✦ Honeyblossom ✦

Honeykit was born during the last two moons of a violent and bloody War between her home, Ridgeclan, and Moorclan. She was born to Buzzardmoon and Brindleflare in a litter of two beside her brother Flickerkit. Those first two moons of life are somewhat hazy for her, but Honeykit remembers her father’s big strong paws and the way he would come and cuddle around her and Flickerkit after fighting his battles. Relief came for the clans on the day that the War finally came to an end, but it was not without tragedy… Honeykit still remembers the look on her mother’s face when news reached camp of the outcome of the final battle. Buzzardmoon was dead, having taken down Coldnose with him. Honeykits father was gone.

While Ridgeclan slowly recovered and learned how to live without their Leader, Honeykit had her own recoveries to make. After the passing of her father, Honeykit began to suffer from insomnia. But even more concerning, she began to complain of seeing ‘dark shadows’ out of the corner of her eye. While no one could make any sense of her claims, it was decided in the end that perhaps this was simply Honeykit’s imagination and her own method of coping. However, Honeykit became more insistent when complaining that one of the ‘dark shadows’ now hung around in the corner of the nursery and it frightened her. Brindleflare, still believing this to be a figment of Honeykit’s imagination, devised a plan to help her daughter recover from her fears.

“If that shadow scares you, how about you go and make friends with it? It can’t be so scary anymore if you befriend it, can it?”

This, to Honeykit, made perfect sense! Quite honestly, she was a little embarrassed she hadn’t thought of it herself. From that day on, Honeykit began to speak with and even play with the shadow… And over the course of a week, their form began to change. What was once a fuzzy shadow began to take the form of a small kit. By the time evening came at the end of the week, Honeykit could see her companion completely clearly! As bed-time began to draw close, her new friend thanked her;

“Thank you, Honeykit. I have always wanted a friend like you…”

Honeykit was pretty pleased with herself to have made a new friend, but much to her surprise, her friend began to leave. Honeykit’s eyes grew wider than ever before as she watched her new friend begin to glow… A light so bright that she had to close her eyes for a moment. When she opened her eyes, her friend was gone - a cloud of beautiful shimmering butterflies in their place. Unbeknownst to Honeykit, she had befriended a ghost… And in playing with them, she had helped them fulfil their last wish and finally move on to The Dawn.

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Many days of her Kithood, Honeykit spent her time in the Medicine Den. Flickerkit suffered regular and numerous nosebleeds and was often confined to the den while Silkweb tended to him. Being her kindhearted self, Honeykit tagged along to keep her brother company. Or at least that was what she had in mind originally… But while she was sitting there, watching Silkweb work, something sparked in her soul. Honeykit became incredibly interested in the medicine Silkweb applied and how she used it. And so, those afternoons, although originally intended to keep Flicker company, also became learning opportunities. Honeykit just desperately wanted to learn everything that Silkweb had to offer - she wanted nothing more than to be able to help others in the same way. And Silkweb was more than happy to oblige, thinking having Honeykit as a possible Apprentice would be a good idea.

Another challenge came Honeykit’s way when her brother made some new friends. Flickerkit made friends with a few older kits, and although they were mostly ok, Honeykit was not a fan of how rough they got on occasion… Flickerkit assured her that it was fine, however, and so Honeykit had no choice but to let it slide. At least for now.

Not wanting to hang around and watch her brother get rough-housed, Honeykit turned her attention to the other cats staying in the Nursery. On the other end of the nursery, curled up against a black pelt, Honeykit found Plumkit. Although two moons younger, Plumkit was so happy to make friends with Honeykit and the two hit-it-off right away! Honeykit quickly became a relief for both Plumkit and their mother, Magpieshade, as she kept the former busy while the latter could relax.

Coming as no surprise to anyone, when Honeykit and Flickerkit reached their sixth moon, Honeykit branched off to become Silkweb’s Apprentice and the future Medicine Cat of Ridgeclan. Eager to learn and to prove herself, Honeypaw dove right into any task that Silkweb asked of her. Although by the time evening came, Honeypaw felt less sure without the comfort of Flickerkit by her side for the first time in her life. Not only was she to sleep without her brother, but she was not to even sleep within the camp. For her first night as a Medicine Cat Apprentice, Silkweb took Honeypaw to sleep under Erskina’s alter. Although nervous, when Honeypaw laid beside her mentor and the altar she felt a wash of calm and comfort come over her, as if the guardian themself was watching over her. Honeypaw didn’t remember even falling asleep, but soon enough she woke to the first rays of sun filtering over her sleeping spot. She had made it through her first night! She was officially a Medicine Cat Apprentice!

Thanks to those afternoons spent in the den, Honeypaw already had a pretty impressive knowledge of herbs, how to identify them, and what uses each had. What she lacked, however, was practical experience. And it seemed the universe was more than ready to provide that opportunity… Only the next day, a young tom was rushed into the den.

Although the tom had no physical injury, he clearly was exhausted. And so, with the instruction of Silkweb, Honeypaw spent the next few days tending to him and helping him regain his strength. Only a few days into her Apprenticeship, Honeypaw was already tending to her own patient with only a little bit of instruction from her mentor! Silkweb did take her moment to speak to the tom privately, to try and find out what happened to him. Honeypaw didn’t know what was said, but when Silkweb allowed her back into the den, her face was very sombre.

Because the tom, named Mark, was not from Ridgeclan, he was at risk of being attacked by malicious Fae. So as a task, Silkweb sent Honeypaw to fetch materials for his pendant and aid in creating it. They then took it together to the altar, where Silkweb instructed Honeypaw on how to ask for Erskina’s blessing… Honeypaw was so nervous, but her prayers were answered - The pendant was blessed! So proud of herself, Honeypaw returned to camp and presented Mark with his pendant - officially welcoming him into Ridgeclan with a beaming smile.

Plumkit often liked to hang out with Honeypaw in the medicine cat den after she had been made into an apprentice and during one said interaction, Honey made a big discovery! Her friend has been fae-blessed and is able to read minds! The pair are excited to let Silkweb know, who after confirming their words gets the pair to promise they won’t tell anyone else. Worried for her friend, Honey complies.

It wasn’t long before the young medicine cat apprentice started geting an adventurous streak, making trips out by herself to search for herbs. It’s on these trips that she starts meeting cats from other clans! Sugarpaw of Moorclan is the first apprentice she meets from another clan and the pair with similar friendly temperaments get along quickly.

[In High Places] On another day Honeypaw becomes spooked by a strange creature (That she would later find out was a deer) and ends up getting lost and stuck up a tree in Moorclan territory in her haste to get away. Thankfully she gets found and helped back home by a Moorclan warrior, Rowanspirit.

Not all her adventures were by herself though, Milkpaw was a frequent presence in helping to escort her out. On one of their outings they meet Koipaw, a Coralclan apprentice after Honeypaw runs in after hearing shouting. After some friendly banter Koipaw challenges Milkpaw to catch a seagull which he does successfully, making Honeypaw both proud and impressed by her friend!!

Her next meeting at the Coralclan border would not go so well. After attempting to catch a vole, it ends up running across and into the paws of two Coralclan apprentices Snakepaw and Rainpaw. Honeypaw is happy to let the vole go but Rainpaw acts hostile and ends up mocking her for being a medicine cat apprentice. This upsets Honeypaw who is proud of her profession and tears are spilt. Snakepaw ends up stepping in, which sends Rainpaw away in a huff and after an awkward apology from the dark tom for his friends actions, he follows after the bigger apprentice.

Honeypaw ends up meeting Snakepaw again at the border. It seems Rainpaw is still cross with him, so feeling responsible Honey offers to help Snakepaw find something so they could make up.

[Two unsupervised Cats] Back at the Moorclan border Honeypaw meets a fellow wandering, Greywind an elder from Moorclan. Honey is fascinated to hear about some of experiences from the outside word and gifts her some feathers. In return Honeypaw gifts him some pretty teal coloured stones, she found.

One day when out Honeypaw discovers a series of tunnels under the territory after slipping into a hole. She wanders around for a bit until she hears a pained voice crying out, it’s here the she first meets the mysterious voice from the other side of the cave. Apparently hurt, she stays with him, even singing a song to make him feel better until help arrives.

Much to Honeypaw’s delight, when her best friend reaches their sixth moon, she decides to train as a medicine cat apprentice along-side Honey! Honeypaw can barely sit still during the ceremony, grinning from ear to ear, as Plumkit becomes Plumpaw. Once it’s over she soft-tackles her friend and the pair cuddle while they excitedly chatter about all the things they will do together!

The Festival of the Fae arrives and Honeypaw is notably excited to attend for the first time!! She makes a mask to wear in the form of her own interpretation of Erskina with the help of some of Ridegclan’s elders.

At the event Honeypaw is chasing her brother around and accidentally knocks into another cat. At first she thinks she’s hit some kind of wall because of how solid the impact was but is quickly both horrified and embarrassed when she realises it’s not only another cat, but the Moorclan leader of all people! After apologizing, Honeypaw worries that she might become cursed since she dropped her mask in the impact. It is bad luck to drop your mask as the fae might try to mess with you. Chestnutfur assures her she’ll fine and offers some suggestions to keep the fae away. In some weird way Honeypaw feels a connection with the leader but she is unable to explain why.

Honeypaw decides to join in on the annual courage test and by a twist of fate she ends up paired with Snakepaw! Everything starts out well until they get chased by some very realistic looking monsters. This freaks the pair, but they managed to get to the end nonetheless. (It is later discovered that the Fae were messing with them)

Back at the event’s gathering Honeypaw almost bumps into another Moorclan warrior, who turns out to be Rowanspirit’s sister, Jasminewhisker! The warrior leaves the apprentice with a cryptic message, “The Fae grow unrestful, twisting and changing -I fear a great evil is coming. Someone must be ready to stop it.” and before Honeypaw can ask more, she vanishes. Honeypaw becomes restless when Rowanspirit informs her that his sister died during the war.

With the event over, Honeypaw can’t stop thinking about Jasminewhisker. Had she really seen a ghost…? It’s then that her brother Flickerpaw invites her to join him and try out Moorclan’s practice of divination. Intrigued Honeypaw joins him and later confesses to him about what she had seen at the Fae of Festival.

[Field Medic] Honeypaw continues with her solo outings and stumbles across her an injured warrior at the Moorclan border. At first Raventail is wary and won’t let Honey close, not believing the apprentices claims of being able to help. However, after fiving the poor warrior the shock of her life by promptly giving herself a cut so she could fix it and prove she was telling the truth, the warrior relinquishes and allows Honey to tend to her.

Since there had been some usable herbs growning in the tunnels, Honeypaw sometimes went back there and was happy to find that she sometimes bumped into the mysterious cat again! She was pleased to see his injury seemed to have healed and it also felt like she had a secret friend which was fun!!

[Affirmations] Honeypaw ends up spending some more time with Snakepaw and it's here that she gets the tom to work on some affirmations. Here she really starts to feel like they have gotten closer.

Traditionally Ridgeclan also teaches their medicine cats how to fight so Honeypaw accompanies Greenblaze and Milkpaw to learn some moves. Honeypaw isn’t very good and the session is cut short and it seems Greenblaze doesn’t have the heart to teach the two how to harm others.

[After School] Shortly after this Honeypaw meets up with Rowanspirit who after looking horrified at learning that Ridgeclan teaches their medicine cats to fight gives her pointers on what she had been learning after seeing her… Rather ‘spectacular’ moves. At first he seems to scoff at her teacher, which causes Honey to jump to Greenblazes defence, saying that it’s her that’s the problem. Oddly enough Rowanspirit seems to become very panicked after hearing Greenblaze’s name.

[Surprise!] It’s not until she and Greenblaze come across Rowanspirit when they are out looking for herbs that she notices something seems to going on between the pair! Honey can’t help but laugh at how cute they seem both trying to act ‘normal’.

Wolf tracks are reported to been seen crossing through Ridgeclan territory and towards Moorclan’s and at the next gathering there is some shocking news. Moorclan has been attacked by the wolf and lost one of their newest apprentices, Hazelpaw and is now moving in with Coralclan. Having spent so much time with the Moorclan warrior, Rowanspirit, Honeypaw had built a strong bond with him and had started to look up to him as an older brother figure. So worried for the tom she goes to find him in the crowd and after making sure he is okay, she leaves him to talk with Greenblaze.

After the gathering Honeypaw starts to worry that perhaps Jasminewhisker’s warning was related to the wolf attack and she confides in her friend Oleanderpaw after some prompting that she feels like she might have failed Hazelpaw.

Things start getting weirder within the territories as they get abnormally stormy weather for the spring season. When out searching for herbs at Silkweb’s request an earthquake rocks the territory, the side of the cliff crumbles and Honeypaw is tossed into the sea below. By a stroke of luck a pair of Coralclan apprentices are having their assessment on the island and Mara, who is known to be benevolent to kids, uses the tide to sweep the drowning apprentice towards where they are.

After being resuscitated Honeypaw is very thankful towards her saviors Ivorypaw and Viperpaw and spends some time with them before she is taken back to land on a raft the pair had built.

Drained and with a sprained paw, Honeypaw spends some time recovering in Coralclan before she returns home.

During her stay she is able to witness Ivory and Viper’s warrior ceremony and also befriends an apprentice named Bubblepaw. She really clicked with the younger apprentice, he reminded her a lot of Plumpaw and that bought a source of comfort. Later on she would also become friendly with another tom- Troutpaw who she recalled Flickerpaw having mentioned before, notably the apprentice had seemed to shy away from her at first and although he seemed awkward when he finally came around, she found his clumsy kindness charming in it’s own right.

Finally she was well enough to return home and is escorted by Lady Starlingstream and the newly named Viperstrike. There is a lot of emotions when she finally gets gets back and she stays with her face buried in her brothers fur in the camp as he fussed over her while Hawkpatch watched over the pair.

Afterwards she is sent to the medicine cat den where she is finally reunited with her mentor Silkweb. Now in a more private setting she feels all the emotions she had been keeping down suddenly spill out and she bursts into tears as she cries about how scared she had been. Silkweb comforts her until Honey finally cries herself to sleep.

Honeypaw was still very shaken over the ordeal and rarely left the camp unless she was out with Silkweb. During this time she spent some more time with her brother and friends.

It only took a month of being cooped up for Honeypaw to feel her paws itching to get out and about again, she still felt nervous but after Silkweb suggested that the three of them, including Plumpaw go to the gathering Honeypaw was excited to see her friends that she had missed from last time. Everything was going well- She introduced Rowanspirit to Silk and Plum but it seemed destiny had other plans.

Just as Lady Starlingstream was finishing her speech another earthquake rocked the territory, except this time it was far bigger. In a matter of moments the world was overturned as Honeypaw knew it. The Coraclan leader yelled of the impending danger- A tsunami would be on the way- Chaos insued as all the clans tried to evacuate. Both Ridgeclan and Coralclan’s leaders disappearing in order to head back and check their clans camps.

As she was escaping with Silkweb and Plumpaw, Honeypaw heard a cry from help- Cindersun her clanmate was desperately trying to move a log that had trapped Raventail. Without thinking Honeypaw leaped into action, jumping back down into the rising water in order to help. Silkweb follows after her and Heatherhop, a Moorclan warrior who Honey had meet before also jumped in to help after hearing Honey’s cry.

With their combined efforts they are successful able to free the Moorclan warrior, but her legs appear to be in bad shape. It’s then that the eerie sound of singing can be heard and Honeypaw looked in horror as she reconized her fellow mates trapped below with the water rising. There was no way to help them but Honeypaw doesn’t even stop to think about that, however before she can act, her mentor pins her and desperately tries to reason with her. Greenblaze also begs her to keep going. Honeypaw makes the hardest decision of her life and she feels her heart ripping in two as she’s left to face her own helplessness. She is powerless to help them and trying to do so would just put more cats at risk. By the time they reach Skies Reach, the highest point in Ridgeclan’s territory Honeypaw feels entirely numb.

With the territories all messed up from the Tsunami, the three clans merge together and stay in the lighthouse as a temporary measure. Honeypaw struggles with both suivorors guilt and an anger at her own helplessness, she tries her best to stay positive but often found herself falling into depressive episodes. A deep tiredness followed her and with the amount of injured there often wasn’t much time for her sleep in the first place.

She found comfort in spending time with her loved ones, cuddling with Milkpaw, Oleanderpaw and Milkpaw when all the apprentices were sleeping together. Oleanderpaw finally got her to smile with his silly antics but Honeypaw ends up crying wondering if it was truely okay for her to be happy.

The same insomnia she had as a child creeps back in as she see’s strange things again, obscured figures mixed in with the living cats. Not wanting to think about them she chose to throw herself into her duties instead, it’s here that she got to know Stormpaw a Moorclanner and Arumkit a Coralclanner.

After helping him to recover he became interested in herbs and offered to help her out. It wasn’t long before he expressed interest in becoming a medicine cat himself. This made Honeypaw very happy.

Likewise Arumkit was eager to help out Honeypaw with her duties and was able to fill in the silence with chatter on the days when she wasn’t quite up to it. Honeypaw found the little kit following her around and imitating her to be very adorable, reminding her a little Plum so she was also very happy to find out that when the kit had her ceremony, she had decided to take the path of a medicine cat.

It’s then Milkpaw’s turn to have his ceremony, getting the name Milkwing. Honeypaw was quick to congratulate her friend, giving him an affectionate headbutt. And after some chatter she stepped aside to let others talk to the tom and it was here that she noticed the tail end of Snakepaw running out of the lighthouse.

Thinking something might be up Honeypaw chased after Snakepaw and became concered seeing how something was clearly wrong with the tom already being on edge. The pair get into a fight when Honeypaw gets upset as just like now, he never seems to tell her anything and Snakepaw finally snaps at her to mind her own business. In the heat of the moment Honeypaw snaps back, feeling hurt, and tells him that she’ll do exactly that before running off.

Due to the fact that the three clans were now living together in Ridgeclan's Lighthouse and didn't have access to their usual Assessment grounds... They decided to devise a new Assessment for until they could return to their homes. This meant that Apprentices from any clan could work together in pairs or teams to complete some tasks assigned to them while a Warrior watches hidden at a safe distance in case they run into any trouble. This idea worked well for most... But for Snakepaw and Honeypaw it was incredibly awkward. They had been paired together for their Assessment despite the argument they'd had a few days prior.

Their Assessment started off with the pair attempting to catch some prey. However, their lack of communication meant that they ended up leaping at the same time and only caught each other! A very tense discussion had the pair agree not to get in each other's ways. However teamwork was still out of reach... This left them to continue to get in each other's way and generally not be able to complete their tasks. As the day continued and it entered late afternoon... They still hadn't completed a single task for they simply couldn't get along! Finally, the tension came to a head when Honeypaw asked Snakepaw why he was acting the way he was! At long last... Snakepaw came clean about everything that had been happening between Rainpaw and himself, as well as the incident with Hazelbreeze... Honeypaw was horrified!

Although they couldn't solve his problems right then and there (and he didn't even want to try!) Snakepaw was able to apologise for his behaviour and they made up just in time to work together to complete their Assessment before sundown!

Honeypaw and Snakepaw are congradulated as they both make it back to the lighthouse. Honeypaw is gifted the name Honeyblossom for her compassionate and supportive nature. Honey worries if she truely deserves such a name but is happy to be ranking up along with her friends(& brother), Snakebite, Flickerscent, Koispots and Oleandergaze.