Monarchgarden

***Spoiler warning:** Plot and/or ending details follow.**"...."*
**Monarchgarden** is a scarred, calico molly with a single, ice-blue eye.
**Monarchgarden** was born to Hentuft and Sedgeheart alongside her littermate, Stagkit, under Valleystar’s reign. He was attacked by an eagle during her apprenticeship, leaving her scarred and with only a single eye. As a full Moor-runner, he fell in love with Sunrisesolstice and the pair bore three kits: Sweetkit, Nectarkit, and Honeykit. Her daughters were killed an only short time later during the coyote attack on camp, leaving him completely devastated and she and her mate split soon after. He participated in the badger attack on camp, fighting alongside her Clan and giving Dawnstar much support in the aftermath. He escaped the flooding of camp alongside her clanmates and joined them in their new camp in the Conservatory of Refuge.

## Relations

Crush: N/A

Mate: None, Sunrisesolstice (formerly)

Friendships: Sunwing, Creamwraith, Cloverpool, Azaleanectar, Sombervalley

Enemies: Twilightplume, Valleystar, Lavendersnow (not so much as enemies, as cats she really doesn’t trust)

Mentors: N/A

Apprentices: Flutterpoem

## Interests

*Likes*

Monarchgarden loves stories. She would listen and tell them all day long if he could. His favorite days are spent lazing in the sun-warmed camp grass, chatting with Clanmates as kits scamper and play nearby. She loves her family to death and would do anything for any of them. He also likes the comraderie and thrill of the hunt, happy whenever he lands a catch to provide for the Clan. She much prefers the day to night, and warmth to cold, but so does every cat she supposes.

*Dislikes*

Monarchgarden dislikes cats who dismiss her "visions" or who aren't "devoted enough" to StarClan. He hates eating any sort of bird, asserting that they're far too much work to defeather just for some lousy slivers of meat. She has a seething hatred for any kind of canine and would gladly kill any that dare enter his sights.

## Skills/Faults

*Skills*

Monarchgarden is patient, unless she's somehow provoked. Since kithood, he's been able to sit and watch the flowers bloom in a field for hours on end. Thanks to her physique, she's also very fit, strong, and agile, as well as a scarily precise hunter. He can easily look intimidating from a glance, but most everyone quickly learns she's a giant teddy bear. She's also extremley empathetic and can tell how another cat feels quite easily.

*Faults*

Monarchgarden has a short-temper and this will sometimes get the better of her. He will lash out and say things she doesn't mean in the heat of the moment, and though he may regret it later, her stubborness and pride refuse to let her go back on what he said. The calico is one of the most bull-headed cats in the Clan and would put her life on the line just to prove a point. While he's not gullible, her predisposition towards StarClan makes him more susceptiple to lies coming from a Leader, Nurse (who she trusts), or even a Clanmate, if that lie lines up with her views. She will ignore or smugde out details in favor of nodding along to the story. Monarchgarden also has a lingering fear of birds, especially any larger than a crow, and always keeps an eye to the sky, just in case.

## Personality

Monarchgarden is a social, emotional, and hot-headed molly who wears her heart on his sleeve. Like his brother, Monarchgarden can be described as a gentle giant, and adores kits. She's always ready to play with every kit and very patient and kind with both kits and apprentices. She's extremly loving and will wrap any family member or friend in a giant bear hug and cover them in grooming licks any chance he gets. She's very much a social butterfly and most relaxed when he's chatting away over something interesting. She actively looks for any chances to hang out with Clanmates, and can usually always be found among freinds. He's a very open she-cat and very easy to read, her emotions always on display through her expressions. He's also very good at reading other cat's emotions and is very empathetic. Her emotions are often his driving forces as well, and oftentimes overwhelm her. She thinks with his heart, not her head, and takes things very to heart as well. She often seems to feel her way through problems on a whim. Some cats would call him an emotional wreck, and her mood can drastically vary over the smallest things: either ecstatic over a successful hunt or woeful over a rainy day. For this reason, she also has a short temper and will easily let small jabs and insults rub him the wrong way. She lashes out quickly and will refuse to back down once she's made his stance, ready to die on whatever silly hill she's planted herself on. His stubbornness doesn't evaporate even if she does ever realize when he's in the wrong, instead she doubles down. Most cats don't dare get on his bad side however, and she's on friendly terms with most of the Clan.

Monarchgarden is extremley religious and superstitious. She thinks of everything in very black and white terms and is undyingly devoted to StarClan. Cats are either good or bad, and only StarClan can decide which. He believes the stars are the end all when it comes to authority and righteousness, that StarClan is incapable of doing wrong or making mistakes, and would physically fight anyone who disagrees. She has a very strict moral code, which aligns itself perfectly with the Warrior Code and Prairies' Promise.

## Detailed Appearance

Monarchgarden is a fluffy,  broad-shouldered, calico molly with various accesories scattred throughout his fur. Thanks to her ancestry, she's larger than the average cat, though not quite as large as his parents and grandparents, as her great-grandparent's size has been somewhat diluted. She appears larger than he actually is, with her thick, woolly pelt. His shoulders are wide set with muscular legs and large paws, the perfect build for a Sentinel, though Monarchgarden has decided to follow a different path. Her pretty orange, white, and black patterned fur is tattered and scarred in a few places from the eagle attack when he was an apprentice, and half of her face is heavily scarred. He's missing his left eye and covers the grisly spot with a monarch butterly's wing. Her singular eye is a striking and chilling ice-blue which seems to stare into one's soul. He's also decorated her pelt with more butterfly wings, speckled fallen leaves, and daisies. While her posture isn't uptight or rigid, he does keep her head held high. Her movements have a brutally effecient undertone, especially when he's hunting. It seems like she doesn't waste lifting a claw without reason.

### Scars gained

The following is a compilation of chronological scars/major injuries that Monarchgarden has recieved;

* Scars snake across her throat and back left leg from the eagle attack when she was a Trainee. The left half of his face is also heavily scarred and a gaping hole marks where her left eye should be.

## Kin

Mother: Hentuft

Father: Segdeheart

Brothers: Stagback

Daughters: Sweetkit, Nectarkit

Sons: Honeypaw

Nieces: Risinghawk, Larkwing

Nephew: Stoatslaughter

Great-grandparents: Valleystar, Torrentfocus

Grandparents: Tulipstar, Sootbelly

Cousins: Cinderspots, Applebreeze, Bloompaw, Tansypaw, Bumblesnap, Beepaw

## Backstory

Monarchkit was born to Hentuft and Sedgeheart alongside her littermate Stagkit. The molly had a wonderfully normal and uneventful upbringing: playing, snoozing, and always running off to listen to the Elder’s stories. Little Monarchkit loved the tall-tales the old cats would spin for her and spent much time in the Elder’s den, listening and fantasizing about StarClan, prophecies, and omens. At around 3 moons old, the growing calico had what he declared to be her first “vision”. Immediately, it was laughed off by her mother, who tried to keep the whole “game” quiet, but Monarchkit didn’t understand Hentuft’s denial and only stubbornly dug down into her belief of his own divinity. Her family had a long history within the Clan and the leader he was born under was actually her great-grandmother, Valleystar. She knew she had to be special on some level, like the rest of his family (though she also knew early on that he was more a follower rather than a leader). His father was very distant and rarely showed any affection to the pair of kits, and Monarchkit assumed such was just normal and should be accepted. Thus, during her apprenticeship he began pulling away from her mother and brother as well, focusing on his training instead. Initially asking to train as a Nurse Trainee, Monarchpaw was swiftly and rather rudely refused by Twilightplume. Feeling as if her life’s calling were being snatched from him, she settled on becoming a Warrior instead. While she was growing to be quite large, thanks to her ancestry, Monarchpaw decided to follow the Moor-runner path instead of the Sentinel like her brother, having discovered a knack for the patience necessary for a good hunter.

As he grew, she continued to “receive” visions and omens fortelling the future. But Monarchpaw wouldn’t keep quiet as her mother had begged of him. Awaking from prophecy dreams, she would whisper them to denmates. Seeings signs in nature he would declare their meanings aloud. Even though none of her predictions truly came about (discounting that one carp that really did beach itself due to coincidence) word quickly spread and Monarchpaw was summoned one day to the Leader’s den. Believing this to be the predestined guidance of her ancestors, as she’d had a dream regarding her great-grandmother just a few days ago, Monarchpaw was completely astonished as he was shot down immediately, much like she’d been as a kit. Valleystar warned her of what happened to blasphemous cats who took StarClan’s name in vain: exile, or even execution. Leaving the den with several moons worth of camp chores, Monarchpaw was finally cowed into silence, though this only further convinced her that she must be special. Why else would every authority figure in his life, Hentuft, Twilightplume, and now Valleystar go through so much trouble to silence the truth that she spoke, that she could \*feel\*? From then on, though she kept quiet about it, mostly, he still very much believed in every vision “sent” to him.

It was during his apprenticeship that the molly tragically became distracted on a hunt. A lone monarch butterfly, as sure a sign as StarClan could send, led her away from her patrol and out onto the rolling moors. She didn’t even see the eagle until it was too late, the whoosh of great wings was his only warning a second before searing sharp claws curled themselves from behind into her pelt, her face. The raptor swooped down upon him and attempted to take off with her as well, but Monarchpaw fought back before those wings could lift her up. She screamed and yowled with pain, writhing and tearing himself free from the death grip and slashing with her claws in the air. Luckily, her mentor had noticed his absence and had already been searching for their apprentice. The patrol heard Monarchpaw’s howls and arrived just in time to take the great bird down and tear it off of the poor, bloody, trembling trainee. The left half of the calico’s face was soaked in blood and ripped fur tufts. Both the raptor and Monarchpaw were carried back to camp, one dead and added to the freshkill pile, and the other unconscious and hurried into the medicine den. When Monarchpaw awoke, her face and body were covered in bandaged cobwebs and stinky poultices. He spent a good long while in the den recovering, Hentuft, Stagpaw, and even Sedgeheart came to visit, though when the bandages came off he was horrified to learn she’d completely lost her left eye. An ugly, gaping hole stared back at her from the puddle instead and Monarchpaw quickly grew self-conscious of anyone seeing his full face, wearing a butterfly’s wing to cover her scars. He took the eagle attack as a punishment from StarClan for disappointing them by not following her star-given destiny of Nurse. Monarchpaw religiously doubled down in her devotion to and belief for StarClan, hoping to make up for his apparent sins.

As a full Moor-runner, Monarchgarden devoted herself to his Clan, hunting and bringing back as much prey as he could to make sure no one ever went hungry. She didn’t notice as his brother began withdrawing from the Clan to sneak away, busy with her own duties and crushes. It was a complete shock when Stagback returned one evening with a limp Sedgeheart draped across his shoulders. Monarchgarden didn’t question her brother’s story, going so far as to reason that the dream she had had last night had been trying to fortell this tragedy and supported Stagback's story. Along with Hentuft, he comforted Stagback and sat with him all throughout the vigil, though she couldn’t find many words to say about their father when it was her turn. When Stagback returned with three newborn kittens who resembled her littermate far too much for coincidence, Monarchgarden welcomed the new additions to the family with open paws. He didn’t prod her littermate for answers when it became apparent that Stagback wasn’t going to give any, but strove to support the new father as much as she could, always striving to be more present than her father had been. He became a doting aunt and helped to raise the three as much as Stagback needed.

During this time, a certain Tunneler had also caught her eye. He fell in love with Sunrisesolstice and not long after, the pair had a litter of three kits of their own. These moons would be some of the happiest in her life. Monarchgarden knew Sweetkit, Nectarkit, and Honeykit were the most special kits in the whole Clan and loved them as such with his whole being, praying and thanking StarClan for them everyday. It all only made the coyote attack on camp all the more devastating. Sweetkit and Nectarkit were among the casualties, completely devastating her. He receded after their vigil, cooping herself up in her nest and refusing to eat for a very long time. Honeykit and Sunrisesolstice manged to slowly bring her back to life step by step, though he would never be the same after. She continues to grieve for his two daughters to this day, and continues to blame not only herself, but the little kits as well. The only reasoning she could possibly understand for the bloodshed of her kits was that they had somehow deserved it, like he had herself all those moons ago during the eagle attack: that her kits had faulted the stars and brought their doom upon themselves. This drove a wedge between Monarchgarden and Sunrisesolstice which led to them splitting. The molly still very much has a thing for the kind tom, though her pride may get in the way of admitting it. Monarchgarden turned all her attention onto little Honeykit, who she groomed into the perfect Seer, convinced that he must have the same gifts she had been granted if the tomkit had been graced enough to survive while his sisters hadn’t. Honeykit showed his own interest in herbs and healing and Monarchgarden encouraged this strongly, and continues to. She would do anything to get his son into the position she herself was denied. Though she's distrustful of those in authrority, following Dawnstar's recent devotion and strictness to StarClan, the new leader has won Monarchgarden's support and loyalty. The Moor-runner approves of the new rules wholeheartedly and is one of the most adhereing cats, ready to turn anyone in who even seems so much as suspicious of disapointing the Clan's ancestors.

## Trivia

* Monarchgarden doesn't like killing butterflies and will scold any kit who crushes one in their chase. His monarch wings are always from dead butterflies, which are hard to come by intact, so she cherishes them very much.
* Aesthetic: Monarch butterflies ~ an abandoned church in the foggy woods ~ the few days right before autumn turns into winter ~ an exposure photo highlighting flowers under the nightsky ~ frost-tipped leaves ~ large, fluffy white clouds that remind one of paradise

## Links

Theme Song/Voice Claim

* Playlist: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/4CcuEyXq8GdMl4yXmOAdCv?si=mO6-VNfSTHWKS0xDJh1AUw*End of spoiler warning*