NIGHTCLAW

LICHENCLAN

black tom with pale green eyes

For the suffix being 'claw' he sure doesn't look like much of a threat. He isn't a skinny little wimp by any means, but he doesn't pack as much muscle as, say, the buff-est warrior in the Clan. He has a regular, slim body type. Comfortably slim, you might say. He is also pretty average in the height department, not being too short nor tall. He is overall pretty average not including his tail. His tail is rather...long. It it definitely longer than most cats', but does not exceed the length of his body. His tail is also a little fluffier on the bottom than on the tom, and this pattern leads into his stomach and ends in his chest.

The rest of his fur is sleek and thing, well accustomed to swimming in the river. The texture of his fur is kind of rough, but it isn't noticeable due to the night black hue of his coat unless touched upon. He is in fact a solid colored black tom, with no flaws or ticks of various other colors to be found. Even his nose and whiskers follow the same loyalty, all except one which is tipped pure white, also known as his 'lucky whisker'.

His is very narrow, with a defined jawline that thins out then abruptly widens as it reaches his muzzle. His nose very subtly protrudes out, and his overall facial structure is very smooth and almost young looking, and his eyes are a little on the small side yet fit well with the narrowness of his face. His eye color nicely coincides with his black appearance, having a nice, pale green stain.

A saying that probably fits him the best would be his 'tongue is nastier than his bite'. Nightclaw is one of those warriors you would hate to run into in a border patrol, let alone a clan-mate. His most well known trait is probably his sarcastic nature. You can always catch him throwing out a cocky remark or even going as far as questioning before doing what is told, or even butting into conversations just to throw in his pitch. Although, he doesn't go looking for cats to converse with. For him, he is usually always the sore thumb in any Clan activity, for you really don't see him around any friends or in any conversations. He is definitely the loner in the Clan.

It's sad, but who could blame anyone? He is hard to get along with. He is quite short-tempered, and definitely won't back down from any comments that even seem offensive. Speaking of which, he gets defensive quite easily, and deep down it is actually hard on him to be ignored, because he has been more or less ignored his whole kithood. The only way he knows to rebel is to get attention by being a brat, but it always has the same resolution: loneliness.

Despite being sarcastic, he is a pretty serious fellow. He is usually focused on his job and is very passionate when it comes to his Clan, what threatens it, and the warrior code. He does, surprisingly, have a fear of fighting. Nightclaw would do anything to fight for his Clan, and he is honestly a good fighter when it comes to practice. In a real battle, though, despite naturally picking verbal fights with everyone he meets, he gets very shaky and forgetful. It is bad enough to give him panic attacks when even presented the idea of a fight, and since he has never been in one, he doesn't even want to know what he'll do if he is actually in one besides the obvious shakiness and forgetfulness.

Although it doesn't really help him since his phobia of fighting, he is very protective. Maybe not in the way you would want, but he is willing to stand up for any of his clan-mates if need be. Now with a mate, he might even get a little obsessive and seem jerkish or controlling, but at least its out of caring.

Kinktail and Quailstep. There is no catch, no underlying motive, no flaw in how or why they got together. They were honestly in love. Crushing on each other since apprenticeship, it was no wonder that they became mates and eventually bearing kits. Although what could have been a perfect conclusion to this happy couple, it ended tragically and spiraled downward from there. As Quailstep gave a loving farewell to her mate as he retreated to a border skirmish with RedwoodClan as the backup patrol, the she-cat, sitting in the nursery, would have no idea that that moment would be the last time she would ever spent with her mate. He died bravely in the fight, and now she was left alone with her two unborn kits.

It was only a few weeks later when Nightclaw and his sister were born. Or should I say, just Nightclaw. His sister, Lilykit, was a stillborn. Obviously Nightclaw had never taken that missing sibling to heart, but if he did have his sister, he might have came out a different cat than he was today. This was because he from this moment on was destined to live in a trapped, lonely way of living.
His whole kithood he was..not treated as well as you might think. His mother, in his view, always seemed to pay more attention to what was going on in the Clan more than him. The smallest bit of news such as someone stepping on a thorn would get through to her before even the medicine cat knew, yet she didn't know where he was half the time, let alone things a mother should know with spending so much time with her kits such as favorite places, aspirations, or even games. Nightkit would usually be forced to make games up on his own, since there were no other kits in the nursery at the time, his father was dead, and his mother didn't seem to notice him.

Moving on to his new rank as an apprentice, you would think he would be able to get away from all that and maybe find a new belonging. But, his downward spiral continued after being made apprentice to his own mother, Quailstep. This was a tough situation for him for many reasons. For one, he already resented his mother after her isolation from him, and was especially excited to get out of the nursery to get away from her. Now, he was forced to spend time with her, which was sadly more time than he had ever spent with her as a kit. You would think it would be an improvement, and would maybe that would be some sort of compensating factor for the lost time she wasted with him.

Unfortunately, it wasn't planned out that way. She was very hard on him for a mentor. He always had to wake up early every morning, and would never let him eat or rest until certain duties or a certain amount of prey was succeeded. This raised his resentment for his mother even more, especially when observing the leniency of other mentors and listening to his den-mates brag. To add on to the brewing stew, he was also avoided and made fun of his apprentice moons, always getting jibes about his mother being his mentor. His loneliness carried with him.

As a warrior, although free from his mother at last, (more of a limited freedom since, to his demise, she became deputy) he still was alone. He had more blood relatives in the Clan than most cats, including Pebblefoot, her grandmother, and Voleclaw, Hawk-- and Crow--, her uncles. For some reason, though, they had never really paid attention to him, which seemed especially true for Voleclaw, who definitely favored his mother more and even pitied her more than him, which has caused a little hate for his oldest uncle too. Despite his sad little life, he still carries on, head-strong, and has learned to cope on his own.

That was until one day, when had finally verbally rebelled against Minnowstar and her obsession with fighting RedwoodClan. It was then he was punished by becoming the deputy, Hemlockheart's, apprentice with a swift demotion. This would only further tensions between him and his birth Clan, though, his training sessions with Hemlockheart only deepening his hatred, as much as it sharpened his skills. During this time, he had approached Lavendermist with an idea: to start a rebellion.

It didn't take long for the idea to spark into life, and soon, they had members.

It was then on a destined night that he and Thievingstar met on the border of their Clans. Interested in his stories, Thievingstar promised to train him to be a better fighter. But as their secret nights went on, they fell in love, and Nightclaw would leave LichenClan with no regrets after Hemlockheart chased him off after a vicious battle between the two, causing Hemlockheart to lose an eye.

It would take Nightclaw many, many moons of wandering as a rogue before he would join ThistleClan, saving Thievingstar and her warriors during a rogue attack.

He would not enjoy his closeness with his mate for long, though, as during another rogue attack she is killed by Lily. With the encouragement of Blazingstorm, Nightclaw leaves ThistleClan, but he does not want to be a rogue any longer. Finding Hemlockheart, now Yarrowstar, in the tunnels, they help LichenClan win the fight against the rogues and loyalists, but only time will tell if Nightclaw will ever truly feel at home ever again.

He also never learned that, still in ThistleClan, reside his secret children with Thievingstar: Froststrike and Fadingsky.