Cougar-ear - MeadowClan

[prowler.]

Cougar-ear
^{theme song - bob dylan;blowin' in the wind}

Name | Palekit, Palepaw, Palefur, Cougar-ear

Gender | Tom

Age | 75 Moons old

Rank | Elder

Clan | MeadowClan

Beliefs| Since birth Cougar-ear was taught to believe in StarClan, so innately his belief in them is almost definite, like he knows it, though he can't explain how. He is uncertain of fate and destiny, though he believes it is possible that they may exist, but if so, why do some cats lead fairly pointless lives? He thinks that you should not question StarClan's motives, which act on much higher realms than the typical mortal can understand, so therefore tries not to think of that which he does not understand.

Parents | Fernstream of ForestClan (NP, Deceased) and Stonetooth of ForestClan (NP, Deceased)

Siblings | Lionface (NP, Deceased), Brownstripe (NP, Deceased)

Other Kin | Smallflower - Niece (NP), Voleface - Nephew (NP), Thunder - Nephew (NP), Graypelt - Uncle (NP, Deceased), Skyflower - Aunt (NP, Deceased), Orchidnose - Sister in Law (NP, Deceased), Russetpelt (Nephew, PB: Prowl)

Mate | Previously Willowheart (NP, Deceased), now, none.

Crush | None.

Kits | Gold (NP)

Apprentice/Mentor | Previously mentored by Stonetooth (NP). Has mentored Longclaw (NP, Deceased), Reedwhisker (NP) and partially mentored Redpaw (foot, PC)

Appearance | In appearance you'll first notice how lean and somewhat scrawny Cougar-ear is, old muscle has fallen into ruin due to lack of use, becoming all sinewy and stretched. His physique seems generally unkempt, not much taken care of, some form of oriental heritage showing through in his markings, shape and figure. His fur is short and generally a almost dirty-cream colour, though his paws and lower leg-parts descend into a more muddy brown shade. On his face is a darker mask, stretching from black above his nose to gray then back into the cream, lighter the further it gets away. His tail is slender and whip-like, muddy brown in colour once more and not much used to indicate anything anymore - it never was really used much for balance, too thin to really make the difference.

Most of his fur is streaked or has patches of a silver tone, signs of aging, and gray runs up the underside of his chin, giving him a wizened look. His fur is scuffed in places and really he doesn't clean himself much, just enough to stop himself reeking. With a long body, he looks somewhat frail compared to most cats, all of his youth-gained muscle practically disintegrated. His claws are long and sharp, but yellowed through age and gunk, similar story with his teeth, which are yellow and tinted almost a shade of red from many nights of dining on fresh kill.

On his face Cougar-ear usually looks wise and calm, but this is often twisted into a more grouchy look of disapproval, matching his personality. From his face pure silver whiskers descend, almost like a thinner version of two-leg "moustaches". Central to his face is a black nose, its colour infecting the area around, his fur a pitch black in the said place. Just above this, his eyes are set, large and a deep navy blue in colour, they seem unending in thought, the inky pupil almost mixing with the colour. Unfortunately, these same blue eyes have gradually deteriorating vision and Cougar-ear sometimes has difficulty seeing people from a distance. At the top of his head - his namesake, his left ear's tattered remains, the top half ripped completely off, the rest shredded.

Cougar-ear's voice is normally cranky-sounding, at one point it would've been deep with a healthy luster to it, hearty and warm, but now it's a voice that seems much colder. Gravelly and every now and then cracking as he speaks, Cougar-ear's voice is almost a portrayal of what he has become, but to those that know him, it is also a memory of what he has lost.

Personality | Cougar-ear's current personality could probably be described as a stereotypical elder type. He is grouchy and sarky, perhaps even a little snappy to cats that deserve it, having a temper that can easily raise to the bait, though most don't normally start anything with him out of pure respect of the old cat. Proud and a little arrogant of himself and his history, Cougar-ear is the sort of cat that will look down his nose at that which many cats would find acceptable, in particular kittypets and the like, and if very traditionalist in his views, as is to be expected - he grew up with it, after all. Another word that could probably describe Cougar-ear is "wiseass", if he knows something, he'll force it down your throat and tell you how much he knows it.

A little snooty Cougar-ear can be very touchy and sensitive about his status, which he considers one to be respected and listened to when him or any other elder speaks. Generally speaking, Cougar-ear gets on with the other elders, often phasing into long moments of nostalgia when with them, though he's one of the eldest elders in the forest, second to No-ears, of course. Cougar-ear has a sort of sharp wittiness to him, which when paired with his smarts can be a formiddable combination. This is tainted though by Cougar-ears flaky attitude, a procrastinator and lazy in his age.

There's quite obviously another side that Cougar-ear hides, otherwise he would never have been the cat he is today. He has an unfathomable wisdom, a wisdom which he hides behind immaturity which hides his insecurities and regrets and sadness of his life. He is caring, though tries not to get too attatched to gets nowadays, far too used to the loss and hole which death leaves behind.

Skills | Most of Cougar-ear's skills have faded with his ever-aging physical form, such as his ability to be a fantastic runner and fighter. Nowadays, he relies on his smarts to keep him alive and his fantastic storytelling ability to keep him un-boring to others.

History |

Cougar-ear was born as Palekit in ForestClan, to Fernstream and Stonetooth. He had two brothers called Lionkit and Brownkit, who he would be with as they grew up, constantly paired with the duo. The family he was born into was no small one, his father had a brother and sister, making him have an uncle and aunt, and all one of a long line of clan cats. Graypelt and Skyflower were almost overjoyed for their brother's litter and were always around for Palekit's kithood, caring and watching whenever Stonetooth and Fernstream took some time off. When they became apprentices Palekit was delighted to become Palepaw and be mentored by his own father Stonetooth.

Most of his apprenticeship was fairly uneventful, there was an extremely cold leafbare in which he met one she-cat who would change his life forever - Willowpaw. Training with his own dad, brothers and newfound friend Willowpaw, the four of them were all given their warrior names at the same time. They were Palefur, Lionface, Brownstripe and Willowheart. Lionface became more distanced from the other two and closer to another reccently-warriorized she-cat called Orchidnose. Occasionally, the five of them would hang out together quite happily, but otherwise they were seperated into pairs. It was during this time that Palefur discovered what this feeling he'd been feeling really was - love, for Willowheart. He was delighted to find this feeling was reciprocated and the two fell in love.

Once this happened, Brownstripe himself became distanced, chasing his ambition rather than the love his brother's had lusted after. Surprising the entire family however, Brownstripe was the first to bring an unexpected litter of kits to the family line. With his "fling" (as he referred to it as) mate, who refused to take abortive herbs, he became the sire of one lone kit - Russetkit. The family were overjoyed until it came apparent that Brownstripe intended to shun his fatherly duties, taking even more patrols in an attempt to spend less and less time around his son. The rest of the clan however saw the similarities of father and son, in both appearance and in cases, attitude. They were all shaken though, when Brownstripe did one day not come back from a patrol, leaving the kit an orphan.

Palefur, though with Willowheart, yet had no kits under his charge and took the responsibility of kindly coming in to help Maplewhisker manage her son. He became an almost fatherlike figure, though often Willowheart herself would come about and help him take care of the kit, she herself thought of herself as too distant a link - kit's mother's mate's brother's mate - to get involved and therefore remained somewhat more distant from the whole activity of goodwill. It was then that Palefur mentally began to question both himself and Willowheart's relationship - was it love he felt for her? What exactly was love? He thought it was this feeling and was filled with a joy he had not felt for moons, he was in love.

After speaking of love with his brother Lionface the next day, he found his brother was already way ahead of him - he'd been in love and in a relationship with Orchidnose for ages. Just a moon or so later, Lionface came back to his clan with great news - Orchidnose was pregnant with his kits and they were going to have a litter together! Halfway through Orchidnose's pregnancy however, horrible news and fate struck the clan - Lionface had contracted some sort of incurable disease that had been seen often before, the symptoms were harsh, sharp pain in his abdomen, sudden weight loss and had extreme fatigue frequently. Though the clan's medicine cat couldn't fully diagnose the illness, they had seen it before, in particular in the great grandparents of Palefur, Brownstripe and Lionface - all cases had been unfortunately fatal.

The next two moons were the worst, knowing his remaining brother was going to die, but utterly helpless to do anything to save him. His brother spent his time between pain-relief treatment with the medicine cats and spending time with his loved ones. It was obvious there was no point making him work for the little he had left to live, so his duties were dismissed and he was given as much free time as he wanted. Palefur and Lionface talked sadly several times between this until finally, Lionface was too ill to go anywhere outside the medicine cat. When Palefur saw him for the last time, he was deathly-looking, obviously in agony and with little time left. They had a joking debate about StarClan before Lionface turned serious and asked one thing of this brother. That one thing that Palefur promised to do till the end of his own life - he asked him to watch and look over his kits, be their guardian and with that, Lionface died.

Orchidnose just a moon later went on to birth their litter of three. By now Russetkit was practically an apprentice, so Palefur considered his duty to his brother Brownstripe done and changed his charge to Lionface's kits. Palefur acted as a step-father, which often upset Willowheart, but she understood - it was something he had to do, he'd promised his brother. The couple got little time together with the kithood of the three present. The three kits were named Smallkit, Thunderkit and Volekit. One girl and two boys, Lionface would've been proud. Smallkit was unfortunately too small when her two brothers were apprenticed, the leader promising that her time would come, but only when she had caught up with growing. Volepaw and Thunderpaw were now safely out of the picture for Palefur's protection, firmly in the secure presence and duty of their mentors, so Palefur finally got time with Willowheart, though he would frequently check back with Orchidnose to see that Smallkit was doing well.

It was around this time that two other major things happened to Palefur, in the first, his father was killed in battle, driving rogues off the clan territory that had gone nasty. It was an honourable death, but upset Palefur greatly as he lost his final older male link in the family. The second thing was that he was given his first apprentice Longpaw, he was ecstatic but also worried about prooving himself a good mentor. He taught Longpaw all he knew and the values of warrior life, the apprentice fortunately attentive and good at remembering things, the training sessions were easy to understand and he enjoyed them thoroughly. When Longpaw had his ceremony to become Longclaw, Palefur was proud, in the same day of that ceremony, his mother Fernstream was also announced to be retiring to becoming an elder. He respected this, though he knew he would miss patrols and hunting with her.

By now several things had happened with Lionface's kits, Smallpaw had officially been apprenticed to her mother Orchidnose and Thunderpaw had decidedly just upped and left the clan without explination. Palefur couldn't help feeling as if he'd failed his brother in simply letting Thunderpaw leave, if he'd kept closer look maybe it wouldn't have happened... But Willowheart soothed him and forced him to know he did all he could, nobody could change a cat's fate. Volepaw on the other hand had now become Voleface, his suffix an honour to his father's memory. Russetpaw also by this time had become a fully fledged warrior - Russetpelt and great friends with both Littlewhisker and Cedarclaw. When Palefur and Willowheart were talking that evening of his brother's kits, Willowheart made an unsteady announcement to him - she was pregnant. Palefur was delighted, admitting that he was going to say that he had always wanted kits. Willowheart was just plain relieved that he had not been angry or unwilling to have them, and joined in with the celbratory mood.

Mere days after Palefur announced the good news to his mother Fernstream, she died unfortunately of old age, but he took some comfort in knowing that she had died happy, delighted for him at his news. During her pregnancy, Palefur willingly took on another apprentice named Reedpaw, who he trained with more skill and confidence, the younger cat once again being easy to train and a fast learner. Two moons from the kits birth, in one of the few last training sessions with Reedpaw, Palefur and Reedpaw were attacked by a mountain lion. Fighting fiercely, Palefur managed to save his apprentice, telling him to run for his life, before fighting off the mountain lion, or at least, providing enough of a challenge to not be worth it. Not before the creature had destroyed his left ear though, but he was regarded as a clan savior and a hero, earning the permenant respect of Reedpaw. Just one moon prior to the kits birth, Reedpaw successfully became Reedwhisker, yet another warrior trained to perfection by Palefur, some said. When his kit was born, he was glad to find it was gold-coloured, like his mother, with the stoney eyes of his father. Together, him and Willowheart chose the name Goldkit.

They nurtured and watched him to apprenticeship but neither was given mentorship of him, due to apparent "attachment reasons". They did watch him closely though, watching as he evidently took a fancy to a cat called Snowpaw. Halfway through his training though, Goldpaw came to the two of them and said he was leaving the clan and taking the name Gold. His parents pressed why but all he would say was "personal reasons", when the clan found out, they noticed Snowpaw flushed and seemingly slightly ashamed and piecing the things together, they figured those "personal reasons" had simply been the rejection of his love to a simple childhood fancy of a she-cat that wasn't worth it.

Not long after this, Palefur's elder uncle and aunt died together, quite silently in the night as they simply gave up on living. Just a moon later, the clan decidedly split, many cats going to each of the new clans, but some going to no clan at all. Him and Willowheart, along with any remains of his family, moved to live with MeadowClan, along with his nieces and nephews, one of the most peaceful-seeming clans. He was pleasantly surprised to find that the new leader of the new clan was in fact their nephew Russetpelt's best friend, Cedarclaw. Getting older he watched as Smallpaw became Smallflower, a gentle warrior she-cat for their clan, and Orchidnose retired. Palefur himself thought of that bliss often, and was near to suggesting that he and her retire also when he was surprise-assigned another apprentice, Redpaw. Vowing this was the last warrior he would train for the clan, Palefur undertook the intensive training of Redpaw.

The young tomcat found the pace tough and hard, as indeed this was the toughest Palefur had ever taught any cat, but progressed more rapidly than his previous apprentices, his own temperament forcing Redpaw to keep up with his increasingly erratic pace. Just two moons before peace and rest with his mate and the finishing of Redpaw's training, Palefur's beloved died without warning, just simply not waking up one day, a mystery to the whole clan. He sunk rapidly into depression and was unable and unwilling to finish Redpaw's training. At this, Cedarstar could decide on only one other cat to finish the young apprentice's training - Russetpelt. The younger warrior had unfortunately been the subject of much tragedy of late himself - he had reccently lost both his former apprentice, Stonepelt and apprentice-of-the-time Elkpaw to a lynx attack. Russetpelt hesitantly accepted his uncle's charge, though respectfully acknowledging that Palefur had already covered far more than most apprentices were ever even taught and that he deserved all the credit.

With his three apprentices completely trained to being valuable warriors, his mate dead, parents dead, brothers dead, uncle and aunt dead, kit left and his nephews and nieces all grown up, the clan took sympathy and allowed him to retire. When he became the elder he was renamed by Cedarstar, respectfully in honour of his greatest feat to Cougar-ear. He did not mind the new name, it marked a change in him. Becoming a changed cat with his eldership and quite rightly so, Cougar-ear allowed himself to become grouchy and whatever else he so pleased. Just one or two moons ago both his first apprentice Longclaw and sister-in-law Orchidnose both died, making him feel both older and more alone, but only really making him tougher to the world around him.

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