deerheart [pineclan medicine cat]

[Poizuun]

Name |

Deerkit Deerpaw Deerheart.

Gender |

She-cat.

Age |

Thirty moons.

Rank

Head Medicine cat.

Beliefs

Deerheart keeps her beliefs hidden under lock and key deep within her heart. Where the rest of her Clan, and family, have no belief in StarClan, Deerheart, in fact, has an intense belief in the starry-pelted cats. Every night she says her silent prayers to them before she goes to sleep and prays to them when she needs guidance. In fact, she has regular conversations with her oldest brother Thornclaw (who died shortly after she was born), who helps her with nearly any problem she has. However, as medicine cat of PineClan, she knows that this much belief could pose many problems with other cats' opinions of her. She knows that cats would not seek her help if they knew she believed in StarClan, so, to keep everyone happy, Deerheart hides her beliefs and just lives her "outward" life as a non-believer, just like the rest of her Clan. However, she will never vocally denounce her faith in StarClan, only nodding or shaking her head in response to another cat's statement regarding StarClan's existence. She even will remove herself from conversations if they become centered around StarClan, not wanting to hear cats disrespect her beliefs.

Clan |

PineClan.

Parents |

Hawkstorm: Father (NP)
Barkflower: Mother (NP)

Siblings |

Thornclaw: Brother (deceased)
Nettlefang: Brother (NP)
Moosefur: Sister (NP)
Elktail: Sister (NP)

Other Kin |

Mate |

None.

Crush |

None.

Kits |

None.

Apprentice |

None.

Appearance |

Deerheart is a somewhat small cat, smaller than your average she-cat, but all of her proportions are right. Her legs are shorter along with her back, neck, and tail. Her paws are small and dainty, fitting the rest of her petite body. However she also isn't a skinny and frail cat or stocky and broad, just overall average for her smaller stature. Her face is that of an average cat's, with a longer muzzle and tall ears and round eyes. Overall, Deerheart is a very pretty she-cat, though her coloring makes her even more attractive.

Her fur is a light brown color with dark tabby markings. However, she has other bits of color threaded throughout her coat, primarily orange. It outlines her eyes ears, and part of her muzzle, along with all four legs, her belly, and the end of her tail. She is also splashed with bits of white on her chin and chest, all four paws and tail-tip. Her eyes are a pale green color with flecks of amber scattered throughout.

Personality |

Deerheart is a sweet, caring, empathetic, and compassionate cat. She cares for everyone without a second thought, however, when you cross her, she won't be so quick to help. She is not quite so blinded with her compassion and need to help that if another cat has hurt her, she will continue to do whatever they ask. However, she will also help a cat until she is crossed by them and usually they can convince her to do just about anything for them until she realizes that something's fishy. Deerheart can get into a kind of denial and really want to believe that the other cat is in the right until there is complete and irrefutable evidence that they are not as honest as they originally seemed.

Because of her eagerness to care for everyone, she often leaves herself in last place. She will run and work and apply poultices until she finally passes out in the middle of camp from either exhaustion or not eating. She can actually look pretty bedraggled for days when she feels like her work isn't done and when she finally does feel done, she can just sleep for an entire day and will reluctantly allow the medicine cat to take some of her jobs. She is very selfish in the aspect that she really doesn't like to share her jobs. She wants to do everything herself because if she feels like she isn't doing it, then it might not be done right or she might not be up to date with everything, so if something goes wrong with a cat that she previously hasn't cared for, then she can feel lost. Deerheart can also be quite a bit of a mother hen with both her patients and the other medicine cat's patients, often hovering around them, long after they've left the medicine cat's den and asking somewhat personal questions about how they are feeling and the like, just to be sure that everything is okay.

Deerheart is also protective of her Clanmates, especially those that she's taken care of in the past. Though it is not her job, if there's a skirmish among other cats, she will rush to help her friends that are in trouble. She will only ever raise a claw to cats that are not in her Clan. Otherwise, she will calm the fight with words. Her words are probably her strongest and most obvious feature. Because Deerheart grew up as the youngest of five kits, she often felt like she wasn't getting heard, so she learned to talk over the voices of her siblings. These days, it's become a bit of an issue for her, controlling the volume of her voice when she feels like she isn't being heard right and she will get to be just shy of screaming until she is acknowledged.

Skills |

Probably Deerheart's most shining qualities are her compassion and loyalty. She will help any cat in need of it, no matter if they are of another belief, clan, or even a loner or rogue. That is, until they cross her or someone that she cares about. Deerheart is not that naive. However, despite her Clan's dismissal of her own faith and the fact that she must hide her own faith, she would never do anything to harm or go against her Clan, no matter what someone asks of her. She would never do that. Surprisingly, Deerheart also excels at fighting, but will not raise a paw until she or a fellow Clanmate are in imminent danger. When she is protecting someone, she will die before letting any harm come to them. A more obvious skill that Deerheart has is healing, which was a large reason as to be chosen as medicine cat. She usually just follows her instincts when she is not one hundred percent sure of what exactly to do to help the cat, but these instincts are usually right. Deerheart also has an excellent bed-side manner. She will spend most of her day tending to the wounded or ill cat, being sure that they are comfortable and happy in their stay in the medicine cats' den.

However, despite all of her shining attributes, Deerheart also has her issues. Because of her smaller size, she is not as strong or fast as cats that are average-sized. If the cat is very much bigger than average, she can be over-powered and out-run pretty quickly.

History |

Deerheart and all of her siblings were born in ForestClan. She was born the youngest of five with two older brothers born in a litter previous to her's. Her older brothers, Thornclaw and Nettlefang were apprentices when Moosefur, Elktail, and Deerheart were born, however, the entire family was all very close to each other. Her parents never really were strong believers in StarClan, especially when Brownfang became Brownstar. They didn't believe it was right, with his ideals and whatnot. However, with their family so young, they couldn't do anything but just wait it out and for something terrible to happen to Brownstar so Cedarclaw could become leader. However, through the grapevine, Deerheart's father, Hawkstorm, heard about Cedarclaw's plans to secede and began to speak with the deputy about it and what his plans were.

Deerheart and her siblings were apprentices by this time and moving along well in their training, though Deerheart felt differently from her family about StarClan and talked with them often about it. They were accepting of her belief and truly believed her when she said that she was being spoken to by starry-furred cats, however, they would not allow her to follow her calling to be a medicine cat under Brownstar's regime, worried about how she would be treated. Though it hurt Deerheart that she couldn't follow her dream, her father promised her that better things would follow if Cedarclaw's plan worked. And it did. At eight moons old, Cedarclaw and the other supporting cats seceded from ForestClan and they made their journey to their new home.

During the journey, a fox attacked Deerheart's family. Thornclaw and Nettlefang were the first to react, followed quickly by Hawkstorm. However, he arrived too late and Thornclaw was mortally wounded by the fox's teeth. Nettlefang was injured also, but not nearly as severely as his brother. Deerheart instinctively went to work helping her brothers, but it wasn't too long before Thornclaw died. Nettlefang blamed himself for his brother's death and became extremely bitter, distancing himself from his family, despite Deerheart trying to tell him that they couldn't help it. The rest of the journey was terrible for Deerheart and her family, but it wasn't too long after that Thornclaw began speaking to his sister through her dreams. After the first appearance, she tried to tell Nettlefang that even Thornclaw didn't blame him for his death, but her brother wouldn't hear it. Deerheart wouldn't give up, though, and it took the rest of the journey and Deerheart constantly explaining her dreams of Thornclaw to Nettlefang until he finally came to believe that being angry at himself wouldn't bring his brother back and became the Nettlefang that he had been.

When her family settled in the area that would be their home, her parents chose PineClan, not ready to begin trusting StarClan after everything that had happened. Deerheart, obviously, couldn't just leave her family, even though she knew that she would get into a lot of trouble if the rest of her Clan knew of her belief. So she and her family began to hide it. However, Deerheart's dream eventually came true when she was asked to be medicine cat apprentice. She quickly proved herself with her skills and instincts with healing and it wasn't too long until she was a full medicine cat. She and her family has kept the secret the whole time that Deerheart has been medicine cat and she prays everyday that she is never found out by her Clan.

Role Play Example |

Watching the cat sleep, you can tell she was dreaming about something intense. Her whiskers twitched constantly as her lips curled up and laid flat along side her white paws and tail. Deerheart was constantly moving without getting an inch out of place, but it was a wonder that she just didn't vibrate across the floor of her den. However, if you entered her dream, you would know exactly why she was twitching so hard.

A great pine tree stood before Deerheart. She lifted her head straight up to see the entirety of the tree. Suddenly, something moved way up in the branches. The medicine cat squinted and took just a couple of steps forward. When she was right in front of the coarse bark trunk, she lifted herself up onto her hind legs and put one paw on the tree. Instantly she felt a strong beat, as if the tree had a heart, just like her or any of her other Clanmates. Deerheart backed away, feeling her paws shake and quiver uncontrollably. Another movement caught her attention, this time it was on her level. She crouched low, eyes keen on the undergrowth.

Then, a familiar bright, brown and white form stepped out and the she-cat stood, her tail lifting in recognition. "Thornclaw," She purred, looking into her older brother's handsome face. However, as she looked closer, she saw stress and worry upon his features.
"Deerheart, I have to warn you about something." He stepped closer to her, looking about as if something was going to get him.
"What is it?" Deerheart looked up at him, concern creasing upon her features.
"Water always takes more of its banks the longer it is kept from what it needs. Soon it will take more than it needs to satisfy itself." Thornclaw looked over his shoulder again and then all around the two of them as the ground began to shake. "Keep your eye on--"

Deerheart was suddenly shaken awake by one of her clanmates, ripping her from the message that her brother was trying to tell her. The kick that had brought her from her sleep rattled her brain and she could only remember Thornclaw's concerned face, saying something about someone taking more than it needs. The cat meowed at her. "Deerheart, I didn't mean to wake you, but one of the kits is really sick. She needs your help." The medicine cat lifted herself up and followed the cat to the nursery, knowing that it would be up to her to figure out what her brother had told her and what it meant.

{ooc} took a bit of liberty with trying to warn deerheart about the coming trouble with streamclan, hope that's okay