#heathernibble

Heathernibble was only a few moons old when both of their parents passed away. They were left with their littermate, Pearlkit, and older sibling, Shypaw. It was difficult to share a grieving process at such a young age, but it strengthened Heathernibble's bonds with their siblings. They all developed a sense of normalcy around death that their clanmates struggled to understand.

Heathernibble was lucky to recover quite well from their early trauma. They got their warrior name, made friends, trained an apprentice, and even had a few romantic interests over the years. But they never felt a true desire to grow up in ways that other cats recognized. They didn't want to settle down with a mate. They didn't want to solemnly face an inevitable end in the elders' den.

Although Heathernibble did have a fairly conventional adult life, they did their best to bring a playful attitude to every situation. Even being abducted by twolegs for a few days didn't prevent them from cracking jokes about it when they returned to Marineclan. Their humor helped diffuse tension around camp, and many cats sought them out for advice on social awkardness.

Despite their lighthearted reputation, Heathernibble retained their deep relationship with the concept of death. To Heathernibble, death was the only thing that was truly worth worrying about. So when one of their friends, a shecat named Fog, suffered the loss of her mate, Heathernibble was very attentive to her. Fog was late in her pregnancy when her mate joined Starclan, and the stress of grief was too much for her.

As Fog was shuffled between the nursery and the medicine den, Heathernibble spent a lot of time talking with her. Fog was not in a coherent headspace most of the time, but Heathernibble did their best to keep up with her in conversation. Eventually, through the chaos of grief and pregnancy complications, Fog asked Heathernibble to become her mate.

Heathernibble was shocked by this request, but Fog hurriedly clarified that she didn't know how long she would make it alone with newborn kits. And if anything happened to her, she wanted someone she could trust to take care of her litter. Heathernibble was able to empathize with her, and agreed to become her mate and adopt her kits. Heathernibble hoped she would survive of course, but they knew her kits would need extra support. Support that they would have to learn to provide.

Fog gave birth early to a single tiny kit. Heathernibble helped to comfort her throughout the delivery, and for a short period of time it seemed like Fog might make a recovery. But within a week of the birth she had also joined Starclan. True to their word, Heathernibble adopted the surviving kit and named them Yellowkit. It only felt right that they then retire from their warrior role and focus on raising their new charge.

Although Heathernibble had planned to raise Yellowkit on their own, they ended up relying a lot on Pearlstalk. They spent so much time asking other cats for advice on parenting and problem solving that Yellowkit became Yellowdapple in the blink of an eye. To Heathernibble's relief, Pearlstalk's assistance was just what their adopted son needed, and he grew into a very thoughtful young warrior.

Heathernibble may have regretted not being more personally involved in Yellowdapple's early life, but no matter how the young tom might feel about them, Heathernibble was just glad to have kept him safe. Their promise to Fog had been fulfilled, and when Pearlstalk passed away in the next year Heathernibble was only a couple of moons behind.