From a young age, Hawthorn revealed himself to be a hotheaded cat. He didn’t understand much of what he was told, and didn’t often listen either. He was raised by a single father, Briar, who had his work cut out for him. The two of them lived near a group that was often a victim of infighting. The leadership was rather unsteady and fights were constantly the consequence of escalated arguments over prey and scarce resources. Because of these frequent altercations with the residents, Briar and Hawthorn would usually go over to treat their wounds.

Hawthorn didn’t understand why they kept helping cats that clearly weren’t interested in helping themselves and weren’t kind, but his dad just insisted on always doing the right thing and taught his son to do the same. The cats of the group were often combative and resistant to their help, and Hawthorn had to learn to apply patience and kindness to them, even if they refused to extend the same courtesy. Because they would go over there often, Briar taught his son basic medicines. Hawthorn took to the education quickly and swiftly memorized the uses and descriptions of the herbs. He quite started to enjoy the practice, and stopping complaining and rebelling so much. Hawthorn even helped his father start growing a small garden near them where they cultivated some of their own basic herbs and flowers.

In his many visits to the small group, some of the cats would try to enforce the hierarchy with him. They would insist on being called their specific titles, or act above him for being a high rank and he was an outsider. Hawthorn never really cared, though; as he was born and lived outside the group, he had no perception or care for their invisible hierarchies. He would always just shake it off, and learned to have a disregard for ranks like theirs. He was helping them for free; they had no business trying to pretend they were better than he was.

adulthood

Eventually, the infighting took its toll and the small group of cats broke up and scattered in different directions. It was about time, honestly. Hawthorn didn’t know how they stuck together for so long. He and Briar had to decide where to go after that. There were small subsections of the group that went together that they could follow, but Hawthorn didn’t have his heart in it. He was done helping out these cats - while he enjoyed healing and helping others out, there was only so much of him he could expend serving cats who didn’t care about him nor appreciate his work.

Unlike his son, though, Briar wanted to follow one of the smaller groups that went together. He believed that he could really make a difference and wanted to continue healing for them. Hawthorn didn’t understand it, but supported his father’s decision. However, he couldn’t follow him this time. He decided to strike out on his own and find somewhere new. Hawthorn really wanted to help others, and wanted to heal others, just not like that.

In his travels, he neared a long coast line with more water than he’d ever seen in his life. He passed by a group of cats that called themselves the Beach Colony, but they seemed to already have a steady support system of cats in their midst. So he continued along the coast, where he ran into two wanderers named St. Helen and Buck; they were two friends who decided to settle down together and form a colony together. Hawthorn learned more about them and the group they were trying to make, and his interest was peaked when they mentioned a herbalist role that had yet to be filled. Hawthorn briefly explained his interest in basic medicines, and expressed interest in helping them out as they found their new colony together.

As the colony fell into the place, Hawthorn became quite comfortable with his new role and enjoyed the company of not just the founders, but the other wanderers who were enamored by the new group as well- cats named Goldfinch, Raven, and Josie. He felt more at peace than he had in moons when he settled with them, and didn’t regret his decision a bit.