Post by spike on May 1, 2011 8:41:36 GMT -6
Name: Mudpaw
Age: 15 moons
Gender: Tom
Clan: ThunderClan
Rank: Apprentice
Mentor: Ashstar
Love Interest: None
Kin:
Treestripe;; father, deceased
Hazelflower;; mother, MIA
Appearance:
Picture . Picture . PictureMudpaw isn’t exactly a great looking cat. Frail, dull, klutzy, perhaps he’s not even a cat. Well, onward with it. For one, he’s a very gangly, bony little cat, not small though. Long-legged, taller than some of his fellow felines. But just skinnier and almost bony in far comparison. Eating doesn’t do him much good, he’s always on the narrower end of cats and might seem malnourished, runtish though he’s not one. Like the awkwardly tall, gangly guy at school that always manages to become a school joke even if he isn’t one of those tiny students to pick on. In the way of coat, he’s not a shiny feline. Mudpaw actually fits his name very well. A dull, lackluster, muddy brown. If one looks close enough though there are hints of tabby stripes inherited from his father, the lingering point that he did have some warrior lineage. Right? Well, the only other marking he carries is the thick white patch that runs down his throat and across his chest, from his mother. Least he’s not totally dull that way. With his dull, muddy yellow eyes along with brown nose, each as monotonous as his other markings. Honestly, Mudpaw is “in the background” of everything and might never stand out. But he’s not all bad if you can look past that.
Personality:
Friendly & Gentle;; This fella is a good guy, unable to bring up a bad bone in his body. It takes a lot to make him lose his temper (does he have a temper?) and even more so to make him say bad against somebody. Perhaps that is what makes him a nice cat to be around. Mudpaw makes a good friend to those that do become so to him. While not the type to be relied on to fight right off the bat, he’s still the one that is wiling to sit and listen to them when they need it. Unlike other toms, he’s not a burly, hefty thing and his personality shows the same. He’s very sweet and soft and very sugary all around. Which seems to be his only good traits.
Submissive & Timid;; Especially after the rough experience he went through, he isn’t exactly great warrior material. Perhaps in his clear thinking he might be, but this little boy will never be a leader among his fellow cats. If anything, he bends far too easily. Mudpaw listens to everything given to him only because he buckles under slight pressure. He hates making others mad and will do whatever it takes to make them happy again. He honestly has little backbone and it makes it easy to wonder if he’d ever get a real warrior name.
Failure & Lacking;; If any of that was bad enough, he’s not like the other cats. He struggles with most anything. Hunting, stalking, fighting, he’s basically under par. Talk about confidence being shot. Mudpaw is a great cat but he has no strengths, unless running counts. He sure can run when he wants to! (Hey, if anybody wants a messanger, he’s your guy. Too bad not many messages are needed.) He always feels ashamed because he was never good enough for his mentor. He wanted to prove to her he was worthy of being a Clan born cat, of being trained by her. But sometimes he forgets to remind himself of that. So this klutzy, weak boy often can be the most pathetic excuse of a warrior yet.
But perhaps that’s only because his greatest potential has yet to be discovered.
History:
When Treestripe and Hazelflower mated, it was perhaps the most disgusting pairing ever. A mentor and apprentice, though the apprentice had been turned warrior first. Not to mention the age difference. At almost forty moons her elder, the two were a doomed couple from the very start. Hazelflower only gave birth to one little kit, baby Mudkit. Treestripe loved his son, as did Hazelflower, but they both saw how different he was. This brown tom was the only cat they knew that could trip before he could walk. And you have to walk to trip. But he was a healthy, happy baby so they were glad for that much.
As mentioned, they were a doomed couple.
Treestripe died from health problems (not that old age HELPED much with that) which left Hazelflower all alone with her little Mudkit. To make this problem only more severe, growing up, Mudkit was somewhat on his own because there were very few kits his age he wished to play with. He had taken to his mother more than what most kits would, finding her to be the friend and playmate in his life. He was inseparable from her and she made him happy. Mudkit knew his father but was far from close with him since Treestripe had been so busy with Clan work. So the day he died, it was a mere phase that swept past the young one. But for Hazelflower, it was terror that struck her. How was she to go on, to keep trying to raise Mudkit? She was heartbroken.
On one morning, a particular kit woke up and was later given the name Mudpaw. It wasn’t until after the ceremony that he realized something. Hazelflower wasn’t there. He asked the warriors on her whereabouts but they too could not pinpoint it. Apparently she had run away, too broken in soul to continue on with warrior duties. Least that’s what they suspect. Mudpaw was devastated, astonished and ashamed all at once. She had left him alone with nobody else, left him to cry his eyes dry and to stand on his own for the first time ever. Despite being Ashstar’s apprentice, he was also heartbroken for his mother had been all he had.
Eventually, he learned to get along, made friends if he could, but started to lean heavily on Ashstar as he had with his mother. While she was his mentor, he began to see her as a motherly influence, the one piece of family besides Doveheart that he had left. The clingy tom always did try to separate himself from that because he never thought Ashstar thought the same in him, a son in a way. As time went on, he began to realize how much of a lacking warrior he was. Others younger than him would earn their names while he would be left behind to wait. When he met Dakota, now Lilypaw, it ruined his chances of being a warrior for another time which sent him into another depressing time in his life.
Ashstar had been training a failure of a cat.
When the evening came to patrol the RiverClan border, it seemed to be going so well, so smooth. He had never suspected to step close enough to the river and trip. Down into the river he went, gone and flowing on with the stream though the others and their cries were lingering in his ears. He didn’t know how far he flowed down, how much he hurt, or if he was even alive. By the time he managed to find grip on a rock and work his way to shore, he was battered up badly. And there he collapsed, on the rocky shore of some far off land (so it felt) where not even the clans touched. There he laid, wet, hurt, and far from home.
Mudpaw cried that night, wondering if he’d live to see the dawn, to see Ashstar and Lilypaw once more, or if he’d die and go with Treestripe, and maybe Hazelflower, in StarClan. That sun rose and so did Mudpaw, up on his paws for the first time since the incident. And on his way home he went, following the river upstream, knowing that he’d finally get back. His trip has been long and slow but finally- FINALLY- he knows ThunderClan is in sight.
Home.
Roleplaying Example:
Water. That was all he knew for a moment. Though his claws slowly dug through small and large pebbles of a rocky shore, he only sensed water. His pelt was soaked, seeping into him to the bones it felt like. A chill stuck with him as the trembling mass of a feline collapsed on the land. Not only was it water but also a crimson liquid that mixed itself among the other wetness. Cuts littered his entire body. One severe gash crossed his shoulder, bleeding nearly as much as the other wounds he had suffered. Who knew a tumble down a river would be so rough! The ragged breathing halted as he coughed harshly. Each shaking cough brought up a mouthful of water that he hacked up at his side. His entire insides were on fire, weighed at the same time with water he had swallowed.
He was so sick. So tired, he wanted to never get up. The river’s edge still brushed his tail tip, caressing him in apology before leaving him with the same symptoms of near drowning. This brown cat perhaps was good as dead with the bleeding and the water consumption. As dusk fell and night settled in, it was only more clear that he would die there on those rocks. Would his skeleton remain there for all time? A reminder of what happens for falling in the river? Stars up above in Silver Pelt didn’t seem at all to lose their glimmer, only strengthening that night as the warriors of yore watched over the apprentice that had been dragged here to their paws.This is not his time. Send him back.
As dawn rose that day, one paw was pressing against the pebbles, struggling to shove his weight onto a standing position. The damage done, the mistake survived, Mudpaw stood up for once without fear or worry. His dull yellow eyes now glowed greatly as he lifted his bloodied muzzle up to glance at the remaining star that hesitated to die out before the sun took over the sky. Treestripe. It had to be. Lowering his head once more, the red-tinged tom climbed onto higher ground, already knowing where he had to go. Home. He’d have to return to Ashstar, he’d have to make it for Lilypaw and his mother, the one he had promised to be the best warrior for. And then he smiled.
They had all thought he wouldn’t be a warrior.
Look at him now.
Name Meaning:
Mud-;; for his brown fur
-paw;; for being an apprentice
Other: 663e00
Status: Bruised and Cut, healing
