Starling that Swoops

from Treetops

Tribe of Floating Stones

multi-colored tabby with pale yellow eyes

Starling is a gorgeous cat, but surprises most others when she decided that she wanted to train to become a stone-guard. While she is muscular and well packed, she isn't the biggest of cats. Her legs are about proportioned with the rest of her body, but to her shoulder she only stands at 9.3 inches. Regardless, this cat is wall to wall muscle. Even her tail is short and thick like herself. She filled out hard over the last few moons of growth which made her head straight for the stone-guards. It's not often a smaller cat wants to try for the more dangerous job, but she's a spitfire.
She is a classic multi-colored tabby with orange and brown spots. The tabby markings may be far and few in between, but they are most certainly there. These two colors are complimented with splashes of white. This white expands from her chest down to her belly. Then is interrupted by gorgeous orange and brown tabby saddles before reappearing on her lower legs and paws; her right side has more color than the left.
Starling's face has rounded out a bit, but it all comes to a point still at her nose. Her overall muzzle length is short. Her forehead to her nose is a long path, however. It gives her a more feminine appearance in the face. She has large almond shaped eyes that hold a gorgeous pale yellow. The black rings around her eyes are a bit thicker than her sister's making her stares much more intense.

Starling's need for a good chat will never change. She is very much a social butterfly and can pull conversations out of a hat for any cat that greets her. She is well abled in reading a room as well as individual social situations. This has come with practice as having a large family provided the experience she needed. It has also helped her develop her manipulation skills whether for the good or bad; though lately it has been solely for selfish reasons. Being resourceful is important to her as she needs the attention she gets from it. It may have been a game when she was younger, but now she demands it from others. This can have some positive qualities if used for other cats; which it is not hard for her family to persuade her to use it for them as well.
Overall Starling has a very bubbly and friendly personality. It isn't just because she wants her way, but because it is who she is. Though she fully understands the perks of her personality and takes advantage of those that do not expect that from her. The way Starling presents herself would be in a flamboyant nature. She uses her charm and confidence to get her way or out of any trouble she's involved in. Very rarely will she use it to benefit cats outside her immediate family. Even her step-siblings have a hard time getting her to back them.
At the end of the day, thanks to being the youngest, she hasn't changed her spoiled, lazy ways. While sitting around and guarding an entrance all day is a piece of cake for her, she'd much rather let another cat fight off a predator or any other intruders. If she can't be bothered, she won't be. It is one of the main reasons she gave up wanting to be a prey-hunter with her sister. She just couldn't be bothered to chase after food all day when she can relax by the camp or take a nice stroll along the boarders. It is rare anyone puts her where she would need to actually contribute just based on past problems surrounding her laziness.
After all: work smarter, not harder.

Starling and her sister were born to two cats that already had families. It was a drama filled situation that only aided in making Starling the way she is today. Her father, Talon of Owl who Hunts at Dawn, already had three children from a previous litter with a different female; Primrose who Flowers by Starless Night, Falcon who Soars on Broken Wing, and Song of River at Dusk. Her mother, Maple that Burns at Dawn also had a previous child; Hemlock where Shade Grows. The huge family often made Starling feel left out and had a hand in developing her attitude towards life in general. She very much became the moody teenager, even before she knew what moody was.
Especially during her kithood, she was constantly trying to get out of things, even if there was no manual labor involved. A simple walk turned into a five minute whining party of how she didn't want to have to lift another paw.
As she grew with her sister and they turned into To-Bes she felt like there wasn't enough attention on her while at other times it felt like there was too much family. Too many cats giving her attention at once made her snap at her friends and family. She wanted to be doted on, not smothered. As she grew into a larger to-be it made her realize just how much more she wanted from the cats around her. Her laziness grew and her spoiled nature really kicked it off. It got to the point where a lot of her family would avoid her altogether. It wasn't until she had a moment with her father around ten moons when she realized how much she wish she was like him. Maybe not as much responsibility or job, but that her muscle and strength could be used for something; she is a very uncoordinated hunter and laziness doesn't fit with running. While her father lit a fire under her, it didn't change who she was. Yes, she wanted to be a stone-guard, but she still wanted any job or huge responsibility to be done by someone else.
When the second sickness came, it was very obvious that Starling would have none of it. It was the hardest period of her life. A very socially active cat to barely talking with even her sister in wanting to avoid catching it. She avoided the others as much as possible and did the most work of her life to just get away from it all. It was then she realized how much work a stone-guard does and at this point she was wondering if she made the wrong choice. The biggest thing was she took her anger and her restlessness out on her work. It was hard not to be around others and talk their ear off or want to hear how amazing she was for actually doing work.
Now that the sickness is over, Starling is back to her usual social self, almost begging for other cats to talk to her, to praise her for doing nothing. More recently, the more interactions with fellow stone-guards, she realized how much she disliked one cat in particular: Fog. The tom was pushy when it came to work, especially to her due to her laziness and lack of order. With her dad's admiration for the tom's hard work she couldn't say anything and any words were met with scolding from her father. The tom infuriated her so much that she made it her mission to ignore him as much as possible. He was one of the few cats to stand up to her and essentially put her in her place as far as her being selfish and full of herself. Anger filled her thoughts when his name popped up.
The only time now that she gets any work done regarding her position, is when Fog is out and no where near her. She does everything she can to even avoid looking at him to make sure they never have to converse. If it was up to her, she wouldn't even have to worry about it and he would automatically know to avoid her. This is mainly for her own good as her sharp tongue doesn't discriminate and she would hate for her father to get in trouble over it.
To make matters worse, she had to see Creek, the old Teller pass away. It wasn't as if she liked Creek, but it was still another thing to take away the attention from her. It was her hope that her father will become the next Teller, but she knows things don't always work out the way she wants them, much to her dismay.