-Barleyseed-

“....Follow your heart and don’t look down...”

## **Description**

Physically, ***Barleyseed*** has a very simple build, that not too strong and not too thin. She looks to be more inward & sleek than outward & broad, her face creates a sort of rectangular-like shape and her muzzle runs shorter than the average cat’s (not by much though) due to her strange genetics. Her fur stays un-groomed in a sort of half wavy-half curly manner, occasionally, when she’s out hunting for herbs, she returns with some sort of new herb stuck/knotted into her fur (be it the occasional flower or wheat/barley/rye strand, etc). ***Barleyseed*** is a dilute calico she-cat, basically a tabby with striped patches instead of the occasional orange/ginger & black spots- she has he more ‘diluted’ touch, hence the name, her patch colors vary between a pale golden hue, and an ash colored hue, though she doesn’t have many patches along her arms/forearms, and hind legs/ankles. Her nose, paw pads, & ears appear to be a desaturated rosy pink that seems to blend with her cheery personality & her eyes are the most gorgeous shade of honey-gold that shimmers like a shining topaz under a chilly winter dawn.

### **Personality (Traits)**

#### **Positive**

* Generous
* Thoughtful
* Kind
* Optimistic
* Courageous
* Intelligent
* Precocious

#### **Neutral**

* Intensive
* Attentive
* Observant
* Independent
* Capricious
* Ingenious
* self-Conciet

#### **Negative**

* Cocky
* Judgmental
* Sly
* Snarky
* Sarcastic
* Snappy
* Piqued/Temperamental

### **Philosophies**

***Barleyseed*** was born into WindClan and of course grew up under the belief of StarClan, she’s always been a true believer in both spiritual, and sensible ways, of course she could argue that StarClan does not decide everything and the fact that the clans *need* StarClan to solve *all* their problems is **malarkey** and isn’t right, proving how helpless the clans have been as she’s learned from stories of the past- and she deeply believes that StarClan is at least *trying* to be useful, as she could understand being dead with unfinished/unfulfilled lives could be gloomy & a bit depressing, it seems they’ve *attempted* to take hold of the wheel called the future- but of course everyone should know that dead cats cannot, in fact, control the future in any way. ***Barleyseed*** believes that cats from the past trying to control living cat’s future is treason & believes that the clans don’t need dead cats telling them what to do- especially if they aren’t caught up-to-date with clan affairs/special events. Don’t get her wrong, StarClan is magical and she does believe in them- she just doesn’t seem to understand the general question of *why* they decide to intervene with the living to make them all so.... *vulnerable*? Her questions remain unanswered so it seems.

### **Opinions**

***Barleyseed’s*** opinion on the whole DeathClan situation is apart of her own personal biases that she keeps to herself to reduce misinterpreted information from spreading among her clanmates, spreading useless gossip on what the spiritual- all seeing- dream walking- medicine cat thinks. She thinks that they’re rogues who were misunderstood and decided to riot against the clans because the clans do not accept non-clan blood ancestry, of course a sort of form of ‘racism’ if you will. ***Barleyseed*** thinks that these rogues just want a home- a home that they deserve, and a purpose- as all cats want a reason to thrive. Of course she believes that attacking the clans in a more violent way would not be ideal for trying to get the clan’s approval- and therefor her theory seems to remain just an idea. Otherwise, she sees them as a bit jealous or at least having something to do with the purpose of acceptance, jealousy, & destruction. There’s also the possibility they could just be another BloodClan consisting of fools who think they can 1 v 4 the clans again. What a bunch of losers.

### **Goals**

Of course what makes a good character is what they want to accomplish or work up to achieving in their lives, ***Barleyseed*** is working to slowly develop peace and prosperity for all four clans- starting with her own clan, this will be hard and will take a long time since DeathClan and Leafbare makes everyone hostile, but she knows with just enough luck and work she can at least save her clan from destruction. How she’ll do this? Is currently a secret of her keeping.

***Barleyseed*** also wants to prove that the clans don’t necessarily need StarClan to thrive and survive- and wants to try and at least explain her reasoning on this- yes, this seems like the last think she’ll do without being falsely claimed in being a nonbeliever of StarClan, and yes, StarClan might get angry with her- but what are they gonna do? How can they smite her from up in the clouds? It’s not the fact that she knows that they can- it’s the fact that she knows that if they do, she’d reek havoc in the spiritual plain and rant on and try to change things- so do they really have a choice in this situation? Didn’t think so. Heh, take that *StarClan*.

## **Story / Timeline**

### **Kithood**

As a kitten, ***Barleykit*** would often sneak away from the nursery when under-aged and easy prey to observe flowers that would scatter the camp during newleaf & greenleaf. She’d dance to the morning birdsong and inspect the clan every single day of her kithood. ***Barleykit*** would often be wry and afraid of leaving camp- let alone first leaving the nursery as well, as she was very introverted and therefor seemingly an influenced introvert as a kitten. As a kit, ***Barleykit*** grew up as an only child- her 2 other siblings unbeknownst to have been stillborn to her (which devastated her mother, *Swallowchaser*, causing the she-cat to be a bit hesitant & overprotective of her only living kitten) as they’d been born during a season of sickness & starvation for the clans (or WindClan specifically), ***Barleykit*** was weak at birth and struggled for her first moons as her mother did her best to desperately keep her last kitten alive. During the stages of the breastfeeding period, that is when ***Barleykit’s*** father, *Farleap*, has been stated dead (unbeknownst to ***Barleykit*** as she’s typically a week from being born-) and his body was found after a ShadowClan ambush along the borderline. (This was during a strangely prey-less season, causing ShadowClan to forcibly expand in order to find food for their shriveling clan, this also left a dent into Swallowchaser’ mental state.)

### **Apprenticeship**

Before she was elected as the medicine cat apprentice, ***Barleykit*** been singled out as her own separate sign by *Quickthistle* (the medicine cat at the time), as she’d been so weak as a kit and it was a miracle for her to have lived- along with the fact that he has his secrets and visions of past, present, & future... she was chosen by *Quickthistle* and accepted the position as a higher role. (Though she didn’t have a clue what she got herself into- she was mostly doing it for her sick mother at the time of her coming-of-age apprenticeship ceremony, and thought that she could help & that her mother would be proud, she was told of her siblings & father after she was apprenticed and seemed to wonder how she could feel grief for cats she’d never known or considered before....) At 6 moons, ***Barleykit*** was deemed ***Barleypaw***, and apprenticed to *Quickthistle*. The tom was very strict on her and seemed to be considered ‘evil’ when assigning her over night homework of sorting every herb/ him messing the herbs up occasionally to test her knowledge *and* sending her out alone to find certain herbs on her own (of which she’d always return successful ofc). In the end, she ended up learning the ways of discipline along with satisfaction and effort. She’d shown great gratitude to her mentor after he had explained why she’d been trained so sharply and the over all idea of what she was to learn, as he’d succeeded on passing on the message. In her free time, ***Barleypaw*** would still dance to seasonal birdsong- though in more of a private manner, when she was finished of her partial hunting & fighting training (as medicine cats need this for self-defense) and seemed to be left alone- especially when she was on her midnight walks to collect herbs as well. This session of observing the Medicine Cat code & learning more about StarClan & the history of the clans, started to turn her mindset. After hearing of the desperate ways to find a new territory (series 2 of *Warriors*), ***Barleypaw*** saw the uselessness of StarClan to be lame- and the clans trying to ask their gods and the stars for moons sake for help as if they didn’t have four legs and didn’t know how to walk like a kit and it’s mother- she seemed to shift her mindset about StarClan. And even in her dream visions from StarClan, she seemed cheerful as ever, but she seemed to observe the StarClan vision/cat and judged each and every one of them. Of course ***Barleypaw*** had her crushes (and yes, she knew the medicine cats code, but since she as a teenager at this time wanted to feel special, seemed to try and figure out a relationship because even though she couldn’t, she really wanted someone to love and be there for her.) and teenage angst & yearning for recognition & popularity (which she’d never gotten), which she then seemed to lose over moons, she’d also seemed to become less of an introvert during her apprenticeship. Aside from training and personal hobbies, during her apprenticeship- ***Barleypaw’s*** mother had died of a nasty cough that had infested the clan, this lead to an inactive and depressive state in her mentality and slowed her training, even if *Quickthistle* tried to urge her on, she wouldn’t budge from pain, grief, and despair. How she healed? She seemed to be inspired by something- or *someone*.... ***Barleypaw*** ended up finishing her assignments per normally (even though she had 4 different topics-) and grew quite close to her mentor believe it or not, *Quickthistle* had become one of the closest cats to ***Barleypaw*** at the time of her final assessment & Naming Ceremony.

### **Medicine Cat Life**

At her ceremony, (after being named by *Quickthistle*) ***Barleyseed*** had a different dream than usual at the Moonstone. This time- after all this time, ***Barleyseed’s*** (later) apprenticeship wish came true... there stood before her the character of *Swallowchaser*, and that was enough. ***Barleyseed*** didn’t need to meet her dead siblings- or her father. Heck- she didn’t even ask to meet them, all she wanted was a chance to see her mother again and live knowing she’s at peace in the stars. When she returned home that night, she seemed to feel aged and seemed proud looking back at her last and then her future moons to come. ***Barleyseed*** had never felt so complete & successful, and it was all thanks to *Quickthistle* & her dramatic past, that had shaped her future... It was painful to watch *Quickthistle* die. The tom had died of food poisoning that seemed to come from a misfortunate event in which he’d picked up a rotting finch unbeknownst to be rotten (as he’d slowly lost his sight as he aged) and finished the whole thing. The tom was found dead in his sleep after throwing up all day, and ***Barleyseed*** did all that she could to help, but any herb that she’d feed him- he’d throw it up every 30 minutes to an hour. ***Barleyseed*** had to send him a final good bye the following morning (long before the sun rose, she’d woken to the scent of death following her mentor’s pelt). Ever since, she’s been fighting the difficult stages of depression & grief all over again...

## **Kin**

### **Lineage**

**Mother**: *Swallowchaser*

**Father**: *Farleap*

**Siblings**: *Unnamed She-Kit, Unnamed Tomkit*

### **Relationships**

##### Family

###### **Swallowchaser**

To ***Barleyseed***, *Swallowchaser* made her the cat she was today. *Swallowchaser* was a great mother to the medicine cat and a cat who she will forever cherish dearly, every moment of ***Barleyseed’s*** existence, she can sense that her mother will be right with her for every step of the road until the end, and Barleyseed seems not to fear death because of this reason.

###### **Quickthistle**

*Quickthistle* was more than just ***Barleyseed’s*** mentor- he seemed to be an acting father that pushed her buttons and shoved her to her limits, he’s cheered her on through it all and even if he’d given her tough love during the days, at night, he seemed to take the time to get to know her and develop a relationship to where he cared for her. Perhaps he was just trying to cheer her up from her mother’s death? Though this relationship doesn’t seem accidental to ***Barleyseed***, ever since his death, she seemed to act different compared to her normal self (being cheerful, kind, & expressive). Quickthistle was also one of the many who encouraged her to keep moving (he quite possibly encouraged her the most of them all).