ARC IV (the current) - Dark Forest
Halcyon - Birdkit at that time - was born a healthy, playful kitten. Her mother Weaselstrike payed a lot of attention to her, as for her father, he had left his family even before Birdkit's birth.
Everything was going well, until in the age of 3 moons Birdkit fell off the Rock-pile while running away from another kitten. At first, it seemed like everything was okay - but then her mother noticed Birdkit acting unnaturally clumsy and spending most of her time at the nursery. Something was wrong with her. It turned out that after the fall Birdkit's eyesight has quickly deteriorated.
The question arosed as to whether Birdkit would be able to carry out warrior duties: after all, later she could go completely blind. Birdkit was struck: but the sad future didn't motivate her into doing something. Weaselstrike began to worry about her kit even more, often going to extremes: no playing with others, no wandering around the camp alone. Birdkit wasn't protesting, accepting everything her parent told.
She got her apprentice rank in 8 moons, despite mother's protests. Birdkit believed that everything would start to work out for her without any problems: until she met her mentor Rainsting, a strict and grumpy cat.
Birdkit counted on indulgence from Rainsting - the same as she received from everyone else before - and was sure that there's no need for extra diligence. Only after a total failure at the first training session, Birdpaw heared a serious reprimand for not trying to make an effort.
The old warrior forced her to work twice as much as the others. Any Weaselstrike's attempts to protect her daughter were immediately stopped. Although Birdpaw was angry with Rainsting, considering her attitude unfair, the trainings had their result.
Gaining approval from a mentor became a matter of principle: Birdpaw, finally slipping out under mother's wing, decided to train beyond measure for herself. Soon, despite the fact that she didn't always make progress, Birdpaw became almost obsessed with her training sessions. She also learned how to successfuly hunt relying only on her ears.
By the age of 14 moons she was ranked as a warrior and named Birdheart.
Birdheart was a decent warrior and the fact that she almost never joined fightings was offset by her hunting achievements. She became best friends with Froggyheart, who was her closest cat till the end of Birdheart's days (and even after).
Birdheart alco participated in the rebellion against the clan leader - Mirth - at the age of fourty seven moons, on the side of the rebels. As a result, Mirth was overthrown, but the tension among the cats of the ShadowClan remained even after. Those who did support Mirth's leadership openly showed their hostility towards the rebels, who reacted in kind. This led to a chain of further events, causing some of cats to be unfriendly to Birdheart.
At the age of 91 moons, Birdheart started going insane after Froggyheart's death in a fight. She tried to get over the grief and live on, but the stress caused by this event started to affect her health. Birdheart's eyesight had worsen, and the healer brought up the topic of her retirement. This angered her a lot; Birdheart felt like the clan she spent all of her life on to help is now trying to get rid of her. Even more stress and irritation caused the nightmares to occur. Haunted by terrible dreams, Birdheart couldn't relax even while awake, unable to stop overthinking about the future.
Birdheart's mind was poisoned. She acted weird and avoided her clanmates even more; while the adults treated Birdheart like a gravely ill who won't last long, some apprentices started mocking her. And not even her - but Froggyheart too, which was the last straw.
In a fit of rage Birdheart murdered an apprentice named Padpaw for mistreating her best friend, and then left ShadowClan. Being completely helpless outside the clan's territory, she died and got in the Dark Forest. After some time spent alone, a clear mind started returning to Birdheart - now Halcyon; she accepted the punishment and had kept on trying to find a way out to StarClan since then.
- Birdheart and Froggyheart have paired warrior names, as a sign of their friendship.
- Birdheart changed her name to Halcyon in Dark Forest; she felt guilty for breaking the code, and didn't consider herself as a real warrior anymore. She intends to keep this name as a sign of her wrongdoing until she enters StarClan. "Halcyon" is also a nickname given to her by Froggyheart in their younger years for a very specific hunting style.
