Fernface

Appearance
Fernface is a light brown and white tabby she-cat with a distinctive black and white face. She has round amber eyes and scarred, bitten ears. There is a snaggletooth on the left side of her mouth and the fur on her chin is wiry. She has a long and scruffy pelt, a blunt and heart-shaped nose, and small, sharp eyebrows. Her pelt is mottled with darker speckles and her muzzle is large and prominent.

Personality
Fernface is a rigorous and ruthless young molly with a sharp tongue and even sharper claws. She is Goldenpelt’s most loyal supporter, willing to do any dirty work that he isn’t — sometimes with or without his knowing. Fernface might be entirely smitten with Goldenpelt, but she is increasingly frustrated by his infatuation and apparent obsession with Spottedshadow. While it is largely out of jealousy, a part of it comes from a more sincere place in her heart; she can see that Spottedshadow is going to hold Goldenpelt back from being his best, and she has tried multiple times to get Goldenpelt to change his mind about his old childhood friend. She has even gone so far as to lie to him about exactly what she’s seen at Gatherings when asked to spy on Spottedshadow and her friends. Her attempts have all proved unsuccessful, however, much to her disappointment and fury. She wants what she believes is best for Goldenpelt, and she will push at the boundaries he has set for her from time to time, but all things considered, she always obeys him.

Fernface is mates with another old friend of hers, Jaggedstripe - not due to her own will, but due to it being Goldenpelt’s. Fernface has no romantic love for Jaggedstripe and did not even want to be a mother, but Goldenpelt had told her that Jaggedstripe would make a good father to her kittens... and so Fernface did as he suggested. He had been right, of course. Jaggedstripe loves Dawn and Dark dearly and spends far more time in the nursery with them than she does, which leaves Fernface more time to continue her ranger duties and follow Goldenpelt. She tolerates Jaggedstripe and seems to get along with him just fine, but he is much too soft for her liking and does not return his feelings; her eyes are all for Goldenpelt. Fernface is a 'stab without warning' and 'stab as a warning' type of cat.

Fernface loves only two things: Goldenpelt, her 'friend' and leader, and Volefur, her brother. She's a very jealous and hateful cat - though most of the time, she's actually a pretty respectable ranger of Field Colony, known for her cunning and ferocity.

Biography
As kittens, Fern and her brother Vole were found on the edge of Field Colony territory one day when Hazelfur took them in. The two were too young to remember anything prior to their lives in Field Colony.

They were taken in by the Colony’s keepers and nursing mollies, including Whitebelly, Swift-tail, and Jagged’s unnamed mother. Along with Jagged, the three other kittens in the nursery were Raven - the young daughter of Whitebelly and Blackpelt - and Golden and Amber, who were Swift-tail’s kittens. Fern clicked straight away with Jagged and Golden in particular. Jagged developed a crush on her and Golden gave her somebody to look up to.

It was noted that as a kitten, Fern was constantly causing trouble, and at one point convinced Vole and Jagged to sneak out of the base with her. Whitebelly and Blackpelt, likely among others, were said to have looked everywhere for them. The details of the outcome were never specified, but the three kittens were eventually returned to the Colony’s base.

At six moons old, Fern and Vole became new-claws, two moons after Jagged. Fern’s mentor has never been clarified, and there have been few details given about the nature of her training, but she seemed to do efficient work. They were joined a half-moon later by Golden, Amber, and Raven, and this is when things began to get messy.

Fern started admiring Golden more and more, and together with Vole and Jagged, she formed a little group that constantly surrounded Golden and essentially just did his bidding. As his relationship with Raven — formerly his best friend — deteriorated, he would enlist Fern and the others to spy on her during Moonlight Gatherings and meetings with her friends from other Colonies and report back to him what they saw. Fern was glad to do this and derived great satisfaction from feeling useful to Golden and making life ever so slightly more difficult for Raven, whom she harbored a strong dislike for.

This continued until they all became rangers. After Goldenpelt received his first new-claw, Timber, he began mending his friendship with Raven (now named Spottedshadow). He clearly was in love with her, and this upset Fernface, as she was in love with him. She did not want him being limited by Spottedshadow’s meek outward demeanor and strange views. She told him as such, requesting that he forget Spottedshadow and move on with his life, but he brushed her concerns aside, much to her exasperation. He continued in his efforts to isolate Spottedshadow from other cats, eventually managing to get her banned from attending Gatherings, and continued having Fernface and the rest of his group work towards damaging her reputation within Field Colony in order to keep her close and in his grasp.

After a short while, it became apparent to Fernface that Goldenpelt was rejecting her advances and that Jaggedstripe had feelings for her. She would not have done anything with that knowledge if Goldenpelt had not directly spoken to her about it and told her to become mates with Jaggedstripe. He said that Jaggedstripe would make a good father for her kittens and that his close friends starting a family would gain him more support amongst the other cats in the Colony. Fernface was unhappy, but she went along with it to please Goldenpelt. Jaggedstripe, however, was delighted; he sincerely loved Fernface and seemed to be under the impression that she felt the same way about him.

As Jaggedstripe’s less-than-enthusiastic mate, she gave birth to two kittens: Dawn, a molly, and Dark, a tom. She did not want to have to put up with being a mother, though, and so she left the nursery soon after they were born, returning to her ranger duties. She rarely visits them and does not think of them very often. She is a distant figure in their lives that they do not even think of as their mother, and she wouldn’t have it any other way.

Currently, Fernface still carries out her responsibilities as a ranger and spends most of her free time with Goldenpelt, Volefur, and Jaggedstripe, bent on following Goldenpelt’s every word and making Spottedshadow’s life miserable.

Goldenpelt
Fernface is one of Goldenpelt’s closest and oldest companions. She loves him somewhat romantically and is angered by how much he fawns over Spottedshadow. Most of her devotion to him is idolization and as a friend, though — it's complicated. Sometimes Fernface decides that she knows Goldenpelt so well that she’s aware of "what he really needs" even when he isn’t, so she will set up something without him knowing, having decreed that it is what's best for him. They clash a bit, as Fernface likes to take a more active role rather than staying a follower, but all things taken into account, she is the most loyal and effective of his supporters.

In spite of that, she is still one of the cats that Goldenpelt uses and takes advantage of for his own gain. She is well aware of it, however, and does not view it as manipulation; she is delighted to be useful to him in any way she can be, even if it means spying on Spottedshadow or spreading lies about her. She despises the other molly anyways.

Spottedshadow
Coming soon...

Jaggedstripe
Fernface and Jaggedstripe are mates, but have been said to be horrid for each other. Jaggedstripe genuinely loves Fernface and has had a crush on her since they were kittens. Fernface's feelings are a bit harder to decipher. She considers him a friend and an ally in terms of supporting Goldenpelt, but he is considerably weaker and slower than she is, both physically and mentally — and that likely irritates her to no end.

Jagged was probably the first real friend that Fern and Vole made after joining Field Colony, as he was the closest to their age and wanted to make them feel welcome. He remained friends with them while they were new-claws and young rangers. Fernface never saw him as a love interest and only became his mate because Goldenpelt had advised her to. She bore his kittens, Dawn and Dark, as she had begrudgingly agreed to, and then moved out of the nursery, leaving Jaggedstripe to raise them mainly without her.

Even so, they get along well; Jaggedstripe is affectionate and cares deeply about her, and she is not particularly cold or hostile toward him.

Volefur
Fernface is a protective sister of Volefur, her brother and littermate. The two were found together on the edge of Field Colony territory as kittens in bad condition, and were both taken in and raised by the Colony, which is how they let their own kittens be raised as well. Despite Fernface's ruthless and hateful exterior, Volefur is one of the only things she truly loves.

Dawn and Dark
Dark and Dawn are Fernface’s son and daughter. She had never really been keen on having them, and once they were born, she refused to settle in the nursery, instead continuing on with her ranger work as if she had no kittens at all.

She does not often visit them and pays them little mind. They see Meadowleap as more of a maternal figure than Fernface and do not really understand what they are missing out on, but Dark has expressed an interest in getting to know his mother more when he has the chance.

Trivia

 * She is one of the three other cats in Goldenpelt’s friend group, the other two being Volefur and Jaggedstripe. Ambereyes and Spottedshadow are the two other cats of her generation.
 * Both Fernface and her brother Volefur came to Field Colony in bad condition, though Fern also came with her notched ears.
 * Fernface is one of TennelleFlowers' favorite Field Colony non-main characters, alongside Jaggedstripe. TennelleFlowers has said that Fernface is fun to write from.
 * Fernface is often seen as the "brains" between her and Volefur.