Geckosand

Short and slim tom, with light creamy colored pelt, with brown colored spots over his body, a brown front paw and hindpaw, brown tail with a white tip that is heavily matted. Green eyes and a longer than average fang that pokes out of the side of his mouth.

He is the kind of cat that puts the biggest efforts into doing things right even if it takes from sunrise to sundown to hunt even a small role as he doesn’t give up easily,he has usually a bad attitude but even with hit you can trust him with whatever, he may complain or say no at first to a favor but once he’s compromised you can be sure that he’ll make up to his word.

He has a quick mind, has the ability easily to solve tactical problems, thinks about comebacks, and analyzes his surroundings, sadly he doesn’t trust too much on this part of himself making him always listen to his head and instead act.

For what is on his head and his determination his paws hardly cooperate at all, maybe bad luck, maybe just a terrible coordination but it’s easy for him to get stuck on places or trip on stuff. He usually focus on something too much and that let everything else unattended with the result of him messing it up while moving or reacting to external stimulus.

He is also the kind of cat that can quote you the code while sleeping and hopes that as he does all cats around him follow the rules, probably would approach you if you are doing something suspicious and call you out for it.

Because he takes himself maybe too seriously and wishes to be as good as any other he has a hard time accepting help and is stubborn on doing things by himself even if he could use help or advice, all in the name of his pride and “honor”.

He just can’t deal with stupidity (even his), too many questions, or frustration in general. He tends to explode easily, from small things like being unable to take a thorn from his paw to losing a hunt, and he would usually redirect this frustration towards inanimate objects or the closest cat available to be yelled at.

He has very clear values and rules for himself that are immovable and pretty much written in stone, for example.: He only takes as much as he contributes to the clan, if he can only bring one prey back he would only accept to take half of prey for himself, he’s especially harsh on himself and all that he does to keep this values tends to only make harder his difficulties with his duties and of course, fuel his bad temper.

KITHOOD

Geckokit and his sister Bouderkit were born from the second litter of Ivorywisker and Juniperbrook, a couple of brave and third generation of impeccable guards. He kitted under not so bright conditions, since just a couple of days after he was born part of the clan caught fire, thankfully he and the rest of his family and the clan survived it, but the impression of the chaos and the scent of the fire as one of his first memories deeply affected Geckokit making him a frighten and timid kit.

Ivorywisker would take most of Geckokit’s education and with the intentions of erasing away the fear of his kitten to the outside world, she would tell him stories about the boldness of his big sibling Duneclaw(always too busy to even visit on his little sibling) or how lucky he was to have survived the fire, it always made Geckokit determined to follow the steps of Duneclaw and appreciate the gift he was given, with the pass of weeks and months that apparent insecurity faded away, but more like it was only masked with a fierce determination.

Actually, he was a pretty enthusiastic kitten along with his sister Boulderkit by the end of their kithood and they were both already planning to become the greatest guards in all of Cliffclan’s history, for Duneclaw, for his mother and father, and above everything else: his clan...but sadly the genetics of Geckokit’s birth wouldn’t align with the plan he had for himself...

APPRENTICESHIP

He was taken under the apprenticeship of Nopalchest, a big and strong guard, best friend of Geckopaw’s father. The mentor was exigent over the weak and relatively small body of the apprentice, he wasn’t a runt or anything like it, but it was hard to imagine this scruffy and clumsy apprentice becoming a guard, but between being a favor for a friend and the determination of Geckopaw he kept trying to push him to be strong enough to protect the clan. Due to a small injury on his head, only a couple of weeks after his naming as apprenticeship began Geckopaw was denied to attend the first real gathering after the war, while Boulderpaw was allowed to assist and a little thorn on his resentment against his sister., it was the first thing on a pile of deceptions on the tom’s life.

His training continued but Geckopaw instead of getting better it looked like he was stuck, he wasn’t getting skilled in combat, nor bigger nor resistant against the strict training of his mentor, he was good at reading his enemy but had a hard time even dodging those attacks that he could see coming, at this pace both Nopalchest and Geckopaw were afraid that he really couldn’t become a guard or even get a full name.

The moons passed, his mentor taking heavy wounds from the first mountain lions attacks, and with the change of territory from Cliffclan to Caveclan, Nopalchest tried to convince him to train with a she-cat named Milkpelt, a hunter...maybe it was a subtle way of his mentor to shove him away from the guardlife? Maybe, but he wouldn’t discuss it, despite his best effort he really wasn’t built for being a guard even if that angered him so much, you could say that something deep inside of him died when he accepted to train with Milkpelt and become a hunter, it is not like it mattered now that they were under the way of life on Caveclan where Guards and Hunters don’t even exist properly.

The training with Milkpelt was different from what he was used to, he wasn’t skilled in hunting either, always too eager to prove himself it usually backfired, too clumsy, too quick to act, too slow to act, most of the time something off while hunting that frustrated him even more than fighting, at least as guard you could keep trying until your body couldn’t act anymore, but hunting it was always a one-chance skill... but he was just competent enough to pass his assignment, even if this was fueled by obstinacy and frustration.

He received his Hunter title along Boulderpaw who was a promising guard apprentice. Between the cold and dark walls of Caveclan he didn’t even know how to feel with the ceremony, especially with a ridiculous name that maybe wanted to evoke the nostalgia towards the warm and missed sands of the outside, but for Geckopaw almost felt like a mockery.

WARRIORHOOD

While being in Caveclan there wasn’t much of a difference between hunters and guards, even if he disliked the labelless way of being a warrior that Caveclan had it made him feel less of a failure, but then it finally came the opportunity to have the territory back. Under the excuse of being “too new of a warrior”, it was insisted that he should stay behind and don’t help on the mission of killing the mountain lions, deep down he knew because his barely acceptable skills in fighting and hunting would be more of a nuisance than a help during the attacks.

Once they got their territory back, and not wanting to fixate too much on the big disappointment of staying in the caves while everyone else worked to reclaim their territory, he became an enthusiastic builder and would try to compensate for being unable to help with the mountain lions; one could only say that he actually had the talent to build up nests and collect things for the camp instead of “regular” warrior duties.

It has been several moons of “calm” for him, well… as calm as a frustrating life as a “hunter” could be, the most relevant thing on his life after returning to the routine of Cliffclan was the beginning of his famous matted tail... a thorn that got stuck, he hurt his paw and tongue trying to take it off and too stubborn to ask for help with it he only let it be there on his tail, it always got stuck and with things attached to it, so why bother?