same time, I feel the need to get a general plot together behind what was happening in all three of those books.

The first of these bullet point rewrites will be Stormstar's Family.

-He still breaks his jaw obviously but he's never renamed "Crookedkit." Only his birth mother Rainflower calls him that because she's an abusive bitch.

-Oakpaw becomes the Golden Child. He can do no wrong and Stormpaw can do no right. Everything Stormpaw does is somehow connected to Oakpaw- his achievements are overshadowed and his failures are harshly lambasted. This drives a wedge between the brothers as Oakpaw doesn't understand what wrong.

-Stormkit begins seeing Mapleshade in the In Between. At first she's going to let him die- thinks that as Appledusk's grandson he deserves it. But then she remembers her kits drowning- remembers seeing her former clanmate watch them drown. She can't do it and she leads Stormkit back to his body and to safety.

-Stormkit keeps appearing to Mapleshade in his dreams and she keeps reluctantly helping him- seeing her own kits in him. When he confesses that Rainflower had rejected him for 'being ugly' she gets angry, she tells him a mother never rejects her kits- just handles them. She decides in that moment that she'd care for him.

-Stormpaw begins growing distant from his mother, brother and a bit from his father. But then one day, Shellheart tells him the story that his mother had told him- it was the story of Mapleshade. A cat who was cast from ThunderClan, lost her kits and then his mother's mother mated to her mate who turned her away, facing little consequences.

-Stormpaw confronts Mapleshade about the story and Mapleshade unloads the entire thing on him- then she makes him promise to be loyal to RiverClan. That her entire life was ruined just because she broke that one rule.

-Stormpaw continues fighting with Oakpaw, culminating in them getting into a screaming match that ends with Stormpaw denouncing Rainflower as a mother because she never cared about him once he broke his jaw.

-Oakheart and Stormdrift don't speak to each other for a bit. During which, Oakheart who's falling for Bluedawn is called out by her for being a bad brother. Points out that their mother had abused Stormdrift since he broke his jaw and it's no wonder that Stormdrift doesn't care about her like Oakheart does. Meanwhile Stormdrift was made deputy of RiverClan.

-Oakheart eventually comes clean to Stormdrift about Bluedawn and apologizes for never standing up for him against their mother. Stormdrift jokes that he likes Bluedawn for making him see sense. Seeing how happy Oakheart is with Bluedawn, he wonders about Mapleshade and wavers with his promise.

-Eventually, Bluedawn is forced to give up her kits and Mossdapple dies. He sees the anguish in Bluedawn who can't even grief her kit's death properly because no one knows Mossdapple was hers. Stormstar concludes that Mapleshade was right.

-He does his level best to quietly dissuade Graystripe and Silverstream from meeting but they keep getting together. When Silverstream starts kitting, Stormstar is alerted by Mapleshade that he needs to take his medic and get to the Stepping Stones right away. He does as told and finds Spottedleaf and Mistlepaw struggling desperately to save his daughter's life.

-His medic steps in and manages to do so with the aid of the ThunderClan cats. Graystripe stays in ThunderClan but Stormstar agrees to let him visit his kits at Sunningrocks as soon as they're old enough.

-When Stormstar falls asleep, he meets Mapleshade one last time. This time, instead of being in the In Between, they're in Meadow and her appearance has changed. She explains that she'd grown to love him as a son, that he was the universe giving her a second chance to be a mother. When she saw Silverstream suffering, she knew she couldn't just let her die. By releasing her resentment, her hatred and understanding her actions, Mapleshade was allowed into The Meadow.

-She introduces him to her kits which has come to reunite with her when she stepped across the border. Stormstar also temporarily reunites with his mate and their deceased kits who Mapleshade had brought along. She then explains that this'll likely be their last encounter until he dies. Mapeshade wants to spend time with her kits and Stormstar needs to live in the present. Additional Notes:

** Rainflower went to the In Between when she died and encountered Appledusk who dwelled there himself. He never confronted Mapleshade after she died and they both spent most of their afterlife growling and hissing at each other but never actually fighting. While Mapleshade had been spending time with Stormdrift, he was spending time with Rainflower.

He came to realize that he wanted to be nothing like this molly who made so many mistakes but never really suffered from them or even admitted that she made them.

While he's not sure he'll forgive Mapleshade for attacking his new mate and kits, he's now mature enough to admit that he should've stuck up for her- that they made their mistakes together as that he'd been cowardly when he allowed her to be the only one punished.

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**Rainflower never admitted that the way she treated her son was wrong and found herself bound to the Caverns for her actions. She only realized she was wrong when she tried to greet Oakheart in the Meadow, seeing him pass by. He regarded her coolly and confronted her about how she treated his brother. Despite this, she never admitted she was wrong.

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**When Reedshine's kits were old enough to understand what happened, her kits temporarily shunned her. They struggled with what happened- demanding to know how she could possibly be with a cat who threw their mate under a boar- how could she let a grieving mother be kicked out? Reedshine was allowed into the Meadow upon her death but she deliberately sought out Mapleshade on the edges of the In Between.

Once Mapleshade started becoming a better cat, they started talking and though there's still a bit of bitterness by both mollies, they've come to understand each other. They fully reconciled when Mapleshade's kits confessed that Reedshine had been looking after them until she was able to cross into the Meadow themselves.

-- **Though Mapleshade had released a lot of pain and resentment from her heart, she lives in the RiverClan section of the Meadow unable to forgive her past clanmates for allowing her and her young kits to be exiled.

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