Chapter 13: Darkstripe's Backstory
Fireheart felt he couldn't rest until he knew more about what Tigerclaw did. Fireheart for once woke earlier than Darkstripe and waited to confront him. Every other cat was still asleep when Darkstripe rose. He never expected to run face first into a ginger tom. He gave a startled hiss before calming down.
"I never expected to see you up this early."
"I wanted to talk more about what you said yesterday."
"About twin souls?"
"No. Your apprenticeship."
Darkstripe sighed.
"Come on. We can walk and talk."
Fireheart fell in step as they exited camp.
"So, what exactly did you want to know about it?"
"I wanted to know why you think you were a bad apprentice and what Tigerclaw did about it."
"Please don't use Tigerclaw's methods on your apprentice. She's a good apprentice."
"That's not why I'm asking."
Darkstripe's head hung with embarrassment before he started.
"I was a timid cat. My own shadow scared me, but what scared me more was hurting other cats. I could never bring myself to fight. I'd freeze worrying about if I'd hurt or kill my opponent. Tigerclaw said pain would help me focus, so he started claws out training. I'd freeze less if only to come back less bloody.
I used to fear him so much I'd regularly hide in the medicine den. I thought at the time that maybe I should have become a medicine cat, but we already had Spottedleaf. She was too young to properly take an apprentice. I still took any chance I could get to learn the herbs, so I'd have an excuse to avoid Tigerclaw.
Tigerclaw figured me out. He put my new knowledge to use by upping his training and having me heal myself afterwards. It gave me the knowledge on how to stabilize a dying cat. I'm no medicine cat, but I could probably keep a cat alive until one does arrive. It was when I started winning fights did I realize that Tigerclaw was training me right. How could I fear an apprentice's swipes when I'd already felt Tigerclaw's swipes. An apprentice that outweighed me couldn't compare to my fights with Tigerclaw. I didn't lock up anymore and Tigerclaw wouldn't insult me anymore.
It was during a border patrol that I found my real calling. We were outnumbered two to one. Usually, Tigerclaw could best three average warriors before needing to retreat. I fought with him. I kept him from getting hurt. I took the blows for him. He ended up besting six warriors with my help before the enemy retreated. I awoke in the medicine den, but Tigerclaw actually complemented me. I knew that I had to master that skill, but Tigerclaw saw that battle as proof I'd done enough. I'd earned my place in the clan. I was named a warrior that night.
Tigerclaw was quick to put in a request for me to be a mentor. I don't know if it was his ambition, or if he thought I deserved it. Either way I was soon the mentor of Longtail. He was a good apprentice. He was inquisitive and brave. Most of all, he was deathly loyal. I taught him the basics and he impressed Tigerclaw and the other mentors easily. I didn't know if I should have been jealous or prideful. With some assistance, I had Longtail ready to be a warrior far earlier than anyone expected, but we held back. I wanted to master my team fighting idea and Longtail was keen to help. I don't know what I'd do without him. By the time Longtail got his name, we were equals."
Fireheart could feel the pride in Darkstripe at this point. Obviously the talk of his apprentice was his way of avoiding the thoughts of his own apprenticeship. Fireheart felt now was a good time to get Darkstripe to talk more about himself.
"What about the dealers? When did you find the time to do that?"
"That's actually a little embarrassing, but I wasn't confident in my ability to teach at first, so I'd pawn Longtail off to Whitestorm. He never told me off for that. I still wonder why. I instead started looking at the other clans' problems. There was a blight an some common herbs in Shadowclan because another herb was growing too close and choking them out. I convinced Spottedleaf to trade some of our supply of the choked herb for some of the over abundant herb. Turns out we had a low stock on that, so it gave me an idea.
Over the next few gatherings I went out of my way to make at least one friend in each clan and told them my idea. We'd be cats that would move herbs so no clan would die of sickness. It worked for a while until one clan was low on all herbs and needed more. We worked on bartering and giving something for free wasn't in us. It was then that I realized it didn't need to be herbs. I had the weakened clan give all those who helped them a chunk of stone from their camp's figurehead stone to symbolize a favor owed. The stone would be returned when the favor was returned.
It was a time of new ideas for us dealers. We realized we'd been restricting ourselves, so each of us started branching out. I started with the Twoleg place and found myself trading favors frequently. River found that they could trade prey and luxuries. Shadow was the best at connections among loaners. Wind was the one who realized a dealer can work through a proxy. It was exciting and new. It was that same feeling kits get when pretending to make a clan."
The joy in Darkstripe's eyes was bright before turning dull.
"Not all deals turned out well. We figured out some cats would back out of deals late or would try to con us. I found myself at the end of many bad deals. My heart was too soft. Thunder and the grieving mother was one of my early tales when I would take any job. I soon learned there were times to say no. I built my dealer façade and we dealers set up a protection system. I went out of my way to get a dealer in every faction in the Twoleg place. I acted as an intermediary in deals so two separate faction dealers would never have to meet. Then I trained more cats to be intermediaries."
Darkstripe lightened up.
"It worked. Dealers were protected because they head friends everywhere. Queen, Tiny, and Purple became the big dealers in the Twoleg place. Queen was the dealer of kittypets, Tiny of Bloodclan, and Purple of the non-factioned.
Once all this was set up, I finally found the confidence to train my apprentice. He was pretty much already a warrior since he was passed between the paws of senior warrior so often. It was a bit difficult to earn his trust since I'd left him with others so often, so I started teaching him my idea for team fighting. I played the same question game with him as I do you. We learned who we really were and we both grew drastically from it. It was strange when other cats started asking us how we did it. By then I'd made my signature personality and branched out my skill set. I'm sure you can fill in the rest."
Fireheart again felt that Darkstripe was truly an enigma. He was a cat that for all intents and purposes should be a traumatized coward, but somehow he'd made himself confident and successful. You could see certain things still bugged him and left a lasting impact, but he was far stronger for it. Fireheart wondered if he'd come out stronger when the Tigerclaw issue was finally resolved.