Emberdusk - Tumblr Posts

The sun was starting to sink in the sky as they made their way through the field, its colors washing the earth and their pelts in a deep orange like that of flames. Times like this made Emberdusk think his name very befitting of his appearance, with his bright orange pelt and amber eyes. Lost in his thoughts, he almost didn't hear Smokestep's scoff as he continued talking about... whatever it was.

"Eh, I don't believe that whole thing about "Barkstar's Curse". It's just a tale to get kits to behave."

Emberdusk wanted to forget about the curse that hung over his head like a storm cloud. Any cat expecting kits was reminded of it as a warning: do not have your kits in the woods, or they will end up like Barkstar's. Emberdusk was born in the woods; would he meet the same fate? Or worse, was everyone he held too dearly doomed to die? "I don't know... What about my parents? Whitefern's father...?"

Just then, he felt the molly's paw on his shoulder. Her fur was dappled by the setting sun casting shadows through the high stalks around them. She was a radiant, soft cloud, no matter the weather. "Emberdusk, none of that was your fault. Kits' tale or not, I don't think you're cursed."

He found he had nothing to say.

"We're out here to hunt, so let's look around!"

"Okay..." He found that gloom could not cling to his pelt when she was around. "Thanks, Whitefern."

She perked up when his mood slowly changed. "It's nothing!"

Having walked ahead of them, Smokestep stopped to turn around. "Ugh..." He rolled his eyes. "You guys! Get over here."

As her mentor and the cat he clearly held affection for dashed to catch up, Creekpaw quietly hung behind, wondering about this curse. Could it really be true? Perhaps this was why Emberdusk was so avoidant of her and kept shoving off his duties to train her on other cats. Whatever it was, her father certainly complained on his irresponsibility. Oakclaw had already been mad enough when the outsider had been appointed her mentor. It must be a lonely life to be an outcast, Creekpaw thought. Will that be my life, too?

I've been having a hell of a time with cat genetics lately. I had previously mentioned how much Emberdusk annoyed me (he didn't even have the full set of colorpoint markings) so I modified him a little. The one on the left will be his new design going forward.

I also tried my hand at figuring out how close I could get to his design in a more realistic cat. I had to figure out what his parents were first. So I messed with this generator and had to figure those out first. His sister having flame/cream points and him having seal and a darker main body color than white/cream was most of what I had to work with and I tried to get something for him as close as possible to a color that could look red, even if only by sunlight. Ended up with seal sepia and decided it was good enough.

Then I spent the next several hours determining Whitefern's genes so I could figure out what their kids would look like so I can design them. Oh boy. And I probably still got some stuff wrong I bet.