Caterpillarheart - Warrior
Ambitious, lore master
Bio below:
One of Caterpillarheart's parents, Frogchirp, died before she was born. Her littermate, Puddlepaw, died while they were apprentices. Her other parent, Saltspring, died shortly after the birth of her halfsibling, Clamkit. Because Saltspring died while saving Dappledkit, Caterpillarheart struggled to determine her feelings toward the younger cat. At times she tried to ask the kit what he remembered about the event that killed her parent, but the questioning clearly upset him and she never found a way to talk about it in a way that felt appropriate.
Caterpillarheart struggled to resolve her feelings about the loss of her parents, and found herself unable to step in to help Clamkit. She had only just become a warrior herself and was in desperate need of guidance. To make matters worse, her romantic life seemed doomed from the beginning. She was very attracted to Crookedstar, and he seemed to reciprocate her feelings despite having a mate. The relationship intimidated her greatly, so she never acted on it. The most she could do was try to avoid him as much as possible.
Dejected, Caterpillarheart next found herself interested in Lavenderstripe. The older shecat was more mature than her, but Caterpillarheart craved a stable kind of love. Watching Lavenderstripe choose another cat as her mate was painful. There were several other candidates for Caterpillarheart's affections over the years, mostly older cats who had already settled down with families of their own. Just like with Crookedstar, she never acted on those desires and kept her distance from her clanmates.
Caterpillarheart ultimately felt most comfortable with the younger cats. She particularly enjoyed training apprentices. Their youthful naivety was something she could relate to, and she was happy to teach them practical skills. She focused on teaching as much as possible in order to distract herself from desires that felt unresolvable.
Things changed when Lavenderstripe's mate passed away. Although Caterpillarheart did her best to keep her distance, not wanting to stir up any old feelings, Lavenderstripe sought her out instead. Caterpillarheart felt immensely awkward about it at first, but Lavenderstripe was lonely and clearly missed her after so many years of emotional distance. Gradually, over several moons, Caterpillarheart couldn't help falling properly in love with her. She gathered enough courage to confess her feelings, and Lavenderstripe's hesitant answer didn't surprise her. Of course she still loved her mate, and of course she hadn't moved on from him yet. When Caterpillarheart assured her that that was perfectly fine, Lavenderstripe agreed to become her mate. After so many years of fighting her feelings, it felt surreal to embrace them for once.
Lavenderstripe was already in her twilight years, so their relationship was fairly short-lived. Caterpillarheart was forced to mourn her new mate after only a few short years. Tragically, Clamgale also passed away soon after her own mate, leaving Caterpillarheart without any living family members. There were few kits in the clan at that point, so she had to content herself with telling stories and giving advice to the younger warriors when they bothered to listen.
Caterpillarheart took longer than most cats to retire. Years of grief had taken their toll on her, and she was still relatively young when she succumbed to a case of whitecough. In Starclan she discovered that Lavenderstripe had reunited with her previous mate and decided not to resume their relationship. As much as she loved the other shecat she wanted to prioritize her own reunions with family she'd lost far too early.