A lanky tom with light gray fur and a pretty face.

-

Like many of the cats that make up MistClan, Alderbranch is dexterous and nimble, with long legs and a magnificent tail that allows him to bounce from branch to branch with ease. He's notably good looking, with bright green eyes, handsome angular features, and a pretty face which makes it easy for him to flirt his way into what he wants.

Alderbranch is covered in lilac gray fur with a warm undertone compared to the silvery fur of his youth, most noticeable on his mane. He's considered a long-furred cat, though outside of his mane and tail, his fur is more of a thick medium length. He has a few tabby markings on his face, head, and upper back that fade into the same warm gray as the rest of his coat.

A birth in the midst of leaf-bare is never a good omen, but Willowstep settles into labor with practiced ease befitting a lifelong queen of MistClan. It's her fourth and final litter, she thinks, listening to the medicine cat talk her through each step as if she hasn't heard it before. She smile and nods, mostly ignoring the world around her until the first cry of a newborn kit catches her attention - not out of joy, like it usually does, but because of how distant the kit sounds.

The world, she realizes, is fuzzy around her. Bearfur is calling her name, but Willowstep hasn't the strength to respond.

-

Dawn rises over MistClan's forest as Willowstep, barely recovered from a bloody, dangerous labor, tends to her three surviving kits with a grim feeling that she wasn't strong enough to save the other two. Bearfur presses close, refusing to leave his mate's side. They name the kits some days later, only when they're sure the small bundles of fur will live long enough to see their first moon: Robinkit, the firstborn and strongest of them all; Alderkit, with bright, nearly silver fur; and Otterkit, the runt who's hardly uttered a peep since she came out.

-

The first time Alderkit is described as a handful is shortly before his second moon, when he's just able to tumble around the nursery and encourage his quieter sisters to get in trouble with him. Luckily for Willowstep, Alderkit's idea of trouble is piling up loose moss and jumping into it, or stealing branches from the weavers who come to reinforce the den. He always returns them, in the end, but doesn't escape the nursery without what feels like a permanently cuffed ear.

Unlike his sisters, Alderkit is quick to try and befriend the other kits in the nursery. While Willowstep is overjoyed to see at least one of her kits blooming into a social butterfly, like herself, the other queens are less pleased to entertain Alderkit's antics. The nursery is soon filled with snide remarks about Alderkit influencing the younger kits, making them just as rowdy or troublesome, until Willowstep convinces her son to stick with his sisters.

Alderkit, too young to understand why he's kept away from other kits, quietly learns that he's someone not worth knowing. 

-

Navigating the branches of MistClan's camp is easy for Alderkit, even at a young age. He's not supposed to be up here, he knows, but Robinkit and Otterkit are boring and none of his older siblings are around to tell stories of their training or life as warriors, so he sneaks out when Willowstep takes a nap. He knows the other queens won't notice. They don't care for him.

Tucked away in the branches of camp, Alderkit can at least pretend he's an apprentice, or something, training alongside his mentor, a cat who'll be forced to care about him no matter how rowdy he gets.

At least, that's what he thinks until he overhears two warriors gossiping. About him. "No one wants Alderkit as their apprentice," one of them says. Alderkit ears flatten against his head. Desperate not to be seen, he hides behind the the knot of wood he's pressed up against. "I'm grateful my own's not ready yet. Means he won't be assigned to me next moon."

"Lucky for you," the other one said. "I don't have an apprentice."

"Chin up. Maybe you'll get one of his sisters."

-

Alderkit slinks back into the nursery.

No one noticed he was gone, except for his sisters, who welcome him back with nervous smiles as they look between him and their sleeping mother.

-

It's not his fault the clan hates him.

He might as well live up to the reputation he never asked for.

-

"Hailfall is fine," Alderpaw admits to his sisters some night in the apprentice den, the three of them sharing tongues in the corner they've unofficially claimed as their own in their first moon as apprentices. "I think he pities me." His sisters share a look, one Alderpaw has seen many times, but never once shared with them. His sisters are far closer to each other than he'll ever be.

"He doesn't," Robinpaw insists. Otterpaw echoes her sentiment, but Alderpaw doesn't have it in him to believe them.

-

He's a menace, he knows. He'd rather be playing pranks or bothering warriors than training alongside Hailfall. He likes being in the trees, but other than that, nothing about warrior training interests him.

Jokingly, he tells his sisters he'd rather be in RidgeClan. At least hawk catching is interesting.

-

Ravenpaw is a few moons younger than him, one of the kits Alderpaw wasn't allowed to play with growing up. He's quieter than Alderpaw, with a knack for MistClan's story telling, and a deep reverence for the traditions of their clan. Alderpaw doesn't get it, but he loves listening to Ravenpaw talk about it from a distance. He loves... Ravenpaw, maybe.

Not like his mother loves his father, more like in the same way he's supposed to love his sisters.

But he's not allowed to play with Ravenpaw, or any of the apprentices that were kits when he still lived in the nursery, and so he doesn't. He smiles at him. Cracks jokes when they happen to be in the same space. Invites Ravenpaw on his pranks and shrugs when Ravenpaw turns him down. It's almost friendship, Alderpaw can convince himself.

-

"Can we be real friends?" Ravenpaw asks one day, blunt like he always is.

Alderpaw looks at him for a long, quiet moment before nodding. From then on, they're friends. Good friends. Best friends, even. Slowly, Alderpaw learns the past doesn't need to be so quickly dismissed. There's things to be learned from their clan's history. There's good to be found in their tradition.

Or maybe he just likes listening to Ravenpaw talk.

-

It's Hailfall's patience and Ravenpaw's stubbornness that eventually soothes the anxious part of Alderpaw's brain that tells him his whole clan hates him. They don't hate him. They hate parts of him, maybe, but not him. All he needs to do is keep the worst of him hidden, locked away for no one to ever see again.

-

Slowly, Alderpaw finds purpose in the things he once thought were boring. Training. Hunting. Storytelling. Climbing through the trees of MistClan's forest was always interesting to him, but praise for his skill is a new development. He glows every time someone compliments him, knowing it means there's something more to like. One more thing to hide the bitter, selfish cat inside of him that longs for the days where he acted out just for attention.

"He's growing into a fine apprentice," he overhears Bearfur say to another warrior one day. "I didn't think he would." It stops Alderpaw in his tracks to learn that even his father doesn't believe in him. Bearfur is just as patient and understanding as Hailfall - or at least, Alderpaw always thought him to be. His faith in Bearfur shatters with just a few short words and almost overnight, Alderpaw withdraws from his mentor, his friends, his family, even Ravenpaw, no matter how harshly Ravenpaw demands for an explanation for his behavior. An explanation Alderpaw doesn't have.

What's he supposed to say?

I thought I could be more.

-

Hailfall is gone one morning, shortly after Bearfur's betrayal.

Alderpaw thought he was walking on unsteady ground before.

Now he's drowning.

-

"What are you doing?" Robinpaw asks, startling Alderpaw from his hiding place. He peeks out from the bushes with a frown.

"How did you find me?"

"I smelled you." His sister matches his frown. "What are you doing?"

Alderpaw glances over the PrairieClan border, just a few paces away from where he was hiding. All morning, he'd been working up the courage to run across it, leaving a trail of MistClan scent clean through PrairieClan's land. Frustratingly, each time he tried, all he could hear was Hailfall's voice, patient and kind, telling him to mind his behavior. "Just sitting."

Robinpaw looks out over the border alongside him. "Do it."

"What?"

"Coward."

"What?"

"This is what you've always wanted, isn't it? To make a mess of things?" Alderpaw feels his throat go tight with indignation he doesn't deserve to feel. Robinpaw is right. "So go on, do it. Prove everyone right."

"...what?"

"Hunt in PrairieClan. Get in trouble, or get someone hurt, or start a fight between the clans, whatever." His sister's tail is flicking in irritation. "Just do it. Prove the clan right, prove to them that you're rotten."

"I am rotten."

"Only because you let yourself be," Robinpaw snaps back. Alderpaw doesn't know what to do with that. What to say. He pulls himself out from the bush and sits up tall, much taller than his sister. "Maybe you're rotten on the inside, but I've seen you be good." She's right, he knows that. He was good when Hailfall was home. Good when Ravenpaw was still his friend. Good until he knew not even his father believed in him.

Embarrassed at the memory, Alderpaw looks down at his paws, claws sinking into the dirt below him. "What's the point, if the inside's all rotten?"

"You're not crowfood," Robinpaw says, softer. Like their mother. "You're my brother." He doesn't recognize the wry laugh that slips from him. "I mean it. Maybe you're rotten inside, but you can be good on the outside."

"Isn't that lying?" He mumbles, still looking at the dirt. 

"It's living." Robinpaw takes a few steps toward him, then past him, setting a paw down just before the border. "Making a mess of things isn't living. It's just... stupid, and you're not stupid." She has a point, Alderpaw can't help but think. "I'm the same as you, you know."

"What?"

"Rotten inside. I mean it, I get the bad thoughts, too." Alderpaw is sure he looks like a fool, eyes wide and ears perked in disbelief. Robinpaw wasn't as quiet as Otterpaw, but she was always so nice. Agreeable. Other apprentices liked her, even if she preferred to stay with Otterpaw than make new friends. Warriors liked her. Elders certainly liked her. No one liked Alderpaw, not like that. "But I pretend I don't and that makes it easier."

"You... you're not rotten," Alderpaw says softly.

His sister turns from the border to look at him once more. Now, she's smiling. "Yeah. I don't think you're rotten, either."

-

For Hailfall's sake, wherever he is, Alderpaw starts to improve again. He makes peace with his temporary mentor, apologizes to Ravenpaw and all their friends for being a jerk, and makes an effort to smile whenever Bearfur takes a meal with him. He doesn't have to know. None of them do. Robinpaw knows, though, and that's enough.

-

Alderpaw is livid when Hailfall returns, but quick to forgive after the nature of his mentor's disappearance is revealed. He didn't know Frostpaw, but he thinks it's nice that she can come home. Nice that Hailfall has his sister back, like Alderpaw has his.

Plus, Hailfall seems so happy to see his improvement returned. The praise he receives from him is so genuine, Alderpaw can't fathom how he ever thought Hailfall could be anything but the doting, patient mentor he always seemed to be.

-

Alderbranch, for his proficiency in the trees, always his favorite place to be. He takes the name with pride. Maybe he's rotten, but with his clanmates chanting his name around him, Robinheart and Ottersplash at his side, Alderbranch thinks that rot has a place in this world, too.

-

A few moons later Ravenpaw, now Ravenwhisker, joins him in the warrior's den. Their renewed friendship blossomed easily back into the close bond they had before. They're nearly inseparable, save for when Ravenwhisker works with the historian and other storytellers in MistClan, and Alderbranch is swept into the trees.

-

As a warrior, Alderbranch's childhood reputation is nearly forgotten. He's beloved by the clan for being charming, charismatic, and endlessly clever. The anxious energies he was plagued with as a child are easily channeled into his work as a warrior, and his penchant for pranks turns into good, light hearted fun that can have a whole den laughing with little effort.

It's all an act, he thinks, but it's an act he can maintain.

And he has Robinheart. Sometimes, she looks at him so knowingly, he feels safer for it.

-

Ravenwhisker looks at him like that sometimes, too.

-

At 16 moons old, he meets Foxflight.

Foxflight is nothing more than a cheerful, nervous young warrior from RidgeClan who happens to sit with Alderbranch's group that evening. He's more than receptive to Alderbranch's flirts. It's not new behavior for Alderbranch, who's used to flirting with anyone who makes eye contact, if only to soften them up to him. But Foxflight damn near blushes when Alderbranch calls him cute, and that's attention he isn't used to.

He starts to crave it.

-

They only see each other at Gatherings. Outside of Gatherings, he's the picture of a perfect MistClan warrior. But once the full moon rises high in the sky, his heart starts to race at the thought of seeing Foxflight. He longs to feel his warmth pressed against him; to listen to his soft, friendly voice recount tales from RidgeClan's borders; to watch him blush and squirm under a volley of flirts.

But-

He doesn't long for Foxflight.

He just likes the attention.

-

It goes on for moons.

No one notices.

He starts to feel like he did when he was young. Doing things for attention, only to have the cats around him ignore him. They're not writing him off anymore. They don't see him as rotten anymore. In fact, they see him as too good to do any bad.

It makes the whole thing worse, knowing how rotten he still is. He's playing with Foxflight's feelings. He's betraying his clan. He's betraying his loyalties. Tensions with RidgeClan are rapidly rising and here he is flirting with one of their warriors, like there was any chance of a love story between them.

There isn't.

He doesn't want there to be, anyway.

-

They never named what they were. They were just flirting. But he owes him the courtesy of an apology. A formal cutoff.

Foxflight is heartbroken. Alderbranch leaves the Gathering early, unable to look at his old fling and see sorrow written into every stripe on Foxflight's pelt. "I love you," Foxflight says, a desperate attempt to keep Alderbranch at his side. Those words would haunt him. "We can - we can figure it out, can't we?"

"It was just a little fun," Alderbranch says. "Sorry you thought you meant anything to me."

-

Rotten. He's rotten.

-

The shock of losing Foxflight is enough to make him withdraw, but this time, Ravenwhisker never leaves his side.

-

RidgeClan swarms down upon them, catching MistClan by surprise despite the moons of tension brewing between the clan. Alderbranch can hardly keep up. His eyes fall on Ravenwhisker, on his sisters, on Hailstar, desperate to make sure they're all okay.

Everyone is standing.

-

By the end of it, Ravenwhisker isn't.

He recovers and, after some time in the medicine cat den, resumes his warrior duties. But for a moment there, Alderbranch thought he lost him.

-

It's an unseasonably cold night in early new-leaf when Alderbranch finally tells Ravenwhisker about the rottenness that consumes his core.

"I love you," Ravenwhisker says, so casually Alderbranch thinks he might cry. "Not in spite of this. Because of this. You're better than your impulses, and I love the cat you've made yourself."

The cat he's made himself.

Yeah, Alderbranch can live with that.

-

The peace in the forest is so tentative, Alderbranch fears a step in the wrong direction will shatter it. He can hear the menace in the back of his head asking for chaos. Asking to plunge the clans into more violence, more war. He can't stand it, sometimes, but Ravenwhisker and Robinheart sit quietly next to him and let him talk out all his terrible thoughts until he doesn't think them anymore. Impulses, they call them. Not who he really is.

He can't help but think they're wrong, but their love for him keeps him quiet.

-

The only solution Alderbranch can find is to throw himself into his work.

He picks up more duties as a warrior, shouldering some of the tasks given up by his injured clanmates. More patrols. More hunting. More time in the trees. He's asked, repeatedly, by the weavers to join them. To put his skills first gleaned as an apprentice to use and help secure the camp. After the disappearance of MistClan kits, he agrees.

He's afraid for the future, but he refuses to let his fear hold him - or MistClan - back. Their alliance with PrairieClan was the strongest they've ever been, despite what some members of his clan say. And the RidgeClan refugees that live amongst them make them stronger, too.

It's more comfortable when they're strong. Easier to ignore the rotten thoughts inside of him that say it's all going to come crashing down.

He just wishes his clan could see that, too.

Pre-Plotting: Alderbranch fills the role of Ashbranch from Hailstar's wanted ad, notes in the stars. His beliefs most align with MistClan's Branches.

Oh, The People Ain't Happy: Alderbranch serves the role of The Advocate and The Romantic from Creeklily's wanted ad. He was chosen for the role of The Advocate because of his high standing as Hailstar's former apprentice, as well as his general popularity in the clan. Though he and Creeklily weren't close in their youth, they've been friendly all their lives, and the connection they made during Creeklily's trial has pivoted them toward becoming close friends. Eventually, this friendship will blossom into something more.

Family: Neither close nor distant from his family when he was young, Alderbranch doesn't put a lot of stock into the concept. He thinks it's nice he grew up with sisters and older siblings because it meant always having friends and someone to confide in, but as he's grown, it sometimes feels like his siblings are just... other warriors. He would like to reconnect and regain an understanding of what it means to be family, but he's too distracted by other things to bother right now.

Friends: Alderbranch is incredibly social and considers himself friendly with every cat in MistClan, even the RidgeClan refugees that now share their home. He doesn't have many close friends, though, save for his continued friendship with Hailstar and his childhood best friend Ravenwhisker. It's something he doesn't like to think about himself, but Alderbranch struggles to let other cats in, afraid of them seeing something unworthy about himself under his charming bravado. 

Romance: Not so secretly, Alderbranch is a huge romantic, he's just never experienced true love himself unless you count his complicated feelings for Foxflight. He's desperate to be romanced and share that aspect of himself with someone but hasn't yet learned what a romantic connection actually feels like. Plus, any time he imagines himself being romantic with someone, his thoughts drift off to what might happen if he ruins a friendship like he ruined with Foxflight.

Rivals: For the most part, Alderbranch tries his best to not view anyone in an antagonistic way. He doesn't find it productive. He harbors some resentment for RidgeClan after their attack but finds it too difficult to hate any of them in particular, so he focuses his resentment on the late Wolfstar and tries to make up for his harsh feelings by being welcoming to the refugees. In the future, his willingness to extend olive branches to RidgeClan, PrairieClan, and non-clan cats may earn him some rivals in MistClan.