Shadesleek

A long-tailed she cat with mid-length black fur and amber eyes.
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Shadesleek is a lithe cat with silky, semi-long fur and amber eyes. Her coat is black throughout, as are her nose and paw pads. She’s medium-sized with a long shape, long legs, and a long, feathery tail. Her head is somewhat wedge-shaped, her eyes are almond-shaped, and her ears are more pointed than round-tipped. Her fur can sometimes make her look a little bigger, but it doesn’t hide her body.

Shadesleek is confident and inquisitive. She can be responsible when she needs to, but in everyday life, she sees herself as lazy and doesn’t like to appear too serious. She’s easily bored and longs for amusement. She’s enjoys poking fun at her friends, especially her brother. She likes encouraging his random schemes and ideas, and she’ll try to make sure they’re thought through enough that no one gets injured.

As much as she loves making fun, she’s not afraid to tell someone off for messing with her Clanmates in the wrong way. She’d stare down a cat twice her size just to make a point. She likes hunting a bit more than combat because she loves being stealthy, but she does take fighting seriously and greatly values self-preservation. She wants to be able to back up whatever claims she makes, and so she’ll only fully claim what she thinks she’s capable of or only what she wants to do.

• Born in the Moon of First Fishing (2019)
• Made an Apprentice as Shadepaw during the Moon of Turning Leaves (2019)
• Named a Warrior as Shadesleek during the Moon of Promised Prey (2020)

She was born as Shadekit alongside her brother Nightkit and sister Dustkit in the Moon of First Fishing (2019). Her kithood was unremarkable outside of the usual kit mischief and sneaking off from the nursery with Nightkit to go chat up warriors and whoever else they came across.

Shadekit’s excuse for sneaking out revolved around it being a learning experience, in that the kits would learn through watching what the others were doing. She also argued that it was a chance to improve their sneaking skills, since creeping around was essential for hunting prey as well as spying on and/or escaping enemies. She didn’t care as much about the tiny details of the warriors’ lives as Nightkit did, but it was still less boring than staying in the nursery all day.

She was apprenticed as Shadepaw in the Moon of Turning Leaves (2019), and was the first of her siblings to be called up. She didn’t care which mentor she got as long as they weren’t dull. Her calculating habits continued to grow during her apprenticeship and at one point, she got in trouble for tricking Nightpaw into doing her chores for her. Despite being punished for it, she did not regret it, though she kept that to herself and acted like she’d learned a mentor-approved lesson.

During actual training, Shadepaw did not slack off at all. She liked going up against her siblings, but would get annoyed when it seemed like Nightpaw wouldn’t give his all during spars with her. She even took to insulting WindClan to get a rise out of him. At first, she just mocked it the way she thought cats outside the Clan would, but then she got more specific and crafted jeers about individual Clanmates.

It worked a little too well and she ended up having to apologize to Nightpaw and remind him that she didn’t really think that all of that stuff about the Clan. She figured that enemies wouldn’t be fair in a real fight, so why should she? Distracting an opponent through their emotions was an extremely valid tactic in her opinion.

Something that did not work as well as she’d hoped was an adventure with Nightpaw to the Twoleg farm past WindClan’s border. Shadepaw liked the place more for its hunting potential than for its inhabitants. She wasn’t as intensely interested in kittypets as he was, though they did puzzle her. She didn’t understand why any cat would want to stay around such loud and smelly things like Twolegs, but she didn’t try to approach them in their own territory the way Nightpaw would.

That morning at the farm, they heard a very strange noise and saw a very strange, very large bird. It was noisy but looked huntable, so Shadepaw encouraged Nightpaw to go for it while she stayed in cover. The reasoning she gave him was to think of how many cats that bird would feed if they got it, and since Nightpaw was so good at hunting, he should absolutely be the one to get it. Her deeper reasoning was expecting he’d either catch it and look hilarious dragging such a huge prize, or he’d fail in a funny way and she’d have something to laugh at.

She did not expect a Twoleg to appear, much less take the bird and then start to come near her brother. Its movements had slowed and it didn’t look like it was trying to attack, but Shadepaw doubted she could scare it away even if it was. It lived with that giant bird and they’d seen kittypets with these Twolegs before, so why would it fear one cat charging it?

Shadepaw was ready to run. The Twoleg was close, much too close! Its creepy paw was reaching towards her borther, but for some StarClan-forsaken reason, Nightpaw wasn’t moving! Had the Twoleg transfixed him? Shadepaw didn’t know, but at least her yowling at Nightpaw worked and they escaped unscathed and unchased. At least, they were until Nightpaw ran right into a patrol and Shadepaw tripped and fell over him.

Aside from that event, Shadepaw’s apprenticeship progressed without a problem. Still wanting to catch the Twoleg bird some day, she decided to focus more on her hunting skills. If they couldn’t fight the Twoleg for it, they should be able to get it without the Twolegs noticing either of them. She wanted to pull it off, even if she had to become the sneakiest cat in the forest to do it.

That lofty goal felt a step closer to reality when Shadepaw and her siblings became warriors during the Moon of Promised Prey (2020). She was given the name Shadesleek by Badgerstar. At first, she wasn’t sure why it hadn’t just been Sleekshade, but as she sat vigil that night and thought it over, she decided that Shadesleek sounded better. It didn’t limit her to being just one patch of shade—it gave her the quality of that shade to use as she saw fit. As for how sleek shade could be, that was a question for another day.

In the Moon of Running Prey (2020), Nightrain was found dead under mysterious circumstances. His death shook Shadesleek rather hard, but by the next moon, she’d made her peace with it. Being near the Twoleg farm makes her think of him though and she hasn’t gone back there to try to hunt the Twolegs’ birds.

Her appearance is based off of Balinese cats with modified wedge-shaped heads.