Briartail;; Here comes the sun, it's alright

[glowlynose]

Briartail

Name |
Briar; Briartail

Gender |
Tom

Age |
Twenty-two moons

Rank |
Warrior

Clan |
StreamClan

Beliefs|
Before coming to the Clans, Briartail could often been seen staring up into the night sky with a curious expression. Just what were those strange, glittering specks in the black? How did they get there? But most importantly, did they have any meaning, any purpose besides being something pretty to look at when it was difficult to fall asleep? He believed that they had to have some purpose, but was not sure what it was.

Now that he has learned about StarClan, one of life's great mysteries has been solved. He is quite content in his belief of his starry ancestors and, well, not so ancestral deceased relations. He finds peace knowing that there is an afterlife at the very least. However, he does hold the strange notion that the stars are the good souls of cats and the dark sky that separates them are the bad souls of cats.

Parents |
Raindrop, mother, NP; Stripes, father, NP

Siblings |
Firefang, brother, DC; Snowy, sister, NP

Other Kin | Not played

Mate |
Ember, deceased; not yet

Crush |
Not yet

Kits |
Barley, deceased; Minnow, deceased

Apprentice/Mentor |
Stonepaw, played by Ember

Appearance |
Briartail's build is quite an unusual one, especially for a tomcat. He is quite a small cat, even for a member of StreamClan. He stands about a head shorter than the average StreamClan warrior. His shoulders are more narrow than an average tom's, giving him a much less masculine appearance. In fact, if it was not for his defined tomly facial structure and deep voice he might be mistaken for a she-cat.

Both he and his brother have a basic tabby pelt, and his is a gorgeous shade of... brown. Yes, brown, but not an ugly brown, like mud- brown like the wet, golden sand of the beach, or an oak tree. His stripes are a bold espresso brown and can almost appear black at times. He does have an odd stripe of dark brown down his back, starting at the back of his head and running down his entire body to color his tail. His muzzle is painted white- this color runs all the way down his belly in a solid blaze. While in the summer months his fur is relatively short with a few longer wisps on his chest and tail, during the winter it fills out his entire body to keep him warm.

Briartail's eyes are quite an interesting shade. They are like a mixture between amber and a perfectly toasted marshmallow, and they have several metallic flecks that give his eyes a constant sparkle. There is also a curious ring of faint, faint green around the pupil. His eyes are extremely expressive of his feelings, and are almost always open wide in wonder.

Personality |
Saying that Briartail is a happy-go-lucky type of guy would be a gross understatement. Briartail is incredibly perky and optimistic to the extent that his very presence would be enough to irritate a more serious individual. He makes his very best effort to find a bright side in every situation. It is almost certain that he will manage to find one bright side or another, even if he has to think a little bit outside the box to do so. He's a very creative kitty.

Briartail tries to treat every cat he meets with the same respect and friendly attitude. In fact, it's under debate whether he has done a single mean thing to anything in his entire life. He believes with a strong conviction that all cats are equal and have the same rights. No matter who he comes across, you can be sure that he will meet them with a friendly greeting and a broad smile.

He is also incredibly enthusiastic about everything life has to offer. Briartail is completely awed by everything around him in the world, and he will almost always take the opportunity to share that awe with others. There is a special place in his heart for butterflies and clouds. If he is ever seen walking starry-eyed, it is likely that he just saw a pill bug or something.

Briartail is an overall friendly cat. His kit-like innocence makes him very trusting and even gullible to a certain extent. He tries to be friends with everybody that he could possibly be friends with; after all, you never know when being on someone’s good side could come in handy. Briartail is incredibly loyal to his close friends. He would sacrifice his life if it meant he could help someone he cared deeply about.

Beneath his effervescent and vivacious exterior, Briartail is a very thoughtful and introspective cat. It is not unusual for him to be in the middle of a task and then go off on some strange thought tangent. Despite his usual optimism, Briartail does have a few somber moments now and then, and they are usually caused by one thing: pain. Hatred is a good word to use when describing Briartail’s feelings about pain of any sort. It’s the one thing in the world that he can’t find a bright side for. Being a slightly stubborn cat, he hates it when his purposes are foiled.

Skills |
Briartail is extremely skilled in swimming, even more so than his clanmates. His long tail does create a bit of drag, but his muscular structure enables him to have great agility in the water. He is also a good cat to go to if you're looking for a bit of cheering up.

His area of weakness is definitely combat. He was never taught how to use his smaller size and agility to his advantage, so he tries to fight in a pair when battles do arise. He also has a tendency to completely flip out over anything that classifies as an emergency in his mind, such as someone tripping.

History |

Kithood
Briartail was, as you may have already guessed, born as the runt of his litter. He never quite caught up to the rest of his siblings, and he was constantly patronized because of his size. Even his father seemed to think less of him for his size, and the only refuge that young Briar could take was his mother. This earned him the reputation of the weak mama's boy. His siblings began to estrange themselves from him more and more.

The move/meeting of Ember
After Briar's littermates and himself were grown enough to handle a long journey, their parents whisked them off on an escapade that took a good half a moon. His brother and sister were quite put out by the new place; there wasn't even a barn to shelter in when it rained. Briar, on the other hand, loved their new patch of forest. He was content to just explore by himself the territory and teach himself to hunt, because of course nobody wanted to come with him. After a while Briar started to get a little bit lonely on his expeditions, and he found himself wishing strangely for a companion. He was not sure where to find one since all he knew in the world was his family, and they all thought he was incapable.

One day while young Briar was out hunting for his family, he literally stumbled across a young she-cat. Her family lived nearby; they were a group of loners as well. Her name was Ember, and she and Briar became fast friends.

Briar and Ember run away
In the moons that followed Briar and Ember's first meeting, Briar's family conditions quickly continued deteriorating. His father, Stripes, continued to alienate him. On the rare occasion that Briar was needed for something it was usually because his siblings were too large to fit into a hole or something of the sort. His siblings started to associate with him a bit more, but that was only to taunt him and attempt to wear down his happiness. They couldn't stand how he was so happy with himself when he was "less important" than they were.

When his mother got sick, the entire family dynamic took a turn for the worse. Stripes started spending all his time with his mate, Briar's expeditions got longer and longer as he went searching for herbs. Sometimes he wouldn't return for days and would return to starving relatives. His siblings had a few pathetic hunting skills, and his father was of course busy with Raindrop. Stripes's sanity flew out the window when Raindrop died. He blamed Briar for his mate's death, and he accused him of murder. He would even turn physically violent toward poor Briar. Briar never raised a single claw against his father, and his siblings began to see him with a new respect. They even began to stick up for him a little, which of course only made Stripes's clawings more violent.

One day Briar just couldn't take it anymore, so he went to see Ember. Ember's temper sparked when she heard about the mindless attacks. She went to see Stripes to tell him off, and the older tom ended up getting very angry. A fight ensued, and Striped ended up dead at the claws of Ember. The friends fled the scene and didn't dare look back for fear that Briar's siblings would turn on them both. After a moon and a half of travel, they found themselves back at the barn where Briar was born.

The fire
This section will be told from Briar's memory. It felt wrong to write this event from a passive standpoint, and I thought it would be a good character building exercise.

The world is such a marvelous place, so full of life. That's what I like the best about it, you know. The life. I don't know how the world was created, but I know exactly how mine was destroyed. I remember every heartbeat, every moment of agony as my chest felt like it was being shredded from the inside out.

I woke up early like I always did back then, and I remember the sunrise from that New-leaf morning. The sky seemed like it had been set aflame. There was even a red tinge on the bottoms of the clouds. I remember thinking that it was the most majestic sunrise I had ever seen.

When Ember woke up, I smiled and told her that the sun came to see her and that today we were going to celebrate. She licked me on the ear and asked me why, and I said, "We're alive. Why not celebrate?" She smiled and shook her head. I told her that I was going to catch some extra special prey for her and our kits today.

So I went hunting, like I always had for my other family back in the forest. I made sure that I only killed the most succulent pieces of prey, the ones that were sure to be the most tender and juicy. After all, what was a celebration without good food? It took me nearly until midday to find prey that met my standards. When I got back to the barn, I could feel the ground crumbling beneath my paws and I was positive that the sky started to fall.

The barn was on fire. A huge column of black smoke rose from the roof, billowing out like my breath did on cold mornings. I tried to get in and save them. I really did. I ran frantically around the outside of the barn, trying to find some small area that was not blocked by flames. None was to be found. By the time that the twolegs showed up in their huge red monster that wailed the sun had already sunk half way down from its midday point and the flames had spread to the forest that I had hunted in.

The twolegs used these strange stretchy snakes that spewed water to put out the flames. I was frightened of their giant red monster, so I didn't dare approach until after they left. The barn was close to collapsing as I walked in, and ash was everywhere. It was so hard to see anything. I don't even know why I went in there. Perhaps I held some hope that my family had survived the blaze.

I will not describe in detail the horrors that I saw when I finally found my family. All that needs to be said was that they did not escape the barn in time and had been trapped under a beam. I buried my mate, my son, and my daughter later that evening. I finally began to understand what could have provoked my father into his abuse of me all those moons ago. The pain, well, there are no words to describe the utter pain and despair I felt. For days it was all I could do to pick at the prey I had caught for the celebration, find water, and think about the irony of the situation.

After seven days, I decided that enough was enough. I was through being depressed and pathetic; I didn't want to take the chance of letting my loss take such total control over me that I would turn out like my father. I set out on a journey with no particular destination in mind. I just had to get away from that place.

Briar finds the Clans
After a journey of many moons Briar found himself at the territory of the Clans. He just happened to stumble across the StreamClan camp, and he literally almost jumped out of his pelt with excitement. This was the chance he had been waiting for, searching for without knowing he had been searching for it! Here he could have a purpose again and build a new life for himself. When he joined the Clan he asked to keep his prefix when they named him. In his mind, by that action he was paying respect to his old life and his new life in one blow. Since then he has worked hard to be a warrior that his clan can be proud of.