Gingerroot

Art by Iciatt, character owned by Shay

## BASICS

Gingerroot was the weird, over-the-top leader of DustClan, but nonetheless showed enthusiasm with his work and efforts. He was once a strange, existential kit found by Flickbeak at a young age under the name 'Rootkit.' After triumphantly rejecting his name, since it came with the context of his former mother, he unofficially changed his name to 'Gingerkit', and demanded people refer to him as such or they would be ignored. This somehow worked, and he proudly held the name Gingerstride, then Gingerstar. On his last night as leader, he'd come to terms with his missing name, and decided his final name before death would be Gingerroot.

Now, he spends his days as an elder, telling tales, taking naps, being more 'himself; than he ever has been his entire life.

## APPEARANCE

Gingerroot much lives up to his 'Ginger' title, he's a small, short-furred cinnamon tom with orange(ginger)-ish paws and patches along his back. His tail is ginger with a few stripes of brown, and his nose and paws are a pale pink. He has a small scar down his back leg from a long while ago (Battle with the gangs) and one across the heart marking on his chest (From the Society Battle.) He has deep, lush green eyes. As an elder, he's started to get more tired looking, and pale gray fur has started to show around his neck, pelt, and tail.

## PERSONALITY

Throughout the course of his life, to now, Gingerroot has changed, and has finally slowed down to appreciate life's complex simplicity. He is often seen by his clan as a goofy, unserious cat with a short attention span and a love for learning, and he wouldn't deny these traits if asked. However, is confident in his ability to listen closely to any issues his clan or other clans have, and try to address them as best he can. Gingerroot is still a very forward thinker and is honest, but struggles to be stubborn or set on one solid opinion, preferring to have many perspectives on a situation. He also tends to take too much pity on cats who might not deserve it.

Gingerroot isn't strictly loyal to the code, but when all is said and done, he will stand by it in the face of a serious issue that he thinks would threaten the safety of his clan.

## HISTORY

As a kit, Rootkit was very quiet and distant from anyone who would try to talk to him. His caretaker, Ryeroot (Who Rootkit was named after) had done a poor job balancing her own life and the life of a kit, and early on, left DustClan in favor of being a Loner. Once she was gone, Rootkit started to question his own existence in the clan, and often found himself going on mini-adventures trying to connect with StarClan, despite that he never wanted to learn the ways of a medicine cat. It was during one of these existential adventures that he'd met Flickbeak.

At first, he was intent on avoiding the warrior, despite her interesting and similar outlook to his. However, over time, he started to talk more and more with her, and started to feel a lot safer around the warrior. It was around his 4th moon that Flickbeak offered to adopt him, to which he had no objections against.

As he spent more and more time with Flickbeak, he'd started to finally open up to other kits and apprentices around his age, but never quite let go of all his burning questions about the afterlife and existence. It was around his final moon as a kit that he decided that he wanted to change his name, which would mark his disconnection with the cat that had left him. At first, he wanted to be Beakkit, but after some thought, he decided against it, and changed his name officially to Gingerkit.

The apprenticeship of Gingerpaw went by quickly, and soon enough, he earned the name Gingerstride from Buckstar, which was reflective of his drive to become better. Gingerstride had finally broken free of whatever anxieties had been holding him back, and adopted a newer, curious outlook on things, even with his lack of friends. He'd met Webwatcher and become eventual friends, and was overjoyed when he'd gotten his first apprentice, Icepaw.

During the gang wars, Gingerstride was very distressed by the amount of cats that took shelter in the clan. He made it a point to be ready, in case the other clans they were sheltering decided to turn their backs on the ones who helped them. Fortunately, that didn't happen, much to Gingerstride's paranoid relief. During the gang war is when he'd first met Boarfur, another DustClan warrior who had similar beliefs and pride in DustClan that he did, at the time, which gave him a sense of comfort and readied him for the battle.

Near the end of the fighting, Gingerstride had a few scars that didn't quite heal, however, that didn't stop him from continuing to work, even afterwards.

Before he knew it, time went by quickly, and Hollowstar retired from her rule, leaving Boarstar to be the next leader of the clan. He was shocked to the realization that he had been appointed deputy, but didn't dare question the leader's choice. This was an opportunity for him- one that he wouldn't pass up, although, at the time, he didn't know just how much responsibility would be thrust on him from that day forward.

Gingerstride took his deputyhood from that point on seriously, despite how much it seemed like he didn't. He worked to make improvements to the camp, repairing old den patches, figuring out new ways to hunt, teaching new ways for apprentices to learn, while also doing the usual deputy duties. The extra work did weigh on him, but he carried it with a smile.

He'd met many new cats, but his biggest friendships came from the apprentices he'd mentored. Dahliapaw was his second apprentice, and the one he did everything to support. He'd met many other apprentices, Barkpaw, Deerpaw, Foxpaw & Fadedpaw, and while he didn't know much about them, he was determined to give them the best education he could, as well as support if they so needed it.

After a talk with Flickbeak about his future, the deputy started to realize his feelings for Boarstar, which had been slowly developing since the gang battle. For a long time, he'd considered telling her, but decided against it. He became scared of what it might mean, and he surely didn't want to weigh someone else down with a confession, so he kept his jaws shut.

This secretism was only further supported when he found out about the relationship between Lynxshine and Boarstar, which he vowed to keep a secret until Sun (Canyonstar) told everyone about the relationship and the half-clan kits on behalf of Daisypaw.

During this time, Gingerstride had become especially close with Barkpaw, who was conflicted and stressed over his current situation. The deputy did all he could to make sure the apprentice was safe, and had someone to talk to. He'd offered the same to Deerpaw, but she didn't want anything to do with them, so he instead focused on Barkpaw.

After the situation died down, and many of the apprentice's Gingerstride knew became fully fledged warriors, he found out about Barkheart and Dahliawhisper's kits and was overjoyed for them.

He decided then that as of now, the clan needed something to smile about, and he made his biggest effort to make sure his clan was in high spirits, and if they weren't, they were able to fix whatever problem they had. He sadly couldn't reach out to his whole clan, did manage to befriend two more apprentices, Forestpaw and Fallenpaw, as well as form multiple activities in-between the crisis they were having. Sometime then, Barkheart had asked Gingerstride to be his adoptive father over Lynxshine, to which he accepted, wanting the warrior to feel happy with his place in the clan.

When the society came, everything started to crumble for DustClan, leaving Gingerstride with a challenge he didn't know how to face. Very soon, DustClan camp was attacked and the cats were driven out, leaving the deputy at a loss. He saw Boarstar lose many of her remaining lives, and internalized a fear he'd had from the beginning. Would he really be suited for leader position if she were to die?

DustClan was taken in by ReedClan for protection, and for awhile, Gingerstride felt utterly burdened by everything. So much of the situation was out of his control, and he could only watch it happen. It was at that time that he decided to talk to Boarstar and tell her about at least one of his stresses, his feelings for her, hoping that one by one, he could figure out what to do.

After the talk, he accepted that the leader was willing to give her last life fighting, that she wouldn't be around that long, and took her words to heart. Since then, he'd started working more and more, in hopes that soon, DustClan would be able to take its home back, and his Clanmates would finally be able to go back to how things were.

As SeaClan, the combined DustClan and Reedclan, banded together to drive out the society once and for all from DustClan's territories, Gingerstride earned a scar across his chest from one of his former clanmates, while soon after finding out about the death of Boarstar, who had been killed by her daughter, Stag (Deerfur.) He was deeply in shock at this news, despite that he'd known this would likely be the battle where she fell, and hardly had time to grieve as his clan needed to be cared for, especially after the recent battle.

As the moon rose to its highest that night, Gingerstride reassigned Claypaw to her new mentor, Tumbleleap, and assigned Fadedpath as the new deputy of DustClan.

As soon as he was given the opportunity, Gingerstride left camp to receive his nine lives with Sunnypaw. He received lives from nine StarClan cats, Scabbedsnout, Webwatcher, Boartusk, Lilackit, Nightpaw, Flickbeak, Fallenvalor, Cliffshade and Boarstar, and became the new leader of DustClan. He said his thanks to everyone, and to Boarstar, he refused a goodbye. Only a 'see you later.'

As time went on, and Gingerstar had begun his rule of the clan, a great many things happened. He gave Clayfur her warrior name, and gave her an apprentice, Rushpaw. Gatherings were quite animated, and while the other leaders fought amongst themselves, Gingerstar stayed resigned, up until a cat from the Society came forward and announced at the gathering, where he acted rather paranoid and skittish. Once the next gathering came around, things started to calm down, though.

Gingerstar and Fadedpath both learned of a forbidden love between Clayfur and Foamsplash, as well as Clayfur's pregnancy. They both decided it was the best option to bring Foamsplash to DustClan, in order to keep the family whole. Gingerstar went to Ravenstar in order to discuss bringing the warrior to DustClan, however, the Reedclan leader wanted something in return: for DustClan to turn a blind eye when Reedclan made questionable decisions. Gingerstar agreed upon the terms that his clan would continue to be safe, although Fadedpath was heavily against this.

After a talk, Gingerstar told Fadedpath his plans to combat this ideal if ever the time came where the other two clans were in danger.

Gingerstar and Fadedpath met Foamsplash at the border, and took him back to camp, where the three of them and Clayfur called a clan meeting. Gingerstar held an apprentice ceremony for Foamsplash, making him Foampaw, and both Fadedpath and Clayfur revealed to the clan the forbidden love between Clayfur and Foamsplash.

On a separate occasion, Fadedpath informed Gingerstar that Bunnypaw had been attacked by a Dustclan apprentice, Sagepaw. However, Gingerstar was skeptical to banish the apprentice by the word of the deputy alone, and ended up letting Sagepaw stay in DustClan under numerous conditions, which enraged Fadedpath, to his dismay. He promised to take the blame himself if Sagepaw acted out of line again. Eventually, Sagepaw did leave to join ReedClan under Ravenstar, which had flared up an insecurity in him that never quite settled.

As the moons went by, Gingerstar had a long period of time where he stopped going to gatherings, as his health had been slowly declining worse than it ever had been. The tom felt weak and exhausted- and often felt pains in his chest and abdomen. He speculated he was overworking himself, and tried to practice self-care, however, his symptoms got worse, and it started to feel less like an illness and more like a curse.

At last, the leader became sick of the fact that he'd been leaving all of his work to his deputy, Fadedpath, and started to attend gatherings again, despite his frail health. In one gathering, however, he'd become so unsteady that he'd nearly fallen off the tree, had he not been caught by Halfstar and Curlingstar. After he was safely brought down, the gathering came to a close, and he was led back to camp by Fadedpath and Sunnydune, who berated him for presenting while he was in ill health.

After they got back to camp, Gingerstar had a talk with Fadedpath, spilling out these insecurities that had been festering in his mind, as well as his theory that StarClan had been punishing him for being an absent presence in the clan. Fadedpath managed to convince him otherwise, at least for the time being, but he had an underlying fear that whatever he had now, StarClan curse or not, wasn't going to just go away..

Over time, Gingerstar's condition continued to stay stagnant- or even get worse. However, on one of his better days the morning after a gathering (which he had Fadedpath attend in his place) He'd given Sunnydune an apprentice, Bluepaw.

While in the medicine den, the leader felt his chest grow heavy, and his life slip away from some unseen pressure. He closed his eyes, and one of his lives drifted away, and he awoke, still in pain. It happened again, and again, and again, until 5 of his lives were now gone away, and the tom was seemingly restored, if not exhausted.

As he lost them, the tom was taken back and forth from StarClan, where he only saw one cat, Softspeckle, an old DustClan warrior that normally seemed to avoid Gingerstar whenever he was receiving words from other cats. Softspeckle spoke to Gingerstar in warning, that the tom would not be strong enough to lead DustClan as he was, and that his 'curse' would not lift in time for a foreseeable clan battle on the horizon. Gingerstar took this news harshly, but knew it was also the truth, and made a final decision on what to do, what was best for everyone, and himself, given the cirsumstance.

Gingerstar found a moment to pull Fadedpath aside from her duties and tell her about his decision to retire, in which eventually came to she respected his decision.

Fadedpath and Gingerstar went to the mooncavern to retrieve Fadedpath's lives, and Gingerstar, having a chance to explore StarClan for the first time, took his chance and did so, coming to a lot of realizations, some about himself and some about the nature of death and StarClan. He decided to reclaim the name his birth mother gave him, and go by Gingerroot for the rest of his life and afterlife, as he no longer needed to take strides to be better at his duties. He could now rest easy knowing that DustClan was no longer in his paws.

## LIVES

*As of 6/30/20, Gingerstar all nine of his lives.*

*As of 10/5/20, Gingerstar has four remaining lives.*

*As of 10/18/20, Gingerroot has his own life left.*