Snowdapple

[Jelly]

Written: 1/25/2012

NAME:
Snowdapple

REASON FOR NAME:
“Snow-” – a large majority of her pelt is white, like snow
“-dapple” – her back is a mesh of mostly orange and black, in something of a rounded, ‘dappled,’ pattern

AGE:
39 moons

GENDER:
She-cat

CLAN:
WindClan

RANK:
Deputy

BRIEF APPEARANCE:
Well-groomed calico she-cat with pale green eyes.

PERSONALITY:
Snowdapple is a stubborn cat. She believes that she will always get what she wants, because she will always work for it until she does – and no one and nothing can get in her way when she puts her mind to something. She is brash and honest and won’t hold back her opinions even if she knows that no one else will agree with them. In Snow’s opinion, if you can’t handle what she thinks of you or a situation, than you shouldn’t be involved. She sees this as being honest, not being rude in any way, and she doesn’t plan on apologizing for any feelings she might hurt in the process.

She has great faith in her clan, especially the few extremely close friends that she has among her clanmates. Snowdapple would do absolutely everything for WindClan – loyal to a fault at times, even. She doesn’t have fond opinions of the other clans, but she will never be outright antagonistic toward them unless ‘they start it.’ Snowdapple likes to think that she can finish anything anyone else thinks they can start, and she has no problems telling someone that they’re to blame. She has a fierce sense of pride, in herself and her clan, and even the smallest of insults can easily get under her skin. Thankfully, time has managed to mellow her out, slightly at least.

Snowdapple is also incredibly protective. She is protective of her kits, of her friends, of her past apprentices, and even of her whole clan. In some ways she can seem a little paranoid about what could go wrong, but she manages to keep most of the out-there types of worries to herself, unless they become relevant. She likes knowing what is going on where and who is doing what – and if she can control that, all the better. If Snow had her way, none of her clanmates would suffer from hunger or battle wounds or sickness, but even she knows that’s not possible.

Snowdapple is certainly experienced with tragedy and loss herself – to the point that she believes nothing worse can ever hurt her. Because of that mindset, she tends to suffer her own problems silently and privately but tackle the problems of the clan headlong. There are things in the world that can be fixed, and there are things in the world that have to be dealt with; able to differentiation from them now means she’s more able to keep a level head when problems do arise (if not always a level temper).

WHAT MAKES THEM A GOOD DEPUTY:
Snowdapple is a natural-born leader who just hasn’t been given the chance to lead. She is quick and efficient, a master planner and strategist when she needs to be, and she won’t take crap from anyone. If something needs to be done, it needs to be done, and if you don’t want to help, you shouldn’t benefit from it. She believes that all the clan should work together toward their goals, but at the same time she would gladly take on the work of all of her clanmates without a complaint.

The only true goal she has left in her life is to make sure WindClan stays strong and flourishes, safe. She is not personally ambitious and has no drive to tackle the deputy and leader positions, but the more power she has in the clan and the more she can do to ensure that she can watch over her clanmates, the better. Of course, she can’t say that the ranks aren’t appealing, but she is a cat that has never thought of herself as more than a sister, friend, warrior, mentor, and queen – as opposed to someone who is looking for the social symbol rather than the change to protect and manage WindClan.

Snowdapple may not be afraid to tell someone that she doesn’t like them and treat them as such, she would never do anything to jeopardize the clan – even if that means having to deal daily with cats she would rather never talk to. She is blunt, brash, and strict, but has something of a filter when it is absolutely required. For example: she won’t outright insult another clan’s leader (or her own clan’s leader), but she certainly won’t restrain herself from commenting on whatever she disagrees with.

Snowdapple is a determined, driven, loyal, protective, fiery, experienced warrior who would flourish in a higher-ranking position, but will always be looking out for the best of WindClan.

HISTORY:
Little Snowkit was born to two rather average WindClan warriors, Eaglefeather and Rabbitwhisker, who did little with their lives (before and after their only litter) besides serve their clan. There were no aspirations for greatness in her genetics, however the fact that she was the only kit out of the five-kit litter to be completely healthy – and therefore rather ignored while her siblings were looked over meticulously – made young Snowkit eager to make herself known. She had no qualms about getting into trouble if that was what it took, and her mischief was quickly infamous throughout the clan, though her parents did little to discipline her.

Before the litter reached their third moon, three had passed on to join StarClan – born weak and unresponsive, or unable to get the full amount of nutrients they needed from their mother’s milk with the competition of their siblings. Dovekit, Snowkit’s only sister, was pronounced deaf in one ear, but she was the only sickly kit in the litter to recover. As soon as she was released from their mother’s paranoid and watchful grip, she latched on to Snowkit. At first, Snowkit resented the sudden addition to her little misadventures, but soon she and her sister formed the unbreakable bond of siblings and partners in crime – although Dovekit was more often helpful in worming the both of them out of trouble, as she was the frailer, more innocent of the two by far.

The rest of Snow’s kit-hood and the early moons of her apprentice-ship went by rather quickly and uneventfully. True, she was a rather hell-ish apprentice, resenting all the tasks she was given around the camp and the restriction of her freedom, but she was also a quick learner when her mentor could actually make her sit down and listen. It wasn’t until she was about nine moons old that any of that changed.

Snowpaw and Dovepaw’s mentors had taken them both out on a border patrol together (a common thing after the sisters both complained so much about being separated for their training), when they ran into a fox and her two cubs, both grown enough to be problems of their own. The encounter didn’t end well… The patrol didn’t even manage to chase the foxes off – a larger party had to go and take care of that issue the next day – and all four cats had to visit the medicine cat’s den. Dovepaw was in the worst shape of them all; her fighting had suffered from the beginning of her training because of her deafness, but she was as reckless as Snowpaw when with her sister. That simple fact earned her a broken hindleg, scarred face, torn ear, and various other small injuries that were harder to see once her fur grew back in.

Snowpaw herself was beaten and bruised and had received a long gash down her shoulder and foreleg from the battle, along with the more minor injuries. But even once she had been told she was fine to leave and sleep off her injuries, Snowpaw refused to leave her sister’s side until the other she-cat could leave the medicine cat’s den. Their parents were both frantic about the whole thing, and even went to the lengths of asking the medicine cat and their current leader if Dovepaw could be made into the medicine cat apprentice or an early elder to protect her. Thankfully (in Snow’s opinion), her sister immediately refused anything of the sort, and swore that she would be made a warrior alongside Snowpaw.

A painfully slow moon of healing (and even longer before the injured apprentice could return to active training), and both siblings were back in action – and young Snowpaw quickly surprised her mentor with the attention and energy she now put into her training. She did little else but work on her hunting and fighting, and kept her complaints about her apprentice duties to herself – she even took on some of Dovepaw’s duties around the camp. It wasn’t really surprising that her training and skill took off from that point; Snowpaw quickly made up for the time lost in the medicine cat’s den.

Dovepaw, unfortunately, was another matter entirely. She tried, she honestly did, but with the combination of her half-deafness and her injured leg (properly set, but it would never completely heal), she didn’t get very far in her training. Snowpaw worked with her sister outside of the mentor/apprentice training, but it didn’t help all that much. Moons of training passed, where warrior-ship was the only goal that the two sisters focused on – but Snowpaw herself outright told her mentor that she couldn’t become a warrior until Dovepaw could join her on her vigil night. Somehow the message was passed on to their leader, and was actually listened to.

It was after a border fight between ThunderClan and WindClan that even Dovepaw had proved herself in battle enough to be considered warrior-material, even though she never fought without her sister by her side. The night after the battle, Snowdapple and Dovefeather sat out under the stars in their silent vigil, both nursing injuries, but both happy and content. It was one of the happiest moments that Snow herself can remember.

With the duties and time-constraints of training done and over with, both new warriors began to branch out more with their clanmates – though neither had been particularly shy as apprentices. Snowdapple kept her high work ethic, redirecting it toward simply hunting and patrolling and keeping an eye on her sister (she hardly realized that she worried about the she-cat as much as their parents did), but she also quickly fell into spending time with Hawktalon – a warrior that had been made an apprentice not long after she and her sister were born. They had spent very little time together as apprentices, but through many hunting and border patrols together, a strong bond flourished between them. Dovefeather was much more well-rounded socially (as Snow had a habit of getting on some cat’s bad sides with her brash personality, and she didn’t tend to give many cats second chances herself), but it was no secret that she had her eye on the nursery not very long after becoming a warrior.

Snow thought her sister was crazy for cutting her warrior life short with such an idea as kits, but her (often mentioned) opinion didn’t stop Dovefeather from following through with her own new goals. It didn’t help that the tom she ‘fell’ for was one of the ones that ruffled Snowdapple’s fur the most: Reedshadow, a snarky, wiry tom that was much more a hunter than anything else. He was also almost twice their age, which wasn’t that much of an issue for many cats, but struck Snow as wrong. She had been so protective of her sister for so long, that not getting involved in Dovefeather’s choice of a mate stretched her self control to the limit, and she took to avoiding her sister after Dove announced that she was pregnant so that she couldn’t say anything to insult her sister or the father of her kits.

In her sister’s absence from her life, Snow grew even closer to Hawktalon, burying herself in his company and her work for her clan. It wasn’t long after Dovefeather moved into the nursery that another queen (a mother of three young kits) moved out, and Snowdapple was one of the lucky young warriors to receive an apprentice – Hawktalon was another. It was a welcome distraction, even when Snowdapple’s apprentice was the quiet and reserved Gorsepaw, who hung his head and retreated into himself whenever he did something wrong, as opposed to the outspoken and ambitious creature that Snow was. Thankfully, Gorsepaw’s sister and Hawktalon’s apprentice, Mousepaw, was much more similar to Snow, and the two she-cats clicked almost more than either apprentice/mentor pair.

The four quickly took to training together, rigorously pushing the two apprentices and pitting them against each other – using common sibling rivalry to egg them on. Snowdapple took great satisfaction in getting Gorsepaw to open up and although she didn’t go easy on him, she mentally celebrated every time he did something right – a boost to her confidence as well as his.

They were only a moon into Gorsepaw and Mousepaw’s training when Dovefeather confronted Snowdapple outside of the camp – almost more than a moon since the two sisters had talked more than passing greetings, if that. Without giving Snow much of a chance to avoid her again, Dovefeather launched into the news that she had received from the medicine cat: she was getting sick again. Her immune system was failing because of her pregnancy, and the sickness she and her litter-mates had had when they were born was creeping back up on her. While the medicine cat didn’t know how bad it was going to get or if it was going to infect her kits, Dovefeather wanted to make Snowdapple promise that she would take care of any of her kits if she was to die in the kitting or soon after.

Shocked by the news, Snowdapple quickly promised, and, flustered, apologized for avoiding her sister for so long. Dovefeather shook the apology off, thanked Snow, and made her way back to the nursery. Snowdapple took to visiting the nursery every day after that, spending time with her sister despite the usual presence of Reedshadow. Her focus on Gorsepaw’s training faltered, but she never missed a training session, especially when Hawktalon badgered her about it. It wasn’t long before she told him about Dovefeather’s sickness (news that was being kept from the majority of the clan), but when she did, a thought occurred to her, and it plagued her for weeks before she brought it up as well.

There were no other WindClan queens at the moment – if Dovefeather died in the kitting, her kits would have no milk to feed from. Sure, there might have been an alternative the medicine cat might have been able to figure out, but it could never measure up to the real thing. But if Snowdapple got pregnant, she could feed Dovefeather’s kits, even if she wouldn’t be able to do it right away. Hawktalon told her the idea was crazy, and assured her that Dovefeather wasn’t going to die anytime soon. Besides, he told her, they both had their apprentices to train – she couldn’t abandon Gorsepaw for the nursery, not this early on in his training.

The idea never left her mind, whatever she said to placate Hawktalon. It was only a few days before she brought it up to him again, bluntly asking him if he would father her kits. Romance had never been strong between the two of them, but there was no denying that they had a strong connection, and Snowdapple was hoping her desperation along with that would convince him. He brought up the issue of her apprentice once again, and the fact that Dovefeather might not die at all. Unfortunately, Snowdapple was steadfast in her argument, and told him that if he wouldn’t father her kits, she would find someone else to – she would even stoop to asking Reedshadow, and she doubted he would deny any kind of chance like that.

In the end, she convinced him, and even before she knew she was pregnant, she talked to her leader about Gorsepaw’s training. Unfortunately, planning a back-up mentor for him wouldn’t be needed. In a patrol very reminiscence of her own apprentice-hood tragedy, she, Hawktalon, Gorsepaw, and Mousepaw were attacked by a pair of foxes on a border patrol. The successfully chased the foxes off, but Gorsepaw received a dangerous bite to the stomach, one that the medicine cat could not effectively patch up, and one that very easily got infected. Within the next week, he had passed on to StarClan.

Struck by her apprentice’s death and the fear of her sister’s similar fate, Snowdapple – for once – retreated into herself. She moved to the nursery not long after Gorsepaw’s death, and although both Hawktalon and Mousepaw visited her often, she spent the next two moons quiet and cut off, only really paying attention to her sister. Their mother was killed in a fall off of the RiverClan gorge during this time, the loss devastating their father, but Snowdapple was almost numb to the tragedy. She was too afraid of losing her sister to realize how the loss of her mother affected her, much less act it out for her clanmates.

And lose her sister she did – along with two nieces and a nephew. Dovefeather died in the kitting in the middle of the night, one of her kits were stillborn, and two more were dead by morning. One young tom-kit survived though, and he was quickly ushered to Snowdapple’s side during the chaos of the kitting and the silent vigil for Dovefeather, even though she wasn’t producing much milk yet. After Dovefeather was buried, Snowdapple showed the most energy she had in a when she firmly (and loudly) told Reedshadow that he would have no part in raising Dovefeather’s son, that Dovefeather had entrusted him to her. She named the young tom Eaglekit after their mother and the dappled golden-brown of his coat, and settled into a very protective motherhood, even before her own kits were born.

Hawktalon had stayed away from the nursery until after Dovefeather’s death, though he hardly left it except to hunt in the aftermath. Mousepaw was well on her way to becoming a warrior, and he would update Snowdapple on her progress (though the young she-cat would visit her from time to time as well, bringing her extra prey and playing with little Eaglekit as much as he was able to play) as the days and weeks passed.

When Snowdapple finally gave birth to her own litter, it was to a dusky-gray she-kit and brindled brown tom-kit, who she quickly dubbed Featherkit and Gorsekit. As the moons of their kit-hood passed, Snowdapple slowly began to recover and integrate herself back into the clan again – even if she still spent most of her time with Mousepaw and Hawktalon. By the time her kits were ready to be assigned mentors (Eaglekit was kept back with his ‘siblings’), Mousepaw had become Mousetail, although it was too early on in her own warrior-ship for her to be given an apprentice. Snowdapple almost asked to mentor one of her kits, but restrained herself, knowing that that was a rare case for a reason. However, as they were handed out as apprentices, she kept a close watch on them, making it obvious to their new mentors that she wasn’t going to let anything happen to any of them.

Slowly, Snow settled back into her warrior life, turning her focus and energy back into helping the clan – going on endless hunting and border patrols when she wasn’t keeping an eye on her kits’ training. She hadn’t been the only queen in the nursery near the end of her litter’s kit-hood, and seven moons later, another litter had been born to WindClan and were ready to be given mentors. In the same clan meeting where Eaglepaw was given the warrior name Eaglestrike (he had proved himself in a rough border scuffle, though both of his ‘siblings’ weren’t quite at warrior-level just yet – they were both named warriors, Featherstep and Gorsefang, two moons later), Snowdapple was given another chance at mentoring her own apprentice.

Young Honeypaw was eager to learn, a bright a happy she-cat who saw little wrong with the world. She bonded easily with Mousetail who tended to accompany Snowdapple on hunting trips even when they were training sessions – and she may have had a crush on Hawktalon, as Snow noticed that the apprentice grew shy and self-conscious whenever the other warrior joined in on their training sessions. She pretended not to notice, although those training sessions tended to end in failure of some kind for the smaller she-cat (out of no form of jealousy, of course – Hawktalon and Snowdapple had shifted back into their close-friendship over a romantic relationship, and, besides, Snow knew it was merely a kitten-crush if it was anything). Snow, in her brash ways, wasn’t above mentioning in Honeypaw’s hearing that she and Hawktalon had kits older than Honeypaw herself – not that such comments ever seemed to sink in.

Overall, Honeypaw’s apprentice-ship was a quick and uneventful one (in regards to problems and tragedies). After seven moons of training, Snowdapple spoke to WindClan’s leader and agreed that the she-cat was ready for her warrior name. The next day, Honeypaw was christened Honeywhisker. And, once more, Snowdapple has focused her energy and attention on simply serving her clan to the absolute best of her ability, finally happy with her life once more, finally recovered from her sister’s and first apprentice’s deaths.

ROLEPLAY SAMPLE:
Snowdapple’s long orange and black tail flicked back and forth – the only outward expression of her irritation and impatience as she sat by the camp entrance besides her narrowed eyes. Hawktalon was already assuring her that the younger warrior going on this hunting patrol with them was on his way, but she shook her head to cut him off. “The sun-high patrol is supposed to leave at sun-high, not whenever he decides to get up from his nap in the sun,” she meowed sharply.

With that, the calico pushed herself to her paws. A quick glance around the camp proved that the other warrior was still nowhere near approaching them, and Snowdapple captured the attention of one of the queens that was out lounging in the sun. “Tell Rabbitleap that we left without him. We’re heading toward the badger set – and he better find us before we return to camp, or I’ll have his tail.” After making sure her message was received and would be relayed to the offending cat, Snowdapple turned her eyes back to her good friend, motioning with a flick of her ears toward the camp entrance.

She didn’t wait for his response to her decision to leave early, she just assumed that the older tom would follow her – it wasn’t like she was the one who often did the following anyway. Slipping out onto the open moorland and setting off at an easy pace toward the destination she had already stated, Snowdapple glanced over at the brindled tom, a hint of her usual good humor returning to her expression. “Same bet as always, Hawktalon? The cat with the smallest catch owes the other their favorite fresh-kill for dinner, no matter how long it takes to catch it?” She expected him to agree – he always did, even if he almost never won their little bet. Snowdapple couldn’t understand just why he took on such foolish chances, but she certainly wasn’t going to argue with it. After all, she always got the best mouse from the edges of the barn house when she won. It would always be worth it – and hey, they both hunted harder to make sure they didn’t lose, so the clan was fed more as well. Again, definitely worth it.

OTHER:
Oh gosh, the math with her age *dies*
And, if she is chosen, we can always say she was appointed while mentoring her last apprentice, if you don’t want her to be newly-appointed <.< Or take out Honeypaw completely and give her an apprentice on LY, but I like Honeypaw xD