Shellshine

LichenClan

blue point tom with long fur and a mangled leg

Alongside their shared markings, Shellshine got his build from his mother: Merlintail. He shares her willowy figure but lacks her height. Instead, he's a short, lithe tom with small nimble paws. He's built up strong lean muscle from fishing and hunting that's easily hidden beneath his fur. His back right leg is horribly injured from a fall off a cliff. It drags limply after. It is scarred and torn up with patches of missing fur. His left back leg is permanently weakened and is also covered in scars. And though he can walk on it for short distances, anything longer starts to hurt.

He's mostly white with grey paws, tail-tip ears and face. His neck has a long nasty scar across looking as if his head was once detached.

Shellshine's soft, wispy fur comes from his father's side, most notably his grandmother Tidechaser. It's rather long and unruly, but Shellshine takes extra time in the mornings to keep it well-groomed and tangle free.

He's got pretty features that would typically be found in a she-cat. Soft and round, Shellshine seems rather delicate and gives off the impression of being a kind soul. His once sharp fangs have dulled over lack of use, but his claws remain sharp. His eyes are a brilliant blue. They are somewhere in between Merlintail's pale blue and Wispfang's bright blue, looking like a peaceful lake with murky depths beneath its surface.

As a kit, Shellshine was ambitious, always wanting to be as strong as his father. This sentiment has dulled overtime and now seems beyond his reach. He still idolizes his mother, looking up to her as the greatest fisher in all the clans. And maybe he could be as good as her one day, even with his injured leg. When he sets his mind to something he does his best to see it through. He’s hopeful that there’s something else he can do for the clan.

He's respectful and thoughtful. He's mostly managed to avoid becoming corrupted by LichenClan's outdated ideals and doesn't understand why she-cats can't be warriors like toms. He looks up to his mother and sister as great fighters and hopes to be more like them. Not only that, he's noticed the duties queens do around camp and how much work they do to keep everything running despite not knowing how to fight.

Shellshine is a hopeless romantic. He believes in fairytale endings and is hopeful he can find his one day. This naivete is part of his downfall, as he'll often chase crushes without a second thought and assume that everything will work out in the end. He chased after Foxclaw and lost his leg, but part of him still dreams for his happily ever after.

He's a coward. While as a kit he thought being a warrior was the best thing ever and fighting was fun, he's lost that feeling. It started with getting hurt by Duckpuddle or Sootpelt pushing him too hard in training. He started to doubt his future as a warrior. Then, a battle between RedwoodClan and ThistleClan had him pitted against a ThistleClan apprentice who left him badly wounded. He's since been anxious at the sight of blood and scared of fighting.

The war between LichenClan and RedwoodClan still rages on. But meanwhile, Wispfang and Merlintail find time away from the fighting. They soon settle down as mates and have two kits: Shellkit and Harrierkit.

At the same time, Sturgeonstone also moves into the nursery to raise Flashfang's kits. Wispfang's bad reputation quickly makes its way into the nursery, and Shellkit and his sister are banned from playing with the other kits. Things continue to be tense between the four parents, but Shellkit does his best to ignore it, instead sneaking out at night to steal away Lilackit from her nasty mother. Despite the hateful glares from outsiders, Wispfang and Merlintail are good parents to their kits.

After a horrible baptism, Shellpaw is apprenticed to Sootpelt. The older tom is a harsh but a fair mentor, pushing Shellpaw to be stronger. Even so, the training is far harder than anything he'd done as a kit, and Shellpaw begins to doubt himself and his ability to fight. One night, Sootpelt returns to camp after a border skirmish, losing his eye to a RedwoodClan tom. Duckpuddle takes over Shellpaw's training, turning out to be even harsher than Sootpelt. Until Sootpelt was fit to train him again, Shellpaw found whatever excuse he could to avoid his temporary mentor. Sometimes outright running away from her.

While he's mostly kept out of the fighting between LichenClan and RedwoodClan when the final battle hits he's no longer safe. ThistleClan, RedwoodClan and other allies storm their camp. Shellpaw gets into a nasty battle alongside Copperhawk against two ThistleClan apprentices. He's almost killed by a throat wound, but while trying to get home he's saved by a kind RedwoodClan tom named Dewcloud who escorts him to the RedwoodClan medicine cat Bouncefire.


His training is briefly put on hold while he heals, but he resumes as soon as possible. He barely passed his assessment and gained his warrior name: Shellshine. But not long after, his father goes missing, presumed dead to a fox. In his place, Shellshine is the family’s only living son. He’s tasked by his grandmother Tidechaser to carry on the family legacy. He’s to find a mate and have kits. He’s put under immense pressure from his grandmother and his sister turns her back on him. He tries to confide in Juncoshadow, but the status difference between the two makes it difficult for them to understand each other. They get into a huge fight and stop talking to each other.

Meanwhile, Shellshine has been seeing a ThistleClan warrior named Foxclaw. From their couple of interactions, he can already start to imagine a life with her. He sees her as his escape from all his struggles. One day, he sets out to ask to join ThistleClan so they can be together. It turns out the cat he ran into at the border was Foxclaw’s father and he is not pleased. Along with Softstep, Blazingstorm chases Shellshine to the edge of the island. In the fighting Shellshine’s leg breaks, and he’s tossed over the cliff. His leg hits the wall on his fall, breaking beyond repair. He would have drowned, but Juncoshadow was there in time to fish him out of the water and take him home.

Shellshine awakes in the medicine den with hazy memories and a broken leg. He’ll never be able to use his back right leg again and his left back leg required extensive treatment to be usable. Over time, he regains strength in his left back leg but it’s not enough to carry him for long distances. If he ever got hurt in the leg again or fell, it could break beyond repair. While recovering in the medicine den, Tidechaser pays him a visit to inform him he’s disowned from the family. But at least he’s starting to mend things with Juncoshadow and he gets to see Lilacmist all day.


Shellshine is still struggling to find his place in the clan with his new limitations. He’s yet to be chased out of the medicine den, but he can only hide out there for so long. There has to be something he can…. He’s not ready to give up hope yet.