Dapplestar

Dapplestar is the current leader of IsleClan. She still has all nine lives intact and is secretly hoping for an opportunity to beat up CoveClan.

Physical Description
Dapplestar is a tall, well-muscled she-cat with thin, medium-length fur. It is actually rather disorderly and likes to stick up in different directions, but she loathes that aspect of it and always does her absolute best to keep it sleek and smooth. She usually does a relatively fine job. It is only noticeable near her ears and the base of her tail where she cannot easily reach.

Her pelt is primarily white, but it is streaked all over with blotchy mottles of dark gray and black. The black markings stretch into rings striping her tail and legs, and her ears are both solid black as well. It spreads into a masklike marking on her face. Her slanted eyes are a shade of dark amber that can sometimes look gold when under direct light. There are a pair of small, triangular notches torn out of the side of her right ear, and the left corner of her mouth is raked by two long, pale scars that stretch from the bottom of her chin to the side of her muzzle.

Personality
Dapplestar is... intense. She’s aloof and intelligent, and quite honestly, she’d be known for rolling straight 20’s on every intimidation check. She’s very judgmental and sharp of both wit and tongue. She will make split-second decisions and act impulsively without a second thought— although in her defense, her first thought is rarely ever in need of rethinking. She’s a lover of elaborate plans and complex ideas. Typically, Dapplestar is just very serious and stoic, too. She is composed at all times and doesn’t like speaking. She prefers to watch events unfold from a distance without getting her own paws dirty. She won’t go out of her way to engage other cats, either, and if she doesn’t feel like talking to someone, she will let them know. She’s very straightforward and blunt in that respect. She has a bit of an ego and she knows it, too. She doesn’t see the harm in that. As far as she’s concerned, her pride is well-deserved.

Dapplestar enjoys high places and spends the majority of her free time watching over her Clan from her leader’s perch. She doesn’t involve herself in her Clanmates’ activities such as hunting or patrolling save on very rare occasions, but she will sometimes pace independently along IsleClan’s borders at night, usually out of restless energy. She likes to stay active and can move with surprising speed and agility when she wishes to. She is well aware of her skill when it comes to fighting. Ever since her apprenticeship, battle has been her strong suit. She’s only mediocre in the fields of fishing and land hunting, so in her mind, fighting is where it’s at.

She hates the rain and the heat. She doesn’t mind the snow, however - leaf-bare is actually her favorite season. The chilly weather is intriguing to her. She is fond of nighttime, when shadows obscure nearly everything and the stars seem to stretch endlessly into the sky. She’s both an early bird and a night owl, which provides her with a rather unfortunate sleep schedule. She doesn’t let it bother her, though. She’d always been one to stay up late, and she had started getting up early back when she was appointed deputy. The habit never wore off.

So, in summary, she is savage. She demands respect. She will fight you. She’ll probably win, too. Don’t try her.

Kithood
Dapplekit was born in IsleClan to a pair of well-respected warriors: Frostwillow, a cunning and strong she-cat, and Ravenblaze, a stony but honorable tom whom quite a few cats had pegged as the next deputy. From the start, expectations were set high for Dapplekit. Frostwillow could not be bothered to waste away any more time in the nursery; she had warrior duties to get back to, after all. Instead of nursing Dapplekit herself, she left her under the care of a different queen named Lotusfern.

Now, Dapplekit had no littermates, and her parents were preoccupied with their own business— Frostwillow had dedicated every fiber of her being to serving IsleClan, and Ravenblaze was dead set on proving himself worthy of deputyship. Lotusfern had two sons, Breamkit and Perchkit, but they were a whole two moons older than Dapplekit, and they wanted nothing to do with her. So where did that leave her? Spoiled by her two older siblings, of course.

Frostwillow and Ravenblaze had had another litter prior to Dapplekit consisting of Iceflower and Crowtalon. The two of them were respectable enough, and since their parents rarely visited Dapplekit, they took it upon themselves to make sure she felt appreciated in the family. The truth was, their second litter had been unplanned. Dapplekit was kind of an accident. Iceflower and Crowtalon realized that, recognized how unfair it was to their little sister, and decided they were having none of it. So for the first three moons or so of Dapplekit’s life, her big siblings were her favorite cats in the world. She still loved her parents, and to some extent, Lotusfern, but Iceflower and Crowtalon took up the most space by far in her little heart. They often visited with another warrior as well: Kelpwhisker, a good-natured but bumbling young tom who was sort of ‘dating’ Iceflower. Dapplekit always found him pretty unimpressive, but she liked him all the same and thought he was cute with her sister. Things weren’t too bad. Dapplekit knew that her parents did indeed love her in spite of their distance, and she completely understood their desire to put their Clan before their kin. She admired it, actually. She wanted to be like them— loyal and looked up to.

Not everything was fine, though. One night when she was three and a half moons old, Breamkit came up with a plan. Now, really, his plan had been to sneak out of the nursery and leave camp with Perchkit, but the two of them made too much noise while getting out of their nest and accidentally woke up Dapplekit. They were pretty worried at first, as Dapplekit had a bit of a reputation for being a stick in the mud, but at the same time... she did have an adventurous streak. And she wanted to see the territory by herself, without her siblings or Kelpwhisker looming over her. So she told her denmates that if they brought her with them, she’d promise not to tell Lotusfern. The older kits agreed to it, and off they went.

It seemed fun at first. Breamkit and Perchkit were challenging each other to races and all sorts of things. Dapplekit kept trying to veer off on her own, but the boys wouldn’t let her. They made up excuses like “you’re too young”, and “if you get lost, Mom’ll kill us”. Dapplekit was aggravated beyond belief by their idiocy. She was perfectly capable of watching over herself! She’d show them. She waited until they were distracted, arguing over some trivial matter, and then darted off without warning. She wanted to find the edge of the island and catch a fish - just one fish - to show them how mature and skilled she was. It would be that simple. Or so she thought.

Unfortunately for her, the fact that it was nighttime made it hard to see. And that made her not notice the inconvenient tree root right at the base of the shore. She tripped over it and fell into the water. Now, being only three moons old, Dapplekit hadn’t learned how to swim yet. She couldn’t even tell how far away the solid ground was. So she pretty much just started panicking and screamed for help. The other two kits found her, and Perchkit was able to stick out a long enough tree branch for her to grab onto. They pulled her out and yelled at her. Then she yelled at them for yelling at her, because had she learned her lesson? Nah. She was just like “look, I’m alive, your point is invalid”. Then they went right back to camp and into the nursery and pretended nothing had happened. In the morning, Lotusfern asked why Dapplekit’s fur was wet and they had to come clean, though. Then everyone got very upset. Especially Frostwillow and Ravenblaze. They didn’t want some delinquent accidental kit of theirs ruining their reputations. Dapplekit felt adequately ashamed of herself after that.

On the bright side, however... the experience allowed her to become pretty good friends with Perchkit and Breamkit! Breamkit was wilder than his brother and more fun to roughhouse with, but Perchkit was much more insightful and interesting to talk to. Dapplekit spent a lot of time with them during the half-moon between the escapade and their apprenticeship ceremony. To her delight, Perchpaw was apprenticed to Iceflower and Breampaw was apprenticed to Crowtalon. She’d secretly been hoping to get one of her older siblings as her own mentor, but that was alright. She supposed she couldn’t have everything.

For the two moons after that, Dapplekit just chilled. Lotusfern remained in the nursery just for her, and she appreciated that. She concentrated all of her energy on practicing for apprenticeship— honing her battle skills, memorizing the territory’s layout with help from her siblings, and learning the Warrior Code. She didn’t want to disappoint her parents again, and decided to follow every rule as closely as she could from then on.

Apprenticeship
Dapplepaw became an apprentice at six moons old, like ya do. Kelpwhisker was made her mentor. While she knew she could’ve gotten a more experienced warrior, she was still pleased since it meant she could train a lot with Iceflower and Perchpaw. Her parents weren’t happy with it, though. Again, Dapplepaw understood why. She just didn’t care. She figured she'd do fine anyways.

As a matter of fact, she did do fine anyways. Training went relatively well all throughout. Dapplepaw excelled in battle practice, and managed to best Kelpwhisker in nearly every session after only a few tries. She wasn't as strong in the hunting field, but she got by. She became a pretty skilled swimmer over time, too. She stayed close with Lotusfern, Perchpaw, and Breampaw, as well as with her older sister and brother. Unbeknownst to her, however, Perchpaw was beginning to crush on her. Dapplepaw had no feelings for him or for any tom. If anything, she shared her parents’ attitude — in her eyes, romance was a waste of time. That's neither here nor there, though. My point is that Dapplepaw chilled. And as she became more aware of the situations between Clan and Clan, she decided that she didn't like ReefClan very much. She didn't hate them or want to invade like some of her Clanmates, but she found them annoying, what with how they acted all tough and great in spite of their territory's sad size. It was mostly an act, though. She had no real problem with ReefClan cats. She just thought it satisfying to pretend she did.

One moon into her apprenticeship, Lotusfern was killed by some form of stomach virus that the medicine cats could not cure. Dapplepaw was not impacted as heavily as Breampaw and Perchpaw, but she mourned all the same. She’d been very grateful to the she-cat for watching over her in her parents’ absence and regretted that she wouldn’t be able to repay the debt. On the other hand, though, Kelpwhisker and Iceflower officially became mates. That was good news, and it sort of brightened Dapplepaw’s mood after the death of Lotusfern. She was happy for them. Less happy that it distracted them from her training, but that didn't really matter. She was still pretty great at almost everything.

Things were just... chill for a fairly long time. When Dapplepaw was nine moons old and had been training for three months, however, more unfortunate stuff happened. She and Kelpwhisker were on a fishing patrol with Breampaw and Crowtalon when they were suddenly assaulted by an osprey that was looking to steal their catches. Breampaw attacked it, and subsequently got scooped up instead. Crowtalon wasn’t gonna let that happen, though. He jumped at the osprey and it clawed him across the face. More specifically, across the eyes. Yeah. It straight up blinded him. Dapplepaw also tried leaping for it, and had about the same amount of success. She actually managed to grab onto its tail feathers, but it flung her off, this time only ripping a chunk out of her ear. So essentially, it blinded Crowtalon, scratched Dapplepaw, picked up Breampaw, and then flew away across the sea. So... yeah. Bye, Breampaw. And bye, Crowtalon’s eyesight. It was a pretty traumatic experience. Dapplepaw was sort of horrified and low-key scarred for life. No, literally. Her ear was permanently ripped. Get it? See what I did there? I— okay. Sorry. I’ll stop.

Anyways, it sucked. Crowtalon sort of gave up on existence and moved into the elders’ den. Frostwillow and Ravenblaze were ashamed of him now, too. Oh yeah, speaking of them! Ravenblaze became deputy just like he wanted. Dapplepaw was glad for that. Well, as glad as she could be, anyways. She was still pretty unhappy. She’d witnessed her friend’s death and her brother’s lifelong scarring. She wasn’t feeling great. Y’know who else wasn’t feeling great? Perchpaw. Perchpaw’s mom and brother had just died. His dad had died before he was born, too, so he was also kind of left alone. Alone with Dapplepaw, that is. Alone with his crush. He started actively trying to flirt with her. She actually started noticing it and was all like “ew”. Within the next moon, he became a warrior under the name of Perchpool anyways, though, so she had two more moons to recover from her trauma in peace.

Actually, one more moon. When she was eleven moons old, she was cruising around on a hunting mission when she happened to see another osprey chilling on a rock nearby. It made her angry. She was angry at ospreys in general. So she just freakin’ hurled herself at it. It tore its beak into her face and left the scars, but she didn’t care. She bit its neck and held on until it died. She just killed that bird of prey like it was... well, prey. I mentioned that she was savage, didn’t I? She then brought it back to camp and everyone was like “wow, that’s cool”. So they made her a warrior early. Yay for her.

Warrior Life
Dapplestorm earned her name and was very proud of it. At around the same time, Iceflower revealed that she was pregnant with Kelpwhisker’s kits. That was good news, right? Yay! Good news! Dapplestorm thought that was neat. What was less neat was the fact that Perchpool was still trying to flirt with her despite what she thought were obvious rejections. By the time she was twelve moons old, she just couldn’t take it any longer and straight up told him to leave her alone because she wasn’t interested. Except she may have phrased it rather... harshly. And she may have actually made him cry. Did she feel bad? Not really. He’d had it coming.

Sike! The following day, Perchpool was gone. He’d just disappeared without a trace. As it turns out, he’d pretty much hinged his future on getting with Dapplestorm, and without a chance with her, he had no reason to stay in the Clans. So he’d just... left. To become a loner. Without telling anyone. Now Dapplestorm felt bad. Now Dapplestorm had no friends. Poor Dapplestorm.

Anyways, she just chilled for two more moons. Then Iceflower had her kits... and died in the process. There were three of them, named Boughkit, Nemesiakit, and Woodkit. They were looked after by a younger queen named Pansybloom who'd recently found out she was infertile. Dapplestorm thought they were great. She was pretty devastated over Iceflower’s death, though. So were Kelpwhisker and Crowtalon. In fact, Crowtalon was apparently just so miserable by that point that his immune system started failing, because he caught some kind of common illness and was killed by it less than a moon later. That... sucked. Dapplestorm really, really didn’t like that. Now she just had her distant parents, her former mentor, and her newborn niece and nephews.

For the next six moons, Dapplestorm did absolutely nothing interesting. Nothing interesting happened, either. She carried out her duties. She tried (and failed) to impress her parents. She sympathized with a depressed Kelpwhisker. She occasionally visited Iceflower's kits. At twenty moons old, her hard work was paid off when she received Boughpaw as her apprentice. The fact that they were related didn’t make Dapplestorm go soft on the apprentice— no, not at all. If anything, it had the opposite effect, making her want to push the poor little dude harder than ever. She enjoyed it, though. She still got along just fine with him, and if anything, she was somewhat overly defensive of her apprentice. She knew her own apprenticeship hadn't been the most perfect, and she wanted to make absolutely certain that he and his siblings had the best youth she could provide for them.

Only one moon after she became a mentor, though, Ravenblaze had a, um... mishap while making his way across the territory. Said mishap may or may not have involved slipping, bashing his head into a rock, and dying. Yeah, okay, it did. It wasn’t very “cash money” of him, as the memes would say. Dapplestorm didn’t think so, either. She’d never particularly gotten along with her father, but he had been a respectable cat and she was sad to see him go. A good chunk of that sadness up and disappeared, however, when— thanks to some persuasion from Frostwillow— the leader appointed her as the next deputy. Dapplestorm was thrilled about that. She’d had less than one moon of experience as a mentor and yet there she was— the second in command already! Yee haw!

She continued training her nephew uneventfully for the next four moons. And I say four because when Dapplestorm was twenty-five moons old, a very brief surge of sickness rippled through IsleClan. It claimed the lives of both Frostwillow and Kelpwhisker among, presumably, several others. That was unfortunate. Dapplestorm had pretty much no one left now except for Boughpaw. She was pretty close with him, actually - not that she'd ever let it show. She was incredibly strict with him, and that was really just her way of showing affection. They were able to bond a little more over their shared grief after Kelpwhisker died, though. Oh, right— that same wave of sickness also killed the leader. For the ninth time. So, uh... Dapplestorm was suddenly in charge. Sweet!

 Leadership 

Dapplestar received her nine lives from Lotusfern (life of love), Breampaw (life of passion), Crowtalon (life of courage), Iceflower (life of prudence), Kelpwhisker (life of honesty), Ravenblaze (life of perseverance), Frostwillow (life of charisma), Perchpool, who'd died soon after leaving (life of acceptance), and the previous leader (life of wisdom). During her leadership ceremony, her parents expressed that they were indeed actually proud of her, but by that point Dapplestar didn't care anymore. She was like "y'know what, that's nice and all, but I ain't doing this for you. get rekt" and that was honestly fine. It was swag. She made amends with Perchpool and got some closure with everyone else. Then she returned from the trip in all of her glory, and her very first act as leader was to yell at Boughpaw for not having changed the elders' bedding like she told him to. Then she appointed her deputy, a warrior named *uncreated cat oof*.

One moon later, Boughpaw passed his assessment with flying colors and was ready to become a warrior, as were his siblings. Dapplestar was proud of her nephews and niece, and of her own apprentice in particular. She gave him the name Boughshade, and labeled his siblings Nemesialeaf and Woodwhistle. She was confident in their skills and felt sure that Iceflower and Kelpwhisker would be proud of the cats they'd grown into.

After that, she just chilled for two more moons, adjusting to her new role... and then, when she was twenty-nine, CoveClan showed up. Dapplestar didn't like that. She didn't like CoveClan. She was already working hard enough to get along with the other leaders at the time - Creekstar, Daystar, Blackberrystar, and Bitternstar. She did not want to have to deal with whatever sorry excuse this new 'Smokestar' came up with to explain why he'd brought a pack of rogues to their islands. She would like to speak privately with the other leaders - the real leaders, as she likes to think of them, and convince them to band together and drive out the intruders. She's willing to set aside her slight dislike of ReefClan in order to get rid of what she thinks is the larger evil. So far, though, she hasn't had much luck.

When she was thirty moons old, a two-moon old kit named Amberkit was orphaned and left under the care of Pansybloom, who'd chosen to stay in the nursery permanently after taking in Iceflower's kits. Dapplestar didn't think much of it. Things like that happened rather often, after all. But Amberkit was sort of intriguing. She'd approach Dapplestar and ask her curious questions a lot, and Dapplestar ended up becoming rather fond of her. She reminded her of her younger self, actually. On one occasion, Amberkit nearly drowned while visiting the sea with Pansybloom and her adoptive sister Dewkit. Dapplestar was glad she didn't. She also found it rather amusing since she too had nearly gotten herself killed like that as a kit. So yeah. That happened for a bit.

Once Dewkit was old enough to become an apprentice, Dapplestar decided to make Boughshade her mentor. She knew her nephew would be happy about it, and she was confident enough that they would work well together.

Really, she hasn't done much else.

Other
 Trivia 


 * If her parents hadn't wanted kits, you ask, then why'd they have Crowtalon and Iceflower? Well, it was kind of a status thing. Her parents weren't in love and they didn't want to deal with raising children - but they both had a common goal in wanting to be respected and looked up to. So they decided to become mates and have kids so that they could be seen as more of a united force and so that their Clanmates would understand that they'd contributed to the cycle of Clan life. They'd planned to stop after that, though. Dapplestar really was an accident.
 * I had something else I wanted to put here. Now I don't remember what it was. I do that a lot, don't I? Oh well.

 Quotes 

She has a few good ones. It sure is a shame that I'm too lazy to add them.