Rabbitstep

LICHENCLAN

Fluffy amber she-cat with a bobbed tail and yellow-green eyes

Rabbitstep is taller than most. She gets her height from her father but has a lithe and thin body inherited from her mother. There is a noticeable lack of muscle in Rabbitstep’s body from very little warrior training. Instead of a tail, Rabbitstep has a small stub of a tail that’s hidden by her thick fur.

Rabbitstep has a distinct light amber pelt with dusty brown markings. She gets her coloration from her father, whose family is easy to spot amongst a crowd. Her muzzle is white with a few black dots on her nose and there is a bit of white along her underbelly. Her fur is long and thick and fills up her frame to make her look imposing.

Rabbitstep’s face is triangular with pointed check tufts and fur that surrounds her neck like a mane. She has slightly slanted eyes that are on the smaller side. Her ears are tall with fur tufts at the peaks. Her eyes are a murky yellowish green.

Rare trait - amber

Rare trait - bobbed tail

Rabbitstep is intelligent. She took quickly to her mother's lessons on how to present herself in society. When interacting with her peers, Rabbitstep always knows the right thing to say or do. She's great at flattery and can make her peers feel like the most beloved cat in the clan. Her keen mind can recall all sorts of facts about one's family or place in society. Pearlsong ensured Rabbitstep knew exactly which families were worth their time and Rabbitstep can list off each and every member of said families. When presenting herself, Rabbitstep moves thoughtfully to give off an air of grace and dignity. Not an ounce of gossip passes through her ears without being dissected and compartmentalized for future use. Even now as LichenClan culture is flipped on its head, Rabbitstep is using her wits to get ahead and try to land on the winning side.

Rabbitstep is confident. She was raised to hold herself in very high regard. While she knows her birth mother was actually of low blood, Rabbitstep doesn't let that affect her. Instead she revels in the beauty she inherited from her mother. Whenever someone insults her or gets angry at her, Rabbitstep lets the comment roll right off of her back. She knows she is smart, beautiful and skilled (when she puts in effort).

Rabbitstep is lazy. Though she's a smart and gifted cat, Rabbitstep grows bored easily. She dislikes the mundane tasks the life of a queen requires, but dislikes even more sweating and the physical exertion required of hunting and fighting. Often, Rabbitstep will use her wits to craft clever excuses to get out of her daily tasks. She always opts for the path of least resistance, or whatever requires the least amount of effort.

Rabbitstep is selfish. She looks out for herself above all others and considers herself better than the rest of the clan. The only other cat she respects as much as herself is her adoptive mother Pearlsong. With her sharp mind, Rabbitstep knows exactly how to get what she needs from others without giving her intentions away. She's willing to take advantage of her peers if it means getting what she wants.

Rabbitstep recalls her birth mother not with memories but through a story told as the queen’s last words before she wandered off to where she would die along LichenClan’s coast.

Hareleap was a poor dancer, who managed to get by on beauty alone. Toms of every class would look her way whenever she walked by and when their mates weren’t listening, they’d whisper about stealing a night away with the she-cat. Though she got many callers, Hareleap only humoured her admirers. She’d play along with them for a time and enjoy the gifts of prey and feathers they would shower on her. When they expected too much of her, she’d move on to her next quarry and protect herself under their attention. It was the best life a cat of her status could have expected in LichenClan’s olden days. She had been born beautiful, which more than made up for being born at the bottom of the social hierarchy.

Only one tom was able to bed Hareleap: Houndstep. He was a high-class tom but lacked the witt of his peers. His friends only kept him around to send the tom off to run errands and laugh at his expense. Just like a dog, running around without a single thought in his head.. Few understood why Hareleap seemed so smitten with Houndstep. Why was a secret shared only between lovers. Once every few days, Houndstep would meet Hareleap along LichenClan’s shores. There the tom would sit silently and watch Hareleap dance across the sands. She’d wait for the waters to draw close then jump away and leave pawsteps across the sand.

No one but Hareleap, Houndstep and Houndstep’s mate knew about their outings.

Pearlsong was a well-respected she-cat. She came from a family line that preferred to pick she-cats as their heirs. Some looked down on the family for such a practice, but the queens of their family were always more than able to prove their worth. They had a reputation for having a keen mind and sharp tongue. Pearlsong was no exception. She was incredibly intelligent and chose Houndstep as her mate, not for looks but for how dumb he was. With Houndstep, she’d be able to lead their combined family and make all of the decisions. The only thing missing in her perfect life were kits. Despite moons of trying, Pearlsong had yet to birth a single litter. So she allowed Houndstep to play around with his little rabbit in exchange for trying more frequently for kits.

It was not Pearlsong who grew heavy with kits, but Hareleap.

One night on the shoreline, Hareleap confessed to her love that she was pregnant. She was excited to start a family together, but Houndstep was not as thrilled. He shoved Hareleap aside, told her to never speak to him again and stormed off.

Pearlsong, who had made a habit out of watching the two at play, approached Hareleap as soon as Houndstep disappeared. To the desperate she-cat, Pearlsong offered a deal.

“Do you really think you could support kits? Your lover has abandoned you, you are at the bottom of the hierarchy and once the toms know you've had kits, they'll treat you like half-eaten prey. There is no future for kits born of your womb.

Give them to me. I have what you lack: status and connections. I will guarantee them a prosperous life. All you need to do is stay quiet and make sure no one knows they are yours.”

In despair, Hareleap had no choice but to agree.


In the following moons, Hareleap kept her pregnancy secret to all but Pearlsong and Briarfall. She hid away from the rest of the clan, never getting close enough for them to notice something was off about her. While some had their suspicions, few cared enough about the poor low-class lass to pay her any mind. At the beginning of the year, Hareleap gives birth along the shore, cradled by a bed of snow. By the time Pearlsong arrived, two of the kits were dead and only one she-kit remained. Following through with their promise, Pearlsong picks up the single kit and leaves Hareleap alone to grieve and bury her dead sons. Luckily for Pearlsong, her sister-in-law Cottonflower had just lost a litter of kits and was still full of milk. Pearlsong placed little Rabbitkit beside Cottonflower and claimed the kit was hers but she could not produce milk. Cottonflower had suspicions but nursed Rabbitkit until she could be weaned onto prey.

Though Cottonflower fed Rabbitkit, Cottonflower was allowed to do no more. Pearlsong moved into the nursery and kept Rabbitkit in her nest. She raised the young kit with strict rules about social class and how to speak and act. Whenever Rabbitkit made a mistake she was severely reprimanded and punished. By the time Rabbitkit was made an apprentice, she knew how to hold her tongue and act exactly as her mother expected.

Houndstep was fully convinced that Rabbitkit was Pearlsong’s daughter. He wasn’t a frequent presence in Rabbitkit’s life but he occasionally stopped by to play and visit with his daughter.

Rabbitkit is apprenticed to one of the queens Pearlsong had suggested: Tinyblossom. Rabbitpaw’s training is filled with camp duties and nest-making while her peers are out hunting or fighting. The old queen teaches Rabbitpaw very little about hunting or fighting. With Minnowstar’s deteriorating mental health and refusal to appoint a new deputy, Rabbitpaw’s training has no oversight and Tinyblossom conducts her lessons exactly as she pleases. Rabbitpaw doesn’t mind at all. She prefers camp work over anything that can cause her to sweat.

When the final battle arrives, Rabbitpaw is pulled into the nursery by Pearlsong and they hide in silence as fighting breaks out across the camp. From the den, Rabbitpaw saw glimpses of wounded warriors stumbling outside and blood splashing across the stone.

One day after the fighting had ended, Rabbitpaw’s aunt Cottonflower arrived at camp with a single-living daughter: Howlkit. Not long after, Houndstep succumbs to the wounds he received in the fighting.


As Yarrowstar rises to leadership and order is restored to the clan, Rabbitpaw’s lacklustre training is called into question. Her warrior ceremony is delayed for a few moons while she is forced to learn proper hunting and fighting techniques. At 15 moons old, barely passes her assessments for hunting and fighting, but luck is on her side.

Once she has graduated, Rabbitstep can finally stop hunting or fighting. Instead, she settles into the life Pearlsong had laid out for her. She tends to the camp and aids the older queens. But with a convincing lie or two, Rabbitstep gets out of most of her responsibilities and spends the majority of her time slacking off.

Pearlsong is a constant presence in Rabbitstep’s life as a warrior. The older she-cat pulls Rabbitstep aside for additional hier training and begins to search for a proper mate. The pressure is on for Rabbitstep to find a mate and start having kits.


In the new year, Yarrowstar disappears and Quickstar takes his place. What starts as an uneventful leadership quickly turns halfway through the year. Quickstar starts to set in place rules about the mooncave and Pearlsong is furious. Rabbitstep humours her mother but secretly doesn’t care. To her all this means is less prayer time. But the rules about queens needing to patrol irritate Rabbitstep. She never enjoyed hunting or fighting and now she has to do it to get by. Despite her annoyance with the new rules, Rabbitstep puts on a friendly smile and does her best to appear as though she’s following along with exactly what Quickstar wants. In her mind, the path of least resistance is following her leader’s wishes even if it means a few patrols.