Slatetail

Slatetail was a silvery she-cat with equally silver eyes.

Slate was a mysterious cat who was graced with visions from the stars since birth. Every night, she dreamt of far away clans of cats, and saw the events that took place in them as she slept. She came to know the hierarchy of these clans, the importance of different roles for cats to take, and the meaning of their code of laws. One important night, she was led by these visions far into the forest, where she met a small, growing clan of cats, similar to the distant ones she knew of. As soon as she arrived, she understood that it was her destiny to become their medicine cat.

Slate worked closely with Patch and his band of cats, informing him of the meaning of being a warrior in a Clan. She taught him everything she knew of the code, names, and the lifestyle of those cats she saw in her dreams. Day by day, the disarrayed group became a Clan. Slate named herself as Slatetail, Patch took on the name of Patchstar and named the other members as he and Slatetail saw fit. The cats began to build separate dens for warriors and leaders, and took on some of the laws of the warrior code.

Once the Clan was truly established, Slatetail took on the more traditional role of medicine cat, spending her days looking after ill and injured cats to the best of her ability. Briefly, an apprentice by the name of Yellowpaw was interested in learning Slatetail's work. Slatetail always knew that this was not the apprentice's destiny, but allowed the young tom to study medicine as he wished. It was when a small band of rats found their way into the camp that Yellowpaw found his strength in fighting rather than healing. The tom ended up leaving his medicine cat duties behind him, with Slatetail's great approval.

It was with the birth of Shineleaf that Slatetail knew she would have a worthy successor. She could tell the young she-cat had great potential, and to the medicine cat's delight, the kitten wanted to be a medicinal apprentice on her own accord.

On the night of an intense rainstorm, Slatetail had been asleep, dreaming her usual visions of the faraway clans, when a cat appeared and warned her of the melting snowbank and heavy rains. Slatetail knew that the river nearing BirdClan camp would flood. When she awoke, she yowled for the rest of the clan to climb and take cover in the treetops, running from den to den and waking up the warriors. Unfortunately, her urgency in saving her clanmates cost her her own life, as she was still on the ground checking the dens when the initial waters hit and took her away.