The Markedkit Prophecy tells the tale of how a prophesied kit ended a 5 years long war that had ravaged the forest.
Out of character it was written by Kitsufox on 31 March 2022.
The Markedkit Prophecy
The four Clans had been entangled in a war that had been raging for as long as even the oldest amongst them had been alive. The war had lasted so long that no-one even remembered how it had started, only that many had died.
It was during a leaf-bare truce when the kit StarClan had promised was born. The cream ticked tabby she-kit lay in the ThunderClan nursery alongside her gray ticked tabby brother as the Leader of the Clan looked on and was left with the responsibility for what to do about the little golden kitten with the star marked chest.
ThunderClan’s leader, Bloodstar, glowed with pride. Not only was the prophesied kit in his clan, she was his daughter! He knew the first order of business was to inform the other clans of the birth of the one he named Markedkit. Of course the rest of the leaders doubted when they heard, so arrangements were made for the Medicine Cats of RiverClan, WindClan, and ShadowClan1 to come see the kit for themselves.
When the time came for the Medicine Cats to gather near ThunderClan camp the kit was presented to them. None of the gathered medicine cats could deny what they saw: A perfect star marked the chest of the little she-kit. Despite this, when the time of the next gathering came it was RiverClan’s Ashstar2 who made the demand that led to the fight starting. He wanted the marked one to be raised in turns by the four clans, so that she could be shared and bring peace instead of being a ThunderClan Warrior.
Bloodstar refused by leaping onto Ashstar, yowling and scratching. The fight that broke out turned StarClan from the gathering. But for ThunderClan things were worse: The Medicine Cat Tangleheart had attacked Bloodstar in an attempt to stop him. He called on the eyes of StarClan to rename her Stoneheart and cast her from ThunderClan that night, right at Fourtrees.
After the fight at Fourtrees ThunderClan suffered without a Medicine Cat. Bloodstar lost a life to infection from the wounds left by Ashstar. It was only through the loyalty of Medicine Cats to preserving all the clans that Crestedback, Medicine Cat of ShadowClan, came to ThunderClan to train an apprentice4 for them3. Crestedback also served ThunderClan as healer and prevented many deaths through his kindness.
But the question remained of what would happen with the Markedkit and how she would bring lasting peace to the clans. The Leaf-bare truce stretched tenuously into spring, holding the war at bay. At gatherings the other leaders continued to push Bloodstar for more access to the Markedkit, for how could she bring peace if she didn’t know all the clans.
Because of this, when the Markedkit was barely four moons old, Bloodstar relented and brought her with to the gathering despite her mother’s5 anger that the very idea. Markedkit was fascinated by the gathering and the other Clan’s leaders were eggar for the opportunity to bond the kit closer to their clans. That was not to be, however.
Instead the happy gathering was disrupted when a little monster came tearing around fourtrees. In a desperate move Bloodstar attacked and the creature, with a Twoleg on its back, batted the red-furred leader aside as if he was nothing. In the chaos, Markedkit became separated from her family, running to check on her father. The Twoleg captured her and carried her away on the monster. After they were gone, Bloodstar jerked back into his body returned by StarClan to the news of the Markedkit’s abduction at the paws of the Twoleg.
Dejected, all four clans returned to their own territories.
Stormkit, the brother of the Markedkit, was especially upset at the news of what happened to his sister. He gathered several of the other young kits and apprentices and together they crept out of camp that night. Little did they know that in the faraway camps of RiverClan, ShadowClan, and WindClan6 the same was happening. Stormkit and his group of young heroes were guided together by StarClan’s own luck that night.
They were even luckier to meet a gold eyed kittypet who called himself Ambergaze. Ambergaze was able to lead the cadre of young heroes to the Twoleg nest he lived in.
There, trapped inside, was Markedkit!
It took the group of young cats longer than they would have liked to break her out of the Twoleg nest, but they managed to find and enlarge a small hole at one of the entrances with teeth and claws. Soon the entire group of them was off into the night.
Little did the young heroes know, however, that their disappearances did not go unnoticed at home. Patrols were out tracking them. They were shocked when they were met in the Twoleg trees of ThunderClan territory by patrols from each of the four clans. Kits and apprentices were scolded and congratulated in the same breath.
That night everyone returned to their proper territories and camps, leaving the New-leaf night peaceful. It wasn’t long after that when the four leaders came together and made lasting peace. They agreed to place the borders where they are to this day, and made promises to end the war. There would be no more attacks on camps, no more trespassing, and (with StarClan’s blessing) no more deaths in battle.
By the time it came for Markedkit and Stormkit to be apprenticed after the peace was made that ended the Great War the star mark on her chest was already fading. The two kits grew up into fine Warriors named Hopestorm7 and Fiercestorm8.
Footnotes
- The Medicine Cats of the four clans at the time were Tangleheart of ThunderClan, Thornpelt of WindClan, Seafur of RiverClan, and Creastedback of ShadowClan.
- In addition to Bloodstar of ThunderClan and Ashstar of RiverClan, the other clans were led by Whitestar of ShadowClan and Doublestar of WindClan.
- Technically, he came out of retirement to do this. He had handed ShadowClan over to his apprentice Sagepelt by this time.
- The apprentice was named Bigpaw. Bigpaw grew up to be called Sixclaw.
- The Markedkit and her brother Stormkit had been adopted by Cottonwhisker, a loyal warrior of ThunderClan.
- Unfortunately, the names of the other clans heroes are missing from the story and lost to time.
- Hopestorm ultimately served her clan as Deputy, but never became leader. She retired to let a younger cat take the role.
- Fiercestorm ultimately became Fiercestar and served his clan as Leader. His sister was his deputy until later in his reign.