Sleepyshade (WW)

a smaller than average, cream and brown cat with tired, violet eyes. their expression is almost always downcast, and they’re often squinting or closing their eyes when in daylight due to sensitivity. ears have a slight curl to them and sometimes flops over. scars on the side of throat from duskstar and a few on their legs.

reserved. he isn’t one to ask for help very easily and often lets cats walk all over him. confidence is an issue of theirs and they don’t tend to stick up for themselves. however, they are quite intelligent and intuitive of the world around them and when given the chance to speak, they take each situation into possibility. they prefer words over combat and uphold the safety and well being of others highly.

born in riverclan, sleepykit grew up with their two siblings tatteredkit (tatteredsky) and riftkit (riftwish). his childhood was mostly uneventful, as riverclan under cherrystar's rule was generally peaceful and conflict had not yet begun to rise between the clans. they kept to themselves, quickly learning how to be independent as his father was a busy warrior and had little time to watch after his kits, and their siblings became apprentices before them. their excessive drowsiness and tendency to fall ill easily pushed back their apprenticeship, instead winding up in the medicine den with tsunamibreeze and goatcreek most often. they took care of him though and he appreciates it greatly, even after both of their deaths. due to being held back and growing an impatience with having to wait to train, sleepykit began to sneak out of camp at night. during the nighttime, it's easier for them to see as it's less harsh on their eyes and the rest of riverclan would be sound asleep.

upon sneaking out one night and nearing the river that divides thunderclan and riverclan, he met sedgepaw, a thunderclan apprentice who initially was rude to them and showed little eagerness to help the lost kit back home. despite this first meeting and their contrasting personalities, the two became friends as sleepykit continued sneaking out.

however, at long last, sleepykit was able to become an apprentice after many delays due to his illnesses and earned the name sleepypaw. he was immediately daunted by the fact that shellcreek, the riverclan deputy, would be his mentor. he felt it was important to live up to shellcreek's expectations, as well as his siblings' statuses as skilled warriors already. they struggled (and still do) with waking up in time for patrols, and often dozed off in the middle of training, or the sun hurt their eyes too much to be outside of the apprentices' den for very long. during his apprenticeship, he befriended rainbowpaw, who would eventually be picked for medicine cat apprentice. when sleepypaw wasn't training with the deputy or snoozing, he was sneaking out to meet with sedgewillow who they were beginning to grow an admiration for. sedgewillow showed him what squirrels were like, and much to their embarrassment, they admit that they're nearly as tasty as salmon.

they continued to grow closer and closer as friends despite tensions rising between thunderclan and riverclan. sleepyshade earned their warrior name and began training the apprentices skypaw, drizzlepaw, and webpaw, who would later become skysnap, drizzlegem, and webweaver. however, things did not stay entirely positive as the warrior grew older and more confident in their abilities. during an unexpected fight at sunningrocks, sleepyshade took the life of thunderclan leader skystar by mistake, horrified that the leader only had one life: and he died at their claws. sedgewillow and the thunderclan deputy duskfur were spectators of this, and duskfur swore revenge on riverclan ever since. in order to keep sleepyshade and their friendship safe from duskstar, sedgewillow restricted their meetings to only a couple times a moon and they would meet in neutral territory at night.

they kept this dark secret away from their clan, struggling with coming to terms that they had killed another cat. sedgewillow stuck with them no matter what though, and sleepyshade couldn't be more grateful. despite their cautiousness though, sleepyshade ventured to sunningrocks to meet up with him only to run into duskstar that sought revenge for skystar's death. duskstar nearly killed them, breaking their tail and their toes and leaving them to drown. they washed up on the thunderclan shore and was found by sedgewillow, who nursed him back to health and resulted in the two growing even closer. eventually, cherrystar passed and their former mentor shellcreek became leader. sleepyshade was shocked when they were promoted to deputy, not believing they were fit for the position. the responsibilities of deputy also prevented them from meeting sedgewillow as often as they liked to. they befriended beeshine during this time, and said goodbye to their former apprentices drizzlegem and skysnap as they left to join shadowclan. eventually, they were venturing near the gorge one day and ran into the shadowclan medicine cat, onyxfrost, and had a short conversation with him looking over the gorge. unfortunately, the rocks gave away underneath sleepyshade's paws and onyxfrost quickly shoved him aside and tumbled down the gorge instead. horrified, sleepyshade could only watch as the medicine cat hit the bottom with a sickening snap. he didn't tell a soul about this encounter nor reported the body. this would worsen his relationship with drizzlegem later on.

sleepyshade then had two kits, soulkit and cocoonkit, and the father was undoubtedly sedgewillow. the two kits stayed with sleepyshade in riverclan but they made regular visits to the river to see sedgewillow. sleepyshade was a little too protective of the kits and took upon training them himself, worried about their safety and if anyone would find out the truth. a few moons later, he and sedgewillow found a kit beneath a twoleg bridge and appropriately named him foxkit due to his reddish fur. they decided he would go to thunderclan with sedgewillow. cocoontail and soulwalker earned their warrior names, and as cocoontail went to the border to tell sedgewillow and foxpaw (later foxshade) the good news, sleepyshade found him dead the next morning. horrified, heartbroken, and distraught at the death of his son, sleepyshade tried to get closer to soulwalker in a desperate attempt to keep him safe, but he was promptly pushed away and soulwalker is unsure whether or not to trust him now due to finding out through drizzlegem that sleepyshade was possibly the cat who killed onyxfrost (drizzle's mentor).

with a heavy heart, sleepyshade meets with sedgewillow again one night as a storm begins to brew and on the moor, they encounter duskstar and the windclan leader molesnow fighting. they all begin to fight, and quickly the ugly truth is revealed that jaggedstar, the previous windclan leader had been killed by mistake-- by duskstar. sleepyshade realizes that ruinstar, the leader of riverclan before cherrystar, was murdered by duskstar and thus duskstar was able to awaken the dark forest and has been working with them. sleepyshade attacks duskstar, claws against his throat and prepared to make sure this murderer wouldn't make it off the moor alive when duskstar smiles up at them and reveals that he had been the one who killed their son, cocoontail, and had sedgewillow wipe off his blood from his pelt. enraged and consumed with grief, the deputy is quickly thrown off. duskstar runs off towards highstones, now completely faithful to the dark forest, and sleepyshade stays with sedgewillow a little longer.

they confessed that they both had feelings for each other and cared deeply for one another, but agreed that their family would be safest if they stopped meeting each other for a while. (for real this time). with a grieving and deeply traumatized heart, sleepyshade shared one last night under the stars with sedgewillow by his side before returning to riverclan. foxshade would run off to shadowclan, and soulwalker isn't on the friendliest terms with sleepyshade right now. they miss cocoontail dearly and grieve the relationships they've caused ruin to. now taking over as riverclan's leader as sleepystar after shellstar's demise to dark forest cats, they had a lot of conflict and turmoil to process through.

under many moons of stress and protecting riverclan they best they could, they confessed their feelings of uneasiness and dread to his selected deputy, bigheart. sleepystar explained that riverclan would be much better off within bigheart's paws, and in order to keep duskstar's focus off of riverclan, sleepystar decides to leave riverclan and abandon his position as leader. he meets with sedgestar and they came to a conclusion : in six moons' time, the thunderclan leader would meet him again at the farm outside the clan territories to live out the rest of their lives in peace. sleepyshade meanwhile began to make a home at the barn for sedgestar's inevitable arrival, and in that time, gave birth to their second litter of kits -- cloudykit and mothkit.