black, white and orange she-cat with amber eyes

Maple stands out a bit from many of her Tribe mates in a way that is instantly noticeable. While the oriental bloodlines make others tall and lean with pointed features, Maple is considerably rounder. Her head is round with soft features and almond shaped amber eyes. Her ears are wide set atop her head with rounded tips. She is not as tall as some of her Tribe mates. But her small frame still lends her enough speed and agility to excel as a prey hunter.

Her fur is multi colored which is part of what earned her her name. The orange and black splotches look both like fire and soot but also like the shadows of sunlight through leaves. She is covered predominantly with splotches of black and orange intermingled. She has white on her paws, belly, chest, the very tip of her tail and going about halfway up her face. The white on her face appears as just a dash across the bridge of her nose and down one side of her muzzle and she looks as if she just brushed the tip of her muzzle in black and orange. Her pelt is short, but thick and very soft to the touch. She has a generally warm appearance from the fiery shade of her orange to the glow of her amber eyes.

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Kind | Motherly | Imaginative Story-teller | Naive | Fragile | Fearful
Maple strives to be kind above all else. The prey hunter never has a bad word to say about anyone. There have been times when she wanted to lash out out of hurt, but she can't take back anything she says. Once the words are spoken, they can't be unspoken and so she keeps her jaws tightly shut when her heart aches. She is extremely patient, understanding and nurturing, all traits that make her enjoy the company of kits and young to-bes. She loves kits and would like to one day have more of her own, but she also feels like she will never be able to give up Lake's memory in a way that would allow her to love another. And so she pours all her doting affection to her only kit, Hemlock. She would sacrifice anything to make him happy. 

She suffers from a bit of naivete and doesn't really go out of her way to learn about something unless it directly affects her life. It would be very easy to take advantage of her, though her Tribe mates would never dream of doing so. She has a very active imagination and loves to tell stories. This leads to some fantastical elements leaking into her stories, though she always tries to keep a bit of truth in what she says. The truth is not always as exciting as the things she could make up. A stone guard perhaps alerted her patrol that day to a circling hawk, but it's easier to keep a young cat's attention if that same stone-guard instead plucked the hawk out of the sky. This has lead to some misunderstandings in her retellings of her mate's life stories to their son, but Maple doesn't mind. If Hemlock views his father as a hero, that's how it should be. He was.

Around the time of Hemlock's birth, Maple experienced several losses in rapid succession: her mate, her friend, her friend's young kit she had tried to take in. Because of this, Maple is terrified of loss. She is prone to paranoia when the cats she cares for are unaccounted for. Usually, she is reasonable enough to talk herself down, but sometimes she loses her cool. She wants to keep her son in the shelter of her nest, to keep him safe for as long as she possibly can. However, she finds herself holding back because she fears that if she smothers Hemlock, he might grow to dislike her. 

She is still struggling with depression after her mates death and, out of fear of being an emotional burden, tries to isolate herself when she is feeling particularly low. She especially tries to hide this sadness from Hemlock. Without his father, she is the only parent he has and she needs to stay strong.

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Maple That Burns at Dawn was born as an only kit to a pair of tribe cats. She was the only kit in her litter and so her parents doted on her which left her a bit spoiled. When it came time to become a to-be, the young cat was reluctant to work too hard or get her paws dirty. But her tribe mates were patient with her and, eventually, she came to realize what was truly expected of her as a member of the Tribe. Her paws were set down the path of a prey hunter thanks to her light, quick steps and keen observation skills and the rest of her training progressed without trouble. 

Maple will remember for as long as she lives the day her life changed forever. Enjoying some time to herself after becoming a full fledged prey hunter, she found herself in a hemlock grove. She was enchanted by the tiny white flowers. They were so beautiful. She didn't realize she wasn't alone as she bent her head to smell the little blossoms. A voice sounded close her her ear, nearly scaring her out of her fur. "The plants are poisonous, love." It was Lake. Maple's fur burned with embarrassment, both from her ignorance of the poisonous flower and the fact that she had not noticed him come up behind her. What must he think of her? She was sure she just looked like a stupid young queen. But he didn't say anything, just gave her a warm smile. She felt her embarrassment vanish like fog in the morning sun. After that moment, Lake and Maple were rarely seen without the other at their side.

They both agreed that they didn't need to rush a family, but after a few moons, Maple found herself pregnant. Joy wasn't a strong enough word to describe what the couple felt as they prepared for the birth of their new kits. Then Maple's happiness was ripped away from her. A fox had cornered her tribe mate and her kits and Lake had thrown himself between them. Lake and the fox both died in the battle. The kit mother, Sunflower, had been injured, but she and her kits had escaped with their life due to Lake's heroism. Maple, ever kind hearted, struggled for days after Lake's death. She wanted to throw insults at every cat that tried to comfort her. She wanted to defend her broken heart with cruel words, but she held back because she knew that whatever she said out of hurt she wouldn't be able to take back. Sunflower's mate, Path, should have been there to defend his own family. He was a stone guard just like Lake had been. Sunflower should have looked more closely after her kits. Lake should still be there with her. But she knew she didn't really mean those things.

It was even harder to stay angry when Sunflower started spending more time with her. Maple was grateful for her support as she faced bringing her litter into the Tribe alone. Maple gave birth to a single black tom kit. She named him Hemlock where Shade Grows in honor of the hemlock grove where his parents' relationship bloomed. Shortly after Hemlock's birth, Sunflower succumbed to her infected fox wounds and passed away. With a heavy heart, Maple took in her three kits and tried her hardest for them. One kit wouldn't feed and died shortly after its mother. Briefly, she tangled with feelings of failure that she wasn't able to keep all the kits alive and eventually overcame it by telling herself that not all the kits died. Two lived as well as her own precious Hemlock. As he grew, she would tell him stories of his father (perhaps embellishing a few details here and there). She wanted to be sure he knew how brave Lake had been in life.

Maple was unsure of how to care for her foster kits. Part of her felt awkward trying to mother them in the same way that she mothered Hemlock. After all, she wasn't their mother and every cat knew. And besides that, she had her paws full once Hemlock blossomed into the mischievous kit he was. But she still soothed them when they were upset or sick, fed them, cared for them. She longs for a relationship with her foster kits, but is ultimately unsure of how to really connect with them.

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