wrenwhisper

[attr="class","arrgenMAINTEXT"]Wrenwhisper has always been the idealistic image of a queen – the type that elders involve in their stories as the tragic audience to the fall from grace of the hero. Small and soft-spoken, she rarely talks out of place and focuses her attention wholly on the kits of the nursery. She has a gentle touch, a compassionate way of handling the world in soft words and nose-touches. The world is harsh enough – she does what she can to make the weight lighter of those that she is around.

She cares deeply for her kits, for her clanmates, for those who have come before her and those that will follow. While it might not be much, she takes pride in what most of her kits have brought to WindClan. Yet, the longing remains; an aching pain in her chest. Her legacy was never meant to be kits. She has craved making her own path; her own future. Standing alongside the warriors she earned her name beside and standing in the front line with honour.

Yet, Wrenwhisper has had to take such through her kits as she’s watched them fall at each hurdle. Lost lives, turned against their clan. She’s done her best to guide, to speak loyalty and compassion to their ears and offer her shoulder in return. But, there is only so much that a other can do. Her soft-spoken nature is taken advantage of. Her anxiety over-rules the urge to stand for herself and for others. She quakes at the thought of speaking – of saying the wrong words.

Everything must be perfect – she’s a perfectionist. Every step, ever word, every act. It has to be the right one. She over-thinks, over-analyses. She falls for the words of others due to this – someone has to see things more clearly than her. Yet, once she is under someone’s control, she struggles to get out again.

It’s WindClan’s current state; Viperstar’s rise and her final litter becoming apprentices that have marked a change. She wants to be a warrior, she has always wanted to be. It’s finally time where she is free. And she is stubbornly passionate about being who she wants to be, no matter the cost. Someone like Swiftfoot.

[attr="class","arrgenMAINTEXT"]Leafnose was never made to be a warrior. It wasn’t in her blood, and certainly something she had little interest in. Her mother only joined the clan for the safety of her kits, and her father was from mixed clans to begin with. It seemed like the family was always destined to be anything but firm and loyal WindClan cats.

When Leafnose fell pregnant it was anyone’s guess who the father was. Frequently sleeping around both inside and outside the clan, Leafnose simply shrugged when asked, and everyone was forced to accept it. Especially when her only kit came out looking exactly like her. It made Leafnose’s life easier, even if she could’ve cared less for the small cat.

From her earliest days, Wrenkit really was on her own. She watched her mother disappear for hours, and grew frightened of the noise and fuss of the nursery. Especially when other queens snapped at her for every little mistake. It kept her quiet, withdrawn. It was the last place she wanted to be.

Wrenkit much preferred it in the clearing, which other than noisy had more friendly faces. Including Firepaw, a charming flame-point tom who took a liking to her, and started to show her the ways of the warrior. Become an apprentice only granted their friendship more grounds.

Wrenpaw thrived within the role. Separated from her distant mother, moving with purpose and with a caring mentor, she loved each and every training session she had. Her talent was in hunting, moving with near silence across the moors with sudden bursts of speed. Firepaw helped as well. However, the older they got, especially as he became Firecall, his story changed. It was less about training, about being a warrior, and more about the next generation. How they could help make more cats to serve WindClan.

She hesitated with these new ideas. But, they made sense. Especially when Firecall proclaimed his love for her. She was almost at her warrior ceremony when it happened, and while she held no such feeling back – he was simply a friend… how could she say anything else but return it after how much he’d done for her?

She became Wrenwhisper, and the two officially became mates. However it felt like Firecall only grew more persistent that they could bring kits to the clan. That she would be the best mother. Wrenwhisper struggled, but, her arguments against it failed to come to her lips. He had to be right, surely?

Their first litter was born when she was thirteen moons old. Two kits, who she carefully named Sunkit and Lightkit. She adored them from the moment she laid eyes on them. Yet, this was when Firecall showed more of his true colours, unimpressed to have a she-cat and a weak tom to his name. He was disinterested, critical of them, and Wrenwhisper found herself protective of the two, trying to counter the words that came from him.

As they grew older, he became more pushy. These kits weren’t going to serve their clan. They should try again. This time there was more of a disagreement, but, Wrenwhisper lost. Only days before her first litter became apprentices, she gave birth to her second litter. Three toms, much more to Firecall’s liking. He was pleased enough to watch them while Wrenwhisper slipped out to the clearing, watching her first litter become apprentices, Sunpaw to Swiftfoot, and Lightpaw to Mousecatcher.

Not that she got time to see them beyond in glanced, as Firecall hurried her back into the nursery to care for the kits. However, despite being proud of the litter, he was critical, and Wrenwhisper found herself coodling the three, trying to get them to see the world differently to their father. The first time that Firecall caught her speaking such a way, he verbally lashed out. They were going to be strong warriors… And she needed to give WindClan more of them. Once again, Wrenwhisper disagreed. She wanted to be back in the warrior’s den, especially as she watched Sunpaw grow and mature into himself with Swiftfoot’s guidance… even if his sickly state often had him in the medicine cats den and Wrenwhisper concerned.

Yet, once again she gave in. Her kits had just become warriors when her next litter was born. There was one tom that Firecall took interest in this time, the other tom and the she-cat discarded from his interest. Yet, that didn’t stop the remaining kits from competing for his attention, despite Wrenwhisper’s best efforts to convince them otherwise.

When the word of another litter came to Firecall’s lips, this time Wrenwhisper was vocal in her disagreement. Wasn’t eight kits enough? This was the first time Firecall was physical in his lashing out, striking her across the face. She followed his word and gave birth to one little she-cat as her last litter became apprentices.

The routine continued. Each time Wrenwhisper struggled as Firecall became more controlling, more forceful, and more critical of the kits. He shouted at her, shut down her thoughts, dismissed her opinions. Litter five two toms. Litter six a total of five kits, three toms and two she-cats. Litter seven another two toms.

She did her best to raise them right, to show compassion and care for their clan. Despite Firecall’s critical lessons and judgements that he did not hold back from telling the kits directly, or to her in front of them. She watched as they lost their lives for WindClan, in border fights, with illness. She watched some grow more distant than others and felt trapped.

Litter eight brought Lichenkit and Palekit. More kits Firecall disagreed with. Yet, by this time he had separated himself from caring about the kits closely. She tried to keep Lichenkit and Palekit as close as she could, especially with Lichenkit being so dependent on her. They became apprentices, and Wrenwhisper watched them grow with her ninth litter by her side, three kits. It is just after her tenth litter is born that Emberspark becomes deputy. Wrenwhisper doesn’t miss how her mate and and a few of her kits seem to follow the tom.

It became clearer as Morningstar’s life is taken in front of them and Emberstar rises to power. Wrenwhisper tried to protect her kits the best that she cat, watching in horror as Emberstar takes the life of another kit in the nursery. Perhaps she should’ve been grateful for Firecall’s loyalty to Emberstar, as it left her own kits save from the leader’s claws.

It would also provide her silver lining – her freedom from the nursery as Vipereye and RiverClan helped free them from Emberstar’s grip. She watched Firecall fall alongside the leader he followed. She watched one of her kits die, and another two get chased out of the territory. All as Lichenstrike defended the nursery as the fine warrior he’d become.

Wrenwhisper struggled to let her final litter free of the nursery. She was determined that it would be her last. Yet, it was with a shaking relief that she sat outside the nursery, watching them named by Viperstar, and for the first time since she received her warrior name venturing toward the warriors den to begin the life she wanted to live.