Barktooth Story Info

One day, when the two have a training assessment, Barkpaw’s father is checking Bluepaw’s hunting skills while she hunts a squirrel. He notices suddenly that the squirrel is eating extremely poisonous mushrooms (the squirrel is immune? (Maybe some kinda arc on problems with poisoned squirrels?) Or it doesn’t know and is gonna die anyway). He realizes with horror that if Bluepaw catches the squirrel and bites its neck she will be poisoned. She is about to pounce when Barkpaw’s father springs out of his hiding and pushes Bluepaw away and kills the squirrel himself. He quickly explains himself and Bluepaw is terrified because he will die very soon. Barkpaw’s father knows this and decides to keep the mushrooms from hurting anyone else. He pulls them out of the ground and buried them with the squirrel. They poison him more, however, and he becomes ill within five minutes after killing the squirrel. With drool running out of his mouth and seizures shaking his body, he begs Bluepaw to find some yarrow but to only hold it in her paw(so she doesn’t throw up). While she is looking, she runs into Barkpaw and his mentor and explains what is happening. Barkpaw rushes over to his father and tries to help or comfort him while his mentor runs back to camp to get help. Bluepaw accidentally mistakes water hemlock for yarrow and brings it to Barkpaw’s father in her paw. He is in extreme pain by now and is barely able to swallow the herb. When he takes the herb, however, instead of vomiting he begins to writhe on the ground, foam at the mouth, and yowl in extreme pain. Barkpaw begins to sob and furiously asks what Bluepaw did. Bluepaw tries to say that she only gave him yarrow but Barkpaw won’t hear it and howls in grief as his father dies in front of him. That night as the elders carry his father’s body off, Barkpaw swears to avenge his father, no matter who he must fight (even Bluepaw). He refuses to speak to Bluepaw for the next few moons. She tries to make him understand that what happened wasn’t her fault, but he refuses to listen. After awhile, both Bluepaw and Barkpaw become warriors and receive their warrior names, Bluefire (for her exciting intensity and stubbornness) and Barktooth (after his teeth of course). Barktooth is still frustrated because cats still treat him like a kid and an apprentice. To make himself look older, he allows his cheek fur to grow out and uses dark paint (just a special mud) on his chin to spike out his fur (like facial hair). He keeps this look until his redemption arc. Bluefire, when told by the medicine cat to keep an eye out for yarrow, asks for a refresher on what it looks like. When the medicine cat shows her, Bluefire looks shocked. Once prompted, she tells the medicine cat that she thought yarrow had smaller clusters of white flowers. The medicine cat explains that what Bluefire had seen was water hemlock, and was extremely poisonous to cats. Bluefire thanks the medicine cat and wanders away, horrified, as she realizes that she had accidentally poisoned Barktooth’s father. Barktooth’s first attempt to get revenge fails. He convinces Bluefire that he has forgiven her and gains a bit of her trust. He then tricks her into following him into twolegplace. Once there, he traps her in a shed with two dogs by moving the rock that was propping it open and locking her in. As they corner her, Barktooth tells Bluefire that she will finally feel what he felt when his father died. Bluefire pleads with him that it was only an accident, but Barktooth keeps egging the dogs on. Just before they are upon her, Bluefire exclaims that she had tried to save his father with yarrow, but had accidentally given him water hemlock instead. Furious and blind with rage, Barktooth believes she poisoned his father on purpose, and hisses at the dogs to get them to attack. Bluefire nearly gets bitten, but she reveals that she can speak dog. She yells at the dogs to leave her alone and they back away through a dog door into the yard. Bluefire then escapes the shed through a hole in the roof and runs back to camp before Barktooth can stop her. She tells their leader and Barktooth is exiled. He is chased off of the territory and toward the corrupt clans. When he crosses the border, he is caught by a patrol and taken as a prisoner to Falconstar. Bark, after a being roughed up a bit, explains himself and what he’s done. Falconstar doesn’t believe him at first, but when he shows her the blood on his claws, she reconsiders. She decides that he has potential and invites him to join the corrupt side. Ferretstrike openly protests this, insisting that Barktooth is too scrawny and weak to have any use. Falconstar dismisses his worries and decides that Barktooth deserves the chance to prove himself. Bark shows her his inventions that would give the corrupt clans a fighting advantage. While he stays there, however, he starts to have horrid nightmares. One night, he finds himself in the Dark Forest surrounded by dark cats. Their supposed leader (Whisperstar) talks to Barktooth and lies to him saying that he was put through similar experiences by someone who he thought was his friend. With a bit of sympathy and intimidation, Whisperstar wins Barktooth over and convinces him to lead an army of Dark Forest cats to battle. Around this time, Whisperstar also convinces Mapleflame to join the corruption. Mapleflame is reluctant to allow Barktooth to take over, but Whisperstar tells him that he will get his chance soon enough. Barktooth then gathers forces including Mapleflame, Tommypaw (who is now a warrior) and Privet (who also needs a warrior name. With the cover of the thunderstorm, Barktooth’s inventions, and the army of Dark Forest cats, the corrupt clans decimate the numbers of their opponents. Barktooth meets Bluefire head on in battle and the two fight viciously. He chases her off, looking absolutely crazed, but when she leaves, he feels overwhelming grief as he stares at the wreckage. Many cats are slaughtered and the corruption takes a large amount of their territory. Barktooth recognizes a lot of the bodies and begins to feel heavy guilt weighing upon him. When they are celebrating their victory, Falconstar praises Barktooth immensely for his contributions. Tommypaw becomes jealous and worried that Barktooth will take his position as future leader. He takes Barktooth into a secluded area that night and puts him in his place (beats him up). Barktooth is discouraged after that and a bit guilty. He starts to regret the amount of death he’s induced upon his former clanmates. He also begins to see that what Bluefire did truly was an accident. Whisperstar sees him as a weak link and gets Mapleflame to tell Falconstar of his doubts. From then on, Barktooth is put in the back of the line. He becomes very frustrated and feels betrayed again. After a few more battles, he is nearly ready to switch sides again, but decides to wait just a bit longer. But when he stumbles into a meeting about plans for a final battle that includes killing every cat on the other side, he tries escape and inform Bluefire. He is caught before he can get out of camp and is thrown in “the Pit” which is a very deep twoleg-made hole in the ground. Ferretstrike wants to have Barktooth executed, but Falconstar wants to finish the war before the other side can regain strength so she says that she’ll deal with him later. Barktooth is stuck in the Pit for nearly the entirety of the final battle which lasts for several days because the sides are so evenly matched. Near the end, Bluefire realizes that Barktooth is nowhere to be found. Going off of a hunch, she sneaks deep into the corrupt clans’ territory. She finds Barktooth covered in mud, starving, and shivering from the cold at the bottom of the Pit. She calls out softly to him and he responds weakly and with no anger left in him. They talk for a short while, and both apologize and Barktooth asks to go back home. Bluefire begins to chew a large vine off of a nearby tree when she hears voices coming toward them from the direction of the camp. She moves as quickly as she can and struggles to get the vine into the Pit. Barktooth loses his grip on the vine the first time because he is so weak, but after another try Bluefire is able to pull him out. She shoves Barktooth into hollow log and wiggles in next to him just as a patrol of Dark cats enters the clearing. They nearly find the two friends, but it starts to rain again and the cats retreat to the camp. Bluefire helps Barktooth out of the log and supports him as they make their way slowly back home. When they finally get there, Barktooth is greeted with the snarls and hisses of contempt of the cats that were present for his exile. Bluefire manages to convince them that they need Barktooth to win the war. To get back on the right side of history, Barktooth makes an invention that gives them the advantage they need to drive out the corrupt cats.