A sleek brown and white tabby she-cat with blue eyes.

Ottersplash was born for the river. Her fur, sleek and short but dense, keeps her warm under the waves. Short but muscular legs provide strength for diving without dragging her down. She is on the smaller side, big enough to wrestle fish above the surface, but small enough to cut through currents.

The she-cat is notably pretty, with soft blue eyes and delicate features. She often has an inquisitive look about her, and radiates a calm energy through her body language. 

After three litters Willowstep has all but mastered the song and dance of bringing children into the world. But her forth birth nearly claims the queen's life. Two of her children are lost, never named. The three survivors aren't named until it's clear they'll live long enough to need names.

It's a mircale that Otterkit didn't join her unnamed siblings. The kit was born small, still and silent as the dead. Yet she breathed. And with each breath there was hope.

Growth didn't come easy. She was a runt. Alderkit and Robinkit had the energy to play, to frolic if they pleased. But the littlest struggled to find the energy to cross the nursery and leave the nest. Thankfully Robinkit seemed less interested in play, so she wasn't alone in that nest.

Otterkit is a ghost in the nursery. Her steps are small and silent when she moves. A flicker of brown and white most often huddled against her mother's side. Weak and always on the verge of crossing that line between life and death. 

Friendship is no easier. Alderkit chirps like a bird, always flittering from nest to nest and person to person. But no one wants to play with a weakling like Otterkit. It's fine with her, she finds solace in solitude.

By the time her brother is jumping amid the branches of camp, Otterkit can occasionally manage to leave confines of the nursery. On others occasions exhaustion creeps into her bones, pulling her into the nest.

Every step takes determination on those days. But as she gets older, the days of exhaustion slowly disappear. Eventually she can manage to play with others, though she does so rarely. It just doesn't seem as fun now as it did when she couldn't join.

At her apprentice ceremony, Otterpaw knows she's lucky to be standing alongside her siblings. There had been chatter of holding her back, even a few days ago.

Alderpaw doesn't calm down, ever as playful as he'd been as a kit. Otterpaw watches him sometimes, her blank eyes following his movements. How does he do it? How does energy come so easily? Why doesn't she have that same spark?

He doesn't appreciate it either. It irritates her in a way she can't quite name. He insists his mentor pities him, and jokes about how he'd rather be hunting hawks. Robinpaw and Otterpaw try to tell him otherwise, but she can tell he doesn't believe it.

Nothing sticks. Not in training. Everything is... bland. Or difficult. Nothing draws her attention, comes to her easily.

At least, nothing until the river.

It is massive. Intimidating. Deadly. And beautiful. Otterpaw spends her free time at its shores, watching. Observing. Learning. How the waves move, how water runs and flows and falls. And when she dives under it for the first time, it feels like home.

There is power and energy and life in the water. She learns how to respect the current. How to use it to help find her way without having to over exert herself. How to dive in and out with ease and grace and fish.

Nothing compares. There is a logic in the waves, in the currents, in the movement of her aquatic prey. One she adores learning. It makes sense to her more than playing or making friends ever did.

Who ever needs friends?

Otterpaw does, as much as she is loathe to admit. The others her age still find her too fragile and quiet. Their minds are set, determined to believe she isn't worth the effort.

When Alderpaw's mentor, Hailfall, goes missing, she realizes just how distance she's become from her brother. It's.. sad. Frustrating. And when Hailfall returns, she doesn't know what to say to her brother then either. Congratulations? Sorry? Instead she says nothing.

Eventually the siblings are named. At some point her brother shifted from the energetic and mischievous cat she knew into a respectable warrior. How? He's Alderbranch now, charming and clever and popular. He an Robinheart seem... closer? When did that happen?

And she is Ottersplash. Named for her swimming skill. An expected name, nothing else about her stands out.

At least, that's what she thinks. 

"You know, you're actually kind of pretty." Ashstrike is a young warrior, a few moons older. He's brash. And mostly a stranger. Ottersplash doesn't know to react at first. The sudden interest is flattering, even if his attempts to woo her are... intense.

He's everywhere she is. Always waiting on the shore, complaining about how long she spends in the water. "You'd make a better queen. Like your mother." He says one day. 

"Is that what you want? A queen?" Ottersplash asks. 

"Yes, exactly! I knew you'd get it eventually. You don't need to bother with this swimming nonsense, you're so ugly when you're soaked and I can't sit next to you either without my fur getting wet. If you were a queen you could stay in camp, be safe and fed." And on and on he rambles while Ottersplash patiently waits, not listening to a single word. 

Once he finally stopes, staring at her with expectation in his eyes, she responds. "No. I don't want to be a queen. Or your mate. Stop following me. I don't want to be your friend either." Her words are cold and calm, hiding the fury in her heart.

She cuts Ashstrike out of her life with precision. She moves her nest, tells the deputy not to put them on patrols, and ignores his dirty looks.

Ottersplash never looks back. Never doubts her decision. It was the right one, the only one. Logically and emotionally they'd never have worked. There's a pride there, in knowing herself. In making a call and sticking to it. She made a similar choice when deciding to specialize in swimming. And she never regretted that either.

There's a confident in her from then on. No one will dare tell her who to be again. Ottersplash knows herself, her strength and weakness. Nothing can take that away.

Except death.

The war isn't unexpected, but it is shocking. Horrifying, really. Terrifying. Ottersplash stands her ground, lost in a sea of strangers and clanmates. Everything and everyone blends together.

But they move like water.

She focuses on seeing the fight as a whole, on weaving in and out and following the flow. Her contributions are small, helping clanmates in need before slipping back into the fray. But it's something.

Ridgeclan did this. How could they?

How many days had she spent at the river border, diving away in peace? How many of the cats trying to kill her had drank from those waters, just on the other side?

The river had protected the clan until that tree fell. Ottersplash is more grateful to it than ever.

Moons later the river provides another blessing. Though it is a blessing in disguise.

Ottersplash is sunning herself along the shore, enjoying the last bits of warmth in the day, when she hears something. A splash, then silence. She looks across the river, not seeing whoever went in coming back on.

A drowning Ridgeclanner. The ones who hurt her clan.

She moves, diving beneath the waves in an instant. A few heartbeats later she has the scruff of a cat and tugs them to shore on Ridgeclan's side.

The cat immediately coughs up water, and gasps for air. 

"What were you doing? You could've died." Ottersplash asks as she tries to help this stranger breathe. "The river is dangerous if you aren't careful."

"Sorry. I fell in." They say once they catch their breath. After a few heartbeats of silence and staring at each other they speak up again. "Wow, you're really pretty."

There's something different about this cat, they way they call her pretty. Ashstrike had said it like it was a gift he even looked her way, but the stranger says it like they're grateful to get a chance to see her, even if they're both soaked to the bone and struggling to catch their breath.

It's nice.

"You're pretty too. And clumsy. Please be more careful." She heads off with that, though her mind keeps drifting back to the stranger. Ottersplash realizes she never got their name.

At the next gathering she learns it. Jaybelly. He's about her age, newly a parent, and so much fun to be around. There is an energy, a fire within him, just not an ounce of caution. Ottersplash finds herself drawn to them more and more.

She swims across the river every few days just to meet. To talk. Jaybelly has a mate, and a kit. But she can't stay away. She doesn't want to. She doesn't care if they love someone else, she just wants them to love her too.

And they do. 

Jaybelly is the one to admit his feelings first, and Ottersplash doesn't hesitate to accept. The river hides her scent from Ridgeclan, it carries her to and from her lover. 

It's wonderful. Borders don't mean anything compared to the love she feels when she sees her mate. There is no regret, no remorse. Ottersplash knows how to hide her choice from the clan, how to act a loyal warrior.

But Jay struggles to hide in the same way. His mate finds out, and leaves him. Ottersplash is there to be a shoulder to cry on. She held no jealousy or distaste to the other cat, more upset that Jay is hurt than anything else.

Everything is great.

And then she finds out she's pregnant.

Ottersplash can scarcely believe her ears when Lotusfire tells her. It's risky, caring kits. Especially with her mate in another clan. 

She tells Jaybelly the next time they meet. And Jay is thrilled, as is she, but the fact remains that this will be difficult. Ottersplash isn't quite sure what to do. But her mate is.

The Kingdom.

They wouldn't have to hide there. It would be a fresh start for both them and their kits.

But it's not a decision Otter takes lightly. For the next few days she thinks on the matter. Her family is here, her flesh and blood. But they aren't close. Alderbranch is busy with his work, and even she and Robinheart had drifted apart.

The next time she meets Jaybelly at the river she has her answer.

The two leave their clans, but not alone. Jaybelly's kit, Brightpaw, joins them. She's young, but eager to make a new life as well.

Joining the Riverwalkers is an easy decision. Ottersplash loves the water more than almost anything, she'd never truly be able to part with it. And the group already has a medic, a cat named Sable. Which is important for an expectant mother and an accident prone mate. Plus Brightpaw quickly makes it clear she wants to study medicine, and a mentor will make that easier.

It was the right decision. Leaving. Ottersplash knows she won't regret it, despite all she left behind.

Pre-Plotting: Ottersplash is adopted from Sable's wanted ad, and fills the role of the Soul. She also fills the role of Jaylight in Alderbranch's wanted ad, as she is his sister.