Starlingfern

**Starlingfern** is a fluffy black she-cat with a white dash on her chest and vivid green eyes.

## History

She is born to Dawnlight and Splashbreeze, along with her brothers Silverkit and Ripplekit. She is the smallest of her siblings, and often feels a bit intimidated by this. Though she has her heart set on being a warrior, Thrushhawk, the medicine cat of RiverClan, has a vision of a starling being in the medicine cat den. Thus, she becomes his apprentice, learning the way of medicine.
In her apprenticeship, she becomes very infatuated with another RiverClan apprentice, Rushpaw. What started as infatuated quickly lead into a romance, as they would sneak out at night and run around the river together when their Clanmates weren't looking. She earns her full medicine cat name, Starlingfern, just as he earns his warrior name, Rushfire.
After becoming full members of their Clan, Starlingfern realizes how much responsibility she has, especially once Thrushhawk passes away. She reluctantly forces herself to cut things off with Rushfire, who is beyond hurt. Both storm away from each other after it erupts into a fight, and Starlingfern finds it hard to interact with him for moons.
When Otterheart's stray kit, Echokit wants to become a medicine cat, Starlingfern is eager to get her first apprentice. Dapplestar, however, rejects the idea immediately, saying that non-Clan cats have no right to follow the path of medicine. When Otterheart blurts out that Echokit is his kit and that she was conceived as a kittypet, Dapplestar nearly kills him in a fit of rage. Terrified, but determined, Starlingfern continues to badger Dapplestar, until she finally agrees to give Echokit to her as an apprentice.
She starts to notice her apprentice taking a liking to a ShadowClan apprentice, Wolfpaw. Suspicious, she quietly reminds Echopaw to keep her friendships in other Clans civil and platonic. Though Echopaw assures that they're just friendly at gatherings, Starlingfern remains suspicious. When a disease breaks out in RiverClan that Starlingfern struggles to cure, she gives Echopaw her full name when she manages to create a cure.
As Echoblossom becomes more exhausted and distracted from her duties, Starlingfern becomes suspicious that her friendship with the ShadowClan warrior has become more. After some prodding, Echoblossom admits she'd been meeting up with Wolfshadow at night. Starlingfern, while upset, doesn't appear angry, and confides in Echoblossom that she had a crush as an apprentice as well. Just as Echoblossom is about to ask who it is, Starlingfern cuts her off, saying it never went anywhere so it didn't matter, and that Echoblossom's crush on Wolfshadow should be treated the same way.
After their spat, Echoblossom vanishes for a few days, and even misses a half-moon meeting. At the meeting, Starlingfern prays to StarClan to help her find her apprentice, and she is told to seek where Echoblossom's heart began. Realizing that meant that she'd gone to the twolegplace, Starlingfern immediately runs over, and finds Echoblossom and Wolfshadow after a few hours of looking.
Once caught, Echoblossom immediately launches into a flurry of excuses. Starlingfern snaps at Echoblossom to be quiet and listen to her, saying that Echoblossom chose to be a medicine cat after fighting with her leader, and that she can't throw that away to be a loner surrounded by twolegs. Wolfshadow tries to defend Echoblossom, but Starlingfern pointedly reminds her that she also had her own obligations in ShadowClan that she's neglected. After a back and forth argument, Starlingfern manages to convince the two to return to the Clans.
Taking Echoblossom home, Starlingfern is immediately confronted by both Dapplestar and Otterheart. In the few days that Echoblossom was away, Otterheart had made his way back to RiverClan and begged Dapplestar for forgiveness and she accepted him back reluctantly. Starlingfern urges Echoblossom to tell the truth about where she's been after being questioned, and Echoblossom does so, detailing her love affair with Wolfshadow to her leader. Dapplestar becomes enraged, appalled that Echoblossom would stoop so low, and cruelly proclaims that those born into a broken code will continue to break the code. Turning to Otterheart, she yells that she's revoking her forgiveness, and that she was betrayed by code breakers. Determined to make Echoblossom suffer, she slices Otterheart's throat, instantly killing him.
Starlingfern and Echoblossom are in a state of shock, and as Starlingfern runs over to try and save Otterheart, Dapplestar launches at her, pinning her down and scowling that she was a traitor for not telling the truth about Echoblossom's affair when she found out. Dapplestar kills Starlingfern as well, and snarls to Echoblossom that she has no idea what Dapplestar will do to her.
She wakes up in StarClan, and immediately jumps up and cries out for her apprentice, but her former mentor pushes her back down. With sorrowful eyes, Thrushhawk admits to Starlingfern that he always assumed his omen would save RiverClan, and he curses himself for leading to war. Distraught and confused, Starlingfern tries to understand what he means, but he brushes that aside and comforts his former apprentice, introducing her to the rest of StarClan.
## Personality

Starlingfern is a very quiet cat, often minding her own business usually and she is extremely closed off from her Clan. She takes awhile to open up, but once she does, she cherishes those close to her immensely. While she's often calm and quiet, she also knows when to not take any smack, and will enforce what she believes is right.
## Trivia

These are trivia facts about the character revealed by the roleplayer.

### Roleplayer statements

* Thrushhawk's omen of her being the medicine cat was to allude to her involvement in Dapplestar's tyranny. However, instead of preventing the RiverClan-ShadowClan war, Starlingfern encouraged Echoblossom to tell the truth, leading to both her death and the war.
* She blames herself for her own death and for Echoblossom's suffering since she forced Echoblossom to breakup with Wolfshadow and tell Dapplestar about her affair.
* Her feelings for Rushfire have since faded, as has his.

## Family

**Mother:**
Dawnlight - Deceased
**Father:**
Splashbreeze - Deceased
**Brothers:**
Silvershade - Deceased
Rippleleap - Deceased