It’s the EchoAnt fam! Echobounce is the lightest red queen with blue eyes in the middle, Antfall/star is the scarred orange tom, Spiderflame is the red tabby with borage leaves, Newtpond is the scarred cream and brown she-cat, Snailwing is the brown tom, Brackenlily is the red and white patched she-cat, Rosefire is the orange and white tabby, the brown-red tabby kit is Berrybelly, the speckled cream kit is Fowlspark, and the dark red tabby kit is Spiralblaze!
Echobounce is the mama, obviously, and Antstar is her mate, and the rest are all their kiddos! Spiderflame, Newtpond, and Snailwing consisted their first litter, Brackenlily and Rosefire their second, and now it’s Berrybelly, Fowlspark, and Spiralblaze! Echobounce also raised her son Snailwing’s kits, Graytail and Acorndust, after their mom’s death, and she was a permanent nursery queen so she helped raise plenty other litters too before she finally retired to the elders den! She outlives her earlier litters aside from Newtpond and Brackenlily.
At this point in her life, she’s very old to be having kits (though in my Generations universe cats live longer than average because of the clancats’ healthcare). How old exactly? Well, here’s the fam’s ages upon Berry+’s birth!:
Antstar: 180 moons [15 years]
Echobounce: 171 moons [14.25 years] (lives to be at least 219 moons [18.25 years])
Spiderflame, Newtpond: 135 moons [11.25 years] (Snailwing, at death: 72 moons [6 years])
Brackenlily: 81 moons [6.8 years] (Rosefire, at death: 54 moons [4.5 years])
Berrybelly, Fowlspark, Spiralblaze: 1 day (currently they are 48-50 moons)
As Echokit, she was always the leader of her siblings. She was loud, energetic, pushy and peppy. Only her sister Sheepkit dared to challenge her reign. Everyone in the nursery knew Echokit was destined to be a leader. She was apprenticed to Rockblaze by his father, Boulderstar. She was eager and delighted to be apprenticed to the leader's son, and she loved the competition with her siblings and the older apprentices, namely Antpaw. The two had great banter and enjoyed friendly competitions between each other. She promised him when she became leader, he'd be her deputy... if he wasn't so mouse-brained!
Unfortunately, her lively and joyful apprentice days were cut short as her clan was thrown into dishevelment. Boulderstar was killed by ShadowClan after they found out he was conspiring with the BoneClan rogues. Echopaw was horrified, even disbelieving that the leader she looked up to could be capable of such great evil. Boulderstar's deputy and brother became Ashstar, the new leader of ThunderClan, which caused many disputes between ThunderClan clanmates and even other clans, as Ashstar was once a ShadowClan warrior. Echopaw herself felt uneasy of him, but was happy to see her mother, Harecry, appointed as deputy. And her competition with Antpaw ended as he became a warrior alongside his siblings, named Antfall. He became more quiet and reserved, fearful of what his clan was becoming. Echopaw, too, found herself living in constant dread.
She tried to maintain a relationship with her siblings, but Sheeppaw was Snowshard's, Boulderstar's beloved mate, apprentice, and shared the same ideals that ShadowClan should be destroyed for killing Boulderstar, and that the ThunderClan cats who stood by and watched it happen should be exiled, or worse. Shellpaw and Marshpaw both fell into themselves, trying to keep away from clan drama and always glancing over their shoulders. Marshpaw, at least, was more friendlier and open to a playful competition here and there. Sheeppaw's competitions no longer felt playful, but angry, and dangerous. Echopaw had also found herself briefly scared and wary of her mentor, before realizing he had suffered even more than her, and making it her goal to prove herself his best apprentice ever.
After moons passed, Echopaw passed her assessment with flying colors and became Echobounce, for her sure-footedness and eagerness. Rockblaze also had a litter with Weedfeather around the time of her warrior ceremony, and she visited the little kits. She fell in love with the cute kits, and found herself visiting the nursery nearly every day. She was the kit's favorite warrior. She was delighted when Loudkit became her apprentice, Loudpaw. She taught him proudly. During this time, she also realized she had a crush on Antfall, and decided to act on it. She courted him, and was delighted to find out he felt the same.
Near the end of Loudpaw's apprenticeship, Echobounce realized she was pregnant with Antfall's kits. She hadn't planned on having kits yet, but was happy regardless. Antfall took over most of Loudpaw's apprenticeship, and Echobounce actually gave birth on the day of his warrior assessment. She loved her litter, which she and Antfall named Snailkit, Spiderkit, and Newtkit. Loudpaw became Loudnose, and she couldn't be prouder. She watched her kits grow up as well, almost too fast for her liking, although nothing had been scarier than when a nasty bought of greencough wiped through the clan, killing two kits named Thriftkit and Puddlekit. Two moons later, and her kits were becoming apprentices, with Spiderpaw even being trained as a medicine cat.
She found herself rethinking her path in life. When she was younger, she wanted nothing more than to be a leader. But as an older apprentice and young warrior, she found herself terrified at the prospect- how could she lead a clan so filled with dread? But here, in the nursery, raising the clan's next generations, she found love and warmth. She felt, by guiding the kits when they were youngest and most impressionable, that she was making a difference. So, she made a decision: to be a permeant queen.
To her surprise, a few moons after her declaration, her sister, Sheeptail, announced she was expecting Loudnose's kits. Echobounce had known Sheeptail and Loudnose had flirted plenty of times, but not that they were serious. As it turns out, they weren't, despite Sheeptail's many fantasies that they were. Loudnose avoided Sheeptail and the nursery as much as possible, and, moons after their kits' birth, he became mates with Newtpond, Echobounce's now fully grown daughter. Sheeptail was enraged, and Echobounce was... conflicted. And confused. And slightly bemused.
But her bemusement didn't last as the drama got worse- became more violent, aggressive. It was clear Sheeptail's claws screamed to drag themselves through Loudnose and Newtpond's pelts- which she herself screamed as much too, along with plenty other insults. Echobounce was appalled, and slightly terrified, by her sister's behavior, but still tried to be by her side, comforting her while reprimanding her for her behavior. Not that Sheeptail was one to ever listen.
The rising horror became a reality as, when Newtpond gave birth to Loudnose's kits, Sheeptail attacked the nursery, nearly killing young Lightkit, and permanently scarring Newtpond. Echobounce was quick to defend her daughter and the small kits, digging her claws into her sister and yanking her away. Loudnose arrived soon after, and the two pinned Sheeptail to the ground, where Echobounce found herself delivering the final blow, dragging her claws across her littermate's throat. She watched the light drain from her sister's eyes, and the expression of horror and pain as she realized she had lost- that she had died. To make matter's worse, young Starlingstripe went into early labor due to the stress of it all. Starlingstripe had been expecting Snailwing's, Echbounce's son, kits, and Echobounce had scrambled to help her birth while medicine cats tended to Newtpond and Lightkit and Loudnose pulled Sheeptail's body out of the nursery, where he was met with horror from their kits, Volepaw, Fallowpaw, and Shinepaw. Echobounce couldn't save Starlingstripe, but her kits, Graykit and Acornkit (named by Snailwing), pulled through, although they were weak. Echobounce took them in and fostered them, although she had no milk to give them, so they had to use leaves.
On top of it all, Echobounce realized she was pregnant with Antfall's second litter. Raising her son's kits in the aftermath of it all was a trial of trauma- she couldn't stop imagining the blood on her claws, nor ignore the cold eyes of Sheeptail's daughter, Volepaw. Harestar, Antfall (who had been appointed deputy under Harestar after the former deputy, Frostflake, Rockblaze's sister's, death), Loudnose, Rockblaze, and her kits stuck by her side, comforting her, and each other, through it all. Eventually, she gave birth to Rosekit and Brackenkit, and Echobounce found herself more like her old self, if a bit more paranoid and twitchy. She couldn't shake the weird feeling she got from her denmate, Sweetlight, when she moved into the nursery with her own kits, nor could she stop herself from hyperventilating when she heard Graypaw and Acornpaw had been attacked by BoneClan rogues. She tried to be as friendly and unbiased as she could when former BoneClan rogues, Lion and Pike, joined the clan, especially as Pike was just a kit. The horrors of BoneClan under Darkwhisper's rule that Liontooth explained definitely helped her sympathize with them, though, while at the same time elevating her fear for her kits as they became apprentices.
She found herself being one of the ones who didn't believe Sweetlight and Mossyflight when, after they killed Darkwhisper and took over BoneClan, they said they would make BoneClan a true, righteous clan that would help the other clans, not harm them. Especially not after her son, who's vision had been slowly getting worse and worse despite being a relatively young warrior, was attacked when hunting alone. He couldn't place who attacked him, but said they smelled like a rogue. It didn't help that the medicine cats had run out of herbs, and then, in some twisted and suspicious way, Oliveleg, the clan medicine cat, choked on the herbs whilst collecting them, leaving Spiderflame to save her brother... which she failed to do, and Snailwing passed from his wounds. Even more upsetting, when Rockblaze voiced his grievances on BoneClan, he was killed when confronting them, and Sweetlight dismissed it as stray BoneClan rogues not liking how 'disrespectfully' he spoke. To add to the list of Echobounce's suspicious, paranoia and horror, young Shineflower was found dead, with a broken neck, presumably having 'fallen' out of a tree. This especially hit Echobounce as Shineflower had decided to become a permeant queen like Echobounce, who she admired.
When it was finally revealed Sweetlight was manipulating the clans, killing cats who disagreed with her, as well as having spies within the clans, Echobounce was happy to join the hunt in chasing her and BoneClan down. She was displeased to find the spies of ThunderClan were Fallowpelt- Sheeptail's son, Acorndust- the kit she had nursed and Snailwing's son, and Streamdawn- Shineflower's kit. She was one of the ones who took the longest to forgive them.
As the drama of the clans died down and Echobounce got older, she had one last litter with her mate, now Antstar of ThunderClan (who had joked about making her deputy). She gave birth to Berrykit, Fowlkit, and Spiralkit, who she couldn't be more prouder of. She retired by the time of their warrior ceremony, and now resides in the elders' den, telling stories and lessons to any kits who'll listen. She finds it isn't all that different than being a queen- just with older bones.
