Content warning for blood, violence, and animal death

The next chapter of Mudpaw's story!
I think I'll update this description when my brain's a little less fried. This video's been in the making since August of 2021, and I'm so happy to finally have it done!!

The song in this video is called The Garden, from the band The Crane Wives. Their music is so so beautiful, you should definitely give their other songs a listen!!
Here's the link to their channel:    / thecranewives  


EDIT: Ok, here's the basic storyline! This will include details from previous videos, as they provide some pretty important background info for the characters and their motivations. The video centers around a young apprentice named Mudpaw, and his rather... complicated relationship with his mentor, Wrentail.
See, Wrentail isn't exactly the warmfuzzies kind of guy; he is verbally, emotionally, and physically abusive toward Mudpaw (for reasons which will be explored in the future). Mudpaw, in turn, has no idea how to handle the frustration and fear this abuse causes. Often, he ends up taking out his aggression on the prey he catches, particularly birds.

The video opens on Mudpaw surveying the Clan's camp. He sees this community of cats he lives with, but believesknowshe is not a part of it. When he catches sight of his mentor, Wrentail, surrounded by clanmates who offer him respect and admiration, he leaves in frustration. Now alone, he snarls at the birds that seem to follow him everywhere, but soon after seems a bit regretful of his outburst. The birds are both a distraction and a lie, a symbol of all his troubles. They mock him and he hates it, but then hates that he hates so much. He doesn't know what to do with all his anger.

Flash forward to later, in combat training with the other apprentices and their mentors. Mudpaw sees what a mentorship is supposed to be like, contrasted to his own strained relationship with Wrentail. He is desperate for someone to notice him hurting, to notice how alone he is; he doesn't know what he's doing wrong. All he knows is that the little ball of hate in his heart grows each time his mentor looks at him in distain.

Clan life continues. At a clan meeting, tasks are divided up, and Wrentail is tasked with taking his apprentice hunting. No One Is Happy With This Arrangement. On the hunt, Mudpaw catches a sizable crow, but Wrentail ignores him, offering only biting comments about Mudpaw's hunting. Mudpaw feels blood sticking to his paws, and wonders.

Walking down an old deer trail near the cliffside, Mudpaw walks in his usual place, just behind Wrentail. He has been thinking and contemplating and dreamingfor once, just once, he wants Wrentail to know how it feels. To know how it feels to be attacked when you're supposed to be safe, to be betrayed by a clanmate you're supposed to trust.

So, Mudpaw leaps at his mentor.

They scuffle about, and its clear that Mudpaw is not winning this fight that he started. Wrentail is older, more experienced, and more bulky than his wiry apprentice, but Mudpaw is just so angry, he continues the fight anyway. They bump their way down the hill and into a stream that ends in a waterfall. Mudpaw is ready to face his mentor, his tormenter, he isbut. But Wrentail has been knocking him around for nearly half his life, and Mudpaw, in fear, takes one step back. Just one.

It's enough to make him slip. Mudpaw clings desperately to a rock at the edge of the falls, sees Wrentail approach, and knows that this is the end. This will be the last time Wrentail pushes him, and it will be the last thing Mudpaw sees. He closes his eyes.

But its not the end. Wrentail, spitting mad, soaking wet, and ready to tear his apprentice a new one, hauls Mudpaw over the edge of the waterfall. What was his idiot apprentice thinking, pulling a stunt like that?
Mudpaw stares up at Wrentail from the water. And he sees an opportunity.

He reels back

And sends Wrentail off the edge of the falls.


Mudpaw looks down from the top of the falls. He's finally in a position of power, he's finally not the one being hurt, he's finally gotten his revenge. But why doesn't this feel like victory?


Night falls. Mudpaw brings a few senior warriors down to where the falls lead, and shows them Wrentail's body. They drag the body to camp, where the Clan mourns the loss of a powerful senior warrior. Cats offer comfort to the apprentice who has lost his mentor, and Mudpaw doesn't know what to do with it. He's lied about what happened, and everyone is finally looking at him, seeing him, but they aren't seeing what's really there, are they? They sit vigil.

The next morning, they bury Wrentail. Mudpaw is helping to dig. The same way he dug graves for all the small birds he mutilated before; burying his shame.