Jonquilblossom

Jonquilblossom is one of the current Duskclan medicine cats, known for her constant paranoia and depression.

Appearance
Jonquilblossom has been described as a white long-haired she-cat with amber eyes. Her fur is very thin despite its length, and does little to keep out cold air. She has relatively long ears. In some appearances she has had a short, stubbed tail, but has also been described with a long tail.

Personality
Jonquilblossom is incredibly caring and has been forced to be bery strong-willed. She wants to save every cat she can even if it isnt possible for her to do so. She is able to form close bonds very easily with others, but usually refuses to do so and pushes other cats away. She deals constantless with depression and paranoia caused by trauma in her past.

Kit
Jonquilkit was born with her littermate Orchidkit to Lightwave, a permanent queen. She was always the headstrong one of the two, though neither was seen without the other. They quickly formed a close relationship with an older kit, Blossomkit, and the three were inseparable.

An accident while playing in the late-leafbare snow caused Jonquilkit to injure her forepaw, which led to Hollybriar (Hollypaw at the time) confining her to the med den for a few nights while she observed the healing process of the wound.

During this time, Blossomkit developed the greencough that was spreading through the camp. Due to the inability of the main medicine cat to assist in caring for the patients, Hollypaw allowed Jonquilkit, who had developed rhe ability to recognize different symptoms after observing other patients, to watch over Blossomkit while the medicine cat apprentice was busy. Jonquilkit quickly learned how to care for a cat with greencough, and assisted Hollypaw greatly in taking care of Blossomkit.

However, despite their efforts, Blossomkit passed away, leaving Jonquilkit feeling like she was alone. She blamed herself, not understanding that she was not a medicine cat, and could not have done anything else to help her friend. She developed depression and refused to eat. She had nightmares about Blossomkit and began refusing to sleep. Hollypaw brought her back to the med den where she could watch her and make sure she was staying healthy.

Slowly Jonquilkit got to a point where she was eating and sleeping, but she was still melancholy and lonely. Hollybriar arranged for Jonquilkit to be spending time with Thymekit, a younger kit who's only friend at the time was his sister. Jonquilkit, starved for a friendship after the loss of Blossomkit and the constant separation from her brother, who had since received his apprentice name and made new friends of his own, quickly got to know her new friend and they became closer than she had been with anyone else.

She later admitted to Thymekit that her one goal was to save the life of another cat, and Hollybriar overheard this.

Apprentice
Jonquilpaw was made Hollybriar's apprentice, and was told by Hollybriar that "your friend must have been listening to you." Jonquilpaw originally was confused, and glanced over to Thymekit assuming that he must be the cat she was talking about, but she soon realized that her mentor was actually talking about Blossomkit, and for a moment she felt the presence of her kithood friend.

Jonquilpaw and Thymekit had a conversation soon after she was made an apprentice, which unknown to both of them was overheard by Hollybriar. During this conversation, Thymekit expressed his disappointment that the two wouldn't get to train together, and he bitterly spoke about how "medicine cats are always she-cats." Soon after this, the two were visiting the nursery only to discover that Dawnshade, Thymekit and Sunrisekit's mother, was very sick. Jonquilpaw recognized the symptoms while Thymekit said that he could "smell the sickness on her". They quickly helped the older she cat into the med den, where Hollybriar quickly shooed Thymekit out of the den and began caring for the cat.

A few days later, Thymepaw was also appointed as medicine cat apprentice, and the two cats were overjoyed to be working together.

Jonquilpaw's happiness didn't last for long, as soon afterward, despite the meds trying as hard as they could, Dawnshade died from the greencough. Jonquilpaw believed that she was no good at her job and that she shouldn't be trusted to be a medicine cat.

She began to develop a friendship with a newly named warrior, Smokeshadow, who told her all about what it was like being a warrior. She had drifted away from her brother, who had made his own friends, and she was happy to have a friend who reminded her of him, with his care-free, overly-optimistic attitude, quite the opposite of herself. She and Smokeshadow spent a lot of time together, though not as much as she continued to spend with Thymepaw.

When Smokeshadow died from greencough and her mother, Lightwave, died from an unknown stomach virus, Jonquilpaw believed that somehow she was the cause of these deaths, and that if she got close to any other cats they would die. She pushed away her brother, who wanted to be friends with her again, as well as refusing to talk to Smokeshadow's family, his father Eagleeyes and his brother Vaporpaw, even though she had been friends with them before. The only cats she spent time with her Hollybriar and Thymepool.

Medicine Cat
The night of the half-moon in greenlea, the three med cats went to the moonpool to speak with Starclan, and Jonquilblossom and Thymepool received their full names, Jonquilblossom being named for her long-dead kithood friend. They went to sleep and Jonquilblossom heard the faint voice of Blossomkit, leaving her feeling nostalgic and hopeless. They then all received a prophecy that spoke of red hair meaning danger, and hearing unknown banging noises. Jonquilblossom herself interpreted this to mean there was a fox that would cause danger, but as they were on the way back to camp, they learned that this was not the case. Two twoleg children happened to be out hunting raccoons with BB guns. Hollybriar told the two younger cats to hide being a bush while she carefully went to investigate, but the red-haired child mistook the medicine cat for a raccoon in the dark, and shot her before realising his mistake. The two younger med cat she hurriedly brought Hollybriar back to camp, but they were unable to do anything about the wound, and Hollybriar died. Jonquilblossom threw herself into her work, barely associating with anyone other than Thymepool because she continued to believe that she was the reason for the deaths of the cats she cared about. She further believed this when Vaporshade, the younger brother of Smokeshadow, passed away in the med den, and when Orchideyes's mate, Doeeyes, died.

It wasn't long after this that Thymepool and Jonquilblossom received their first apprentice to train together. Jonquilblossom, longing for a friend ever since they had lost Hollybriar, quickly got to know Cricketpaw, training him in everything she knew. At the same time, she and Thymepool's relationship deleloped into something past just friendship, but they hid it from the clan

However, after about a moon, Thymepool was attacked by an unknown animal out in the territory. Jonquilbloosom ft camp to search for herbs only to find the broken body of her best friend since kithood. She never fully recovered from losing him.

She continued to train Cricketpaw, but unfortunately lost him as well to a rockfall. She slowly started to blame Starclan for everything that had happened to her, as for several moons in a row she had only heard silence at the moon pool. She was convinced that Starclan didn't care about her after all the death she had caused. It didn't help that soon she lost her beloved leader, Lilystar, as well

She got a new apprentice, a she-cat named Dreampaw, who she refused to get to know past a mentor-apprentice level. However despite her best efforts, she still lost her new apprentice as well after only a moon, around the same time that she was unable to save the elder, Eagleeyes from a stomach virus. She began to give up, feeling that she couldn't save anyone despite her knowledge of herbs.

Soon however, she felt an attraction towards a kit named Houndkit, who would constantly bother her and admire her. He was eventually made her apprentice when he was old enough, and very soon afterwards she admitted to him her fears of losing another apprentice, and he promised that he wouldn't leave her. With her new apprentice's guidance, she slowly began to find happiness again.

After losing a queen, Glowstick, and two of her newborns during kitbirth, Jonquilblossom became depressed again, and Houndpaw took over her job for a while, which allowed Jonquilblossom some rest to recover from another loss. This was near the time that they were forced into a cave by the flood.

Jonquilblossom once stuck in the cave became mre paranoid than she had been before, which led to Houndpaw convincing her to take calming herbs on a daily basis. She managed to stay vaguely sane for a while, but after losing many cats from the various clans and running out of herbs, she began to go insane. She woke up screaming regularly from nightmares and was unable to focus on her work. She was convinced that Starclan had abandoned all of them and that they were all going to die while stuck in the cave.

Even when they made it out of the cave, it took some time for her to recover. Houndpaw took over for some time taking care of the clan and his mentor, as it was long since the time that he deserved his full name. The next chance they had to go to the moon pool, Jonquilblossom named him Houndspark for his constant energy and determination. She was able to begin caring for her clan again, though ever since their time in the cave she has been jumpy and anxious.

After they got out of the cave, it was discovered that her nephew, Dewfall, had mated with a Stormclan she-cat, Mothcloud. Both of the kits were left to be raised in Duskclan, and the parents were banished. Jonquilblossom blamed herself because Dewfall had been a family member, and pushed away Orchideyes even more, refusing to talk to him or his family, even though her new grand-nieces were named after Orchideyes's dead mate, and her own dead mother (Doekit, and Lightkit).

After some moons, where Jonquilblossom felt like finally maybe she would have some luck as it had been some time since there had been a lot of death in the clan, Jonquilblossom and Houndsoark found a new apprentice, an intelligent and devoted young she-cat named Ivypaw. Jonquilblossom decided that she would teach the she-cat the best she could.

Unluckily for Jonquilblossom, her brother developed greencough, which refused to be treated. She did everything she could, spending all her time by Orchideyes's side, even leading to her being very weak from not eating or sleeping enough. She did all she could but the greencough only got worse until the day that Orchideyes died, surrounded by herself and all of his family. This same night, unknowingly to Jonquilblossom, was when Houndspark found an illegal mate. Jonquilblossom could tell that something was up with him, after going through something similar with Thymepool when she was younger, but she couldn't decipher what her apprentice was hiding, so she let it go, just telling him to tell her if he ever needed something. she sat vigil with her brother's family that night.

Trivia

 * Jonquilblossom hates, and is almost afraid of, leafbare.
 * As a kit, she never had any desire to become a medicine cat.
 * Her favourite fresh kill is shrew.
 * She believes that Starclan has cursed her because of her inability to save Blossomkit as a kit.