Biography

Suntail’s birth mother is unknown. He is a foundling, an abandoned kit discovered by a warrior patrol with no other cat anywhere nearby. Unsure of what to do, the warriors took the helpless kit home where they could discuss the matter with the clan leader. The kit was too young to eat freshkill; it could not yet talk, and its eyes were only barely open. It smelled of no rival clan, but had a strong, strange odor all its own. It was decided, after long debate, that the kit would be given to Percheye, a queen who volunteered to save the kit’s life. Percheye named him Sunkit, in hopes that it would be a most auspicious name.

It didn’t take long to realize that Sunkit was not like the other kits. He was massive, and grew quickly - Percheye was worked to exhaustion keeping him fed. As he grew, the differences between him and the other kittens only grew more pronounced. His enormous paws were clumsy at best when playing; if he was not careful, he would easily injure his adopted littermates. His voice was not like a normal cat’s meow, but was a harsh yowl that never seemed to go below a shriek. And he just kept growing.

By the time he was confirmed as Sunpaw, he was as large as any adult cat and just as strong. His mentor was chosen to be Thunderflower, the strongest cat in the clan, with the hopes that he would keep Sunpaw in line. Sunpaw proved to not be an issue - in fact, Sunpaw proved to be a lethargic and trouble-free apprentice.

Sunpaw knew that he was dramatically different from other cats in his clan. His adoption was never kept as a secret, but he could tell that thinking on the same level as other cats was not his strong suit. Hunting was a chore for him - Thunderflower would say something about the light here, the way the wind was blowing there, but Sunpaw figured the best way to kill something was to charge right at it and bash it to death with his paws. Frequently, Sunpaw would turn out to be right. His incredible strength, speed, and size proved to be his most valuable assets.

It was in a border skirmish with a rival clan that Sunpaw’s worth was truly tested. While marking the border line, Sunpaw and Thunderflower were confronted by another border patrol who sought to mark on the same row of trees. In a brazen attempt to take the territory for themselves, the rash rival clan patrol leader attacked Thunderflower. In this moment, Sunpaw realized what he loved more than anything in life: fighting.

Singlehandedly, Sunpaw fought off all three rival cats, badly wounding them in the process. They were no match; his incredible strength and resilience allowed him to beat the living daylights out of them and emerge with hardly a scratch. Thunderflower was stunned. He barely would have escaped alive from a two-on-one fight, and just now he had watched his own apprentice fight off three of another clan’s finest warriors.

Thunderflower recommended that Sunpaw be made a full warrior right away. The clan leader was hesitant, but such a heroic feat could not go unrewarded. By the next moon, Suntail was accepted as a full-fledged member of the tribe.

Suntail’s life as a warrior proved to be as uneventful as his apprenticeship. He was lethargic most of the time, and his hunting skill would vary wildly. Sometimes he would return with only single, small rodent; sometimes, he would return with a whole fox or badger he had killed single-handedly. Border patrol duty excited him the most. It was an opportunity to be alone, and if he was lucky, fight other cats. It was not as if he unpopular with the rest of his clan; he was well respected, even adored for his fighting talent. It was clear to Suntail, however, that they viewed him the way they would view a particularly powerful weapon instead of a friend. He was never invited to go to a Gathering, and no other warrior seemed to want to go on patrol with him.

What was worst was how the other clans treated him. It seemed every clan but his own had the legends - the Bigpaws, beasts that looked like cats but were not, cats the size of dogs, cats who could take down deer and even wolves by themselves. Well, Suntail’s paws were indeed very large. He was roughly the size of a dog, perhaps. But he had never, ever heard of Bigpaws until other clan cats would shout it at him across rivers, from their sides of the forest. When he asked his own clan about them, they claimed ignorance.

When he met a real Bigpaw for himself, imagine his surprise! Patrolling on his own in the outermost reaches of his clan’s territory - by sheer coincidence, where he was found as a kit - he saw a cat that looked almost exactly like him climbing in a tree. He took chase. His superior clan-taught tracking skills finally came in handy as he caught up to the mysterious Bigpaw - and found himself being laughed at.

What a clown he was! Though his voice was a growling bellow to his clan, this cat said he sounded like he had a bird stuck in his throat. What a pitiful sight! A mighty bobcat like him, reduced to live beside housecats!

Suntail begged for information, pleaded, but the stranger ran off. Suntail returned to the clan in a haze, no longer sure of anything. He was a clan cat, wasn’t he? A clan cat twice as big, with a stubby tail, who was found in the middle of the forest…

He pushed it out of his mind. He had to. But his daily lethargy was striking, compared to his previous behavior. He almost never left the warrior’s den, unless he was on patrol or hunting. As the gears in his head grinded together, he came to a conclusion. If he was to live in a world that was half clan, half Bigpaw, then so be it. He would become the engine of war that everyone saw him as. If that was the bobcat way, that was his way.

Loyal to his clan he would remain. It was the only family he ever knew. But no mercy, none at all, would be afforded any other cat he would see. He was Bigpaw, he was Clan, and he would be the only cat who was the best at both.