Finchlight

Finchlight is a supporting character in A Starless Clan, the current arc of the Warriors book series. She is a ThunderClan warrior, the daughter of Sparkpelt, and the sister of Nightheart. Like her brother, she was initially a bit distant with her mother, but the two bonded when Finchpaw followed Sparkpelt into exile during Ashfur's reign. Since then, she has been slowly forming a bond with Nightheart as well, showing that she does truly care about him in spite of his doubts.
==Appearance==
Finchlight is a tortoiseshell she-cat with notable orange splotches in her pelt and amber eyes.
==Biography==
===Squirrelflight's Hope===
Finchkit is born to Sparkpelt and Larksong alongside her brothers Flamekit and Flickerkit. However, Flickerkit dies shortly after being born, and Larksong dies of illness soon after as well. Losing both of them so quickly, Sparkpelt spirals into a bad depression, rendering her unable to take care of Finchkit and Flamekit, so the two are nurtured by Sorrelstripe and Daisy instead.
The two kits' grandparents, Squirrelflight and Bramblestar, give the foster queens a break by watching over them one day, with Squirrelflight concluding that she doesn't need to have a second litter when she has her grandchildren to watch grow. Daisy expresses concern that Finchkit and Flamekit won't see Sparkpelt as their mother if she isn't active in their lives, as the two often go to Sorrelstripe instead of her for affection.
After Squirrelflight and her sister Leafpool visit StarClan, the former returns to the living world, and comforts her daughter back at camp by assuring her that she saw Larksong and Flickerkit in StarClan, and the two are watching over her. This lifts her spirits, and she decides to go and be with her kits. The two are unsure at first if their mother wants anything to do with them as she approaches, but soon the three start bonding as they play together.
===The Broken Code===
====Lost Stars====
Finchkit and Flamekit listen in on a Clan meeting from the nursery, and later are seen playing as Sorrelstripe watches while Sparkpelt speaks to her mother. When Bramblestar's dead body is brought to camp, the two kittens watch his vigil with sadness.
====The Silent Thaw====
Finchpaw and Flamepaw become warrior apprentices, and are mentored by Cinderheart and Lilyheart respectively. She is seen sniffing around the camp's walls for prey with her brother, and later the two go with their mentors to train with Baypaw and his mentor Mousewhisker. After going on a hunting patrol, Finchpaw shares a thrush with her mother and her uncle Alderheart, and later still helps to weave brambles into the camp's walls to defend it. When Bramblestar - who is actually possessed by Ashfur - threatens to exile Sparkpelt for looking for the recently banished Lionblaze, she begs him not to, as her kits are still young apprentices.
====Veil of Shadows====
Finchlight protests when "Bramblestar" orders her to pick ticks off of the elders, pointing out that she didn't steal any prey, but the false leader says it's a punishment for her letting Stormcloud give some prey to the exiled Brackenfur. After Sparkpelt and Graystripe are banished from the Clan for perceived codebreaking, Finchpaw joins them in exile alongside Blossomfall, Bumblestaripe, Cinderheart and Thriftear. There, Sparkpelt and Finchpaw form a close bond, and the two return to ThunderClan following the imposter's defeat and imprisonment.
===A Starless Clan===
====River====
Flamepaw reflects on how Sparkpelt had been too depressed to care for him and Finchpaw for a while following the deaths of Flickerkit and Larksong, and how she grew close with his sister while the two were in exile, which he had missed out on. As the two are about to take their warrior assessments, Flamepaw notes how Sparkpelt is more distant and awkward with him while being more warm towards Finchpaw as she wishes them both good luck. Finchpaw completes her assessment, however Flamepaw fails and is held back from becoming a warrior, which angers him. Finchpaw and her foster siblings Baypaw and Myrtlepaw then become warriors, earning the names Finchlight, Bayshine and Myrtlebloom.
Before retaking his warrior assessment, Finchlight gives Flamepaw encouragement, but he ends up failing again. She tries cheering him up, but the two instead get into an argument about how ThunderClan has been following Ashfur's defeat, with the tortoiseshell she-cat believing their Clan to be superior to all the others. He sharply disagrees, and she tells him that he's still an apprentice because he needs to learn to be mature.
Later, the siblings make up before Flamepaw's third assessment, with Finchlight telling him she believes he'll pass this time. The black tom then tells her that he still harbors some animosity towards their mother for not taking care of them in their early life and leaving him behind during Ashfur's reign, to which his sister reasons that Sparkpelt was overcome with grief after Larksong's and Flickerkit's deaths, and that she didn't choose to be banished from ThunderClan. She assures him that Sparkpelt does care for him, and he just needs to be patient. 
After Flamepaw finally passes his assessment, he excitedly tells Finchlight first, who congratulates him and wonders what his warrior name will be. During his warrior assessment, Flamepaw is given the name Flameheart after his great grandfather Firestar's own warrior name, Fireheart. This makes him incredibly upset, and he interrupts his Clanmates' cheers to insist he gets a name that reflects him instead of his ancestors. Several cats speak out against this, including Sparkpelt, but Finchlight back her brother up. Bramblestar agrees to give him a more suitable name, and calls him Nightheart instead.
====Sky====
After Nightheart injures himself on a hunting patrol, the patrol's leader Lionblaze requests that Finchlight be fetched to replace him. Nightheart thinks about how she won't be happy to go on another patrol after just getting done with the dawn patrol, and reflects on how his sister is often caught between him and their mother when the two quarrel.
Later, back in camp, Nightheart sees Finchlight and Sparkpelt eating together and grabs some prey to join them. As he approaches however, he catches their disapproving glances. The two get into an argument about his name change, with Sparkpelt saying that him not wanting to be named after Firestar is disrespectful to his family's legacy, with Finchlight suggesting that he leaves before he gives their mother indigestion. 
Later still, after Nightheart announces that he's leaving ThunderClan to go join ShadowClan, Finchlight and Sparkpelt poke their heads out of the warriors' den with shock. Sparkpelt is angered by her son's abrupt decision, but the tortoiseshell she-cat doubts he'll actually go through with it.
====Shadow====
At Nightheart's first Gathering as an unofficial ShadowClan cat, he notices his former Clanmates murmuring bout him when they see him, and is horrified when ShadowClan's leader Tigerstar announces his arrival. The ShadowClan warrior Berryheart then pipes up that it's too easy for cats to move to a different Clan, and Finchlight suggests that there should be three assessments to make them officially apart of a Clan instead of just one, which the five leaders all agree on. After the Gathering, Nightheart confronts Finchlight about her suggestion, asking why she wants to make his move to ShadowClan harder if she presumably didn't want him to go back to ThunderClan. She's taken aback by this, and says that she and everyone else does want him back, especially Sparkpelt. He doesn't buy this though, convincing himself that she doesn't care about him, and asks why their mother didn't show up to the Gathering if she misses him so much. Finchlight is unable to give an answer to this, so Nightheart storms off.
At the next Gathering, Finchlight and Nightheart meet on friendlier terms and talk about how distant and detached Bramblestar has become after Ashfur's possession, with her commenting that it doesn't seem like he wishes to lead the Clan at all anymore. Later, as he's about to take his final assessment to officially join ShadowClan, Nightheart realizes that he belongs in ThunderClan, and purposely fails the task. When he returns to his old home, Finchlight and Sparkpelt warmly welcome him back, causing him to realize that they did genuinely care about him all along, resolving to be less selfish towards them from now on.
==Trivia==
*Finchlight is Sparkpelt's firstborn.
*Despite being younger then them, Finchpaw and Flamepaw were made apprentices before Baypaw and Myrtlepaw.
**Additionally, the four were the only ones to be made apprentices during Ashfur's reign.
==External links==
Finchlight on the Warriors Wiki
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