A patrol guy through and through, by all appearances Lonewatcher seems to be a strong and serious warrior. The scar through his eye makes him appear battle-worn, his eyes have freaked other cats out a time or two, and he has a case of resting serious face that makes him look like a respected RiftClan warrior. Not to mention all the time he spends helping out around camp and volunteering for as many patrols as he can reasonably be a part of. Though, to say that he’s a strong and serious warrior would be a disservice to the actual strong and serious warriors that he lives with. And in LochClan, frankly. Spend enough time with him, and a cat will (eventually) figure out for themselves just how untrue their first impressions are of him.

While Lonewatcher is certainly a calm and quiet cat, it’s a bit of a stretch to consider him composed or put together. When it comes to one-word descriptors, “mellow” seems to fit him the best. It is quite rare for him to experience what we call a “thought”. For the most part, he flows through his life on autopilot, fulfilling his duties and always eager for more to do. He doesn’t really think through what it is, exactly, that he’s doing — lay down some guidelines or instructions for him to follow and he’ll do just fine, but when left to his own devices he tends to flounder. Additionally, it’s easy to rope him into just about anything: a roll-with-the-punches type to his very core, if you ask Lonewatcher to help you out with anything from gathering moss for the elders to trespassing in LochClan’s territory and stealing prey, he’ll be willing to do exactly that.

Lonewatcher never seems to understand that his actions have consequences no matter how many times he is greeted with them. If, for example, he trespasses on another territory and later a patrol finds his scent trail, he won’t understand how they found out that he trespassed or why they care so much. Of course, he is perfectly capable of following and identifying a scent trail himself, and he would also be affronted at a cat from LochClan wandering RiftClan territory like they own the place, but he’s unable to put these pieces together and see the whole picture. He’s a good warrior, isn’t he? Isn’t that what everyone should be caring about, instead of whatever it is that they actually are caring about? He lives in the moment, and he thinks that everyone else should, too.

He has very few aspirations in life. Growing up, he never wanted to become Clan leader or part of a prophecy or save RiftClan from certain disaster all on his own. He has dedicated himself to being a helpful part of his Clan, and so above all, he is most concerned with keeping it running from day to day. Joining patrols, hunting, and doing whatever is asked of him is really all he wants to do, and he does them often enough that it’s a miracle he hasn’t driven himself to exhaustion more than a few times. Frankly, he doesn’t even care much about the idea of mentoring an apprentice: if he ever got one, of course he would do his best to train them as he would certainly be asked to, but he’d only do it because he was asked and not because he has any sort of passion for it. He seems to not have passion for a lot of things. Because he doesn’t have any, not really.

He certainly lives up to his prefix — he’s been a loner all his life and has no intentions of changing that anytime soon. He is plenty capable of being social and will be so whenever someone wants to speak with him, but he struggles to emote and empathize with others. While he strives to be kind and compassionate (and can even strike the mark with unerring accuracy at times), he never does anything of either out of true care, only because he thinks he has to do both in order to be a good Clanmate. Soft-spoken and with a spine as strong as a frail, dying elder, he is easily steamrolled over and often takes up the role of a doormat. He never sees himself as the type of cat to have a large collection of friends, and is perfectly fine with keeping most of his Clanmates as acquaintances only.

There are some things he takes true enjoyment in, though.

Lonewatcher is always one to poke the bear if the opportunity comes along, for the pure enjoyment of riling others up, which he always thinks he does in a friendly manner; and, of course, when the bear strikes back he is always surprised. He’s always delighted to learn something new, and he also loves to share that knowledge (he will be very disappointed if someone tells him that they “already knew” in response). He is also a frequent visitor to the nursery, enjoying entertaining kits and playing with them while their parents get a well-deserved break. He enjoys helping out and does his best to go to bed every night feeling like he’s done a good job that day. Every morning during the warmer months he looks forward to hearing the birds sing, and as long as he stays nice and dry he loves to watch thunderstorms. For the most part, he is very good at curating his life within the Clan — if he isn’t enjoying something, then he’ll never stick around unless he has to, and so in his books, he’s *very* content with his life by simply avoiding all the bad parts.

(Conversely, there are some things he absolutely hates — laziness, being aggressive for no reason, cats with thicker fur than him getting to be so nice and warm all the time, getting wet, and having to pluck all the feathers out of birds before he can eat them could all be considered pet peeves of his, but he also never lets the annoyance cling to him for too long, either.)

And, most obviously, he loves his Clan.

If he didn’t, he would have left already.

Throughout most of their lives, Larchscratch was padding after Tinytail. Before he realized he didn’t fit into the body he was born into and before he earned his warrior name, his dam was in love with his sire.

He wasn’t the only one, though.

Minnowclaw was a few moons older than his sire, and she was who he was padding after. He was friends with his dam, but for the longest time, that’s all they were — friends.

And then they weren’t anymore, because Tinytail decided that he wanted Larchscratch instead. They began to court, but they weren’t even officially mates before Larchscratch became pregnant.

Lonekit, named for the fact that he was born to a litter of his own, was their child. They raised him more like they were co-parents than mates, never actually ending their courtship one way or the other throughout the entirety of his kithood and apprenticeship. His mentor, Steamwind, was a playful and encouraging tom who loved to train him, even though he never displayed much enthusiasm for the lessons, and was devastated for him when Lonepaw gained his scar in a border scuffle. He was almost comedically encouraging and thought the best way to do battle training was with playfights; needless to say, Lonepaw quite enjoyed his apprenticeship, and when he became a warrior he still considered him quite close with his mentor.

About half a year after he became Lonewatcher, Tinytail left Larchscratch in favor of Minnowclaw. Within a moon, they were mates, and Larchscratch took to ranting to his son about the betrayal and how he felt about it. Lonewatcher mostly tuned all of this out. Four moons after Tinytail left his father he had another litter of kits in the nursery: Cloudkit, Featherkit, and Dawnkit. Lonewatcher instantly adored his half-sisters, playing with them whenever he had the spare time, or sitting in with them when they went to listen to stories. When they became apprentices they often invited themselves along with him when they went hunting. He couldn’t have been happier for her when Featherpaw earned head apprentice fair and square, and when they became warriors he was one of the loudest voices in the crowd.

Days later, the White Death happened.

Tinytail, Larchscratch, Steamwind, Featherclaw, and Dawnflower all died.

And now he’s doing all he can to help his Clan recover and continue on.