[THUNDER] Laurelclaw

laurel - primarily white coloration
claw - excellent fighter

» white she-cat with amber eyes

Now that Laurelclaw has been in retirement for over a season, it’s beginning to show. She’s no longer the once-muscular feline she once was, and while she still spars to keep herself in shape, any exercise is usually brief at the best of times and nonexistent at the worst. Nowadays, spending most of her day lounging about and interacting with anybody she can get her paws on, she doesn’t look like the model warriors she once was. Her white fur, though groomed, has shown its signs of patchy overgrooming - and though her fur is long, it is so easily matted that it is hard to keep clean, even in such simple times where she rarely has a moment to go out and get messy. To put it lightly, she is a lot skinnier and weaker than she once was, though being in camp all the time fills her belly. And since her pelt is riddled with the occasional cut or scar, she looks just as a warrior (in her mind) should: wild and as free as a squirrel through trees.

Laurelclaw has always been strong in what she believes and passionate about what she does and has done for the clan - and it’s gotten to the point where she expects 100% from her clanmates, especially when she compares all that she’s done with her illness to what most of the warriors do. On the daily, Laurelclaw is the type to stride over in camp, coldly fix a group of warriors with a glare, and tell them to do something productive or so help her. Her passion for her clan has led to her being increasingly impatient when others don’t share the same amount of commitment - and this goes down to the very last kit. She’s never been one to dabble in fancy elders tales, instead relaying the stories of StarClan and the warrior code to her clanmates - something that bothers those with less of a passion for the code.



Because she’s worked so hard, she conducts herself in a certain way - with a proud stride and an air to her voice that demands attention. She’s argumentative enough alone and will debate about anything in a flash - but when it comes to doing work for the clan she’s extremely vocal and her argumentative nature takes a turn for the dark, where she relates everything back to herself. I can do this, so why can’t you? She commonly relates things to herself and her conditions to get others to bend to her will - knowing full well the sensitivities related to illness and using them to help her gain an upper hand (what else is an illness good for? Absolutely nothing).  

positive:
» diligent - hard working
» loyal
» intellectual - smart
» passionate - enthusiastic

negative:
» impatient - easily frustrated
» vain - great amount of pride in herself
» dogmatic - my way or the highway 
» argumentative - quick to argue 

fears:
» being treated as useless
» having her voice being dismissed
» being abandoned
» dying

» cuckooclaw (mother: elder, female, 82, het) 
» smallheart (father: loner, male, deceased)
»» swiftfang (littermate: sr warrior, female, 54, x)
» honeycloud (mate: warrior, 58, x) 
»» sootpaw (daughter: apprentice, 10, x)
»» -paw (daughter: apprentice, 10, x)
»» -paw (daughter: apprentice, 10, x)


As a youth, Smallpaw was somewhat respected and revered for his clean family lineage - something that not everyone in ThunderClan could boast for. There were a great deal many new warriors in the clan who had broken the warrior code in one way or another in minor ways (because ThunderClan was a wily bunch - and who could stop a clan of do-gooders from following their senses and their hearts?) and some even in major ways; but in the end they were all a family. Sneaking over the border had little to do with how you treated a clanmate, and as long as you fed your prey to an elder or a kitten - well, what was the harm in it? Smallpaw wasn't ever worried, and despite his unappetizing looks, he was strong, he was well known, and he was ever-present at the root of the clan. He'd be a strong father, they said. A strong father who listened to his heart for the good of his clan.

Oh, it was true that Smallpaw followed his heart. He listened to his heart so much that the drumbeat drew out all logic from his mind like a collective chant from his clanmates. He was strong, he'd make a good father, his loyalties to his clan came definitely first, and they could let his occasional apprentice-like antics slide. He'd grow out of it, and with a little bop on the head he was off, running through the wild, itching to get his paws into something again. Gathering and gathering again, he became more popular, laughing and smiling with WindClanners and RiverClanners and letting more than a few clan secrets slip. He was the nimble Smallpaw (the WindClanners called him Smallflight and said they'd be better off with them) and the nimble Smallpaw of ThunderClan knew better than to get his heart in the way.

Right?

Wrong.

It was only a few moons after his warriors vigil (yes, Smallheart, for being strong and faithful to what he knows) that he was caught sneaking off, meeting a WindClanner halfway through ShadowClan territory, a pile of stolen prey-turned-bonedust resting between twined tails. It seemed that old Smallheart thought that he could do anything so long as he had his clan's favor - and it all came crumbling down behind him. Not only were their relations between ShadowClan severely strained, they now had WindClan breathing down their necks. Perhaps being a child enchanted with the thought of true love and destiny was a bit much for two adults with families constantly at one another's throats - it almost resembled a modern Romeo and Juliet, with the popular Smallheart at one end and the twice as enchanting Mistpaw both being clan favorites.

It wasn't like that for long. After a promise that he hadn't taken anything valuable from her and securing the fact that pregnancy was an impossible answer, Smallheart lost everything. He lost the popularity, he lost his girlfriend, and he lost the faith his entire clan had placed upon him. And was Mistpaw similarly punished? Who knew. All Smallheart knew was that he needed some way to work his way up the ladder. And while he knew he'd never gain Lichenfang's (a raggedy elder with a jolly old laugh and a smile that could will trees into sugar if she so desired it) trust again, he had to start from the beginning all over again.

Unlike Smallheart, who was soon known as a coward among ThunderClan and a liability rather than an advantage, Cuckooclaw had grown esteemed and well known in his place - because as one power falls, another rises. Cuckooclaw was hard hearted and a fighter, but when it came to her clanmates she’d give it her all. She had earned her name in a border skirmish in which she had used some rather unique moves to pin a senior ShadowClan warrior; but that was a fight for another day, and the bravery and talent which Cuckooclaw showed allowed her to move up almost a full moon earlier than her siblings. To Cuckooclaw, Smallheart was a weakness and a fraud - but that didn’t stop Smallheart from trying his best to win her heart (and, as he knew, her heart would guarantee himself a spot in the clan as the loyal mate of a loyal warrior).

Cuckooclaw wasn’t a fool; she wasn’t the type to be tricked into loving a tom who thought himself self important and clearly believed he could fool everyone into believing she was in love with him enough to be placed by her side as a once-again loyal warrior. She wouldn’t forfeit her heart to someone who proved his loyalties weak - but she didn’t tell him that. He had nice enough genes (with strong, pure ThunderClan blood) and a pretty enough appearance that she was willing to mate with him once - and once she discovered she was pregnant, she promptly dumped him - much to the distress of the white tom, who begged and begged for her to take him back; but she’d hear none of it. She’d be better off raising these kittens without a weak-hearted tom like him confusing them and messing up their loyalties early on. Without a second thought, she moved on just as quickly as she had laid her eyes on him, and none of the clan thought the worse for it.

Laurelkit was the firstborn of a moderately unhealthy litter, born among two stillborns and an undersized fourth who was barely breathing. It was clear who the father was - with Laurelkit being nearly entirely white - and while none demanded that Cuckooclaw raise her children alongside a well-known treasonous cat, some claimed that mating with him had caused some StarClan delivered curse; after all, what had actually been the result of overexercising and over extension was, in the eyes of the clan, StarClan's punishment, for both mating with him and abandoning him once it was all over. In the early moons of their life, both Laurelkit and Swiftkit were in and out of the medicine cat's den, easily the sickest in the nursery. Laurelkit had caught a near deadly respiratory infection that made her unstable from the start, and Swiftkit caught kitten cough a few more times than expected. Regardless, the two kittens eventually escaped the nursery, with their spunk and wit making up for their few moons in the nursery. At the age of four moons the pair were treated as welcomed 'new arrivals'.

Though abnormally ill for her age, with the encouragement of Cuckooclaw and several elders Laurelkit and her sister quickly became the type to cause havoc - nearly forgetting their childhood ailments in favor of wrestling in the center of the clearing with their denmates or chasing an elder’s tail and pinning it down while threatening for another story. In fact, it was said that they bound up four moons of kittenhood and unleashed it all in their remaining two moons; and while some pitied them for their low stamina, they were overall cherished by the clan. And while Cuckooclaw secretly worried for her children and their well-being in the clan (even so far as to suggest on more than one occasion the route of medicine) she acknowledged that they had potential - but Laurelkit and Swiftkit saw the doubt and fear in their mother’s eyes, and swore to one another that they’d prove their mother that they’d be the best apprentices the clan had ever seen.

Since Laurelkit was the older and larger of the two - and supposedly the more capable as a default - she was assigned to Robinheart, a diligent and dutiful tom that allowed her the free reins she needed to become passionate, but roped her in well enough to teach her how to be a true ThunderClan warrior. And while she originally was thought to be unable to provide for her clan, with a weakness at hunting (hardly able to catch a thin at first) she soon grew into a passionate fighter, with a skill at fighting only hindered by her lack of stamina. She was able to finish off her opponents quickly with weight and skill - but if she somehow managed not to, she lost her breath and was just as easily beaten; frustrating for any warrior, especially one who had been looked down on so long for that very reason.

Though weak, Laurelpaw was one of the more diligent of the apprentices; while her fellow apprentice lounged around the entrance of the camp, laughing and joking, Laurelpaw was practicing a hunting crouch that she so longed to get correct - and when they confronted her and told her to take it easy, she met them with a beating on the head and an earful. Laurelpaw spent the majority of her apprentice days in a training-induced haze, where she went from one activity to the next, resting when becoming breathless and becoming furious when she could not practice. The medicine cat told her to calm down and to take it easy and she refused (how could she get better if she was always lagging behind?) and while her strength and speed increased she faltered behind when it came to long distances and stamina.

The older she grew, the more opponents she could take out; and though she crumbled to the stronger warriors, the weakest she could easily take on - and she graduated a full moon early when a border skirmish ended with enemy fur between her claws; and though she nearly collapsed at the scene, she was able to sit the vigil a few nights after the occurrence (though at the time she had breathlessly wheezed “I can still sit the vigil, I swear! Let me do it!”). But even through being a warriorhood, it was clear that something was going wrong with Laurelpaw - now Laurelclaw - she could hunt adequately, yes. And she could fight up there with the best of them. But that didn’t stop the near frequent dizziness or the shortness of breath after a patrol - and it got to the point where, a near year after her graduation, she was forced to stay in the medicine cat’s den for a while and relax - though the white feline argued every step of the way.


It was through the medicine cat’s den she met her mate - Cootcloud, an aloof tom who had spent a great deal of his own days either at the medicine cat’s side or lounging about, caring little for his apprentice duties; in that way, they were polar opposites. Where Laurelclaw spent time sneaking away from the medicine cat’s den, Cootcloud would spend nearly as much trying to get in there, from the smallest pinprick of a thorn to alerting the medicine cat of some strange, vague danger while he ‘watched the den’, clearly vying for a pathway to becoming a medicine cat. At first, the two couldn’t have been more opposite - but slowly they came to know and appreciate each other. And after she had finally escaped the medicine cat’s grasp, they began to hang out more and more. Cootcloud taught her to loosen up, and Laurelclaw did her best to teach the tom how to attend to his duties. All in all, they complimented each other nicely - and while Cootcloud longed for that spot by the medicine cat’s side, it was clear that the tom had no intention of taking him on.

And so, the two became mates - sure, it was a little late, but Laurelclaw had better things to do in life than moon over a tom and get pregnant! But soon enough she had become pregnant, and though it took quite a bit of arguing (just like her mother before her) she finally settled down into the nursery - though she snuck out quite a few times - and if there had been any invading warriors Laurelclaw promised herself that she’d slay them on the spot with built up rage from being trapped inside a miserable den for weeks. It wasn’t long before she gave birth and argued to get her duties immediately back and of course was denied. Though she tried her best to be a good mother to her children, she found her mate more the motherly sort, and while he grew attached enough Laurelclaw drifted to the sidelines, eager to go back at it.

Which ended in failure. After pregnancy her body had become used to not as much activity, and it strained her so much that on her first hunting patrol back out she had passed out from being unable to breathe - and no matter how much harder she tried, she ran into the same obstacle. She couldn’t breathe, she could barely fight, she was growing weaker by the day; and though she tried her best she was absolutely awful at everything she had grown so used to doing. Through angry tears, she demanded that she be let out with a medicine cat - but there wasn’t always a medicine cat available, and when she could no longer do her duties without pain in her lungs, she was told that she would have to retire.

After dedicating her entire life to doing what she could do best - mentally aiming for deputy or leader - she was forced into eldership while her younger sister eagerly toed the line for deputy. Her kits barely knew her except for her fainting spells, and though her mate loved her she envied him; he was able to leave camp without a second thought or anyone’s permission, and yet he squandered it all in the end for chasing a daydream or playing with others inside camp.