Badgerstar

[Jelly]

Written: 4/24/2013

BADGERSTAR
badgerkit/badgerpaw/badgerclaw
"Very large black-and-white tom cat with yellow eyes."



NAME EXPLANATION:

"Badger-" -- for his large size and black and white coat
"-claw" -- for his battle skill

AGE:

9 years, 2 moons (110 moons)
1 life left

RANK:

Leader

EXTENDED APPEARANCE:

Badgerstar is an old cat by clan standards, and that definitely shows. His long pelt was once smooth – and even considered beautiful, with its glossy patches of black and white – but it has grown coarse and patchy, riddled with scars and thinning patches. His muzzle is heavily sprinkled with silver-gray hairs and his long white whiskers tend to droop, much as his scarred and torn ears do. At first glance, he belongs in the elder’s den.

However, no one can deny that this is a cat who was once great and powerful. Badgerstar is large by any cat’s standards – broad of shoulders, heavy-boned, and well-muscled – and despite his age and the likely ache in his joints, he knows how to move and use his strength to his advantage. His presence is substantial and powerful, and if any cat should have the chance to see him in battle, they would never call him weak. His bright yellow eyes are still fierce and challenging, set in a broad, stubborn face – the eyes of a young, ambitious cat.

Yes, there is little doubt that Badgerstar is past his prime – but he is far from giving in to his age.

PERSONALITY:

Badgerstar is a grump – that is something that even those cats closest to him can agree on. He’s gruff and abrasive in everyday conversations, and has long since perfected a sarcastic wit. He’s the type of cat that you don’t want to bring bad news to – because he very well might bite the head off the messenger. This isn’t to say that he’s outright rude to his clanmates – but it comes across to everyone around him that he isn’t happy, and hasn’t been happy in a long time. Consequently, he is a fair – but rough – leader, and keeps his affairs and decisions very private. He doesn’t make an appearance around the camp very often, either staying in his den or tagging along on patrols, and it has been a long time since he personally took an apprentice. If anything, Badgerstar is a cat who enjoys his solitude. After outliving his mate and kits – and far more family and close friends – he has given up on close relationships. Honestly, he may even simply be waiting to see them all again in StarClan…

FAMILY:

(I went overboard because of Birchflower… And he probably has other grandkids/great-grandkids/great-great-grandkids, but these are the ones that matter *cough*)

Squirrelfoot, mother, deceased; Ravenfur, father, deceased;
Juniperwhisker, sister, deceased; Brightfoot, sister, deceased;
Snowflower, mate, deceased;
Litter1: Dusk-kit, son, deceased; Spiderfang, son, deceased; Nightclaw, son, deceased;
Litter2: Adderkit, daughter, deceased; Crowkit, son, deceased;
Litter3: Kestrelfeather, daughter, deceased; Larchwhisker, daughter, deceased;

Spiderfang’s kits: Ashpelt, granddaughter, deceased; Goosekit, grandson, deceased; Asterfang, granddaughter, 64 moons, elder;

Ashpelt’s kits: Hailclaw, great-grandson, 44 moons, warrior; Fallowpelt, great-granddaughter, deceased;

Asterfang’s kits, Litter1: Graypaw, great-granddaughter, deceased; Frostclaw, great-granddaughter, deceased;
Asterfang’s kits, Litter2: Mallowfoot, great-grandson, 32 moons, warrior;

Hailclaw’s kits: Birchflower, great-great-granddaughter, 26 moons, warrior; Rooktalon, great-great-granddaughter, 26 moons, warrior.

HISTORY:

KIT-HOOD

Little Badgerkit was a rambunctious ball of fur and energy. His two sisters – Juniperkit and Brightkit – were far more subdued, but he didn’t let that stop him from causing trouble. In fact, most of the time that “trouble” was him sneak-attacking his siblings, or things like that. Their mother didn’t help matters much. Squirrelfoot had already had multiple litters, but they had all been sickly and died within weeks of birth – if they were born alive at all. So when she and her mate were finally given three healthy kits, she adored and treasured them – and swore they could do no wrong. Suffice to say, Badgerkit took full advantage of that fact.

Ravenfur, the trio’s father, had other plans for his kits – plans of greatness and importance among the clan – and he treated them as such. He was constantly encouraging the kittens – especially his eager son – to work on training, to listen to all the elder’s stories of great warriors and leaders of the clans in the past, and even to sneak out of the camp to explore. Badgerkit drank up the attention like a sponge (and even got Brightkit excited about his playfighting and troublemaking) – and quickly became his father’s son, even at only a few moons of age.

Unfortunately, Ravenfur never got to see what would become of his kits. He was killed by a monster while crossing the thunderpath on a patrol, one moon before his kits were to be named apprentices – hardly the heroic or notable death he would have likely preferred. His death hit his small family hard, little Badgerkit most of all. So, a moon later, when he was given his –paw name and a mentor, he swore to her that he was going to be just as great as his father had wanted him to be. She just laughed and told him they would start working on that in the morning.

APPRENTICE-HOOD

To say that Badgerpaw and Snowflower didn’t get along would have been an understatement. He was a young, fierce little tom who was far too serious for his age; he thought that he had to do absolutely everything by the book, and he severely overworked himself from the get-go, even without his mentor’s training. Snowflower, on the other hand, took her warrior duties with a large grain of salt – and while she certainly sympathized with her young apprentice’s way of mourning, she told him right off the bat that Badgerpaw wasn’t going to fix anything by running himself into the ground.

She was a skilled warrior – Badgerpaw couldn’t deny that, despite the fact that she was very young to be mentoring an apprentice (something that he resented, as his sisters were both given calmer, more experienced warriors for their mentors). And she certainly challenged him in their training sessions, but those sessions were far too few in his opinion. More often than not, his first few moons as an apprentice were filled with camp duties and short adventures into the forest – always with his mentor close by his side. So, despite Snowfeather’s lectures, Badgerpaw continued sneaking out of the camp during the night to stalk and hunt and practice his fighting moves.

There is little doubt that these “secret” outing improved Badgerpaw’s skills – and cemented his already-obvious independence – but his mentor had been right as well, and six moons into his training, Badgerpaw grew extremely sick. A small cough (not nearly dangerous enough to be considered greencough or whitecough) had been spreading through the camp, and the exhausted that Badgerpaw forced himself into made him wide open for it. In fact, his was likely the worst case in the entire clan – or so the medicine cat said when they forced him to sleep in their den to keep a closer eye on him. Earning himself a fever and severe cough, Badgerpaw even got to the point where he was slipping in and out of consciousness with little warning.

The one thing that did surprise him through this ordeal was Snowfeather’s near constant companionship. The medicine cat limited her visits on the precedent that she might catch his sickness as well – but that did little to deter the young mentor. Squirrelfoot’s, Brightpaw’s, and Juniperpaw’s visits were expected (as was his mother’s near-hysteria despite the medicine cat’s reassurances that Badgerpaw would be fine). But he could have sworn that his mentor hardly cared for him – she spent little enough time training him. And when they were training, she was unprofessional and light-hearted. His comments to that effect were shrugged off, and their relationship continued the same way.

When Badgerpaw finally recovered a full moon and a half later, he was only allowed to return to training if he promised not to overwork himself again. He agreed… but within the next few nights, he was sneaking back out into the forest again. Unfortunately for him, this time he was followed. In fact, when Snowfeather tracked and cornered him, he found out that he had been followed many, many times on his nightly outings. Snowfeather had been keeping a close eye on all of his personal training – and while she refused to budge on the workload she was willing to give her apprentice, she agreed that she would train him more diligently if he agreed to do what she told him and only what she told him. If he continued to sneak out of the camp and work on his own, she would personally go to their leader and request that his training be extended indefinitely – likely on account of his illness.

The thought of being held back purposefully made Badgerpaw bristle and seethe, but this time his promise was sincere, and he settled into the training routine that Snowfeather had meant for him from the beginning.

The next six moons went by far faster than Badgerpaw could have expected. His unwilling truce with Snowfeather melted away as they trained together – and while they still butted heads, Badgerpaw didn’t completely shut her out as he had done before. In fact, Snowfeather’s light-hearted approach to life started to rub off on him, and for the first time since his kit-hood, Badgerpaw really started enjoying himself again. It took a long few moons for this change to sneak in – for him to pursue his training and later warrior duties with that pure ambition he had had as a kit instead of his grief-driven tunnel vision – but it was a change that cats noticed, and they became more willing to spend time with the willful apprentice. He may not have completely turned over a new leaf, but he was growing and learning – as all young cats should.

And, as many young cats also do, Badgerpaw started forming feelings for a certain she-cat…

WARRIOR-HOOD

Despite his still-pursued dreams of greatness, Badgerclaw’s warrior ceremony was simple and unextraordinary. Thankfully, he was still named alongside his sister’s despite his stint in the medicine cat’s den, but there was little to make his ceremony and vigil any different from any of his clanmates – and it was lackluster compared to those “great warriors” who were granted their names after big battles or heroic deeds. Still, while Badgerclaw grumbled endlessly about those exact things, no one could deny the new warrior’s pride as he sat out for his vigil. He was on his way to greatness – he could just feel it.

However, the first thing the newly-named Badgerclaw did after he and his sisters (now Brightstep and Juniperwhisker) left their vigil was to hunt down his mentor. Still on the high that his ceremony had given him, he was brash and fearless (with that stupid kind of bravery), and his proposal made Snowfeather laugh. She turned him down, and told him he should go get sleep after his night-long vigil – but when he dejectedly followed her to the warrior’s den, she showed him to a nest right beside hers. Talk about mixed signals.

Thankfully, Badgerclaw’s new warrior duties were a welcome distraction from his confusion – and as he went about patrols and hunting and spending time with his fellow warriors, the young tom made quick friends with those cats he had all but dismissed before. He had far more free time as a warrior (or, he allowed himself more free time), and while he was seen as something of a buzzkill by his more rambunctious clanmates, he was a nice stable friend. Still, his most constant companion ended up being his mentor. While he continued to be confused about her rejection (and was thankfully able to forget about it most of the time), Snowflower was his closest friend – and would continue to be.

Badgerclaw’s time as a warrior was not very eventful – the seasons came and went, as did hardship and sickness – and while there were a few border skirmishes with rogues and a few problems with animals like badgers and foxes, the clan was peaceful. But even so, Badgerclaw soon made a name for himself as a skilled warrior. He also had a knack for getting others to listen to him – even when they outranked him based on age or skill – and that didn’t go unnoticed. Only a few moons into his time as a warrior, Badgerclaw was given an apprentice: little Newtpaw.

The two clicked in a way that was in stark contrast to the beginning of Badgerclaw’s own apprentice-ship – and while he tried to stay serious throughout their training sessions, that plan quickly fell through. Snowflower and Newtpaw bonded even easier – and it was not an uncommon sight for the three of them to go out training together. Moons passed pleasantly for Badgerclaw – and they took a dream-like turn when he once again gained the courage to talk to Snowflower about exactly what was going on between them. And as time went on, they figured it out – and Snowflower announced that she was expecting kits.

Unfortunately, things very quickly took a turn for the worse. Mere moons away from her warrior ceremony, Newtpaw was killed. She and Badgerclaw had been out hunting when they stumbled upon a pair of foxes – and the foxes had the element of surprise. After a vicious fight between the cats and the foxes, apprentice and mentor retreated up a thick, short tree – one just tall enough to keep them out of reach until the foxes, seeming to understand how useless a continued attack was, went back to wherever it was they had came from. Unfortunately, the injuries sustained by both parties were severe, and Newtpaw fainted from blood loss before her mentor could help her back to the ground – she didn’t fall very far, but she didn’t regain consciousness either. Not even after Badgerclaw limped back into the camp, carrying her on his back.

They were confined to the medicine cat’s den together while a much larger patrol left the camp to search for the foxes (and successfully chased them off) – but as they were treated and watched over for the next few days, Newtpaw’s condition didn’t improve. Badgerclaw hadn’t entirely noticed his own injuries until Snowflower came to his side – and he realized he was just as worrying a sight. He was just conscious, unlike his apprentice.

Almost a moon had passed before Badgerclaw could fully return to his warrior duties – he had been able to leave the medicine cat’s den after a few more nights treatment, but had been confined to camp – but little Newtpaw continued to lie in the den, unconscious and unresponsive. The medicine cat had even suggested that they feed her deathberries to end her suffering – because while she never improved, she never worsened either. She was only being kept alive because of the honey and herbs that the medicine cat managed to slip through her lips. He doubted she would ever wake up and thought that it was the kinder solution.

The commotion that Badgerclaw caused when he heard that could have shaken the whole camp. Newtpaw was a fighter, and she deserved to keep fighting – and thankfully, her family and the clan leader agreed with the young warrior. In fact, the whole thing convinced Willowstar to grant Newtpaw her warrior name; she had been close to completing her training in the first place, and from Badgerclaw’s account of the fight, she had put her knowledge to good use. Despite being unable to stand her vigil following the meeting, Newtpaw was granted the name Newtheart.

Within the next moon, she continued to weaken, and eventually passed away…

It was a very… confusing point for Badgerclaw – because within a few days of his apprentice’s passing, his and Snowflower’s first litter was born. Their three sons, Spiderkit, Nightkit, and Dusk-kit, were all welcomed into the world – although Dusk-kit was born sickly and incredibly small (even for a kit), and didn’t last more than a moon alongside his littermates.

However, when the (much-doted-upon) Nightkit and Spiderkit became Nightpaw and Spiderpaw, Badgerclaw was given the rare chance to train one of his own kits – Nightpaw, specifically. It was a surprise for everyone, considering how the general rule was that warriors couldn’t mentor their own family members – but it wasn’t something Badgerclaw was going to argue against. In fact, he embraced it, and quickly set to work teaching Nightpaw to the best of his ability. It was a vastly different experience from his time with Newtheart – little Nightpaw had inherited his father’s more serious sense of purpose, and their training sessions were always as efficient and effective as possible. (Well, almost always – they didn’t skimp on their fun.)

However, Badgerclaw had an even bigger surprise three moons after receiving his apprentice: the clan deputy died in a skirmish by the gorge, and Badgerclaw was named in his place.

DEPUTY-HOOD

Badgerclaw’s deputyship was rather short in comparison to those in the past – it lasted just over a year – but there are few cats who can argue that he fully embraced the roll, and did it well. The added responsibilities he was given felt like something he had spent his whole life waiting for. They might have been stressful for another cat, but Badgerclaw’s personality blossomed, and he developed even more into a dedicated, efficient warrior of WildClan. He was still the “buzzkill” among his small group of friends, but Willowstar balanced him out with her more mellow style of leading. The two made quite the team.

The time came and went for Badgerclaw’s and Snowflower’s sons to earn their warrior names – Nightclaw and Spiderfang, respectively – and right around that time, Snowflower announced that she was pregnant with yet another litter.

Once again, Badgerclaw was content – enjoying his life as it was. He wasn’t particularly interested in taking Willowstar’s position anytime soon (especially because he – and the rest of the clan – thought she had many more lives left), and he was perfectly happy handling the responsibilities of deputy. He had already achieved the “greatness” he had aspired to since kit-hood, and he didn’t really need anything more.

LEADER-HOOD

Badgerstar’s fifty-eighth moon was one filled with grief. His leader lost her life to a sudden and severe infection – and while it granted the tom with his own nine lives and unique prefix, the loss of Willowstar was as unexpected as they came. She had told no one that she was on her last life, and had kept the medicine cat from doing so either. And through Badgerstar’s year as her deputy, the two had grown extremely close – she had likely become his best and most reliant friend after Snowflower.

However, Snowflower was hardly in a comforting mood for the loss of Badgerstar’s loss – for both of the kits she gave birth to were stillborn, and the loss hit both parents hard.

As Badgerstar was wont to do, he buried himself in his work – alongside his new deputy, Brambleflower.

A mere four moons later, Snowflower gave birth to two new kits – Kestrelkit and Larchkit (in what some of the more gossip-bound clan members claimed was an attempt to replace her previous litter) – but the pride and joy of two new balls of fur was nothing compared to the price of the birth: Snowflower’s life. She had been getting far into her years, well passed sixty moons, and many warriors had been expecting her to retire to the elder’s den after her second litter. The death of his mate and best friend isolated Badgerstar. He slowly turned into the silent, glooming leader that many know him as today – but he never shirked on his duties, and he continued to lead the clan well.

He had very little to do with his youngest kits – besides making sure that they were given worthy, dependable mentors when they reached their sixth moon, and checking in on them from time to time. To be honest, Nightclaw and Spiderfang were much more involved with the youngsters than their father – and Badgerstar made no moves to ever fix that. It was far easier for him to distance himself and treat the pair like a normal pair of clan cats, rather than family. Even when their training came to an end and they earned their warrior names: Kestrelfeather and Larchwhisker.

The time came soon after that when his deputy decided to step down from her position and take up a nest in the elder’s den. Badgerstar didn’t fault her for that – he was almost to his ninetieth moon himself, and while he and Brambleflower hadn’t gotten along nearly as well as he had gotten along with Willowstar, she had been a skilled and dependable deputy. In her place, Badgerstar choose a much younger, much more ambitious cat: Stormwhisker. He stood in stark contrast to Badgerstar, but he brought a life back to the older leader that little else had in recent years.

He passed another two years alongside Stormwhisker – watching over WildClan and doing really all that a leader could do. He made sure to participate in patrols alongside his warriors, to help out around the camp whenever the dens looked worse for wear, and made far more of a presence of himself in general. It was also this stretch of time that lost him the most lives – he wasn’t one to tell his clanmates when one of his lives slipped away from him, but he didn’t explicitly keep it a secret either. It was easier for him to simply act as if they didn’t matter. He didn’t throw himself into danger, but he also wasn’t afraid to leap into danger for the sake of saving one of his clanmates.

However, by the time Badgerstar had reached his one-hundred-and-seventh moon, he was starting to wear thin – even with his extra lives supporting him. And when Stormwhisker was killed in a fight against an encroaching group of rogues, Badgerstar refused to replace him. The medicine cat begged for him to see reason – as did many of the senior warriors – but he remained steadfast in his decision and claimed he could continue running the clan as normal and did not need to worry about raising up yet another young upstart.

Many members of WildClan have been wondering if he’s finally gone senile…

CBOX NAME:

Tetris

HOW YOU FOUND US:

I am your creator >.>

OTHER CHARACTERS:

Birchflower, Emberblaze, Fennelwhisker, Lightpaw, Milo, Mimzi

RP SAMPLE:

Pft, I don't need ooone