The Fourth Apprentice ~

old lady i will love you forever

wheeeeeee mama

squirrelflight doesn’t look forward to visiting the medicine den anymore

Spire! Another cat from Tigerheart's shadow. He belongs to the group of city cats that are introduced by Dovewing as the guardian cats, and are referred to as such by Tigerheart and Dovewing the whole book alone until Fierce calls the group such after establishing their right to territory the way Tigerheart taught her at the end. Spire is an old wise member of the group, not exactly a leader but clearly among the most knowledgeable and respected in the group. He has a skill in drawing pictures with his paws, and has a lot of daytime visions that make most cats think he's detached from reality especially if they've just met him. He saw Dovewing and Tigerheart coming to the city cats in a vision, and saw himself leaving with them in a vision. He both sees how he will die protecting a kit in a vision and the river in which they must cross where it will happen, but doesn't communicate that well to the group before it happens, so that when they cross a drawbridge that starts to raise for a boat to pass the cats are unprepared and Pouncekit starts to slip from the edge. Spire leaps into the gap and saves the kit, but is unable to save himself, falling to his death in the water below. Tigerheart is so moved by the sacrifice that he re-names Spire to Spiresight in an impromptu ceremony on their return journey.

Spiresight is connected to Shadowpaw in the next arc, appearing to him a few times as an earthly spirit. This is a little confusing because he had previously appeared to Tigerheart in Starclan to help convince him to gain his nine lives to lead Shadowclan, and so had successfully ascended before the broken code begins. This raises the question of how if starclan was cut off from the living cats this city cat was capable of reaching the living world, but maybe it has to do with the canonical multiple resting places for spirits in the warriors books? In the same way the Tribe of Endless hunting is separate from Starclan maybe there is a city guardian cat spirit residence that he visited for a back door to the living world IDK. Regardless, he is the cat that helps Shadowpaw stay alive when the impostor tries to kill him for knowing his secret, and then becomes part of the 'overshadowed' army that Ashfur controls in the Dark Forest. He returns to Starclan at the end of the arc.

~I've watched you change...

It's like you never had wings~

.

Deftones - Change (In The House Of Flies)

Riverstar! I listened to his super edition recently and actually liked it quite a lot. I know there have been a lot of critiques of it as having undermined his character in the Dawn of the Clans but idk I thought it was humanizing and kind of funny to see him swimming around in the dark pretending to be wise haha. As a founder he was the one that received the least characterization, and knowing he came from the park cats it was always a story I wanted to see more of. I like the idea that he is so spontaneous that he mostly repeats back what cats share with him and then they think he is special because of it, but doesn't actually have a lot of clairvoyance beyond a normal cat.

I gave him a bit of mane hair, similar to tree to try to capture a yoga teacher vibe in combination with his face stripes mimicking facial hair ha. His body type is based off of a Norwegian forest cat, and I think for the 'breeds' I'll be modeling Riverclan from will be Norwegians, Turkish Van, Bengals in the case of leopardstar ha, Bobtails/Manx, and wild fishing cats. This isn't because I think clans are purebreds, but characteristics of these breeds lend them toward water. I specifically am excluding Maine Coons however, because their size is their breed trait and in my mind that's the Sisters haha.

Redwillow! First listed in the eclipse allegiances with Whitewater as his mentor. He has some appearances in the first few omen of the stars books, but mostly is a generic background character. By Night Whispers however he is in my opinion characterized as a seasoned warrior, even though he is very new to the books. He is put in charge of leading a boarder patrol, and is seen after the battle of the border covered in wounds. Later in the book however he is part of the group that plays on the frozen lake, skidding across the surface on his belly. I love this segment because he is mentioned alongside senior warriors Crowfrost and Ratscar who yowl in amusement at his antics.

There is some of what I'm going to call fan interpretation of Redwillow that he is a loner in Shadowclan, but in the books his moderate regard by his own leader and senior warriors suggests to me instead that he was well liked, and integrated into the clan, even though it's never established who his kin is. That's why to me he becomes an example later on of a cat who's ambition is used to radicalize him to the Dark Forest. He doesn't start out a traitor to Shadowclan, on the contrary Redwillow spends his time in the dark forest close to his living clanmates. It isn't until the Forgotten Warrior that Ivypool points out Redwillow specifically multiple times when she's looking for cats that may have loyalties outside their clans. He never says anything to that point, rather his body language and exchanged glances are what makes her think so. Within the Last hope he makes several remarks in the Dark Forest about becoming the best warrior he can be, and that training in the Dark Forest makes training with Shadowclan feel like working with kittypets. Ivypool confronts him in a conversation with Hollowflight asking if he would let his weaker Clanmates die and he says "O-of course not" just that they had a lot to learn from the Dark Forest Warriors. Even with that I remember finding his final moments in the Last Hope a departure from his character, where he declares the Dark Forest his new clan, and that Blackstar's time is over.

Idk I just wanted more out of the radicalization of the clan cats while it was happening. I guess as someone who grew up with the internet I'm not a stranger to what anarchy and rebellion look like behind closed doors and personally felt that the concept of being isolated in a toxic in group extremely interesting, I found the the non-committal conversations of the dark forest trainees to be much more innocent than the showy posturing of competitive vitriol I've known such spaces to inspire. The fact that Redwillow and Breezepelt at the end of the battle were the only two warriors we know by name that sided with the Dark Forest to the end seems like such an underestimate to me. All I'm saying is that while I do love Redwillow for being an example of this, Clan cat rebellion to the Dark Forest could have been much more catastrophic than it was, and especially for the amount of plot and hype that it was given in universe. Add to all that the possible reading of Redwillow as a transmasc character that is radicalized into toxic masculinity and I want it to be known that i do love this character, but that most of that love comes from meta analysis and not from the text itself. He shouldn't have died twice in the Broken Code because truthfully he just didn't deserve it.

Squirrelflight

Redo of my design from 2019

Lightleap! She is the Daughter of Dovewing and Tigerstar, sister to Pouncestep and Shadowsight, mentored by Stonewing. She is born in the City where the Guardian cats live and they travel back to the clans as kits. She is a spitfire, and I love that for her. She wants to be important and has one braincell. Himbo but girl. honestly, slay. I wasn't sure I was going to like her as much as I do, but I'm a lightleap fan. Tries to step up in the Broken Code arc to defend the clans in the Dark Forest, but loses her nerve and Shadowsight takes her place. After that she tries to prove herself several times, to both her peers and her clan. She also is Sunbeam's best friend, but lets her ego get in the way before falling for Sunbeams crush, which ultimately leads to them becoming distant. She protects Frostpaw in the climax of the arc, finally coming through on her desire to make a difference in the clans. I forgive her for being an idiot, she's trying her best.

FROSTDAWN LIKE A SIBERIAN CAT

Here some references

Baby Frostdawn !! I tried my best with your request, I hope you like it eheh !! I tried to give her the distinctive seal point of most tabby Siberian cats like the reference eheh !!