Stormpaw

Stormpaw is a young cat with messy gray fur and warm golden-brown eyes. Spiraling stripes of darker gray circle her back and form a mask on her face. Her ears are tufted inside. Lighter gray freckles are scattered across her body. The same shade is present on her lower chest, underbelly, and legs. She recently hit a growth spurt and has yet to grow into her longer legs, giving her a gangly, newborn-deer look even with her smaller stature.

Stormpaw is a cat who's been spoiled by her mother and her Clan the whole life; subsequently, she believes everything must, eventually, go her way. She tends to believe that her decisions and plans are right and doesn't take too long to dwell on them. She's impulsive, ready to go at a moment's notice as long as she's the one calling the shots. She's a leader, just like her mum--she wants to be a lot like her mum, in fact, wants the cats around her to look at her with the same respect and awe and to flee in terror at the sound of her anger.

After the cicada hits, Stormpaw is forced to deal with the destruction of everything she's ever known, and grapples with the idea that she's now alone. In realizing that the loss of her mother means she's the last piece of her family left, Stormpaw decides she wants to fill the role her mother left. She embodies her mother in everything she does, manifesting her own ideas of how Fernstar would react; what would Fernstar do; how would Fernstar feel? She wants to be fierce and formidable and a force to be reckoned with. She wants to protect her Clan and maybe her Clan looks more like a hodgepodge of all the other Clans now and maybe she holds no real standing in this group and maybe she's just an apprentice but she's going to protect them with everything she has. She's not afraid. Not of the cicada, not of anyone. She's not afraid.

From the moment she was born, Stormkit had stayed in her mother's sight. Her father, Hickorystorm, had fallen in battle--a border scuffle gone out of control. He died for his Clan, some cats would say, a noble warrior. Others would call it a senseless, unnecessary, and tragic death. Either way, he'd joined the ranks of StarClan before he could meet his daughter: a single kit born to Fernstar, WindClan's leader. Named in honor of her father and raised on stories of WindClan heroes, Stormkit felt as if she was destined for big things.

Her place as the pride of Fernstar earned her the nickname of 'WindClan's princess,' a title only exasperated by her tendency to follow her mother around everywhere she went. If Fernstar went out, Stormkit would sit there waiting at the camp entrance like it was her duty to guard the place until her mother returned. Though she grew to know some of the older cats around the Clan (especially those who liked to spoil her with treats and stories), they continued to know her the same way: as the daughter of Fernstar, Fernstar's little shadow, Fernstar's mini-me.

She no longer had to wait in camp once she became Stormpaw, and Fernstar decided that she would mentor her daughter herself. The pair became practically inseparable. Stormpaw's nest in the apprentice's den remained empty ever since a bad dream her first night away from her mother had her padding to the leader's den in the night, where Fernstar tucked her paws around her daughter and held her close for the rest of the night and the next night and every night after that, until...

Fernstar is summoned to the moonpool. She tells her daughter she'll be back as quick as she can, but it won't be until the morning at the earliest, and Stormpaw can still sleep in her den until she's done. She's confident in the way she always is, and so Stormpaw trusts her mother, tells her to bring her back something from StarClan, sprawls out in the spacious nest, and waits.