Pepperclaw

"There is no good, and there is no evil. There is only you, and there is only me. We do what we must, and what we want. What it does to others.....that is decided by fate." ~ Pepper in the Epilogue of *Flakes of Pepper*

**Pepperclaw** is a orange and red tom with green eyes.

## Description

### Appearance

Pepperclaw is a tall for his age. One of the tallest kits in his family his build is very strong, and will cause him to be a fast enough runner. He has long legs, but his tail his even longer. He has a snout that is a little bit longer then most cats, but just be a little bit, it is not noticeable unless you look for it. His paws are average-sized to a little bit small. His spine is visable through his skin, but only slightly. His arms and legs are very strong. He has average-sized ears, that he almost always puts back in anger.
His pelt is clean. And it has no tangles, he cleans it a lit and makes sure that it is well-groomed. It is a little scruffier then he would like it to be, though. He also has some stray hairs, but he tries to groom them, He *would*have medium length fur, but he is allergic to foxes, which causes him to shed. His skin is visable through his fur, but it won't always be. Most of his fur is fiery red, just slightly lighter then rust. He has a stripe going across his spine and a lot of spots on his pelt that our darker then other parts of his fur. The spots look like pepper flakes, which is how he chose the name 'Pepper'. He has a white snout, and a gray nose. His eyes are green, and commonly have a fierce look in them.
He has long enough claws, sharpens them so they are great for fighting and hunting. However, they are not as good as he thinks. But they are long enough and sharp enough for him to hunt pretty well, and do a good enough job at fighting. They will become better when he is a little bit older. His claws are sharper then most cats his age claws are. He enjoys showing them to everyone.
He has a nick in his ear, and he used to have lots of scars, but by the time we joined RockClan they had mostly faded
### Personality

Forthright, belligerent, hostile, guarded, haunted, clever, cunning, reserved, introverted, snappy, short-tempered, hot-headed, aloof, loyal, selfless, noble, rejected, insulting, spiteful, vain, cynical, pessimistic, defiant, rebellious, fealful, brave, lonesome, sensitive, hidden, dislikeable, irrepressile, unsympathetic, prickly, judgy, kind-hearted, arrogont, worldly, rude, disrespectful, feisty, depressed, meloncholy, hardened, unenthusiastic, indifferent, sarcastic, curmudgeonly, caring, snarky, witty, detirmened, righteous, just, hard-working, cocky, free-spirted, grounded,erudite, candid, independent, cold, dark, harsh, down-to-earth, grouchy, free-thinking, stubborn, strong-willed, defensive, tense.

## Life

### Kithood & Adolescence

(*As seen in Flakes Of Pepper*)

After the death of his parents and siblings, Rusty, a fiery, spirted kit is adopted by Snowy, a barn cat who gives him to a cat named Riverwish

For a small period of time,  Rusty was happy living with River--despite having  adopted older siblings who are RockClan apprentices--however, as time went on he became quite introverted because the other cats teased him.

One day,  a small group of cats invite him to come an play with them, which he agrees too, but soon realizes that it is a trick, and the cats are trying to injure--maybe kill--him. Even though he runs, the other cats are older and stronger then him, and catch him quickly. They give him several scars, and scatter after hearing noises in the bushes. Rusty is able to stop the bleeding enough, and finds his way home, but afer that he changed and becomes very, *very*cynical, hostile, and aggressive.

Over time, he comes up with a code that seem to work---he doesn't expect anything of anyone else, they don't expect anything of him. Anyone would betray him in the blink of en eye, he could do the same to them. And most of all---never ever, let your guard down, and never, ever trust anyone.

Rusty starts living mainly inside a den, because he fears if he leaves he will get attacked, and sometimes when he tries to leave he does get attacked.

He also is very short-tempered and lashes out at people, even those he loves. One day he gets into a fight with his mother, and she tells him that she may be angry, but she will always come back to him, however after she goes hunting that day she never comes back.

After this, Rusty leaves his past home and starts traveling around looking for a place to stay. Spending the night of one of the territories he chose, he is attacked by a group of cats who soon reveal themselves to be called Creeks, Blue Sky, Red, Silence, and her sister, a cat named Shadow. They start living temporarily with him, and he changes his name to Pepper

Pepper and Creeks are chosen to go on a quest to defeat a serial killer named Luna, they become friends after Pepper saves Creeks from lighting on fire, and Creeks saves Pepper from drowing

Later, Pepper dreams one night about Silence and Shadow, in the dream they are kits, and Luna kills Thunder, their adoptive father. Silence is threatened by Luna, and in order to save her sister, can never speak again. When Pepper wakes up, he doesn't know if the dream was just a dream, a vision from StarClan

Sometime after Blue Sky, Red, Silecne, and Shadow join Creeks and Pepper on the quest, much to Pepper's annoyence

Pepper meets Cocoa, a mysterious cat who inturdes onto the territory, with word that Rownstar, the StarClan cat that had been assiting them along with Sharpfur, has betrayed them. Pepper belieaves her, and trusts unlike with most cats, but Shadow is suspicious

Shadow comes over to talk to Pepper, who shares with her his cynical views on the word---mainly, he speaks of moral ambiguity. When she aks why his views are like that, he tells her about when he was younger, and the cats who attacked him. He speaks about his mother, as well. And how the scars have never healed, and he has to be careful even with small things, like walking and running.

He meets Cocoa in a private area, without telling his questmates. Cocoa tells him that she is looking for her brother, who she has reason to belieave has been kidnapped by Luna. As it turns out, she has similer dark views to that of Peppers'. He tells her that he is concerned his questmates will try to kill Luan, and he says that, if they do, he will have to stop  them. Because despite his opinion that one does what one must, not what is right, he doesn't think murder is justice. She also tells him about a Savior, a cat who is destined to defeat Luna. It is revealed that Pepper is this cat.

As it turns out, Creeks had been listening to his conversation. He tells Pepper that he doesn't mind his plans. When they arrive back at their camp, Red taunts Pepper, like he always does. Pepper, in an even worse wood then usual, shoots back. They get into a small, verbel-only argument. But when Pepper calls Red a 'kittypet' the fight gets worse.

Red, not knowing about Pepper's scars and how much his actions could hurt him, attacks Pepper. Shadow yowls at Red for him to stop, but Pepper, who doesn't want to back down from a fight, tells him to keep going.

Pepper's scars open, and he bleeds. Because of this, he has a brief, strnage  flashback, in which everyone of his questmates becomes someone from his past life. Red becomes the cat who attacked him because he opened Pepper's scars though it was accidentel and the cat that attacked Pepper gave him the scars in the first place, Shadow becomes River because she has been his friend but he fears she will betray him just like Luna did, Silence becomes Cinnamonstrike because she not wanting Pepper to hang-out with her  younger sister is similer to how Cinnamonstrike wanted Pepper to stay and help her younger brother Autumnpaw, Creeks becomes Snowy because even though Creeks has welcomed Pepper to the group Pepper thinks he will kick him out just as Snowy adopted him but then gave him up, and Blue Sky becomes the cat who Pepper believes had the oringal idea to attack him becuase he always seems to be influencing Red. Pepper is knocked unconcious because of blood loss and wakes up a couple minutes afterwards.

Creeks makes the mistake of telling Pepper he can't handle himself, and they get into a fight. Pepper, who now understands he can't stay with Creeks and friends if they belieave they have to protact him, Pepper runs away. Feeling betrayed once more. He finds the place were the one who was supposed to tell him more about to find Luna would be.

However, when he gets there he finds Luna herself. It turns out Sharfur betrayed them and not Rowanstar. Luna attacks Pepper and it about to kill him, but Red saves him and dies in the procces.

Luna tells Pepper someone else has betrayed him, and he thinks of Blue Sky, but it turns out it was Cocoa. She tells him that she needed to save her brother, whom Luna safely returns. And Cocoa says that now that she has her brother, she will help Pepper fight.

Instead of a fight, Pepper makes a deal with Luna, she can kill him without any of his friends stepping in as long as she allows Silence to speak again. She agrees. And Pepper tells Shadow what happened, or is about to, but Shadow tells him that she knew all along and was only pretending not to know why Silence never spoke in order to protact her from Luna.

Pepper is attacked by Luna, and is going to be killled. But she can't leave a mark and him, no matter how hard she tries. Rowanstar visits from StarClan and explians that this is because Pepper is the Savior. But Pepper can't defeat Luna, as she runs off.

Pepper mentions that Red is in StarClan now, but Rowanstar tells him no, that Red was not a Clan-cat, instead he is loner StarClan, where cats don't suffer exactly, but it is said Loner StarClan is worse to live in then the real world. Pepper is furous that Red couldn't go to StarClan.

Blue Sky goes to find Luna and get reveance on her for killing Red. He explains tha he can't kill Luna, but he can hurt her. Creeks, Silence, and Shadow remain a trio, and invite Pepper to join them, but he refuses and says that he wants to find the Clans and get his reveange, because it is their fault Red didn't go to StarClan.

Creeks stops Pepper, and tells him a story. It turned out Creeks had a younger broher who acted much like Pepper, he too had loose scars, and he too took on a fight he couldn't win, but he died. Creeks says that is why he has always thought Pepepr couldn't loo after himself, but he admits that he was wrong. Pepper forgives him and says goodbye.

Pepper also syas goodbye to Silence, and to Shadow, who was his best friend on the quest. He leaves them.

Pepper has an unseen battle with the Clans (revealed below in the section about his history in RockClan) he then goes and looks at his reflection. Flash comes and asks Pepper what happened, and Pepper explains about Red, and talks about his own cynical opinion of moral ambiguity and of how fate can't be changed.

(*As seen in  The RockClan Archives*)

Pepper enters RockClan, to show them that he cares nothing for the Clans bordors. When he enters, he sees his long-lost elder sister Cinnamon, who he finds out is now member of RockClan named Cinnamonpaw. He strikes up a fight with her, Waterstar discovers this, and asks Pepper who he is and why he is in RockClan, offended, Pepper calls her nosy, and they get into a fight. Creekfrost stops her, and tries to get Pepper to behave, feeling as he is being badgered, Pepper refuses. Only to find a bunch of RockClans' cats wanting to attack him. Creekfrost brings him to the bordor but Pepper, annoyed at being man-handled, refuses to leave. Creekfrost threatens to kill him, and Pepper leaves, in a threatening sort of way, with plans to return. (Revealed in RockClan/Roleplay/Archive 40 and RockClan/Roleplay/Archive 41)

Moons later, Pepper hears some rogues talking to two cats, who turn out to be Winterfall and Morningwing he overhears Morningwing talking about killing a cat named Vinefur, Pepper decides that Vinefur must be in RockClan, because it sounds like a Clan name and he didn't know about the other Clans. For no reason, he feels the need to warn the Clan that almost killed him, and rushes to RockClan. (Revealed in Strays/Roleplay/Archive 5)
When he gets there, a cat named Shredclaw is guarding the bordor and refuses to let Pepper go through, a cat named Leafwind comes, but Shredclaw says he shouldn't listen to Pepper, but Leafwind says they should hear what Pepper has to say Pepper tells them, and he and Leafwind find Vinefur's dead body, Leafwind points out that the body was still warm and Vinefur must have been killed recently, Leafwind says the scent smells like his old Clanmate and he wouldn't kill someone but Pepper says it is the same smell, and wants to warn Morningwing's Clan about him. (Revealed in RockClan/Roleplay/Archive 41)
### Adulthood

Pepperpaw is named a warrior by the name of Pepperclaw

## Relationships

### Cinnamonstrike

Pepperclaw was born long after Cinnamonstrike, and even then he was from a different family until Riverwish adopted him. It was shown that, when he was younger, Cinnamonstrike always seemed to fotget how much younger he was then her, and wanted him to stay in RockClan and help her protect Autumnpaw, but that wasn't how he wanted his life to be, so they got into a fight--Pepperpaw never forgot it, and never will, henceforth he doesn't care about her much, but if anything, he doesn't like her.

### Autumnpaw

It is unfair, and Pepperclaw  knows it but he can't help it, that he doesn't try to befriend Autumnpaw---it is unfair because the only reason he stands clear of his adopted elder brother is because Cinnamonstrike wanted Pepperclaw to stay in RockClan to protect Autumnpaw, even though the medicine cat apprentice was older then Pepperclaw, and even though he could handle himself. Pepperclaw doesn't hate Autumnpaw, but he doesn't care about him.

### Riverwish

Riverwish was Pepperclaw's mother. He loved her a lot, and would have done anything for her. She left one day and never came back, she promised Pepperclaw she would, while Cinnamonpaw and Autumnpaw said she must have died, Pepperclaw was confident she had betryed him. He hates her more then anyone else.  However, once he learns what happened he will forgive her.

### Creeks

At first, Pepperclaw hated him--pretty much because he was just everything Pepperclaw didn't like put into one cat. He was careless, show-offy, popular, selfish in some ways, and cheerful. Pepperclaw hated him like anything, and couldn't have been angrier when having to go on the quest with him. *More Coming Soon*

### Waterdrop

He hates the leader of RockClan. Hate is a strong word, but not when it comes to his feelings about the cat. He hates Clan cats, all of them. Viewing them as greedy and selfish because they chase away loners and rogues. He does not really understand the ways of Clan cats, and thinks Waterstar was the first leader of RockClan. As well as the founder. He thinks she needs to learn to respect others if she wants respect back. He also hates it when others call themselves if charge, if makes want to defy them. The reason he came to RockClan if the first place was to show he would do whatever he wanted.  He thinks she is the most selfish cat in the world.

### Creekfrost

He thinks he is almost as bad as Waterstar. He liked him at first,  thinking he was a little better then the leader. But soon Creekfrost started kissing-up to Waterstar, this angered the loner-kit. He wants Creekfrost to respect as much he respects Waterstar.  He wants to prove his that he will not do what everyone else wants. He hates being man-handled and thinks

## Quotes (optional)

"There is good, and there is no evil. There is only you, and there is only me. We do what we must, and what we want. What it does to others.....that is decided by fate." ~ Pepper in the Epilogue of Flakes of Pepper

## Trivia (optional)

* He was going to have a personality like Gray Wing's from the *Warriors Cats* book series, then he was to be the 'protective older brother' (despite being much younger then his siblings, due to being from a later litter, and adopted), but it was changed at the last minute to like he is now; snappish and harsh.
* Pepperclaw will not go to StarClan when he dies; his full loyalty can never be with RockClan, or any Clan, after what happened to his friends. When he dies, he will go to loner and rogue StarClan.
* He is unable to get full visions from StarClan, due to his hatred of the place.
* If he were a human, his name would either be 'Frank' (but not short for something---just Frank) which means 'free' or Ernest, which means 'serious and detirmened'