Astershade

Astershade is a previous Stormclan warrior who trained in the Dark Forest as an apprentice.

Kit
Aster was born to a kittypet named Sparkle along with his sister, Flame, and an unknown gendered and named kit. Sparkle wanted the chance for two of her kits to grow up wild, like their father, so she gave Aster and Flame to Garlic, who was the one who named them both based on their colouring.

Garlic lived as a rogue cat on his own, and knew he would be unable to care for two kits. Because of this, he gave Aster up to a queen he had befriended named Lightningdance, who took Aster, at the time three moons old, and raised him alongside her kits who she gave birth to a moon later. The clan didn't question the origins of the unknown kit, most believing him to be a kit who just happened to leave the nursery late that they had not yet met, and the other queens kept quiet about his random appearance in the clan.

Though Asterkit was raised to be accustomed to clan life, he never forgot his origins, and was excessively curious about just how big the world was. He dedicated his kithood to learning as much as he could while stuck in camp

When Lightningdance's kits were born, Asterkit felt Forgotten and lost. No one in camp had ever payed much attention to him, and now he had his own nest in the nursery and Lightningdance was devoting all of her time to her own litter. He continued to be the curious kit he had always been but he felt abandoned, now by his birth parents and his adoptive mother.

Apprentice
When Asterpaw was apprenticed, he felt like he may finally have a chance to fit in. However, the other apprentices always thought he was a bit odd. Not having been clan born, he had never inherited the natural Stormclan speed and body type, so he had trouble fitting in with the others and learning the necessary hunting techniques for the clan

One night, he found himself dreaming of a shadowy forest, and was greeted by a dark, scary looking unknown cat, who said that she could train him. He nervously agreed, and was introduced to a young Duskclan apprentice who had already been training there, by the name of Callingpaw. The two quickly established a partnership, and started training together every night. Asterpaw was aware that the Dark Forest wasn't a good place to be, but for the first time he had found a place where he felt like  he belonged, and the training he was getting was aiding in his training back in the clan, despite the numerous questions he was getting about his random injuries that he had received.

Near the end of his apprenticeship, an odd young dark ginger she-cat showed up to the clan, saying she had heard the stories about clan life and wished to join. Asterpaw quickly recognized her as Flame, and the two bonded for the first time since young kithood. Flame soon joined the clan as Flamepaw after proving her worth at hunting and fighting, and she began her training.

Warrior
Astershade soon received his warrior name, as he had excelled in training thanks to the Dark Forest. About a moon afterwards, his friend, now named Callingwind, came to him excitedly while they dreamed and told him how she had killed a cat who had crossed the border. It scared Astershade, but he wanted o impress her and he knew what his Dark Forest training had been for. A few days later when wandering the Streamclan border, he attacked a sick and half-delirious tom named Blazemoon, before making it look like it had been a fox attack and fleeing to the safety of his camp. He told Callingwind about this the night and he did manage to impress her the way he had hoped, but he felt awful about it.

After a few moons, he realised how unhappy he was in the Dark Forest, and tried to stop coming, but it never worked. At the battle with Snakeclan, he witnessed Callingwind's death, and ended up depressed

in the clan, he was mostly apathetic and didn't care much about anything. He ended up with a mate because Oakspeckle asked him, but for a long time he felt nothing for her, even when she was pregnant with his kits.

Shortly before his kits were born, his sister died giving birth to her kits, and only one of the two kits survived, a she named Hawkkit who Oakspeckle raised. Finally, Oakspeckle gave birth to four kits, and Astershade recognized his previous love in one of them, and named her Callingkit.