Respected Senior Warrior of skyclan, and the cat that mentors lightningpaw until he joins thunderclan.
gingerleap is an average and all around good guy. he doesnt have much going on hes just A Good Warrior. so when a young rogue joined the clan, gingerleap was chosen as a steady, strong mentor for him. lightningpaw looked up to him and treated him as a father figure but was still always weird around him and scared and desperate to be on his good side. gingerleap never understood how lightningpaw could like him so much if he looked so terrified all the time, but he tried his hardest to be the most supportive and encouraging he could be.

in a battle with thunderclan, applepaw targets gingerleap for his status and does NOT let up. she keeps going at him hard and fast, until gingerleap has to get her off of him and strikes too hard in the wrong place. he nearly rips her throat out right there, and she DROPS. hes still frozen to the pot as her father rushes over, and tries to apologize, explain, anything, but amberstrike screams at him and slashes at his face, leaving a permanent scar.

lightningpaw is close friends with applepaw despite everybodys better judgement and hes FURIOUS with gingerleap for hurting her so badly. gingerleap reminds him theyre at war with thunderclan and applepaw is NOT their friend, but lightningpaw holds fast. gingerleap then makes the mistake of calling lightningpaws worthiness of being a clan cat into question, and lightningpaw runs away. gingerleap doesnt see him until the next gathering, where hes tucked close to applepaw.

their relationship ends there. lightningpaw was being somewhat unreasonable and over-attached, and gingerleap hurt his feelings deeply. they circle back when lightningheart is an adult and end on amicable terms, and they definitely still care about each other, but they never really become friends again.


right now im considering if hes the one to take one of redstars lives in the Final Battle. specifically motivated by his care for lightningheart and hatred for the harm redstar has caused him. it could be a fun way to give his character a meaningful goodbye rather than him showing up out of nowhere to have one last conversation and then lightningheart leaves. but i have a lot of other cats to evaluate for that Plot Role so we'll see. the final convo out of nowhere is still fine

he has manx syndrome btw. cause of his short tail and also makes him have bladder issues and problems jumping. his "-leap" suffix seems ironic, but it was given out of respect for his skills as a warrior- a suffix of cultural importance rather than in reference to something specific to the cat.