Alderfly

A small tuxedo tom with an asymmetrical blaze and yellow eyes.

Alderfly is a small tom. He is black with a white chest and white asymmetrical blaze. His thin legs have white stockings that are also asymmetrical. His eyes are a dull yellow color. His nose is half pink and half black. He has a small head and a large tail, with larger than average paws at the end of his thin legs.  He has a resting face that gives him a look of surprise. His face is wide and sharp with large eyes, high eyebrows, and a short muzzle.  He has a sleek short-haired coat.

He is a serious and concerned young tom, who always seems to have something to do. He is usually a valuable asset to any team that can figure out how to work with his attitude. He has a near obsessive desire to prove his place, which can make him seem desperate and unpleasant to be around. He isn’t normally one to seek others out directly, but he likes to be on the fringe of a group. He can be a great listener, but definitely not the most trustworthy.

Alderfly is rarely direct. He likes to speak around an issue and talks more ABOUT people than TO people. He has low self esteem and tends to take things personally. He takes training very seriously, but isn’t the best at combat. He tends to focus on his hunting skill set because he has a fatalist mindset about his combat skills. He gets frustrated when he isn’t seeing the improvement he would like. He is fast and stealthy. He considers himself and his life as of little value except what he can do for his clanmates, so is always surprised and appreciative of kindness his way, especially when he feels hes “earned it.”

He can get more defensive and snappish whenever he has had nothing to do for a while, so it’s a good thing he can usually make something up that needs his attention.

• Born in the Moon of Melting Waters (2019) 118

0 moons – Named Alderkit by the leader at his parent’s request after their favorite hidden meetup spot. His parents had more interest in each other than in kits, so Alderkit was given a long leash and little attention. He was born right as Splashpelt was apprenticed and so shared the nursery only with Cottonkit, following her around wide eyed and speaking very infrequently. Lillyripple’s kind and caring demeanor had a large impact on Alderfly. When Cottonpaw was apprenticed to Boldstar Alderkit grew louder, angrier, and more anxious. Coping childishly with the loss of his playmate to the apprentice den, he would yell and go to play on his own and would be heard barking orders to an imaginary army against a Thunderclan invasion.

6 moons- Alderpaw followed Cottonpaw to the apprentice’s den only a few moons after her own apprenticing ceremony. She gave him friendly tips about her vigil and he replies he doesn’t need her help, but he admires her sincerity. During his vigil he meditates on what kind of warrior he wants to be, and comes to conclusions about responsibility which mean he feels he must be serious. He has to care for the whole clan. A moth flies at his face and startles him. He swipes it out of the air onto the ground, but doesn’t chase after it when it begins to fly away. Instead, he choses to look out into the night.

At this point he considered hunting and fighting to be of equal value, but as he continues on in his training and finds hunting coming to him more easily than fighting, he gets petulant and fatalistic about fighting and decides to refocus. Food is the most important anyway, and he will argue about that. This refocus also inflated the “caring for the rest of the clan” aspect of being a warrior even higher in Alderfly’s mind. He was a busybody and his mentor runs ragged trying to give him more tasks. When Cottonbright was given her warrior name, and a more mature Alderpaw sets aside his jealousy long enough to be genuinely happy for his denmate.

13 moons – Given the warrior name Alderfly by Boldstar for his speed, stealth, and constant drive to improve.

Being granted warrior status had not lessened the training and workload Alderfly inflicted on himself.

Alderfly is now more quiet, sarcastic, and passive aggressive than he was an an apprentice.

He loves bringing back freshkill for the clan. Aside from the more usual prey he catches fish, crawfish, frogs, turtles, snakes, waterbirds, and more. He gets creative and takes great pride in it. He is getting good at tracking and at learning the lifestyles of the prey he hunts. He has made many unsuccessful attempts to catch ducks, but each failure is less severe than the last. He considers it important to figure out how to best catch prey and doesn’t often have enough regard for if something is worth the effort.

He likes patrolling. If he were to encounter a trespasser he would berate them, and he would fight if it came down to it. He would give chase for just long enough to ensure they were really leaving.

• No threads have been recorded.

• Cottonbright – Agemates within 3 moons of each other.