mare

mare is a bicolor molly with medium length fur. she has tufted elbows and distinctive ear tufts she pulls into pigtails each morning. her long plummed tail helps round up chicks and sweep up piles of feed, the white tip has to regularly be cleaned due to it dragging on the ground while she works. her yellow eyes are bright and perfectly match the chicks she raises.

often theres stray wheat or feathers caught in her fur, she doesnt have much time to groom herself but she doesn't mind. while scouting the farm nearby the territory she found a wicker basket with one flat edge, she used leather scraps from around the farm to put together a bag. she uses it to store and gather chicken feed and its her prized possesion. poppy, her maran hen is a close second, the two are very close and are deeply bonded.

mare is a very kind and empathetic cat, she isn't the most social but is well loved amongst her peers. she is fiercely protective of her den where she raises her chicks, she spends more time with the chickens then actual cats. she can be hard to conversate with, she only really has one thing to talk about if you can find her in her downtime. poppy however is very social, she loves to watch the cats work and follow them around. mare gets stressed when she cant find poppy since shes the only egg layer she has.

her sister lilac is the cat shes closest with, mare helps her raise her son owen with all of the knowlege a 30 moon farmer has on rasing kits. they have a close bond and never had any rivalry. mare had a one off fling with serpent and had two kits with him. she couldnt handle a family on top of her job so serpent chose to raise the kits on his own. mare wont talk about it, lilac is the only cat in the refuge who even knows their names.

mare grew up with her sister, they did everything together and lilac was actually the one to find poppy as a chick. their parents were ex prairieclanners and they definitely kept their clan cat values. mare and lilac were taught about starclan and their ancestors, how to hunt and fight clean, and minor medical knowledge. it really set mare up for success growing up in a situation such as her own. anemonetuft was the less strict of their parents, letting the girls spend days playing by the water and teaching them the lore of the clans. mare really liked her, but usually preferred the routine learning from ferrethiss.

once she was 10 moons she started being more independent. growing up in one den all this time, only seeing a mile radius around it made her itch for adventure. one night mare and lilac set out towards the rising moon so they'd be able to follow the sun home. as mare walked over the crest of a hill she found the refuge, she was surprised to find such a large community so close to home. lilac was scared to go any further and ran home but mare kept going towards the large compound. it was too early in the morning to find any cats outside but mare was determined to find a way inside. she crawled under the wall and made her way inside. a guard found her instantly, surprisingly gentle pepperbone talked to her and offered to walk her home. it was the first real time she talked to a cat outside her family and she has endlessly curious. pepperbone told her everything about the refuge on the walk home and once they got back to the den he talked to ferrethiss and anemonetuft about joining.

joining the refuge was a huge change, mare was excited for the challenge but struggled to find a place to fit in. not long after joining lilac returned froma training patrol with a maran chick, mare took in the chick and named it poppy. ferrethiss was upset that she didn't kill it for prey but mare had her own idea. mare raised poppy and kept walking her back to the farm they found her at so that poppy would produce fertilized eggs. then raising those chicks to be slaughtered for meat. ferrethiss finally understood what mare was doing and the two grew together again.

when mare had finally gotten into a rhythm with her work she met a tom her age, serpent. the two began talking and after a fling mare found out she was expecting. mare freaked out and ran straight to lilac, the two talked about what they could do for hours, mare didn't want kits, it was completely out of the question. once lilac and mare decided that lilac would raise the kits as her own, mare told serpent. she was taken aback when he asked if he could raise them, mare didn't expect that from him but she agreed. mare didn't talk to anyone about her pregnancy except for her sister, anemonetuft desperately wanted to know what has happening and kept begging her daughters for information. mare and anemonetuft had a screaming match over it, the tensions and hormones drove mare off the edge of anger into rage. she stormed out of the families den and stayed with pepperbone that night. the next morning anemonetuft died from a heart attack in her sleep, mare has never forgiven herself and couldnt stand to even see her kits after they were born. eel nursed them until they were weaned and serpent took them up to mare's old family den to raise them.