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Finished Cats

FUZZYMASK


Maplepaw

Maplepaw is broad shouldered, tall she -cat with deep red russet fur with a white grizzle. This means that the tips of her individual furs are white, while the base of them are russet. It gives her a glazed appearance. She has deep ice –blue eyes, a berry pink nose and black/pink paw pads. She has a thin scar that starts between her shoulders and ends half –way down her back. Maplepaw is heavyset, being that she is a technically a tom cat, but she identifies as a she –cat, and is accepted as such by her Clan –mates.

Maplepaw is an apprentice of WindClan. She is mentored by Grassthorn. She is the daughter of two unknown cats, and the adoptive daughter of Tatterstone and Featherfoot. She has five brothers: Aspenpaw, Specklepaw, Mudpaw, Stagkit, and Acornkit. She is the adoptive sister of Daypaw, Mottledpaw, and Fernpaw. Her adoptive grandparents are Sandybranch, Palevine, and Graysky.

In the future, she will become the mate of Mistjump, and parent five tom kits.

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Kit Life: (Maplekit is referred to as ‘he/his/him’ during kit hood. He was also named Stagkit.)

Maplepaw and her brothers were all born rogues. They were rogues for around an hour, but technically, they still were rogues.

Their mother was a very small, thin, and sickly she –cat. She defiantly wasn’t prepared to birth six children, let alone care for them. She was unfortunate enough to have to give birth in the middle of leaf –bare, and then even more so that she was unable to get to her den when she began kitting.

She lost a lot more blood than she should’ve during labor, and she was found by a WindClan patrol after her kits were born. The cats in question were Goldencoat, Featherfoot and WindClan’s deputy Pineflash. She asked them to take her kits for her, because she was sure she was dying. Pineflash was a kind she –cat, so she of course agreed. She tried to persuade the she –cat to let them take her to camp to get help, but she refused, and died a few minutes after she was found.

Featherfoot was pregnant, and due in a quarter moon, so she offered to take the kits in because she felt bad that she couldn’t save the mother. Her mate Tatterstone agreed to act as a father role.

Pineflash and Spiderstar –WindClan’s leader- agreed to allow Featherfoot and Tatterstone raise the kits. Since they were raising them, they got to name them. Stagkit was born blind in one eye (left) and he was named partly after Featherfoot’s deceased grandfather Stagheart, and partially because they wanted a strong name to give him luck without an eye.

Aspenkit was named for the tree that their mother died under, Specklekit for his markings, Mudkit because he had brown speckles on his face, Acornkit because he was tiny, and Webkit for his tiny grey stripes.

Stagkit was referred to as male, because they of course had no idea he would later wish to be female. Featherfoot couldn’t nurse all the kittens by herself, so the two other queens in the nursery –Snoweyes and Duststing- gladly helped.

They were pregnant with their own kits as well. Leaf –bare was ending soon, so they were sure their kits would be born in warmth.

Stagkit grew up thinking he had six parents: Featherfoot, Snoweyes, Duststing, Tatterstone, and the two queen’s mates, Owlwhisker and Grassthorn. Three mothers and three fathers. He and his brothers were doted on and loved, kept warm by constant cuddles even though it was cold out.

Stagkit was two weeks old when leaf –bare finally ended, and it was getting kind of warmer. He and his brothers played almost constantly, and they were finally allowed outside (with supervision). He was glad to be able to play outside, because Featherfoot was getting very cranky as her kitting neared. Duststing and Grassthorn typically watched them while they played. But they often complained that it was hard to keep watch over Stagkit and his siblings.

Mostly, his brother’s weren’t the problem. Acornkit and Webkit didn’t play very much anyways, and just sat and watched and slept a lot. Aspenkit was a ‘good kit’ because he followed the rules and loved getting praised. Mudkit and Specklekit entertained each other, and never strayed and were super noisy. They couldn’t escape anyways.

Stagkit was the problem. Stagkit loved to explore, and often snuck away. He broke into the Apprentice’s Den twice –scaring the apprentices by jumping on them- and nearly got out of camp once. He was clumsy, but could go pretty fast when he wanted. Duststing always scolded him, but he never listened.

Sometimes, he would try to convince Webkit or Acornkit to come with him, but they were always too tired. They never played. Stagkit thought that maybe they were sick, and one night, made to tell Featherfoot about it, but of course, that was the night that Featherfoot had her kittens.

Stagkit went up to her, “Mommy, I think something’s wrong with Webkit and Acornkit,” he was telling her, just as she jolted suddenly, and yelped with pain. Stagkit was surprised and stopped talking, thinking she had yowled at him. He quickly whimpered and ran away, shocked. He told Snoweyes, who guessed that Featherfoot was in labor, and retrieved the medicine cats, Ashnight and Curlpaw.

Stagkit and his brothers waited outside for two hours. They went to the elders den, where their three grandparents –Palevine, Sandybranch and Graysky- told them stories. Then he magically had three new adoptive siblings: three girls named Mottledkit, Fernkit, and Daykit. He was excited to meet them, but remembered that he should ask the medicine cats about Acornkit and Webkit.

He caught up to Curlpaw, who was always friendly, and told her that Acornkit and Webkit hardly ate and were always tired. “What? Why didn’t you tell me sooner?!” gasped Curlpaw, which scared Stagkit. He apologized, but she already had gone to get Ashnight.

They decided not to tell Featherfoot right away, because she had just spent two painful hours birthing kittens. So they told Tatterstone that Acornkit and Webkit were acting sickly and they needed to give them herbs and make sure that they ate.

Tatterstone quickly told Featherfoot (despite being told to wait!!!) but she couldn’t do much. She had to save her milk for her new kittens, so Duststing and Snoweyes had to nurse Acornkit and Webkit.

Acornkit and Webkit did well for a little bit, until Duststing birthed her four kits (Mistkit, Frostkit, Fawnkit, and Mothkit) and Snoweyes birthed her two kits. (Molekit and Willowkit.) Stagkit and Acornkit were shy and morbidly polite, so they thought it was rude to push away the little kits.

No one noticed. Stagkit and her healthy brothers were playing, and their parents had nine other kittens to worry about. Webkit’s weight dropped and then he slept more and more. Snoweyes and Featherfoot noticed, and tried to get him to eat, but he was too weak at that point.

He passed away at one moon old, and Acornkit died shortly after.

Everyone was devastated. They had thought that the two kits were getting better and healthy. Webkit had died during the night, and Stagkit awoke with the cold body of his brother right next to him. Stagkit was with Acornkit when he died too, sunning on a little rock and talking lazily when Acornkit started falling asleep. Stagkit waited for him to keep talking, and turned around to bop him on the nose, to awaken him.

Acornkit didn’t respond, and Stagkit screamed. He had nightmares for moons about waking up and finding his family dead. He got poppy seeds to help him sleep, herbs to calm him, and his family assuring him it’d never happen. But he couldn’t get rid of the nightmares. He was always scared that he’d be the one to find a dead friend or family member.

He became ‘easier to manage’, but even so, it worried his family. Stagkit not exploring was like a bird not flying. Stagkit didn’t want to explore. He was convinced he’d find a dead body.

When he was three moons old, he started to overcome his fear a little. He walked around camp less fearfully, but only if he had someone with him. It didn’t matter who; the nine kittens who were born around Acornkit and Webkit’s death were all ready to explore and Stagkit took it upon himself to guide them.

The young kits were just learning about anything and everything, and one thing they learned about was genders, of course. They talked to Stagkit a lot about it, which mainly consisted of Daykit saying, “I’m a she –cat!” then Mottledkit saying it, then Molekit saying, “I’m a tom!” and on. They would always say to Stagkit, “And you’re a boy!”

Stagkit didn’t know why it bothered him so much. He tried to end the conversations or shut them down when they said “You’re a boy/tom!” but they never did stop.

One day, Daykit said, “I’m a she –cat!” then she turned to Stagkit and said, “And you’re a she –cat!” her tongue had slipped. She had meant to say tom, but Stagkit didn’t correct her. He didn’t know why, but he liked being called she –cat better.

The other kits teased Daykit playfully, and jokingly referred to Stagkit as ‘she/her’. Stagkit was confused, but he couldn’t bring himself to correct him. He brought it up to Snoweyes the next day. She laughed gently, and asked him if he wanted to be a girl. He felt embarrassed. “No! I’m a tom cat. I like being a…boy.” He tried weakly. But Snoweyes told him to be honest and he quickly confessed that he liked the female pronouns better.

“Then we’ll stop calling you he and him.” Snoweyes told him. Stagkit liked that a lot. Snoweyes told Duststing and Featherfoot, who pointed out that Stagkit was a blamably obvious male name. They thought it’d be missing the point to call him ‘her/she’ and have a name like Stagkit.

Duststing said to change his name to something better suited. Stagkit wanted to choose, so they agreed as long as it wasn’t silly. He bounded away to go and think of one. He later chose a name based off of Acornkit’s and Webkit’s favorite tree; Maplekit.

His brothers were a bit surprised, but quickly adapted to the new pronouns and name. The younger kits had more trouble with it, but after Maplekit corrected them a few thousand times, they figured out her new name.

Despite being a lot happier with the preferred pronouns, Maplekit still wouldn’t explore on her on. As her apprenticeship neared, she would anxiously ask her mother’s about the moor and if it was scary or dangerous, ect, ect, ect. She wanted to be able to go with one of her brothers everywhere, to make sure they were safe.

She was still shaken from the experience with her other two brothers. She figured that it’d be worse as apprentices. Kits are the ones who experience deaths in their sleep and get sick, but apprentices and warriors die with lots of blood, pain, and fear. Foxes, badgers, hawks. Everything was out to get her brothers, she was sure of it!

When her apprentice ceremony came, she fearfully stood still as she was groomed. Her brother’s bounced in place eagerly, leaping over each other and ruffling their fur and talking a mile a minute, but she could barely force out a word. Her mothers’ all encouraged her, but she practically had to be forced to Spiderstar so he could give her ceremony.

Apprenticeship:

Maplepaw was apprenticed to her foster father, Grassthorn. Tatterstone suggested it because he felt that having a familiar cat with her might help her overcome her fear of danger. All of her foster fathers wanted to mentor her, but Grassthorn was chosen because of his endless amount of patience, and he had Maplepaw’s sense of humor.

The two quarter moons of Maplepaw’s apprenticeship was entirely instead camp. The second day, Grassthorn tried to bring Maplepaw out of camp, but she got so worked up she cried. So they spent the first week playing memory games about the Warrior Code, the history of the Clans, and the names of important cats in other Clans.

Then after she had it all down, Grassthorn began to tell her about the landmarks of WindClan, and every day he brought her to a land mark. They’d beeline straight to the landmark, talk about the history of it/ why it’s a landmark, and then head straight back to camp. After seeing all the landmarks and being assured a hundred times by her brothers that it was safe, Maplepaw was ready to start patrolling.

Maplepaw learned how to hunt before she learned how to fight, because Grassthorn was worried something bad would happen and she’d get scared. Maplepaw was very good at hunting. She was much faster than her brothers, and Aspenpaw said it was because she was ready to run away just in case. Maplepaw pushed him off a cliff.

After two moons of hunting training and constant promises to be gentle from her brothers, Maplepaw learned how to fight. She was pretty good at it, because she reacted very quickly to fast movements. She managed to DESTROY her brothers, especially Specklepaw and Aspenpaw.

She was ecstatic about her ability to defend herself. She wasn’t good at defeating her bigger brothers, but she had fun fighting Specklepaw and Aspenpaw, because they were smaller. They liked the challenge, and so the three trained together a lot.

Grassthorn normally supervised the battle training lessons, but one day Aspenpaw’s mentor Brookwind decided to take them out on a patrol after a short lesson. They were mostly talking and walking, and as they passed ThunderClan’s territory, they switched the topic to hunting. The three of them were saying that since they had such long legs (longer than the other WindClan cats, making them look lanky instead of graceful) they could probably hunt birds.

As they said this, a bird flew from ThunderClan, flying low lazily. Specklepaw leapt into the air and snatched it out of the sky. “It’s a sign from StarClan!” he told them, “I’m meant to hunt birds!” Everyone laughed.

But not the ThunderClan patrol. An apprentice charged towards them, stopping at the river. “That’s ThunderClan’s bird!” he yelled. He was a headstrong apprentice named Haypaw, and was rather arrogant. “Give it back!”

The three other warriors on the patrol were far behind, and Brookwind rolled her eyes, correcting Haypaw. “It was killed on our territory, so it’s ours. Better be faster next time.”

Aspenpaw laughed, which riled up Haypaw. Aspenpaw turned to Specklepaw and Maplepaw, and whispered “This is why WindClan cats are well fed, and ThunderClan cats are so tiny and thin!”

Haypaw heard. Quick to anger, he yelled ‘take that back!’ and leapt the river, and tackled Aspenpaw to the ground. Haypaw was six moons older, and easily held him down. He attacked viscously, and Brookwind quickly leapt to defend her apprentice.

The ThunderClan patrol arrived too late to see what had actually went down. They leapt across the river to help Haypaw, unaware that their apprentice was in the wrong.

Maplepaw wanted to flee, but two warriors had turned on Aspenpaw and Specklepaw. She couldn’t just leave them; the warriors were much bigger. She charged into the fight.

She gracefully struck at the warriors and then bounded out of the way. If the warrior tried to chase her, one of her brothers would attack them. It worked well until the warriors got frustrated. As she nipped at ones heels, she turned to flee again, but they turned faster, and leapt upon her, dragging their claws down her back and knocking her to the ground.

They attacked her until Brookwind knocked him off and screeched at them about attacking apprentices and breaking the code. The warriors didn’t believe that Haypaw had attacked first, until Haypaw tried to defend himself by saying that Aspenpaw deserved it because he made a mean joke. The warriors, especially the one who had hurt Maplepaw, felt ashamed, and made Haypaw apologize and gave the patrol their prey as a ‘please don’t attack ThunderClan I’m sorry’ message.

Maplepaw and her brother’s wounds will heal, but will Maplepaw be able to find the will to overcome her fear again?

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Maplepaw is an aggressively graceful she –cat with loves her family dearly. She will do anything to protect them. Traumatized by finding two of her brother’s dead during kithood, she constantly panics about her surviving brothers dying as well. She will leap into danger without a second thought to protect them, and actively tries to persuade them to stay in camp. She’s like the mom –friend.

She is anxious and prone to nightmares. But she is brave and willing to face her fears to protect her family. Her warrior name will be Maplemuzzle, and she will be named for her strong jaws after she broke another cat’s paw by biting it during battle.



Thunderfire


Birchbush


Birchbush is a black and white merle she –cat with rough, short fur and big ears. She has a black nose and pawpads, long muscled legs and ice blue eyes. She is blind in her right eye, walks with a limp on her right front paw due to breaking it, and has a thin set of claw marks on the side of his face, in which most of the scars go over her mouth.

Birchbush is a warrior of ThunderClan. She is the daughter of Marigoldtalon and Swallowleaf. She had seven siblings: four brothers, Nettlepaw, Blizzardpaw, Willowpaw, and Troutkit, and three sisters: Mothgaze, Reedwing and Rubblekit. She is the granddaughter of Dawnwater and Owlfern.

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Birchkit and her siblings were born during an unfortatune time: a war between the four Clans. RiverClan and ShadowClan viciously and constantly attacking WindClan and ThunderClan for reasons that Birchkit did not know.

Marigoldtalon’s litter was born a year into the war. ThunderClan and WindClan were doing poorly. RiverClan and ShadowClan were practically crushing the others under their paws.

So Birchkit’s early life was full of stress, confusion, and fear. Birchkit was born one –eyed, which caused worry from her parents, but she and her siblings were praised, cooed at, adored, and coddled anyways. There were two litters in the nursery: there were three other kittens with the names Greykit, Blackkit, and Amberkit. There was a lone kit named Mothkit that Marigoldtalon adopted.

Birchkit didn’t understand what was happening. The nursery was practically blackness. The nests were dug into a tunnel in the ground, and the outside was covered in brambles, barricaded and hard to get though. Once a day, Marigoldtalon would leave the den and get two pieces of prey: one for her, and one for the other queen, Speckshadow.

All the kits were taught never to disobey. They had to react as quickly as possible to an order, or they’d get punished. Splashkit and Troutkit were timid and struggled to react quickly enough. They got punished and lectured repeatedly. If a battle happened, the kits had to listen or they could be killed or captured.

Birchkit always responded quickly. They practiced every day. Randomly, a queen would shout for them to run to the hiding hole. Birchkit was there the quickest. Because of this, she got the job of rounding up the other kits and getting them to safety before herself. She was the biggest and the fastest, after all. She was the oldest kit in the nursery.

Nothing happened for a while. Most of the time between drilling hiding, Birchkit spent time with her siblings –including Mothkit- and played whenever she could. Her litter didn’t get along very well with Speckshadow’s litter. Blackkit and Amberkit weren’t very nice, but Greykit was.

Greykit played a lot with Birchkit’s litter. He was Birchkit’s best friend. However, they did get into spats about how Birchkit’s litter and Greykit’s litter treated each other. Both sides would be randomly mean to each other, and sometimes Greykit would be excluded from playing with Birchkit’s siblings, but would always come back.

When they were three moons old, and attack happened. Greykit, Birchkit, and her siblings were all playing. Blackkit and Amberkit were grooming. Marigoldtalon and Speckshadow were watching the kits and chatting. It all seemed so normal until the warning signal was called. The kits were confused and didn’t react, never having heard the signal, but their mothers quickly ordered them to get to the hiding place.

Birchkit began to shove the other kits towards the hiding place. Her brothers got there quickly. Blackkit and Amberkit took a second, but when Birchkit called, they came. Splashkit and Troutkit, however, was a different story: during drills, they were freaked out, but now in the mists of a real battle –which they could hear outside- they were terrified.

Splashkit wailed. “What if the holes not good enough?” Troutkit started to cry. Birchkit tried to calm them and led Troutkit to the hole gently, and then turned to get Splashkit. “Calm down, its okay!” she remembers saying.

As she spoke, she saw a dark shape moving in from the entrance. They moved slow and carefully. It wasn’t their mothers. Before she could speak again, to warn Spashkit, she was up in the air, dangling between the fangs of ShadowClan warrior. Birchkit tried to attack, but the warrior pushed her away, before escaping the den.

Troutkit saw what happened. He yelped and wailed, and charged after them even after Birchkit had given up. He darted out of the den, into the battle field, to attempt to save his best friend and sister. Birchkit wanted to go after him, but stayed when she noticed the other kits beginning to panic.

She ran to calm them and Marigoldtalon came back, blocking the enterance of their hole. The sounds of battle were too loud, and Birchkit couldn’t get her attention to tell her about Troutkit and Splashkit. The one moment she got Marigoldtalon’s attention, an enemy ShadowClan warrior charged in and attacked her.

After the battle was over, Birchkit shamefully told Marigoldtalon about Splashkit, and was going to tell her about Troutkit when her father Swallowleaf came in, holding the dead, trampled body of her brother. He had been killed when he ran to help Splashkit, who was long –gone and presumed dead.

Birchkit’s role of taking the other kits to safety was given to the medicine apprentice Brokenflower. Now, the drills were a queen making a fake alarm call and Brokenflower getting to the nursery and learning how to navigate through the bramble wall. She was very effect, because unlike Birchkit, she was much bigger than the others and could pick them up and physically force them to safety.

Even though Birchkit understand why she had been replaced, it still hurt her feelings. Whenever they did a drill and Brokenflower had to herd the kits into the hole, Birchkit felt guilty about her sibling’s deaths. Swallowleaf and Marigoldtalon guessed this, and tried to talk to her about it a lot, make sure she was feeling okay, ect.

Birchkit didn’t like the said conversations. They were awkward and stilted. So she just got used to hiding her emotions and convincing others that she was okay. Eventually, her parents stopped asking.

Despite the trauma of the battle, her relationships with her siblings didn’t change. She and Greykit were still close friends, and Amberkit and Blackkit still argued at any given moment.

RiverClan and ShadowClan were trying to destroy ThunderClan. They got permission, apparently, because StarClan wasn’t doing anything to stop them. Attacks were getting more vicious, and ThunderClan and WindClan’s territory was getting rapidly stolen. Two attacks happened in the span of the moon. Rubblekit was stolen during the second one, due to the fact that Brokenflower had no fighting skills. Even though she had gotten the kits to ‘safety’ an enemy warrior simply knocked her away and grabbed a kit.

ThunderClan decided to build a fort around their camp. Patrols of warriors gathered up sticks, rocks, and mud and stacked it all up, making a large wall that was hard to climb. They held it all together with dried mud. It was a little rickety, but could withstand a beating, and it would slow down enemy cats, at least.

It worked for a while. RiverClan cats, unable to climb, often paced around it and attacked any ThunderClan warrior trying to escape, or get to WindClan for help. ShadowClan warriors easily scaled the wall, but did so slowly and no more kits were stolen. There was ample time to get them into the hole.

Apprenticeship:
Becoming an apprentice was extremely over –whelming for Birchpaw and her siblings. Greykit and his siblings were lucky to wait another quarter moon, even though they complained about being younger.

Birchpaw was apprenticed to Firepounce, who was a young warrior. Energetic and naïve, but there were few able bodied warriors to give apprentices to. Mothpaw was apprenticed to Firepounce’s sister, Condorshine.

Willowpaw was mentored by an older warrior named Aspenstreak. He had a hurt leg but could still demonstrate the moves, although slowly. Nettlepaw was mentored by the deputy Ravenjaw, who already had an apprentice named Flamepaw. But Flamepaw was going to be a warrior soon.

Blizzardpaw had to get mentored by their father, Swallowleaf.

Birchpaw’s eyes were so used to darkness that it took a while for her to get used to the sunlight. She and her siblings weren’t very strong. Their muscles were very lame and they had trouble getting over the wall that had been built. The other apprentices often had to help them a lot or they mentors would just pick them up by the scruff and carry them across.

That was embarrassing, but it was better than the aches and the splinters they got from trying to climb the walls themselves.

Battle training was normally done in camp. The apprentices didn’t tend to battle train as much as hunt, because the Clan really needed food. So Birchpaw got pretty good at hunting and often went on hunting patrols with Firepounce, Mothpaw, and Condorshine. Condorshine was a very good hunter, and was training Mothpaw to be just like her.

Birchpaw was happy to get to hang out with Mothpaw a lot. She was stressed 24/7, and it helped to be with someone who could make her laugh, even if you didn’t talk about what was bothering her.

They mostly hunted in the middle of the territory. It was too dangerous to go around RiverClan or ShadowClan borders. Sometimes, they hunted near WindClan but that was a special treat, and only when they couldn’t find any prey in the center.

Birchpaw grew to be a respectable apprentice, good at fighting and hunting. She was somewhat annoying to her mentor, because she tended to interrupt a lot when she was talking. She was too excited. She wanted to be a warrior and fight and get revenge for Troutkit, Splashkit, and Rubblekit.

Greykit and his siblings finally got apprenticed, and when they did, Greypaw and his mentor Jaggedjump went with Birchpaw on hunting patrols. She, Greypaw, and Mothpaw were a trio of best friends.

She did lots of battle training with them and was kind of excited for a fight to come up. New kits had been born and she decided that if a battle came, she’d defend the Nursery. Kits would not be stolen on her watch.

When she was nine moons old, a battle did come. The battle itself was short. ShadowClan warriors leapt over the walls, and Birchpaw and Nettlepaw helped Marigoldtalon defend the Nursery. They fought hard and no kit was stolen. Brokenpetal stood inside, guarding the kits. Marigoldtalon was driven away at some point.

Birchpaw couldn’t tell how long the battle had been going on. Only that the ShadowClan warriors were beating them, but weren’t getting into the Nursery. She and Nettlepaw held off the warriors until one large cat grabbed Nettlepaw’s foot and wrestled him to the ground. Birchpaw struck the cat in the eye and drove him away, but Nettlepaw couldn’t stand on his paw.

Birchpaw ushered him to hide into the Nursery, but then noticed that the RiverClan cats outside were calling to retreat. She was confused by the panic in their voices even though little to no cats were attacking them.

The ShadowClan cats were quick to flee. Birchpaw had time to survey the damage: she saw that Marigoldtalon had been killed when she was driven away. Her grandmother Dawnwater had broken her leg and Owlfern had been hit in the eyes and blinded. The apprentice Flamepaw was dead.

There was no time to grieve, however. The reason their enemies retreated was because a fire was raging though the forest. Suddenly, they could see the flames leaping at their wall. The ThunderClan cats had to flee.

Brokenpetal handed off the three kits in the Nursury to the queens. Since the kits were safe, everyone could worry about themselves.

But the wall they had built stood tall, blocking escape. They’d have to climb it, but the apprentices were too big for the mentors to carry, and yet too slow to climb on their own. Brokenpetal and the two queens managed to escape very quickly, disappearing into the forest. But Nettlepaw was unable to climb. The flames were beginning to burn the camp. They had to get out before the wall set aflame.

Birchpaw couldn’t help her siblings. She struggled to climb the wall, and Greypaw tried to help. The apprentices stumbled and leapt at it. Mothpaw and Amberpaw managed to climb out, and perched at the top, but there was no way to help the others and they fled.

Birchpaw climbed, deciding to try and save at least one other cat. She grabbed Greypaw’s scruff and pulled him up with her as she climbed. She flattened her ears and drowned out Nettlepaw’s screams as the flames swallowed him. She nearly escaped with Greypaw, but the fire began to climb the wall. It buckled under her legs, and in her fear, she dropped Greypaw, and could only watch as he tumbled back into the flames.

Birchpaw couldn’t stop to cry. She scaled the crumbling wall and raced away, the dying screams of her friends and family echoing in her head.

When Birchpaw found the others, she searched for her family. But it turned out that she, Mothpaw, Amberpaw and Blackpaw were the only apprentices to survive. Their leader gave Birchpaw and Mothpaw their warrior name’s, saying that their training was done and they needed more warriors.

They were named Birchbush and Mothgaze.

Warrior:

The first few moons of Birchbush’s warrior life was fixing up the camp. Border patrols were increased, but RC and SC left them alone for the most part. Aside from a few spats at the borders, they quietly stayed in their own respective territories.

Birchbush didn’t speak a word of traumatizing it was to watch the fire eat her camp. She felt scared whenever she looked at the flame –burnt trees and the broken camp. She refused to help in the building of a second wall even though she got punished twice for doing so.

She hunted a lot with Mothgaze, even though she rarely found any prey in the charred forest. Twolegs had come by and planted little saplings, so they were now little sprouts everywhere. They gave Birchbush hope, but didn’t rid the air of the ash scent.

Due to RiverClan’s quietness, Birchbush convinced Mothgaze to accompany her to hunt by RiverClan border. Mothgaze agreed after a while, because she was sick of Birchbush making sassy remarks to her answers. They traveled there and found that it was mainly untouched by the flames.

They hunted for a while, and caught lots of prey. Then they heard a RiverClan patrol approaching, grabbed their prey, and hid. The cat turned out to be alone, and their scent was familiar.

They peered out, and recognized the cat. “Splashkit?” called Mothgaze, stepping out carefully.

It was, indeed, their lost sister Splashkit. She had been living with RiverClan and had the name Reedwing now, which explained why no cat called Splashpaw had been heard of at the gatherings. Reedwing had never been on the attack patrols for ThunderClan, but instead she went on patrols to attack WindClan, which is why she never saw her siblings.

Mothgaze and Birchbush should’ve known not to be friendly with her, but they missed her and had thought she was dead. They told her about the fire and half their family dying, and Greypaw’s death, and their mentors and Reedwing told them about her life in RiverClan. She had a mate named Foxnight, whom she described as the ‘prettiest cat I could’ve asked for’ as well as the best mother to their adopted child Bramblekit.

Reedwing felt bad for Mothgaze and Birchbush.

“You are losing this war.” She told them firmly. “There’s no denying it. Your home is destroyed, you’ve got no prey, and you have half the cats we have.”

Birchbush and Mothgaze huffed and asked why she was rubbing it in.

“Because,” Reedwing said, “Here is my invitation for you two to come live with me in RiverClan!”

Birchbush was taken aback. Leave ThunderClan and go to RiverClan? Mothgaze said yes, eager to get away from all the death and fighting, the ashy smell and the burnt grass, the lack of prey and the sickness.

But ThunderClan is Birchbush’s home. Should she leave ThunderClan and go to RiverClan, or stay loyal to her birth Clan, even if it means possible death?

-----------*

Birchbush is a strong, sassy and selfless she –cat. She would willingly give up her life for her friends and family, and tries her best to help out as best as she can. However, she fails to help herself. Her self –care is rather lacking as she is stoic out of choice to escape awkward conversations and often suffers in silence.

She is smart and a good hunter, although she isn’t very good at working in a team. She talks rather loudly and interrupts other cats, fears the death of family and friends, and is sterile.



MINNOWLEAP

Russetleap

Russetleap is a lanky cat with short, sleek fur with a gray color, and a reddish grizzle going down their back. They have hazel eyes, pink nose and paw pads, and extremely sharp claws. Their ears are roundish at the top, but their right ear is mangled, and they are deaf in that ear. Their other scars include a missing claw on their front left paw, and a circular scar on their right shoulder where no fur grows.

Russetleap identifies as Agender, and goes by they/them pronouns. They were born a female. Russetleap is the child of Bluespots & Troutfall, and has one sister named Brightspots, and three brothers named Rabbitpaw, Beetlefall, and Goldensting. They have a mate named Blazeripple and three daughters; Rosepaw, Pikepaw, and Softkit, and two sons named Ashkit and Mistkit.

Russetleap is a warrior of RiverClan, although has been called half loner as an insult before.

----------* (During kithood, Russetkit was referred to as a female and had she/her pronouns.)



Russetkit was born to Bluespots and Troutfall of RiverClan on the last day of leaf –bare, the day before the snow and ice began to melt. She was one of the three litters in the Nursery, so she lived a very normal childhood.

Her mother Bluespots told her tales of being a warrior, the story of where she got her scars and how, about fox attacks and border battles. Russetkit and her sister Brightkit and her brother Rabbitkit often visited the elder’s den and spoke to the two elders there, Shadeskip and Spiderswirl.

Her father Troutfall was strangely absent, and unlike her friend’s fathers, never came to visit. She saw him rarely and heard of him less. The only reason she knew his name was because Bluespots went and visited him every day.

Russetkit mentioned to her friends Blazekit and Brookkit that her father never visited like theirs. They said that Russetkit should try to visit him because he couldn’t just run away from his own kittens. “If he did, he’d be a scaredy mouse!” Brookkit told her confidently, and Russetkit believed them.

Russetkit went and got her brother Goldenkit, because he was adventurous and tough. That, paired with Russetkit’s blunt and fiery personality, would work out great! Together, they sat in a bush near the camp enterance and waited for their fathers return. When he came back, they waited for him to come to the warriors den, where he always went to groom.

They let him groom a bit, then they snuck in slowly and quietly. Troutfall didn’t even hear them! He continued grooming. Goldenkit bravely gestured for Russetkit to go and speak to Troutfall first. So Russetkit did.

“Hi, dad! Why don’t you ever visit us? Don’t you like us?” Russetkit yelled. Goldenkit cringed.

Troutfall jumped, and then just stared at them. For what felt like forever, when it was really just like one or two minutes, but Russetkit was dramatic. Troutfall looked very upset for a bit, like the kittens had brought up his death sentence, and then he said, “Kits aren’t allowed in warrior’s den. You two need to leave.” He said it feebly, like he thought the kits were going to refuse.

Goldenkit quickly left, but Russetkit stayed.

“I SAID LEAVE!” Troutfall snapped, so Russetkit turned and fled the scene.

Bluespots told them not to visit their father again, so they never did, even though Bluespots still visited him once every day. Russetkit & Goldenkit pretended that the day never happened, and went adventuring elsewhere. They snuck out of camp, climbed the trees, and tried to swim the river. (It didn’t work~~~) they honestly forgot that their father didn’t want them.

All of the kits were reminded of their father when they were four moons old and Troutfall turned up dead, fallen from a tree. Bluespots was heart –broken at the loss of her mate and she and the other queen talked about it a lot, using words that none of the kittens understand and that the elders refused to explain.

Russetkit wasn’t sure how to feel, and felt bad that she honestly didn’t feel very sad for her father’s death. She told her sister Brightkit, who reassured her that they weren’t friends with Troutfall anyways, and he was mean to Russetkit. She didn’t have to force herself to feel sad.

Brightkit didn’t like it when Russetkit was sad. Russetkit often felt out of place or unneeded. Brightkit never knew how to comfort her because she was the only cat Russetkit would tell when she was feeling helpless or trapped.

But Russetkit was glad for Brightkit’s comfort, even though Brightkit didn’t think it meant anything. She continued to lean on Brightkit well into her life.

Apprenticeship:

Russetpaw’s apprentice ceremony didn’t go perfectly. For one, Bluespots had to groom all the kittens. Russetpaw’s friends –Blazepaw, Brookpaw, Bumblepaw and Bramblepaw- had a mother and a father to help them get groomed. But Bluespots didn’t have that.

So Bluespots groomed everyone quickly, rushed and wildly, and completely skipped Russetpaw because the ceremony started. Russetpaw felt embarrassed when she walked up to the leader’s rock with a piece of fur on her head sticking up, and when she had to shake off a bit of moss from her hind leg.

She closed her eyes and wished to be elsewhere as she swore that she could feel her clanmates eyes on her, judging her and her messy fur. She was glad to quickly touch noses with her leader –named Honeystar- and get her mentor. She wasn’t paying much attention, too busy trying to pretend her fur didn’t exist, but luckily her friendly, happy –go –lucky mentor stepped forward as well.

She got apprenticed to her mother’s friend, Ivypond! She didn’t know Ivypond that well, but she knew she was friendly and had been nice to Russetpaw on several occasions.

Her B –themed friends happily helped Russetpaw, Brightpaw, Goldenpaw, Rabbitpaw and Beetlepaw get settled into the apprentice den, which honestly wasn’t much different from the nursery beside the title.

Russetpaw easily got into the swings of things. She liked having a schedule. But what she did not get used to was the sudden lack of attention that her mother was suddenly giving her. Bluespots had been very eager to get back to the life of a warrior, and eagerly went on patrol after patrol, hunting and patrolling like it was going out of style.

Russetpaw managed to convince herself that Bluespots was avoiding her! No matter how many times that Brightpaw assured her that her mother was just excited to get back to work, Russetpaw remained unnerved and was always somewhat distracted during training.

At least she know that Ivypond liked her; Ivypond would gladly skip resting to help Russetpaw train. Russetpaw was her first apprentice, and she was determined to make her a brilliant warrior, and it was easy. She was the perfect mentor for Russetpaw, because she practically showered her with compliments and praise.

Russetpaw got to go to her first gathering with Brightpaw and Blazepaw. She didn’t much attention to the leaders, but she did meet some friendly cats from ThunderClan and ShadowClan. The ThunderClan one was named Molepaw, who was funny and made sarcastic comments about the other cats. The ShadowClan was a really sweet she –cat named Beepaw who laughed at every single joke Russetpaw made and complimented her on basically everything.

Then one day, Russetpaw got to hang out with the medicine apprentice, Featherfloat, and went with her to gather herbs. Russetpaw sat with her and fished in the river while she tended to the cat mint, and caught a gigantic trout! Her mother was super impressed and she shared it with her friends and everyone praised Russetpaw’s hunting.

Another time, Russetpaw was sparring with Brookpaw, who was much bigger than her, and actually beat her! She didn’t win afterwards or anything, but it was a pretty good feel to actually beat her for once. Brookpaw was the best apprentice and of course, Russetpaw told any cat that would listen.

Everything was going perfectly. Russetpaw’s bad funks began to get spaced further apart, which Brightpaw commented on. Of course, nothing could stay perfect forever.

When she was ten moons old, Ivypond suggested that she get a mini assessment for hunting. Russetpaw excitedly went to tell her siblings, but could only find Rabbitpaw. She eagerly bragged about her mini –assessment. He was jealous, and asked if she thought he could have one. She said yah so he went and asked his mentor Rockfish if he could get a mini assessment.

He got one! And Rabbitpaw and Russetpaw were getting their assessments together! It was great. (Although I think it’d have the thrill factor of having a friend take the same test next to you.) Russetpaw went one way and Rabbitpaw the other, going to hunt ‘land prey’ instead of fish.

Russetpaw hunted next to the half bridge, and caught two mice and vole! Ivypond told her she could stop and begin fishing. She didn’t do as well in fishing, but still caught two trout’s and a minnow that leapt right into her paws (it was a Minnow Leap!) In total, her assessment took two hours. The fishing part only took thirty minutes, but it took her an hour and a half to catch three on land prey.

She and Ivypond got home as the sun set in the horizon, lighting the forest in a dim orange glow. Russetpaw felt calm and happy, and Ivypond and her lazily strolled back to camp, enjoying the sunshine and the gentle breeze and talking about hunting.

When they neared the main path, Russetpaw glanced down and saw trails of blood. “Rabbitpaw must’ve done great!” she meowed to Ivypond, who smiled and nodded. The blood glistened in the soil, making Russetpaw’s feet slippery when she stepped on it. It was kind of dry, like Rabbitpaw had gotten home much sooner than her.

Russetpaw stepped into camp, following the blood trail to what she thought would be the kill pile.

The only dead thing she found was Rabbitpaw, lying crumbled and blood soaked in the middle of camp, an ear missing, an eye gone, front leg broken, along with four ribs, a long scratch along his side, countless bitemarks having mangled his body. He didn’t even look like the apprentice that stepped out of camp two hours before.

His mouth hung open in a scream that never touched the silence.

Brightpaw told her what happened. Rabbitpaw chased a toad straight into a tod’s den. The fox was big, cranky and aggressive. Rabbitpaw must’ve died quickly; his neck was broken. He didn’t make a sound and Rockfish only ran to check after Rabbitpaw hadn’t come out for five minutes.

The tod fled pretty quickly after Rockfish landed one or two good blows. Rabbitpaw was dead when he went into the den.

Russetpaw felt terrible for not being there. She had been prancing around catching stupid fish while her brother was dead. It was her fault! She just had to brag to Rabbitpaw about her mini assessment, didn’t she? (You know what they say about bragging –those who brag doN’T HAVE FRIENDS. Or brothers.)

Rabbitpaw’s vigil was attended by most of the Clan, aside from the kits and one queen to watch them. Rabbitpaw was a very popular cat, but Russetpaw hated his vigil. She cringed whenever they lamented his death, saying how ‘fitting it was for adventure, which made him so happy, to be his final act’ and ‘to go down with a fight was how he would’ve wanted to go.’

I pushed him to go. He shouldn’t have died fighting. I did this. Why did I do this? Russetpaw blamed herself. She pressed her head against Brightpaw’s shoulder, but it brought no comfort.

The very next day, Bluespots announced to her clanmates that she was leaving. She couldn’t live where so much of her family had died before their time, she said, and then bade her children farewell and disappeared.

Russetpaw couldn’t believe it. I did this. I got Rabbitpaw killed and made and personally orphaned me and my siblings. She thought, as she glared at her paws.

Russetpaw climbed to the very top of a tree. She stared down at the far away ground, thinking about how her father died. She hovered a paw over the edge, but didn’t step down. Brightpaw saw her and climbed up the tree to sit beside her. “It’s hard now, but you’re strong enough to go on.” Brightpaw told her. Brightpaw should be a therapist.

Brightpaw and Russetpaw returned to camp, and Russetpaw tried to remain strong. She woke up every day, even though she wanted to sleep until the life she was dreaming of became reality. She trained, and fought, and hunted, even when she just wanted to stop. She was praised by Ivypond all the time, she and her siblings went out of their way to spend time together, and Brookpaw, Blazepaw, Bramblepaw, and Bumblepaw were practically walking on eggshells around Russetpaw and her siblings, just to keep them happy.

Sometimes, it got too hard and Russetpaw would leave. She made a friend at the house place, a lovely golden huntress named Fulgora, who let her sit in the barn loft alone until she was ready to socialize again. Sometimes, the weight of her mother’s abandonment and her brother’s death hit her harder than normal and she spent entire days with Folgora.

The first times she did it, her siblings just about had heart attacks. She came home and was tackled to the ground by Goldenpaw, who showered her with frantic cries of ‘where have you been??’ ‘I was so worried!!!!!!’ She didn’t think it mattered until she came home to Brightpaw and Beetlepaw.

“I thought we lost you!” Beetlepaw wailed, pressing his head into Russetpaw’s chest.

Russetpaw explained where she’d been and about Folgora. Brightpaw told her she had to tell them when she was leaving. She did, and Russetpaw occasionally ditching to be alone began pretty normal. She left at least once a week.

She still made sure to attend her lessons and go on hunting or border patrols, but when she got overly frustrated or short tempered because of stress then Ivypond would occasionally let her leave early.

Russetpaw was glad when she became a warrior.

Warrior:

Russetleap was named for her strong legs~ and was very glad to join her friends in the warrior ranks. Her friends had gotten the names Blazeripple, Brookshine, Bumbleblaze, and Bramblestorm. Her siblings got the names Brightspots, Beetlefall, and Goldensting.

The deputy often allowed them to go on patrols with each other, but didn’t like it when all four siblings were together, in either group. So he often mixed and matched the two litters, and normally Russetleap went on patrols with Brightspots, Bumbleblaze, and Blazeripple.

Because of this, the four of them got better relationships, but she and Blazeripple got very close. Blazeripple was “”””””obviously flirting”””” according to Goldensting, and she liked him back so she flirted back sometimes.

Or she tried. She was very blunt and wasn’t very good at being subtle. Luckily, Blazeripple didn’t seem to mind that her pickup lines were less than amazing. They started cat –dating (Is there an actual word for it or nah?).

Goldensting was very excited. He was all about romance so it was the best day of his life when Russetleap told him about Blazeripple, because the next day Brightspots told him that she was going to be cat –dating whatever Brookshine.

Even though she seemed happy, Russetleap still visited Folgora. One day she was telling Folgora stories about her family, mainly about Rabbitpaw, when Folgora mentioned that she had four siblings that still lived at the barn. Russetleap asked what genders they were, and Folgora responded, “I have two sisters, one brother, and one siblings.”

“Yeah, but what gender is the last one?”

“None. They’re not a boy or a girl. Just a cat.”

Russetleap couldn’t take this. You could just be a cat? No gender? She didn’t know that. If she had, then she would’ve been just a cat long ago! She had always been a bit bothered by the she/him pronoun stuff, but had never paid attention because other stuff was happening.

She went and spoke to Folgora’s sibling, who was named Lizard. Russetleap asked how you just be a cat. Lizard told her that you just tell others to refer to you as they/them/theirs pronouns. Russetleap spent the moon intensely thinking about her gender identity, which made her seem very distracted.

Blazeripple tried to ask her what was going on, but she always refused to talk about it. She wasn’t sure if she going through a phrase since she was child, or if it was a real thing. She spent a lot of time in the barn loft a Fulgora’s place.

When she finally figured out that her gender identity was valid, she went to her family and told them about her pronouns. (now for pronoun change!)

They were accepted pretty easily, but when they went to Blazeripple, he denied it. He said it’d be weird to cat –date a non –female cat. They were pretty mad, and refused to speak to him until he apologized.

They didn’t speak to him for two moons. It would’ve been sooner because he was ready to apologize, but they was still mad and avoided him. Everyone was calling then by their preferred pronouns, and they finally forgave Blazeripple when they overheard him referring to them with the correct pronouns. As he had been doing for a moon but Russetleap had failed to notice. Whoops.

When Russetleap was two years old, they and Blazeripple became mates. It was pretty cool. They got pregnant with their kits three moons after. Goldensting was very excited. He had a mate as well –her name was Hayblossom and she was lovely. She didn’t want kits ever, so Goldensting insisted on being a great uncle.

Russetleap birthed their kits when they was two years and six moons old exactly! They gave birth to five kittens: three she –kits, two toms. Russetleap named two of the daughters: Rosekit and Pikekit. Blazeripple named one daughter and one son: Softkit, the she -kit, and Mistkit, the tom.

Russetleap let Goldensting name the final boy, which he happily named Ashkit.

As Goldensting said, he was a great uncle. He often baby sat the kits with Hayblossom and let Russetleap stretch their legs and do some patrols. Beetlefall often said that Goldensting should become a nursery queen. He actually tried, but the leader said he wasn’t allowed because he was a tom, which made him sad.

The kits all loved him, though. They awaited each visit like it would be their last and told Russetleap and Blazeripple all about the stuff they did with Goldensting and Hayblossom whenever Russetleap would listen. Softkit and Pikekit were very loud and loved to play. Ashkit wasn’t as loud, but was really sneaky and was liked to sneak attack. He always yelled “I’VE GOT YOU” when he pounced so it didn’t work out very well ever.

Rosekit and Mistkit didn’t like to play, but they liked the stories that Hayblossom told them. Hayblossom was a rogue before, and a kittypet before that. She had plenty of stories to entertain them with.

Russetleap patrolled or hunted once a day. They visited Folgora all the time, and one day they visited and found that Folgora was very upset. They asked what was wrong and Folgora told them that a large group of rogue cats were taking over the horse –place! They were attacking the horses (which was dumb) and killing the chickens. But the actual barn –cats couldn’t get near them. Lizard had lost an eye to them! (The twolegs brought him to a vet.)

Russetleap decided that was stupid. So they marched up to those over –grown kittens and chewed them out. They told them that they were a part of the bone eating Clan, RiverClan, and if they didn’t leave, they would bring her Clan and drive them out! For good measure, they tore the ear of their leader when he talked to them too aggressively.

That startled the rogue cats, but they didn’t quite believe Russetleap. They let them go but sent one cat after them to check out the size of their ‘bone eating’ Clan. The cat found out that the Clan didn’t actually eat bones, and that they weren’t quite as big as Russetleap had said.

They attacked that very night, obviously angry that Russetleap had humiliated them and harmed their leader. They went after Russetleap, but found that they had kits.

Several rogues tried to break into the Nursery, but to no avail. Goldensting, Blazeripple, Brightspots, and Brookshine fended them off while Russetleap and Hayblossom guarded the kits just in case. Russetleap didn’t see what happened, but they saw that two rogue cats had gotten though! They and Hayblossom fought fiercely, but then two more got in.

One of them threw Russetleap into a wall, knocking them out.

Russetleap woke up two days later. Brightspots gently explained to them that not all of their kits survived the attack: only Rosekit and Pikekit lived. Hayblossom had tried her hardest to defend them, but one cat had hit her right eye, blinding it, and while she was confused, one cat broke her leg. (intense)

WindClan had been received to help RiverClan, and they drove the rogues out of the Clan territory as a whole. The rogues no longer resided in the Horse –Place.

Russetleap was heart –broken. They let out a wail and their two remaining kittens ran to her, confused and scared. They pulled them close and promised to protect their remaining children.

Russetleap stayed with their kits a lot more. They still patrolled and hunted, when they actually could fight the urge to stay in bed. They got hit with depression full –on after the death of their kittens. They still smiled and played with the kits, but Blazeripple could tell they felt empty. Their siblings visited her often, too make sure they were doing okay.

They were given poppy seeds so they wouldn’t have nightmares. Blazeripple was given permission to sleep in the Nursery’s den, and the two shared a nest with the kits. Russetleap was struck by sadness whenever they looked at Rosekit, who looked just like Softkit and Mistkit. Blazeripple looked like Ashkit to a T.

Russetleap was rather protective of their kits, but they never really got annoyed. They were three moons old when the attack happened and they were old enough to understand why they were so protective of them. They had to mature quickly in a Clan wounded by battle.

Finally, the day came when they were six moons old. Russetleap made sure to start early in grooming them, so they didn’t feel embarrassed like they did. They requested for Pikekit to get mentored by Ivypond, and for Rosekit to get mentored by Brookshine.

Her kittens didn’t suspect that they had talked the leader out of giving Rosekit Rockfish as a mentor or Pikekit Tallstrike as a mentor. They felt bad because Tallstrike was a great warrior, but he was harsh and reckless. Rockfish was a good warrior, too. But they just didn’t want her child to be mentored by him, not after what happened to Rabbitpaw.

They lectured Pikekit and Rosekit to listen to their mentors and not do anything stupid. “Check that dens don’t have foxes in them before you go in them!” they told them. The kits laughed and didn’t realize what it meant to her.

They nearly cried watching Pikekit and Rosekit get their apprentice names. They cheered their names the loudest. They hoped she could keep them safe, even when they were in a different den than them.

----------*

Russetleap is a fiery, short –tempered and blunt cat. They are not very shy, and likes to make friends, but they can be insecure sometimes and struggles with depression. They are selfless, ready to defend their loved ones and feel terrible if someone close to them is hurt. They tend to blame themselves, even if they are not connected at all.

Russetleap is a close friend of a barn cat named Folgora and visits her often. They can get easily stressed and being alone with her for a while often helps loosen it a little bit.