Bearpaw

[attr="class","arrgenMAINTEXT"]any group needs foot soldiers, in order to survive. this is especially true when a group has struggled as much as shadowclan has over the past dozen moons. ready to breathe and die for her clan, bearpaw is the spitting image of a well-groomed soldier. everything she does is for the good of her clanmates.

she grew up listening to her mother tell her heroic stories of shadowclan warriors who willingly (and this is the key here) gave their life up. from these stories, she concocted the ideal warrior. if she can just mold her personality to easily slot into place, she'll go down in history as one of the greats.

even at such a young age, bearpaw was a powerful creature. with her rather large frame, she was able to knock around those smaller than her, becoming more and more confident in her abilities as the days passed. she knows who she is and is self-assured in everything she does (after all, she did save the entire nursery as a young apprentice from that overly-sized rat [re: a normal sized one] who snuck in, as everyone else cowered in the corner [re: didn't even notice it was there]).

disciplined to a fault, she throws herself into practices, holding herself to such a standard that leaves her aching day in and day out. if she doesn't put in her best every single time, then what's the point? she needs to follow her routine (though she will allow a little deviation for the occasional hero savings) and strives to maintain that level of control.

bearpaw wants to ensure that her clanmates are happy and healthy, always anticipating their needs before they say anything. she's never surprised when she gets it right, but when she's wrong, that's when the anxiety spiral begins. failure isn't an option, and she tries her best to ensure that it rarely happens.

during the day, she's a spitting image of her father, badgermask; dead set on furthering the cause of shadowclan. but at night, she eases off herself just a smidge. she is fascinated by the stars, both connected and disconnected from starclan, so much so that even during the day her head is filled with them.

[attr="class","arrgenMAINTEXT"]kithood: bearkit and her sister hawk-kit are born. badgermask, their father, rarely visits them in the nursery, as he takes his duties very seriously. there's a mini celebration every single time he does stop by, however. when he does appear, littleleap, bearkit and hawk-kit's mother, has to yank bearkit off badgermask, as she clings to his paws with wails. bearkit tells everyone that her father is the strongest out of every other warrior. one kit, irritated from her prattling, asks her why badgermask doesn't just fix shadowclan's bad luck if he's that strong. bearkit doesn't have a response for that and instead, attacks them. although she doesn't seriously injure the kit, other kits in the den become a bit warier around her. she decides (a)[after a day of sulking and feeling lonely, as the other kits hesitate to include her in their games] that she is 100% ok with this and (b) that every other kit in this starclan forsaken den are a bunch of frogbrains.

meanwhile, hawk-kit, in her ever-charming ways, frolics from friend to friend. she spends so much time outside the nursery, bearkit rarely sees her. the two sisters begin to drift apart.

apprenticehood: her first mentor is lavendermist, who is much more interested in teaching bearpaw the theories of battles. whenever the physical comes up, her mentor shies away from it, grimacing.

more annoyed than anything, bearpaw turns to crowstrike, hearing about his exploits as a strong warrior. overwhelmed by learning from someone like him, bearpaw becomes quieter as they complete their weekly training. although a bit chagrined that she's keeping this from lavendermist, bearpaw tells herself that this is for the good of shadowclan. this will be her way to ensure that shadowclan is taken care of. she throws herself into this double training escapade, trying her best to juggle both her mentor and her advisor.

tensions between lavendermist and bearpaw spark, as bearpaw pushes her mentor to teach her at least a couple battle moves. lavendermist thinks the young apprentice is too pushy and feels as though it is her goal as a mentor to push back. hunting patrols are silent experiences, each molly pointedly ignoring the other.

a couple moons into her training, lavendermist heads a hunting patrol during leaf-bare, which quickly goes awry. a skulk of foxes happens upon the patrol. starved, the foxes attack the party, killing lavendermist and injuring others in the party. the hunting party manages to chase back the foxes, before limping back to camp, licking their wounds.

it is a slap in the face when bearpaw learns of this. even though she and lavendermist did not get along, the older molly was still a clanmate. struggling to put this in perspective (after all, it was common for a disaster like this to happen. it would not benefit shadowclan if she spiraled. best to try to put this event out of her mind and keep moving forward), bearpaw trains harder than she ever has. she needs to protect her clan.