A stocky, short she-cat with long, warm-gray fur and watchful green eyes.

-

With fur as gray as the forest after fog rolls in, Rainshade fits right in with the typical appearance of a MistClan warrior. She's gray from head to tail, only broken up by the faintest dark tabby markings on her forehead and a few early signs of age in the peppered white fur along her muzzle. From a distance, her fur looks long and luxurious, the perfect insulation against cold leaf-bare nights. But up close, it's often dry from overgrooming and frazzled with static.

Rainshade is said to have a pretty face though she struggles to see it, hidden under the mass of fur she's stuck carrying around. Other than her eyes, a vibrant yellow-green she's always liked, Rainshade doesn't see anything pretty about her. She prefers to think of her body as utilitarian. With short legs and a tail too small for her size, she isn't half as graceful as her clanmates, especially in the trees. But she's certainly nimble, able to dart from place to place with speed one might not expect from a cat of her stature. Though she's short, her torso is strong and broad, even stocky, allowing Rainshade to hold her own in battles of strength and stealth.

CW: active labor.

-

"There's still more coming," the medicine cat says, and Grayblossom, already four kits into this labor, groans in a mix of pain and frustration. Her mate paces behind the medicine cat, his anxiety making it all worse. "Breathe, Grayblossom."

"Try saying that while you keep having kits," Grayblossom snaps back, though her words are cut short with another painful whine.

"What's happening?" Duskflower is at her side, nearly pushing the medicine cat away. "Is she alright?"

"I will be." Grayblossom exhaled slowly. "Especially if you give me space, dear."

-

There are seven kits in the end, all healthy and wriggling at Grayblossom's side, dressed in coats of gray and white. It's easy to name them when she thinks they all almost look the same. Juniperkit, the firstborn. Dark-kit, the only one who takes after Duskflower. Willowkit, the quietest. Snowkit, the loudest. Rainkit, the one who looks most like her. Ashkit, the smallest. And Mountainkit, the largest.

It's a bigger family than she or Duskflower ever intended, but that night, over the sleeping forms of their children, they promise to make it a happy one.

-

"Mountainkit," Grayblossom snaps, angrier than Rainkit has ever heard her mother before. "Get down." Mountainkit is high in the brambles of the camp wall. Too high for a cat of his size, really, but Rainkit knows he's light under all that fur of his. As gracefully as a kit of three moons can muster, Mountainkit hurries down from the brambles, only slipping once - though once is enough for a panicked gasp to erupt from Grayblossom's chest. "Mountainkit!"

"I'm fine," Mountainkit insists, all four paws safely on the ground only a moment later.

"You are in so much trouble."

"What! It was Rainkit's idea!"

Grayblossom scoffs at her son. "Rainkit? She's not even here." Hidden in the shadow cast by the wall, Rainkit knows she won't be seen. Even Mountainkit, who was talking to her right before their mother showed up, struggles to find her. "Don't blame your sister."

"But-" It was her idea. She thought it would be funny to watch Mountainkit fail to get up the brambles. She didn't expect him to succeed, nor did she expect her mother to wake up from her nap and find them breaking her rules. "Ugh!"

Mountainkit isn't allowed out of the nursery for two days after that. Rainkit worries he'll hate her, but the first thing he does when he's released is invite her to bother the apprentices.

-

Mountainkit and Snowkit are the loudest of the troublemakers, but Rainkit is always there, hiding in her brothers' shadows. Some would call her the brains, but Snowkit loves to take credit for everything, and Rainkit prefers it when her parents don't know she was involved. So she lets Snowkit seem clever and troublesome and settles comfortably into her role as the responsible one, a title that should really go to Willowkit.

She's an apprentice by the time she learns the responsible kit doesn't get any attention.

-

"Mom, is Lichenflight nice?" Rainpaw, alongside her siblings, was named earlier that day. She remembers the kind, excited look in Lichenflight's eye when they touched noses.

"Not now, Rainpaw." Grayblossom dismisses her with a flick of her tail. "I'm going to patrol with Ashpaw." Ashpaw, the runt, assigned to a warrior named Firestripe that Rainpaw had been eyeing for herself. Her pelt burned with jealousy, not just because Ashpaw got the mentor she wanted.

"I think Lichenflight is nice," Duskflower says. Rainpaw turns to smile at her father, happy that he was listening.

"Will you tell me about her?"

"I don't have time, dear. I need to meet with Russetstar."

-

Lichenflight is nice. So nice, Rainpaw doesn't know what to do with all the kindness given to her. It takes less than a moon of training for Rainpaw to start going to her mentor with her problems, forgetting altogether that she had parents to begin with. Grayblossom and Duskflower love her, sure, but with so many other kits to look after, Rainpaw is certain they don't care about her. She's always ignored. Easy to miss. Why bother with sweet little Rainpaw when Willowkit or Juniperkit needed help instead?

-

"Mom was asking why you didn't eat dinner with us yesterday." It isn't often that Willowpaw approaches her, or anyone, really. Rainpaw thinks their sibling is bizarrely reserved compared to the rest of their litter. If anything, she thinks that should make them closer - she isn't reserved by choice, but often placed there, being the cat no one noticed.

"I was training," Rainpaw says, unable to make eye contact as she lies.

Willowpaw shrugs. "That's what I told her."

-

"Speak up, Rainpaw."

Today she's training with Thundertail, Mountainpaw's mentor, as well as her brother, while Lichenflight handles something to do with weaver business. Rainpaw tries to ignore the nagging feeling that she should've gone with her mentor, to at least see what it was like being a weaver. But her parents are warriors and all her siblings want to be warriors and so Rainpaw thinks it would send a message she doesn't want to send if she abandoned them all to follow Lichenflight's path. "I said, I think the trail goes south. Toward PrairieClan."

For several minutes, they'd been traveling toward the eastern border, led by Mountainpaw as he tried to follow the scent his mentor tasked him with. Thundertail nods approvingly. "That's right. It goes south. Mountainpaw, learn from your sister. Rainpaw, you'll need to speak up more often. When did you realize he was wrong?" Unable to find words for an answer, Rainpaw just dips her head. "That's what I thought. You need to speak up sooner."

"Yes, Thundertail."

-

Again Lichenflight invites her to learn the traditions of a weaver, and again Rainpaw turns her down. Instead, she joins an older apprentice, Daisypaw, and her mentor on a patrol near the river. There, she learns how to disguise her scent with reeds and use the sound of running water to hide her pawsteps as she walks over dried, crunchy grass. "You're really good at this," Daisypaw says with a laugh. Her pelt is crusted with mud from the many failed attempts at hiding along the riverbank. Rainpaw thinks she's beautiful.

"Thanks," Rainpaw says, unable to come up with an excuse for her talent. "You are, too."

"No I'm not." Daisypaw laughs again. "But thanks for being nice!"

-

They're fast friends after that. Daisypaw is much older, almost 11 moons compared to Rainpaw's seven, but still the two she-cats are soon inseparable. Rainpaw tries not to think of the near future when Daisypaw will sleep in another den. Instead, she thinks of how her fur feels when they press close together at night, and how her voice rises and falls when she tells a story she's excited about. Not quite like birdsong, but something close.

At 12 moons old Daisypaw should be named, but she instead decides to linger as an apprentice, taking extra moons in her training as a weaver. The next time Lichenflight offers to teach her about weaver practices, Rainpaw says yes, only so she can spend more time with Daisypaw. It feels like not a moment of the day goes by where they aren't together. Rainpaw likes it that way. Daisypaw, she thinks, likes it that way, too.

"As close as sisters," her mother says, describing her friendship with Daisypaw to her father. Rainpaw doesn't often join her family for meals, but she tries to once or twice a moon, only so Willowpaw doesn't have to deal with their mother's obsessive questions.

"Not sisters," Snowpaw says. His laugh is ugly, but the sort of ugly that's easy to love. Endearing, maybe, is a better word. Rainpaw thinks she shouldn't call her brother ugly, especially with as many cats he has following after him, asking for his attention. She wonders what it'd be like to be pretty like he is.

She doesn't need to be pretty, though. She has Daisypaw.

-

Daisyfeather gets her name two moons later, officially a weaver, even if she says she'll never truly be finished with her training. Rainpaw goes to find her the day after her vigil, in hopes her friend will promise to wait for her. They didn't get to speak before Daisyfeather's ceremony.

She finds her. Daisyfeather is tucked up close with a tom named Badgerclaw. 

By the next moon, the two are mates.

-

Rainpaw doesn't understand heartbreak, not at this age. She doesn't know what it means to stop eating, to stop grooming, to stop training. She tells Lichenflight she needs a break and her mentor understands. For several days, Rainpaw mopes in whatever corner of camp she can find, hiding in the shadows unnoticed until-

"Okay, you need a bath."

Mintpaw is small, even for their age, like Rainpaw is. They're a moon younger than her. She remembers them from the nursery, but with so many siblings, Rainpaw never sought out friendships with the younger litters. She blinks at the white and gray cat, unsure if they're talking to her until they repeat, "you need a bath. You, Rainpaw."

"Me?"

"You!" Sounding exasperated, Mintpaw hunkers down next to her. "Scoot over. I'll help."

-

Mintpaw is her every opposite. They're loud and energetic. Friendly and teasing and extroverted in a way Rainpaw can't imagine being. She overhears her father call them spunky and she thinks the word is a perfect fit. The way it rolls off the tongue matches the energy they bring to the world. She says it once, when they're listening. "Spunky."

"Huh?"

"You're spunky."

Mintpaw snorts. "It sounds like an insult when you say it." Normally, such a tease might embarrass Rainpaw, or make her feel bad. But she's already so used to Mintpaw's teasing after their short friendship that she can't help but purr in delight.

-

At 12 moons old, Rainpaw takes her warrior name. Rainshade, for her stealth. She tries to wear the name with pride, tries to be happy she was acknowledged for a skill, but still she worries the name means something else. That Russetstar knows how she hides in the shadows. Maybe he thinks it a skill, or maybe he wants her to be ashamed, and to never escape that shame.

Maybe that's unfair of her to think of her leader.

"Rainshade is such a cool name," Mintpaw says while Rainshade stands vigil, flve of her six siblings at her side. Ashpaw, always sickly, chose to delay her naming after a long fight against a cough. Rainshade stood by the rest of her siblings when they insisted on waiting for Ashpaw, but secretly she celebrated when Ashpaw won and convinced all her siblings to take their names without her.

Of course, she can't answer Mintpaw. She just smiles at them. "What do we think my name will be? Mintsong? My mentor says-"

"Mintpaw." That was their mentor now, snapping at them from across camp. "Don't bother them on their vigil. Come here."

Mintpaw winks at her before dashing off.

-

A moon later, they take the name Mintsong, just like they predicted.

-

After Mintsong's first night in the warrior den, Rainshade wakes to flowers woven into their shared nest.

-

She's young when she learns she's pregnant with Mintsong's kits. Only 16 moons - far younger than her mother was, and Grayblossom makes sure she knows it. "You're barely a warrior," Grayblossom says, half a wail. "You should take time to make a name for yourself, first!"

"It's young love," Duskflower says, gently butting his shoulder into Grayblossom. Rainshade is relieved someone is on her side. "It's not so bad. She has kits, then she can be a warrior till she wants more." Her father smiles at her. "At least they're mates, right?"

Not like Mountainbranch, who fathered a litter just last moon, but refused to take Lilacfern as a mate. Rainshade didn't even think they liked each other. She didn't understand how they made kittens.

-

Two boys. Thank StarClan, she feared having a litter like her mother, bringing seven kits into the world at once. She names the darker one Stormkit and the lighter one Lynxkit and prays she and Mintsong will be better parents than her own.

-

They don't get the chance.

-

CW: thoughts of suicide/suicidal ideation, death of a lover, death of siblings, death of a parent.

-

RidgeClan attacks two moons after she gives birth. Rainshade stands guard with the other queens outside the nursery, fighting back waves of RidgeClan warriors without hesitation. She loses sight of Mintsong in the chaos but it's not them she's worried about - it's Lichenflight, her old mentor, who keeps charging into battle as if she's a much younger warrior. Rainshade tries to follow after her, but soon she loses Lichenflight, too.

Then she hears Daisyfeather wail. Horrified, Rainshade watches as Daisyfeather mourns her mate and fails to notice the RidgeClan warrior looming over her. Rainshade leaps into action, knocking the RidgeClan warrior to his side, and hissing at Daisyfeather to run. But Daisyfeather, lost in her grief, doesn't hear her. It takes all Rainshade's strength to grab her old friend and drag her from the fight, leaving her shaking form far from the carnage of Wolfstar's fanaticism. 

When she returns to the fray, Lichenflight is fighting for her life alongside Larchnose. She fights with her mentor until the enemy warrior is chased off, but is barely able to stomach the sight of Larchnose's wounds. She stays with the warrior until after PrairieClan joins them and RidgeClan flees, hopeful that Larchnose will make it till morning.

She doesn't.

-

When news of Mintsong's death reaches her, Rainshade wishes she hadn't fought as hard. Maybe then she'd be dead. Maybe then she'd still be with them.

And it's not just Mintsong. Mountainbranch was felled by a warrior half his size, and Ashfur succumbs to her wounds just days later. The wounds weren't even bad, ancestors above, it was just a scratch! But Ashfur's health never caught up with the rest of her, and even the mildest infection was a death sentence.

Rainshade mourns. She mourns until she has no tears left, and then she still mourns. She moves out of the nursery for half a moon, unwilling to let her kits see her like this. Another queen will care for them. Another queen will be the mother she can't be.

-

The last time her heart was broken, Mintsong appeared to put it back together.

What was she supposed to do, knowing she'd never see them again?

Oh StarClan, strike her where she stood. She didn't want to live this life any longer.

-

"Mama, are we still gonna be apprentices?"

Neither of her sons looked exactly like Mintsong. They were a perfect mix of the two of them. But looking at them now, Rainshade could only see her mate in them. She could see the shape of their maw and the set of their ears and the unique tabby markings that once lined Mintsong's face. Stormkit laughs like Mintsong and Lynxkit speaks like them, like they were always in a hurry. "You are," she reassures them. "Hailstar is just waiting for the right moment." It's not even their sixth moon yet, but with the loss of so many warriors, MistClan is anxious for new apprentices, and Rainshade knows her sons can feel the pressure.

Blessedly, Hailstar makes them wait a little longer.

-

It's the happiest day of her life, she thinks, watching her boys become apprentices with pride.

-

Like so many others in MistClan, Rainshade begins the process of unlearning how to trust. She stops going to gatherings. She takes more patrols along the border, especially RidgeClan's. She tries to be grateful for PrairieClan's help but all she can think about is how long it took them to come. How many lives would've been saved if they got there faster. She grows sour, thinking about the war and all its deaths. About the cats that should still be here.

She sees the toll it takes on Lichenflight and wondered how her old mentor can still be kind, despite it all. The only cats deserving of her kindness, Rainshade thinks, are those born in MistClan.

-

Lichenflight brings home a litter of kittens that reek of outsiders and Rainshade feels as though her mentor has rubbed salt in her wounds. Her fur stands up on end for days, thinking about the strange kittens in the nursery. It's absurd to think these kits could pose any harm to MistClan but still she festers, fearing what another attack might mean for their clan. What if the outsider who bore these kits came looking for them? What if they would fight tooth and claw to have them back?

Sometimes, Rainshade worries she's gone mad, with how no one else thinks the way she does.

-

The loss of Irisfrost's kits hits her personally. She doesn't know the young warrior, but she knows loss. Knows it intimately. Her father's death, a sudden and unexpected thing, is fresh on her heart, tearing open the old wounds Rainshade knew would never really heal. She sits with Irisfrost in the nursery to grieve along with her, and every time she does, her eyes wander to the half-blood kits still rolling around without a care.

Maybe she was right. Maybe someone wanted these kits back, and maybe they took Irisfrost's kits instead. The theory grips her until it's all she can think of, and eventually Rainshade stops visiting the nursery, terrified of the day she lashes out at the clueless kits.

-

Unsure of where the time went, Rainshade watches her sons become warriors. Stormgaze, for his wisdom, and Lynxwhisker, for his tracking. Rainshade barely hears what else Hailstar has to say over the sound of her tears - happy tears. Once, she thought she had no more tears left in her, and now all she wants to do is cry tears of joy over how far her sons have come.

-

"I thought to patrol toward the twoleg place again," Daisyfeather says, leading the way. Rainshade agrees with a hum. They often patrolled there, looking for signs of Irisfrost's missing kits, but nothing had turned up so far. Still, she would never deny Daisyfeather's company now that they were friends once more. "Alderbranch said he scented some new cats the other day. Probably just kittypets that strayed too far." 

"Let's hope that's all it is."

-

-

Laurelfern faces the clans with a cold expression. Or at least, Rainshade thinks she looks cold, professing such a hatred for the clans that she was ready to leave. Rainshade narrows her eyes at the RidgeClan warrior - Kingdom warrior - but knows Laurelfern isn't looking at her. She likely can't even see her, hidden amongst so many other cats. It's one of Rainshade's first gatherings in moons. Naturally, it has to be the most eventful.

Rainshade says nothing, instead listening to the murmurs of her friends and family as they speculate on who might join Laurelfern. Surely no one from MistClan, right? This is just more of RidgeClan's folly, presenting itself obnoxiously. She supposes she preferred this to outright war. This way, RidgeClan can tear itself apart, and leave the other clans out of it.

"Wild," Willowfang says, dry and deadpan as they always were. Rainshade agrees with a grunt.

Wild, indeed.

Pre-Plotting: Rainshade comes from Lichenflight's wanted ad, Take Strength From Those That Need You. She best aligns with the Bark plot role. After witnessing RidgeClan's violence and struggling with the loss of Irisfrost's kits, Rainshade doesn't think she'll ever trust a cat born outside of MistClan again.

Family: Rainshade has a neutral-leaning-positive take on family. She values the concept of family, but being one of many kits means she never got the support other cats received from their parents, and so she struggles to care much about her own. They weren't bad parents, they just forgot she existed one too many times, and Rainshade isn't sure she'll ever get over that. Her siblings are much easier to love, especially after losing Mountainbranch and Ashfur to the war. Now, the five remaining siblings are close, desperate not to lose anyone else.

Friends: Friendship isn't easy for Rainshade to start. She's not shy, but she's definitely more reserved, and often waits for cats to approach her first. Because of this, her pool of friends is small, but she loves them all fiercely. Her siblings are some of her closest friends, especially as they all get older. Rainshade hopes to one day be a more approachable cat but can't focus on such things when she perceives MistClan as being in danger.

Romance: After Mintsong's death, Rainshade wasn't sure she would ever love again. She's still not ready for it, but she can admit feeling lonely lately.

Rivals: Before the war, Rainshade would say her only rival was the friendly exchange of dry humor between her and Willowfang, or the teasing way she and Mintsong would poke fun at each other. Since then, Rainshade has closed herself off from every cat not born in MistClan, save for those who joined long before RidgeClan attacked. She feels paranoid half the time, always sleeping with one eye open, but even a year after the attack, Rainshade can't imagine not fearing for her clan's safety.