Murkysprout

### Other Relatives

Chestnutwing (uncle), Reedpaw (uncle, dead), Brindlesky & Juniperpad (grandparents), Hopepaw (cousin, dead)

### Friends

Webpaw, Silkpaw

Murkysprout is the mushroom expert in not just OasisClan, but the Clans in general. They are a humorous and joyful warrior who is still young at heart.

## Appearance & Personality

### Appearance

Murkysprout does their best. They have a short, stocky build and a very feminine voice. They love tucking mushrooms into their long, fluffy fur, which has caused their mother several heart attacks (she has no idea which ones might be poisonous). Their pelt is a soft, dusty brown and has an elegant tortoiseshell pattern of black and darker brown. Their eyes, wide and kit-like despite their being a warrior, are a golden brown befitting their name. Murkysprout's scent is reminiscent of autumn and dead leaves.

### Personality

Murkysprout has a very optimistic outlook on life. They are friendly and a glass-half-full kind of cat. They care deeply about their Clanmates and their interests. They are philosophical and like to have deep conversations with their friends and family. Despite all of this, Murkysprout is very unpredictable. Their code is hard to follow and their train of thought is impossible to keep up with. This leads to some reckless tendencies. They can be rash in their decision-making and they are definitely a stickler for the rules. They are very scared of letting down their loved ones and they dream of raising a family of their own someday.

## Background

### Kithood

Murkykit was born the middle kit in a litter of three born to an OasisClan warrior named Milkycheek. Her littermates were her older brother Muddykit and her younger sister Mossykit. The three got along swimmingly well and the little family was quite happy. Murkykit never met her father, a loner named Leech who had left the area before Milkycheek even knew she was expecting his kits.

Not to worry, of course - the family was just fine without him. He hadn't been all that serious about his and Milkycheek's relationship in the first place, so she wasn't too worried about him. Murkykit had his eyes, though, and Mossykit looked a lot like him. Milkycheek found that bittersweet, and she loved her kits dearly regardless.

Milkycheek's kits were not the only ones in the nursery. A cat named Skyflower had three kits who were two moons older than Murkykit. Their names were Patchkit, Silverkit, and Dustkit. There was also another kit, the same age as Skyflower's, whose name was Minnowkit. Skyflower had one more kit, an adopted four-moon-old named Thistlekit.

Murkykit thought that Patchkit, Dustkit, and Minnowkit were fun, though she didn't play with them much because of Milkycheek's concern for her safety. She also thought that Silverkit wasn't very nice and tried to steer clear of him. Thistlekit was okay, but Milkycheek kept Murkykit from playing with her very much for the same reasons as the younger kits - she was bigger than Murkykit and Milkycheek didn't want her getting hurt. Murkykit didn't mind too much. After all, she had Muddykit and Mossykit to play with when she wanted to. She did hang out with the older kits when she could, she just wasn't allowed to playfight with them.

By the time she was two moons old, Thistlekit had become Thistlepaw and moved into the apprentices den. Murkykit liked going and bugging her and the other apprentices: Breezepaw, Honeypaw, Hickorypaw, and Hopepaw. They were usually willing to teach her something interesting, like the hunter's crouch or how to scent prey.

Unfortunately, a little later that moon, Dustkit snuck out of camp and was killed by an owl. Murkykit didn't really know what had happened, as the family was fairly private about the whole affair and Milkycheek specifically told her not to pry. All she knew was that Dustkit was gone and there was a different vibe in the nursery. Murkykit didn't like it.

That wasn't the only unfortunate thing that happened when Murkykit was two moons old. It was not a fun moon for her. Anyway, the plague started! How fun. It honestly didn't affect Murkykit too much, as she was a small kit and not really allowed out of the camp, much less the territory, but everyone else seemed kind of freaked out about it. One of the first cats to die in OasisClan was Breezepaw, who was almost a warrior and was given his warrior name, Breezeriver, during his funeral.

Murkykit's three moon mark passed without much commotion, which was probably for the best given the fact that a lot happened when she was four moons old. For starters, Hopepaw died. That kind of sucked. Definitely not fun times for anyone. Murkykit had thought that the apprentice was pretty cool, even if they were never very close. That was far from the only thing that happened that moon, though, as Patchkit, Silverkit, and Minnowkit moved out of the nursery and became Patchpaw, Silverpaw, and Minnowpaw. Murkykit thought their new mentors were really cool, especially Shadowstep, who was training Patchpaw, since she was the Clan deputy.

The final exciting thing that happened that moon, a little after Patchpaw and Silverpaw became apprentices, was that Skyflower had another litter of kits! How fun! She had three mollies and a tom and both she and her mate, Wheatnose, were very excited. Murkykit was very curious about them, but Milkycheek was once again overprotective and wouldn't let her go anywhere near the new kits. The kits were named Flaxkit, Webkit, Tawnykit, and Cloudkit.

Murkykit was around five moons old when she first started questioning her gender. Up until that point, she hadn't dwelled too much on the thought, but as she got closer to apprenticeship, she started to wonder if maybe she wasn't a molly. "She" just didn't feel right. After some conversation with Milkycheek, she decided to try out "they" for a while and see how that felt.

Anyway, not much else happened for the rest of their kithood. With all the older kits moved into the apprentice den and Milkycheek reminding her not to go near the younger ones, Murkykit really just had to chill with their siblings and pretend like she wasn't super impatient for apprenticeship.

### Apprenticeship

Murkypaw became an apprentice right on time. They were apprenticed to a tom named Riverburst and they did not like him very much. The other parts of apprenticeship were cool, though, like getting to leave camp. Milkycheek nearly had a heart attack when Murkypaw brought home a mushroom, incredibly enthusiastically, and told her all about how one of the warriors had taught her that it was edible.

She occasionally got to train with Muddypaw and Mossypaw, which was fun. They also got to train with Patchpaw and Silverpaw from time to time, which Murkypaw thought was pretty great, since she hadn't gotten to interact with them much when they were all kits.

Murkypaw was eight moons old when they decided to start going by they/them full time. It just felt right and it wasn't hard to get their mom and siblings to make the change. Later that same moon, Thistlepaw earned her warrior name and became Thistlespring. Murkypaw was very happy for her, even if they were a bit sad that she wouldn't be in the den anymore.

Their ninth moon passed without much incident. Murkypaw learned everything they could about mushrooms, becoming quite knowledgeable. Some of it was trial and error (usually with prey, since they *really* didn't want to end up dead), but they eventually learned. They tracked down other cats who knew something, anything about mushrooms, and talked to them. They didn't have many options due to the plague shutdown, but they did their best.

On the plus side, a cure for the plague showed up and cases started going down. The borders were still closed for about a moon afterward, but there was hope for the first time in Murkypaw's memory. They excitedly discussed this with their siblings and the three of them agreed that this was very exciting.

The next moon, when Murkypaw was 10 moons old, the borders finally reopened! Murkypaw and their siblings were allowed to attend, as were most cats in OasisClan and, indeed, most of the Clans. Murkypaw had a great time meeting the other apprentices from other Clans - Turtlepaw from FallClan, who was their age; Mosspaw, Rainpaw, Mallowpaw, & Shellpaw, also of FallClan, who were three moon younger; MarshClan apprentices Hollypaw, Lapwingpaw, Warrenpaw, & Chaffinchpaw, one moon younger; Sleepypaw from OrchidClan, one moon younger; and finally, the HorizonClan apprentices: Epiphanypaw, Grasspaw, Robinpaw, Burrowpaw, & Eyriepaw. There were also a few new warriors they got to talk to: Dovefrost of HorizonClan and Lilysmoke, Ravenflower, & Flyspark from OrchidClan. It was a great night.

In addition, Minnowpaw, Patchpaw, and Silverpaw all earned their warrior names that moon, becoming Minnowfrost, Patchpounce, and Silverclaw. Their younger siblings were apprenticed shortly afterward, becoming Tawnypaw, Flaxpaw, Cloudpaw, and Webpaw alongside Silkkit, now Silkpaw. Murkypaw tried to be friendly toward them and wasn't super successful except with Webpaw, who they ended up really clicking with. They were a bit awkward with Webpaw's siblings and Silkpaw, but they hit it off with Webpaw really easily.

   Not everything was perfect, unfortunately, because Murkypaw showed Webpaw the wonders of edible mushrooms and one time when they weren't around, Webpaw tried to eat one on his own. He was wrong, unfortunately, and was lucky that his mentor, Sheepburr, was nearby and noticed that something was wrong.

Murkypaw was very worried about their bestie when he was brought back to camp, but he did live. Murky was very happy that he lived, not least of all because they didn't want to deal with his family being mad at them. As it was, Murkypaw could continue being friends with Webpaw. They just were more careful when showing him mushrooms.

The last cool thing that happened when they were ten moons old was the HorizonClan hike. This was the first all Clan event that had happened in Murkypaw's lifetime and they had a blast. They ended up doing the hike with their mother, Mossypaw, and Muddypaw. It was very fun.

* 11 moons - Gathering announcement (was there)

## Other

### Trivia

* Murkysprout can name the 27 most common mushrooms in OasisClan's territory and knows which ones can/can't kill a cat. They can even tell you how long some of the dangerous ones take to kill a cat. Their mother is very concerned about them.