A small tabby tom with long fur and a mottled black, gray, and white pelt. 

Thymegaze is small and not just in comparison to his clanmates. His tabby coat is mainly light grays and whites, with darker areas on his face, legs, and tail. His face is framed by tufts of fluff on his chest. He finally grew into his ears and paws as a warrior.

Quillfeather and Willowshine decide to expand their family days after the war ends. A few moons later the young couple welcome two little kits into the world. Thymekit and Burdock-kit.

Thymekit never got along with the other kits. Even from a young age the gap was clear. He was small and not as interested in play fighting with the others. They'd just knock him down and laugh. No fun.

Instead he spent his days with his mother or visiting the elders. The older cats had stories to tell, and liked when Thymepaw came to visit. They praised him for sitting still and cooed that he was so mature for his age. 

If only the other kits agreed.

Antlerkit is the first to say out loud what everyone thought. "I don't wanna play with you. You're weird." 

Burdock-kit is there to comfort Thymekit. He insists the others are wrong, they're silly and stupid and so are their dumb words. But Thymekit knows the truth. He is weird. 

It doesn't get easier. Antlerkit realizes he can tease and push Thymekit around. As long as Burdock-kit isn't there to defend him. Antlerkit and his sister, Doekit, learn to lie to the warriors who notice.

"We're just playing! He's being a crybaby cause he lost the playfight. It's not our fault he's a sore loser." The two get tutted at, told to go easier on him, and go right back to their game. Or they pick a new one to torment Thymekit.

Finally the bullies become apprentices. Antlerpaw and Doepaw brag about their new names and hurry off to the other apprentices, eager to leave the nursery behind. Thymekit knows they'll start back up once he's an apprentice, but that's two moons away. It'll be a good stretch of peace, just him and his family. He can curl up with his mom and join Burdock-kit and aunt Smokethorn on adventures around the camp. 

Then one day his mom and dad came back from a walk, and Willowshine was hurt. He didn't understand what a snake was or why a little bite was so scary. Smokethorn kept them away from the medicine cat den, kept them warm in the nursery. 

Willowshine never came back. Quillfeather tried to explain, Smokethorn tried to help. His mom was in the stars now, and she couldn't come back. Ever.

Thymekit struggled to understand, struggled with grief he barely understood. His mom had been everything. She understood him, loved him. And while his aunt and father were great, he'd always been closer with his mother.

Time passed, and Smokethorn and Quillfeather tried to fill the void in Thymekit and Burdock-kit's lives. Thymekit spend more time alone or with the elders, listening to stories of Starclan and imagining seeing his mom again in the stars one day. 

Then he was six moons old. Sitting in front of the clan with a new name and new responsibilities. But some things stayed the same.

Antlerpaw and Doepaw were waiting. "We made your new nest for you, aren't you so lucky?" They smiled, and he saw right through it. There was nothing too obviously wrong, they were clever about it. A nest lined with feathers whose sharp ends pointed inward, a trap. But one easily mistaken by others as an innocent mistake.

Burdockpaw helped him pull the feathers out, and Thymepaw did his best to settle into a routine.

The bullying had advanced, grown harder to see. Some of the other apprentices were in on it, it didn't take long to find out who. He knew in his gut when another apprentice approached, insisting their pretty friend had a crush on him that it was a ruse. 

It still hurt. But he grew better at avoiding their tricks, and stuck closer to Burdockpaw when he knew they were up to something. 

He also learned which cats weren't going to bother him much. The older apprentices tended to not care about the squabbling of their younger peers, and Thymepaw found a safe space among some. 

Warriors also tended to take a shining to Thymepaw. He knew how to stay out of their way when the worked, waiting till they were done to ask them for tips and tales of their warriorhood. Most were happy to oblige, and praised how mature he was for his age. 

It was nice, making new friends, but the grief from his mother's loss still hung over his head. To compensate he did his best to train, to become a warrior. One his mother could proudly watch from Starclan.

Thymepaw found fighting quite hard, and guardian training was clearly never going to be an option. But he found solace in hunting. There was more time to think, to breathe, to wait until the time to strike. 

Pre-Plotting: Thymegaze best falls in Saturn for the Ridgeclan plot ad. However he is still young and his opinions may change. He was born after the battle and thus lacks a lot of context in Ridgeclan's troubled past. Thyme is the son of Quillfeather and was adopted from Quillfeather's wanted ad.  

Family: Thymegaze was closest to his mother, and after her death grew closer to his father and aunt. He's always been close to his brother, Burdockpaw. 
Friends: Thymegaze gets along best with cats who are older than him, and has many lose friendships with the warriors and older apprentices of Ridgeclan.
Romance: Thymegaze isn't super interested in romance quite yet, but that could change with the right cat.
Rivals: Thymegaze dislikes his bullies, but prefers not to make enemies when possible.