Headcanon for brindle and frost being goose’s kits vv
Brindlepaw is an exact replica of him except a few different minor changes (ill try to give her an actual design soon)
Thunderclan doesnt want cats from the gathering getting an idea that she’s goosefeather’s daughter, for frostpaw its no big deal really, she barely looks like the crazy old kitty
Goosefeather agrees to the elder role with a heavy heart, he knows cats will somehow connect the dots, but ehhh since cats were too dumb to realize the riverclan apps mistypaw and stonepaw were blue’s kits it slid right past everyone’s eyes, but sunstar still wanted goose to retire haha
I’m calling this the Tigerfeather au. Read more and you’ll soon find out why
Tigerpaw is distraught when his father abandons ThunderClan. He was barley old enough to open his eyes when it happened, but the weight of the event pressed upon his shoulders shadows him well into his apprenticeship. He feels angry and bitter and betrayed by a tom he never knew, but desperately (traitorously, he thinks) wishes he did.
Thistleclaw encourages his negativity, encourages all his violent outbursts and only allows him that one way to vent his frustrations. But then he hurts Whitepaw in a training session, and Sunstar issues him a punishment, despite Whitepaw’s protests:
Tigerpaw will care for Goosefeather until Sunstar sees fit.
Tigerpaw hates this because a) Ever since he was born, Goosefeather had cried that Tigerpaw would lead ThunderClan into a future soaked with blood, and that Goosefeather himself would fall at his paws, and b) Goosefeather was just. Weird. He’s a weird old man, and Tigerpaw is essentially a preteen, but he begrudgingly accepts.
The first half-moon is rough. The two don’t get along. Goosefeather sometimes acts as though Tigerpaw is no more bothersome than a flea he picked off his pelt, and other times he’s absolutely terrified of the young tom. But regardless of how he views Tiger, one thing always stays the same: he insists on sharing stories of Pinestar with him.
(Note: Goose does legitimately have a vision that claims Tiger will kill him)
At first, Tigerpaw absolutely hates that Goosefeather tells him stories of his traitor father. But then,, he starts to really listen. Because that cat was part of him, even if Tiger hated him for it, and Goose knew him better than anyone. So he listens, and after a while, tentatively starts asking questions
“What was he really like?” “Was he really like all the stories I’ve heard from my mother?” “How was he as a warrior?” “Was he strong?” “Was he brave?” “… Do I look like him?”
Even after Tigerpaw’s punishment is lifted, he still does his best to visit and care for Goosefeather every day. The two grow close. Goosefeather is there for his mother’s funeral, for the day it’s revealed that he cannot sheath his claws, and he is there when Tigerpaw becomes Tigerclaw, and watches him glow with pride.
One day, Goosefeather convinces Tigerclaw to go out for a walk. “My old bones can’t stand being cooped up in camp all the time,” he complains, loudly. Tigerclaw takes him out on a walk, as they’ve done countless times before: Tigerclaw will regale him with tales of a warrior’s life, of all the patrols he’s attended and battles he’s won for his Clan, and Goosefeather will tell him gentle stories of his father, stories of which he seems to never run out.
They near Snakerocks. It’s new leaf. A snake, gray-scaled and blending into the flat stones, is sunning. Tigerclaw runs up the rocks, the young, unobservant warrior that he is, to demonstrate a battle move. Goosefeather sees the disturbed creature rear up to strike, and he moves faster than he has in moons to barrel Tigerclaw out of the way
The snake’s fangs sink into Goosefeather’s hind leg.
Tigerclaw sobs over his shaking body as the poison courses through, full of grief and regret and sorrow and guilt. He apologies over and over before Goosefeather shakily reaches up and asks him oh so gently, in the same tone he would tell the young Tigerpaw stories of his father, to put him out of his misery; the poison was traveling too fast, and Goosefeather had suffered enough in his life.
Still sobbing, still apologizing, Tigerclaw does as he asks.
Upon dragging him back to camp, Tigerclaw tells his Clanmates of what had happened, his eyes still wet with hot, grieving tears. The second thing he does is demand his name be changed: he is now Tigerfeather, after the only cat who truly cared for him.
On the path to StarClan, Goosefeather’s spirit cries quietly.
A short time later, Brindleface and Tigerfeather press close together in complete, heavy silence as they stand vigil over Goosefeather’s grave. Together. They’ve never spoken much before now, and their relationships with Goose were,, strained at best. But in this moment? They both know how the other feels:
They’ve lost a father figure that night. And it hurts more than any flesh wound ever will.
That’s where Goobie and I pretty much left off, but we did dabble a little in other ideas :0
Namely:
Bluestar seeing Tigerfeather essentially as a cousin, and his betrayal hitting that much harder for her
Brindleface still falling to Tigerfeather’s claws (hell, I’m even entertaining the idea of the two of them becoming closer after Goosefeather’s death, and BRINDLE being the mom of Bramble and Tawny)
Goosefeather steps forwards when Tigerfeather rises as leader of ShadowClan, giving him a life for forgiveness.
But when Firestar and Tigerstar face off, Tigerstar pleads for forgiveness from the blazing ginger tom who was haunted by Goosefeather’s ghost, but Tigerstar had already lost that life. And both Goosefeather and Firestar turn away as Tigerstar’s remaining lives are stripped from him
