#df dullahan
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Be Smarter (short story)
Marigoldpaw wheezed as she walked, and she wondered if they had ever travelled so far before for a training session. “What…what are we here for?” She asked when they finally came to a stop.
She had been coughing on and off since her birth, but slowly her scratched throat had healed over the past two moons, though her voice was still raspy and it hurt to talk. She felt a familiar pang of unease as she recalled hazy memories of her littermates: Lionkit, Peonykit, and Sunkit, who had all succumbed to the sickness that had gripped them all the day they were born. Should she remember them more?
Dullahan, her older brother and mentor, faced her with his naked scar-marked tail folded neatly around his paws. “Because you’re weak,” he told her bluntly. “You need to learn how to be strong.”
Marigoldpaw didn’t understand why that meant she had to travel so far, especially with her lungs still recovering and her legs weak enough to collapse under her should she stand for too long–a reason she was now laying on her stomach. “I can’t force my sickness to leave,” she pointed out.
Dullahan’s pupils, sharply purple, were as thin as the thorns that guarded their home, the colour behind them almost entirely clouded by black fog. He showed his long, crooked teeth in what most would consider a threat, a danger, a look of insanity. Maybe it was, but to Marigoldpaw and the rest of their family, it was simply a smile of amusement. “We can have a head start, teach your mind before you can teach your body.”
“H….How?” Marigoldpaw wheezed.
Dullahan stood, sweeping his scarred tail around at the undergrowth surrounding them. “Look around you! You’re small and weak–”
“I’ll get bigger!”
Dullahan continued as if she hadn’t interrupted. “You are vulnerable to anyone who chooses to attack, and right now, anyone who chooses to attack you will be stronger than you. But what will you be?”
“Smarter?”
“Correct!” Dullahan grinned. “Look around,” he repeated, “what should you do?”
“Uh..” Marigoldpaw tried to think. She tried to look around, but the movement dizzied her. She closed her eyes, placing a paw on her head to still the spinning.
“If I attacked you right now, what will you do?”
Marigoldpaw blinked at him, trying to think. “I..Uh..”
Without warning, Dullahan leaped. He landed directly above her, placing his paws on either side of her, and digging a claw of a back leg into her tail, keeping her still. Marigoldpaw shrieked.
“What should you do?” Dullahan demanded, voice raising, jaws pressing closer to her face. “Look around!”
Marigoldpaw strained her neck as she took in the plants closest to her. She knew her brother wouldn’t hurt her–not hurt hurt, but even so, the situation still threw her heart into her throat and she struggled to breathe, while the pain in her tail crowded her thoughts.
Think think…Focus focus…
There!
Marigoldpaw stretched her neck out, bit around the stem of the plant, and swung it at Dullahan’s eyes.
“Argh!” Dullahan let go, backing away as he wiped at his eyes.
Marigoldpaw watched him with worry. She hadn’t blinded him, had she?
Then Dullahan began to shake, laughter booming through the clearing and making the hair on Marigoldpaw’s pelt stand on end. “Perfect! Oh, I was hoping you would go for it!”
“Dad told me it’s stinging nettle,” Marigoldpaw told her, recalling the plants Myrtlewing showed her while she still stayed in his medicine den. “He said the stem is fine to touch, but the leaves–”
“Sting?”
“Yeah.”
Dullahan wiped his eyes again. “He wasn’t wrong about that.”
Marigoldpaw leaned toward him. “Are you okay?”
Dullahan waved a dismissive paw. “Don’t be so soft!”
“I can be soft to family,” Marigoldpaw retorted. It was the way of their family. It didn’t matter how they treated non-kin, so long as those who share blood were cared for. “Lay down.”
Dullahan looked at her, then shrugged to himself and did as told. Marigoldpaw raised up and began to clean his eyes and the surrounding area–curling her lip and struggling against the horrible taste. When she was sure she reached every spot, she sat back. “Better?”
Dullahan blinked, feeling his face. “You take the fun out of getting hurt,” he joked.
Marigoldpaw nudged him playfully. “I’m your sister. I’m supposed to take the fun out of everything for you.”
Dullahan grunted. "I guess I should clean your tail."
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This is either Marigoldpaw's first training session as an apprentice or the second or third--definitely early.
Added the last part because I forgot about her tail lmao.
#wc dullahan#df dullahan#marigoldpaw#marigoldkit#lionkit#sunkit#peonykit#myrtlewing#dullahan story#marigoldpaw story#eye-out family#eye-out story#eye-out#eye-out family story#eye-out kits#dark tales#wc dark tales#dark forest tales
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Dullahan and Marigoldpaw are currently my favourite sibling duo.
Right now, Marigoldpaw is still rather small and skinny thanks to the sickness not allowing her to grow properly yet (her ribs likely show), and she's still pretty weak because of the sickness.
Then there's Dullahan, bigger than all of their parents, his black eyes signalling the many that he's killed, the fur deliberately ripped from his tail for the sole purpose of scarring it, numbering his victims for all to see.
But the two talk and spar as if there is no difference between them, as if they were as close as same-litter siblings.
Dullahan is her much older brother (he was an adult when she was born) and teacher, but he will still listen to her ideas and inputs because he recognizes that, well, her ideas and inputs are worth listening to, and if they're not, he still encourages her by hearing her out.
Dullahan also has nerves that even members of his own family know not to pass--his parents being the main exceptions. But the only exception for any major annoyance was his little sister, who he came so close to losing.
And I just imagine some non-family cat staring in amazement, because once someone laughed at Dullahan's tail, not knowing the meaning of the scars, and he wasted no time in tearing their own tail off. Yet here was Marigoldpaw, playfully teasing him about it, and he just lets her as he smiles and pokes fun at her own thin tail.
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The Death Ring is essentially a Warriors-Hell version of a Colosseum.
So let's use that.
Colosseums generally had four types of fighters. Let's connect that to the Death Ring.
There's:
--volunteer (wishes to harm)
--volunteer (wishes to kill)
--prisoner (temporary, may die but it is not the goal to kill them)
--prisoner (until their second death, the goal is to kill them -- rare)
Names:
Caladium -> volunteer that wishes to harm. Caladium symbolizes great joy and delight, as the volunteer often takes joy and delight in inflicting pain, or allow the audience to experience it while they watch the Caladium in action.
Hellebore -> volunteer that wishes to kill. This name is chosen because this plant is poisonous to many species, therefore causing death.
Anemone -> prisoner held temporarily. These plants are blown open by the wind, which blows away the dead petals. It is thought, at least by some, that the beatings of the prisoners serve, as a way, to cure them of their cruelty--either by forcing them to see their ways, feel the pain that they had inflicted on others, or force them to change their ways. In a sense, being a prisoner 'blows away' the flaws in them.
Cyclamen -> prisoner held until they die. The plant means 'goodbye.'
When speaking of individual cats, the plants are added after their names. Examples:
Dullahan-Hellebore, Webstripe-Anemone
Prisoners of the second category were, unlike the rest, not called by their name with the plant name added behind. They were ONLY called 'Cyclamen," erasing their name entirely.
EDIT: FORGOT TO MENTION
The two names for prisoners were also chosen because these plants were used to identify them. In areas they were kept, they were either placed with cyclamen or anemone, and sometimes had them woven into their pelts. This prevented cats who were meant to die from mistakenly being let go, and from bad-but-not-that-bad cats from being killed.
(The second name only sticks when in or around the Death Ring and participating in its activities).
I might choose another name for referees as well, but this already took my so long, so that's for another time!
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@ambitiousauthor @elementaldeityoffood @starfalcon555 @umbranoxs @frightnightindustries @wills-woodland-warriors @starfalcon555
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Cyclamen (short story)
Excitement fizzed throughout Dullahan’s body as he dragged Harriernose from the tunnel and to the pit. Harriernose screeched, lashing out with his claws, but Dullahan positioned himself to dodge the blows.
The pit was ringed with a wonderfully full crowd that lashed their tails and emitted whooping hollars as Dullahan and Harriernose stepped into the open.
“Everyone!” Myrtlewing, Dullahan’s father, announced from the bottom-most crevice, “witness today my son, Dullahan-Hellebore, and the vile Cyclamen that he shall vanquish from our homes!”
Harriernose’s eyes clouded over with confusion.
Thrilled, Dullahan had enough energy to race around the ring ten times. In an attempt to direct it–or at least hold it somewhere–he dug his claws deep into Harriernose’s shoulders, keeping the ginger tom pressed against the blood-stained earth.
“I’m sure most of you know what he did,” Alderstar, Dullahan’s other biological father, spoke up from beside his mate, “but for those who need a refresher, this pitiable excuse for a warrior took mates from other Clans–and then forced them to kill their unborn kits so that he wouldn’t get caught for it!”
Hisses and boos erupted from the crowd. A few cats flung rocks from where they sat. Dullahan stepped aside momentarily for them to pummel Harriernose’s skull.
“And guess what?” Dullahan took over now. “In spite of our little reminders that we gave him here, he’s returned to his old ways once again! A Dark Kit, killed by their own father!”
Harriernose squirmed. “What? That’s not true! What need have I to–”
“Silence!” Dullahan slammed his paw down hard on Harriernose’s head.
“This…creature cannot be fixed,” Myrtlewing stated with a shake of his head. “He cannot be trusted among us. He is a sickness, one that must be taken care of. Dullahan-Hellebore, can you rid us of this malady?"
Dullahan dipped his head low, forcing back the smile in favour of seeming solemn. “I will.” But he was just too excited, too delighted, too all the words that could describe this heated, blood-scented wave that crashed through his body again and again, increasing with every ripple and making his legs shake with anticipation.
When he looked back down at Harriernose, he was sure that his pupils stretched over his entire eyes, that his breath came out visibly ragged now, and that his lips were stretching far above his sharp teeth in a large, crazed grin.
Harriernose could do nothing but stare back, eyes so wide that they practically popped out of his head.
“And I’ll make it a show.”
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Wait, Harriernose had a Dark Kit?
....Well no, but Dullahan's dads are supportive, so if they have to drag someone already disliked by many to the Death Ring and make a little white lie, where's the harm?
--Rip one member of the Shitbag gang.
--Wrote this in a rush, can you tell?
#wc dullahan#dullahan story#alderstar story#myrtlewing story#death ring#death ring story#wc#dark tales#dark forest tales#wc dark tales#wc death ring#df death ring#harriernose#harriernose story
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