Ashscar

Story
Ashkit was the first of her litter, born inside the WindClan territory in the upper moorlands, far from camp, after her mother, Silverdapple, had tried to find, in panic, her elderly father who had gone missing. Instead, Silverdapple delivered her kits on the moorland, away from her Clanmates, in the pouring rain. Three kits followed Ashkit, and Silverdapple struggled to get them closer to camp, having to pick up each kit at a time, yowling for help unsuccessfully. Finding an abandoned rabbit warren, the keen mother brought her kits inside out of the rain, and curled around them. Without a medicine cat, she was weak and hardly able to feed the hungry four, but she persevered, spending the next two stormy days leaving her litter at small intervals so as to hunt and regain her strength.

Two sunrises passed, and on this third day rogues came across the faint scent of kits, hearing their tiny mewls for their mother. Hungry and hoping to weaken the Clans, the rogues snatched up the kits and ran towards the lake, hoping to lose their mother in the rain, but Silverdapple, her motherly instincts strong, chased after them the moment she discovered the warren empty. She arrived as one rogue dropped one of her unnamed kits into the lake, drowning him. Fortunately, a WindClan patrol looking for Silverdapple came across the band of rogues, and attacked, allowing Silverdapple to pick up Mothkit and her mate, Grasseye, who had joined the patrol, picked up both Pinekit and Ashkit, unable to retrieve the body of the posthumously named Wetkit.

With the help of the medicine cat, the three kits survived despite being frozen from the rain and panicked by the excitement. Ashkit was named for her ash-grey pelt, Pinekit for her brown tabby fur, and Mothkit for her moth-like grey fur. The three sisters grew quickly, contracting whitecough three times in their first six moons, but each time conquered the infection until they became apprentices.

Apprenticed to Grasseye, Ashpaw eagerly tried to learn everything that she could about being a warrior, encouraged by her dreams about Wetkit, though her nightmares were filled with faceless rogues due to the tales she heard from the elders. After training hard, the 9-moon-old Ashpaw accompanied her father on a WindClan patrol one sunup, and were confronted with a loose dog. It attacked the patrol of cats, maiming Grasseye's tail and giving him his later name of Stumpytail, while Ashpaw was mauled.

Training delayed as she spent moon after moon in the medicine cat den, recuperating from her injuries, she watched as her sisters became warriors: Mothstrike and Pinedust, WindClan warriors, able to train their own apprentices, to attend Gatherings.. while Ashpaw sat and watched from the sidelines, envious and boiling with resentment, though put on a brave face when her sisters visited her and tried to support the trauma she had survived.

At last, she was able to leave and begin her training once more, though it was clear that both she and her father had changed. They argued, yowling at one another, and fought viciously, until he declared her ready to become a warrior, and ready to defend herself against the next dog who dared enter WindClan territory. She was named Ashscar, after the scars she had endured to survive in the harshness of life.

Due to the delay of her apprenticeship, she was 19 moons old by the time she sat her vigil, and she, glad to have recovered, began to immerse herself in Clan life. A fellow warrior by the name of Dapplenose began to show her how to enjoy it, spending nights with her, curling around her during the cold leafbare. They mated, when she was 24 moons old, and he 30 moons old, but she lost the litter close to the end, sending her back into the gloom she had lurked in after the dog attack. Dapplenose was confused by her harshness towards him, and moved on to another cat, only to pass away to an infected paw five moons after.

Ashscar was left a miserable, ageing cat who ate, trained her apprentice, and slept, going through the motions of Clan life until her sister, Mothstrike, announced that she was expecting kits. They shared the secret of Mothstrike's litter's father with Pinedust, and the sisters bonded once again, closely knit with their paths entwined together. Ashscar vowed to protect her littermates and Mothstrike's kits no matter what happened.

Personality
Ashscar's irritable personality earned her many jibes from her sisters that she was better suited as a ShadowClan cat, but originates from the attack from a dog when she was just a young apprentice. The attack cost her not only her attractive face, but also her stability - she has a tendency to shake, and finds it impossible to stay still, which hinders her hunting greatly. Along with her irritability came a harsh tongue that lashes at those who irritate her - one kit on the wrong day can send her into a foul mood until sundown. Ever since she lost her kits as a young queen, Ashscar has never looked at one the same, preferring to avoid and walk around the young ones so that she does not have to deal with one. Her aversion to kits is strong enough that, given the situation of saving herself or saving herself and a kit, she might just leave the kit behind.