Willow's Cats

Stonepaw was born early leaf-bare to mother Tinytip, a small black and white she-cat with yellow eyes, and father Batfang, a large charcoal-grey Bengal cat with soft green eyes, in RiverClan under the leadership of Ivystar, when Jaystream served as Deputy. His birth-mother, being of small stature, only gave birth to two kits in her first litter, Stonepaw himself and his littermate Crowkit, a long-furred solid-grey yellow-eyed tom. Though it seemed as if it took ages, the day Stonekit became Stonepaw finally came. Ivystar chose Sootwhisper to be Stonepaw's mentor. The young muscular tom grew in experience, wisdom, and compassion throughout his apprentice-ship. He grew particularly close to his denmate Vixenpaw, now Vixenstep. At his first Gathering, he met his half-brother Pantherpaw, though he didn't know the connection at the time.

Stonepaw and Crowkit were not their father's first kits. Batfang had had a litter of kits before Stonepaw had been born through a SkyClan cat. Half the litter perished in the river when the SkyClan she-cat tried to take them to visit their father in RiverClan. One of the three remaining kits from the litter, Pantherkit, grew embittered toward Batfang and his new family. As he aged into Pantherpaw that anger only grew into vengeful hatred.

Stonepaw and Pantherpaw met again one leaf-bare day on the frozen river. Pantherpaw revealed to Stonepaw that they were half-brothers through his father Batfang and that Pantherpaw felt abandoned by their father and envious of Stonepaw for the love shown him. He had vowed to take revenge on his father by harming all who he held most dear, which included Stonepaw. The SkyClan apprentice attacked the young tom and they scuffled on the ice until Pantherpaw ended the fight, leaving Stonepaw with a menacing threat that the grey tom hadn't seen the last of him.

He would soon walk across that frozen surface again with many of their clanmates as they all marched toward Sunningrocks. Blizzardstar, ThunderClan's leader, asked for permission on behalf of her clan to hunt there temporarily. When Ivystar refused, Blizzardstar threatened to take it by force. RiverClan and ThunderClan met for battle at Sunningrocks with large patrols from both sides. Stonepaw fought with a grey she-cat about his age. She defeated him and Batfang stepped in rather aggressively to chase her off. One of the RiverClan warriors killed a ThunderClan apprentice and RiverClan also took two ThunderClan hostages with them. In the aftermath of the battle, Stonepaw and deputy Jaystream helped Cloudstone heal and set Duckpaw's broken leg by fetching needed supplies.

Tinytip invited Stonepaw to join her for a hunting patrol. Finally given the opportunity to have some alone time with her, he decided to warn her about the potential threat from Pantherpaw, not revealing the SkyClan cat's true identity. He wanted his mother to be alert, but didn't want to cause her any undue suffering from the knowledge of Batfang's other family...

Even as a young kit Nightpaw didn't like weakness in herself, vulnerability. To display too much emotion was to be vulnerable. To display the wrong emotion could give an appearance of vulnerability. A typical kit's starry-eyed exuberance at play and discovery was tempered by her caution. From the first moment she left her mother's den, an innate awareness of potential danger took root at the forefront of her mind. This never caused cowardice in Nightpaw. She was quite brave, at least outwardly so, in the face of danger, strange new things, or change. Her kithood in ShadowClan ended on a cold, leaf-bare morning. ShadowClan's leader, Magpiestar, called for a clan meeting. The strong, black-and-white tom, for whom Nightpaw had much respect, ceremoniously changed her name from Nightkit to Nightpaw and granted Lilacfall, Nightpaw's own mother, to be her mentor. The black she-cat's training started right away.  

Socially, Nightpaw felt the most comfortable and at ease with her mother, Lilacfall, then with her brothers, Stoatpaw and Newtpaw. She approached fellow ShadowClan cats with a guarded trust, treating cats outside her birthclan with apprehension at best and open hostility at worst. She had great respect for authority worthy of her trust, who put the good of the Clan first, and great disdain for cats who climbed to power for their own glory. Her philosophy of choosing mates was purely practical for the good of her Clan. She was too afraid to trust, too afraid to love. Not overly clingy or emotionally attached to them, Nightpaw tried to just look at finding the best male candidates for fathering strong ShadowClan kits. She tended not to trust toms in general.

A fear of failure secretly plagued her self-conscience. Far from excelling in the virtue of humility, pride in herself was Nightpaw's main motivation for achieving greatness at all things, and the she-cat's pride only grew over time. An honest, deep love and loyalty to Clan and Kin also moved her to be the best she could be and really was her main motivating factor. She understood the Warrior Code to be a means toward the end of preserving the life of her Clan. The wishes of StarClan were important, but living, breathing, suffering cats took precedence.

Warrior life is a life of suffering.

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