Duskstar the Stern

Duskstar is the son of Helena and Andrew - two housecats who lived a luxurious and worry-free life in their comfortable, wealthy home. At the time, he was known as Alistair, and lived in an estate that settled on the outskirts of the city, with his mother and identical sister, Anastasia.


Alistair, as a kit, was often shunned and put down by his mother due to the fact that he lacked the same energetic yet ruthless personality that his sister had, but instead, was fearful and cautious of almost anything. This worrisome nature led to him often being taunted by his sister, and essentially, it also allowed him to be used as her puppet.


The teasing and the shoving about from Anastasia was innocent enough as a kit, but as the two grew older, Anastasia's tricks only became crueler, and her intentions became wicked. Though Alistair had always seen her as someone to be feared due to her harsh demeanor, he truly realised that his sister was the cat that he'd worried she was when she came home one day, after two days of being missing, with blood on her paws and on her teeth.


It had turned out, with persistent nagging and begging on Alistair's part, that Anastasia had murdered a stranger in the city street. Alistair was horrified and refused to talk to her, sickened by the fact that his own kin had murdered someone, but also terrified at the fact that she could kill him, too. Anastasia's trips to the city only grew, and it became a regular occurrence that she'd disappear from their home.


Whenever Anastasia would return, Alistair knew what she'd been up to - after all, the stench of city street cats and the metallic scent of blood was hard to ignore. However, he was forced to keep his mouth shut after Anastasia threatened to murder him if he told their mother - he wasn't planning on risking it.


Alistair did not intend on getting involved with Anastasia and her roughed-up friends, and never really did - but when Anastasia dragged him to the city one day to help her confront some other cats, he was forced to become part of the violent world of the street cats.


In fact, the day that Anastasia dragged Alistair to come with her to the city, it was the same day that he met Barktail. It became apparent why Anastasia had taken Alistair along with her - she had planned to pin the blame of her killing a streetcat on him due to the fact that the two were identical in shape, size, markings and eye colour - but Barktail saw through the lie.


Barktail immediately saw through Anastasia's plan, and mocked Alistair, saying that such a scrawny cat could never hope to injure anybody, nevermind kill somebody. Anastasia found her words hilarious, and in her amusement, she admitted to Barktail that she was the one who murdered the cat. Anastasia had not expected that Barktail would react - they seemed to share a similar dislike towards Alistair.


Needless to say, it didn't end well. Barktail was quick to take action and murdered Anastasia on the spot, slicing her throat and allowing the she-cat to bleed out to death on the pavement. It had turned out that the cat that Anastasia killed was Barktail's littermate, Brackenfur. Alistair was frozen in fear as he watched his sister die, unable to move or comfort his sibling in her last moments.


Barktail, just before leaving, warned Alistair that he would regret it if he ever tried to do what his sister did, and threatened him, too, saying that she would personally rip out his eyes if he went near her rouge band.


Alistair, horrified and distraught at losing his sister, carried her corpse home to tell his mother what had happened. He arrived late at night and called for his mother to come, trying to explain what had happened - but his mother would not listen in her grief. She was quick to lash out on him and blame him for her death, and battered him in the face, spitting on him and screeching at him to never return to their home.


Alistair did not return. The tom, instead, retreated back to the city due to not finding any sort of home in what he once considered a place where he could always rely on. Alistair eventually ventured deep into the alleys of the city, getting lost, only to be found by the same loner band that was responsible for his sister's death.


As soon as Alistair was brought into this band by Dapplepelt, a trusting she-cat who believed he wasn't the same cat as his sister, he was met with hostility from Barktail and her bandmates. Out of all the eleven cats who were members of Barktail's band, it became apparent that only three truly trusted him, and did not care for what his sister had done.


Those three cats were Dapplepelt, Moongaze and Bramblestripe. Alistair couldn't have been more glad that he'd found cats who had appreciated and accepted him, though, the number quickly diminished within a month.


Dapplepelt was the first to leave - she was close friends with Barktail, and with continuous persuasion on Barktail's part, Dapplepelt was quick to turn her back on Alistair, no longer trusting him and writing him off to be just like his sister.


Bramblestripe was the second cat to leave, but it wasn't in the same way that Dapplepelt did. He was murdered in cold blood by streetcats one night, and his death didn't help Alistair's relations with Barktail one bit - in fact, it only worsened them. Barktail claimed that Alistair was the one who murdered Bramblestripe, despite there being no evidence.


This left Alistair all alone in a band full of cats that loathed him and wanted him dead for his supposed crimes - he was constantly terrified and on edge, afraid to trust anyone or accept even prey from the others - all except one.


Moongaze, a pale, spotted she-cat had remained, her trust in him not weakening once. Amidst all of the chaos of the band hating him, she had always been there, offering him her kindness, love and trust on an almost insane level - but of course, she only had good intentions.


Though Moongaze and Barktail were close friends from their kithoods, Moongaze did't allow Barktail's views of Alistair to change her own, and though she was constantly urged to stay away from him, she didn't. It was clear to see that the two had fallen in love with one another, despite all the odds that were stacked against them.


During that short period in his life, Alistair's life couldn't have been better - he had so many against him, all who craved for his death to finally happen, but he didn't care - he had Moongaze, and she loved him - that was all that mattered. For about a moon or two, everything was fine. The two were completely head over heels for eachother, always spending time with one another and if not doing that, they were fawning over the other to somebody else.


And then it all went wrong.


A new tom named Daffodil arrived, and unfortunately for Alistair, he was more or less a ladies' man. Daffodil was quick to flirt with literally every she-cat in the clan, rejected by all but the she-cat who was too sweet to bluntly say 'no' to him - Moongaze.


It became apparent to Alistair that Moongaze and Daffodil had grown close, possibly even closer than what he and Moongaze were like, and he became unfathomably jealous. Though Moongaze had sworn that she'd never be unfaithful to Alistair, he did not trust her - to put it simply, as Daffodil came, the two's relationship was almost broken in two.


That quickly changed, however, when Moongaze announced that she had fallen pregnant. Alistair couldn't have been happier, shaking off all of his fears that Moongaze could've been cheating on him - he was too excited at the idea of kits, and the concept that they would be his. Alistair, during the time that Moongaze was pregnant, treat her with extreme cautiousness and cared for her every day as best as he could.


It finally came to the time in which Moongaze gave birth - she gave life to three kits - Rosekit, Creekkit, and Breezekit. Alistair was thrilled to be a father and cared for his kits with Moongaze as lovingly as possible, constantly fussing over them and making sure that they were safe.


Alistair and Moongaze cared for their kits with so much devotion, being extremely protective and caring parents. Just like Moongaze had dreamed, she had become a mother and now had a loving, secure family - and for the both of them, life couldn't get any better.

Though, of course, there had to be some sick twist to it. Breezekit, the younger of the kittens and the weaker, opened his eyes, only to reveal a bright, glaring yellow. Alistair was shocked - after all, he didn't have amber eyes, and neither did Moongaze - which only left him to one conclusion.


That she'd given birth to Daffodil's kits. Of course, she hadn't - Moongaze would never even consider being unfaithful. Breezekit's yellow eyes in fact came from Alistair's side of the family, more specifically, his fathers - but all rational thought had left Alistair's mind by then, turning him into a furious, crazed mess.


In a quick, thoughtless action, Alistair snatched Breezekit away from Moongaze and threw him, slamming the kit's head against a tree before Alistair tore his tiny body apart with his claws, though the kit was already long dead. Moongaze only watched, frozen in horror and sorrow at seeing her kit die right before her eyes, all while trying to shield her other two kittens from witnessing the monstrosity that was playing out before them.



Though, of course, she didn't stand by for long. Moongaze lashed out on him and attacked him, tearing apart a part of his neck and slicing all the way down from the top of his shoulder to the bottom of his chest - giving him a nasty scar that he wouldn't lose any time soon.



After that, Moongaze left Alistair for dead, taking her two remaining kits, Rosekit and Creekkit, with her. She was never seen again, and though Alistair had searched desperately for moons to find them and apologize, he never did truly find them, and still hasn't to this day.



Alistair has not confessed about what he did to Breezekit, and never will - he doesn't trust anybody with knowing - not his deputy, not his medicine cat, not his clanmates.



Alistair wandered to the plains and settled there, hunting for himself and living in solitude. He was soon joined by other cats of all different backgrounds, and with the help of Fogcloud and Juniperleaf, he became the new leader of a clan earning his new name and title - Duskstar, leader of Windclan.