Clamgale - Medicine cat
Troublesome, lore master, good swimmer
Bio below:
Clamkit was only 4 moons old when she became an orphaned kit. One parent, Cloudgrass, had passed away before she was born. The other, Saltspring, had drowned while saving another kit. Clamkit had older siblings to rely on, and plenty of extended family and other clanmates, but none of them could replace her parents. Feeling lost and afraid, she became a medicine cat apprentice in order to see them in Starclan. She was overjoyed when they both greeted her during her apprenticeship ceremony.
As Clamgale grew up, she became fairly popular amongst her peers. So popular that at one point both Riot and Dappledrose insisted on joining her for herb gathering patrols. Riot was a little older than her, a former loner who liked to joke about the dangers of the territory. Dappledrose was the kit who Saltspring had died saving. Clamgale had never blamed Dappledrose for this, and instead was often able to share her grief with him. After all, he had lost all three of his littermates in fairly quick succession.
Eventually, Clamgale had to start joining the other medicine cats for herb gathering rather than conducting her own patrols. She saw Riot and Dappledrose less, and became listless and lonely. She had siblings and cousins, but none of them had ever taken much notice of her. She missed her friends, particularly Dappledrose. He had always been a little reserved, but his eyes sparkled when they talked and he never seemed to get tired of her observations about life. Not getting to see him as often meant keeping most of her thoughts to herself.
One day, while looking after a few kits while their parents were on patrol, Dappledrose suddenly settled in to join her. Without much more than a shy greeting, they took turns bathing and entertaining the little ones, and Clamgale couldn't help but feel touched by how natural their partnership felt. Dappledrose had always been soft-spoken, and she had a bit of a devilish streak, but together they created a warm and playful atmosphere that the kits enjoyed.
Once the kits' parents returned, Clamgale and Dappledrose said goodbye to them and Dappledrose gently asked if he could speak with her privately. She stuttered while agreeing, but he seemed too nervous to notice it. Once they were alone, Dappledrose complimented Clamgale's good nature toward the kits. Flustered, she insisted that that Dappledrose had been the one to calm them down enough to be manageable.
They exchanged compliments for a while longer before Dappledrose asked if she had ever wanted kits of her own. When she shyly admitted that she would enjoy having a family, he grew quiet. She asked him the same question, and he said that he'd love to have his own family. He pawed at the ground a bit, and she realized that her heart was racing. If she listened closely enough, she could hear his faintly beating as well.
After a few moments of silence, Clamgale shifted closer to Dappledrose, softly pressing their sides together. He startled at the contact, and his eyes briefly met hers in surprise. She smiled and looked down at the circles he'd been tracing in the sand. This seemed to give Dappledrose some confidence, and he cleared his throat before addressing her again. When he shakily asked if she would consider him for a mate, she purred and immediately agreed.
Despite her excitement about becoming mates with Dappledrose and their mutual agreement that they wanted kits, Clamgale found little time to spare for him. She savored the chances he got to help her with herb gathering, and every interaction was extremely important to her. But crisis after crisis struck the medicine den, from blight and rot to illness and injury. She had no choice but to to prioritize her work.
When Dappledrose became a medicine den crisis himself, Clamgale was too frantic to tend to him properly. She had to be blocked from entering so as to not interfere with his treatment, and was only allowed in when it was clear that he wouldn't make it. He had eaten bad prey, and his condition had declined rapidly. After only a couple of days, he was gone. Clamgale could only confine herself to her nest in the hopes that she would see him again in her dreams.
Before Dappledrose's death, they had always shared a sense of responsibility for the clans' kits. Hardly a day would go by without each of them having some new story to tell about their younger clanmates. But without Dappledrose, Clamgale found it difficult to face kits at all. She began to avoid them and delved deeper into her spiritual and medicinal work instead.
Clamgale's own death was very sudden. During a solo herb gathering trip she encountered a fox that had wandered deep into Marineclan territory. She had no escorts, no substantial training, and no chance to escape. Although she turned and ran as fast as she could, she still woke up in Starclan within moments. Dappledrose was the very first cat to greet her, panicked and teary-eyed on her behalf.