Elkstride | ThunderClan

ELKSTRIDE ✻ THUNDERCLAN

name

Elkstride

reasoning

Elk- for his brown coloration and abnormal size, -stride to emphasize his prefix, denoting a heavy, sure gait, steadfast and unmovable.

age

48 moons

gender

Tom

alliance

ThunderClan

rank

Warrior

physique

short description

Enormous brown tabby tom with pale green eyes and a heavy gait.

physical description

source

Elkstride is, above all things, quite possibly the largest cat in the forest, taking ThunderClan's reputation for producing stocky, muscular warriors to a new high. He truly lives up to his namesake, tall, broad, and heavyset, with a dark tabby pelt the color of rich earth and a slow but powerful gait; a direct hit from one of those huge paws would be enough to rattle the bones of any enemy warrior, and any cat who can't match him for strength had best hope they have speed on their side - one trait which Elkstride notably lacks.

His overall build is dense and burly, from solid shoulders to powerful hips, and his fur is relatively short, but very thick, along with his bulk protecting him from various extremes. He has a distinctly broad, lynx-like face, with a wide muzzle and heavy brows that give him an innately wild, forbidding look, even when he doesn't intend it. His eyes are a washed-out green, like mud and damp leaves, and his claws and teeth are as thick and generally large as the rest of him, rounding him out into a physically intimidating creature indeed.

personality

positives

• Steadfast; Elkstride was named, in part, for his uncompromising drive. There is very little that can make him give up when he is given a task, and he has the fortitude to stand strong in the face of overwhelming odds.
• Loyal; His love for his Clan is one of the driving forces in his life, and though he tends to be emotionally withdrawn, those he has come to call friends are more precious to him than anything else. The safety and happiness of those he cares about takes priority over even his own well-being.
• Patient; By his very nature Elkstride is both large and slow, prompting him to learn to take things a pawstep at a time, and not get frustrated when they don't go quite the way he hoped they would. Slow and steady is his modus operandi, and more often than not he succeeds because of it.
• Level-headed; Just as his size has taught him to take things slowly, it's also taught him not to be rash or hot-headed. A cat his size with a wild temper would run the risk of hurting others without meaning to, so he's generally calm and reasonable, looking at problems critically rather than jumping to conclusions.
• Quick-witted; Though his quiet nature and brutish appearance might shed some doubt on his intelligence, his mind is one place Elkstride is anything but slow. He's quick to learn and good at thinking laterally, coming up with creative solutions to difficult problems.

negatives

• Reserved; Just as he's slow to move, Elkstride is slow to speak, preferring to listen and observe until he has something truly important to say. When the situation calls for it, he won't hesitate to express himself, but he isn't one for idle small talk, and he tends to be rather stoic, keeping his emotions close to the chest.
• Slow to change; Elkstride can be set in his ways and reluctant to alter them, adapting only under urgent necessity. The way he sees it, if something works, he should have no reason to try anything else, and he can be bull-headed when told otherwise.
• Wary of outsiders; Elkstride is fiercely loyal to his clanmates, and values them above all others, but those outside ThunderClan he eyes with caution, wary of trust. Any cat outside the Code, or with loyalties to another Clan can't be depended on not to act for the benefit of their own, and rightly so. He doesn't hold that against them - he just won't open his heart to them blindly either.
• Impious; Similar to his feelings on those outside of the Clan, Elkstride has never been able to bring himself to be wholly devout to StarClan. He won't deny that they exist, but he's wary of following their guidance blindly; after all, they seek to benefit all four Clans, not just his own, and their vague prophecies give little hint as to who they're helping at any one time.
• Intimidating; He doesn't usually mean to be, but his large size and quiet demeanor tend to make Elkstride seem somewhat forbidding. He's fairly accustomed to kits skittering back to the nursery at the sight of him, and apprentices stumbling over their words trying to talk to him - he doesn't take it personally, but he can't really seem to help it either.

the past

the history
Elkstride was born some four leafbares ago, the first kit of three to Briarclaw and her mate Pikefoot, both well-respected warriors of ThunderClan. Along with Elk-kit - named for his size next to his two siblings - came Weaselkit and Fallowkit, both she-kits, and all of them sharing the thick, dark tabby coat of their parents. ThunderClan could only hope they would inherit their skill as well, for the seasons prior to their birth had been harsh on the growing clan, and they were in dire need of healthy young warriors to keep their ranks strong. The three would feel this expectation as they grew older, pushing them to be the best, but for now they were allowed to simply be kits, and as their parents watched the beginnings of their adult personalities began to form.

Weaselkit was the fiercest, headstrong and brash, always the leader of any kithood games, while Fallowkit was sweet and friendly, curious and eager. Elk-kit was the quietest, preferring to watch and listen rather than speak, and was always somewhat hesitant to play with his sisters - a trait he learned early, when he was reprimanded by his mother for being too rough, and warned to be gentle lest he hurt the smaller kits by mistake. He remembered that warning well, and from a young age was very mindful of his actions, deliberate and perhaps a little plodding, as Weaselkit often complained, but far more patient than a kit was usually expected to be, and that was a trait that would serve him well as he got older, when he and his sisters were finally made full apprentices of ThunderClan in the height of Greenleaf.

Elkpaw was apprenticed to Bearheart, a senior warrior who shared his prodigious size, and would be able to teach him how to use his bulk effectively, both on the hunt and in the midst of battle. Bearheart remembered well what it had been like to be an adolescent with paws far too big for his body and weight he didn't yet know what to do with, and he was patient with Elkpaw as they trained, unperturbed when his apprentice fumbled over his paws and scared off prey or overbalanced during a spar - unperturbed, but unrelenting. He was forgiving of mistakes, but adamant that they keep training until Elkpaw could get it right, and their sessions more than once ran long into the night, after the other apprentices had retired to their den. It was slow going, but slow was the way Elkpaw had always preferred things, and he learned steadily, coming into his own as he continued to grow.

Elkpaw's time of proving came when he was still quite young, only nine moons of age and scarcely beginning to realize his potential. He didn't go looking for the opportunity to show his mettle to his clan, but it came to him regardless when, in early Leaf-fall, a panic fell over the camp, Snowflower declaring that her two kits had gone missing. There was no sign that they had been taken - it seemed more likely that they had snuck out of camp in search of adventure - but patrols had been scenting fox within the territory for days, and two small kits would make easy pickings for a hungry vixen if they were found. Search parties were dispatched immediately to all sides of the territory, and Elkpaw came along with one of them, heading toward Snakerocks, where the adders would have vanished in the face of the cold, but a fox could easily be denning.

The party fanned out at Snakerocks to cover more ground, and Elkpaw headed to the east, hardly expecting to be the one to catch the harsh tang of foxscent on the breeze. The musk was strong, covering up most other odors, and Elkpaw proceeded cautiously, resolving to run back to the rendezvous point to warn the warriors in his party if he happened to come across the creature. What he actually found, however, took that option off the table quickly; little pawprints in a muddy gully, and a minute later, the distressed mewls of young kits. In a clearing further ahead Elkpaw found that Snowflower's kits had been backed down a mole's burrow, and at the mouth of that burrow was a large she-fox, snapping and clawing, trying to dig her way far enough to reach the kits.

Elkpaw had a choice; he could try to run back to call for help, as a cat of his age and level of training should do when confronted with the idea of fighting a fox alone, or he could stand and fight. If he tried the former, it was entirely likely the fox would reach the kits before he got back, and in the end that wasn't something the young apprentice could allow. So he fought, pummeling into the fox with all the force he could muster, and by the grace of StarClan somehow managed to keep the beast at bay until the sounds of battle and the scent of blood drew Bearheart and the other warriors to the scene. They found Elkpaw wounded and yowling doggedly, refusing to move from in front of the burrow, and when the already-injured fox saw reinforcements arriving, it fled, it's easy meal no longer so easy as it had hoped.

Elkpaw was given a hero's welcome when he returned to camp, supported on one side by Bearheart, Snowflower's two little ones all but glued to the other. On similar occasions such an act of bravery might have merited a warrior ceremony, but Elkpaw felt he was still too young to have learned everything he needed to, and after recovering from his injuries he returned to his training. He was an even twelve moons when he was given his warrior name, his kitten fat all but gone and looking as if he might soon outstrip even Bearheart in size. He was given the name Elkstride, for both his heavy physical gait and his unrelenting strength of spirit, and he stood proudly alongside Weaselfang and Fallowface as they stood their vigil, warriors of ThunderClan at last.

Life would be largely uneventful for Elkstride for the first year after his promotion. He took his first apprentice at thirteen moons, a footloose gray tabby named Aspenpaw that Hailstar felt could stand to learn a little temperance from the young warrior, and his patience proved once again to be a saving grace, as Aspenpaw seemed to go to any and every length to test it. He spent nearly every moment until his twentieth moonday keeping her out of trouble, but over that time a bond grew between them regardless, and when she passed her final assessment and was named Aspenstorm, he couldn't have been more proud. To this day the two of them remain close friends and confidantes, Aspenstorm one of the few easily able to draw a smile and a long conversation out of her stoic former-mentor.

Things grew more complicated after Elkstride saw his second leafbare come and go, when ThunderClan began to come into gradually more serious conflict with the exiled Moonfrost, mother of Blizzardshard and vicious malcontent intent on seeing her former clan suffer for harboring cats of Half-Clan blood. Her first attack was almost expected, nothing but a solitary assault in the woods that was rebuffed by her own son, but on her second attempt she came in force, her hatred enough to have rallied a band of rogues to her misguided cause. Elkstride was at the forefront of the defense, fighting tooth and nail to rally his comrades and drive back the invaders; these were rogues, outside the bounds of the warrior code, and Elkstride knew that made this assault more dangerous than any other, for while no enemy warrior in their right mind would kill during such a dispute, these cats were bound by no such laws - something that was made abundantly clear when they were at last chased back into the forest, and ThunderClan was left to tally its wounded. The bottom seemed to fall out of the world when Pearpelt approached him, weary and battered, to tell him that Weaselfang had been found in the wake of the fighting - that there was nothing that could have been done to save her.

The blow was a harsh one; Weaselfang, who had always been a passionate, energetic force in his life, on whom he had always depended to stand at his side with a ready grin and an ill-advised, but well-intentioned plan. Weaselfang who had been the most talented and driven out of all of them - she was gone, she had been taken, and their victory no longer felt like something that should be celebrated. He grieved with his mother and father in the days following, and particularly with Fallowface, who had shared just as close a bond with their sister as he had, and as ThunderClan licked its wounds something hardened in Elkstride, that last hint of idealistic youth, the part that believed battle was something glorious, finally replaced by seasoned adulthood, by the knowledge that battle was an unfortunate necessity, and not something to seek out or romanticize.

But the light always finds away to shine through, even in the midst of darkness, and only half a moon later Elkstride and his family were greeted with wonderful news; Fallowface was pregnant, finally ready to announce her relationship with her mate, Waspclaw. They were all in desperate need to something to celebrate, and the moons following were quite a sight to see, the wiry, acerbic Waspclaw and burly, quiet Elkstride seemingly competing to see who could dote on Fallowface more, while the queen herself looked on with amusement and fond exasperation, more than willing to let herself be pampered. Life was good for many moons; Fallowface gave birth to two healthy she-kits, Ivykit and Honeykit, and it was quite the surprise to the clan as a whole when their most stoic warrior was easily reduced by two squeaking kits to so much a tamed badger, often seen with his nieces hanging off his bushy tail or riding gleefully on his back. He came to love the two little ones with all of his carefully-hidden heart, and he couldn't remember a time he was any happier - until Moonfrost's shadow fell over ThunderClan one last time.

And it would be the last, of that Elkstride was sure; Moonfrost wasn't going to stop unless they made her, and though the Code called it dishonorable, he could firmly say that if Blizzardshard himself didn't take the chance to put her down, he would - she had taken Weaselfang from him, and he would allow no one else to die for her vendetta. He fought without mercy that night, and it would be safe to say that more than a few of Moonfrost's expanding band of rogues were made to regret that they had dismissed the rumors that came out of the last battle with ThunderClan, hissed battle stories told of facing down a tom built like a mountain, with both the face and ferocity of a wildcat. It was Shiningheart who took Moonfrost's life that night, but the deed was done, and with no one left to unite them the rogues scattered, leaderless, into the outlying territories. The victory didn't come without the expected losses, but it was finally done, finally over, and the clan as a whole breathed a sigh of relief when the dust settled, ready to move on with their lives.

And move on they did. When she came of age Elkstride took Ivypaw as his apprentice and he trained her well as ThunderClan underwent a change in leadership. She was Ivythorn by the time Blizzardshard became Blizzardstar, alongside her sister Honeystripe, and soon enough Briarclaw and Pikefoot began to tease and prod at him, asking when he would take his turn providing them grandkits. 'Not now', he would always say - 'not now', because he was young yet, and there would always be time later to worry about such things. That has begun to come into doubt, however, as ThunderClan watches the misfortune of the other Clans and wonders when their time will come, anticipating the worst.

about you

alias Galahad
timezone, state, and country Mountain Time, Texas, USA
other character N/A