doestep

EARLY LIFE - perchpaw is the only daughter of amberhaze and pikesplash. Their most beloved possession, she's doted on and loved dearly, and raised fairly normally within the elmclan environment. Shortly after her birth, the constellation of the phoenix arrived, blessing her brow with the feather of his power, and marking her as one of the prophecied three (and the reincarnation of the deity "first rays of dawn"). Terrified by this meaning, amberhaze and pikesplash hid the prophecy from their daughter and clanmates, hiding her blood and her reincarnation status, and pretending as if she was not special at all. Life moves on, and perchkit grew up normally, becoming an apprentice under sequoiawing (the deputy at the time) and being dubbed perchpaw.

ARC 001 - From the darkness rose great malevolent evil from far before perch's time, a vengeful ex-ancestral seeker unleashes a darkness within the territory - the stalker of shadow, and it rips into the clan, led like lambs to the slaughter by their own naivety. perchpaw is (understandably) horrified, and participates in the effort of cultivating warding herbs and protecting her clanmates when they can. One night, as she returned from her evening patrol, preparing for bed, the shadow stalker emerged from between the elms, snatching her in it's grasp. Perchpaw flailed but was unable to subdue the great evil, and was dragged further into the woods, presumably to be devoured. Unexpected to the beast, however, was it's inability to consume her as it had done so many of her clanmates. There was a power within perchpaw, a light so radiant that it pierced the very hide of darkness, and it roared it's rage, unable to complete it's task. Noticing her absence, perchpaw's friends doepaw and wolfpaw bravely ventured into the woods after her, the trio discovering the shadow stalker, and it's inability to kill perch. As the trio approached the shadowstalker, each were revealed to be of blessed blood, and they worked in tandem to destroy the shadowstalker once and for all. Once killed, the apprentices of elmclan realized that they were reincarnations of the ancient deities, and their purpose was finally revealed to the world.

witheredcreek, outraged that a group of mere apprentices had foiled his great plans, sets out to lure the children to their demise. he kidnaps doepaw's mentor and lures them into the woods, led by the ancestral deity of darkness "abyss between stars" or "the wicked one". Used as a vessel, witheredcreek traps the apprentices in the wilderwood, between ancient ruins that abyss once used to trap his fellow deities and siphon their power. He begins to take their souls, draining them of their life essence and magic so that he might become whole again. The process is nearly complete, the children standing little chance against such a dark evil. Two ancient-blessed cats, starsight and ravendust, arrive to assist the apprentices (having sensed the ill omen) and distract witheredcreek enough that the apprentices are able to regain their strength, but not before ravendust is brutally killed. Outraged and mourning, the three apprentices channel their power into witheredcreek, ripping him apart and turning him to dust in the wind as it is too much for a single mortal to bear. "abyss between stars" returns to the shadows, and waits. hibernating until the time is right to return once more.

ARC 002 -

ARC 003 -

ARC 004 -