Crow'sweep

* Charart
* Life image

Willow'nose

Haku

Myrtle'patch

**Crow'sweep** is a huge, longfurred, ragged, battle-scarred black tom with green eyes. He was born into ShadowClan, but went into voluntary exile after murdering his apprentice. He was killed by Minnow'star in revenge for killing her sister.

## Biography

Crow'sweep was born into ShadowClan as Crow'kit. From a young age he demonstrated control over his peers, terrorising the other kits in the nursery for fun and consistently trying to sneak out of camp to spy on the warriors, being ushered back into the nursery many a time. As an apprentice, Crow'paw's lust for power and a reputation grew, and he believed himself to be superior to the other apprentices. He consistently left crowfood and bugs in the nests of his denmates, and provoked the others into fighting him whenever he could to demonstrate his skill. By nine moons, Crow'paw was already nearly the size of an average warrior, and he used this to his advantage. Day by day, Crow'paw suffered intrusive thoughts of him killing and maiming his peers, and at night he dreamed of murdering those he loved, such as his mother. These thoughts bothered Crow'paw to an extreme extent, and he was constantly fighting himself to stay loyal to his clan and to follow the warrior code. His psychopathic tendencies and behaviours continued from here, to the point where his own mentor started becoming fearful of him.

Crow'paw is out on patrol one day when he and his mentor caught sight of a kittypet on ShadowClan territory. They harshly tell the kittypet to leave at once, or suffer the consequences. The cocky kittypet refuses to leave, but starts growing uneasy when he spots Crow'paw sharpening his claws. He leaps at the kittypet and claws at him, making a deep wound. The kittypet scurries away, bleeding heavily, making it as far as the Thunderpath, but Crow'paw follows him and delivers a killing bite to his neck. Once becoming a warrior named Crow'sweep, he decided to no longer ignore and push away his intrusive thoughts, but instead accept and follow through with them in order to stay sane. He perfects his act of acting normal and unsuspicious around other cats in order to maintain his image, whilst looking for ways to satisfy his bloodthirsty mind in the shadows. Eager to continue his bloodline, he, becomes mates with Ice'foot, who bears his kits- Ant'kit and Raven'kit. His first clan victim is Pebble'pelt, who he murders just outside of ShadowClan territory by the Thunderpath. He almost kills Minnow'fang as well when she tries to avenge Pebble'pelt, but just badly injures her and allows her to get away.

He is assigned an apprentice whilst pushing his children to become as powerful and strong as he is. His apprentice increasingly annoys and disrespects him to the point where Crow'sweep considers "disposing" of him. Once his apprentice catches him slaying a rogue, he questions Crow'sweep's motives and threatens to report him, so Crow'sweep, out of panic, kills him as he tries to run. He realises what he has done and that he will be severely punished for murdering his own apprentice, so he makes himself scarce and runs away across the forest, leaving his clanmates to presume him dead. Crow'sweep, shortening his name to Crow to hide his true identity, meets Acorn at the barn. Acorn is friendly and welcoming to Crow, and he accepts her kindness, flirting with her to gain her trust. The two become mates, and Crow feels his view of the world slowly starting to change. He rejects his blooming feelings towards his new mate, believing emotional attachment is a trap that will come back to bite him later. In an effort to trivialise attachment to Acorn, Crow has a one-night stand with a WindClan warrior, which just leaves him with a sense of guilt. A few moons later, Acorn bears Crow's kits, Yamato, Haku, and Emiko. Crow is initially not keen on the idea of spending the rest of his days in the barn, catching mice, scaring farm animals and conversing with Acorn, but he slowly begins to fall in love with her. Horrified at himself for feeling genuine emotions, Crow forms a plan to head back to ShadowClan under the guise that he was kidnapped by twolegs, and realises that in order to revert to his old self, he needs to leave Acorn behind. In the middle of the night, Crow takes his sons to ShadowClan and leaves Emiko behind as she is the weakest of the kits, and also to keep Acorn company. On the journey, Yamato asks where they are going, and Crow snaps at him not to ask stupid questions. Haku soon grows cold and weak, and after awhile he stops breathing. Crow'sweep is hurt by this and stops briefly to dig him a small grave, then continues the journey with just Yamato. After two days and nights, they arrive at ShadowClan, Crow'sweep having been presumed dead for nearly 20 moons. The other warriors express relief that Crow'sweep has returned, and has brought a healthy kit with him. Crow'sweep tells them his story about being captured by twolegs, but eventually escaping. Most cats believe him without much doubt, besides Dappled'snow, who is more aware of her father's ways than most. He is welcomed back into ShadowClan, and gives his son, now Russet'kit, to a nursing queen to bring up. Crow'sweep throws himself back into clan life and tries to ignore his yearning for Acorn.

Crow'sweep murders another kittypet who is trespassing without even giving them a warning, in the hope that the act will restore some of his sense of inner peace. This, however, is ineffective and his intrusive thoughts are becoming more frequent, his mind demanding that he carry out more murderous deeds. Crow'sweep doesn't even object to his thoughts at this point, rather, he embraces and carries them out without a second thought. Dappled'snow makes it her mission to keep a close eye on her father following several instances of him returning to camp with blood on his claws and around his mouth. Crow'sweep, on the contrary, ignores Dappled'snow and does not seem to question the whereabouts of her dead brother. By now, his facade is starting to fall apart, and many of his clanmates are becoming wary of him and unwilling to look him in the eye. Crow'sweep offers to take on his son as an apprentice, as he knows that he will keep quiet about his father's questionable behaviour. In order to satisfy his needs in a more socially acceptable way, Crow'sweep tries performing cruel, drawn-out acts on prey, but this doesn't scratch the itch. Over the following moons, Crow'sweep starts to become desperate, his mind screaming at him constantly to kill, and having nightmares where he is taunted by his victims. He knows that he needs to kill another cat again to be satisfied, and turns his attention to Mink'fur, a terminally ill warrior who retired early. Crow'sweep visits the elders den where his nephew is sitting, and sits beside him, placing a heavy paw on his head. He asks Mink'fur if he feels ready to go in a sympathetic tone, and to his surprise Mink'fur replies that he isn't. Crow'sweep unsheathes his claws anyway, but at that moment the medicine cat enters the den to tend to Mink'fur, and they shoo Crow'sweep out.

As one of the oldest warriors, Crow'sweep is frustrated by the fact that he is never picked for deputy, seeing himself as the obvious choice. The chosen deputy is arrogant and assigns Dappled'snow to watch over Crow'sweep at all times, citing that she doesn't trust him. Crow'sweep is outraged by this but cannot argue as he is formulating a plan to gain the deputy's trust in order to get rid of her. Dappled'snow is sent on patrol with Crow'sweep, and she uses this opportunity to question him about his time away from ShadowClan. Crow'sweep avoids her questions and continues to blank her, but Dappled'snow is insistent and one day Crow'sweep eventually snaps at her, unsheathing his claws and telling her to shut up if she wants to keep her pelt. His daughter doesn't back down, determined to stand up to her father, and knowing that he can't kill her, because she has his blood. Crow'sweep snarls at her that she wouldn't exist without him, and that she should be grateful. Dappled'snow retorts that he is a terrible father who never made she or her brother feel loved, and passed on his toxic qualities to his son. She tells Crow'sweep of how Ant'swipe died, and accuses him of dooming him from the start. Crow'sweep hisses and turns away, ignoring her for the rest of the patrol. Once returning to camp he realises that Mink'fur has passed away in his sleep, and a clan meeting is taking place. Crow'sweep sits close to the deputy until the meeting has ceased, then asks to speak to her in private. The deputy invites him to the warriors' den to talk, but Crow'sweep insists they step outside of camp. The deputy is uncomfortable, but goes anyway, believing she can overpower Crow'sweep. They head towards the river and Crow'sweep begins to talk about how he has been feeling down lately, and isn't sure what to do. This distraction lowers the deputy's guard, believing this to be a genuine issue, and Crow'sweep takes the opportunity to lunge at her and slit her throat. The deputy bleeds out and Crow'sweep throws her body into the river, but not before smearing himself in her blood. He pads back to camp acting hurt, and breaks down in front of the leader, saying that they were attacked by dogs and he managed to get away, but the deputy was killed. The leader believes him because of the blood, and he is sent to the medicine cat den. The medicine cat is confused when she can spot no obvious wounds, and Crow'sweep deflects this by threatening her. The medicine cat is dumbfounded but agrees to say nothing, and Crow'sweep spends the rest of the day in the den.

Crow'sweep is further irritated when he is not chosen as the new deputy, and his intrusive thoughts quickly return. To add to this, he keeps getting subtle nudges from various clanmates to retire to the elders' den. Despite his advancing age and diminishing strength, Crow'sweep believes this is a ploy to subdue him, further adding to his fury at the world. He decides to head to the next gathering to pick out an appropriate victim. He sits down, and notices the other ShadowClan cats shuffling away from him in fear. He realises that his reputation is essentially in the gutter, and no cat believes his innocent facade anymore. Crow'sweep tries to settle himself down and act natural, but his eyes widen when Minnnow'fang, now Minnow'star, leaps up to the Great Rock. He debates on taking her life, but decides that killing her would lead to too much trouble- so he resorts to killing the ThunderClan deputy, Berry'jaw, instead. After the gathering has ended he sprints off and waits behind the shadows of the trees, ready to strike. He sees Berry'jaw walking alongside Minnow'star, and curses to himself as now he has to take out two cats instead of one. Crow'sweep pounces on Berry'jaw as he walks past next to the Thunderpath, but Minnow'star lunges at him as well. He tussles with Minnow'star for a while, rolling down a hill and injuring her shoulder, before taunting her and turning his attention back to Berry'jaw. Crow'sweep deals a killing bite to his neck. Whilst he is gloating over his victory, Minnow'star catches Crow'sweep by surprise, blinding him in one eye and dealing him a fatal wound in his belly. In his dying breaths, Crow'sweep curses Minnow'star and her clan before passing away.