Post by Mid on Dec 1, 2013 21:46:54 GMT
Name:
Clan/Status: RiverClan/medicine cat apprentice
Age: 6 moons
Gender: Female
Appearance: Mintpaw is an average-sized cat. She has short, silky fur and is long-legged. Mintpaw is your average gray tabby cat; silver being her base color with darker gray stripes amongst her pelt. Mintpaw has long, clear whiskers and bright green eyes. Her tail is pretty long, which often helps her balance, of course.
Personality: Mintpaw is a very intelligent, clever she-cat. She's a very quick learner and pays attention to detail most of the time. Mintpaw is very good under pressure, and can block out sad emotions, so if a cat dies, she'll try her best to wait until she's out of the range of other cats to express her true feelings about the situation. Mintpaw has a good memory, and although she's not perfect, time and experience should give her what she needs to become a good medicine cat.
Mintpaw, luckily for her position, has absolutely no interest in a mate and even less interest in having kits of her own. She'll gladly leave the job of continuing family lines to her littermates.
Of course, with the good comes the bad, and now we'll spend some time focusing on Mintpaw's negative traits:
Mintpaw is grumpy and rude almost all of the time. She's snappy, impatient, and overall not the most cheerful cat to be around. However, despite how hot-headed and easily-irritated Mintpaw is, she really does care about her Clanmates (most of the time. She knows how to hold a grudge if a cat angers her enough.), but she refuses to show it.
That's another thing about Mintpaw: She refuses to show her emotions and will deny help or talking about feelings at all costs. She shoves others away, and the only exception is her mentor.
Mintpaw happens to be incredibly stubborn, and refuses to give in no matter what. If she tells a patient to eat a certain leaf, and they refuse, she will personally attempt to shove it down their throat. This can be good or bad depending on the situation, of course.
History:
The sound of pawsteps were muffled by the soft sand beneath their black paw pads, their fur touching, their tail twined lovingly. "It's a beautiful greenleaf day," Featherstep whispered softly to her mate. Her belly was swollen with the several kits she was carrying, and her fur was soft and neatly washed.
"It really is an amazing day; you've got that right," Stormfire had replied in a purr, noticing for the first time how picturesque the ocean was; its blue waves lapping carelessly against the shore. He could see sunlight dappled on the waves, and for a moment, Stormfire believed that there was nothing more appealing to the eye than what he was staring at then.
And in only a moment, the peace between the young couple was shattered.
Featherstep crouched down, her ears flat against her head, her claws sinking into the sand. She felt a ripple of pain pass through her belly area, and, of course, knew what was happening. "Come on; I need to get you back to camp!" Stormfire hissed in a panic, nudging his mate back toward the camp.
"There's not time!" Featherstep said, looking around. She noticed a tree near the border with ThunderClan and nodded toward it. "Somewhere dark and shady, and it's on some grass. Let's go there." Featherstep directed, picking herself up slightly and forcing her paws to move toward the tree. She felt Stormfire guiding her along the way, trying his best to make her go faster, but not rushing her to the point where it would hurt her.
In a few minutes, the gray tabby she-cat was settled in a hastily-made, makeshift nest under the shade of vibrant leaves from the tree. Her jaw was clenched, her teeth grinding in pain, her belly writhing as the kits began to push each other out of the way, all trying to be the first to enter the world. As Stormfire brought a stick to his mate to bite on, Graykit won the race.
"A tom!" Stormfire exclaimed, quite pleased knowing he'd helped create this. He nipped the sac of the kit and placed the large bundle of fur by his mother, washing his son's fur the wrong way.
Another kit made its way into the world, too; this one not as big as its brother, but male nevertheless. Stormfire's throat was roaring in a purr as he picked up his second son and did the same as with the first.
An hour later, Featherstep was laying with her head down in the nest, completely exhausted from the effort of birthing five kits. Stormfire, however, was nearly bouncing like a newly-made apprentice in excitement. "Featherstep," he mewled like a kit, "Before you fall asleep, we need to name them! I'll go and tell our Clanmates why we'll be spending the night here after, okay?"
"Can't we wait until morning to name them?" Featherstep moaned.
"No!" Stormfire meowed, "It has to be now!"
"Fine." Featherstep gave in to her mate, purring in amusement. She'd only seen him like this a couple times before, and it was always cute and funny to her. "I'll name the she-cats, you name the toms?"
"Okay." Stormfire looked over his sons, trying to decide names for them. "Graykit, Pebblekit, and Sootkit in that order."
Featherstep blinked, approving of the names. "Mintkit and Minnowkit for the she-cats." the queen's amber eyes flicked over to her mate's green eyes, and he reached down to nuzzle her.
Yowls and murderous screeches filled Mintkit's ears. She crouched, trembling, behind her mother in RiverClan's clearing.
"Keep emotions out of play, Mintkit." That was what her father had always told her. She should keep her emotions away from everything. She should keep them inside and only release them to StarClan. Emotions only caused cats to do stupid things and hurt them. She remembered the words now as the badger tore apart her Clanmates. Mintkit couldn't get them out of her head for some reason, and something inside her told her they'd be important soon. A premonition of sorts.
"No!" Mintkit cried out in misery. The badger was about to step on her favorite toy: a piece of a mouse's pelt. Sure, it was a dumb toy to have, but mice were uncommon in RiverClan, and Stormfire had caught the prey for her, so she decided to keep a piece of it forever.
"That's Mintkit's toy!" Pebblekit's yowl, filled with rage, made Mintkit shiver. In the next moment, Mintkit watched her brother pelt toward the badger.
"NO, PEBBLEKIT! It's a mouse! It's not worth it!" Featherstep's call was at the very top of her lungs. It managed to be above all the other voices. The cats fighting and the badger itself stopped for a small millisecond, then continued the fighting. However, Stormfire actually managed to catch his mate's words, and he turned, lunging toward his son, but was too late.
Pebblekit had leaped for the small piece of the mouse's pelt, but had been knocked away by the badger just as he reached it. Mintkit's eyes were wide with horror, and she threw up, unable to take in the information that she had witnessed.
"Your brother is dead over a piece of mouse, Mintkit." Stormfire said as he paced the nursery, glaring fiercely at his daughter from time to time. "Do you understand now why I always tell you that your emotions should always stay out of the way? Keep them in your head and this type of thing doesn't happen." the tom sighed, "There would be a lot less death in the Clans if cats could just keep their emotions between themselves and StarClan."
"Oh yeah?" Mintkit challenged. "If that's true, then why did you fall in love with Featherstep and have us? And why are you so angry right now?" her way of coping with her brother's death was acting angry and rude toward every cat, as well as being in denial that Pebblekit existed in the first place.
"Love was one emotion that I couldn't keep inside. Sometimes I wonder if that was the right choice or not, but I suppose if it's one of the only ones, then StarClan meant for it to happen." Stormfire replied. "As for the anger: If I were to show my true anger toward you right now, then you wouldn't be an apprentice for another several moons. I hope you learned something from all of this, Mintkit."
"From what? What are you talking about? Nothing happened! The Clan fought a badger! Why are you acting like this?" Mintkit whined, her ears back. She was laying on her nest in the nursery, pressed completely against the moss in pure agony, shaking vigorously.
Stormfire eyed her, looking straight into her dilated green eyes. "Your brother, Pebblekit, is dead, Mintkit. And it's your fault."
"Stormfire, that's enough!" Featherstep stood protectively over her daughter, the kitten under her belly. "You're going to scar the poor thing! She just had an outburst! Pebblekit did what he thought was right, and he died bravely!" her tail was whipping swiftly left and right, left and right.
"I never had a brother named Pebblekit." Mintkit mumbled, shaking her head slowly. Stormfire simply shook his head and sighed before padding out of the nursery.
"It's okay, Mintkit." Featherstep purred soothingly, beckoning her other kits to come as she laid down in her nest and slept.
"Are you sure that it has nothing to do with that, Mintkit? I don't want you to give up on your dream to becoming a warrior all for Pebblekit." Featherstep meowed.
"Who's Pebblekit?" Mintkit asked. "Well, whatever. I don't have a dream to become a warrior. I never did."
"Mintkit, many cats become medicine cat because they lost a family member. Are you sure that's not what you're doing?" Featherstep said again.
"I've never lost a family member, so how could it be about that?!" Mintkit hissed, beginning to get agitated. "Listen to me, Featherstep: I want to become a medicine cat because I don't want to be a warrior. There are enough warriors as it is, and doesn't the Clan need a medicine cat apprentice? I want to make something of my life. I want to break away from my siblings and do something else."
"Those aren't the right reasons." Featherstep argued.
"I want to use my intelligence for something else. I have a good memory, and I can learn fast."
"Those are important skills to becoming a warrior, too!"
"Featherstep, please, I'm begging you to ask. This is my dream; it's what I want. There's nothing I want more than to become a medicine cat. I wish to become closer to StarClan. I don't want a mate and kits or to fight and hunt all of the time. I want to learn herbs and heal."
"Become closer to StarClan?" Featherstep repeated quietly, then asked louder, "Is this because of what your father always says? That you should only talk about your feelings to StarClan?"
"NO!" Mintkit shouted. "I want to become a medicine cat apprentice, and that's that! Ask for me, Featherstep, or I'll do it myself!" the she-cat's tail was lashing at this point, and her claws were sinking into the moss as her hackles raised slightly.
Featherstep let out a sigh, giving in. It took a while, but Mintkit knew her mother well; if she pressed on, then Featherstep would give in at some point, no matter what. "Fine. I'll talk to the leader and medicine cat about you becoming a medicine cat apprentice."
"Thank you."
"Mintkit, you are now Mintpaw, medicine cat apprentice of RiverClan. Congratulations."
And that is, quite possibly, where we leave off.
Relationships:
Featherstep, tall classic gray tabby warrior of RiverClan. - Mother
Stormfire, huge, strong gray warrior of RiverClan. - Father
Graypaw, large gray tom kit of RiverClan. - Brother
Pebblekit, average-sized gray tom kit of StarClan. - Brother
Minnowpaw, small gray she-kit of RiverClan. - Sister
Sootpaw, small gray tom of RiverClan. - Brother