Tooth that

clutches pine marten

Tribe of Floating Stones

lithe black smoke tom with green eyes

Carrying dark fur set upon a striking flicker of silver, Tooth resembles his namesake. His body is awkwardly long and thin. Even as a kit, his pudgy belly tumbled around on tiny, heron-like legs. Eventually this grew into a great, graceful form, a tom certainly of his father’s prey-hunter roots. Unfortunately he lacks the musculature to run confidently across the moors, and his stamina is laughable at best. His strength is average, evident in the soft slopes of his lithe form. Tooth weighs very little, mirroring his mother’s petite stature. His elongated body is only lengthened by his long tail.

Muddied in color, it was not until he reached his to-be status did the tom’s pelt start to darken, resembling the rich charcoal’s of his father and siblings’ coats. A striking black adorns his body, traveling in stripes and spots across his pelt. Carrying the same spots as his mother and sister, Tooth is a coalescence of his parent’s courtship, a delicate mixture of the two. The silvers of his pelt are most evident at his breast, crest of his legs, and underbelly, making him a classic smoke.

Tooth carries the sharp, dignified angles of his mother’s distinctive face, only sharpened by his father’s striking features. His crown is wide, while his cheeks and chin are narrow, creating a tooth-like shape. While he does not boast the large, bat-like ears of his father or brother, they are still generous in nature, set widely atop his head. The fur inside his ears is silver in color, while the rest of his face is dark, save for a few spots of silver at his brows and inner-eye corners. His nose and whiskers are also black. The most distinctive feature upon his face are his large, round eyes, a delicate green. They are the same color as fresh, new-born leaves, blooming from a tree in spring.

- fastidious, snooty, persnickety
+ faithful, courteous, intelligent

Tooth was always a terribly neurotic cat. He's fastidious in nature, obsessively concerned over his own cleanliness, often found cleaning himself down to the ninth degree. The young tom hates getting his paws muddy or wet, believing such sensations will absolutely lead to a future illness, or worse, death. Tooth has a long list of phobias and imagined medical concerns -- all psychosomatic. It is not unusual to find him pacing outside of the teller’s den, demanding a check-up. This manifests into episodes of anxiety, always worrying about his health or the health of those around him. This is only exasperated by the tribe’s history of catastrophic sickness.

His fear of getting down 'n dirty, combined with his fussiness, makes him rather snooty towards his tribe mates. An inherent snob, Tooth is very particular about his environment and interests. He will absolutely turn his nose up at his tribe-mates if they do not meet his ridiculous standards regarding intelligence or taste. Most things, such as hunting or fighting are downright barbaric and akin to brutes. It usually takes a lot of persuasion and tail-guiding to convince the tom to exert any kind of athleticism, from simply running across the moor to throwing a hit. As he ages, he will learn to be strategic in his battles, often relying on unconventional methods of fighting and using his wit to outsmart the predators on the island.

Despite his many neuroticisms, Tooth is not overtly rude or caustic in a brutish manner. He is always courteous towards his tribe-mates and is not one to step out of line or purposefully break a rule. In fact, he is rather faithful to his tribe and family and shows his affection through witty banter or unusual acts of kindness. His greatest weapon, perhaps, is his sharp intelligence. Tooth has an incorrigible desire to study the world around him. As he grows, he will take a great interest in the island and how it functions as a larger ecosystem. While he’ll definitely make sharp jabs at his tribe-mates for not understanding simple earthly processes, such as the way the tide rolls in or how insects aid in pollination, Tooth will always lend a helping paw to teach others, finding great joy in sharing wisdom, even if it slightly comes at their expense.

Born on the cusp of spring and summer, Tooth should have entered the world during a time of bountiful harvests and abundant resources. But he did not. Cast in agony and doubt, the Tribe of Floating Stones welcomed the young parents and their four kits warily. Their smiles were tight-lipped, not quite meeting their eyes. While the tribe desperately needed new blood to restore their ranks, Tooth and his siblings were born during a time of great civil unrest and persistent hunger and threats. Prey was hard to come by. Coyotes ran rampant, killing their tribe-mates without remorse. And Fog, the newest teller, struggled to make his own, amid constant scandals and accusations of incompetency.

Despite the dreariness of their lives, Dusk that Chases Day and Rain that Falls in Morning eagerly awaited the birth of their kits, so deeply in love with one another. Their children were a blessing, a reminder that brighter days were just beyond the horizon. So when Rain kitted, Fog attended to her and four visions visited him that hot, humid night. The last kit born, a scraggly tom, received the name Tooth that Clutches Pine Marten, for Fog saw a bright, capable tooth lodged in the back of a pine marten, one who confidently scaled the branches of a tree, despite its predicament.

His siblings were adorned with similar names of prey animals and predators: Claw, Whisker, and Scream. Together they flourished under the loving caresses of their mother and father, oblivious to the tribe's suffering. They often played and explored together, despite Tooth's vocal distaste for rough-housing and getting dirty. They lived a charmed, protected life, away from the political strife of their Tribe. Though it did not last.

As summer reached its apex, a dark and foreboding storm came upon the Tribe. In a devastating lightning crack, the entire forest ignited. The Tribe island was besieged by fire. It hungrily devoured everything in its path, including his family's den. Waking to mouthfuls of smoke, Tooth pitifully clung to his mother's side until he passed out.

When he awoke, they were safely tucked away on one of the isles. All of his family survived. Though many others were not as lucky. Several tribe-mates perished in the fire, and their home was completely destroyed. When they returned to the mainland, Sumac, a seasoned prey-hunter, gathered a meeting at the Tribe Stone and announced the death of their teller Fog.

Too young to understand the political strife of his tribe-mads, Tooth simply accepted this change in leadership as a fact of life. Thought it angered many in his Tribe, especially as Sumac appointed himself as their teller.

Shortly after, Tooth became a to-be and began his training alongside his siblings and the other to-bes. Despite his strange demeanor, he found friendship with the sisters, Melody and Sparrow. Focusing on the strength of their hunters, Sumac requested for the to-bes to be largely trained in prey-hunting. Tooth quickly learned he hated the work of a hunter, detesting the way his lungs screamed and fought him every step of the way. Surprisingly, for all of its dirty work, Tooth found himself enjoying the work of guards.

He enjoyed cleaning up debris and learning about the island they lived on. Training mostly under Talon and River, Tooth eagerly awaited his stone-guard lessons. Though they were far and few between and he'd never admit his enjoyment out loud. Around his tenth moon, he discovered his brother, Scream, practicing stone-guard fighting moves alone in the snow. They practiced together, after Scream insisted, and they discovered he had a knack for it. It was then, Tooth decided he wanted to become a stone-guard.

Though he'd never admitted it out loud to his parents. Descending from a long line of hunters, Dusk and his family tended to a particular rabbit warren. They were specially trained to hunt rabbits, and Dusk expected his own kits to follow in his paw-steps and tend to the same land. Rain, a stone-guard herself, resented her position after watching too many of her guard friends die fighting predators or succumbing to the cruelty of her land. She could not bear to see her children follow the same trecherous path.

Not that he could become a stone-guard if he wanted to.

Under Sumac's reign, the teller demoted Talon, their head stone-guard, and appointed Laurel, a prey-hunter, in his place. Together they assessed the to-bes as hunters, refusing to train them in the way of a guard. Any dissenters were deemed traitors and sent to the isles and imprisoned.

Now nearing his fledgling ceremony, Tooth already knows what future awaits him. He will become a prey-hunter against his wishes, and for the first time in his short life, he's beginning to question his leadership. Was Sumac really right to appoint himself as their leader?