Warriors Wildlife - Maria

Maria was then given to Wildclan’s Medicine Cats for treatment and was permitted to stay within the clan until she could hunt for herself again. During her stay, Oceanpaw, Goldenpaw, and medicine cat apprentice Velvetpaw worked to befriend her. Goldenpaw was still getting used to accepting outsiders, so after awkwardly starting a conversation by complimenting how green and pretty Maria’s eyes were, Maria sarcastically and jokingly replied "I think your intense stare may have made that thought loud and clear." It further amused her how embarrassed and defensive Goldenpaw became afterwards.

After a week, Maria became more steady on her paws again and decided to spend time helping the clan hunt in order to make up for the meals she had taken during her stay. Although most of the clan members shunned her, she wouldn’t let it bother her. Instead, during her time with Wildclan she became close with Oceanpaw, Goldenpaw, and Velvetpaw. The companionship she felt with them made her grow fond of the general idea of a clan you could call home and friends you could trust. Although the three apprentices had hopes that Maria would join their clan, the loner decided to stick with her old path, having a feeling that Wildclan wasn’t really “her place” to stay and feeling as though she was needed someplace else. After exchanging whole-hearted farewells, Mara went back out into the forests.

Time passed and eventually Maria decided to settle in one place. This eventually led to a confrontation with a fox. However, just as she was cornered, another cat came to her rescue and helped her escape. He turned out to be a tom named Blaze and almost instantaneously Maria felt a connection with him. Their personalities worked well and the two became companions, which slowly evolved into becoming mates. During their time together Maria shared the concept of the clans with Blaze, who in turn was interested in the idea.

Maria had a litter of three toms, two of them resembling Blaze while one resembled her. While Blaze named two of the kits Slash and Haze, she named their last black kit Panther. When it was time for the kits to open their eyes, Blaze was proud to see that Slash and Haze had inherited his red eyes, which he believed was a sign of strength. Panther was the last to open his eyes, and upon seeing that they were green, Maria herself was intrigued and joked about how he was the odd one out. She noticed, however, that Blaze had gone dead silent and was staring at their son. When Maria worriedly questioned it, he shook himself out of his thoughts and claimed that he was simply caught off guard. But Maria could sense that he was lying.

Maria watched as Blaze seemed to show favoritism towards their other two sons and would even act withdrawn with Panther. While Blaze took Haze and Slash out for training lessons, Panther would always end up staying with Maria and be watched over by her. Even if it frustrated her that Blaze was keeping his distance from Panther, Maria adored her kit and loved spending time with him. She often had to heavily scold her other two kits whenever they purposely left out or taunted Panther due to the impression their father’s behavior had given them of their brother. In time Maria found herself showing more favor towards Panther.

Moons passed and a greater disconnection seemed to form between herself and her two kits, who had seemingly directed their critical attitude and “dislike” for their brother onto their mother as well. This was most notable in her other black kit, Slash.

When Maria tried to train Panther how to fight and defend himself, Blaze caught on and angrily snapped at his mate, claiming that she shouldn’t be training Panther. This only confused and exasperated the she-cat further and despite a heavy argument breaking out between the two, Blaze refused to give her questions proper answers and he even cut off the argument and walked away from her.

Maria soon began considering the idea of taking Panther and simply leaving Blaze and her other kits. But before she could make her decision, a day came that took a turn for the worse.

With Blaze nowhere in sight, Slash and Haze turned on both Panther and Maria, deciding to “get rid of them” and claiming that it was what their father wanted. The two toms were fierce fighters thanks to their father, so protecting Panther proved to be difficult.

After Maria had just enough time to urge Panther to run far - telling him she’d catch up and making him promise he wouldn’t come back to that area for her - Maria tried to distract Slash and Haze to buy Panther time. This led to the two chasing her, cornering her at a ledge. Maria bitterly yelled at the two, commenting on how she couldn’t believe how heartless they had become. It pained her to see what her own children were now resorting to. After calling Blaze a coward for sending his own kits after her, as well as weak-willed for not caring for his whole family, Slash abruptly shoved Maria off of the ledge. This led her to land on numerous jagged rocks, thus killing her.

Wildlife

In the next life, Maria was welcomed into Starclan and was informed so by her old friend Oceanwave who was sent as a messenger. There was a deal, however, and that was that Maria had to guide Panther to the clans. If she could do that, then she would walk upon Starclan’s skies and would be able to live there amongst them; she’d be able to bring Panther to safety and also get to watch over him.

With the energy she had left as a wandering spirit, she did her best to show her son the way through a darker mental projection of his surroundings within his dreams. Soon enough she was able to lead him to the Shadowed Forest near the clans, and from there she was greeted by Starclan and was informed of the great destiny Panther had with his prophecy.

At first Maria was somewhat angered, suspicious that Starclan’s intentions had only been self-motivated. In the end, however, the news made Maria proud of her son but also terrified, not knowing what kind of destiny and hardships were in store for young Panther.

When she discovered that Panther could see Starclan cats, Maria wanted nothing more than to reveal herself to him. The leaders of Starclan discouraged the idea, however, claiming that it could badly affect him mentally and emotionally if he were to find out so soon that she had died, as well as how she died. They claimed it would more than likely make the path to his destiny even harder to shoulder through. Solemnly accepting their logic, Maria watched over her son from a distance, praying he’d stay strong.