Withered Hawthorn

Bitter and cold, like her title. She has little patience for what she terms the foolishness of younger cats and is more distrustful toward cats with outsider backgrounds than the average Court cat. She is formal and respectful with cats around her own age or older but must be prompted to even care to greet anyone else. The exception to this is Bear Claws, who she thinks of as her son and loves deeply in her own sad, distant way.

Formerly known as Prickly Hawthorn, there was no event that caused her heart to freeze - rather, a long, tired life has let the ice creep over her gradually. Her parents gave her pride in the Court’s way of life, and she took this very seriously. She was never very open with her feelings and made little effort to reach out and make friends with cats in her age group, but she did have one fast friend in Chasing Lightning, who easily brought a smile to Hawthorn’s usually dour face.  

It seemed like a given to most that the friendship would soon blossom into something more, but this rumour was quelled when Chasing Lightning and Rapid River became mates. When the two of them disappeared, Hawthorn shed no tears – not while anyone was around to see, at least – but she showed uncharacteristic warmth in taking the young Bear Claws under her wing in his grief. But her boy has been a warrior grown for many moons now, and she kept on plodding through her warrior duties, seemingly for lack of a vision of what a better life could be. 

The disbanding of the Court seemed like good news to her – a chance to start over, a new life. However, before she had travelled far with Golden Tiger’s group, reality set in – the arthritis had begun showing itself on her patrols had progressed to a point where she could not go long without resting, and she returned to camp, dejected, feeling trapped in the home she had once been proud of. It was at this point she asked that she be called Withered Hawthorn, and after a short time wallowing in self-pity in the warriors’ den, she retired to the elders’ den around the same time as Full Moon.