Scorchbranch

redwoodclan

lithe tortie smoke with green eyes

Brindled with grey and ginger, even Scorchbranch's pawpads are different colors. The tortoiseshell could curl up in the sun dappled foliage and likely go unseen by even her prey, though she's never been patient enough to find out if this is true. Her short, thin and usually only perfunctorily groomed fur usually seems to stand slightly off her body, whether she's irritable, excited or even pleased.

Not as large as most RedwoodClanners, it's as though she is compacted into a frame not quite large enough for the potential balled up inside her. Somewhat gangly, this gives her a habitual clumsiness where she often overshoots herself, but the molly is elastic enough that she's usually able to bounce back. This pliancy to her long muscles means she isn't very graceful, but being flexible and maneuverable, makes her a good if somewhat reckless climber. She's slightly heavier in the hindquarter, built for leaps and bounds. Her tail is exceedingly long and tapering.

Scorchbranch's features are blunt and fairly ordinary. Without her coloring, she would be a very plain sort of cat. A few nicks stand out on her face, and her right ear is torn from an old fight, folding it slightly at the tip. A curiously neat spot of ginger stands out on her head.

Brazen, judgmental.

Scorchbranch is bold and shameless, though the latter stems more from ignorance and stubbornness than any deliberate sort of truculence. She is quick to assume, hotheaded and fiercely spirited. Because of her strong nature she has a tendency to gravitate toward quieter cats she's less likely to clash with, involving them in her larks often without asking permission.

Outgoing, rambunctious.

What she lacks in sophistication and refinement however, Scorchbranch makes up for in her good nature. A cat who rarely does anything in half measures, she's passionate, and generally wishes the best for her Clan despite struggling to moderate herself. Rambunctious and often wicked, she finds it easy to interpose herself among her Clanmates with chatter and rude laughter, and though argumentative, doesn't hold onto her anger or resentments for too long. She isn't particularly careful with her words, and for that reason tends to be a bit more gruff around kits, lest she leave them with a few choice sayings their mother's ears would burn to hear.

Fickle, thoughtless.

Capricious, Scorchbranch is prone to mood swings. She'll often behave without thinking. Her heightened feelings on most things means she always lands on one strong emotion or another. Explosive and even aggressive, this means she cannot be relied on to deliberate or act carefully, and is poor at managing her actions when incensed, even if she may feel chagrined after. While she may also forgive easily, she's also swift to whip back into a frenzy should her temper be reignited. 

In adulthood the warrior has become more aware of how poorly her behavior reflects on herself and her Clanmates. She finds it hard to force herself to go against the grain of her nature, and throughout her life has learnt from consequence more than precaution. 

Flirtatious, ignorant.

Scorchbranch is also sometimes a little free with her affections. She is a cat that enjoys touch, but doesn't necessarily see anything of deep importance in it, and is particularly dense in matters of love and how she might appear to lead others on.

Kithood:

Scorchkit's mother Mottlefrost bequeathed her daughter her name and her brindled coat, and then passed from her life, not long after her weaning. She was too young at the time to remember her for long. A father never presented himself, so in their stead, the she-kit's grandfather Crakeclaw stepped forward to watch over the kit.

While a tom of prodigious bulk, it was generally accepted that the hard start to Scorchkit's life left her undersized, and so she looked very little like the warrior who's large shadow she grew up in. It couldn't be doubted she was his granddaughter though, sharing his temperament. Nurtured also by sympathetic queens, her life was relatively normal in spite of her lack of a single mother figure. If she felt she missed individual attention, it did not express itself outwardly except in a tendency to invite herself into other's games and conversations even when unwanted.

Crakeclaw was a hardened warrior getting on in his years, but while he didn't shelter or cosset Scorchkit, he was also very moderate with her. He bore his granddaughter's questions humbly, and his encouragement of her independence enabled her to grow confident for her age. When she was wild or headstrong however, the tom felt less need to curtail her than others might, believing that she would need that energy to become a fierce warrior. Often he encouraged it in fact.

As a cat that had gotten by using his claws even if he had now slowed with age, he saw no need to trim hers early. She would learn from her mistakes in time.

Scorchkit soon came to count the small scratches and bruises she acquired during her explorations and play proudly. She quickly grew to inherit however an aggrandized view of the tensions waxing between RedwoodClan and LichenClan, and her games often involved fictitious battles between the two Clans. A believer that RedwoodClan needed to take a direct approach to the war, Crakeclaw didn't discourage these.

Adolescence: 

The tortoiseshell took like a fish to water when it finally came time to train. Leaving the nursery wasn't difficult for her. Where the apprentice began to experience difficulties was in her impulsiveness. Assigned to a young warrior called Rockfeather, at first her mentor found her a rewarding but taxing apprentice.

As their first student, both mollies got along well. Occasionally too well, prone in the beginning to distracting each other during sessions. Soon however they fell into a rhythm that mostly suited them both. Scorchpaw's appetites for fighting seemed to eclipse her aptitude for it however. Her small, lean body was built more for stalking and climbing, and Rockfeather was a talented hunter who tried to redirect her apprentice's attentions into this important task but could never entirely succeed.

Scorchpaw would often spar with Crakeclaw as a result, which caused her mentor consternation. She felt as though she perhaps wasn't properly providing her apprentice the training she needed, or wanted. Occasionally this would drive a wedge between apprentice and mentor, as Crakeclaw's more brutish teachings often lacked the subtlety Rockfeather would've preferred to provide, and her attempts to correct Scorchpaw would sometimes fall on deaf ears.  
 
A chance meeting with a LichenClan apprentice around her own age on their border ended poorly, when Scorchpaw insulted them and was goaded in turn. Rockfeather arrived in time to keep Scorchpaw from attacking. The incident and the subsequent time she was allocated to elder and tick duties for losing her temper nurtured in the tortoiseshell a lingering resentment, only fanned by the increasing hostilities between the two Clans. It wasn't the last time she met this cat either, whose name she learned was Azaleapaw, cementing a rivalry between them.

When RedwoodClan attempted to raid LichenClan, Scorchpaw remained at camp despite her desire to join. The apprentice was too young to be allowed in such a venture. Her grandfather fought, but received a wound that saw him moving into the elder den early. With silver shot through his fur, he was a cat no longer in his prime, but Crakeclaw still took this with difficulty. His desire to engage in the war was shifted to Scorchpaw's small shoulders, the tom often taking his granddaughter aside to engage in discussions of combat.

Scorchpaw attempted to redirect her anger into her training, and tensions rose between her and Rockfeather. Fed by Crakeclaw's talks, Scorchpaw's single-minded intensity became difficult for her to handle, and having suffered her own grief due to the death of her brother in the battle, arguments and squabbles would lead to them not speaking to each other. When LichenClan and their rogues attacked RedwoodClan in the dead of night, Rockfeather herself was injured. Scorchpaw fought fiercely, attacking two rogues, but her recklessness saw her eventually pinned by both. Before she could struggle free, her mentor came to her aid, but took a bad leg wound as a result. 

When Rockfeather took over her training again, the molly had a limp that curtailed her ability to teach her apprentice. It instilled a deep sense of failure in the older she-cat she couldn't hide from her apprentice. At first, ashamed she had caused her mentor's injury, Scorchpaw refused to be trained by anyone else, determined to make it work. Despite her best intentions though, arguments between them became more common again. Eventually, their relationship grew so strained that a different warrior by the name of Swanshine stepped in to complete Scorchpaw's training, right as she was on the cusp of becoming a warrior.

She found in them a cat starkly unlike her previous mentor, or even the coarse, militant Crakeclaw. A firmer and more controlling paw, they set back Scorchpaw's advancement to warrior by two moons. Finding her hunting skills lacking, they refused to pander to her desire to be made a warrior until she could display competency in other areas of her training. Scorchpaw thought this was foolish: her Clan needed fighters now more than ever, and she was more than capable.

It made their relationship antagonistic from the beginning, but they were a cat she was unable to influence or anger. They treated her the way one might a kitten having a tantrum, and it was demeaning. Almost antithetical in their mindsets, Scorchpaw believed at first they simply meant to spite her.

However, she didn't want to remain an apprentice forever, and Swanshine wouldn't budge. While she adopted the attitude that she would do as they said simply to prove them wrong, she found herself improving. Finally, she was allowed to leave her apprentice duties behind and become a warrior.


Adulthood:

Though she had worked hard to get there, Scorchbranch's first moons in the warrior den were rocky. For a period of time the young she-cat isolated herself. She had become a warrior just as she wanted, but found in it that fulfilling her desire wasn't exactly what she thought it was, having been uncomfortably humbled by being named late. For a time she kept her head down, and simply focused on the war and her duties. 

She and Rockfeather were still unable to interact. She felt somewhat shamed by how she had behaved toward her mentor, but her attempts to reinvigorate their old friendship never worked. To her surprise though, Swanshine didn't drop her like a hot stone once she was finally a warrior. Instead they continued to build on the young she-cat's skills. She realized that being an adult was a ladder, and that there was still much she could continue to learn. Rather than feel dissuaded, it helped to rekindle some of her passion. 

When RedwoodClan coordinated with ThistleClan to end the war, Scorchbranch was eager to join the battle. She found herself face to face with her old rival, but this time they fought for the same side, as LichenClan rebelled against itself. Glad to see the back of them still as the tide shifted, she instead locked claws with a rogue. She managed to overthrow her opponent, and even take down another.

After the battle, she nursed her wounds and reclaimed some of her normal exuberance. At last she managed to bridge the gap between herself and Rockfeather, bringing about a tentative friendship with the warrior, who had become reclusive. It wasn't the same as it had been when she'd been first apprenticed to the she-cat, but it was a marked improvement to how things had become, and Scorchbranch felt hopeful it would only improve. With LichenClan under new leadership, and no conflict on the horizon, she was able to enjoy calm for the first time her life.

And yet, as it became a daily rhythm of the same duties, she found she had begun to grow bored.

After all, she had been brought up on the idea that it was her duty to fight for her Clan. LichenClan was no longer their enemy, but she continued to distrust those in their number that hadn't welcomed peace. Rockfeather's suffering, and Crakeclaw's militancy, paralleled the more temperate beliefs of Swanshine, though she had come to listen to his wisdom more often.

When flood waters brought chaos to the island, a partnership brought the two Clans into closer contact again. It became clear Scorchbranch still harbored the same fighting spirit toward the Clan. She did not hate the rebels that had fought hard to win their Clan back, but she would be ready if old conflict reasserted itself.