Swiftpaw

[rixyfish]

Name |
Swiftpaw

Gender |
She-cat

Age |
10 moons

Rank |
Apprentice

Clan |
MeadowClan

Beliefs|
Disbelief in StarClan, simply because she thinks “seeing is believing”. She doesn’t believe in any sort of higher beings or life after death; as she says, “once you’re dead, you’re dead, and that’s it. You don’t jump up into the sky and become part of some special Clan above the Clans.”

Parents |
Mother was a kittypet named Cleo (NP), and she never knew her father.


Siblings |
Four brothers, all kittypets.


Mate |
Not yet. So far, she doesn’t plan on having a mate or family. Kits bother her.

Crush |
None

Kits |
Not yet, possibly not ever.

Mentor |
Tigertail

Appearance |
Swiftpaw is a small-framed cat with smooth, short black fur. She has four white paws and a white belly. Her legs are long and slender and she usually steps lightly on her paws. She’s built more for agility and speed than power with her generally sleek, narrow body, all her strength built up in her tightly muscled shoulders. Her eyes are small and round, a pale honey yellow-brown color with a few darker hues woven in. Her whiskers fan out wide, drooping slightly downward.

Personality |
At first glance, one would take Swiftpaw as a sour, reclusive, and unfriendly. Her social skills aren’t that great so she does have a hard time making first impressions, but those who can look past her grouchy appearance find that she’s usually kind and somewhat enjoyable. Even those she gets close with, though, find it hard to be around her; she’s an oddball and kind of awkward. A lack of attention from other cats since birth left her seriously underdeveloped socially, so she just sort of wings it and hopes she doesn't completely scare anyone away. She has a strange sense of humor, finding things funny when they're really not and misunderstanding and misusing sarcasm. She’s been caught talking to herself often, a habit she might have formed as a kit when she had nobody to entertain or talk to her. She's trying hard to fix herself and be less disconnected. She tends to get distracted easily, often finding that one thought leads to another, which leads to another until she can't remember what the original thought or conversation was about.

Skills |
Fairly decent swimmer and hunter. She’s not so great at fighting, though, so when things get tough she takes off, depending on her speed to get her away. She loves climbing and her powerful legs allow her to jump pretty high. Sometimes in battle she attacks from above.

History |
Swiftpaw was actually born “Puddles” to a Twoleg family that owned her mother, Cleo. She was the only she-cat out of five kits and always found it hard to relate to her brothers, who preferred spending their time lounging around and sleeping. They usually never talked to her, and her mother wasn't exactly fond of her, either. She ended up raising herself until the Clans moved in, and she was shocked at the amount of cats they brought.
Swiftpaw always loved exploring the outdoors, chasing mice—though she never caught any –and pretending she was a fierce forest-cat, protecting her land from intruders and enemies. One day, while she was out and about, she came across the wandering ForestClan cats. She couldn’t believe it- all the fantasies she’d come up with and games she’d played as a kit seemed to come alive. She worried the first couple of weeks that her family would notice her absence and try to find her, but gave up on that when she realized Cleo and the toms had probably never seen the outside before and wouldn't miss her being gone.
The first time she heard talk about StarClan, Swiftpaw thought maybe another Clan had been formed and she hadn’t been told about it. One she found out that StarClan was the supposed Clan-cat heaven, though, she rejected the idea immediately. How could there possibly be cats watching out for you if they were already dead? No, no. It just didn’t make sense. She decided not to express this belief, though, and kept it to herself whenever StarClan was brought up.
She’s not completely used to Clan life yet. She still finds it hard to wake up at a decent time, but her hunting and fighting skills have improved since her kittypet days. She's still adapting to the social life of a Clan cat. Habits tend to take over and she'll wander off by herself or forget that she's trying to make a new life for herself and gravitate away from the other cats.
Her Clan choice was based off of her fantasy as a kit. Often as a kit when she wandered out to explore, she would leave for days at a time to get real deep in the forest. She came across present-day MeadowClan territory and was so fascinated by it that she wished she could stay forever and live in such a pretty place. Grudgingly, though, she returned home, but came back frequently. The Clans were just getting settled when she was back to visit, and she was quite shocked at the open offer to join their Clan. She wasn't quite sure how life with so many social cats would be, but she loved the territory and finally agreed to join as an apprentice and was willing to learn the warrior ways. She still has leftover awkwardness from growing up with cats who didn't like to talk to her, but she's trying to break through that wall and hopes to make a friend or two.