Cherrytree

A tiny, mostly white she-cat with greying, red markings, plumed tail, & blue eyes

Cherrytree is a very small, primarily white she-cat with a splotch of a rich red on her left ear, a red tail and an entirely red right back paw. Her pelt is silky and short, although her tail is long and plumed, a place she often let her kits sleep in. She keeps herself well groomed, and her fur is extremely soft. She is in the stockier side and contains more rounded features. Her eyes are a soft, pale blue that often glimmer with affection as she watches over her clan. She has a very pink nose and a slightly large set of ears, that to her parents always looked a little odd compared to the rest of her smaller features.

When Cherrytree was young and youthful, the rich red colour of her pelt was much more prominent. Instead of just one, both her ears and all her legs were red and the rich colour spread down her head towards her neck. (Very similar to the van pattern in cats), but as she grew old, the colour faded, and even the patches that do remain are starting to grow faint white speckly patterns on them. (Vitiligo)

Cherrytree is a loving, sweet soul who constantly looks out for the younger members of her clan. In her long life she has experienced a lot, leading to her holding vast knowledge and stories which she fondly shares with others. She takes on a very motherly role, no matter who she talks to and hardly snaps at anyone, usually keeping her cool. She isn’t one to get mad often, though can hold her ground when she needs to. She holds herself with full confidence, though knows her limits very well and never pushes herself. Despite her very laidback nature, she holds a fierce stubbornness in which she just refuses to die. Cherrytree is determined to live for as long as she physically can, hoping to see at least one more generation of her family grow up before StarClan ultimately calls her up.

• Born in the Moon of Turning Leaves (2013) 048

KITHOOD

Born to two pretty normal sized parents, Cherrykit was abnormally small. The birth was smooth and on time, yet majority of the litter was just tiny scraps of fur. After careful observation by the medicine cat, it was simply determined that somewhere across the bloodline there must be small genes, in which this litter got very unlucky. Despite what her parents saw as an unfavourable size, Cherrykit grew up strong and healthy, named after the bright red patches of fur that adorned her pelt. Cherrykit, deemed by her mother as ‘soft’, for reasons she never understood, never cried or whined. She put up with tough love, and let herself be bashed around by her siblings while still holding a natural sweetness at heart. No matter how irritated she was at someone, she wouldn’t treat them any different. She was a gentle soul, preferring to look after others rather than squabble and fight. While her siblings always rambled on about becoming apprentices, Cherrykit was unsure of herself. Fighting was not something she was keen on, but neither was medicine. She valued a sense of freedom, and by the age of 6 moons knew that being a medicine cat could never give that too her.

APPRENTICESHIP

Going down the path of a warrior, Cherrypaw requested to focus on defensive moves, in which her mentor denied her request. To become a warrior, you had to learn to fight, no matter how much you didn’t want to, but her mentor saw the uncomfortable look Cherrypaw gave them whenever training. They ended up slowly changing their program to just teach Cherrypaw the bare basics of offensive attack. Enough to graduate so she could then primarily focus on protecting others like she desired. Cherrypaw found hunting mildly thrilling, but overall liked patrolling the best. Having the opportunity to protect those she loved and cared about meant the world to her.

She found her life as an apprentice relatively uninteresting, and found that she enjoyed doing duties around camp rather than going out. It was early on in her training she found she had a knack for repairing dens. Despite being naturally quite social, she led herself down a more solitary path, for she never truly felt like she belonged with the rest of her clanmates.

During her 11th moon, Cherrypaw was invited along to the moon’s gathering. She unwantedly found herself in a squabble with a ShadowClan apprentice, who picked on her for both her size and demeanor. Without feeling a hint of hurt, Cherrypaw stood her ground, defending both herself and her clan with calm, calculated words. ThunderClan’s leader at that time watched Cherrypaw from afar, and the next day Cherrypaw was granted her warrior name, already having completed her assessment prior. She was named Cherrytree after her unwavering, stable personality that refused to be disheartened, for she reminded the leader of the stability of a tree trunk.

WARRIORHOOD

Life as a warrior for Cherrytree almost felt no different that her training, but this time she didn’t have the pressure of her mentor and other older cats breathing down her neck. Overall she was satisfied with the path she had chosen, feeling useful and worthy to be a cat of ThunderClan. She was never one to lead patrols, not having the right qualities for doing such, but felt as though she was a good asset to them otherwise. She liked to feel like she was supporting the cats around her, hoping to make their lives easier. The first twelve-ish moons of her warriorhood were overly uneventful until she found herself in her first battle. The patrol she was on had made an ambitious decision to scout out the RiverClan territory below the southforest. ‘Apparently’ they never used it, and the leader of the patrol wanted to see if it was worth taking.

Confidently stalking into the part of the forest that wasn’t theirs, not so surprisingly a RiverClan patrol soon discovered them, a fight starting almost instantly. For the first time in her life Cherrytree was terrified, and it didn’t take long for the ginger and white she-cat to be pinned beneath the claws of a snarling RiverClan tom. His claws dug into her shoulders, sending searing pain through her body, but it was in that moment that the tom saw the fear in Cherrytree’s eyes. With a brief moment of hesitation, he let her go, which luckily none of his clanmates saw. Standing frozen, Cherrytree watched as he ran to help one of his own clanmates, a mixture of feelings swirling in her heart. Nearly instantly after this incident, the ThunderClan patrol leader called to retreat, sending them pelting back to their own territory. Greatly relieved, Cherrytree locked eyes with the tom once more before desperately running back home with her patrol.

It was at a gathering soon after Cherrytree came across the tom again, approaching him with caution and a hint of confidence. Asking to speak in a more private area, Cherrytree queried why he had let her go, in to which he responded he didn’t fight those who wouldn’t fight back. He saw that Cherrytree didn’t want to fight, and respected that enough to let her go. Her emotions stirred again, and the two continued their conversation, though it turned to more pleasant topics, relating to clan happenings and daily occurrences. With a spark of boldness running through her, Cherrytree asked if they would want to meet again somewhere at the border another day, to which the tom happily agreed, seemingly becoming fond of Cherrytree.

It soon became a common thing for Cherrytree to head out to the border to find this tom, meeting him around once a week, though it was distracting and the guilt was slowly starting to tug at her heart as she saw how hard her clanmates worked while she frolicked with a tom from another clan. During this time Cherrytree had also considered having a litter of her own. It felt like the most suitable way for her to provide to her clan, and a place she would be most comfortable in, for she had always adored the little ones. With a heavy heart and the idea of killing two birds with one stone, Cherrytree met with the RiverClan tom one last time before requesting he sire a litter of kits for her. She told him that today was where she cut ties with him, for she was betraying her clan and the guilt was becoming too much. Despite this, she still wanted to be with him, and hoped that by brining his blood to ThunderClan, a piece of him would always remain in her heart. He agreed, although he was upset that he wouldn’t see Cherrytree any longer. It was after that, that the two never spoke again, only briefly glancing at each other at the occasional gathering.

Around two moons later Cherrytree birthed a litter of three healthy, squirming kits, each which had their own aspects of her favourite RiverClan tom. Cherrytree feel into the rhythm of being a queen with ease, having little issue, raising her children with gentle care. Her interest in everything but battle had led to her talking to the medicine cats, so along her life she had picked up some tips on raising healthy kits. No one would ever know who the sire was, but that did not matter to Cherrytree. This kits were hers and she would raise them with her newfound passion.

Moving back to the life of a warrior was hard for Cherrytree. She had become so accustomed to her duties as a queen that she found herself irritated and grumpy. She realised that taking care of and raising the future of the clan was where she belonged, so a year after her first litter, Cherrytree knew it was time for another, this time, the kits coming from ThunderClan only. After considering her options, Cherrytree found she had little, none that she was overly satisfied with. She eventually landed on Gingerthrash, who she knew came from the long and ‘respectable’ line of fiercebloods. There would be many in the camp happy that she would be helping to continue the bloodline, so felt like choosing Gingerthrash to have her kits would be best, especially to make up for the sire of her last litter.

Despite having significant experience at being a queen, this litter came with many complications unlike the last. It produced a sole kit, her daughter Quailkit, who was sickly and small. For whatever reason, Cherrytree’s milk was not producing well and she was terribly sick, so she had trouble feeding Quailkit. Cherrytree and Quailkit spent many tough moons in the medicine den, fighting illness, though by the age of 6 moons, Quailkit had grown healthy and strong, which Cherrytree was forever grateful for.

Since her last litter hadn’t gone as planned, Cherrytree made the decision that it was her last, turning to focus on her duties as a warrior once again. Quailpaw’s injury shattered Cherrytree, and she felt that she was somehow to blame. If she hadn’t been so sickly during Quailpaw’s early years, perhaps she would have grown stronger, reducing the damage from the tree fall. She forever grieves over her daughter’s broken voice.

For the rest of her warriorhood, Cherrytree made sure she remained in the background of things, hoping that the rest of her life would be relatively peaceful.

RETIREMENT

It was during sometime between her 70th and 80th moon that Cherrytree took to the elders den. She had been relatively healthy for most of her life, but age was starting to catch up to her, and she knew it was time to rest. Despite this, she still makes herself very active around camp, still relatively fit and strong, at least for someone of her age. Determined to live for as long as she possibly can, Cherrytree makes use of her time, especially with the younger generations. She is overjoyed at the birth of her great-grandkits, and it extremely proud of her granddaughter, Sunstrike. She hopes that once they grow up a little, Finchkit and Robinkit will come visit her in the elders den so she can share stories of her youth, and perhaps one day, if the time is right she might even tell the story of the selfless RiverClan tom that captured her heart.

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