Hazelstar;; RiverClan

[Hazelstar]

Name:

[/s]
»» Hazelstar ««[/ul]

Gender: She-cat

Age: 29 moons

Rank: Leader

Clan: RiverClan

Mate/crush: None at this time

Role player: Hazel

Personality:

Hazelstar is a hunter in her heart of hearts, and it effects her greatly. When approaching a problem she tends to want to wait and see, then attack when it seems the most right. It gives her a bit of an intelligent aura, the way she normally acts. She can really access a situation when her mind changes to that gear. When she leads the occasional patrol is the easiest time to see this in her. The way her eyes dart, the way she always looks for bad signs, it's just obvious. It also aids in making her a much more efficient leader, When a problem comes she accesses her situation when it really is necessary. Her battle reflexes have been trained to a t, but this part of her will be explained further on.

Hazelstar truly is quite positive cat. Now this isn't to say she's so positive she become ignorant and utterly mouse brained, but it is worth mention. Hazelstar tends to want to try and find something positive in the situation, something to hope and dream of. Hope is one of the strongest qualities a cat can have, leader or not. When you hope, your mind is free, and therefore you can never truly be broken. She tries to put others at ease whenever possible, one-liners, smirks, and smiles are all common place when she is among her clan. Compared to some past leaders, she's a very social, rather then just being closed up in her den. She's the one to go out and lead a patrol or two. She'd hate to have her clan mates lose connection with her. It's shown in the past that her sociality has made her a much more popular leader. She doesn't plan to change that anytime soon. She knows her own clan very well in this way, she holds loyalty most dear to her heart. Betrayals, back-stabbing, are something that she can rarely forgive. In most cases, the grudge of something like that leaves an unseen scar in her heart. To mend such a scar would take some time, and would require many days of work to change.

She does have something hidden inside her though, past the smile, past the kind voice that has been trained into her by her mentor. Hazelstar has something that is easiest to describe as a "kill-switch". This "switch" is often controllable, but it's the accidental times where it's the most frightening. Once the "kill-switch" is flipped on, it's a totally different side of Hazelstar. Like a battle-hardened solider, it is as if she is no longer afraid of anything. She becomes itching to fight, all because of this anger, and this anger is what makes her stronger. Every time she goes into a true battle she uses this technique. She puts all of her rage into fighting, her focus becomes razor sharp on what she's doing. She is totally run on the idea of fighting and killing. She draws on every thing she is trying to protect to stay this way. Her friends, her clan, her life, all of these are what she is trying to protect. By being this way, she can do so. The problem is, if she becomes angered enough, she will enter this part of her mind anyway. It makes her anger, her true fury, like a time bomb...Have you heard of the saying "Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned"? Well till you have seen Hazelstar in a battle, you haven't see anything yet.





Appearance:

A tabby mixture of browns, whites, and blacks dominates the pelt of Hazelstar's body. Her face is lined with black from the top of her her head arcing down to reach her eyes Outside of that is mostly a light brown in color and a few dark accents. With the exception of a splotch of white covering her entire lower jaw and a small area right below her pink nose. Her muzzle is pronounced and strong, with medium length whiskers. Hazelstar's ears are of average size for a cat. They are most always pricking and attentive to sounds around her. The outside of her ears is brown while the inside has a small bit of pink. Her head is slightly scarred behind her right ear. There the fur notably less, it's her really significant battle scar from the past. The wound had made her black out, she considered herself to be lucky the wound was not any deeper. Thankfully the tissue no longer causes her pain on contact, and for that she is also glad. Every time she moved her right ear it made her wince slightly.

Moving on from her facial region, she is a rather long she-cat. Her body is built for the hunt essentially, in and out of water, with strong back legs to propel her forward to catch her prey. It also comes in handy when jumping into a fight. For maximum efficiency she almost always wants to hit first rather than last. Her legs also aid her when it comes to swimming. She can propel herself further and faster when she needs to, utilizing her whole body. When it comes to getting up a tree, there is no question her legs give her an advantage there. On the rest of her body, her strength is as lean as any clan cat. She has a slight advantage in her front paws from fishing. Yet, it's nothing quite as exceptional as what she can draw out from her legs. Her remaining scars are hidden by her fur. They run along both her flanks in various curved lines. Her paws are an interesting feature though, because her claws are longer then normal claws. It is something that she needs to be careful of using. With length comes deeper wounds to be inflicted, so she could accidentally go to far. In battle however, she could care less about the damage she would do to an enemy.

History: [this is unfinished, but since RiverClan needs a leader, the history will be totally completed at a later date]

Born of the River
Moons 0-6

The night was cool and crisp and there was a slight breeze coming around. This new-leaf was a cold one compared to the previous one. But, it was not a depressing night for the cold, no today was one to be happy. Duskpelt had just finished birthing her kits. First had come Brackenkit, a small tom who looked most similar to his mother. Then came Hazelkit, she looked just like her, and was named Hazelkit for her tabby pelt. After her came Ospreykit and Thrushkit, who were a she-cat and tom respectively. Nightclaw, their father, unfortunately died before he could see his kits. He died in a border dispute with Thunderclan and was lost from his injures. Duskpelt wished he could see them now, and perhaps he did, drom Starclan. Either way she now had kits to take care of, and put her attention on them.

Hazelkit grew with her more positive outlook from the beginning. However, when the apprentices came by and made a little fun of her siblings, she was the first to jump up and stare them down. Of course they still laughed her off, but it made her mother proud to see her stand up. She couldn't help remembering how Nightclaw was so brave, it brought her eyes to water. She looked away from them as her kits continued to play with each other. Hazelkit's favorite thing to play was to jump on the leaves. She would watch the warriors teaching and try to replicate them. She wasn't very good to say the least, she was the best out of her siblings though. She dreamed of being the best warrior there is, her mother always told her grand stories of her father. That he died in the greatest battle with Thunderclan yet, and he took with him five cats right before he collapsed under his injuries. She would later learn that it was nothing more than a tale, but it comforted her none the less.

Hazelkit was watching the older warriors all the time as she grew closer and closer to the time to be an apprentice. She watched and waited, she wanted to know who could be her mentor. She was excited, the most optimistic of her siblings, she was dreaming of all the grandeur still. She counted the sun-downs each day till the next moon, and started over again. Finally when she counted six moons for herself and her siblings she was practically bouncing off the walls. She was so glad and naive at that time of the danger that being a warrior or and apprentice was. When the cats were called together, she knew it was time. She moved up with such pride she almost tripped, her heart-sank at that moment. What an embarrassment that would have been! She moved finally to meet her mentor. Her mentor was Sparrowthorn, a light brown tom who was one of the most senior warriors there. He was also a polar opposite of Hazelkit, who now was Hazelpaw. She was determined to make the best of it. She would be a warrior if it was the last thing she did. [/size]

Open the Floodgates
Moons 6-12

Her mentor was more then she expected him to be, at least the way he taught was not the way she guessed it would be. She was thrown right out into the water, literally speaking. She was told to fish for kill from the start, and she looked at him with a confused expression. But, he nodded to her and told her to go ahead. She had longer claws then the other apprentices, so she believed this might come a bit easier. She unsuccessfully tried the first time, and the fish just swam away from her grasp. She hissed ever so slightly and waited for the next fish. Another failure. She did it again and again, at his continued prodding. He sat there, seemingly without caring as she splashed and splashed the water. She was sure that she could get it, yet she got more and more frustrated at each attempt. They were there till the sun was nearly below the horizon. She was so furious by that time she simply jumped in after the last fish with a yowl. After swimming back to shore with her sopping fur, she panted for a bit from the cry out. She looked up at her mentor looked down at her when she had her head hanged low. He said the reason for this was to show that clan life was hard work, and she better get used to frustration. He saw how bouncy she was as kit, how she thought it would all be easy for her. He told her to get rid of her preconceptions, they wold only hinder her progress. She nodded to him, before parting he told her that she would learn to harness her frustration in the future. She knew she would look forward to that day.

After this she was taught how to fish by him, she would be taught how to work with fighting in and out of water. He was a grueling instructor. His methods were learn fast, or be lost behind. In some ways, and she couldn't believe it, it worked. It wouldn't be the way she taught, far from it. She felt that her method would be something similar, with the exercises and such, but gentler. Less like the military, more like learning how to walk. You had to do it, it just didn't happen as overnight as her mentor expected it to be. She was a quick learner, and so his method worked with her. All the while though, her mind was half on what she would have done differently. She wanted to think of a method that would be firm yet gentle, if that made any sense. In her though, it was becoming harder and harder to imagine a gentler training.

The lesson where she learned to harness her "kill switch", in a manner of speaking, was his hardest one yet. She was about halfway through training and he had them go for a practice figh. Then he held nothing back from her. He threw her back from the start. Then he started to insult her, every single misstep that happened to her he insulted her. He slammed her, he asked her what she'd do if she'd been attacked. He told her she would have been dead, her clan would be vulnerable, and her family would be vulnerable. That's when it happened, something in her head just clicked. All her focus became into throwing him off. She used her powerful back legs, launching him off of her. She hissed at him and attacked with a fierce battle cry and her long claws came unsheathed. She was a twisting mass of paws and fur. She felt the war become so much sharper, clearer. It was something only achievable by giving into the complete battle rage her forced her. By the end of the fight, they had both been beaten pretty bad. Despite being hurt more then her mentor was. She had done well, so well it made a meow of laughter come from his mouth. She was surprised because that never really happened. Ever. He complemented her then...He complemented her? The serious, and pessimistic warrior was finally being a bit brighter like she was. He told her that now she could really be called an apprentice.

From there her training progressively seemed to be more and more easier for her. Now that she really got the gist of using her strength from her leg, she was more and more efficient. She noticed more smiling from her mentor when she knew he was trying to hide it. She worked harder and harder at what she was doing to keep that bright mood there. Hopefully this was how he was with all his past apprentices, if he wasn't, she wasn't sure what made her so special. Then when the day came, she was given her warrior name. She did not have the same bounciness she had when she was a kit, and she knew how far she'd come. She felt stronger, and she knew that the way she could unleash her anger could be a danger. But, it was worth the risk to have that kind of ability on the battlefield. It was a tactic that was just so arcane, and unexpected. For her swiftness and agility, she was given the suffix wing. She watched her mentor nod at her, giving her something that was the best thing any mentor could give her. Acceptance. [/size]

Power of the Current
Moons 12 - 21

Now a full fledged warrior, she was glad to defend the clan and hunt for them. She loved the hunt more then she loved the patrols. It was much easier to deal with the unintelligent prey she would hunt, rather then watch for the enemy warriors. Yet, she adapted herself to do as well leading a patrol when she got the chance. She was wondering if she should be looking for a mate, but she remembered those times when she was an apprentice. How she wasn't good enough, that was just like she felt right now. She certainly wasn't good enough for any mate yet. She was a nice friend, but who could really find something in her? She was dangerous sometimes, she knew. Once she goes off it's hard to bring her down, the kill switch is a hard thing to pull back down. Thankfully her clanmates took great care not to make her angry after one or two confrontations. It seemed her mentor had a reputation for the same thing. She didn't exactly blame him for giving her the switch, she must have always had it. Just something in her character that lets her fly off the handle when she feels enraged. So she let her chances of getting a mate fall from her mind. She didn't even notice when one tom tried to make a move. She just walked away from the situation.

As a warrior, she finally got to see a significant battle confrontation. WindClan was getting a bit to close to their territory and they needed to be reminded that RiverClan would have none of that nonsense. Their war party met them just slightly into their territory. The WindClan boarder party consisted of about five cats, and that was compared to the six RiverClan cats that they had. These cats were compiled of four others she was so familiar with, her and her mentor. They joked about how it was for old time's sake. It would be a small confrontation, but significant anyway. This was about boarders, they wanted no war, only for them to receive the message to stay across the bridge.

She battle started so quick once the cats crossed over she barely had time to think. Like clockwork her mind switched over to rage and fury. The rage that came from defending your home, and nothing was going to stop her. Her thoughts were reduced to fighting tactics, her own mind did not think about her body. She barely could identify friend or foe, but she kept on swinging. The problem came when a cat took her from the flank, she missed his attack coming. The claws raked down from behind her head, right behind her ear. They finished cutting her face when they reached half way and she could get out. Blood was quickly coming from the wound and she knew if she took to long she would die. She could feel it in her bones. She saw spots on the edge of her vision and she started to feel dizzy on top of the pain. Luckily the battle had almost ended when she started to move out. She got in a few last tries before she had to leave for her injuries. There was no dishonor in that, a cat was with her when she was dispatched back. She collapsed when she was near the camp, and she was dragged to the medicine cat to try and save her.

When she awoke she was in the den of the medicine cat unsurprisingly. Her head hurt like crazy, and she moaned to herself. She could feel the cobwebs dressing the wound. She thanked StarClan for her life, she sighed to herself and looked around to see the Medicine Cat. She was told to stay here for awhile to let the wound heal. She shook her head, but the cat was insistent. She then asked what happened at the battle, since she had to leave a bit early. The cat turned from her for a second. Then she was told her mentor died. He and another WindClan that did not run went at it. They fight continued up to the gorge and...She knew that they had fallen in, there was no need for the medicine cat to finish the sentence. She did not react, not at first, she lied down her head and stared at the floor. Her mentor was gone, the one who had been as close to a Father then anything else. She was honestly in shock, and all she could do was rest herself for a moment. She closed her eyes and exited this harsh reality for a moment.

She dreamed of all the experiences she had with her mentor, how he had changed his attitude that day that they really and truly fought. How she had his respect, from that moment onward. Was this StarClan's plan? Did they want to take her mentor from her right after he had finished his job? It...It seemed so unfair! How could they? Then she felt something else seem to seep into her dream, a comforting presence. The presence spoke to her, wiping away her negative feelings. It distinctly told her to get rid of the feelings, and feel at peace for she would be alright and so would he. At that moment the presence spoke it's gender she broke her dream. She sat straight up and blinked. She knew who it was, he must have known how she would feel. She swore to herself not to tell a soul, this was her experience and it helped ease her mind.

She was able to convince the fussy medicine cat to allow her to attend the send-off for her mentor. She helped wash him for one last time, and with a watchful eye on her, she stood vigil for him. She owed him too much not to do so. She wondered if it was her attacker that he had taken down, and she hoped deep inside her that it was. Once his body was taken, she couldn't help but weep to herself slightly. Then she went back to the medicine cat den to continue to heal.

As days grew into a week and then a moon or so. She finally healed up from that horrible slash to the side of her head. Her ear hurt slightly when she moved it, but the medicine cat said that would fade. She would always have that scar though, and hopefully to remember to watch her flank more often. She got right back up to skill as soon as she could. She didn't allow herself to take it too easy on herself. She needed to be better, she wouldn't let anything like what happened to her happen again. That was the absolute end of it. She actually got better than she was before. She found herself getting more and more inventive with what she did. Along with her brute force, she worked on utilizing her claws more. She had the length, so there had to be more she could do with them. In addition she strengthened her legs, as her other most valuable asset, they had to be in top condition. 110% was what she was thinking about. She had to do better and better. Then when the next call to address the clan, her leader surprised her.

She was to be a mentor...She had never expected to be called upon to do so. She felt silly for thinking of such a thing, of course they would use every warrior they had to train more apprentices so more warriors could guard the clan. Her appprentice would be Ivypaw, a she-cat striped with grey and black. She reminded Hazelwing much of herself when she was an Apprentice. It was very strange how the universe worked out. She touched noses with her and finally realized how heavy this burden would actually be, but she knew her method. She had modified her teacher's methods in her head all along, she simply reached into her mind to remember what she had thought of.

Of course where she would begin, was at the very same river where she had first gone. She told her apprentice the very same words that she had learned from the start. The difference between what she did and her late mentor was how she couldn't help chuckling once she saw that Ivypaw was really starting to get frustrating with what she was doing. When Ivypaw's frustration got the best of her, and her hunger, it was past the time when the sun was going down. She had to applaud the cat's patience, she had beaten her out by a long ways. The results remained the same. Then she simply walked over to the wet apprentice and spoke.

"Not so easy is it? Don't worry Ivypaw, we can fix that. Remember this frustration, remember how you do not want to go back to it. Then maybe, we can teach you something wonderful...", she chuckled as she turned around, motioning with her tail for her to follow her back to the camp.

From then on the training improved, but she did not install in the cat the same kill switch that she had. It was not for everyone, and this cat did not have the personality for it. Hazelwing simply guessed that it was some unstable quality in her that it focused and balanced. Ivypaw was patient, young, but patient in character. It was the way she could keep her head that would prevent her from achieving the level of battle focus that was required for this. Now this wouldn't make her a worse warrior because of it, just different. In a way that could be beneficial in some instances.

When she finished the training for Ivypaw, she knew that her spirit must have aged some. Her attitude remained the same, just slightly more calm at times. She could find peace in simply imparting knowledge from time to time. One thing it could never change was how she desired the adventure, how she smiled so often. She could always try and make good of a situation if she wanted. She knew Ivypaw enjoyed her humor during the apprenticeship, or she was slightly embarrassed by the sarcasm. Hazelwing was fine with either or.

When the ceremony came for Ivypaw to change to a warrior, a new kind of pride filled her chest. As if she had created something...special. There was no doubt she had, but she never expected something to feel so good. When Ivypaw became Ivywhisker, she couldn't stop her happy mood and joyful attitude. She slept that night very calmly and soundly.

Time continued to pass. Border disputes and a few battles became nothing to truly gawk at. She fell back into a steady rhythm of existence. She had quite a few friends by this time, people she could trust and confide in at any time at all. She loved the feel of being a warrior, it was something that she knew she couldn't live without doing. The adventure of such a thing, being part of something that was bigger then herself. Her family did not just consist of her mother and sibling, but her entire clan. She felt such a connection to them, she had no idea how a kittypet, rouge, or loner could live without others. Not just if they were simply injured, or incapable of working. It's for the community value, and she loved it. Despite the other challenges she faced as a warrior, the worst yet was undoubtedly what was to come.

Her siblings had each become warriors themselves. They took the names Brackenstorm, Ospreytail, Thrushfoot. Brackenstorm and Ospreytail had both taken mates, while Thrushfoot and herself still had not had one. The moon was a little bit over half-way lit, giving enough light for the cats to see what was going on. A patrol came rushing back into the empty middle of the clan camp. The cats were injured, frantic, and scared. They yowled for the cats to wake up, that there was a group of badgers coming fast. The cats barely had time to rouse themselves before the badgers were on top of them. Hazelwing was at first wondering what the yelling was about. Then when the badger came to her den she yowled in fury, fully aware of the threat. She jumped the badger, forcing it back. More cats filtered out of the dens as they fought against the badger attack.

Hazelwing quickly outmaneuvered this badger, dodging around it's slow and powerful blows. She felt it rank her left side, but she did not care at this time. She cut back against it's flank. She had to dodge yet another blow, her side was again raked by the badger. Yowling in fury once more, she tackled the badger, fighting furiously. She knew that she alone was not enough, even with her skill. She fought without caution, without fear of dishonorable tactics on the beast. She felt another warrior start to fight with her, and then an apprentice. Soon the beast lie dead and she moved on to deal with the others. She ran to the nursery as soon as she could, fully aware that her sister was swollen with kits, and she worried for her safety. She fought through every badger in her way to get to them.

When she arrived the queens were already fighting against the badger that had arrived. An elder was near the kits, keeping the kits away from the danger. Hazelwing charged into the den, combing her fighting with the queens. She drove the badgers out of the den as the last of the badgers must have been killed or driven out. When the dust cleared from the attack, many cats had been gravely injured. Hazelwing turned to find her sister on the ground, she was already cold. Her throat had been cut up, and it was sure that her kits had died along with her. She couldn't contain her grief as she cried out into the night. This had not been the only casualty, Brackenstorm had also been killed in the battle. He had died from multiple injuries across his flank. Thrushfoot had not died, yet he would be forever crippled as a badger had cut his eye. There was no chance he would be able to see out of it again.

Hazelwing stood vigil with the few other cats that night. She could speak nothing, and when she tried, only wails came from her mouth. She had lost her littermates, some of the closest cats to her. She took comfort with Thrushfoot, as the mourned the dead together. However word had spread through the camp of Hazelwing's bravery. How she had simply charged down the badger who had entered the warriors den. Tackling and fighting with it, she fought with all of her strength. She heard nothing of it, she only thought of what she had lost. Her siblings were not the only dead, in the surprise attack, the clan's deputy had died as well. When moonhigh came near, a new deputy had to be chosen. The leader was fully aware of how effective and brave Hazelwing had been. She had helped protect the queens and the warriors, the leader also remembered how she had lead patrols in the past. She had potential, and she had the skill to further. It, soon it was clear to their leader who would be the next deputy. The leader called out Hazelwing's name and her eyes shown with surprise at the fact. She rose to greet her leader and face her clan. Yowls of approval were common, she had more then proven her worth in the past. The rise to deputy was bittersweet for Hazelwing, With the loss of her siblings, she knew that she had to toughen back up so she could take on the roll.





[/size][/blockquote][/blockquote]

[kiba]

ACCEPTED!