Dustscrape

**Dustscrape** is a small, compact golden she-cat with lilac ticked tabby markings. She has a round face and eyes, with the colour of her eyes being a murky yellow-green. She has noticeable lilac striping on her face and lower legs. She is often streaked with mud and dust from tunnelling.

## Personality

In hindsight, Dustscrape's prefix was almost a prediction of her talent for tunnelling. She's almost a perfect reflection of the stereotypes about GrimeClan, but she couldn't care a lick what anyone thinks of that. Large, open spaces make her deeply uncomfortable, and she practically fears the sky. She's friendly enough towards her Clanmates, but gets so involved in burrowing, hunting, and patrolling that she comes across as asocial. She also struggles to judge social standards, and accidentally disconcerts other cats by acting almost too friendly, as a result of trying to copy how their friends behave towards them. Overall, she's a generally likeable Clanmate, if a bit weird.

## History

Born to the well-known hunters Volestrike and Thistlewhisker, Dustkit shared the nursery with Batkit, Sandkit, Gingerkit, Flamekit, and later Clawkit, who was born when she was four moons old. She had a particular friendliness towards Gingerkit and Flamekit, who had been born in the same moon as her. Since she was young she wanted to live up to her parents' legacies of hunting, but as an apprentice soon found she preferred the burrowing itself over the actual hunt, and honed her skills there instead. After she was given her warrior name, Dustscrape, both her parents died at some point. Three moons before HollowClan's arrival, she was given Sleetpaw as her first apprentice.

### First Leaf-fall

Dustscrape is on the border patrol that first encounters Stagleap's patrol, alongside Clawface, Embertooth, and Batwing. She stands at the back of the group, unnerved by the HollowClan patrol's display of organisation and strength through killing a fox. As tensions rise between Clawface and the HollowClan cats, **Dustscrape** points out that they are on GrimeClan territory and HollowClan is indeed trespassing. She suggests that they return to their camps and speak to their respective leaders. A meeting is arranged at sundown between the leaders and deputies of GrimeClan and HollowClan, and Dustscrape returns to GrimeClan's camp with the rest of her patrol.

Arriving back at camp, Dustscrape agrees to go with Clawface to report their encounter to Redclaw. She explains that they met with a HollowClan patrol that had just killed a fox, and though the HollowClan cats were injured, they decided to arrange a meeting at sundown rather than risk injury in a fight. Redclaw assures her that it was a good decision to not start a fight without good reason, and asks how many cats were on the patrol, to which Dustscrape tells him there were four. She is noticeably disappointed at the thought of not witnessing the meeting - Redclaw, seeing this, suggests that she comes with him and Molestar to lead them to the meeting place. She agrees readily, and takes her leave while Redclaw goes to speak with Molestar.

Lilypaw approaches her and asks what happened on the patrol. Deciding that Lilypaw will surely find out what happened sooner rather than later, Dustscrape explains their encounter and that Molestar and Redclaw will be meeting HollowClan's own leader and deputy at sundown. Curious, Lilypaw asks if Dustscrape knew that clans could exist further away, and if she thinks HollowClan's leader has nine lives as well. Dustscrape says to Lilypaw that she doubts HollowClan is really a clan, and that more likely they just heard the term somewhere and took it for themselves. Lilypaw then asks how many cats there were and what they looked like, to which Dustscrape replies that there were four cats who looked mostly like any other cat, if a bit skinnier.

At this point, Redclaw approaches them and tells Lilypaw that she will be joining the secondary patrol alongside Clawface and Embertooth, with orders to assist Molestar, Redclaw and Dustscrape if a fight breaks out. Dustscrape admires the thoughtfulness of the idea, and says brightly to Lilypaw that it seems she'll get to see HollowClan for herself. Lilypaw tells Dustscrape that she'll have her back.

The sundown meeting arrives, and Dustscrape is nervous at the thought of seeing HollowClan again. She attempts to be as quiet and still as she can, listening as Adderstar explains the troubles their clan has faced. Dustscrape is unsympathetic, thinking that this doesn't give HollowClan the right to take GrimeClan territory, but holds her tongue. She is shocked by Molestar's decision to let HollowClan stay, and though on the way back she reasons to herself that the southern Pine Forest is rife with foxes, she still feels unhappy and anticipates pushback from her clanmates.

During Molestar's announcement of his decision to the clan, she watches silently as Clawface interrupts the meeting to loudly declare his unhappiness about the matter. Dustscrape finds herself not entirely disagreeing with him, thinking that it will only be a matter of time before HollowClan intrudes on their borders, and they are unlikely to reach newleaf without a fight. Though Molestar asserts that HollowClan will be removed if GrimeClan begins to suffer from their presence, this does not reassure her, as she believes that the loss of so much territory is suffering in itself. She digs her claws into the ground to calm herself.

The following morning, Dustscrape pretends to be asleep until she is sure that Redclaw has left the warriors' den, at which point she gets up and leaves the den herself. She washes herself intently to distract herself from the events of the night before. When Clawface returns from the Moor, he greets Dustscrape, but she doesn't reply. Soon afterwards, Redclaw orders Dustscrape to go and patrol the tunnels with Wrenpelt, Batwing, and Sleetpaw. Dustscrape goes to fetch Sleetpaw from the apprentices' den, and is happy to find him eager to go digging. The two return to Wrenpelt and Batwing at a quick pace and leave the camp, Dustscrape playfully flicking Sleetpaw's nose with the end of her tail.

Entering the tunnels, Dustscrape agrees with Wrenpelt's suggestion that they split up to patrol, going down one of the turn-offs with Sleetpaw. Soon afterwards, Sleetpaw goes ahead of her. He yowls that the tunnel is collapsing around him, and Dustscrape sprints up to meet him, though as she arrives notices that the earth isn't moving. Her suspicions are confirmed when she catches up with Sleetpaw to find no trace of a cave-in. Angered, she starts scolding him as Wrenpelt and Batwing arrive. Both scold him as well, but Sleetpaw is unapologetic and insists that it was only a joke. A furious Dustscrape orders Sleetpaw to return with her to camp, and she apologises to Wrenpelt and Batwing as she leads him away. Sleetpaw becomes contrite and apologises, but Dustscrape believes he is only apologising to try and get out of trouble, and they continue home.

Once back at camp, Dustscrape takes Sleetpaw to explain to Redclaw why they returned early. Redclaw scolds Sleetpaw harshly for his behaviour, and asks Dustscrape what she thinks his punishment should be. Dustscrape suggests that Sleetpaw should be confined to camp for the next moon and put on camp maintenance duties, noting his refusal to apologise until it was clear he would be punished, and Redclaw agrees. Sleetpaw asks if first he can go talk to Lilypaw, and Dustscrape agrees, telling him to get some prey while he's there and that she'll give him his duties afterwards.

When Sleetpaw has left, Dustscrape turns back to Redclaw and apologises profusely for Sleetpaw's behaviour. Redclaw assures her that she handled it well, and that sometimes apprentices act out through no fault of their mentors. He suggests that Sleetpaw only wanted attention, and advises Dustscrape to take the rest of the day off.

Thanking Redclaw for his help, Dustscrape takes her leave and goes to the fresh-kill pile for some food. Seeing that only large pieces of prey are left, she takes a rabbit and approaches Gingerheart, asking him if he would like to share it with her. Greeting her, Gingerheart asks what happened and if Wrenpelt and Batwing are alright. Dustscrape assures him that both are fine and still patrolling, and explains Sleetpaw's prank. She asks Gingerheart for his advice, remarking that his own apprentice is troublesome, and Gingerheart suggests to tell Sleetpaw when he's doing something wrong and how to make it right.

(To be added.)