forestflight

redwoodclan

a smoke tortie she-cat with yellow eyes

Forestflight was always the shortest of her littermates, though not by a great number. Her sister towered over others on long spindly legs, her brother with muscle to back up his stature. Forestflight is more humble in shape, though the nature of clan life does lend musculature to her limbs. She is lithe and slightly taller than average with hindquarters built for leaping. Her tail is long and nimble, and her paw pads are rough from climbing and running across uneven surfaces.

In regards to her pelt's coloration, Forestflight suits her name well. A mixture of browns and reds in vertical, irregular stripes, she appears the visage of the forest late-leaffall. The darkest of her fur is black and ashy brown, with a dappling of ginger and a dusting of pale hairs that accentuate her course fur. She bears distinctive tabby patterning, with a paler muzzle, belly, and chest, but does not show any white across her entire form.

With a diamond-shaped, angular face, Forestflight seems imposing and discerning at first glance. She is well-proportioned, with a dark, near black, nose and pale yellow eyes within almost almond lids. While not immediately recognizable as a pretty, Forestflight has a subtle allure that she utilizes openly. Her steps are thoughtful and quiet and always evenly spaced, and her eyes are often half-lidded whether playing or relaxing. She is a master of her emotions, usually only displaying them whenever convenient or profitable except for moments she breaks from the character she's so carefully constructed for herself.

Forestflight is the better of her siblings, at least when she describes it to others. She has retained the intelligence that her brother lacks, and, unlike her sister, she also has the ability to follow through. She is sharp of mind and swift-witted, able to go back and forth in short quips or in long, deep conversations with relative ease. She also is kinesthetically intelligent when it comes to acting on her thoughts. She does not hesitate to mull things over, instead leaping quickly to act whenever needed. More often than not, she is able to escape what dangers present before her using both her mind and instincts together as one - though on occasion her snap decisions do not turn out for the best. No matter how smart she is, she cannot always be thorough, and she is haunted by those moments when she has made decisions that led to an unsatisfactory outcome.


Despite her coy nature, Forestflight is a genuine cat overall. She believes lies are for the brainless and the weak, and, while she doesn't wear her heart on her sleeve, she will be explicit about what is going on in her mind when she feels it is relevant or is asked. While the words she speaks are honest, she is physically and emotionally evasive. She avoids situations that she finds unpleasant, even if there's the potential to leave others feeling hurt by her actions or lack-there-of. When questioned, she will explain, though her own lack of emotional awareness prevents her from straying too deep into her own psyche.


Forestflight does care how others feel about her but generally assumes that making them upset with her is inevitable and that relationships either end in death or decay. She has given up on using flowery language for the sake of others' feelings, and she does her best not to care about how others react when she's harsh. Her fear of rejection is an inconvenience given her sharper tongue, so she has spent a lot of her time independently. She finds herself capable and cunning enough to survive by herself but yearns for close connection nonetheless.


After moons of spending life alone, with no one to rely on, Forestflight has found that she craves something more. She wants to spend her days with one cat, sharing each moment, and feeling all that love has to give. She is willing to sacrifice for this dream, no matter how unattainable it feels to achieve. She has to hold onto hope that one day, she will find herself loved and will feel safe enough to love in return.

The circumstances of Forestkit's birth were ordinary, despite being born into a chilly Leaf-fall evening. Neither parent particularly stood out from RedwoodClan's warriors either positively or negatively. And thus, their large litter of four was expected to be equally average.

Forestkit was the last to be born and also the smallest, though the heights of her siblings were largely influenced by the lengths of their legs. Quickly, each began to stand separate from the rest through means other than the nature of their physicality. Where Vinekit and Cloudkit tumbled and explored the world physically, and Shrewkit's strong but strange interests were shown through enthusiastic, verbal observation, Forestkit discovered more about the world largely in silence. She talked little, entertaining her siblings' interests with vague interest, and later spent her moments independently.

Her mother was forced to flit about, chasing Cloudkit as he tumbled through the clearing, searching the hidden bramble piles for sneaky Vinekit, and asking each warrior what stories they told as to discover the origins of Shrewkit's tall tales. All things considered, it was a blessing for the busy queen that Forestkit was so quiet and well-behaved, never the type to disappear with little warning. She was easy, and while her mother never forgot about her, it was necessary for her to spend less time with her youngest daughter for the sake of keeping the rest of her litter alive and accounted for.

While she was not attended to, Forestkit absorbed all information she could. It was quickly that she discovered the nature of the outside world. War had struck porcupine quills into RedwoodClan's heart, and, as she aged and grew more mature, she saw more and more how it affected every part of her life. When her favorite leveret snacks became rare on the freshkill pile, it was because hunting patrols were not getting closer to a dangerous border rife with the creatures. When her nest was no longer stocked with feathers, it was because the apprentice performing the extra kindness had been killed in battle.


Where her siblings were excited about their upcoming apprenticeship, Forestkit dreaded it. But, with no one to confess her worries to, she swallowed them and pressed onward with all of the bravery she could muster.

Her mentor was a senior warrior well into his later moons, Snakefall was one of the dwindling numbers that remained. This fact he always made explicit from the beginning of her apprenticeship, as he did with all of his harsher opinions regarding Heatherstar's reign and the state of RedwoodClan. He was a well-known war hero with many great and wonderful acts of bravery to his name. Where his other senior warriors fell to LichenClan's supreme training, Snakefall saw only success. The grand tabby was certain that Forestpaw, likely his last apprentice before retirement, would be his greatest prodigy yet.

He was a ruthless mentor for the sake of achieving his goals, working Forestpaw to the bone drilling, climbing, and fighting. Where Snakefall was most successful was in his unique skillset, one that set him apart when he had warred with ThistleClan's ranks in his younger moons. Despite his grand stature, he slunk between brambles and thorns with ease. He climbed and dropped from the sky on his enemies, and recovered quickly whenever a maneuver was unsuccessful. He took risks, and they paid off more often than they did not.

Forestpaw soared under his tutelage. A fast-paced, high-intensity environment was where she thrived, no matter how much she hated it each morning. Meanwhile, she watched her siblings stagnate. She never understood precisely why, but she felt a strange satisfaction in surpassing them.

Not only was she quick to gain skill and technique, but she also managed to come out of her shell. She made friends and connections openly, finally finding life significantly less lonely than her kithood moons surrounded by family too busy for her.

Finchtail ascended to deputy after Gorseheart's demise, a fact that Snakefall felt incredibly insulted by. He was aging faster than would warrant the position - his littermates were already well into their elder seasons - but even so, he felt slighted by the Heatherstar that he had always hated. He was sure to pass on such feelings to his apprentice. She emulated the tom already, using her cleverness to inherit his sharp tongue, her newfound skill, and his arrogance.


She became a warrior before her siblings. Forestflight would be what she was called from then on, reminiscing on how she had crossed from one edge of the territory to the other in the tree's boughs - never once touching the ground.

Even as a young warrior, Forestflight and Snakefall remained close. They quipped back and forth about the failures of the clan's leadership, complained about the lack of skilled warriors (except for themselves of course), and planned for their next great feats of battle. Of course, Forestflight's true experience against LichenClanners was limited, as she had only been involved in a couple mild skirmishes.

After all, there was no other cat that Forestflight cared about the opinion of. Snakefall said that no one else mattered enough to take seriously. And Forestflight followed him with loyalty the tom never knew he desired.


So she threw herself into combat with no hesitation, using her quick thinking and sharp bodily precision to avoid injury even when she missed her strikes. Snakefall, ever by her side, was the raw bulk that she lacked. Skin thickened by scarring and familiarity with pain, she used him to shield her from each blow. And, while he never gave her openings intentionally, she found them every time. For several moons, they were a terror on the battlefield.

That was until Snakefall's negligence of his health finally caught up to him. He stopped bringing back prey from successful hunts, and, while his contribution was missed, his newfound odd behavior was enough for the clan not to ask their old war hero too many untoward questions. It was in battle that the decisive blow to end his career was struck.

He shot a powerful strike forward, aimed toward fast, jarring movement. But it was not for the LichenClanner - it landed across Forestflight's face.

Unknown to the clan, Snakefall's vision had been disintegrating for many moons, but with a blow striking too close, his eyes finally failed in full. Lost weight was attributed to Leafbare's lack of prey. Lethargy was fought with extreme determination, and he had never been the type to take great care about appearances. The medicine cat finding his gums pale and whitish was the final moment his dignity remained, even if they exclaimed how rare he remain so active while his condition worsened.

He was retired officially with extreme embarrassment on the same moon Finchstar was named leader. He took the name Brokengaze, even when Finchstar hesitated. And he refused to do anything but insult Forestflight when she visited, the ultimate reminder of what he used to be.

At the end of greenleaf, many kits become apprentices. It is then that Forestflight takes on her first apprentice at 24 moons old.


Heavypaw and Forestflight did not get along perfectly as she had within the first few days of her own apprenticeship moons prior. Just as Snakefall had done for her, the new mentor pushed Heavypaw hard. Yet the tom seemed to only listen halfway, doing what she asked for but never following up with questions or by taking the next step. He was not as intuitive as she was, and almost immediately she began meeting his flaws with passive-aggressive remarks and a greater focus on drills and instructions.

It was on one of their outings that Forestflight and her apprentice managed to find one of the many rare beasts that wandered RedwoodClan's woods. She strayed too close out of curiosity. The stag shot a kick in her direction, and, instinct rearing its head, Forestflight dodged most precisely. Unfortunately, Heavypaw was far too slow and left the encounter with an injury severe enough for the medicine cat to prevent Forestflight from dragging him to train for an entire two moons.

At the same time, Snakefall's health rapidly declined. Remaining a warrior was his purpose for living his life powerfully and to the fullest, and without that underlying drive, his persistent spirit faded. The tom was finally brought low not by any battle wound but by the workings of nature and the cycles of death. He died at 133 moons old, having only been an elder for the last two.

After his death, Forestflight felt loneliness begin to eat at her once again. She lacked the closest figure she had, and it was becoming clear quickly to her that Heavypaw would never be for her whatever she was for Snakefall. Where she could not gather friends with soothing words and kindness, she found her own sort of draw using her cunning mind. She understood the ways in which one attracted another after observing her fellow apprentices and young warrior peers flirt and woo, and after practicing by herself before the cat in her shimmering creek reflection, she found herself capable to gather others around her.

Unfortunately, where her mind had always been thoughtful, driven whirring, everyone seemed to be dreadfully silent. So while she enjoyed the company on a physical surface level, she found that there was something that she wanted beyond.

That something just didn't happen to be a relationship, she decided, backing away from any chance to become something “more” with anyone.

As Forestflight learned to distract herself, she became a better mentor. The sarcastic aggression remained, as did the fervid disappointment, but she no longer cared so intensely for whether or not she deemed Heavypaw to her standards. Instead, she compared him to the numerous RedwoodClanners that were like him - equally boring. As soon as Finchstar offered Heavypaw his warriorhood, Forestflight issued his assignments, hoping that her next apprentice would be more aligned with her style.


No more than five moons after Heavypaw is named Heavyshadow, Forestflight is given her second apprentice. Again, Forestflight finds herself disappointed in this she-cat. Mintpaw was a frailer creature than even Forestflight was, with spindly legs and little muscle - a feline of only skin and bone. It took many days for Forestflight even to get the shy apprentice up a tree, and another to get her down by herself.

After a moon, the young tabby was just managing to gain some strength when, on the tail of the tribe cats, came a devastating wave of sickness. Mintpaw caught the disease early on, leaving Forestflight little to do. She threw her all into providing for her clan during the trying time, risking her own health when she, too, became sick. Mintpaw was simply too weak. She survived barely for most of the leaf-bare season, finally passing away the day the snowdrops bloomed.

With few genuinely close relationships to lean on, Forestflight largely mourned alone. She began to slip away from the resourceful, dedicated warrior she was, slowly becoming less eager to help the weary. After all, it was the tribe that had led to her apprentice’s death. RedwoodClan could hardly fend for themselves before the tribe came to involve themselves so deeply. It was war and plague that they brought, and for that Forestflight despised them.

In regards to the tribe, her fury blossomed, but her anger towards the war began to whither and die just as surely. She was tired of fighting a losing battle where LichenClan took more and more away from her clan. While she never truly resented Finchstar, Redfox, or Icesong as Snakefall had done Heatherstar, she did look upon their acts of kindness and feel her heart grow colder. Each time they reached out to help, they left with paws burned. If they would not learn from such mistakes, Forestflight made sure that she would.

With a newfound apathy, Forestflight no longer drilled herself to remain strong. The battle maneuvers she had learned so diligently from her mentor were largely useless when not surrounded by forest, and repeatedly fights occurred across beaches, caverns, and plains. As she found herself untalented in these environments, she quickly gave up learning more techniques for those spaces long ago - but now, even the skills she had gotten her warrior name for had begun to fade.


Forestflight was meant to storm LichenClan's camp with her allied peers. She was meant to fight by her clanmates' sides and to cover their weaknesses while they covered hers. But it was moons prior that she had understood none could do so properly - that no warrior would ever be the shield to her dagger as Snakefall had been. So when the call was sent to leave RedwoodClan's camp, she journeyed with her allies. But by the time they reached the border, somehow, she had managed to slip away.

Of course, she had anticipated her clan coming back beaten. Occasionally, she would wonder if her own inaction had contributed. But each battle where she had faired well meant nothing, and each battle where Snakefall had reigned mighty left numerous dead. One cat did not matter when it came to war. The only thing there was for a single cat to do was to keep itself alive.

She began to do the bare minimum - hunting for her clan when bored but otherwise spending most of her time among the tree's highest boughs or lingering in another cat's nest. There was still an intensity to her. There was a spark within her gaze. But after moons of disappointment, her claws had dulled and her teeth bit at only new prey, no matter how much she yearned for the old.

She watched as her clan stuck out their paw in the attempt to help others with a sigh, wondering if the cats they attempted to save knew that RedwoodClan had always been the sort never to even be capable of protecting themselves.


Not long after receiving a new apprentice, Deerpaw, the war began to sing within the forest again, the battle finally calling her forth to fight. She was out of excuses. There was nothing she could do to avoid the fray. She entered the battle, instincts echoing within her to flee whenever was convenient. In the end, she left Woodfrost to die, abandoning him in favor of self-defeatest self-preservation. It was with great shame that she witnessed RedwoodClan's victorious return, only to have their spurn turned upon her for giving up so easily.

In the shadows, she remained, completing Deertail's training before immediately being assigned a new apprentice - Icesong's daughter, Coldpaw. Meanwhile, a new romance began to blossom between Icesong and the usually distant tabby, much to Forestflight's chagrin. With a cowardly reputation, Forestflight clings to the things that ground her to the present, despite her better judgment to remain free and utterly uninvolved.

In the shadows, she remained, completing Deertail's training before immediately being assigned a new apprentice - Icesong's daughter, Coldpaw. Meanwhile, a new romance began to blossom between Icesong and the usually distant tabby, much to Forestflight's chagrin. With a cowardly reputation, Forestflight clings to the things that ground her to the present, despite her better judgment to remain free and utterly uninvolved.

The most notworthy of them being Icesong. After several moons together, sharing nests as much as meals, tending to each other's fur, and in an odd twist of fate, involving herself strongly in Coldpaw's training and life beyond.

As time passed, it become clear that Icesong was not to remain in RedwoodClan. She proposed that Forestflight join her in the tunnels, and, once again, against her better judgement, Forestflight agreed to abandon her clan for the darkness if and only if Icesong officially took her as her mate.

Icesong agreed.

There were not many that Forestflight felt obligued to say goodbye to. Coldnose, perhaps, but beyond her, there were few that the she-cat was close to. She looked upon camp that one last night and set out for the tunnels, a landscape she quickly knew she would despise.

When you're sole pleasure in life is spending time among the treetops in the open air, there are few more severe hells than the underground of twists and turns and always ceilings. She took a certain interest in the observatory, but knew that each moment within was fleeting - each time she went to it to enjoy the sun or the stars, she was sure to walk back into the depths.

She vowed silently that she would stay by Icesong's side, for Icesong was her only companion, and if Icesong needed to be here than surely so did her mate.


Moons passed by. Icesong's plans took her further from Forestflight's nest, drawing her into grand schemes and plans to promote a peace that Forestflight could not believe possible. She watched from below, trying to find Icesong's vissage just as comfortable as the moon that had kept her company on many lonely nights. Trying to find the feeling of a breeze through her fur within Icesong's body pressed to hers. And she hoped, silently, that she might oneday find some of that passion her mate seemed so full of.