Hollyshade of ShadowClan

Hollyshade
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Age: 32 moons
Gender: Female
Rank: Warrior
Clan: ShadowClan
Short Description: Pure black she-cat with yellow eyes.

Appearance:
Have you ever seen a holly leaf? Ever notice the little spikes at the edges? Well, Hollyshade’s name came from that plant precisely because when she was a kit her fur had the bad habit of sticking out like little spikes, it doesn’t do that as much anymore but if you look closely you can see a spike or two on her pelt. This few spikes are very hard to make out because her pelt is pitch-black, literally like the darkest of starless nights. She takes pride in the color of her fur because it makes it easier to sneak around giving her an advantage even among the night dwellers of Shadow Clan, it is impossible to see her in the night and she has the uncanny ability to blend with the shadows and disappear.

The brightest thing in Hollyshade’s physical appearance are her eyes, resembling the golden leaves of leaf-fall the she-cat’s eyes shine with a bright if still dark yellow. They tend to unease strangers and familiar faces alike, they glow with a smart tint and you can literally see the mischief pouring out of them, they are usually the only thing other cats notice when dealing with her. Like most eyes do Hollyshade’s eyes betray every emotion that crosses her mind, they are windows to her inner workings.

Hollyshade is lean and lithe with a muscle system more oriented towards being quiet rather than being strong, she is resistant and can run long distances without losing her breath or spend a whole day motionless. She’s not a brilliant fighter like her sister or an outstanding hunter like her brother, what she’s good at is tracking, Hollyshade has the sharpest senses and lithest paws of Shadow Clan making her perfect for spying missions or simple gossip catch up.

Personality:
Hollyshade, much like her name suggests, is excellent at hiding her presence; she is probably the best tracker in Shadow Clan, she knows this and enjoys it to the fullest. She prides herself in the fact that she could follow a cat all day and they wouldn’t notice unless she wanted to. Of mischievous nature she has the bad (or good, in her perspective) habit of sneaking up on cats and scaring them, she’s a prankster and no one is safe of her tricks, she spends most of her time trying to come up with new antics to scare the wits out of someone just to get a good laugh out of it. Even without meaning to do so she tends to sneak up on others, when she was a kit this greatly annoyed her but by the time she was turned into an apprentice she found a way to use it to her advantage and to have some fun with it.

Her attitude is as light as her feet; she lives under the motto “If you can’t do something about then don’t worry about it”. Hollyshade dislikes worrying, she believes that worrying about things you can’t change is a waste of effort and that instead everyone should try to change what’s in their power to do so. Many perceive this as careless but rarely some manage to find the strange wisdom in her words. She likes to live in the present for she is too afraid to dwell in the past and too nonchalant to worry about the future, she likes to take things as they come one bite at a time. The only thing that occasionally haunts her at night is the ‘what if’ of her mother’s death, ‘what if I had run out to help’, ‘what if the war was stopped before it even started’, ‘what if neither Shadow Clan or Thunder Clan had fought’, ‘what if I had noticed she was injured’, and it goes on and on. Hollyshade has a strange distaste for expectations, she claims she never expects anything because she doesn’t like to be disappointed; probably because of this she is not a cat with a plan preferring to drift day through day trying her best always with a charming attitude and smile.

She’s not sharp of tongue like her sister but sharp of ear, thanks to her ability to go unnoticed Hollyshade is usually the first to know the latest gossip and news that run around the Clan. When in Gatherings you can see her pleasantly making her way between the Clans picking up bits and pieces of information; if you want to know what the leader didn’t reveal to the full moon but their clan failed to keep secret you might want to have a chat with her after the truce. But even if she knows a lot of things she’s careful about who she shares the information with, only confiding in those she considers of trust and, most commonly, her siblings (she keeps the scary news away from Briarpatch, though). Hollyshade is a sweet talker, she often uses her swift tongue to get out of trouble; she has the gift to make the direst of news not so dire and make some good news not so good, she doesn’t exaggerate facts she just conveys them with pretty words and honey tones. You will never catch her lying because she never lies, she just likes to fall on technical points and legal lagoons.

One thing you can’t doubt about the pitch-black she-cat is the love she feels for her siblings, while she doesn’t express it clearly those two are the only cats she’s willing to risk her life for without a second thought.

History:
Hollyshade was always invisible; ever since she was Hollykit she had the uncanny ability to blend with the background, to remain motionless and to be gulped by the shadows. At first this bothered her often wondering if the reason no one seemed to notice her was because she was unimportant, her mother, a caring and sweet she-cat named Graypatch, was always there to quench her fears and her father, the stern but loving Hawkstep, taught her the perks of her gift. She had a truly wonderful family, a sister who, even if a little rough with her sometimes, loved her dearly and a brother, who, even if most of the time behaved like a scaredy-cat, cared for her. Tawnykit, Hollykit, and Briarkit were happy and the black she-kit couldn’t ask for more.

Ever since they were kits it was obvious who was good at what. Tawnykit was big and muscular; always the winner of their fighting contests, even beating the eldest of kits. Briarkit was a natural hunter and he showed this through their little catch games but it was until apprenticehood that her brother’s talent really shined. And last but not least Hollykit put to good use her pelt color and lithe feet, making a habit of listening to the latest gossip and news, always figuring out the way the her Clan worked through the shadows.

These talents followed them when apprentices and each excelled at what they were good at. Hollykit, now Hollypaw, was assigned to Pinefur; an older, strict and by the book kind of cat. He always tried to make Hollypaw a little bit less carefree, always trying to make the importance of loyalty and honor stick to her brain and always trying to make her a little bit more aware of the future. This frustrated the apprentice greatly who was used to living with a ‘nonchalance’ philosophy but even if the moral part of the training didn’t really stick she learned tons of facts about hunting, tons of fighting moves, and, most importantly, tons of tricks about sneaking. If Hollypaw was good at sneaking before she started training by the time she was going to be made a warrior she was practically invisible to the naked eye.

She was used to her mentor’s bickering about the future, she spent lots of time with her siblings, and she always lavished in the love and pride her parents felt for her. Life was good.

Unfortunately good things don’t to last.

She knew what was going on, she was the gossip expert after all, but this wasn’t mere gossip this was hot news. ThunderClan had accused ShadowClan of crossing the border and stealing prey, ShadowClan accused back. This went on and on for a while, the tension between the clans was so high it was suffocating, Hollypaw could smell a war approaching. It never bothered her, she knew that fights amongst the clans were common and she shrugged the news off as unimportant. Even when her leader announced the oncoming battle she felt unconcerned, not even when she was told the siblings were going to participate in the front line. She merely watched how Tawnypaw trembled with excitement and how Briarpaw trembled of fear.

The war broke out in the Thunderpath, not the smartest of battle fields if you ask her, a monster watch was posted from each clan so as to prevent them from being squashed. She wasn’t a brilliant fighter like her sister but she could hold her ground, she left the protection of her brother to Tawnypaw because Briarpaw may be a brilliant hunter but he had no real ability as a fighter. She was calm, slashing ThunderClan fur left and right. Then the watch yowled and all clanners scurried to the sides.

She ran just like Graypatch told her: without looking back. It was until she was safe that her gaze traveled back to the Thunderpath… her blood froze. Graypatch was injured, she was bleeding heavily from the back leg and was limping, she heard both her allies and enemies yowling and telling her to hurry. She wanted to jump out there, grab her by the scruff and pull her back to safety but alas her paws felt rock solid, she couldn’t move, she couldn’t even scream. It happened fast, the monster just ran past and squashed her body not even bothering to look back. Hollypaw felt how her heart was shredded to pieces mercilessly, she felt how her body went numb suddenly all will to fight gone. Graypatch was dead and all she could think of was the sound of her sweet voice warning her to run fast towards safety when she heard the alarm.

They were made warriors because of that fight but Hollypaw couldn’t feel any excitement, and so Tawnypaw was named Tawnystripe, because of her pelt, Hollypaw became Hollyshade, for her sneaking skills, and Briarpaw was named Briarpatch in remembrance of Graypatch. During the vigil she closed her eyes and whispered a hollow apology to her siblings and her mother, the endless “what if’s” instantly coursing through her mind.

After some months of constant mourning she learned to live with the absence of her mother and found her spark and spirit again, only allowing the ‘what if’ to haunt her occasionally. She returned to her old mischievous ways and was soon, once again, all ears on the constant gossip inside the clan. In fact she got her paws on some juicy information when she was 21 moons old, Tawnystripe was going to be assigned with her first apprentice! She couldn’t be happier for her sister and made it her task to keep it a surprise. When Tawnystipre was finally assigned to an apprentice named Russetpaw Hollyshade had to resist the urge to burst out laughing. They were the perfect mismatch, Russetpaw was calm and observant, preferring to focus on hunting rather than fighting whereas her sister had fighter blood and was, to be honest, not a good hunter. After a while of being amused by the whole situations she finally approached Tawnystripe and offered her help, Hollyshade assured she was to make Russetpaw an excellent tracker and her brother Briarpatch promised to teach him everything he knew about hunting. Lucky mongrel got three mentors instead of one. When Russetpaw was named Russetfeather at thirteen moons he was an excellent fighter, hunter, and tracker, the siblings had done their jobs as mentors pretty well.

And so life goes on.

Extra: She likes to scare cats by sneaking up on them and screeching or whispering ‘morning’, ‘afternoon’, or ‘night’.