Heathbracken

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Heathbracken is a large, long-furred, smoke ginger she-cat.

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**Heathbracken** is an AcornClan medicine cat currently serving under Maplestar's leadership, but she once served Moonstar. Her life began as a loner named **Heath**, barely surviving off scavenged crowfood and kind twolegs that would give her kittypet kibble. She lived like that for three and a half years before hearing that a group of loners banded up to create ShellClan, quickly joining and becoming a medicine apprentice - she had enough warrior-styled life. They changed her name to **Heatherpaw** despite her being an adult, as she was still very inexperienced. Her temporary mentor was Oceanswirl, and after becoming an official healer as **Heatherbracken**, she began mentoring Dawnpaw. However, once she turned five years old and became mates with Smokesand, she bore his kits. The clan wasn't too strict with the Code's loose edges so they didn't mind much, but once she scavenged a piece of sick prey and contracted foamcough, everything changed. She thankfully didn't have it too horrible, though the others began falling like dominoes, and she self-exiled while still pregnant with Smokesand's kits - she didn't want to get any more cats sick, and she didn't want her reputation to be damaged even further.

As a rogue, she was back to her old lifestyle that got her sick in the first place. Using her knowledge of herbs, she treated her foamcough with a special herb mix that kept her alive for just long enough to recover and recieve a level of immunity. She changed her name to **Heathbracken** - a mix of her loner name and clan name - and had her litter of four kits beneath a towering tree. Their names were Rosy, Nightingale, Daffodil and Whirl, and she found out that Whirl was immune to foamcough in the worst way possible. While she was scavenging again, a diseased dog raided the nest, attacking everyone. Daffodil was in the worst condition, barely living through the bite wounds but contracting the illness and dying soon after. Rosy and Nightingale were kept alive by the herbs as they also caught foamcough, and Whirl was just fine. With strong instincts to protect the three survivors, Heathbracken led everyone into AcornClan territory where they were found and brought to camp by Waterhusk.

The family was reluctantly accepted into the clan after Heathbracken told them about the herb mix, as they also had a case of foamcough - not nearly as much as ShellClan, though. The sick two were whisked away to the isolation den and she took the role of a medicine cat once more, despite insisting on keeping her rogue name. Some moons passed - much longer than it took her to heal - and Rosykit and Nightingalekit were still in nearly zombified conditions, only being kept from StarClan by the mix of lungwort, thyme, poppy seeds and more. Eventually, it was too much for Rosykit to take, and he joined Daffodil. However, his other sister - and of course Whirlkit - survived, becoming warrior apprentices after the last of AcornClan's foamcough was eventually dispelled. Heathbracken took the death of half her litter very hard, vowing to keep these two safe with her life.

## Clangen History

### Joining AcornClan, Moon 3

Heathbracken was all alone with four kits. The blazing sunlight was dehydrating their bodies, and they were hungry. The kits were already beginning to learn how to hunt, and they had already begun bringing back squirrels, mice or voles. They'd always boast about hunting like clan cats, though Hearthbracken knew all the food they would find was scavenged. She would warn them worriedly about lurking dogs and foxes, but they would only listen once in a blue moon. She got up and let them know she was going out to look for herbs, since she knew of the disease that was plaguing the clan cats and wanted to be safe. She once was a clan cat.

Hearthbracken was the first ever cat to have foamcough. She had it many moons ago, and she barely hung on. She exiled herself from her old clan, fearful of getting anyone sick. She survived by eating thyme, mullein, lungwort and tansy, and her sickness didn't last too long. After beating foamcough, she had earned immunity. Her kits were born outside the clan, and Whirl had somehow inherited Hearthbracken's newfound immunity. Rosy, Daffodil and Nightingale on the other hand, didn't.

As Heathbracken padded back towards her little den her kits were in, her heart dropped. Blood was everywhere, and out of the corner of her eye, she saw a dog. She scratched its muzzle, hissing and spitting with her fur bristling. The dog wasn't giving up. She scrambled towards a tree, and the dog tried to follow. She sat on a branch, growling and yelping, for what felt like moons. From the branch, she could see her kits, staring with their eyes wide open. Eventually, the dog left, and Heathbracken ran back over to her kits. Daffodil was in critical condition. She was staring at nothing and was barely responsive. Foamy blood was starting to pour from her maw. She would just hiss at every movement. Whirl was a little hurt with some scrapes, bruises and scratches, but was otherwise fine. Rosy was already coughing up blood, and so was Nightingale. Heathbracken got Rosy and Nightingale to eat the herb mix she had gathered - the one she used as a remedy when she had foamcough, before she gained immunity. Daffodil, however, wasn't eating at all. She wasn't speaking, either. When the former medicine cat next awoke, Daffodil was hunting with her ancestors.

The family group of loners was struggling. The morning after Daffodil passed away, Heathbracken decided to finally seek help. Rosy and Nightingale probably had foamcough as far as she knew. She made her sick kits that were barely walking, and only being fueled by the herb mix they had eaten the previous day, follow her towards AcornClan territory. The deputy of the clan soon encountered them, and Heathbracken, offering her healing skills in exchange for shelter, asked to be taken in, even if just for a short while. After discussing their situation some more, Waterhusk reluctantly agreed to take them back to their leader. Nightingale and Rosy, now known as Nightingalekit and Rosykit, were put into the isolation den behind the medicine den, while Whirlkit was separated from his littermates and had to play with Coralkit instead. Maplestar was angry at Waterhusk at first, as she had lost a life to foamcough mere days ago, but let the queen and her kits into the clan anyway. She needed information on how to properly treat the cats of her clan who had foamcough as well.

### Moon 5

One day, while Rookshell and Heathbracken were examining the foamcough patients, Rosykit started vomiting lots of foamy blood. It was everywhere, and when the medicine cats rushed over to him with herbs, he started hissing and yowling in pain. Then, his body spasmed, and he stopped moving. He stopped breathing, and his heart wasn't beating. His frail body lay on the ground as Heathbracken screamed in shock, begging for him to come back. Rookshell just watched, frozen in place and completely unsure of what to do. When Wolfpaw ran over to see what happened, he nearly vomited. The whole scene was horrifying. Once Heathbracken stopped screaming, and was now hyperventilating in loud whispers, Rookshell carried his little body over to the middle of the clan. A vigil was held, and he was soon buried. Heathbracken couldn't handle it all anymore. ***How come she couldn't heal him?*** She had now lost two of her kits to foamcough, an illness she thought she knew a remedy for. Maplestar, Rookshell and the rest of the clan were beginning to doubt her treatment, even if Heathbracken knew the way it worked. *''Sure, Foxpaw healed, but Rosykit didn't''*. In their eyes, it was just a game of luck that Foxpaw somehow got better. She nearly self-exiled again out of pure guilt and shame, but Maplestar let her stay after seeing how genuinely distraught she was that the treatment wasn't foolproof. At least it helped the others, if not her son.

At the next gathering, Heathbracken shared the remedy with the medicine cats of the other clans, but warned them that recovery is still not guaranteed, telling them the story of what happened to her poor kit. There she met her old apprentice, and she found some level of comfort in her words.

*‘’Rosykit was sent from StarClan to keep you company after you left your old clan, and once you found AcornClan, they called for him to come back, for he has served his purpose.’’*

### Moon 6

It was time to give the foamcough patients their herb mix, when Rookshell realized there was no more lungwort or thyme. It was leaf fall now, and it was all the more scarce. She consulted Heathbracken about the situation and asked her to try and look for some, and though the older medicine cat tried as hard as she could, she didn't find any. Then she asked Wolfpaw, and he somehow found some... But only enough for one patient. Heathbracken instantly started panicking, already having lost Daffodil and Rosykit to foamcough, and not wanting to lose Nightingalekit aswell. While Rookshell was talking to her apprentice about something Heathbracken wasn't paying attention to, the anxious she-cat snatched the lungwort along with the other herbs and gave them to her dearest daughter. When the other two saw, the apprentice aged kit had already downed the herbs. ***But what was she supposed to do, die cause of a lack of herbs?*** - Heathbracken thought to herself. Rookshell scolded her as Coralpaw's condition could worsen after three moons of slow progress just because of her impulsiveness, but she didn't care. Her kit wasn't going to die. Not on her watch. Now Coralpaw's herb taking schedule had been changed, and there was no lungwort or thyme for the next multiple days. It seriously messed up his way to recovery. Heathbracken felt horrible, though Nightingalekit was alright in the end, allowing her to show some level of pride on her face.

### Moon 7

Heathbracken was happier than ever when it was finally time for Nightingalekit to become an apprentice at a whopping eight moons old! Her poor kit was trapped in isolation from the rest of the clan for four long moons. Even if Coralpaw was getting closer and closer to succumbing to the illness, at least Nightingalepaw was able to be an apprentice. And then, a miracle happened. Coralpaw, perhaps out of pure spite for the lungwort incident, was deemed free of foamcough as well.

### Moon 11

While searching for some specific herbs together, Heathbracken and Wolftooth were startled by weird sounds and whispers on the wind. They were hesitant, but eventually decided to follow the peculiar noise, only to stumble upon the cooling body of a queen and her newly born kits. They were unaware of what truly killed the poor souls as their carcasses were covered in too much frost and cold water - their fur was horribly damp. After paying their respects decided to get help with burying the bodies. Heathbracken had seen a lot of this before in her previous clan, though seeing the freezing bodies of a mother and her kits made her think about what could have happened to her and her litter if the clan hadn't taken her in. She took a break from working for the next few days, pretending to have a cold when around the others, although Rookshell and especially Wolftooth knew she was just emotionally phased by it all. They let her be.

## Personality

Heathbracken is a very motherly and nurturing figure, albeit somewhat strict towards others - especially her kits. She's fiercely protective of them, even willing to confront an infected dog to ensure their safety. She does her best to warn them about potential dangers, although they don't always heed her advice since they know she can't bare to punish them in any real way. This protective nature extends to her actions as a medicine cat, where she strives to heal and protect those affected by foamcough, although she didn't hesitate to risk Coralpaw's life for the sake of ensuring the survival of Nightingalekit. She's an opportunist, making impulsive decisions almost constantly as long as it keeps the ones she's closest to safe.

## Kin

### *Members*

Former mate: Smokesand (Last seen alive, unknown status)

Sons: Whirlwind (Alive as of most recent Clangen playthrough), Rosykit (Deceased, StarClan member)

Daughters: Daffodil (Deceased, StarClan member), Nightingalefur (Alive as of most recent Clangen playthrough)

## References

1. ↑ *This page is a work-in-progress, and in need of a cleanup. Help by reorganizing the content and writing whatever you know about the page topic!*
2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 *Clangen, Heathbracken's info page*
3. ↑ *Clangen, Heathbracken's sprite*
4. ↑ *AcornClan, Moon 2*
5. ↑ *AcornClan, Moon 6*