Lavendermist

lichenclan

long-haired dilute calico she-cat with green eyes

Lavendermist is a small, compact she-cat. She is a few inches shorter and few pounds lighter than the usual Lichenclan apprentice. That said - her small stature and short flank allows the she-cat to build much more muscle over her modest frame. Lavendermist has earned a durable and athletic build from her ventures deep within the sea cave caverns and corridors. While nimble on her feet, the she-cat is much more strong than quick. She can withstand and deliver a powerful hit. However, the calico is far more likely to play defense than offense - such is with her meek demeanor.

Her coat extends far from its base. This creates the illusion of a much fuller cat. While her build is more musculature than lithe, she is still a bit smaller than her fur suggests. The fur on her frame is a diluted blue with generous patches of white and faded ginger. Lavendermist has a white muzzle, chest, underbelly, and paws. Other white flits fleck her pelt, while great ginger splotches cover her face, flank, and tail.

She has a rounder and flatter face than most. While her muzzle is not as sunken as a Persian or Burmese, it still sits with a slight upturn. This is another reason the she-cat is not particularly quick or fast, since her breath is unable to withstand a winded run. Lavendermist sprouts long white whiskers, which extend from her maws and brows. Above them sits her delicate pink nose. Her dark, almost olive shaded eyes are outlined in a thin, white shadow. This dramatizes their size and unveils her innocence. The-cat has a soft, somewhat lilted voice - another indicator of her meek and naive nature.

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Meek - Lavendermis is a modest she-cat with little desire to impose. She is unassertive in nature and struggles in leadership roles. The calico much prefers to follow, and without guidance, she feels lost and insecure.

Passive - Lavendermist is not a forceful or assertive cat. She obediently follows direction and fears deviance from the warrior code. The calico is too timid and anxious to cross any boundary and worries relentlessly over imagined punishment.

Modest - The calico is reserved and demure when it comes to her accomplishments. Lavendermist often minimizes her achievements and exists beneath the radar. Her clan-mates find her unobtrusive, and few outside her mentor, even acknowledge her presence. She is not a noticeable member in the clan.

Naive - As a she-cat, Lavendermist did not receive the same attention her male den-mates did in their training, nor was she given the same opportunities. Thus from her inexperience came her simplistic view of the island. The calico is a bit innocent in her beliefs, a bit fantastical. Her views concerning her clan-mates are based on childish ideas of "good" and "bad." Lavendermist lacks the wisdom to know most cats are a bit of both, a fact she will learn later in life.

Moralistic - Reared in oppression, the she-cat sees the island in a hue of black and white. Her judgements based on moralistic behavior of what is considered right and wrong, albeit her naivety skews this from reality. As she ages, this trait will become more subdued as she realizes she will need to do wrong in order to become right.

Curious - The she-cat, albeit coy, is inquisitive and interested in her world. She likes to learn new information and thrives in didactic environments. While she is too bashful to ask questions, she does soak up information by mere observation alone. She is a keen listener and uses her ears as a tool.

Kind - She is a considerate and courteous she-cat. Lavendermist likes to be charitable in her actions. The she-cat would rather share her resources than watch another cat suffer. She is affectionate toward those who are less fortunate than she is - and she likes to volunteer her time in the nursery, elder's den, medicine cat's den, so she can tend to the young, old, and sick.

Earnest - While she is meek and submissive, she is also fervent in her role as an apprentice. Lavendermist does not want to disappoint her clan or exist as a useless mouth to feed. She is earnest in her endeavors and tries to do her part in the clan.

Perceptive - The calico has developed a rather analytical eye. She does not take the world or its inhabitants at face value. Lavendermist is critical in her observations. While she fears deviation and delinquency, she is not easily persuaded in her beliefs or values. She has learned to dissect information and will not fall victim to propaganda.

Courageous - She does not realize it herself, but Lavendermist is braver than a lot of her clan-mates. As a kit, it was courage that drove her to follow her mother into the tunnels, and it is courage that convinces her to rise in the rebellion's ranks as one of their prominent members. She does not view herself as a force, but there is a fire in the she-cat, one that will not snuff until Lichenclan has been saved.

Her earliest memories transpose her to the caves deep within the island. When she was old enough to remember them, the she-cat almost confused them with her dreams; but each time, the images resurfaced clear as the water in the sandy creek. They were not dreams. Lavendermist saw her late mother, Littlestream, pacing back and forth in the caves, her long, feathery tail bristled in agitation. Her sister, Ivyykit, was also there, her face scrunched in disbelief, like always, at a distance. These are not happy memories.

Littlestream had her kits in late new-leaf. She was a young, seasonal queen, a bit too lithe and warm-hearted to fare well in battle. The small she-cat also felt destined to the nursery, her apprenticeship often disrupted by her relentless desire to tend and humor the kits. Littlestream was not a fighter. She felt an ancestral pull toward the communal and pacifist nature of the first Lichenclan cats. The first time she struck another cat, she cried herself to sleep, ridden with guilt.

She named her first daughters Lavenderkit and Ivykit. The father, Silvertooth, had little interaction with the litter and soon died in a border skirmish. Littlestream, albeit saddened by the death of a clan-mate, was not too distraught over the news. She had born her kits to be a mother and not out of love.

While Ivyykit soon flourished into a she-kit destined for the nursery, Lavenderkit remained rather meek and submissive, unsure of her future path. The small calico has several memories of her sister fantasizing about her life as a future queen, wanting to follow in her mother's foot-steps. Ivykit was the perfect Lichenclan she-cat, a model of devout servitude and stubborn submissiveness. She knew her place. While terrified of the idea of battle, Lavenderkit did not see herself as a mother confined to a life of a kits.

At the same time, Lichenclan took an interesting turn. While Lavenderkit cannot remember the transition, she can still feel the electrical heaviness in the air and the fear her mother radiated in the nursery.

When the kits were three moons old, Littlestream led them into the caves, far from the clan. The moon had sat in the sky, a small cat claw, its light dim and forbearing. Lavenderkit remembered the darkness more than anything, her young eyes unused to such unforgiving depths. Ivykit questioned each second, and their mother, merely shushed her in response.

Finally, the she-cat halted. She tucked the kits close to her breast and whispered, "There is darkness in our clan - an evil that is lurking."

Ivykit bristled her coat in disbelief, her patience for her mother and her sporadic antics thin. Lavenderkit listened with her ears pinned to her head in fear. "Our leaders are talking about a Starclan that does not exist. Starclan is not hateful," their mother continued, "Starclan is here to guide us - to love us. Starclan would not turn its back on those who suffer."

Ivykit looked away, refusing to believe the words from her mother's mouth.

"My daughters," the she-cat lowered her voice even more, "This war with Redwoodclan is wrong. Starclan belongs to no one."

Her sister finally interjected, her restraint gone, "But Minnowstar said -"

"Minnowstar is wrong"

Both she-kits bristled in shock. This was the first time they had seen such disobedience. Their mother then quietly led them from the caves and back into the camp without sound. No one had missed their absence.

Littlestream led the she-kits out into the caves a few more times before Ivykit refused to participate. When asked, the she-kit told Lavenderkit that such language was wrong - it was against the warrior code. Still, Lavenderkit went with her mother, diligent in her desire to learn more. The she-kit did not like the looks shared between their leader and deputy. The camp still radiated with tension. She believed her mother.

When the kits were five moons old, their mother contracted some nameless disease. It manifested in a cough, then the inability to walk or move without discomfort. Cinderface soon confined her to the medicine cat's den, and this is where their mother died.

The two kits visited their mother in her final breaths. Cinderface had allowed them visitation, her prognosis that the illness was not contagious. Even Ivykit, her opinion on her mother conflicted and confused, stuck her nose into her coat and sobbed. Lavenderkit, too grief-stricken to do much else, sat with her mother and listened for one last time.

Littlestream murmured, her voice almost indecipherable, "Do not listen to them. Take their words and throw them out. This is not Lichenclan, my daughters. This is not the path Starclan wanted."

Their mother died within the hour.

Both kits came into their apprenticeship at six moons. Ivypaw, still the same stubbornly devout she-cat, relished the idea of a fresh start. She desperately wanted to put her mother and her insanity behind them. Lavenderpaw did not. She heard her mother in her dreams. The caves still beckoned, called to her at night, their depths radiating some vision she could not quite understand.

Lavenderpaw was first apprenticed to the calm and docile Nightsky, a tom unlike the others in their cutthroat, blood-thirsty clan. Under his tutelage, Lavenderpaw started to come out of her shell and further learn about the divide that existed within Lichenclan. On the surface, it seemed like most of her clan-mates supported her tyrannical leaders, but as she started to meet new faces, she realized that there were others, like her and her mother, who wanted a different life for their clan.

Around her seventh moon, Lavenderpaw was sent on a patrol near the Redwoodclan border. As fate would have it, this turned into a short scuffle with a Redwoodclan band. The battle did not last for long, but it was enough for Hemlockheart, the clan's deputy, to notice her efforts, albeit small. Lavenderpaw was able to hold her own against two Redwoodclan apprentices. However, this commendation would not last. A short moon later, her mentor, Nightsky, died in battle, and the small calico was reassigned to Minnowstar's former apprentice, Sandbriar, a clear indication that Hemlockheart did not trust her old mentor's instruction.

Beneath Sandbriar, the she-cat trained in silence. She was uncomfortable around the red she-cat, unsure of her closeness with her former mentor. It was not until her eleventh moon did she bond with the cutthroat she-cat, learning that her new mentor was also cautious about their leader and wanted a different life for Lichenclan. Around the same time, Lavenderpaw continued to search the tunnels for answers. She wanted to do what her mother had asked: to find the truth.

It was during one of these midnight ventures when Lavenderpaw found another cat, a white, Thistleclan tom named Mothpaw, in the shadows of the tunnels. He was kind and listened to her worries, doubts, and fears, and for the first time in her life, Lavenderpaw felt close to someone. Before she returned to the shore, the tom encouraged her to start a rebellion, to find others in her clan who wanted liberation. With this in mind, Lavenderpaw returned to Lichenclan with a newfound desire to start a revolution.

With no idea where to start, the calico reached out to Nightclaw, the only cat in Lichenclan to ever openly challenge their leaders. To her surprise, the tom agreed to meet in private, and soon, a rebellion was born. With the aid of other warriors and the medicine cat's apprentice, Lavenderpaw finished her apprenticeship as one of the founders of the rebellion. Unbeknownst to her leaders, Lavenderpaw became Lavendermist, a name that suited her double life well. In her clan, she was still the small, meek she-cat who rarely talked, but in the shadows, much like a mist, she saturated the air with the promise of revolution, a dream she knew her mother would want.