Post by BADGERPELT on Jan 26, 2015 16:45:15 GMT
Badgerpelt.
PERSONALITY Badgerpelt is an old, worn Warrior and he knows it. He has seen the best and the worst the Clan has been through and through it all he has come up surviving - only StarClan knows why. His years of hardship have left a bitter shell of a Tom though his passion for the Clans well-being have always triumphed above all other adversities and made him a fiercely dependable and respected Warrior amongst the older generation. He is not the type of tom that would welcome idle chit-chat though he has an open ear and a belly full of guidance for those who seek it though his manner and opinions are not always what one would wish to hear. He is kind enough to keep quiet unless spoken to due to his stubborn belief that learning through mistakes is the best way to learn at all. Not surprisingly, his apprentices find his methods pretty frustrating... but most are too afraid to speak up in his presence. That is not to say that he is an all-knowing wise cat who speaks wonders with every breath. For sure, if there is something tactical to be spoken about he will certainly help you devise a plan to come up triumphant. If you wish to hear of the perfect way to manoeuvre a under-belly slash without exposing your throat - ask all you wish. His skills are predominately focused on the battlefield but unfortunately that overshadows his abilities to do much else. He's barely an average hunter, his footing is just far too heavy to approach anything with any ounce of delicacy, his conversation skills are as dry as a hot green leafs day and his husbandry skills are as about as useful as a belly ache... for all those poor unfortunate she-cats that have been placed under his watch. A lot of younger cats look at him as a scary grandfather figure, many of the adult Warriors know him as a fixed feature of the Clan and respected Warrior while those who knew him from their younger years look on at him with hushed pity. They remember him as a fiercely diligent tom with a strong sense of purpose heading towards a life of security now that his time of glory has passed - urging him to retire before the toll takes his life however he simply refuses to be seen as a non-participant in the fast-growing clan and above all fears that he could become useless in the new order. There might have been a time when this passion of his might have seen him become the Clan Leader but his fatal flaw has always been that he is very straightforward and tends not to look at the bigger picture. Is there a group of cats attacking the Clan? Attack them right back... forget about the raging Clan backing them or the potential that you might kill one. There's no food in the leafbare? Better continue hunting anyway and completely forget about your family at home. Even his kits (now fully grown) can scarcely remember the black and white tom being at their ceremonies or teaching them how to track mice. There are only a few of his surviving kits that even remember he is their father - many mothers choosing to completely discard their affairs with him in exchange for a quiet life without longing. And how does he feel about this? Like any father who has missed out on his kits growing up - though he feels little guilt as this is the way a father should be and his duty is to the clan as a whole and if feeding his kits means missing out on seeing them then so be it. HISTORY There was nothing unusual about Badgerpelt's upbringing. He was brought into the world in a litter of four kits, two she-cats and two toms. His mother was a very hands-on, no-nonsense sort of queen that though not conventionally pretty or lithe was very soft spoken and carried a certain charm that made others flock to hear her speak. His father was an unknown tom, not mentioned at any stage by their mother which was pretty common practice at the time. When they were not even a moon old, his brother passed away due to natural causes leaving only the three kits left leaving Heronfur devastated. No, she did not go into a deep depression or become obsess over her kits - instead she soldiered on and by natures doing she was blessed with one other kit who's mother had died giving birth to her. She was a lot younger than Badgerpaw's litter and the medicine cat worried if the milk Heronfur was providing would keep her alive - but it did and she was lovingly named Softkit. Being raised in an already bonded sibling unit, Softkit found it difficult to keep up with the older kittens antics and would often be left quite lonely in the nest by herself. Luckily, Badgerkit was quite happy to keep her company inside the nursery where he would spend time grooming her silky grey fur and telling her made-up stories about the outside. Her particular favourite was about him fighting off a great snake single-pawed while his sisters ran away and hid. She loved telling the other kits and queens how brave her big brother was and once out of the nursery, she would follow him bright-eyed and ready wherever he went. The two became a common sight and a bit of a commodity amongst the Clan for the others. They would joke that the two were like an old mated couple, the way he would gently scold her for her kitten-like ways and she would pounce on him to 'teach him a lesson'. They were like this up until Badgerkit became Badgerpaw and then things started to calm down. His mentor was a rather impatient tom with a heavy paw, skilled in battle but without kits of his own and an unskilled mentor he was often very hard on the young Badgerpaw and would mock his inability to hunt enough, run enough and jump as high as the others. He was very close to not even becoming a warrior until his sheer size became an advantage over his mentor and in a fit of aggression he pinned him, showing that he had at least one skill that could be properly honed into something worthy for the Clan. His mentor decided that it was best they focused on something he was good at and leave the rest to the other cats (mostly to save himself a rolling about again). He was quite quick in proving himself as a skilled Warrior in this way and earned himself a reputation as a bit of a bully amongst the other apprentices to make up for his inadequacies in other areas. To say it was difficult was an understatement. The Clan did not want to talk to him and he in turn found himself relying on the few cats that did trust him to be his voice and understand what he needed - Softfur became his voice and in the silence their bond slowly started to repair itself. He learned to trust her, to listen to her, to feel the vibrations of her purring against his thick coat and to appreciate that it was sometimes better to be seen and not heard. Against the wishes of the Clan, he began to pursue her as a romantic interest - though she did not accept his feelings on the basis that she still loved him only as a brother. They settled into an awkward truce and started focussing on their work but were still very much close. It was leaf-fall and the two had gone their separate ways in terms on partners. Softfur had even had a litter of her own and was away to birth her second litter with another tom, Badgerpelt had by this point become a little bit of a nuisance amongst the queens. Nevertheless the two were still very much devoted to each other and he was ever-watchful of her new kits taking on the role as Uncle quite seriously. Softfur went into early labour due to the stress of yet another clan scuffle and with the medicine cat engaged in other life-threatening emergencies he was left to help her birth alone. He was quite the fish out of water and helped her birth the first kit without problems however when duty called he had to leave the Softfur and her kits alone while he took up front line. By the time he had returned, Softkit had given birth to just one other kitten who was a black and white little she-cat like himself. When he went to comfort the new mother he had found that she had left this place with her first kit to hunt with StarClan... leaving the remaining defenceless. In his grief, all he could do was take the kit from her mother and place them amongst a litter of his own making and hope that the she-cat would accept them with her own. Luckily his biological sister had just had a litter of her own the night before and willingly took the kit in on the promise that he would not claim her as his own and that this kit would be raised as her daughter to stop any history repeating itself having watched the heartache it brought him. |
created by Lilith of Adoxography
