Since he was a kit, Mapletail has been doted on as being particularly good-looking. Because of this, he makes sure to care for his appearance. He has a slightly taller frame, and works to maintain a decent physique, with strong shoulders to help him climb to the tallest trees in MistClan's territory. Despite a slightly larger frame than the average cat of MistClan, Mapletail still has an impressive dexterous ability, making sure that his frame doesn't slow him down from being able to make his way from tree to tree as necessary.

The most prominent feature is his long, beautiful ginger and white tabby fur. He stood out as a kit in his primarily greyscale litter, and a stereotypically greyscale Clan with his ginger fur, but it's something that Mapletail takes a fair amount of pride in. Above all, he has a glorious, long, and feathery ginger tail that seeminly never seems to catch any stray leaves or moss in it, due to a rather diligent manner of making sure it stays clean in order to keep up a certain façade. He also has lovely amber eyes, usually soft when he's speaking to anyone he's attempting to charm in order to win their affections as friends or more.

Mapletail does his best to carry himself with a certain amount of pride. While he was certainly rather rambunctious as a kit and apprentice, he was forced to grow up after the death of his brother and best friend, Mountainbranch. He refuses to let his face crack and show anyone the hurt he felt over the loss of his littermate, and instead has brought almost a loose swagger to the way he moves, as though literally letting things slide off his shoulders and back.

Maplekit was born fourth - smack dab in the middle of an abnormally large but healthy litter of seven kits, with older siblings Juniperkit, Dark-kit and Willowkit, followed by younger siblings Rainkit, Ashkit and Mountainkit.

From the very day he was born, Maplekit always stood out, his bright ginger fur the outlier from his primarily grey-scale siblings. Other queens even doted on the ginger tom, saying how handsome and beautiful he was, and that he would certainly grow up to steal the hearts of everyone around him. He absolutely leaned into such expressions, for when one hears something enough times, they figure it must be true. Maplekit didn't think there would be much future outside of him being a heartbreaker.

As a kit in such a large litter and refusing to fall victim to middle child syndrome, Maplekit wanted to make sure he stuck out. He thrived on the compliments he would get on his fur, but he wanted more attention. Such behaviours landed him alongside his youngest littermate, Mountainkit, the two of them becoming practically attached at the hip wherever they went. If one of them was missing when trouble struck, you knew that the other was with them. When Juniperkit was scolding one of them for causing a mess, the other was always there. When Rainkit had an idea for one of them, the other needed to be involved. In fact, in his desperate attempt for more attention, Maplekit didn't shy away from taking credit for some of their shenanigans when Rainkit seemed happy enough to stay tucked away in the shadows.

When Maplepaw was named an apprentice alongside his siblings, he was stuck with an older tom with a rather no-nonsense policy by the name of Badgerscreech. It seemed as though the warrior was determined to get in the way of Maplepaw's fun, and though the apprentice would have done whatever he could to rebel against it, perhaps it ended up turning out for the better for the directionless young tom.

Badgerscreech, knowing the relationship between Maplepaw and Mountainpaw, refused to actively train the two together, much to the chagrin of Mountainpaw's more laid-back and borderline rather lazy mentor, Swallowfur. Perhaps Swallowfur was not a cat who was well prepared to mentor, but with such a large litter all becoming apprentices at the same time, there had only been so many mentors to go around. Swallowfur did not give half the same attention to Mountainpaw as Maplepaw had received, and would have likely much preferred to dump their apprentice on someone else - especially someone as robust and strict as Badgerscreech who would have had no issue handling two apprentices simultaneously.

But instead, Badgerscreech kept Maplepaw busy, clearly determined to show the apprentice the meaning of hard work. More than that, the warrior wanted to show Maplepaw that his noisy, messy troublemaking ways could cause a lot more harm the older he got. He wanted to instill in his apprentice that there was a certain age when chaos simply was no longer cute, and tumbling into an elder when you weighed no more than a mouse was very different than if you weren't looking where you were going and potentially greivously hurt that same elder as a full grown warrior.

Maplepaw still kept his nest close to Mountainpaw's, though. They still stayed up late at night chatting away, getting shushed by other apprentices for making so much noise instead of sleeping. They still always share fresh-kill when they join their family for dinner, but it's around this time that Maplepaw begins to notice some of the more subtle things that Mountainpaw says about their siblings that are perhaps a little more... well, cruel. While Maplepaw still cracked jokes, even if they were occassionally at the expense of others, he never had any intention of hurting anyone.

As much as Maplepaw had originally disliked Badgerscreech, he slowly in time began to appreciate the things the warrior instilled in him and the way it began to shape him. With such realizations, Badgerscreech also became more flexible in training, allowing the apprentice to enjoy more downtime and even the chance to dictate his own training.

With more free time came more time to socialize. And as Maplepaw got older, he began to turn on that very same charm that the queens had noticed in him when he was only a kit. He quickly made friends with apprentices and warriors alike, including two sisters by the names Ivorypaw and Lilacpaw, who had been newly named when Maplepaw was near ten moons old. He not only turned on the charm and started to learn the ins and outs of flirting with the two she-cats, he also genuinely did his best to help them out with adjusting to becoming apprentices. Mountainpaw would oftentimes throw himself into these hangouts, given that he rarely had a strict training schedule with Swallowfur and could do what he wanted, when he wanted. Maplepaw had caught wind that perhaps Lilacpaw saw something in Mountainpaw, but that Mountainpaw held no feelings in return - if anything, his words would sometimes come across as rather cruel and unkind.

Ivorypaw, on the other hand, would be the first heart that Maplepaw would break. As much as he loved to flirt, and as much as Badgerscreech had tried to teach him that his chaos would not always be cute, old habits would certainly die hard. When she had come forward and tried to tell Maplepaw how she felt, he sat down with her and admitted that he'd simply been trying to be playful, and that he didn't see her that way.

Yet, through Ivorypaw's broken heart, Maplepaw did his best to realize the error of how he went about his relationship with her, and did his best to make any flirting he did with any cats more clear that it was simply meant to be friendly. That included when he was at Gatherings, flirting with she-cats left and right, regardless of their Clan, doing his best to charm whoever he could.

Ashpaw had insisted that the rest of the litter ought to receive their warrior names, despite the fact that it was clear she wouldn't be receiving hers. Maplepaw had been one of the voices to disagree, pushing for the litter to be held back. While Ashpaw's arguments had won, Maplepaw still felt quite guilty when he was named Mapletail, wishing that they'd all been together.

The early moons of warriorhood were rather unimpressive, though Mapletail loved the freedom he was given after no longer being tied down to Badgerscreech. It was during this time when he found himself slowly beginning to distance himself a bit from Mountainbranch, who he still loved dearly, who he still shared fresh-kill with during family dinners, who he still kept his nest near. But he found himself often asking Birchclaw to be placed on patrols separate from his brother, where he could instead foster better relationships with other cats in MistClan and disconnect his reputation with his brother's more unkind words.

When Lilacfern announced her pregnancy shortly after receiving her warrior name, Mapletail felt his stomach churn a little. He knew that Mountainbranch didn't care about Lilacfern, and perhaps even outright despised her. The way he spoke about her at night when they were chatting before bed was never kind, and it shocked Mapletail to know that his brother would be siring her litter. What did not shock him though was when he asked Mountainbranch if that meant they were mates, and his brother almost laughed hard enough to fall out of his nest altogether.

Past that, after Mothkit and Nightkit were born, Rainshade would announce her own pregnancy to the family. Mapletail began to worry that perhaps he was falling behind - but he was still young, right? There was no need to worry about rushing into a relationship. Mapletail preferred to just flirt to have fun, not in an attempt to genuinely woo some she-cat into becoming his mate and having kits, not yet at least. He didn't feel prepared, and wondered if his siblings felt the same way.

He felt even less prepared when he was granted his first apprentice: an anxious bundle of energy known as Sheep-paw. The she-cat was the only one of her litter, so of course there could have only been one mentor to assign to her, but Mapletail couldn't help but feel oddly singled out. Surely if anyone out of their litter should have been made a mentor, he would have expected it to be Junipernose or Willowfang, who were far more responsible than himself. He tried to chalk it up to Hailstar still being new as a leader, but knew he couldn't complain about the position he was put in. Badgerscreech would later approach him though to inform Mapletail that he had specifically suggested the outgoing and personable tom to take on the more introverted apprentice in hopes to help draw her out of her shell and see her potential. If anything, Mapletail began to see it as an even better excuse to spend less time around Mountainbranch, claiming that he was busy in training to go on patrols with his brother.

The first half-moon with Sheep-paw was rough, to say the least. Whether it was Sheep-paw's anxiety or Mapletail's anxiety, it was hard to say, but both of them were quite new at this and didn't entirely know how to move forward. So they did the best they could, with Mapletail simply attempting to move slowly, and telling Sheep-paw that they didn't have to worry about fighting training until she felt she was ready. He tried his best to put some of the onus on her, and make her feel as though she wouldn't be rushed into anything, which seemed to calm her down quite a bit.

Unfortunate for Mapletail, though, the opportunity for that fight training would never come for Sheep-paw. When the tension between the Clans boiled over to its tipping point, with Wolfstar leading the charge into MistClan's camp in order to attack. With a lack of proper fight training, Sheep-paw was killed quite early in the attack, and Mapletail threw himself rather aggressively into the rest of the battle, refusing to back down. Everything that night turned into a blur for the young tom, but when he awoke to the destruction around him, he noticed Mountainbranch's body, lifeless.

The destruction in front of Mapletail lit something inside of him, a boiling pressure that threatened to blow, but he pushed it down. He pushed down every incensed feeling inside him that wanted to wail out for his brother, for his partner-in-crime for so many moons. At first, he refused to touch the neighbouring nest he'd always shared with Mountainbranch, smelling what was left over and believing that he would wake up and find his brother asleep next to him. When days passed and Mountainbranch did not miraculously reappear, Mapletail took his brother's nest far away from camp and destroyed it out of anger and frustration, and - for the first time in his life - openly weeped.

Yet, returning to camp, Mapletail acted as though nothing was any different. He pretended that he was alright, and that he'd gotten over Mountainbranch's death. He mourned what he believed to be the perfect acceptable amount for Sheep-paw and Ashfur, though there was still deeper frustrations - the frustration that he did not insist on teaching Sheep-paw how to properly defend herself, and the old frustration that his siblings had not insisted on waiting for Ashfur to receive her warrior name. She deserved to be named with all of them.

He began to push away his own feelings, and instead began to spend time caring for the cats around him. He did his best to help Rainshade when Mintsong died. He did his best to help Lilacfern, promising her to help with Nightkit and Mothkit, though she turned him down, as much as he persisted. She told him that she had raised her kits without a father perfectly fine, knowing that Mountainbranch would never have taken her as a mate, and she would be fine to go on without a mate.

Mapletail began to take on further responsibility that perhaps had been somewhat unseen in him as a kit, while also trying to keep his usual personable self. He wanted more than anything to try and be a shining light for the cats who were struggling to see any light at the end of the tunnel, burying away any belief that he wasn't doing okay, either. No, he needed to step up and do something, and keep moving, or face the consequences. His wailing for Mountainbranch in the forest was enough, and he didn't want to let himself get caught up any further.

Mapletail did everything he did to keep himself busy in the aftermath of the battle. He pushed any negative feeling left over as deep as he possibly could, making himself as available for others as he could. He tried to allow his good-natured behaviour and light-hearted jokes to make cats around him feel more at ease, spreading himself rather thin in trying to bring cats out of the death and despair they'd recently faced.

When cats from RidgeClan appraoched MistClan, asking to join, Mapletail was quick to make them feel as welcome as he possibly could, taking an interest in Dawnclaw and standing up for the tom when Irisfrost's kits go missing, as well as when Mushroomstar tries to call him out during a Gathering in leaf-fall.

As the seasons change, Mapletail seemingly does not. He refuses to acknowledge what happened to Mountainbranch's nest, or that anything even seems to be any different in his life, other than his feelings that MistClan deserves to be stronger than it has ever been before.

Pre-Plotting: Adopted from Tor's ad for Rainshade's family, as well as from Jaecarys' ad for Dawnclaw's inner circle.

He serves the Bark role in MistClan plots, frustrated by the needless deaths brought by Wolfstar and RidgeClan that could have been avoided if they'd taken threats more seriously.

Family: Mapletail had been closest to his brother, Mountainbranch, and since his death has struggled to keep up with other family members. Though he's tried to take on a more responsible role compared to his troublesome days as a kit, it's been easier said than done.

Friends: An incredibly personable and outgoing cat, Mapletail has always been quite popular in MistClan and would likely be seen as most around him as a friend. This is the spot he thrives the most in, and a place where he can ignore anything else going on in his life by simply taking part in the many relationships around him.

Romance: Mapletail is an aggressive flirt, though the idea of settling down with anyone is much easier said than done.