Mantisspring

Appearance & Personality
Mantisspring is a small, light brown tom with white cloud-like patches and dark brown rings around his eyes, paws and tail. His tail is long and thin, but fluffier on the bottom. He has longer fur around his face, and has long whiskers that hang down. His eyes are a bright lime green color, and he has a speckled nose. Mantisspring's right ear is folded.

Mantisspring is normally a very level-headed cat, calm and rational, but can get nervous pretty easily. While he does seek to help others, he fears that in doing so he never does a 'good job', or what he'd done to help didn't actually change anything. He isn't the best fighter, and is quite a pacifist, but is a talented hunter. He doesn't speak often due to his nervous personality, but it could also be because of his partially tranquil persona, as in he doesn't get the excitement to be very loquacious, and prefers to stay quiet and keep his thoughts to himself.

Brief History
Mantisspring realized that he was a tom at a very young age, and transitioned from female to male as a kit. Mantisspring became the first medicine cat apprentice of WindClan under Thistlebrook's mentorship. When she died early, Mantisspring became the full medicine cat of WindClan himself, seeking supplemental training from Bumblemeadow, the RiverClan medicine cat. Soon after, he made Vinepaw his apprentice, awarding them with the name Vinetwirl once they had finished their training. He stepped down from his role as a medicine cat after Dayblossom's death, feeling like he'd failed them and Rainbowstar.

Detailed History
Mantis had a rather normal kithood in the rogue group, with his parents Orchid and Ember, but he didn't have any siblings. The only odd portion of his kithood was that he was indeed born as a she-cat, but moving to WindClan and then growing up in the nursery surrounded by toms definitely influenced how he perceived himself. Playfighting with the young toms, he shared a den with Waspkit and Rushkit, and snuck out into the clearing at night while their mothers dozed off gave him that thrill of adventure, and remarkably his denmates never treated him as a she-cat, but rather as another tom, which further convinced him that he was a tom. He talked to Orchidblossom, his mother, and explained how he felt. Adapting was rough for his parents, but eventually, a moon or so before he received his apprentice name, they'd accepted him for his choice. His nervousness only began to develop as his training began, from the worry that he'd fall behind his peers, or his mentor wouldn't approve of him. He trained as a moor runner for a couple moons, and despite learning to hunt quickly, his will to fight or even learn to fight dwindled each day. A sense of not belonging with his denmates fell upon Mantispaw, and he began spending more time in camp rather than out on the moor. Once his parents had met their end, which had been in an accident out on patrol, he assumed he'd be all alone, until Fadinglight stepped up, and offered to care for him as his new mother.

Mantispaw met Thistlebrook for the first time when his denmate, Daypaw, was getting their paw treated. Mantispaw was rather intrigued by the process, and hung around in the medicine den, watching and observing. He didn't think much of the encounter, but Thistlebrook and Mantispaw ran into one another a few more times, once when Thistlebrook was chatting with her brother. The conversation resulted in Thistlebrook asking Mantispaw to be her apprentice, who gleefully accepted, becoming the first medicine cat apprentice of WindClan.

Mantispaw had a normal apprenticeship for a while, learning from Thistlebrook and caring for the sick and injured like any apprentice should. Just a night after Daypaw received their name of Dayblossom, Thistlebrook died in her sleep. In the blink of an eye, Mantisspring had become the full medicine cat of WindClan.

Troubled by the death of his mentor, Mantisspring was left in a terrible state of grief for a few days, refusing to eat or talk to other cats. The grief only seemed to pile up with his confusion regarding The Median, as Thistlebrook had not told him much about the mysterious molly before she'd died and forced him to try and figure out whether to trust The Median's words or not. And while Dayblossom's friendly company provided a good distraction to his anxieties, they still remained within, dragging him down on the inside even though he began to conceal them on the outside.

As time dragged on, he felt more and more pressured to live up to his role as WindClan's medicine cat. On a particular night, he met a mysterious kitten in his dreams, who went by the name Magnoliakit, and who quickly became a friend of his. After meeting Magnoliakit, he was struck with the fact that he'd be expected to pass his knowledge on to another cat very soon. He knew Spinpaw as a temporary denmate and apprentice, and he was still quite young - not much older than a new warrior - but he also knew that he'd have to take on an apprentice soon. During his time of consideration, the young apprentice Hazelpaw ended up in the medicine den with an injured paw from failing her warrior assessment. Mantisspring did his best to treat her with the little knowledge he had, and while she slept, Lightspur and Pinethorn came to him, looking to check on her. He agreed to let them visit her once she awoke, and they then moved on to another topic...as Pinethorn left to hunt, bidding his mate and the medicine cat farewell. Lightspur informed Mantisspring of her possibly expecting kits, and, even though he had never had any practice delivering kits, he promised he would get her through it as best he could, and with that she had left him alone with the sleeping Hazelpaw once more.

Troubled by how little he knew when Thistlebrook passed, Mantisspring decided he'd ask for help from the other medicine cats. With Cheetahpath and Mellowbug dead, and Softweb trapped within ThunderClan's borders, Mantisspring only really had Bumblemeadow to turn to because he wasn't familiar with the other new medicine cats. But, he wasn't complaining. He and Bumblemeadow already had a lot in common, so surely it wouldn't be hard to speak with the RiverClan medicine cat. Led to RiverClan's border by Dayblossom and Rainbowstar, Mantis met Bumblemeadow, who quickly taught Mantisspring the rest of the basic information that he needed to know, finally allowing Mantis to feel confident in his ability to heal. Especially in these times, the WindClan medicine cat wanted to do all he could to heal his Clan, and to heal the cats of the other Clans.

Whilst he was trying out the new poultices that Bumblemeadow had taught him to make, he found Vinekit outside the medicine den, struggling with a thorn lodged in their paw. And after helping the kit out, Mantisspring suddenly gained a liking to young Vinepaw. The next time they encountered one another, Mantisspring offered to mentor Vinekit to train them as a medicine cat, and they happily accepted, making Vinepaw the second medicine cat apprentice of WindClan. The two of them went on an outing in search of herbs, and Mantisspring was finally able to talk with Spinpaw after she had returned home to ThunderClan.

Mantisspring sat Vinepaw down to give them a lesson on comfrey leaves and thyme, and also brought back a rabbit for his apprentice, when Vinepaw decided to get their mentor some prey too, and returned with a rotten piece of prey, which they'd picked up on accident. Mantisspring insisted that Vinepaw stay far back as Mantis went out to bury the crowfood, and upon returning to the medicine den, Mantisspring took Vinepaw and led them to the RiverClan border to clean the awful taste from their tongue, and from his own as well. Unfortunately, after they'd arrived and taken a few laps from the river, Vinepaw fell in, leaving it up to Mantisspring to rescue them with a flimsy stick alone. Thankfully, while it was small, it had done the job nicely, and the apprentice was saved. Now drenched and tired, the two of them headed back home to WindClan, a mutual nervousness lingering between them, but Vinepaw was able to keep their chin up on the way back.

His mother allying with ThunderClan suddenly after a Gathering had certainly caught the young tom off guard, but he could only hope this would make conflict less probable. Of course, he was wrong, the moment RiverClan tried to take the barn from WindClan, their deputy Tigertide accusing them of being weak. Mantisspring was ushered to follow after the patrol of WindClan and ThunderClan cats as their medic, with young Vinepaw accompanying him. They hid in a bush near the entrance of the barn, unfortunately unable to see the battle from there. But their Clan knew where to find them in case an injury came along, and that was exactly what happened as halfway through the battle, after Mantisspring had been having a long talk about conflicts like this with his apprentice, Dayblossom hurried to their bush, a nasty injury on their forehead. Mantisspring was eager to heal his best friend's wound, but was called out of the bush by Rainbowstar only moments later. So, he left the task of healing Dayblossom to Vinepaw, while he hurried out to his mother, just in time to find an unconscious Sunnygrove, who had suffered many wounds from battling Tigertide. He did his very best to heal all her wounds, before she was carried back to ThunderClan where her own medicine cats would take care of her. After checking up on his friend one last time, Mantisspring followed the rest of WindClan back home as well, hardly aware of what had gone down that day.

Although he dreaded the news of a second battle, he reluctantly followed after WindClan and ThunderClan to the raid on RiverClan's own camp, forcing himself not to trespass in their home, and instead remain outside their camp, forced to listen to the yowls and cries of pain, and watch in horror as Rainbowstar was carried out by his mother, as she had lost a life in this battle. He was late to return home, filled with fear for what awaited his Clan and family next in this horror, and he ran into Dayblossom on the way back, who had been watching over camp in the meantime. The two of them spoke, and the moor runner arose the suggestion of killing Rivuletstar in order to wake her from her coma, in hopes of ending the fighting. At first, Mantisspring was extremely hesitant. Not only was he a medicine cat, and shouldn't allow this sort of solution, but he also didn't want his best friend to get themselves into any trouble with the RiverClan leader, or with his mothers. However, he soon gave into the idea, under the terms that Mantisspring had to accompany them in order to make sure they would be safe. So, with some border planning with Dustfall and Sandpaw, the two WindClan cats snuck into RiverClan camp the next night, allowing Dayblossom to slit Rivuletstar's throat, waking her from her coma at last. And after she was caught up on the situation, she thanked the two WindClanners, Dayblossom quickly making their way back home, while Mantisspring offered to help Dustfall with her ruined herb storage - unfortunately she paid his offer no mind at all, so he too headed back home. Their first objective upon returning home was to inform Rainbowstar of their actions. Not only was she proud of them both, but Mantisspring also noticed her odd behavior, and began to worry about her health. Before he could ask on it, she ushered them both out and insisted they get some rest, before disappearing back into her den.

The worst had come, as Mantisspring and Dayblossom's efforts were not taken kindly. Despite waking up Rivuletstar, the final battle still commenced, and Mantis was forced to drag Vinepaw and himself out to the Glade, to be there as medics once again. The dispute remained between the leaders for a while, until Rainbowstar made her way over to the medicine cats to check in on them before hurrying off to try and stop the arguing and the fighting. This unfortunately led to her demise, for one furious blow from Tigertide stripped her of her final life, leaving Mantisspring in a frozen shock, his grief pulling him away from his apprentice's side and straight to his mothers' quickly gesturing the injured Sunnygrove to go see Vinepaw instead of him - his dying mother was the only thing he was willing to focus on. He accompanied Fadinglight in carrying Rainbowstar back to camp, safely bringing her to the medicine den. He was close beside her nest as she spoke her final words... to her daughter, her mate, and former apprentice, Dayblossom. It came as no surprise that she had nothing to say to him before she passed, as he was only her son through being mates with Fadinglight. It hurt, yeah, but he didn't let it get the best of him. There was nothing but grief in his heart as they sat through the vigil, the young medicine cat making sure not to leave his remaining mother's side throughout it, not until she'd left, and returned with Rainbow's collar around her neck.

For the next few moons, Mantisspring did nothing but worry, and worry, and worry for his mother. Her grief and anger towards the death of her mate drawing him to cling to her side, desperately trying to help her in every way he could, not only to ease his own worries, but to just make sure she could regain her strength again. During this time, Mantisspring had left all his duties to his apprentice, Vinepaw, while he focused solely on Fadingstar, and Fadingstar alone. On a small trip to bring soothing herbs up to his mother's den, Mantis was stopped by Dayblossom, who offered to help him bring the herbs to the leader's den, but at the same time, tried to talk the medicine cat out of his overwhelming worries. Poor Mantisspring was fidgety, and incredibly overemotional and overworked at this time, and it only heightened Dayblossom's worries. After a long, long talk, Mantisspring finally agreed to take some thyme from his herb bundle for himself, and calm down a little, now given some reassurance that his mother would be all right.

He recovered from his overwhelming anxiety soon after, and returned to the medicine den once more, using his prior worries as an excuse to get Vinepaw out of the den, saying they had to visit the Moongarden to get answers from StarClan on how to help Fadingstar - and how it was the only solution. The medicine cat apprentice went along with this, and followed their mentor all the way to the Moongarden. As soon as they arrived, Mantisspring revealed his true intentions for bringing them here, declaring that it was finally time that Vinepaw was given their full name, because of how hard they'd worked during the battles, and during Mantisspring's absence from the medicine den. He rewarded them with the name Vinetwirl, the ceremony being a bit sloppy, as he had... never gotten a true ceremony of his own, because he had named himself. The two of them headed back to camp, spirits light.

A moon or so had passed before Mantisspring was approached by his mother, Fadingstar on his way back to camp after having gone out for some horsetail - due to the scorching hot weather, the majority of it had dried out, but he had managed to harvest a small bundle, at the cost of his energy, and his paw pads, which burned like fire when he returned. She noticed his state and quickly rushed to his side, ushering him into her den to rest. Gratefully, he accepted the help, following her to her den to finally sit down, despite his need to drop the small clumps of horsetail in the medicine den. It came as a pleasant surprise to Mantisspring as Fadingstar wasted no time as soon as they'd sat down, showering him with love and praise; it was almost overwhelming to receive it all at once... he'd never seen his usually stern mother so affectionate, and he couldn't help but wonder what had caused this sort of change. She spoke as though she was running, running out of time, but he pretended not to acknowledge that, overjoyed by her praise, even if he believed he didn't deserve it. They talked and talked for a while, before they both dozed off from fatigue. And when they awoke again, it was night, and the air was much cooler. This prompted Fadingstar to suggest finally bringing the horsetail down to the medicine den, to which Mantisspring agreed. The short journey down to his den was a struggle, as his paw pads seemed to ache more with each and every step. having been worn out from his outing the day before. He was quick to set the horsetail in its own pile and get to work looking for dock leaves in order to heal his paw pads, but, he was unsuccessful in finding any - they were out of dock leaves. He brought this up to his mother, and she suggested they go out to harvest some, by the barn, possibly. Eagerly, Mantisspring agreed, hurrying beside her to the barn. Upon arriving, he immediately began to scour the assorted plants and weeds growing against the barn walls, while Fadingstar explored the second floor, caught up by memories as he continued to sniff around for dock. Both of them were painfully alarmed when the floorboards beneath Fadingstar snapped, and she fell to the first floor, having lost a life. The very second she woke up again, Mantisspring was rushing to heal her scraped up sides, quite literally crying his eyes out from shock, fear, and guilt. She had tried to reassure him the entire time he healed her, with what cobwebs and thyme he could find in the barn, but it hardly helped, the guilt and worry still clouding his mind. Once her wounds were patched up, he assisted his mother in walking back home, worry guiding his steps once again, and her words of "I still have eight lives left" echoing in his head.

Still quite shaken by the barn accident, Mantisspring decided to offer to take a walk with his best friend Dayblossom, just to clear his head. The two of them talked pleasantly for a good while, until Dayblossom declared they just had to chase after the rabbit that had bolted in front of them. Mantisspring, as a medicine cat, decided to simply stand back and watch as the moor runner chased the critter down into a tunnel. Dayblossom never emerged from that tunnel on their own. The soil and rocks came tumbling down on them when they'd bumped into the tunnel walls one too many times, but was able to grab the rabbit before they were crushed. When Mantisspring rushed into the tunnel to find them, they were barely clinging onto life - let alone the rabbit. Mantisspring desperately freed Dayblossom from the soil and rocks, lifting them on his back to take them back to camp, but... he had little hope. His face was drenched with panicked tears and his mind was all over the place. Dayblossom was dying, and there was nothing he could do.

Mantisspring carried the now deceased Dayblossom back to WindClan camp with the heaviest heart, breaking the serene silence of the clearing with his sobs. His mother and apprentice were first to rush to his side as he set the body of his friend in the clearing, and this was the breaking point for him. Sunnygrove's head injury long ago had been successfully treated long ago. But after that? He'd done nothing but fail. He'd failed his Clan and his mothers when he couldn't save Rainbowstar's life in time, he'd failed his best friend Dayblossom by being unable to save them... and it was then that Mantisspring announced to Fadingstar and Vinetwirl that he would be stepping down as WindClan's medicine cat, claiming that the Clan would be far safer in Vinetwirl's paws than his own. With that, he decided to train as a moor runner because he was still quite young, and was apprenticed to Fadingstar, hoping this new life would benefit the Clan much, much more than when he was healing them.