Clan: Scorchclan
Accessory info: I'd like to pick the bi flag and the progress pride flag please! I'd love for them to be fairly obvious, feel free to do like fur paint, pins, earrings, etc! I would absolutely love a bandana if you're up for it, especially like this kitty's! But feel free to do whatever if you want to, I figured I'd give ideas if you were stuck but don't feel like you have to go with them! Anything specific I've written on this form can totally be tweaked if you feel like it <3
- NR edit suggestions: accessories, expression (small smile, don't need to be tons of work!), scars (knicks in ear(s))
1 common edit choice: shorter tail (as short/almost as short as you can make it if possible)
2 common edit suggestions: minimal fur (on the tail maybe? or head/chest?), ear tufts
1 uncommon edit roll: round ears
Are there any nr/common edits you would not like added?: sleek tail, extreme eye shape (rounder eyes are fine though!), eyelashes, pupil shape - everything else is fair game and I'd really enjoy them so feel free to go wild!
(if a note is allowed, I'd love the heterochromia to be sectorial kinda like this with 'bars' in the iris? if that makes sense! And since I did unnatural eyes too, feel free to do colors like blacks, greys and whites as well as the other unnatural colors and natural colors too! since I have the heterochromia edit with it, just wanted to let you know that a combo of unnatural and natural colors would be a-ok with me! I tend to prefer color together that aren't opposites (like blue with purple, not purple with yellow or red with green) and black/grey/white with any colors! but the main point is that the colors don't all have to be unnatural lol <3)
Heterochromia prompt:
When Petalscorch carried her home to camp, the kit was uneasy. Not scared, no, because she had already faced what was the worst thing possible in her mind. Constant torment in the form of yelling, or cats using her as hunting practice, not physically hurting her but scaring her out of her mind - that was true fear. Not this being carried into the center of a camp full of curious, well fed and groomed cats by the largest cat the kit had ever seen. Besides, the cat had also groomed her, and the friendlyness made the kit feel safe enough to doze on the journey to the camp. But she soon awoke with all the faces curiously examining her.
The big cat set her down, and the kit curled up between the cat's paws. The big cat begins to talk to the others, calmly discussing her plans to let the kit stay with them if she had no other home. The white cat, the one who had been with the big cat when they had found the kit, sits down beside the big cat and gives the kit a smile while the big cat talks.
"Do you have a name?" the white cat asks. "I'm Talonfall."
The kit stares before slowly shaking her head.
"Petalscorch," Talonfall says as the big cat finishes talking to the others.
"Yes?" the big cat says, turning her head toward Talonfall.
"We should name this pretty kit. She doesn't have a name."
Petalscorch seems to understand what this entails, even if the kit wouldn't realize she had found a home until later.
"Oh, you're right."
They both look down at the kit, still curled between Petalscorch's paws. The rest of the clan is quiet, watching the two cats discuss name options before settling on one.
"What about Heartkit? She must have had quite a bit of heart to survive this long as she has, with no name and very little food. Her fur too, it's like it's been covered in dirt her whole life! Much too oily to have been cared for properly," Talonfall says. "Look, she even has a heart on her pelt!"
The kit wasn't sure if she did have a heart anywhere, but Petalscorch nods in agreement and smiles.
"I think that's a beautiful name, wonderful for this small fighter too. What do you think about it, little one?"
The kit stares up at them. "Me? Heartkit?"
She thinks this over for a second, letting the name turn around in her mind. Heartkit. Yes, she liked that. She liked it a lot.
"Yes. Please," she adds on, not forgetting her manners. Her mother had always been strict on those.
A warmth spreads through her as the other cats come up to greet her by her new name and welcome her to her camp. She buries herself in Petalscorch's fluff, nodding and smiling at all the other cats. Exhaustion finally overcomes her. The rainstorm had drug her away from her old home, full of fear and guilt at existence. But here, Heartkit feels warmth and love. She finally feels like she can be herself instead of walking on eggshells all the time.
After that first moment, the feeling spread. Heartkit spent her first moon and a half at Scorchclan as a carefree kit. She asked questions during stories, and made up her own stories. Who knew that stories were something more that a threat of what would happen if you misbehaved? She slept with Petalscorch for the first few nights until Talonfall joined them too. And she then became an apprentice.
Heartpaw was quick witted and easygoing. She gained a quick grin and a sense of humor that allowed her to get along with almost everyone. Upon arriving to the clan, she had been shy, but she showed her true colors after adjusting. And that's when she realized the two cats who had become her mothers, Petalscorch and Talonfall, hadn't had a mateship ceremony. She wondered why. Even after she left, they still shared a den. When she asked them, Petalscorch was speechless. Talonfall had tried to say they weren't mates, but their eyes met and they both blushed. After a private conversation, they sat Heartpaw down and told her they never realized they had feelings for each other until that moment. It was because of her they began to take the first steps toward dating, without even realizing it. Heartpaw had been the only one realizing they were falling in love.
Heartpaw sat with special pride at their mateship ceremony. She had never seen love that warm before until she saw it in her mothers. And once she started seeing it, she couldn't help but see it everywhere else too in all its forms. Apprentices who were best friends, warriors who laughed around the fire, a parent and their kits. That's when it hit Heartpaw, how utterly perfect her name was. It made her feel like she was truly herself. Love all around her, she was at the Heart of it all.
(840/500 words)
Unnatural eye color prompt:
Heartpaw curls her tail around her body, her mothers to either side of her. She hadn't slept with them since she was a kit. Their even breathing reminds her of that time, and those painful memories before them. Before she was Heartpaw, even before she was Heartkit. When her name was Rat, or Scrap, or Thunderkill, not real names of course, but ones shouted at her whenever one was angry.
She had been born to a rogue, who had once been the leader's mate. But he had been ousted the night before Heartpaw's birth, and the beautiful kit's arrival spelled out doom. How dare she sit there, a reminder of the once great tom who had fallen from power? How dare she look healthy when the rest of the group were ragged and dirty? Heartpaw wasn't gifted with a name. She had thought herself lucky when the twolegs found the group and took her siblings away, passing by her as she trembled under a box. Her mother soon reminded her though of how unwanted she truly was with a hiss upon seeing the kit remained.
And then the rain came. She was almost five moons old, dirt forming a thin blanket on her coat as no one bothered to wash her. The rain took care of it though. Then, it just wouldn't stop. All the layers of dirt washed away from her coat, and the street pooled with water. The boxes the group called home caved in. Heartpaw could hardly wade through the water, the inches of rain coming up past her belly where it was only ankle deep for adult cats. The adults leapt up the side of buildings, getting to unflooded high grounds, and Heartpaw called out for her mother. Her mother looked back, then turned and was gone. Heartpaw's paws slipped out from underneath her and the water drug her away.
She was alone, floating down the rain river. She wanted to give up. Maybe she could was up to a twoleg's house and they would dry her off, before doing whatever twolegs do to cats. The good ones keep them as kittypets, but the bad ones... well, she would have to take that risk. Because no one else wanted her.
Her paws began to catch the water. No. She wouldn't give up. There had to be someone, right? Someone who would care for her? She owed it to herself to at least try. Even if there wasn't anyone in the whole world who would love her, she needed to try. She's good enough for a try.
The kit swam, legs desperately trying to paddle through water. It was dragging her out of the town, pulling her into the forest. She dodged rocks and ferns, diving under the branches of a huge red tree. The forest smells were frightening. Exhilarating. Heartpaw finally managed to grab a stick, pulling herself to shore. She lay panting, a tiny kit in a big forest, determined not to give up on herself.
She found the clan cats the next day. As she unwittingly almost reached the camp, the biggest cat she had ever seen suddenly loomed over her. A green eye and purple eye twinkled over her before the head leaned down and began to groom her. Heartpaw had let out a purr in surprise, the unfamiliar gesture of kindness and love overwhelming her.
"Whatcha have there Petal?" a voice had asked, a white cat with sparkling blue eyes following it.
The large cat stopped grooming the kit and looked up. "A kit. She- she's wonderful."
The white cat gazed down at the still purring kit and smiled. "She is."
Now, Heartpaw lies between Petalscorch and Talonfall, the mothers who had found her all those years ago. She feels pride warm in her chest. She hadn't given up that day, even though she was just a kit. And look at her now. She would become a warrior tomorrow, in a clan of cats who actually appreciated her and wanted her. She belongs here. The struggle had been rough during her early moons, but now she has broken past it.
(688/500 words)
