Gingerstripe [runner and lover]

Name | Gingerstripe

Gender | She-Cat

Age | 35 moons

Rank | Warrior

Clan | MeadowClan

Beliefs| Gingerstripe as an apprentice believed with all her heart of her ancestors, the great StarClan. Then, as her Clan faced troubles, and her parents died by a badger, she lost all faith in her ancestors and ignored them. For a few moons, she wallowed in her own self-pity and glared up at the stars, daring them to explain why her parents had been killed on a patrol. One night while she was demolishing a rabbit, afterward going into her nest in the warriors den, she dreamed. Not a dream of hunting a mouse, but of her ancestors. It may of been all a dream, but it felt so very real.

She walked over to a moss covered rock and pawed at it. It vanished where her paw struck. She shivered, out of fear. Then, just out of the blue, great looming shapes and aimed their cold, endless eyes at her. They stared down at her, their shapes hidden in the very stars themselves. She padded back a few steps, alarmed. Then, two cats walked forward, or so she thought, and spoke to her. What startled her most was the voices were her parents.

They explained that StarClan had come to them and told them it was time for her to join them. She nodded, she went up to nuzzle them good bye, but the stars vanished, and so did StarClan. From that day she regained her faith in her warrior ancestors. But she sometimes doubts that ever really was StarClan and has decided it wasn't. She still firmly believes that her dream was sent to her by StarClan so that she would regain faith.

Parents | Swiftstripe(mother I'm NP) and Sandfur(father also NP)

Siblings | Dappleheart (NP)

Other Kin | ]None

Mate | Cedarstar

Crush | ^ More srs than that bro.

Kits | None

Apprentice/Mentor | Sootpaw.

Appearance | She has a thin waist, but has slightly broad shoulders. Her back legs are full of lean muscle, seeing that she runs through the meadows for so long everyday. She is somewhat petite and was always the smallest as an apprentice. She felt that degrading, the other apprentices acted like they didn't notice she was small, but there was always something that showed that they gossiped behind her back. But, her size made her best for crawling into smaller spaces for the medicine cat or if she was asked to gather something for the elders. Although, as the moons passed, she grew taller and stronger.

Her dark ginger very is short, and very smooth. Her russet fur has lighters stripes along her back and side flanks. In Leaf Bare, her fur is more thick and slightly fluffier. On several occasions in the colder seasons it has even gotten longer. Her eyes are a piercing amber, and they can almost look inside you, and see how you feel. But her eyes also reveal her in a lie, or if she isn't feel well. Gingerstripe's whiskers are long and gray. They twitch whenever she feels something just isn't right.

Personality | The first thing you need to know about this ginger she-cat is that in her own youth, she was far from mild-mannered. Gingerstripe is lenient when it comes to punishment to a cat just looking for a good prank. Though she knows they do deserve something, it was all in good fun. Do not think for a second, though, that she has lost her sense of humor and her nature of pranking of the sort. Gingerstripe will still be as jovial as possible when she can. Another trait she has that definitely can grind many cats gears is her ability to find anything and everything to talk about. This can be a problem if their hunting, or something or another. Do not assume she is dense, however. Gingerstripe knows when something is amiss and she should shut her trap. You want to hurt someone close to her? Think twice about it. She's very protective of her Clan and her friends. Especially Cedarstar. After losing her father and mother, Gingerstripe will do anything to protect the ones she loves.

Mischievous

This part of her sprung up after her parents met her demise. Gingerstripe felt alone, and drowned herself in self-pity. This, of course, wasn't healthy in the least. Cats started to go back to how things were. Gingerstripe couldn't. The pain was too great for her to bare. She began to realize the way she could get her stupid ancestors to notice she wasn't well. Cause a bit of chaos in the Clan. Upstart things. Prank, cause trouble, sneak out. Whatever. What had started out as just a way to get a response from her ancestors actually became something she was rather fond of. Making another apprentice think they had slept through their entire apprenticeship was hilarious. Or telling a warrior the noon patrol left them because they had been too slow. Sure, she had gotten punished, but she knew it was all fun and games. This trait, however, as she has aged as died down. Of course, that doesn't mean you wouldn't still see her purring in amusement at whatever Shrewstorm and Foxpaw are doing to an unsuspecting passerby.

Talkative

No matter how hard you try, you probably won't be able to keep her quiet for long. Gingerstripe is a people-person, and how to you interact with one another? Using your Starclan given voice, of course! This can irritate several of her Clan-mates, but she doesn't care. She also seems to ramble when nervous or very, very excited. So, if you don't want to here non-stop blabber, try not to catch her while she's like that. But, in all honesty, no cat truly hates her. Gingerstripe can just be a bit much for a lot of cats when she's very excited for something. Take Gatherings, for example. Her Clan-mates know how she acts, but other Clan cats? Get overwhelmed and just try to run off so they don't have to talk to a crazy talkative furball. But, yet again with the whole maturity thing, Gingerstripe has learned to control herself.

Protective

You mess with Gingerstripe, you get teeth and claws. Having already lost her parents to something she couldn't control, she is far more aware of what goes on around her. If she ever were to lose someone again, she is unsure how she would react. Gingerstripe has tried her hardest to accept the fact that if one of her friends or family were to pass on, they would be in the hands of Starclan, and that had to be good enough for her. Now, if its a situation that she can control the outcome, you know that she will do her very best to make sure that no one she knows is even hurt. In battles, when she should be fighting, Gingerstripe may get distracted simply because she has a flash-back of her parents when she sees Cedarstar or someone from her Clan in a fight they may not fair so well in.

Skills | Gingerstripe followed her mother, Swiftstripe. Gingerstripe can run faster than her sister and some of the young apprentices. She loves to feel the wind in her fur, it's as though it calls how to her in a fond greeting. You would think that she would run into a tree at the speeds she goes, but she can detect them, after all, she knows these meadows as well as any other MeadowClan warrior.

She can fight well enough, but has a bit of trouble remembering to actually extend her claws at times. Which is why you can usually find her in the medicine cat's den after a battle. Or, Gingerstripe can use that to her advantage. Every now and then she does it intentionally to freak out her opponent. Does it always work? No. From her natural limberness, she has an excellent hunting technique, and hunting is probably her strongest warrior skill.

History |

Kittenhood

Gingerkit was born in the beginning of New Leaf, when the blossoms began to bloom the brightest blues, pinks and golds. The meadows were alive with chattering and tweeting. The animals had started to slowly squirm out of their dens and begin the start to gather food. Rabbits jumped are frantically, moving at the slightest movement in the tall grasses. Deep within the meadows, the MeadowClan camp lay. Two kits had been born to Swiftstripe and Sandfur, and the medicine cat was tending to Swiftstripe in the nursery. It was not but even sun high, which was a good sign. The kits were healthy and drinking their mother's milk to their hearts content.

A few weeks later, the two kits were still together with their mother and father. But, their eyes had opened, both sets of their eyes a piercing blue like all kits. The two were currently exploring the new world with their newly opened eyes.
"Hey, check this out!" Dapplekit meowed. She was by a moss ball to the left of the den, which was in shadow.

"Pass it to me!" Gingerkit squeaked, excited. Dapplekit whacked it with her paw at her sister and Gingerkit was trying to be ready for it, but yelped in surprise as the moss ball came straight at her. She ducked away and then regained her confidence and grabbed the ball and dragged it over to where her mother was sitting, giving herself a grooming.

"What are you two up to?" she meowed, purring in amusement at her two kits. Gingerkit spat out the moss ball's excess moss and purred, Dapplekit running over to be with her family.

"We're going to explore the whole camp!" Dapplekit declared. Gingerkit purred, licking her kitten's fur so that they were nice and clean.

So, that's how the kits and their mother were, for 6 moons until the kits became apprentices. Then, it all changed when the kits were on their third patrol with their parents.

Apprenticeship

It was a few moons later, but many things were very different. Take, for example the two little kittens we first met, Dapplekit and Gingerkit. They are now Gingerpaw and Dapplepaw. This part of their story begins in the camp's clearing.

"We're going on the dawn patrol!" Dapplepaw exclaimed to the other apprentices as she and Gingerpaw clawed at the dirt in anticipation. The other apprentices nodded, starting to share tongues with each other about their duties they had to do today with their mentors.

Sandfur padded over to them, swishing his tailing happily. "Alright, its time to go out on the patrol, the deputy and your mother are waiting." he meowed to them, purring as their eyes lit up. They scrambled over to the rest of the patrol. The two cats waiting for them nodded to them, and they set out of the camps entrance.

The sun was beginning to rise, and the light on the droplets of dew in the entire marsh, making the clearing sparkle. Gingerpaw bounded happily beside her sister, Dapplepaw. This patrol was their third official patrol with the warriors and they wanted to do something amazing. A dark sandy colored tom with broad shoulders and calm, blue eyes padded behind them. This cat was their father, Sandfur. Beside him was their mother, Swiftstripe, a black and white she-cat who was know to catch birds the best. The patrol was led by their deputy, and they were sent here to sniff out a badger den. The last patrol had said they had smelled a fresh badger in this area and this patrol was sent out to see where the badger went. Just then Dapplepaw's fur tingled and Gingerpaw's whiskers twitched. In her gut somewhere, she felt that something was about to happen that would change her world forever. She had a knot in her belly and listened to her sister, now very anxious.

"Father, I smell an unfamiliar scent coming from over here." she meowed, urgently, by a bramble thicket. Just then, in utter chaos, a foul smelling black and white thing menacingly crept from the bushes. Swiftstripe yowled and pushed Dapplepaw to safety, clawing at the badger with all the force of LionClan. The deputy and Sandfur joined her, and slowly, it looked like they were going to win. Dapplepaw and Gingerpaw were clawing at its backing, snarling.

Then, it did an unexpected move and thrust its claws straight into... Sandfur and Swiftstripe's hearts, giving them barely anytime to react. The badger yowled an earsplitting cry and left, leaving Dapplepaw and Gingerpaw in utter shock. They lifted their parents dead bodies with the help of the deputy and padded back to camp in utter silence.

The entire meadows could hear their cries of anguish and pain when their parent's vigil was given.

A few moons after Gingerpaw and Dapplepaw's kins death, Cedarstar(deputy if ForestClan back then) rallied up half the Clan to go with him to journey into new lands make their own Clan that stuck to the warrior code but also be the way the Clan had been before Brownstar was leader. In the apprentices den of ForestClan, Gingerpaw and Dapplepaw were thinking about going with Cedarstar to create a new Clan.

"You know," Dapplepaw meowed quietly, "mother and father never really liked the way that Brownstar ruled over the Clan." Gingerpaw tensed at the mention of her beloved parents. It had been 3 moons, but she still felt anguish and sadness about her parent's death.

"It's settled then," Gingerpaw declared, wanting to follow her parent's pawsteps, "we'll go with the group of cats to start a new Clan." Dapplepaw and Gingerpaw and scrambled out of the den and ran to the clearing in the forest where he group had decided to meet at when they were ready to leave the area. Once there, Gingerpaw gasped. Almost half of ForestClan was coming to start a better Clan.

Gingerpaw saw familiar faces, some she was surprised to see, others she would of bet a moon of dawn patrols would come, and she had been correct. Barely 5 fox-tails away, Cedarclaw stood with his friends, discussing quietly to one another. She longed to hear what they were talking about. After a few heartbeats, they broke apart and Cedarclaw stood in the center of the group confidently.

"You all have come here to create a better Clan in a far away land.." he started. But then, the cats pure nervousness made them yell out countless questions.

"Will Brownstar track us down?"
"When will we know we're in the new land?"
"How long will we have before Leaf Bare?"

Cedarclaw silenced the anxious cats with a wave of his tail and looked everyone of them in the eye. The low buzz of questions died as his cold stare looked around the circle.

"If you do not wish to risk everything to create a better group of Clans, than leave now. The rest of us will have no use for your complaining. StarClan will send us a sign, and I do not know how long it will take. But, turn your weak tails around now if you do not wish to risk your life for this new clan." he spoke icily.

Not a cat left, all were too shocked to speak. Grim, Gingerpaw knew what he meant. To herself, Gingerpaw thought if she were to die, she would at least be reacquainted with her family once again. She glanced at Dapplepaw, who looked determined to make her "ancestors" proud.

With a wave of his tail, Cedarstar signaled for the cats to follow him out of the Clan's territory. Gingerpaw glanced around at the place she had been born in for the last time and turned around to pad along with her clan-mates to find a better world. She didn't look back.

For moons, the group faced hardships, a few passed on. But, the cats never lost their belief that they would find a new land to call their own. Gingerpaw's paws were cut and bloody, her eyes were filled with tiredness, and weakness. Over the horizon, the sunrise began. Gingerpaw looked up at the sky, the stars were beginning to disappear one by one. Good riddance, she thought.

Then, the lead cats stopped to an abrupt halt. Why have they stopped? she pondered in her head. She peered above the older cats heads, and what she saw took her breath away. They had found the perfect land. Trees galore, a bubbling river, a marsh and a beautiful meadow filled with valleys.

Someone had led them to this wonderful spot, and now they could claim it.

Warrior Life
Currently, Gingerstripe is fulfilling her duties as a warrior to her Clan. She became a warrior at 13 moons(late for misbehavior, who could have thought?), and has been one since. However, she didn't always have her calmer attitude. Maturity sometimes come from tragedy. Or accepting things(or cats) are really gone. That is exactly what happened to Gingerstripe.

For several moons of her warriorship, she was lost in the way of her ancestors. She despised them, for taking away her family, and with them, her very belief in StarClan.

The sun set, but a ginger she-cat did not move from her position of of sitting at the side of the warriors den. She glared up at the stars. Why? She thought angrily at the stars. Why did you take them? What had the done? the night sky was silent. She yowled in misery. They never listened to her pleas of an answer of why they had taken her parents from her when she was only 8 moons old.

She hissed and padded angrily back into the warriors den and curled into a tight ball in her moss nest and fell asleep.

She opened her eyes, and she was in the clearing where her parents had given their lives. She yowled, crying out in pain at the memory of when her parents died. But, unlike when her parents died, there was no dark red blood on rocks and bushes. Instead, the area was misty and nothing looked clear.

Then, dark looming figures appeared out of nowhere and stared down at her. But, when she looked up, their eyes were full of nothingness. She shuddered. Two blurry shapes padded out from the others. She slightly clearer, she saw that they were shaped like cats. They spoke clearly and crisply to one another in shushed voices.

"H-Hello?" she whispered, scared that raising her voice would make the spirits go away.

"Hello, Gingerstripe." they meowed in unison. This creeped her out a bit, and she backed away. Holy fox-dung....they sounded like....no...couldn't be, she thought to herself. Then again, didn't medicine cats have these weird talks with their ancestor's? Either way, it was worth a try. Even if these cats were not her parents, perhaps they knew of them.

"Mother? F-Father?" she whispered. Her knees gave way and she knelt down.

"Yes, dear." Swiftstripe meowed, her eyes full of nothing, but angled with comfort.

"Why?" she meowed, pawing at a leaf angrily. It just disappeared when...her claw touched it.

"Don't blame your ancestors for our death, it was our time to come." they both said. Then, they both padded back to the group of shadows.

"Wait! Where are you going!" she yowled in sadness.

And then they disappeared.