Post by Deleted on Oct 6, 2013 5:36:30 GMT -6
Name: Talonstar
Formerly: Talonkit, Talonpaw, Talonpelt
Age: 34 moons
Gender: tom
Loyalty: HailClan
Build: large and well muscled
Pelt: short tabby pelt
Markings: tattered right ear, scar on right flank and right shoulder, talon marking on his right cheek
Eyes: ice blue
Other: none
Reference: Talonstar
Likes:
Hunting: While this may seem like a silly thing to like, he was considered a very good hunter while he was an apprentice and warrior, and he finds joy in catching freshkill to feed the clan.
Climbing: Like most cats, he enjoys climbing for the thrill, but he also climbs to observe the land around him to see where fresh-kill are or to see if there is anything around him that isn't supposed to be there.
Gatherings: He enjoys these probably more than he should, and not for the same reasons that most other cats would. He enjoys them to hear about the other clans, because invariably, the other clans are going to give away more than their leaders want them to about their clan problems.
Companionship: Despite his attitude toward the other clans of the island, he enjoys being around other cats, and has numerous friends within his own clan, some of which he got into a lot of mischief with as an apprentice.
Solitude: He enjoys the occasional walk through the forest alone, away from everyone else so that he can enjoy the sounds of the forest.
Dislikes:
Thrush: He won’t eat a thrush unless there isn’t anything else to eat. He thinks they’re too tough and stringy, and doesn’t particularly care for the taste of them. He has no problem hunting them for the consumption of the rest of the clan.
Disloyalty: There are many character flaws he will tolerate in a cat, be it a rival clan cat or one of his own clan cats, but disloyalty is not among them. He has no issue with punishing a disloyal cat swiftly though fairly.
Rogues: He’s fiercely loyal to his clan, and he respects those cats loyal to the other clans. When a clan cat has been exiled from their home they loose any and all respect he might have had for them, and he prefers to turn a blind eye to those few cats that he feels were unfortunate enough to be born outside a clan.
MistClan: It isn’t that he hates MistClan, or even feels any particular apathy for them, he just feels that any clan that resorts to digging through Twoleg garbage to find food doesn’t deserve the same respect as a Clan that hunts and kills everything it eats.
Twolegs and TwolegPlace: He thinks they’re loud and bumble around the forest like blind badgers, though knows they’re extremely dangerous as he once lost a warrior to them. Because it is rumored that MistClan eats Two-leg garbage, he does not view them as a true clan.
Strengths:
Intelligent: He generally thinks about most aspects of something before he acts on it, and will give out orders accordingly. However, intelligence only goes so far at times, and he doesn’t always act on what he knows is the smartest thing to do.
Cunning: He’s very tricky in the way he thinks, especially if he’s trying to bait someone into doing something he wants them to. He’ll say or do something that will stir some chord within the other cat, though for all of his cunning, it doesn’t always work out the way he plans.
Natural Leader: Being a leader was one reason Longstar mentored him. When he was a kit he was the leader for all of the other kits, something which continued on to when he was an apprentice and later a warrior. He is the type of cat that you trust implicitly and follow to the grave. Barring that, during his time as deputy he showed a skill for organizing patrols and hunting parties and for knowing when and how to punish a cat for doing wrong and to reward them for doing right.
Compassionate: He cares about all of his clan, for the tiniest kit to the oldest elder. He wants to know when something is bothering the clan, or even an individual member of the clan, and if there is something he can do to fix it he will. He does his best to make sure every clan member is well fed and healthy, and during hard times will often go hungry so his clan mates wont have to.
Skilled Hunter: He was always good at tracking small prey and settling his weight just right so that whatever he was hunting didn’t know he was there until it was too late. As an apprentice, he brought back more prey than the other apprentices during each hunting assessment, and he could always be relied upon to bring back something when he went to hunt as a warrior.
Humility: Something he learned very early from Longstar was humility, reinforced by the sins of his sire Hawkclaw. When he messed up and was questioned about what had happened he learned to own his mistakes and not try to downplay them.
Weaknesses:
Abrasive: One of his biggest flaws is his abrasive attitude toward other clans, toward MistClan in particular. He’s not the kindest toward the other clans and is often heard tossing rude comments toward rival border patrols, as though he were begging for a fight with them, something which has happened on numerous occasions.
Foolhardy: Occasionally he doesn’t think a situation through all the way and will rush in with numerous avenues of action left completely unexplored, which generally leads to a less than desirable outcome than what he was hoping. It’s a flaw that has gotten him into trouble on more than one occasion.
Shoulder Injury: While he was an apprentice he hunting near the Ravine on the cliff side, chasing a thrush toward the edge, when he slipped and fell off the cliff. His shoulder was injured severely from the fall, though thankfully wasn’t broken. It never fully healed and as such he’s had a very slight limp since, which becomes more pronounced the more strenuous the activity is and with how long the activity lasts.
Audacious: Occasionally he’ll have a reckless streak that’ll get him into a lot of trouble rather quickly, being one of his most severe flaws. The problem isn’t that he’s stupid, it’s that when he gets this way he becomes foolhardy and abrasive as well, and that’s what gets him in trouble.
Poor Mentor: He knows everything a warrior should, and has skills that would be great to pass on to a clan apprentice, his only problem being that he usually lacks the patience for mentoring. He expects obedience and can’t stand it when the cat he’s teaching finds a falling leaf more interesting than hunting a mouse.
Fears:
Clan's downfall: One of his greatest fears is that his Clan will meet its end as the result of some decision he made and put them at war with the other Clans, and having to watch as one by one they all fell for his actions.
Not meeting the Clan's needs: This is more of an insecurity than a fear, but a bit of a fear nonetheless. He tries to meet the needs of each individual clan member and the Clan as a whole as much as he can. He can’t realistically ever see this happening, but he fears that by trying to keep everyone in the clan happy he’ll fail to meet the Clans needs as a whole and incur their wrath.
Being forced to relocate camp: He fears some disaster such as a fire or flood forcing them to relocate camp. Part of this fear is that he knows his territory, and knows that the only decent camp site is the one they occupy, and wonders where they’d go if they were forced to move since they live on an island.
Forest fires: The forest is their home, their life, everything that makes HailClan what it is. A fire could destroy everything they are, and this thought is like a plague to him, constantly making him wonder what they’d do if ever the forest were to turn on them like that.
Extremely hard seasons: Hard seasons are a fact of life, a fact which he knows is inescapable. What he fears is a season so hard that they can’t find prey to feed the Clans hungry mouths or find water to quench parched tongues, both things that would cause him to loose members of his clan.
Falling prey to ambition: He watched his father Hawkclaw let his ambition take over his life, watched as he became blinded by it and watched as he started to act on it. His father’s end was by no means a seemly one, and it taught a lesson that also became a fear for Talonstar. He fears that one day he too might fall prey to overwhelming ambition, and soon meet his own demise.
Going blind: Since the moment he first opened his eyes as a kit, he hasn’t closed them except to sleep. He enjoys the colors and sights in the world and can’t imagine a life without them.
Losing his tail: He loves to climb, and finds it a useful skill to have. He can’t imagine being confined to the ground because he no longer had a tail to keep his balance while he was climbing.
Losing the loyalty of his clan: This is by far his worst fear, an eventuality he hopes to never see or deal with. As he values loyalty and thinks HailClan to be the most loyal clan on the island, if this were to happen he would become a husk of the former cat, unworthy and unfit to lead his clan.
Losing a member of his clan: Every leader eventually has to face losing a member of the clan, and they don't want to lose someone that they grew up with and fought beside.
Sire: Hawkclaw (Dark Forest)
Dam: Frosttail (HailClan Elder)
Littermates: Greywhisker (StarClan Warrior), Falconsong (HailClan Warrior)
Birthplace: HailClan Nursery
Predecessor: Longstar
History:
Every story has a beginning; such is the way of things. Talonstar’s story began 34 moons ago late leaf-bare in the HailClan nursery. Frosttail’s kitting wasn’t smooth, and took nearly a full day, but at the end of it she had a litter of three: Talonkit was first, Falconkit was second, and Greykit was third. Everything for Talonkit was normal up to his third moon, and that’s when it became obvious he was quite intelligent, but mischievously so. He’d convince his littermates and fellow kits to do something with him and end up getting them all in trouble, the worst time being when he convinced the other kits to go hunting with him. They did bring back some prey, but they’d been out so long that the leader had ordered a patrol to go find them, and had worried the majority of the clan. Longstar couldn’t punish them as he would an apprentice since they were only kits, but they were told to change all of the bedding in the nursery under the careful supervision of the queens. This behavior continued up until he was made an apprentice.
His apprentice ceremony was like most others, but he was extremely proud, though also strangely calm for a kit about to become an apprentice. He didn’t know who his mentor was to be, nor did either of his parents, until Longstar announced that he himself would mentor him, an announcement that stunned him more than the rest of the clan since it had been many moons since Longstar had mentored an apprentice. Not only that, but it also meant that he would have the benefit of occasionally being mentored by one of the other warriors since the clan leader had his own duties he had to take care of as well. He quickly picked up the hunting stances and fighting moves he was taught, soon becoming one of the clans best hunters though he was only an average fighter. He of course got into mischief every now and then like most apprentices, but he never pulled the same mistake twice. Six moons later he became Talonpelt.
While he was a warrior he fought in numerous border skirmishes with HeatherClan and MistClan, most of which admittedly were his fault because of his attitude toward other clans, though there was nothing that could be said against him because most border patrols from all clans hurl insults at another patrol from an opposite clan when they come across one, his insults were just extremely insulting. Around his twelfth moon as a warrior he took on an apprentice with the clan; a young tortoiseshell she-cat whom was more hyper and more troublesome than any of his littermates ever were. He had a lot of trouble with her, mostly because was made he lacked the patience to play her games, instead being ever increasingly impatient with her, until finally she was made a warrior as well. Soon after he didn’t have an apprentice to worry about, he was sent on a border patrol with Greywhisker and a couple of other HailClan warriors to remark the boundaries between HailClan and HeatherClan. They had the misfortune of running right into a raiding party sent by HeatherClan whom they attempted to fight off. They succeeded, but at a price; Greywhisker had taken a claw to his throat from a HeatherClan tom, who he still had clutched between his claws even after he was dead. Somewhere around a moon later, which by now he was 26 moons old, the clans deputy retired due to his age, and that night he received an honor of which he did not expect.
As anyone might have guessed, he was made the HailClan deputy, second in charge of all the Clan. Shortly after the ceremony he cornered Longstar in his den and asked him why he should be the deputy, because in his honest opinion he shouldn’t have been chosen for numerous reasons. Longstar told him that he was both brave and courageous and that despite his shortcomings, he had the makings of a fine leader whom would care about the best interests of his Clan and protect them down to his last life. He said that patience and wisdom come with time, and told Talonpelt that he felt that Talonpelt was capable of learning both. Talonpelt carried those two comments on his character to heart and remembered them long after Longstar was gone. During his deputyship, a Twoleg who was hiking around the island happened across one of the HailClan patrols and managed to grab one of the cats, taking he captive and keeping her, which cause him to build a deep-seated hatred of the Twolegs and all who deal with them or their things. Obviously MistClan was at the top of that list since they were rumored eat Twoleg rubbish about as much as freshkill. However, for a time at least, his hatred wasn’t revealed because he didn’t run across any MistClan patrols until after he was made leader of HailClan after Longstar died from injuries he sustained from a border fight with HeatherClan.
His Leader ceremony took place in the Abyss before StarClan, where he received his nine lives. Longstar and Greywhisker were both there, as well as the leader before Longstar, the two deputies before him, an apprentice who had accidently fallen into the river and died, a queen who had died after kitting shortly before he had been kitted, and two warriors who he also didn’t know. Longstar gave him a life for patience. Greywhisker gave him a life for strength and bravery. The queen gave him a life for love. The two deputies respectively gave him a life for wisdom and kindness. The leader gave him a life for fairness, to do the right thing. The two warriors gave him a life for swiftness and a life for caution. Finally, the apprentice gave him a life for spirit, to move on when things look bad. He felt drained after the ceremony, but he returned to his clan with all his lives and began his leadership when he was only 32 moons old, a little younger than most leaders. He’s now 34 moons old and has already lost one life to a MistClan warrior during a border fight he caused. A good deal of his clan has died to sickness and a lack of food from one of the hardest leaf-bares the island has seen in nearly a hundred moons, but he’s determined to rebuild the Clan stronger than it was, and show the other Clans that HailClan is by no means easy prey.
Alias: Halt
Gender: Male
Age: 20
Experience: 3 and a half years
Sample: (Between my Dragon Rider Jake and his Dragon Vervada, and a second Dragon Rider Darrius and his Dragon Vanilor)
It had been over a week since Jacob and his dragon Vervada had arrived at Doru Araeba on Vroengard. They had been summoned there by their higher ups from their home in Ceunon. In the Jacobs world, a summons meant one of two things: either there was trouble brewing somewhere that they needed them to settle, or they were about to become teachers.
Of course a summons couldn't be ignored. As such he immediately packed his bags and doused his homes fireplace, and was soon winging his way to Vroengard, leaving Ceunon far behind. Since the orders weren't marked urgent he had decided that him and Vervada didn't have to fly non-stop, and could take as many breaks as they needed. Of course this also slowed them down, hince why it took them a week to fly there. He had pondered why they had been summoned during the entire trip, and spent a lot of time scrying the land to see if there was any trouble anywhere. He was used to them being summoned to deal with whatever trouble might be brewing, and had a reputation of being able to smoothly, quickly, and effectively dealing with the problem.
This time was different though, as he had just learned, much to his pleasure. He had just finished talking to one of his superiors, one who had just given him the best news of his life: he was to become an instructor. So, what do you think of this Vervada? He waited while she collected her thoughts, but he certainly didn't have to wait long.
You should know how I feel about this after being bonded to me for so long. I would prefer a fight to spending long hours training someone to do just that. However, I can see the usefulness of training younger generations of riders, as well as see how happy the prospect of teaching someone makes you happy. So for these reasons and many more, I am content to go along with it.
This he expected from her, for he did know her. Thus the nature of their bond. He was the gentler one, the one who took his time and tried to think of a peaceful way to resolving things without having to resort to brute force. She, Vervada, was the more savage of the two. Gifted with high acrobatics skills, hard muscles, and an unyielding determination, she was born to rain death and destruction upon all who got in her way, and surely would have if it wasn't for the bond. They completed each other, just as any true Dragon and Rider should complete each other. I thought as much, but I still wanted to make sure.
He stood in front of the Riders Headquarters building waiting for Vervada to join him. She had been off hunting whilest he was otherwise occupied with his meeting. As soon as she did join him though, he told her that they were to travel to the southwest quadrant of the compound, where they would receive further instructions. Along the way they talked about what their first lessons would be. Shortly thereafter they received instructions on what needed to be taught, as well as what certain things weren't to be revealed until their student had reached a certain point in their training.
Their instructions lasted many hours, Vervada growing impatient but deciding that she would put as much effort into this teaching business as she would into a fight. For his part, Jake was taking very thorough notes. After they finished that they were assigned a home outside of the actual compound, in the surrounding wilderness and were told that their new students would be reporting in at around eight.
They were at the house at six. And so the wait begins... Two hours later he heard a knock on the door.
***********
Hey look! Jake thinking/talking to Vervada
Hey look! Vervada talking