❈𝓣𝔀𝓲𝓼𝓽𝓮𝓭 𝓢𝓽𝓻𝓮𝓪𝓶❈ Your cats ready!
RussetleapRussetleap 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.
Pick a number between 1 -64 (last part of name) 63 
