Mapleshade / Crookedstar

Mapleshade / Crookedstar
Mapleshade started as a Thunderclan warrior. She was a very skilled and intelligent cat, and there were many rumors of her being the next deputy. Then she made the tragic mistake of falling in love with the Riverclan warrior Appledusk. When she bore kits, no cat stepped up to play the part of the kit's father. The medicine cat immediately saw the resemblance between one of the kits and Appledusk. Mapleshade was cast out, and all of her ambitious hopes for becoming leader went out with her. Desperately, she tried to get to Riverclan, hoping Appledusk would convince his clanmates into letting her stay. Unfortunately, the kits were swiped away from her while attempting to get across the river. Mapleshade ran to Riverclan's camp and begged Appledusk to stay, but Appledusk blamed Mapleshade for the kit's deaths, and wouldn't let her stay even one night in Riverclan. Mapleshade became a rogue, and vowed to get revenge on Riverclan and Thunderclan. She wanted to make them pay for the damage they had done to her. She had tried every desperate thing he could, just for love, and in the end only made things worse for herself. After that, she found out that Appledusk had mated with a riverclan warrior, even though he promised he would only love Mapleshade. They had a daughter Willownose, and she had a son, Shellheart. The son was the father of Crookedstar. Mapleshade had thought that it should've been her kin to become the leader of Riverclan, not that "fish-hearted" Riverclan queen, as Mapleshade put it.

When Crookedstar was a kit, his name was Stormkit, after the storm he was born in. When he was only a few moons old, he fell into the river and smashed his jaw against a stepping stone. He had permanently broke his jaw, and his mother wanted nothing to do with him. Mapleshade was an advantage in him. She visited his dreams one night and they had this conversation:

Mapleshade: Will you make me one promise?

Crookedkit (nodding vigorously): Anything!

Mapleshade: I can do more than make you leader. I can give you everything you've dreamed of. Power over your Clanmates. Power over all the clans.

Crookedkit (eyes widening): I promise!

Mapleshade (lowering her voice): Wait, you don't know what your promising yet. You must promise me that you will be loyal to your Clan above all other things. What you want for yourself is nothing compared to the needs of your clan. Nothing, remember? (eyes blazing at him) Do you make that promise?

Crookedkit: Yes! (claws unsheathing) Yes, I do! Mapleshade had lured a twoleg kit over to capture Willowpaw, the cat whom Crookedstar, Crookedjaw then, loved. He went out in the middle of the night, against his leader's orders, to rescue her. Mapleshade reminded him of his promise, and tore his ear, for good measure. She wouldn't have a cat break their promise again! Then, a dog came into Riverclan territory, and pushed Crookedjaw's mother into the river. Crookedjaw was going to save her, when his promise rang in his ears again. He left his mother there to die, and began to understand what Mapleshade was doing. At the same time, Oakheart, his littermate, had fallen in love with a Thunderclan warrior, Bluestar. After that, Mapleshade messed with and broke the jaws of a squirrel Crookedjaw caught, on the same day Shellheart, the former deputy, had retired to the elders den. Of course, Hailstar, took this as an omen from Starclan that Crookedstar should be deputy. Unluckily, soon after, while trying to get dry moss for the elders in the twolegplace, Hailstar died because of a rat attack. Crookedstar had to become leader, despite being so young. While his early days of being leader, Willowbreeze had kits. Only Silverkit survived. Willowbreeze and the two other she-cats died of greencough. Silverkit, who would one day become Silverstream, looked exactly like Willowbreeze, which added to Crookedstar's pain. Another part of Mapleshade's curse was Silverstream falling in love with a thunderclan warrior, Graystripe, and bleeding to death while kitting. Finally, Mapleshade felt the satisfaction of destroying another cat's life. Although what she did was disastrous, she could never make any cat feel what she had been through.