Wheatnose

Appearance
Wheatnose is a sandy brown tom with silvery gray eyes. He has a pattern of dusty gold dots under his eyes. His tail is a small bob due to a fox attack as an apprentice.

Personality
Wheatnose is an irritable cat. He is only genuinely nice to his mate and kits and gets mad easily. He cannot stand Suncurrent and is only marginally civil most days. He's the resident grump and a major thorn in everyone's side, but despite his gruff exterior and unreasonable stubbornness, Wheatnose is a loyal and dedicated warrior.

Kithood
Wheatkit was born in OasisClan to Cloversky and Jackalbark. He had only one sister, Peonykit, and he loved her a lot. They did just about everything together and loved making life difficult for everyone.

Unfortunately, Peonykit came up with the bright idea out sneaking out of camp when they were about four moons old. Wheatkit went only because she wanted to do it so badly. He didn't want to leave. Wheatkit wanted to sleep. Wheatkit did not get to sleep. He was out in the woods with Peonykit when a tree fell on her, permanantly paralyzing her back legs. Not only that, she couldn't get out from under it and they were too lost for Wheatkit to get help. Peonykit died slowly and alone while Wheatkit wandered the woods, looking for camp.

Wheatkit changed after his sister's accident. He was a lot more closed off and didn't talk as much. He was snappish and rude. Cloversky and Jackalbark moved to OrchidClan, hoping a change of setting would help Wheatkit with the loss of his sister. It didn't.

Apprenticeship
Wheatpaw was apprenticed to Rosejay, an OrchidClan warrior who had been friends with Cloversky when they were younger. Wheatpaw hated her on principle. Rosejay was an absolute saint and did her best to teach him, but Wheatpaw was a stubborn snotball who no one really liked. He was lonely and isolated, mostly by choice.

That all changed at his first Gathering, where he met the lovely FallClan sisters Skypaw and Flowerpaw. He was quite smitten with Skypaw, while Flowerpaw was witty and intelligent. The three of them talked long into the night and Skypaw mentioned that they were going to be moving to OasisClan in a moon or two. Wheatpaw was a little panicked at the thought and told them about Peonykit and how she had died. They promised to be careful and that they'd see him in a moon.

And they did. Wheatpaw was almost surprised to see them again at the next Gathering and they spent the night once again swapping stories about what they'd been doing. At least, Skypaw and Flowerpaw told him about what they'd been doing. Wheatpaw had spent the moon being mean to Rosejay, as usual. No need to tell these lovely girls about that.

This went on for quite awhile, until they turned twelve moons old. Wheatpaw failed his first warrior assessment, so he didn't have a fancy name to take to his friends that moon. Skypaw did though, her name being Skyflower. Wheatpaw was very confused about the lack of Flowerpaw at the Gathering, at which point Skyflower told him about how she had run into a fox while hunting with Flowerpaw. She had fought as hard as she could, but Flowerpaw had died. The leader had given her the warrior name Skyflower in honor of what she saw as her greatest failure. Wheatpaw tried his best to comfort her, but felt utterly helpless. Flowerpaw, his beautiful, witty, sunny, generous, funny Flowerpaw... was dead?

He succeeded his next warrior assessment.

Warrior Life
Wheatpaw earned his warrior name, Wheatnose, at thirteen moons old. He still didn't like his saintly mentor Rosejay. He did really like Skyflower, though, and he was extremely scared about showing those feelings. He didn't want to seem insensitive about her sister's death, so he waited. He waited for moons. He didn't say anything. He kept going to Gatherings and hanging out with Skyflower, but he never found the courage to tell her how he really felt.

When he was seventeen, he decided to finally get a grip on his life and asked Skyflower to stay after the Gathering with him. She agreed and after the Gathering, before he could say a word, Skyflower thanked him for always being there for her, for staying at her side even after her more interesting sister died. Wheatnose apologized for not doing more for her and explained that he really liked her and he didn't mind if she didn't feel the same way. He just enjoyed having her for a friend, but he was unwilling to let his thoughts go unsaid. Skyflower seemed somehow relieved, because she too liked him and was scared that he had been in love with her sister. They became mates then and there and Skyflower tried to convince him to move to OasisClan so they could be together. Wheatnose had finally started to settle into OrchidClan and refused, though he promised to visit often.

Wheatnose's characteristic stubbornness was not the only thing keeping him away from his beloved mate and his birth Clan. His parents had fallen sick and Cloversky in particular wasn't doing very well. He did visit Skyflower often and spent a few days with her as often as he could, but he stayed with his parents as often as he could.

When he was nineteen, Cloversky took a turn for the worse at the same time a messenger came to inform Wheatnose that he was a father. Cloversky got to hear the happy news just before her death. Filled with grief and sorrow, Wheatnose took off for OasisClan.

Skyflower was reasonably upset that he hadn't been there for the birth and for the lack of visits leading up to it, but forgave him once she found out about Cloversky. She had had a litter of six, but two had been born dead and another looked like it wasn't going to make it through the night. The kits were hopelessly small and premature, which worried Wheatnose to no end. He stayed in the nursery all night, trying to help his last daughter and three sons to survive. It didn't end well and the struggling she-cat barely made it to dawn. The three dead kits were removed from the nursery, leaving Skyflower and Wheatnose with their three sons. They quickly lost those three too and felt completely awful about it, since two of them had slipped away while their parents were asleep. The last one was actually given a name, Bravekit, and lived until sunset on the second day. Wheatnose was racked with grief, having lost his mother and all six of his kits in such rapid succession. The news that Jackalbark had died the same night as Bravekit did him no favors either. Wheatnose was angry at the world for taking his parents and his kits from him in one fell swoop. He stayed with Skyflower for another two moons, scared that if he left her, she would die too. Skyflower finally convinced him to try to move on, suggesting that he return to OrchidClan. So at twenty-one moons old, he did just that.

And he remained in OrchidClan for all of two weeks, acting surly and jaded the whole time. Still no one liked him there and Rosejay had died while he had been gone, so it wasn't like he had any reason to stay. He moved back to OasisClan to stay close to his mate and found out that she was pregnant again. Determined not to let anything go wrong this time, Wheatnose stayed close to her as often as he could. He caught her favorite prey, he found soft moss and feathers for her nest, he insured that the medicine cats would be able to help.

When he was twenty-two, his second litter of kits were born right on time and fairly healthy. The kits were named Flaxkit, Webkit, Cloudkit, and Tawnykit and Wheatnose was incredibly overprotective. For their first week of life, he was constantly in the nursery, always watching over them and Skyflower. After that, he relaxed somewhat, but he still hung out a lot in the nursery.