Wanemouth

As a child, Wanemouth was eager to prove that he could be a strong cat on his own. Coming from a large litter, he was eager to stand out, perhaps too eager, as soon after he was apprenticed he chased a bird right over the edge of a ditch and fell into a thornbush, getting tangled and scratching his left eye. After being fished out by his mentor, he was embarrassed at his perceived failure and acted like the injury was nothing and tried to just walk it off, leading to the eye eventually becoming infected and spending weeks in the medicine den. Eventually, he lost the eye altogether. This incident only furthered his desire to be something truly outstanding, and in fact he adapted and thrived with only one eye. He became a promising warrior and not too soon after receiving his warrior name, he was given an apprentice, Egretpaw.

It was moons later when tragedy struck. Egretpaw didn't always have the drive that his mentor had, but he and Wanemouth had bonded and the latter had taught the former well. Word around camp was that Egretpaw was just about ready for his warrior ceremony. Before that though, harsh rains hit the territory. For days the woods were soaked and hunting was difficult. Wane and Egret, both eager to prove themselves, led a hunting party as soon as the rain cleared up. What happened next could not have been predicted, nor prevented in the moment. While Egretpaw scented something out in a clearing, underground the days of rain had flooded a small opening and created a mud-filled sinkhole waiting for something to open it, and Egret's pounce was just that. Wanemouth and the rest of the hunting party could only watch in horror as within seconds his apprentice vanished into the slurry of earth. It was a freak accident, everyone knew this, but it was the kind of thing that just made you look for someone to blame. Of course, as any mentor would after losing an apprentice, Wane blamed himself for many moons. His clan comforted him, there was no way he could have known about the sinkhole, it was just one of those terrible things you think will never happen to you, until it does. Still, in his grief and shame, Wane refused to take an apprentice the next time he was offered by his leader moons later, which was seen as a respectable and noble decision. However over the years, attitudes changed. Wanemouth's desire to Be Someone never left, but he had gone so long as just a plain old warrior in the background, not taking an apprentice, that the clan only saw him as such and he knew it. Taking an apprentice now would no doubt start whispers, did he forget what happened to Egretpaw? Does he not care?, whether entirely in his head or not. Thus he grew estranged from his remaining siblings, and never socialized with younger cats much. In the present, where nearly no one remembers that fateful tragedy, Wanemouth is reaching a breaking point. He knows he's not getting any younger and running out of time to make a name for himself, and with Starclan growing distant a cruel thought has formed in his head, that all those years ago they opened that hole to steal away his future, that he wasn't worthy. But just when he was despairing that he would fade in obscurity, the Cicada appeared and his life changed.