Brownfeather

Brownfeather is a tiny, long-furred, and fluffy dark brown she-cat with black legs, striped tail, tail tip, and head. She has yellow eyes.

## Personality

Brownfeather is angry and hurt. She's quiet and tends to keep to herself, but she's not shy or reserved in the least. While she's a cat of few words - especially around cats she doesn't know too well - she has a short temper that will cause her to snap and lash out if she gets angry - which, incidentally, happens a lot. She lives an emotional life and gets flustered easily, and also develops crushes on nearly every person she passes by, causing her to be broken-hearted often. She'd be able to hold a grudge for the rest of her life - rest assured, she is - and never forgives a trespass. Brownfeather gets attached to physical things easily, and hates to part from them. Pretty things are her kryptonite, as she will want to salvage them and keep them to herself, never letting anyone else touch them. She's built up walls around herself and does her best to make it hard for others to get close to her, but usually fails. If someone gives her something that she deems pretty, for example, then they're instantly closer to her. Brownfeather is cold and harsh, but once a cat gets close to her she proves to be a soft and a bit loving - not necessarily in a romantic way, though, as she is more than happy to spend days lazing around with friends for no other reason than she thought they needed the support. Despite her age, she has been through things that most older cats haven't and is is determined not to let it effect her, even though it clearly has. There are times when she wonders if she's gotten traumatized by her past experiences, but she throws those worries to the wayside and continues working on her own goals. She often can't stand to be touched, and will only allow for a few cats to do so (and that's only when they grow suitably close to her) but she hates this quality and tries to fight it. However, to bypass this trait of hers, all one needs to do is ask and get her approval before hand. She tries her best to hide as much of her old self as possible (teasing, reckless, slightly mean sister that terrorized her brother, curious), and while she usually succeeds there are times when old parts of her slip out. When she gets angry she can become reckless, when she gets close to another she can become teasing and slip back into her sisterly persona. During these times, she will hide away from the person who saw that side of her for the rest of the day; or moon, it depends. One thing that she's not ashamed of, or bothers to change, is how curious she is. While she won't ask questions, she's willing to put herself in danger to find something out, and doesn't care much about the consequences she might receive afterwards.

## History

Born to a litter of two to a she-cat named Soil and originally named Ground, her brother had been named Mulch. The family of three had fun, even if Soil seemed slightly sad. Once happy and joyful, Ground enjoyed her time with her brother and mother, and never even bothered to question why her family didn't even have a father, because it didn't matter; whey would it? They had so much fun and were so happy with out one! Things got worse when Mulch died, becoming a fox's meal when him and Ground decided to wander out of their family's den. That was when Soil got... worse. It was a time that Ground doesn't like to remember, but it resulted in Soil leaving when she was four moons old. Learning her own improvised way of hunting and fighting, because she couldn't and wouldn't allow herself to go back to her mother, she eventually found herself wandering nearby to WaveClan territory without knowing it.

## Long Posts

### thing considers not being thing

Thing laid in her nest in the medicine den, curled into a loose ball. Her paws idly played with the material of her nest, sinking her claws into it and tugging at it. She barely even realized that she was ruining her sleeping place. Her mind was too full of varying thoughts, her tail tip twitching endlessly as they swirled through her head. Ever since her and Bluesky had talked, and she'd been called nice for the first time in her life, she wondered about what it would be like to stay in WaveClan.

Her mother had told her something, back when she was still called Ground and when she fell asleep pressed against her brother's soft fur every night. Even though she was no longer called Ground, and she didn't have the luxury of sleeping next to her brother - or even in the same den as her mother - she never forgot what she had said. *There are cats out there, you two, as mean as fox cornered at dusk, and dogs as sweet as clover honey.*

At the time, she had thought that the words were mouse-brained and made no sense. Now, she wasn't sure what to think about them.

Obviously, she couldn't join WaveClan. one side of her was saying. She thought of how the Clan treated outsiders, and how she'd been attacked when she had first stepped onto their territory - in fact, she was sure that most WaveClan cats didn't like her, avoiding her like the plague even as she kept to herself in the corner, or pretended she wasn't there. Maybe she just blended in, she thought, but that wasn't likely.

Obviously, you can, the other side told her. She thought of Driftpaw's ceremony when he first joined the Clan, and thought of Pinefern's daughter, Snowy - but they had been cats in need of help, and were welcomed because of that. Then again, WaveClan had blind warriors and apprentices now, and if that wasn't inclusion Thing didn't know what was, but she also didn't see a reason why WaveClan would let her join them.

Then, of course, there was the problem of the ranking system. Thing didn't like it, she hated the idea of being under the authority of another cat, but the cats here seemed to deal with it easily. Of course, she could see the merit in doing chores such as taking care of older and younger members of the Clan, but she hated the idea of being at some other cat's beck and call. There was always the issue of if it was really like that, since it seemed to be more a system of respect more than anything else, and since she had started staying in the Clan's camp she had gotten more used to it, but it was still a strange concept to her. She supposed if she was going to stay here that she'd rather deal with that than having to be all alone again, especially if there were cats like Pinefern at the top of the chain of command.

The thought of Pinefern brought on another thought - she didn't know most of the Clan. She knew Pinefern and Leopardthorn and Larkkit and Bluesky, and she'd met Juniperfrost and Snowy and Cliffrunner and Jaggedstar and Pebblenose and Streamshadow (even if the last time she'd talked to her had been when she first came to WaveClan, when she was still Stream*paw*), but other than that she was a stranger here. Did she even want to be surrounded by so many cats? She was sure that she could barely stand sleeping in the apprentice's den, let alone the warrior's den, but if she was going to be honest with herself, she was lonely. She didn't want to wander around anymore, hoping that the next cat she met wouldn't decide to try and claw her face off. She, herself, didn't like the idea of hurting another cat, even if she could act like she did, and she didn't even know how to fight in the first place. Did she even want to get close to cats, again, after what had happened with her mother and Mulch?

The thought of her brother made her feel a pang of grief as she pictured his green eyes and tabby pelt, and for a moment, she could hear his voice in her head - *I like it when you're happy, Ground!* She shook the thought from her head. Mulch was dead now - dead because of her, her mother would argue, and Thing couldn't find the effort to debate that at the moment - and what he would have thought didn't matter. At least, that was what she told herself.

She liked the idea of a new name that wasn't Ground or Thing, and she liked the idea of staying close to Pinefern and all the other cats she'd met in WaveClan, even if she was worried about what could happen later on. She liked the idea of having friends again, even if she couldn't really have a family anymore, even if she wasn't sure if a cat would want to be friends with her of all cats. She liked the idea, despite the risks that she wanted to avoid so badly.

In a way, Thing thought, the group was like the dogs her mother had told her about. There were parts of it that she didn't like, but so much more that she did.

And maybe, just maybe, WaveClan was one of the sweet ones.

### brown suffers, as it should be

Brownfeather dreamed of a hollowed-out tree in the middle of a redwood forest.

Brownfeather dreamed of a kit that used to look up at the trees that towered far above her head.

Brownfeather dreamed of a gory death she didn’t want to see and not being able to defend herself from someone she shouldn’t have had to defend herself from.

Brownfeather dreamed of being chased and beaten by cats that she had thought were her friends.

Mulch laid in front of her, his lifeless yellow eyes staring at her.  Blood coated his fur, and even though she was bigger than him now (albeit, not as big as she thought she would be when he had died), she felt smaller than she ever had.  He didn’t move or make a noise or even stand up - he just laid there, still as the cliffs, and it scared her more than anything.

Soil stood in front of her, a snarl on her face and blood on her claws.  Just looking at her, Brownfeather could hear her voice in her ears - calling her by a name she had thrown to the side, calling her nothing more than a burden, saying she should be the one who had been killed instead of Mulch.

For a moment, she was no longer a warrior of WaveClan - she wasn’t Pinefern’s daughter, she wasn’t friends with Shademask and Larkwing and Rainbriar, and she didn’t have the name Brownfeather.  She was Ground again, cowering and terrified and with anger bubbling just below the surface, building and building until she finally snapped.

Then she did snap, but she wasn’t there for it to happen.  She was with Soil one moment, and the next she wasn’t, but she knew it had happened all the same.

Flake and Flame chased her through the redwood forest, their claws and fangs digging into her and threatening to rip her apart.  A sudden weight dropped on her, a weight her paws couldn’t support, and she dropped to the ground like she was a rock. Paws pinned her down by her shoulders, teeth dug into her tail, and she couldn’t see herself escaping - a nameless cat, dying because some others had decided it would be better for them that way.

She woke with a start, her yellow eyes snapping open and instantly going wide and her head shooting up from where it had been resting on her paws.  She could feel her heart pounding against her ribs, as if it was trying to break free - *thump-thump, thump-thump, thump-thump*.  Her flanks heaved with every breath, feeling as if she had just run through the entire territory even though she had stayed in her nest all night.  For the first time since she found WaveClan, since she left Soil, since Mulch died, she didn’t wanted to not be alone - she wanted to curl up next to someone, as if they would protect her from her bad dream.

If Pinefern was there, then she would go to her, but when she turned her head to search for her mother and couldn’t find her anywhere.  Maybe she was out on a patrol, or organizing one, or something else in her list of duties as deputy. Instead, her mind jumped to another cat - Shademask.

She turned her head to look at the tom, blinking at him as he slept in his own nest.  The thought of sleeping in the same nest as him made butterflies flutter their fragile wings in her belly, made her ears and face go warm under her fur, but she wasn’t against it.  It wouldn’t hurt to try, she supposed. She got to her paws, carefully making her way towards him and stopping next to his nest. She lifted a paw, shaking him awake by his shoulder.

### brown realizes she caught Feelings for shade

Brownfeather padded into camp, a few fish in her jaws that she dropped off at the fresh-kill pile before she headed back to the entrance, picking up the gull she had caught. She struggled to carry the large bird back to the prey pile, lashing her fluffy tail behind her with annoyance as she let it fall gracelessly ontop of all the other prey. She looked down at herself, dipping her head to tug out a feather that had gotten tangled in her chest fur before she moved towards a corner of camp, settling down and setting to work grooming her fluffy pelt.

The tiny she-cat glanced up at the warrior's den, her nose twitching as she watched for if Shademask would appear there. Her yellow eyes narrowed at the thought - why did she care so much? Sure, she had a crush on him, and maybe sleeping in the same nest as him had been enjoyable, but that didn't mean she had to be constantly looking for him. That, combined with the constant warm and pleasant feelings she got while she was around him and talking with him (or just thinking about him) were starting to get annoying. She had expected her feelings to disappear by now; usually, cats she had crushes on would either find another cat to be with or the feelings would just dissipate over time, but neither of which had happened with Shademask. If anything, they had only gotten worse.

Her mind drifted back to when they had first met - when she was still Thing, he was still an apprentice, and she had to be pulled out of the Tide Pools by him. How handsome she had found him then hadn't changed; in fact, that thought had only increased as he had grown older and fully grew into himself. Despite how much she found her small size troublesome at times, she also liked how he was bigger than her - big enough to curl around her and keep her warm and comfortable (even if her fluffy pelt usually did enough to keep her warm).

She thought about how angry she had been at him when she figured out that he had been the one to steal prey from MeadowClan. It had been mostly because of how he had started a war and put their Clanmates in danger, but now that she thought more about it, it had also been in large part because of how worried she was over *him* getting hurt, as well - whether it had been while he was in MeadowClan territory or in battle. Once he had earned his warrior name and was sent out to fight, those fears had become a reality, and she was just glad that he wasn't dead or had been injured horribly.

She thought about how she had gone to *him* after her nightmare. Sure, Pinefern had come to mind first and she wasn't in the den, but why *didn't* she go to Larkwing instead? She hadn't even considered him an option until Shademask had brought him up. There had to be a reason for that, but it wasn't one that she was aware of.

She liked everything about Shademask. He was handsome, and kind, and loyal to a fault. He made her happy when she was talking to him, and he was one of the only cats she would willingly touch or let them touch her - the others being Pinefern and Larkwing, and *maybe* Rainbriar. There weren't a lot of other cats that she could think of that she enjoyed spending her time with, or *wanted* to spend her time with. She wanted to be around Shademask more often than she did any of her other loved ones, and she wanted to smile and laugh with him and keep him happy and safe.

The reason why her crush on him hadn't gone away yet, the reason why she had thought of him instead of Larkwing after her nightmare was because it wasn't a crush. It wasn't just her *liking* him.

It was her *loving* him.

## Stories

This character is the focus of the story *Cornered Foxes* by Five Dollar Mixtape, which explains her backstory and how she found her way to WaveClan.