Talonpaw

lichenclan

long-haired black she-cat with blue eyes

Strikingly beautiful, Talonpaw bears particularly useful assets, often employing them to her advantage. Inheriting her mother's elegance and beauty, she possesses a captivating figure, one of long legs and a graceful aristocracy. To any keen-eyed LichenClanner, she plays the part of the noble, blue-blood she-cat without fault. Her figure is long and lean, one that supports fluidity in all of its movements. She pads as if she is the one who commands the entire island—never the other way around.

A she-cat of beauty and shadows, her black pelt is the only thing that betrays her low-bred, roguish blood. Yet gazing upon her, one would not immediately guess it. Unlike her father, his coat short and rough to the touch, Talonpaw's fur is well-groomed, and silky under a paw pad. It falls from her figure, a stream of glossy, inky black. No other colors, hints of white or ginger—like her sister—mar her seamless, dark abyss.

A courtly visage adorns her shoulders, one of angles and high-cheekbones and large ears. Her nose is a velvet, charcoal, and her whiskers glide from her face, a lick of silver moonlight. The inside of her ears are a dark mauve; and perhaps most captivating of all, Talonpaw possesses a rarity among other darkly-clad cats: sapphire eyes. They are nearly bewitching in their intensity. Deep and blue, Talonpaw guards their true depths very well, her best kept secret.

Her voice is low, throaty, and intimate—warm and mellifluous.

Possessing a sharp wit and an even more ambitious heart, Talonpaw is born into LichenClan immediately wanting to prove herself. Within her first moons, she devours her parents' tutelage—about LichenClan and its ever-shifting culture. A cat born of both traditionalists and rebels, Talonpaw wrestles with the very blood coursing through her pelt. She wants the respect and privileges of her high-blood peers, thus making her extremely ambitious and decisive.

Highly cunning and persuasive, Talonpaw easily adapts to her environment and heeds her mother's lessons on social etiquette well. Socially intelligent, her intuition is a well-honed weapon. She understands how to get under the pelt of her peers and verbally throw them into a tizzy. Talonpaw enjoys wielding her silver-tongue in the art of persuasion. She is well-spoken and appropriately reserved, never giving her den-mates the opportunity to call her misbehaved or unruly. She cares an awful lot about how others perceive her.

Her manipulation is understated and oftentimes only at the expense of her den-mates' social standing. Talonpaw does not harbor extreme ill-intent or true evil desires. She just doesn't want to be looked down upon because her father was a former rogue. This is perhaps her largest vulnerability and insecurity. To be judged by her blood alone, deeply upsets her. It is a secret she guards well—among others. Very few will ever get to see the truth under her carefully constructed persona.

As she matures, this desire to manipulate and control others turns seductive. Well aware of her striking beauty, Talonpaw is a shameless flirt and will make advances on anybody, regardless of gender, relationship status, or affiliation. If it will aid her, she will happily run a tail along someone's jaw or whisper huskily in their ear. To many, and especially in LichenClan, this flagrant, self-confidence stinks of bold arrogance, and is highly off-putting. Other she-cats sometimes find her intolerable—so she often finds herself in male company.

Other than her immediate family, her relationships are extremely surface level and largely nonexistent. Talonpaw has little desire to befriend her den-mates or form long-lasting, meaningful relationships. She is perhaps selfish in this way, usually only looking out for herself—except for Tawnypaw. She is very loyal and protective of her sister; and if a den-mate can claw through her thorny exterior, they will find a loyal and unwavering friend for life.

A much-celebrated but ultimately unplanned "accident," Talonkit and her sister, Tawnykit, arrived on LichenClan's shores rather unexpectedly. A mother once before, Sorrelsong did not anticipate falling heavy with kits so late in life, especially after the death of her mate, and especially not with her late-in-life lover, Nightclaw, a former rebel-turned-rogue-turned-LichenClanner (again).

After discovering her pregnancy, Sorrelsong struggled to remain calm and envision a future for her kits that did not include ostracization and ridicule. Her first litter was born to another high-blood tom, much like herself. While she ignored some of LichenClan's customs, such as arrangements, her children largely got the privileges of their high-blood peers.

Her kits with Nightclaw would not.

This troubled her until Nightclaw spoke some sense into her. LichenClan was changing. No longer ruled by a tyrant, a former rebel led their shoreline now; and while many in the Clan practiced their old ways, their kits did not have to suffer under outdated customs. They could make their own "high-blood" kits. Emboldened by this, Sorrelsong and Nightclaw agreed to raise their kits to be confident and well-mannered, regardless of their blood.

As green-leaf waxed on the wind and the air grew humid and warm, Sorrelsong welcomed two she-kits onto the island: Talonkit and Tawnykit. Talonkit, particularly, was given a more masculine name at Nightclaw's request. A strong name for a strong she-cat. The eldest of the two, Talonkit immediately bore her strong name well. Under her parents' encouragement and praise, her overconfidence knew no bounds. Though she held a tender spot for her sister.

Everything she did—all of her motivation and ambition—was for Tawnykit, her most treasured friend; and as she grew older, learning under her parent's teachings, Talonkit began to understand the strange coupling of her parents and everything her mixed blood would entail. Perhaps it'd discourage a lesser cat.

But not Talonkit.

She welcomed the challenge.