sandthroat

Redwoodclan

a golden tabby tom with green eyes and a flat muzzle.

Sandthroat’s pelt is a striking sight. He is bright golden in color. A smattering of black hairs trace his spine and devolve into the soft yellow of his belly. He is so bright that hunting is a great challenge for him, as most prey (and predators) see him from a tree-length away. Across his body, the faintest of tabby markings can be seen i. The rings of his tail and the orange lines sprouting from the corners of his eyes, but otherwise his tabby markings are so heavily ticked they give rise to the appearance of a golden gradient rather than stripes or spots. His fur is plush but not particularly long, densest in the winter, and less so in the hot months.

Not particularly tall, Sandthroat is a small and stout apprentice destined to be an average-height and equally stout warrior. His cheeks are rounded from good eating and fold into his neck. He boasts a broad body with wide paws, a stout tail, and a stocky middle. Nothing in his figure is pointed or harsh; instead, he is soft and plush as though he were made of cotton. And yet, despite the weight I was of his figure, he is not particularly gifted in regards to height. Compared to the average cat he is no shorter than average - but it is not uncommon for RedwoodClan’s number to tower over him.

Sandthroat's face is a perfect match for his body. His ears are small and soft atop his head, and his nose is button-like and pink. He has faint orange tabby marks around his eyes and striping to his forehead and cheeks. His jowls hang low and his muzzle is rounded, hiding sharp teeth. He has lake-green eyes that are usually soft ovals in feigned innocence.

Sandthroat has two sides to him. On the outside, he is bumbling and charming, a foolish young cat with a big heart. Despite his exterior persona, he has a sharper interior of dark wit and spite. Since he was a kitten, Sandthroat learned quickly that the easiest way to gain the attention he craved was to be sweet and gentle, and good. While one might think this might lead a child to be well-rounded and compassionate, Sandthroat grew differently. Being genuine was hard. he learned that pretending was easy.


Sandthroat sees all through his personal viewpoint and greatly struggles to see through any other perspective. He sees himself as the main character in every story. However, Sandthroat is never the hero of his mind - he is always the villain. He thinks himself despicable in his need to control others but genuinely believes that there is no other way to find happiness or to have others in his life. He desperately contorts the image others view him with because he never wants them to see the sad, orphan kitten within.


Despite Sandthroat's more ruthless internal dialogue, he is very capable of finding certain others valuable for more than what they can do for him. He is deeply invested in the well-being and lives of those he had chosen to give his loyalty to and will do everything in his power to protect them from harm and untoward behavior. He wants nothing more than to keep those whom he cares about close to him, no matter who he has to hurt to do so.


Despite Sandthroat's bumbling, unaware persona, he is quick of mind and deeply attentive. The tom has grown to be skilled at discerning body language, tone of voice, and other less obvious and less intentional manners of expression. He is smart enough to decide how to use such. While he occasionally will read another to deliver particularly hurtful insults, he is far more likely to use his knowledge of others to endear himself to them and increase his own image. Not only is he intelligent in regards to the feelings of others, but also regarding the world. Information is retained easily in his mind, and generally he is quick to learn.

Father: Dustflight
Mother: Pansytoes
Adopted Mother: Heathermask (@ egotistic)
Adopted Father: Creekstep
Adopted Brother: Shalepaw (@ jupiter)
Mentor: Milkblaze (@ captain)


Born of a tryst between Tansytoes, an excitable young she-cat, and Dustflight, an otherwise happily married tom with a family of his own, Sandkit was not created with family planning in mind. Upon finding out she was pregnant, Tansytoes believed she would finally have reason to make her relationship with Dudtflight known. She waited eagerly for her son’s birth, knowing that her children would be the final act of love for her soon-to-be mate. She never had the opportunity. Her litter was born moments before her death as a result of blood loss. He was the sole survivor of his litter with a father never to be known to him.

Luckily, he was not alone for long. An old friend of his mother was nursing her newborn when he was orphaned. In a final act of friendship, she pulled Sandpaw to her belly and made the decision to raise him as her own beside her single son, Shalekit.


Sandkit quickly wormed his way into the hearts of his adopted family members. There was some hesitancy from Shalekit, but their closeness in age eventually led the pair to accept each other as brothers. Heathermask was a fine mother, sparing her kits from the worst of the war as it ravaged the clan. The bulk of his youngest moons was spent listening to stories, tussling with his brother, and enjoying all that life had to offer.

It was early that Sandkit noticed how Heathermask looked at him, however. She always seemed to find him different than Shalekit. He did not quite understand why she viewed him with such adoration and pity. All he knew was that when he stumbled over words or bumbled in play with his brother, she was quick to soothe and encourage him. Her affection was greedily worked for by the young tom at the expense of his brother at times. However, such attention was not quite given to Creekstep, Heathermask's mate.

Despite Heathermask's unwillingness to speak on his father's existence, Sandkit could not shake the thought that there was a strong, valiant tom out there that shared his blood. Never did he quite accept Creekstep as kin because of that. In his mind, Creekstep was always his mother's mate and little more.

It was in the heart of Leafbare that war took Creekstep away from the family. He did not die in a great burst of passion but in a dwindling, pathetic expense of life. It sickened Sandkit to witness the sorry creature's demise, but, despite himself, he could not help to hope that his death would convince his mother to reveal his father's name to him.


UUpon Sandkit's sixth moon, he was named an apprentice and given to Milkblaze to train. Milkblaze was a brutal tom steeped in a desire to cause harm and bring the superiority of RedwoodClan to light, a desire Sandpaw was quick to learn that he shared. Together, they spent a great deal of time at the borders, clashing with ThistleClan and LichenClan patrols. Early in his apprenticehood, the flood hit the island, forcing ThistleClan and LichenClan to share RedwoodClan territory. This meant each strike completed by him and his mentor was increasingly easy to launch due to the close quarters and increasing tension of clan interactions.

Sandpaw’s mother was not pleased by his placement as Milkblaze’s apprentice, knowing the warrior as being cruel and quick to fight. Sandpaw did all he could to keep the brutal nature of his training away from her, not wanting to lose his key to becoming more powerful but also not wanting to admit to her face that he enjoyed the thought of winning a gruesome battle.

As an apprentice, Sandpaw began to bond with some of his fellow trainees. He and Bumblepaw became friends. Sandpaw liked the way that Bumblepaw seemed willing to listen to him, easy to sway into one course of action or another. He grew to hate Blizzardpaw for her rogue heritage, trying desperately to push her into making a mistake in the hopes that she would be turned away from RedwoodClan, but to no avail.

Above all of his relationships, the one who stole all of his attention was Gorsepaw. With a natural beauty and a kind heart, Sandpaw was drawn to her immediately. As time progressed, his crush grew, though his interactions with her were limited - especially when she became a warrior several moons ahead of him. Even so, he spent a fair amount of time watching from afar, imagining himself sharing intimate conversations and romantic moments by her side.

When Sandpaw was nearing his 12th moon, he and Milkblaze prowled close to LichenClan territory with the intention of getting into a scuffle. They encountered two LichenClanners, Falconfire and Sacredpaw. When the fighting grew more and more intense, Milkblaze and Falconfire's battle ended in death. Sandpaw watched as Milkblaze's life was stripped away and ran, hiding in the ferns. When he looked back, he watched as Sacredpaw killed his father in an accidental flurry of blows.

Sandpaw returned to RedwoodClan shaken by the encounter, claiming that he defended Milkblaze with all he could, but that Falconfire was able to kill his mentor before dying of blood loss.

A few days after the death of his mentor, Sandpaw reached his 12th moon and was made a warrior. He was named Sandthroat his passionate mastery and bravery in speech, and his strong loyalty to the Clan. Since becoming a warrior, Sandthroat has decided to dedicate himself to becoming stronger where once he had run from combat with his tail between his legs. He would show all of the clans his power while maintaining his soft-boy persona to his immediate family, friends, and ultimate true love Gorsegaze.