[attr="class","nodensright22"]
basic bio.
Sparrowclaw is a lithe brown tabby cat, perhaps just slightly smaller than most toms. But that does not stop him from being the fierce, dedicated warrior that he is. He knows that being a good warrior is not through sheer strength alone, but from intelligence and from hard-work. With striking amber eyes and a sharp-tongue, this lone wolf is determined to be the greatest asset that any Clan could ever hope to have, and prove his worth as more than just a direct descendant of Galestar.
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traits.
- +decisive
- +perceptive
- +disciplined
- =independent
- =realistic
- =competitive
- -abrasive
- -callous
- -irritable
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personality.
Sparrowclaw is a somewhat difficult cat to get along with at first. He is a lone wolf by nature, sharp-tongued and constantly trying to better himself. He is quick to challenge someone to a fight in order to become stronger, which at first can come off quite off-putting and abrasive if he crosses the wrong cat or someone who is overly sensitive, but there is a small part of him deep down that does it so the cats around him are also strong. Still, in the end, he tries to be the strongest fighter and hunter in the forest and among all the Clans so that he can be revered for his talent and skill.[break]
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He values hard work and dedication, but can be quite rude to those who get in the way of that. Sparrowclaw is vastly independent and will often hunt alone so that other cats don't scare off his prey. He'll often be quick to snap at any cat who disturbs his peace and quiet, and can often be found muttering something rather unsavoury under his breath. Despite his own privilege of being a descendent of Galestar, Sparrowclaw will get frustrated on those to fully rely on their bloodline and refuse to work hard to provide for the Clan.[break]
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Of course, underneath Sparrowclaw's hard exterior, he does care deep down. He has a soft spot that is rare to be seen for those who matter most, and will defend them with his life, just as he swore when he received his warrior name. He will not hesitate to jump in front of someone weaker than him in order to protect them from harm's way. He is your classic tsundere personality - showing a harsh exterior with a warm side that he only often reveals to those he trusts most.
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description.
A just undersized cat, Sparrowclaw does not let his size get to him. In fact, he often takes pride in the fact that he is as skilled of a warrior as he is as he does not rely on sheer strength and muscle to win a battle. Just like GaleClan cats should be, in his mind, his strength is through toned, lean muscles rather than through a hulking frame. It allows him to be quick but still surprise his opponents who might think him weak just because they can't tell how strong he truly is.[break]
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Sparrowclaw has brown tabby fur, short and sleek, which sometimes proves leaf-bare to be slightly more difficult for the tom, but his refusal to stop moving helps keep his blood constantly running and keep him warm. Simultaneously, he struggles with a permanent injury with one of his back legs. Though he can often get through most day-to-day duties and training, his leg will occasionally act up.[break]
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The most striking thing about Sparrowclaw is his eyes. They are a piercing amber colour, often dark and brooding. His constant expression and body language gives off the vibe of a cat you do not want to bother unless you have something important to talk about. Which, of course, is the way that Sparrowclaw prefers it, as he does not want to be bothered. His amber eyes have been known to (perhaps unintentionally) strike fear into an apprentice or kit as they do not ever carry a soft or gentleness to them. Unfortunately, this can also translate even into some warriors and cats closer to his own age, but he doesn't let it get to him too much. But it is sure to be known that most cats in GaleClan would recognize those amber eyes in particular.
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family.
Cactusfruit - Mother[break]
Fledge - Father (deceased)[break]
Swanbite - Sister[break]
Ravenscreech - Sibling[break]
Tangledvine - Sister (deceased)[break]
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Termitebite - Maternal Uncle[break]
Sandberry - Maternal Grandmother[break]
Rattlesnake - Maternal Grandfather (Deceased)[break]
Desertbreeze - Maternal Great-Grandmother (Deceased)[break]
Galestar - Maternal Great-Grandfather (Deceased)
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history.
Sparrowkit was born the first great-grandchild of the famed Galestar, something that the kit would not understand the importance of for some time. He was followed in his litter by his three siblings: Swankit, Ravenkit and Tangledkit. They were born in GaleClan to Cactusfruit and a loner by the name of Fledge.[break]
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Though Sparrowkit had been quite young, he looked up to his father. He saw something quite admirable in the tom who held no allegiance to the Clan, yet had worked hard to find a home. It was clear that Fledge loved his family and would do anything to defend them, who perhaps even saw the good in the Warrior Code despite not being a warrior himself. It made his death all the more difficult on the young kit, who, at the time, did not understand how his wounds could have gotten infected. Sure, he was not a true member of GaleClan, but had he not worked hard enough for the medicine cat to work hard to make sure he would survive? What was the point of all he had done for his family if he were to die from something so simple?[break]
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Such thoughts festered poorly in a young mind, and made Sparrowkit draw into himself. It made him feel somewhat bitter towards his Clanmates, though that wasn't quite how it manifested as a kit. In fact, it would not manifest itself more thoroughly until Sparrowkit would get older.[break]
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As an apprentice, Sparrowpaw was assigned to a large tom by the name of Martenfang. He was brutal with the young cat, rarely holding back. Sparrowpaw would often get told that he would not be able to rely on the fact that he was a descendant of Galestar to get him a passing grade through his training. It had not even occurred to the apprentice up until that point that some cats might see him that way, as someone who would simply try and get by on the credentials of his ancestors rather than his own talents. And so, he took Martenfang's words to heart, and everytime even the thought was mentioned that he could be following the tailcoat of his great-grandfather, Sparrowpaw would double down on his training. He became more determined than ever to show that he was an asset to the Clan.[break]
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He wanted to prove that if he got injured, he would be worth saving before his wounds got infected.[break]
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While Sparrowpaw certainly cared for his family members, he drew away from them more and more throughout his apprenticehood. He did not want to be seen as just another member of Galestar's bloodline, he wanted to be seen as independent from his great-grandfather's deeds. Certainly he was not blind to the things he saw going on, especially between Tangledpaw and Frozenpaw, but it was not of concern to him. As far as he had become aware, unless someone was not going to spar with him and help him improve his abilities, they were not worth bothering with. This meant that most of his days he would wake up, train with Martenfang, perform his duties, and then train alone for the rest of the day until he was too tired to continue and close to passing out. Sparrowpaw would often push himself further than was likely healthy, but he did not care to listen to those who warned him that he was going to run himself into the ground. He simply wanted to be strong and prove his worth.[break]
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Prove himself he did. He could remember his new warrior name being called: Sparrowclaw, for his strength and determination. He held his head high and with pride at the name, and could remember the approval he gained from Martenfang. His now former mentor promised the tom though that though his formal apprentice training was now over, that did not mean he was done training. If he was to continue to be a strong warrior, and potentially even continue until he was the greatest asset any Clan could have, he would need to always train until the day he met StarClan.[break]
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The first two seasons of warriorhood went no different than Sparrowclaw's apprenticehood, though the only difference was that his training was not as closely monitored as it had been before. Now, his days consisted of waking up, figuring out which patrols he would be a part of, performing his duties, and spending any other waking moment training himself to become greater and stronger.[break]
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When leaf-bare hit soon, though, Sparrowclaw's incessant training finally caught up to him. When a chest infection began to rattle him, he tried to push through it, refusing to admit that anything was wrong with him. When he would visit the medicine cat's den for a solution and was met with "rest", he continued to resist and would only listen to solutions that included herbs in hopes that he could continue his duties. Yet, when other cats began to cough, he could feel some guilt. Instead of relenting and finally getting rest, he instead spent more time out of the camp so that others would not catch what he had.[break]
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Sparrowclaw managed to push through his bout of whitecough. His sister, Tangledvine, was not so lucky. Her whitecough turned to greencough, and Sparrowclaw had been out hunting when he returned to the news that she had succummed to her infection and passed. He tried to hide his pain of his sister's passing, especially whenever he heard someone say that she passed with her family and loved ones by her side, when reality was that Sparrowclaw had not even been in the camp when she died.[break]
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Refusing to let it get the better of him, Sparrowclaw threw himself even further into his personal training. But Leaf-bare turned into Newleaf, Newleaf turned to Greenleaf, and the tom would be given his first apprentice, a rather nervous and shy she-cat by the name of Rabbitpaw.[break]
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Unfortunately, Sparrowclaw's insistence of how he went about life meant that perhaps mentoring wasn't something that would become his strongest suit - at least, not to a cat like Rabbitpaw. She was terribly timid and jumpy, much like the creature she'd been named for. Whenever Sparrowclaw tried to work on battle training, she clearly seemed scared and intimidated by her mentor and had a difficult time learning under his tutelage. He found himself getting more and more frustrated, unsure of how a cat like Rabbitpaw was supposed to become an asset to GaleClan if she was too afraid to get anywhere near her own mentor.[break]
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One evening, returning from his own patrol, Sparrowclaw witnessed Rabbitpaw outside the apprentice den with her friends, chatting and seemingly an entirely different cat. But when she caught the eye of her mentor, she immediately seemed to freeze up, scared to meet his gaze. The following day, Sparrowclaw tried a different tactic, instead finding a spot with his apprentice to simply relax. He did not force anything on her, and even apologized for his behaviour towards her. He said they would not be expected to learn anything that day, except learn about one another, and learn that they are both members of GaleClan. At the end of the day, when Sparrowclaw told Rabbitpaw that he would not tolerate her talking about him showing a "weaker side", she gave a light giggle and promised she would not say anything.[break]
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The rest of her training went on with a breeze as Sparrowclaw found new tactics, remembering that Rabbitpaw was more than just a future asset to GaleClan, but a cat in her own right with her own skills. Though she would never become the greatest fighter of all time, she would be named Rabbitchirp for her bubbly and rather loud personality.[break]
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Sparrowclaw continued to hold a soft spot for his first apprentice, even after receiving her warrior name. He continued to patrol with her, happy to have someone who saw him as more than some grump. Some moons later, the pair were ambushed and attacked by a fox. In a moment when the fox had turned to snap at Rabbitchirp, Sparrowclaw managed to leap in front of the attack just in time, though not without receiving a terrible wound on one of his back legs. The pair pushed through the fight and managed to chase off the fox, but Sparrowclaw fell to the ground as his leg began to bleed profusely.[break]
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He woke up some time later in the medicine cat's den, evidently having been saved by Rabbitchirp after the fight. Frozenkingdom, his sister's former mate, had become the medicine cat at this point. Things had been tense at first, Sparrowclaw worried about the chance that Frozenkingdom had festered feelings about Sparrowclaw being ill and potentially getting Tangledvine sick, or the fact that Sparrowclaw had not been there for his sister when she finally slipped away and passed on. He could feel himself getting somewhat worried as he thought back to his own father, who had died from an infected wound. Sparrowclaw had worked hard every day, pushing himself in hopes that he would be seen as someone worth saving should he get hurt. Though he always knew Frozenkingdom as someone who would never purposely let Sparrowclaw die, there was still some voice in the back of his mind that worried.[break]
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But the warrior grew more and more restless as time passed, hating that he could not perform his regular duties and that he was being forced to take a break from his constant training and working on himself. Eventually, despite the fact that his leg had not fully healed, Sparrowclaw tried to sneak out of the medicine cat's den, but was swiftly caught by Frozenkingdom. In a short spat with the medicine cat, asking why in StarClan he would care about whether Sparrowclaw pushed himself too far, Frozenkingdom frustratedly told him in response that he had already lost Tangledvine and that he refused to let go of anyone else who loved her as much as he did. When Sparrowclaw reminded him that he wasn't even there when his sister died, Frozenkingdom did not let him forget that it did not mean that he did not miss or love her any less.[break]
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So, with some persuading and a well-deserved scolding, Sparrowclaw returned to the medicine cat's den and let Frozenkingdom continue to care for his leg. Sadly, while it mostly healed, it still sometimes gives him trouble, to which Frozenkingdom will drag him back into his care to make sure he doesn't lose it altogether. Sparrowclaw will still sometimes act quite irritable to the medicine cat's care, but he still will show his thankfulness in odd ways.