Mountaintail

- Personality - 

+Protective: Whether a kit, an elder, or a fully grown warrior, Mountaintail will defend her allies until her last breath. She does so with a viciousness that many would akin to something more feral. Quite the contrast to her usual friendly disposition.
+Competitive: The bulky mollie loves a good bit of competition. She's not a sore loser, as she sees it as a way to get better. Thus, she always tries to encourage the younger cats in the clan to have a bit of good natured rivalry. She truly believes life without contest would make it boring and lack luster.
+Breezy: Despite her rather intense moments, Mountaintail, for the most part, is rather easy-going. Preferring to be casual with her clanmates and any younger cats she meets.
=Parental: Naturally nurturing, Mountaintail finds herself wanting to help guide any cat younger than herself. It could only be by a few moons, and she'd still find the urge to offer advice and constant check-ins.
=Loyal: Normally seen as something positive, this mollie's loyalty is almost to a fault. Because while it fuels her desire to protect and guide her clan, it has made her rather vindictive and angry to those who choose to walk away or betray them.
=Principled: Mountaintail has a set of morals she sticks by. Standing up for the weak and against injustice is just the basic premise of this. She won't stand for a bully either and will call out bad behavior (even of apprentices or kits before talking to their parents/mentor).
-Skeptical: Being left by someone she trusted so much, it has made Mountaintail be wary of intentions. Not that she fully mistrusts everyone, but she will always keep one paw unsheathed, so to speak.
-Vindictive: She. Holds. Grudges. Wrong her, her clan, or her loved ones and she will never forget it. So, best tread lightly around this cat.
-Easy to Anger: While she's learned some techniques to help since her apprentice days, this mollie remains easy to rile up. Not that she looks for a fight, but she's still emotinally damaged from her parent abandoning her and her sister. 

- Physical Description - 
A stout brown mollie with thick muscles on a set of shorter legs and barrel chest. She notably has a rounded bobbed-tail and still very large paws. Her eyes are a coppery red, and has sweeping bangs over her muzzle. She's slightly smaller than the average cat, considered a runt from her birth, she just never caught up in height but definitely did in size. Though, she doesn't quite look like her mother, Silvertide, so it is believed that most of her coloration and looks come from her unknown father, as indeed, even her sister, Lilygaze, has a red coloring despite their mother's silvery grey colors.

- Scent -
Despite her clan's surrounding environment, Mountaintail has a personal scent of slate and sea salt.

- History -
Kithood: Born alongside a much thinner and lankier sister, Lilykit, she and Mountainkit were born to a single parent and warrior of Shallowclan: Silvertide. The monarch (gn queen term) refused to reveal the name of who sired the kits. To this day there is speculation on who that is. Lily and Mountainkit grew up as best friends. Playing with one another, tussling and exploring the camp, all under their mother's watchful but almost mournful gaze. The kits did notice this sadder look to their parent, but since they always pushed them off the two did little things to try and cheer them up. Bringing them feathers, flowers, trying to get them to play with them. It seemed to work, but Lilykit noticed how sometimes, it made the sad looks worse.

Apprenticeship: Mountainkit, now Mountainpaw, had been apprenticed to a warrior close to retirement, an old tom named Owlrush. He seemed cranky, gruff, strict. But he was just what Mountainpaw needed. The old tom helped her reign in her scattered mind, taught her focus and helped her build up her strength. But then a disaster struck her life. One she felt blind-sided by.
One day Silvertide just... vanished. No words goodbye, no sign of which way she went. Mountain and Lilypaw were only 10 moons at the time, so close to being warriors... Was it because of Robinwhisker? All because he took a mate in that nice Lakeclan warrior Rabbitbone? What was so wrong with that? However, Lilypaw hadn't seem surprised, so easily seeming to move on. That, more than anything, made Mountainpaw angry with her sister. A festering anger that Owlrush noticed, but was too late to reign in as one day he took her, joined by Lilypaw and her mentor, for some combat training. And it became personal rather fast. Usual banter from Lilypaw, nothing notably antagonizing, soon had the smaller apprentice bristled and snarling.
"How can you be so okay with them leaving?!" She would finally spit out as she jumped on Lilypaw. The taller, more lanky apprentice caught off-guard, but her own hackles rising.
"How can you be so blind to have not seen this coming?! They were ALWAYS going to leave us!" Lilypaw snarled back, the two quickly becoming a blur of fur as emotions came to the surface. But the two were quickly seperated by their mentors, but not before the damage had been done. Lilypaw had a nasty set of claw marks down her face where Mountainpaw had been latched and dragged off. Her eye- Oh stars her eye-
Both had their warrior ceremonies delayed. Mountainpaw for using claws on a clanmate, Lilypaw for recovery and having to adapt to now missing an eye. But, unlike how most expected, the bad blood between the sisters was quick to die. Many finding Mountainpaw in her free moments curled over her sister's body, apologizing into her fur while Lilypaw softly consoled her, saying it wasn't her fault. Though it was clear, the sisters had forged a deeper bond, the tie to it was their mutual hatred and grudge against their parent who had abandoned them.
Mountainpaw's anger didn't fully leave though. It because clear her emotions were a little all over the place as she realized Lilypaw had been right. Silvertide was always going to leave them. Between that and her guilt towards injuring her sister, she had a lot of work to do.
So much in fact, that Owlrush had gone to Sagestar and asked to indefinitely postpone Mountaintail's warrior ceremony until he was sure that she would be able to handle herself without a mentor present. Sagestar agreed, since it was obvious how far her anger would take her already. 

Mountainpaw watched with a tired smile as at 14 moons, Lilypaw was up with Sagestar, receiving her warrior name: Lilygaze. It... felt like a slap to Mountainpaw. Her sister was missing an eye, and the old man kept going on about how she always had the sharpest eyes, seeing through the thickest fogs. It made her want to throw up, but she swallowed the bile down as Owlrush shot Sagestar a look of thinly veiled disapproval towards the leader at the choice... though his eyes more narrowly landed on Lilygaze's mentor, Leechthorn. Perhaps it was the tripod's way to showcase her apprentice could be more than her disability... still. His fluffy tail came to lay over Mountainpaw's shorter, stubbier one.
"Don't let them get to you, kid. You know she forgives you." He softly reminded her, both putting on a warm smile as Lilygaze soon joined them for celebration. Exchanging nuzzles and soft words before she went to take her vigil. 

16 moons. Stars she felt so embarrassed, so ashamed. 16 moons old and she was finally deemed capable by Owlrush to be a warrior. She couldn't even feel excited, or relief, just shame coating her pelt. At least Owlrush had been kind enough to explain the reason he suggested the suffix -tail, that it wasn't a jab at her bobbed tail. No...
"A tail is more important that cats give it credit for. It helps us balance when we pounce, run- It's always there to lay on another, to show we're here, even when words fail us. Just like you'll always be here for the clan and us."
She held her head up with what seemed like pride. Apparently Starclan saw Commitment and Strength in the stout mollie. At least Lilygaze was there as she walked off the highrock. Greeting her with sisterly pride, Owlrush limping over to give his almost fatherly pride towards his graduated apprentice. 

Warriorhood: Things started to go more smoothly. Reunited with Lilygaze, the two unsurprisingly had nests right next to each other. Then the disease spread. Shallowclan suffered a terribly outbreak of Greencough... Owlrush, having retired shortly after Mountaintail received her name, came down with the illness, though he barely hung on. Something that scared the she-cat as she had viewed the old tom as a father, seeing as her and her sister's was never present in their lives. 

And then that fucking cult came out of Lakeclan. Mountaintail felt disgusted by the cats who flocked to it, it felt similar to how Silvertide had left. It made her angry, but she reigned it in. Focusing on her clan, training with other warriors like Daisypath, and making competitions for apprentices and warriors to participate in. Anything from races, battle tournaments, prey collecting. Things that would encourage good-sported rivalry as well as still training up skills. 

And then the war, thanks to that cult no doubt. Mountaintail had volunteered to join the fight. She had no mercy for those protecting a murderer, they were all as good as traitors in her eyes. To this day, she still holds a grudge against Lakeclan and Streamclan, but the younger cats of those clans are safe from her ire since they had no part in it. The thought of spies put her even more on edge, but until there was proof, she'd never turn claw against clanmate. 

When Houndkick left for Streamclan, it felt like a blow. But at least he had told everyone, she guessed. Abandoning the clan still felt like a kick in the teeth, and it takes many moons for her to feel neutral again about Houndkick. 

And now there was an alliance with Stoneclan, well, at least she could look forward two the Hunting Harvest and a time of peace. She would help collect pray and clean the bones with her sister for the Bobbing Bones Rabbitbone and Robinwhisker set up. Cheering on the younger cats and encouraging them to try to do better. She thought nothing of the ghosts the next mood had brought. She hadn't seen any, and the ring of mushrooms seemed like nothing but an elder's tale to scare apprentices and kits... but man, that Grimpaw looked spooked. 

Traps, those damn traps. She had ended up caught in one. Thankfully, Lilygaze had found her before any serious damage had been done, she wouldn't even have scars, but it only fuelled her anger. She was one of the first to accuse the League of having spies. If the traps were so much like theirs, and they were so confident that they weren't behind it, then certainly someone must have taught the Haven cats or, worse, there were spies in the League setting all of this up. Sagestar's ties to the League be damned. He was blinded by his own pride. 

The trials were the last straw for Mountaintail. She was vocal about them, defending every cat accused if she was present for the trial. This was wrong, this was turning the clan against each other. What upset her most was having those bloodthristy Stoneclan cats come in to act as executioners.
"If you're so insistent we put our own to death, then let your claws send them to Starclan! We don't need these stone-hearts bleeding our kin! Be what you're calling for, kinslayer!"
The entire clan was in unrest because of him. One mistake after another just ended in more and more heartbreak for their clan, because of his paranoia and pride. When the words on the wind taked about coup, Mountaintail was quick to answer the call.
"I'll drag him to the starpool myself if he refuses to step down. Show Starclan that he's no longer of Shallowclan, and if he refuses to give up his lives... I may just bleed them from him."

She was tired, her dear apprentice, Loudpaw, the poor kid. Having been separated from her, she could only imagine how they all felt in the League. And yet... he didn't return. It broke her heart, part of her wanted to be angry at her now ex-apprentice, but she just wanted him to be safe. She understood, didn't blame him. No, that anger was saved for Sagestar. 

Well, Sagecrest, apparently. Thankfully, the old bastard stepped down. While she would have rather had Sweetbreeze step up, Olivestrew... well, she wasn't fully convinced he didn't have his own agenda, but at least he started things off right... a new start for Shallowclan. Though her anger from the previous legacy would still burn bright.