Shyfur

Shyfur is a gray she-cat with a black tuft and black spots under her eyes.

## Extra Story

The day I came back was as magical as... oh, the day you become an apprentice, except I don't know how that feels like.

In fact, why don't you hear my story?

As a kit, I was Nightkit. Dixieclaw, the deputy at the time, was showing me, the two moon kit, the surrounding area of the forest. She left me alone for a few seconds. She was concentrated so hard on the thrush she didn't notice until it was too late that I was gone.

I was a kit. I wanted to explore, and I found a twoleg monster, and it took me to a twoleg box.

At the time it seemed like a dream come true, easy life. I wasn't sure what a kittypet did, I just thought I'd stay for four moons, come back, and become an apprentice.

But the twolegs trapped me. I then developed depression after wasting so much of my life in a box with no sun. (Only when I was, oh, 25 moons old did I get back to MeadowClan.)

I ate about two-three meals a day. I don't know if this matters much, but you must be put into my paws. Forced to be trapped, what else could I do?

Now the escape happened! I kept the name Shyla. I don't know. It just felt right. On my way, I got lost. I had taken a wrong turn. Only then had I smelled cat. It smelled like a rogue, but something drew me to it. When I approached him, he arched his back. Then put it down. His eyes were full of fury. He looked at my ripped collar, which I remember trying and failing to take off the day before. He growled. "Ah, just a kittypet. Go back to your home and eat your kittypet slop." I looked at him and snarled, "I may have a collar, but don't call me that!" He looked at my belly and said, "You slob! I said: *Go back home and eat your kittypet slop!* Now do it before I attack, you kittypet!" The words took me aback. I wondered how far I would need to go before I could rejoin MeadowClan.

I did notice how out of shape I was compared to him. I can, indeed, run, just not as fast. *I* mean, it was still fast, just not as fast? I don’t know if I was slow or if he was extremely fast. Looking back, it was probably a mix of both. Giving into my moons as a kittypet, I backed down into the grass, scared and exposed. "Please don't hurt me, I just need to go home!" I yowled. The tom just smiled and nodded. "You sure you're even fit to sit down?" He teased. I saw the 'I'm sorry what is wrong with me' in his eyes. Then he just nodded, sorrow in his eyes. "Sorry about earlier, I should've been more careful in case you were her. My name is Applefur, and I'm looking for my sister." I was surprised, a Clan name? "M-My name is Shyla, and I just need to go home to my twolegs," I had said. I'm honestly not proud. I was just being a soft coward. I needed to go home to *Dawnstrike* and *Patchsong,* and especially *MeadowClan.* He then just chuckled. "Okay, I'll watch as you curl into their lap and beg for food." I then flicked my tail. He was right, I was planning on curling with my twoleg. I mean, Carl was nice, and I had good friends. "Just get me home."

He then got me to twolegplace. If I were to get back and they were to accept me, I realized, I needed to practice training. So I did some moves I remember apprentices practicing.

I explained to my denmate, Fluff, my idea that I needed to leave. "But Shyla!" She yowled at me. I just shook my head, wondering if we would ever meet again. So then, when the sun had rised, the next day, I met Applefur again. "Hi," he said, confusion is his gaze. For a moment I didn't speak. I just looked into his fur, and knew it was meant to be: We would go to the Clans, together. “Hello, again." He then just flicked his tail, annoyance in his gaze.

"What are you doing?" I asked. He looked at me and strained his ears. "I hear something," I strained my ears. "What?" He looked at me. "I smell a cat!" Without warning he ran, and caught up to the orange-and-black shape in the distance. Catching up, I heard the last of the conversation. "Preinakit?" The she-cat smiled. “Applekit?”

“It’s you! It’s actually you! How in StarClan did you do this? And—I’m Applefur now. I kinda figured out how to hunt and fight by myself and watching rogues fight foxes,”

"You went out as a five moon old kit like me. Don't you think that, like you, I would've given myself a warrior name? I'm Preinashade." Applefur gasped. While they were doing that, I caught a mouse! *My first prey,* I thought. Though I couldn't help remembering that I was almost 20 moons and a half now. *I've been a kittypet for almost my whole life, is leaving really worth it?* I tried to shake the thought away, but I couldn't. *Would I ever,* I wondered, and suddenly I got worried.

"We're going home," Applefur announced. Panic surged through me. "Um... Wait, where's home though?" I yelled. Preinashade looked in my emerald green eyes. "Home is where you settle, we're simply going to MeadowClan, our birthplace." Hope was all I could feel. "Wait, bring me home too! I'll explain on the way!" Puzzled, Applefur shrugged. "Tell us here," I sat down. "I was born as Nightkit to Dawnstrike and Patchsong," she began. "I was exploring just outside the entrance to camp with Dixieclaw, and I wandered away. I found twolegplace." Embarrassment about her stupidity was showing. "I... I was two moons old, a dumb, not-even-headstrong kit. I thought I could join a nest and become an apprentice four moons later."

Shyla carried on with her story, up until she met Applefur. The two siblings watched with intense interest. When Shyla was done, Preinashade gasped. "So we're both troubled cats who were lost as kits, and maybe on the way, you can tell me who Dixieclaw is,” Excitement met her gaze. "Let's do our story, from my point of view. Applefur, is that okay?" Applefur hardly noticed. His gaze was filled with love. Love for Preinashade, love for Shyla. *Wait Shyla? But that’s me!* Preinashade hopped. "Yay! Okay, so what happened is close to your story. As a kit, Applekit got lost and I went looking for him. I got lost. I spent most of days under the highledge, stealing bats from CeruleanClan." She paused. "Everyone looked for me, no one even knew how close I was! Anyway, I snuck through the underground CeruleanClan place and out the other way, and I started truly searching." Applefur still was just looking at Shyla--*wait Shyla? That’s me!--*with love. "After moons upon moons of searching and surviving, we found each other."

We decided to start just then, because the air was clear and nature was blooming. Everything was so beautiful... Me and Applefur *did* mate, it was truly meant to be. Preinashade didn't mind. We were best friends.

On the first day since we started, we came across a big cave with many dens. It had moss with stale scents. *Very* stale. They'd be gone if it weren't for the fact that it was enclosed in a trapped place. "It smells like three toms, and two she-cats." Preinashade sniffed. "Smells like a Clan, but I can't be sure." Applefur shrugged. "We should go on."

We carried on til sunset, each trying to remember the scents. We had gone through a lot that day, we were even attacked by a Clan called RyeClan of Destiny! They weren’t a real Clan. They just called themselves one. They sort of just existed. We found a small puddle. "Ah, some *water!*" We lapped it up, our thirst making us carefree.

Two and a half moons had passed since they officially started the journey and three moons had passed we had exchanged stories. I was walking slower than the others because of my greater weight... I was expecting kits! I'd heard stories from other kittypets that some twolegs took them to the vet and made it so they couldn't, and thank StarClan that it didn't happen to me! Applefur, the father, didn't know yet. "Hey, Shyla, keep up!" I couldn't believe that this loving tom was the same one who called me a slob. He *trusted* me. "Applefur, if only you knew what I was going through!" I teased. He flattened his ears and looked at my belly. "Have you, like, been stealing from the twoleg dens?" I just looked him in the eyes. Laughter filled my gaze. He flicked his ears in confusion.

A moon passed, and I was getting slower. Applefur started to suggest more and more that I ate the food. *"You still eat the kittypet food more and more--like, a lot. Almost a moon's worth in two days."* I knew it would be one or two moons until I had them, but I realized that I must be having a lot. *3, 4, or maybe even 5.* Applefur was getting more distant everyday, rage that I was "stealing food." Preinashade had no comments because she knew. It was raining one night. "Look, a twoleg barn! We can shelter!" Applefur yelled. Then he looked at me. "You should probably stay out. After all, you're too comfortable with twolegs. You vowed that you had a new life with your birthplace, yet you take their kittypet slop. You should be ashamed,"

That. Was. The last. Straw.

"No, Applefur, you don't get it! I'm expecting kits, not getting fat on a thousand bowls of kittypet food! I wanted to surprise you, but I have to tell you like this, because you don't trust me." A surprised gasp came from Preinashade. Applefur just stared. "S-sorry," he stammered. I shook my head. "No," I began, "I should be sorry. I yowled at you like you were a badger that would go away if I yowled loud enough." Applefur's gaze asked for forgiveness. "Let's just go in," He murmured.

After the twoleg barn, another moon passed. I sensed the forest, in the far distance.

But we couldn't go yet... I... I was having my kits! Preinashade got moss. While Applefur watched, Preinashade came back with a wad of moss for the kits to sit on. Two had come, but it wasn't done. A kit rolled off the moss into a patch of something... *Sage!* Seeing it... "Sagekit," I mewed.

Two more kits came, one was utterly still. "Stillborn," Applefur whispered. I felt a strange feeling, and saw a ghostly cat. "Hello, Shyla, I know what you feel like." The she-cat was russet. She faded, leaving me to find out that another one had taken a breath and died. "Blackkit, after the... the stillborn... and... and... Brookkit for the one that breathed and... died."

Applefur stared at the fourth. "Spottedkit. Look at those adorable spots." His words were filled with grief.

Lucky for us, sticks that could be useful for a nursery existed. Picking them up, they made a small den, after burying the dead kits. Shyla fought sleep, but sleep tempted her so much that she could not fight the urge.

*"Spottedkit is gone!"* the words jolted me awake. "Any ideas?" Applefur looked at me. "No, Shyla, he's... *dead."* I wanted to yowl to the sky, but I knew my mate would not lie about something so serious. "Oh... Is Sagekit ok?" I asked. Applefur shook his head. He was still very much alive, but was weak. All the traveling had most likely weakened the unborn kits, causing them to die. They also came later than they should’ve. I’m not a medicine cat, I don’t know if that made them all die—except Sagekit, of course.

We started on the journey again, carrying Sagekit. The forest seemed closer and closer, and it felt we could taste it. Scents of cats hit my tongue, and I realized that the forest was near. Nearly unfamiliar scents crowded around me.

*This is home,* I realized. I stepped into the camp, only to realize… everyone was staring at us. Like a group of talking frogs. Some of the senior warriors and elders couldn’t close their mouth in surprise.

Despite everything, we, the battered group of travelers, had made it back home. Home to mother and father, to friends. But most importantly, home to memories.

## History

### In *Shadows of a Perfect Clan*

In SOAPC, she and Preinashade and Applefur come home with Sagekit. Sagekit's name is taken away, showing Shyfur's blank emotions. Shyfur becomes deputy.

### In *The Open Trail*

TOT, like A Private Hope, is a google slides special choose-your-own-adventure. It features the life of Shyfur as she must make choices that will affect her later on.

## Family Tree

Mother: Dawnstrike

Father: Patchsong

Half-brother: White-echo

Mate: Applefur

Kits: Unnamed, Blackkit, Brookkit, Spottedkit

## Trivia

* Shyfur was going to Flamekit, then Shyla, the Shyfur, but Flamekit was changed to Nightkit.
* If you look at the most recent drawings by pokarceus on Scratch, you can see they are early drawings of Shyfur.
* She was going to get a game called, 'Shyla, Shyla.'
* Shyfur is pokarceus's favorite character.