Ashroot
Is it Ashroot time? I think it's Ashroot time.
Ashroot is a healer of ShadowClan's past. They were always quite cold (low empathy) but their clanmates never doubted their sympathy. Ashroot was fiercely protective of their clan and took their responsibilities as a healer gravely seriously. If any of you have ever played Warriors: Road to Immortality and remember Blackheart's speech about being a healer, that's Ashroot's vibe. They had extremely high standards... but when they were about 30-35 moons old, StarClan told them that they were sick with something that couldn't be cured. A poison was growing inside them and they needed to select an apprentice sooner rather than later. Soon, three litters were born in three moons, which I've already mentioned in [this] post. Ashroot had a few finalists, but when the kits's adult eye colors came in, one of those finalists had odd-colored eyes, just like Ashroot. They took this as an omen and selected Quailkit to be their apprentice.
Ashroot was a tough mentor. They pushed Quailpaw hard to see if he might break, but they were proud to find that he didn't. Ashroot was proud to call him Quailstem and welcome him into ShadowClan as a full healer, but the trouble wasn't over. Dandelioncall had begun whispering in other cats' ears, and ShadowClan was beginning to quietly doubt Ashroot's choice. Around 15-20 moons later, it came to a head. Dandelioncall's heresy became to loud to ignore and she was exiled only to rename herself Sunfall and take her cult with her.
It was difficult for Ashroot to contain their temper in those days. Their illness had begun to progress enough that they were feeling it, and "righteous anger" plus "terminal disease" doesn't make for a very happy healer. Ultimately though, it was only about five moons later when ShadowClan had a final battle and Sunfall's cult was snuffed out. Ashroot waited a few more moons to make sure things would stay calm and stable, and then died quietly on their own terms, confident that Quailstem could handle any challenges that arose going forward.
...
Except, when Quailstem chose his apprentice, Ashroot did not approve. They saw the manipulations of Larkspurpaw, but they hoped that they could trust Quailstem to fix it. She was still young when he died (and not interested in changing anyway), and Ashroot saw the writing on the wall-- and the prophecy that came with it. A cleansing fire would sweep through ShadowClan, and Ashroot was the one who delivered it. Moons passed and Larkspurleaf's machinations continued. It became increasingly clear that there was nothing any mortal cat could do to stop her. She had begun to ignore StarClan and make her own omens, and Ashroot told her that she was poisoning her clan. Larkspurleaf continued nonetheless.
Quailstem had made this mistake, and so Quailstem had to fix it. Ashroot isn't all that confident in his choice, but they do genuinely hope that the apprentice Quailstem chose will be able to overcome Larkspurleaf's manipulative nature...
