Peonyshine

**"Then by the powers of StarClan I give you your true name as a medicine cat. Peonypaw, from this moment you will be known as Peonyshine. StarClan honors your bravery and compassion, and we welcome you as a full medicine cat of ShadowClan."** *Doedawn to Peonyshine, Moonpool*

## Aliases

### Names:

Peonyshine (medicine cat), Peonypaw (warrior/medicine cat apprentice), Peonykit (kit)

## Kin

### Parents:

Waspstar (father), Acornstrike (mother), Dustyflower (adopted mother)

### Kits:

Ferretfeather (adopted), Ekflight (adopted),Raggedrose (adopted)

Peonyshine is a small, fluffy cat with pretty fragile emotions. As a medicine cat, she has seen some things that have greatly upset her, so she has become more sassy and sarcastic towards her job. She's constantly tired,  and it doesn't have to be said, but Peonyshine has lost a little of the heart she had when first becoming an apprentice. She still can be happy, but her heart is very fragile thing and she can break down into immense anger if even small things happen against her now.

Regarding her family, Peonyshine clings to them to keep herself grounded when something bad happens.  Maplestar is pretty much her best friend at this point. They spend lots of time together talking and overall bonding as siblings, and she knows that she can always go to him if she is having trouble or needs someone to talk to. Regarding her other brother, Owltalon, she doesn't know how to feel about him. He left, so that's that.

Regarding her clan, she thinks that Shadowclan is full of idiots. She loves them still, but sometimes it seems like cats don't care about their well-being, and gets very frustrated when they don't listen to her. Honestly, sometimes she thinks that being born in literally any other clan would be better than Shadowclan.

## Biography (BIG FAT WIP)

#### **Kithood**

Peonykit was born into a litter of three with her brothers Maplekit and Owlkit. Acornstrike was the loving mother of the three kits, and was very emotionally and physically there for them in their childhood. Wasptooth, Shadowclan’s deputy and the father, was not however, never coming to visit the kits in the nursery. Peonykit wouldn’t really worry about it for a while, for she had her mother, and that was all she thought she needed at the time.

Peonykit was a very active and talkative kit, normally talking up a storm with her mother, brothers, and whoever else she had the chance to encounter. She normally got into tussles with her brothers, claiming she was going to be leader of Shadowclan one day. Owlkit seemed to disagree, for he thought he would be better suited, but Maplekit let her dream. He wanted to become a medicine cat, after all.

Around the three moons range was when Peonykit met Sparrowkit, a deaf cat she would soon become pretty good friends with. The two of them would play around and talk without talking often, finding it somewhat easy to communicate with each other.

One day in the nursery, Peonykit was talking with Acornstrike about clan life, more specifically, Starclan. Her starry ancestors always seemed to interest the young cat, though she didn’t realize it until her mother pointed it out. The suggestion of becoming a medicine cat came up from Acornstrike, and that made Peonykit think. If she was a medicine cat, she could learn all about the stars! That’d be cool! Plus, she’d still be as important as leader. Maybe she could let Owlkit handle that one.

So, she waddled over to the medicine den in search of Doedawn, wanting to talk out how to become a medicine cat and what it meant to be one. She expressed her newfound interest in the craft, and the older cat seemed hesitant in letting her become one, but said she would speak to Hollowstar and Boulderdusk about it. Peonykit went back to the nursery, expecting her wishes to be fulfilled and not really thinking about the fact that Doedawn didn’t say a definitive yes or no. She also seemed to forget that Maplekit and Mistlekit, another kit she had met in the nursery, wanted to be medicine cats also.

#### **Time as a Warrior Apprentice**

The time to become an apprentice had arrived. Peonykit bounced from the nursery with her kin, Mistlekit, and Sparrowkit, excited to get her medicine cat apprentice name and go chasing after the knowledge of herbs and the stars above her. Much to her disappointment however, that did not happen. That didn’t happen for any of the kits, actually. All of the kits in the nursery got assigned warrior mentors, with Mouselight being Peonypaw’s. It was hard to hide her disappointment, but Peonypaw decided she would try to do her best as a warrior like she was planning from the beginning before Acornstrike had given her the idea of changing paths.

Soon after the apprentice ceremony however, Mistlepaw disappeared, going to the soft life of a kittypet. This caught Peonypaw off-guard, and unlike most of the clan, she mourned for the loss of her friend. Though she soon met another apprentice, Hollypaw, who worked to get her spirits up a little and played with her in the clearing between training sessions.

Around this time was when Peonypaw found herself struggling to keep her spirits up during training. Mouselight noticed her dampened spirits and asked what was wrong, to which Peonypaw admitted that she was having a hard time getting over Mistlepaw’s disappearance, and was still sort of hung up on wanting to be a medicine cat. She didn’t really know why she felt like she was being pulled to the path, but she did. She was scared to tell her mentor, fearfully expecting to make her feel bad, but Mouselight took it surprisingly well and offered to talk to Doedawn for Peonypaw and express her own opinions on the matter.

After this, she began talking to a particular tom by the name of Darkpaw. Darkpaw was nice to Peonypaw, becoming very friendly with her very quickly. Not seeing anything wrong with how quickly they became friends, for nothing creepy was going on with it, Peonypaw found joy in their relationship. She confided in Darkpaw with her feelings and was happy to spend time with him.

One day, Acornstrike approached Peonypaw with an idea. Since they hadn’t gotten to spend much time together because of Peonypaw’s training, how about they explore for a little bit? Mouselight surely wouldn’t mind, and plus, Acornstrike had found this old tunnel in the territory that she wanted to check out. Eager to spend more time with her mother, Peonypaw happily accepted. The two left camp and found the tunnel, beginning to walk down it and through it. Peonypaw started to feel a little… unsettled about the whole thing, feeling like something bad was about to happen, but she didn’t say anything. Soon enough, something bad did happen. A cave-in occurred and crushed Acornstrike in front of the apprentice, which sent her running back to camp for help despite all the dirt and cuts on her body from being that near it.

After bringing help, Acornstrike was not found, and Peonypaw was ushered away from the scene, for her emotions were getting the better of her. Her father didn’t want to see her. This didn’t change for a while, making Peonypaw start to doubt her father’s love towards her and her siblings. She would carry this for a long, long time.

Dustyflower, a warrior much like Acornstrike in terms of motherly love, noticed how Peonypaw and her siblings were huring from the loss. She decided to step in and become a sort of adoptive mother for them, mostly Maplepaw and Peonypaw. Owlpaw wanted nothing to do with anyone at this moment in time. Some might say that this is where Peonyshine picked up her motherly instincts and need to adopt every apprentice that she ever trained.

#### **Time as a Medicine Cat Apprentice**

Almost immediately after Acornstrike’s death, Doedawn approached Peonypaw and told her that she was ready to take on an apprentice, and that she would like Peonypaw. So, without a ceremony and after telling Mouselight, Peonypaw began training as a medicine cat under Doedawn. Boulderdusk was currently on the journey, so he wouldn’t come to mentor her until later on.

Becoming a medicine cat apprentice did help brighten Peonypaw’s spirits a little, but she was still greatly hurt by the death of Acornstrike and the hate-filled glares she got from Owlpaw any time that they even looked to at each other. Why was he so upset with her? She confided in Darkpaw about all of these feelings of doubt and insecurity, and he vowed to always be there for her, no matter what.

One day, Peonypaw got tired of seeing one of her two brothers glaring at her all the time. She approached Owlpaw to ask him what his deal was, but she was met with him blaming her for their mother’s untimely death, and saying that she was a horrible cat, no less a healer. Being yelled at by Owlpaw was not something Peonypaw was prepared to handle in the slightest. Was it her fault? Was she really the one that killed their mother? After his biting words, the young she-cat would begin to think about this more and more, causing stress to begin to build up. She didn’t tell anyone though, for she thought she would be seen as a bother if she did. She kept up a happy façade, facing these trials alone.

During this hard time in her life, Peonypaw began to spend more and more time with Darkpaw. Well, more like he was putting himself near her more and more. He would talk to her constantly, which wasn’t an issue in her book, but she began to notice little things in his tone and demeanor when he was around her. She got a bad gut feeling, but decided to ignore it. It wasn’t as if he was hurting her, right?

Darkpaw came up to Peonypaw one day with what he claimed was horrible news. Peonypaw was interested in what he had to say, expecting to hear about an injury in camp or something of the like, but she was met with the story that Sparrowpaw had been talking behind her back, saying rude things about her to her peers, specifically Dustyflower and Maplepaw, and generally being nasty in his language. He also told her that her family agreed with what Sparrowpaw was saying about her, and that they hated her. Peonypaw was reasonably upset, and Darkpaw once again made it clear that he was always there for her and that he would never talk behind her back. He was he best friend, after all. He also offered to talk to Sparrowpaw for Peonypaw. Little did the calico apprentice know, Darkpaw was jealous of her and Sparrowpaw’s friendship, and was planning on doing something particularly… bad to the younger tom.

After the whole Sparrowpaw situation, Peonypaw finally mustered enough courage to confront Maplepaw and Dustyflower about what she was told they were told. The two of them had no clue what she was talking about, and it was quickly revealed that Sparrowpaw never spoke behind Peonypaw’s back, and he never disliked her. Peonypaw was confused. She thought Darkpaw wouldn’t lie to her like that, so she just assumed the best that he must have misheard something that the deaf apprentice had said once and assumed the worse. She thought that Darkpaw was looking out for her and nothing more, so surely he wouldn’t intentionally lie to her like that.

Peonypaw, Maplepaw, and Dustyflower then entered the apprentice den to go to Maplepaw’s nest, and came across Darkpaw’s. It was littered with peony flowers and bits of Peonypaw’s fur that had floated loosely across the camp with the wind. All three were freaked out, mostly Peonypaw, who found herself starting to feel horribly sick. Maplepaw assumed that it was Peonypaw’s nest at first, but she confirmed it wasn’t, and that it had the scent of Darkpaw all over it. Dustyflower went into full mom mode, and ushered the two into the medicine den, where she would sleep in the same nest as them and keep watch out for the black apprentice that she saw as a threat to her adopted children.

Nothing happened for a few days, but then, Sparrowpaw choked and died on a piece of prey, leaving Peonypaw devastated. Darkpaw was confused as to why Peonypaw was so upset considering he had told her that the other had been spreading rumors about her around, but he didn’t ask.

He instead asked Peonypaw to go out on a walk with him. For some background, apprentices were not allowed out of camp alone at this time, for Dawnstrike might still have been lurking around waiting to hurt Shadowclan. Peonypaw at first denied going with him, knowing that she would get in trouble, but eventually caved and went with him. She let her boundaries be known quickly.

As they walked into the territory, Darkpaw began spewing nonsense about how he loved Peonypaw and would do anything for her. He told the medicine cat apprentice straight to her face that he wanted to kill her friends and family just to keep her safe because all they did was hurt her and he didn’t want her to be hurt. He specifically wanted to kill Owlpaw for upsetting Peonypaw early on.

Peonypaw was going to go back to camp after hearing all of this, feeling greatly unsafe, but she instead got sprayed by a skunk right in the face. She ran home coughing up a storm and smelling horrid. Walking into camp, she felt like a total failure, having completely disobeyed the orders set by Hollowstar and getting punished for it by getting sprayed. Everything started to crash down for her during this moment and she spilled all the beans about Darkpaw and everything to Doedawn.

Doedawn quickly notified Hollowstar and it was made clear that Darkpaw would be exiled. The next meeting, he was exiled. He swore that he would find Peonypaw someday, and that he wouldn’t give up until she loved him. She ignored it and focused on the ceremony for her two brothers who got their warrior names: Owltalon and Maplethroat.

For a few moons, everything was quiet. Peonypaw was still cautious around the borders in fear of Darkpaw coming back, but overall, things were good. One night after a gathering though, Peonypaw broke away from the gathering patrol to go and find some catmint for the upcoming season. She saw Mistlepaw on a twoleg fence, and offered to bring her home. The ashy grey molly said yes, and Peonypaw proudly brought her home, ready to show her off to the clan and be praised for bringing her back safe. It was as they were walking back that Peonypaw noticed some.. strange feelings begin to creep up concerning Mistlepaw. Her cheeks burned and her face flushed. Weird.

Before she knew it, it was time. Her apprenticeship had gone so fast and a lot of… eventful stuff went down, but it was time to get her full name. She went with Doedawn to the moonpool for the halfmoon meeting and was greeted with her new name: Peonyshine. The name was fitting, she thought. It sounded wonderful. She would never forget how it sounded coming out Blackmoor’s mouth though. She never felt quite right about that tom..