Warrior: Boneflower [WIP]

BONEFLOWER was given the prefix BONE for the snow white coloration of his pelt at birth. no one really knows why his mother gave him such a name, as naming your kit after something so taboo wasn't something seen often in clan life. she was firm in her decision, however, refusing to be swayed into naming him something perhaps more harmless, and bonekit he remained. he has the suffix FLOWER for his soft disposition and paternal nature when it comes down to the younger cats of the clan.

APPEARANCE
x and x | blind white tom with faint ginger stripes.

the typical imagery that comes to mind with the word 'shadowclan' is, more often than not, dark. however, boneflower and his family deviate from the stereotypical shadowclanner; their pelts are as white as snow, as opposed to the dark tabby fur commonly seen, with bright blue eyes rather than the typical greens of browns. their bodies can range anywhere from tall and skinny to short and stocky, and while their pelts and eyes are almost always the exact same, there's no two cats in the heritage that have the same body type.

unfortunately, the combination of white pelt and blue eyes that runs in their lineage is more often than not a source of all kinds of trouble. young kittens are born blind or even deaf in some cases; while boneflower escaped the life of being born blind, his case was more troubling when it came down to his gradual vision loss after he had been fully trained in the ways of a warrior. 

boneflower falls on the taller side of the spectrum, a surprise to the others of his family. both his mother and his father were short and chubbier; he, however, blossomed quickly into a tall, gangling, lanky tom. it seems as if he never really grew into his body, and the blindness only makes his awkwardness worse. he walks around camp with his head ducked, trying to pick out the own sense of his vibrations from the other cats'. as he's only been blind for a few short months, there's hope that he'll grow used to his 'condition'.

when he was first brought into the world, bonekit's pelt was as pure and as perfect as white can be. as he grew, however, his fur became marked with faint ginger stripes, mostly around his muzzle and his legs. 

PERSONALITY
soft-spoken, timid, independent

boneflower exemplifies an unfortunate case of being forced into maturity too early. his childhood was tarnished by the deaths of his two siblings and a mother drowning in psychosis, and he never really had a chance to have a childhood, per se.

FAMILY MEMBERS
milkpelt | mother
    shadowclan elder
blizzardclaw | father
    shadowclan warrior
lilykit | sister
    deceased
frostkit | brother
    deceased
snowkit | younger brother
    shadowclan kit

HISTORY
a calm leaf-bare dawn is broken only by the sound of new life. two squealing kits have been brought into the world, after a long and difficult labor. seconds later, a shrill yowl tears through the air, effectively shattering any peace that could've followed after the two kits were nudged to their mother's belly to suckle.

"my kit!" it's a she-cat's voice, quaking with distress, bringing attention from all around the camp to the nursery. pairs of eyes follow the commotion from the safety of the den's entrance; the medicine cat tries to shush the yowling queen, to no avail. she only becomes louder, and not even the comfort of her mate can quiet her.

"i'm sorry, milkpelt, there's nothing we can do."

the smallest kit of the litter had been the last, and she hadn't survived to even take her first breath. devastated, blizzardclaw gave the tiny kit a name - lilykit - and took her away from milkpelt's side to be buried.

distressed and wracked with grief, milkpelt refused to name her two remaining children for the time being. she laid her head down in her nest and closed her eyes, falling into a restless sleep. she was awakened later in the day by her mate talking gently to his two children.

he attempted a smile when her hollow gaze turned upon him, nudging one of the toms at her belly. "i named him. his name is frostkit. i thought you might like to name him." he touches his nose to the other tom.

milkpelt's eyes turn from sorrow to hardened anger as she glares at the two toms, almost as if she blames them for the other's death. "bonekit," she spits, finally, turning away from blizzardclaw. "his name is bonekit."

blizzardclaw freezes up, lifting his head quietly to stare at his mate in horror. "are you sure that you'd like to name him bonekit?"

yes, she said. his name was bonekit. no matter how much blizzardclaw pressured her into picking a new name, she stayed firm in her decision.

within only two short weeks of the new birth and devastation that had befallen them, more grief fell upon the small family. frostkit, they realized within time, had been born deaf; utterly unresponsive to his name, he watched the world through wide blue eyes, unaware of his condition.

it would only be another few days when tragedy struck once again. milkpelt had awoken early during the dawn to check on her kits, but she found only bonekit nestled up to her belly; she quietly searched the nursery for any sign of the deaf kit, even going as far as to calling his name, despite the effort being futile.

a search party was quickly gathered, consisting of warriors and apprentices and even elders, due to milkpelt's desperate cries slowly waking the entire camp up. frostkit would be found, later during the day, curled up under a bush outside of camp, and frozen to death.

it seemed that frostkit's death was the straw that began milkpelt's psychosis. her dreamlike dazing began, in which she had trouble separating reality from her own unreality; she often spent time looking for frostkit, unaware of the fact that he was dead. he was buried next to lilykit, and milkpelt drew even further away from bonekit, barely recognizing him as her son.

for the sake of milkpelt's own mental health, blizzardclaw had her removed from the nursery. bonekit was left alone, to be shuffled around from queen to queen who would nurse him until he was fully weaned; his father rarely came around to visit, and when he did, it was only for a few minutes at a time, his mind always enraptured with his mate's psychosis.

bonekit was used to the notion of being alone by the time he was six moons old. he had family, sure, by blood relation - but there were never relationships formed between him and his mother or his father that kept their bonds strong. in his mind, he was alone in the world, destined to take care of himself.

he was ever more mature than any of the other kits his age, shaped by a life of tragedy and devastation. blizzardclaw was at his apprentice ceremony, but his mother was not, too confused to appear from behind the walls of the elder's den she now called home. he stayed up until the moment bonekit was named bonepaw, and given a mentor, but ducked away right when the clan began to call his new name.

the sight of his father leaving without greeting his only living child by his new name struck bonepaw fiercely. it caused a rift that would never fully heal between them, and even at six moons, bonepaw knew he was truly estranged from his mother and father.

smallfang was, as her name would surmise, a tiny she-cat renowned for her temper. bonepaw and his mentor couldn't have been more different in terms of personality. at first, the two clashed terribly at the cost of their conflicting opinions and ideals. bonepaw wasn't as strong or as loud as smallfang would've liked; he wasn't a fighter, by nature, and his clumsiness got in the way of being anything of a good hunter.

however, smallfang took into consideration his difficult past and learned to be gentle with the tom. they devised a new style of training that worked for both of them, and they grew used to each other within time, even becoming something just short of good friends. smallfang's voice was definitely loudest at his warrior's ceremony, where he was named as boneflower, a giant smile spread across her maw in pride of her first apprentice. 

life as a warrior was something boneflower had little time to experience. he maintained a friendship with smallfang and even went as far as to visit his mother on a weekly basis, although most of the time she rarely recognized him as her only living son. just around seventeen moons, his vision in his right eye began to quickly fail him.

he went from having perfect vision to having none in one of his eyes in a matter of days. he was devastated, as he'd been trained as a warrior with two eyes, not one; he'd have to relearn his battle training due to his blindness, and he would never be as good at hunting as he once was. as he tried to adjust to his new life and arrangements were made for his new training, he was shocked to discover one morning that the vision in his left eye was slowly failing, too.

the process of losing the rest of his vision was slower than the first time around. his first eye had taken mere days, but the second took weeks, until one day he couldn't see any longer. devastated, he resigned to the fact that he'd never truly be a warrior again without his eyesight, and resolved to retire.

however, he was faced with the prospect of staying in the elder's den with his mother who couldn't even recognize him, and the fact almost tore him apart. he asked rosestar if he would be granted the permission to stay within the nursery rather than the elder's den, and she sympathetically agreed.

around the same time, and despite the outcome of their first litter, milkpelt and blizzardclaw decided to give the thought of a family another chance. it would be nearly two moons before the she-cat could happily announce that she had finally become pregnant once again; it seemed to help with her condition, as well, as she began to come out of her dreamlike reality more often to be among her other clanmates.

milkpelt went into labor in the following two moons. her pregnancy was quick and easy compared to her first, considering she only had one kit as opposed to three. another snow white tom was brought into the world, to blizzardclaw's excitement and milkpelt's confusion.

seeing the kit for the first time had only caused milkpelt to spiral further into her psychosis. she spent long periods of time in a state of confusion, rarely being able to differentiate reality from her dream-like world; she often asked where frostkit and bonekit had gone, unaware that the first was dead and the second had long since become a warrior.

milkpelt mistook the kit for another one of her sons, switching between calling him either bonekit or frostkit without realizing what she was doing. to avoid damaging her mental state even further, she was taken back to the elder's den only days after her fourth and final kit had been born.

blizzardclaw had been too focused on trying to set his mate straight that the new kit had never even be given a name. he was passed on to a queen to nurse until he was fully weaned, and the duty of naming him was set upon his only living sibling's head. boneflower couldn't see what the kit looked like, so he asked the queen for a description.

the two settled on snowkit. from the time of his birth, he was carefully watched for any sign of deformity, like the deafness of frostkit that had caused his death, or the blindness that had befallen boneflower. luckily, it seemed that snowkit was the only surviving kit of milkpelt and blizzardclaw's that wasn't impaired in any way.