Personality |
History |
Rabbitfoot is a fair, caring and loyal leader, however he can be timid, especially in situations requiring confrontation, and hates failing other cats’ expectations. His tendency to avoid confrontation and speaking up about issues can often lead those in his care to use him for as much as they can as he’s too afraid to speak up. In the very early days of the clan, it was pure chaos. No one listened to a word he said and he didn’t have the courage to speak up. In more recent days, however, he has been learning how to curb this behaviour and stand up for himself, mostly thanks to Scatteredfur. His hatred of failing expectations, however, has made set lower and lower standards for how he presents himself. He’d much rather smash someone’s expectations to pieces than disappoint them.
He is extremely willing to compromise with those he’s trying to help, but only on the method. If what the other party proposes changes the outcome of the work completely, he shuts that idea down hard. Many cats consider him a tough negotiator but in reality he just wants what’s best for the clan and cares deeply for the individual cats. He cares so much, he considers them his adopted children and occasionally treats them like kits without realising. When they break a law of the clan, they are often met with the disappointed scolding of Rabbitfoot, a scolding similar to how he’d scold a kit. Surprisingly, this is rather effective. Rabbitfoot is extremely loyal to his friends, family, clan, ancestors, and beliefs. Almost everything in his life is important to him and he hates every cat or creature who harms them in anyway, sometimes including himself. This loyalty is what led to him leading ShatteredClan, he couldn’t bear to disappoint a clan’s ancestors, even if they weren’t his own, so much. |
Rabbitfoot was born in RiverClan to his mother Wrennose and his father Palewhisker. He was the only kit in his litter, though he had two older siblings, two new warriors by the names of Harebounce and Fishstick, he was close enough to call littermates. His upbringing was a rather normal one in the eyes of a clan cat, he became an apprentice, and then warrior, with no issues; made friends among his clan and within other clans; and learned things everyday. His life was not boring as he went from Rabbitkit, to Rabbitpaw, to Rabbitfoot. And yet he began to feel uneasy.
Something about his life in his clan started to feel wrong to him. A tiny thorn tangled deep within his pelt that he couldn’t quite reach. He didn’t quite know what was wrong about his perfect clan life that could cause such feelings. Perhaps it was that his life was too perfect, or maybe he wasn’t cut out to live his full life in the clan. He wrestled with these feelings of uneasiness for moons and moons as they slowly grew into something he could no longer ignore. One night, shortly after moonhigh as he lay awake staring up at the stars, he decided to leave his clan. Rabbitfoot was not and is not a cat to take such a decision lightly, a pit of dread formed within his stomach. He was not looking forward to telling his siblings, his parents or his leader of his decision but he knew it had to be done, and soon. It had to be done before he changed his mind again just for the sake of not dealing with the heartbreak of it. The morning after his decision was made, he gathered his family together a decent distance from camp but close enough that his older parents could make it. With them in front of him, he told them his thoughts and his plans. “I’m sorry,” he said. “I just don’t think I’m truly in the right place, here in RiverClan.” There were tears, of course. His parents thought they had failed and his elder sister, Harebounce, just stared at him in silence. His brother Fishstick met his gaze with pure shock.. After a long conversation with his family, the five of them headed back towards camp, all agreeing that leaving was perhaps the best thing for Rabbitfoot. Rabbitfoot held a similar conversation with his clan leader as soon as they got back, with the support of his family. At sundown, a clan meeting was held to announce his departure. It was met with a huge amount of shock, but most of the clan wished him well in his journeys. And so, that was that. He had left the clan. He hadn’t even planned what he’d do after he left, so he just picked a direction and started walking. As he wandered the territories outside of the clans, he kept a twolegplace to his right hand side for most of his journey. It was a rather peaceful journey, food wasn’t too scarce and good shelter wasn’t too hard to find. He finally felt like he was free, he finally felt like he belonged. Of course he missed his family, who wouldn’t? But as he walked further and further from his old clan, he missed them less and less. It was a calm, quiet life. Or, it was until the storm came. He woke up one night to the lashing of rain, the howling of wind and the terrified screams of other animals nearby. In a heartbeat, he was outside and beaten by the almost horizontal rain. His fur was soaked and it was hard to see anything more than a few foxlengths in front of him. What he could tell, however, was the direction the storm was moving. It was moving towards his old clan. It was moving towards his family. Without even thinking for his safety, he ran towards where he thought his clan was. He pushed his limbs as far as he could, stretching his legs as wide as he was physically capable with every step. He was barely paying attention to his surroundings. The next thing he remembered was waking up in a spacious, dry room filled with unfamiliar scents. He tried to leap to his feet but found his body too weak to move. A strange voice spoke from behind him, “Hey, shush, don’t move. You need to save your energy.” Rabbitfoot was surprised to say the least, he didn’t quite realise there was another cat here. Perhaps they were right, he was awfully tired. He closed his eyes again, drifting back off to sleep. The next time he woke up, he felt like he had much more energy. He lifted his head for a look around and saw a calico she-cat sitting a short distance away. Hauling himself to his paws, he wandered over to her, curious as to where he was. “Hello..?” he asked, scaring her slightly. “Oh, yes! Hello there!” she answered, a slightly confused smile on her face. He struggled to find the words to respond properly, the correct phrases lost into the depths of his brain. “Ah, you must be wondering where you are and who I am, right?” the she-cat asked, Rabbitfoot nodded mutely in response. “Well, I’m Scatteredfur and this place,” she said, motioning to the den around them. It looked suspiciously like a twoleg nest. “Is my home. It’s an old twoleg nest,” so he was right, “but it’s where WoodClan lived for the majority of its lifespan.” Rabbitfoot just stared at her with a confused expression. Scatteredfur explained a lot of things over the coming days, mostly about what this place was. Rabbitfoot came to learn a lot about the old clan who claimed this territory, WoodClan, and about how he ended up here. Half a moon passed before anything changed but on a night where the crescent moon was just beginning to fade, Rabbitfoot was visited by the ancestors of WoodClan. They asked -- no, begged, for him to rebuild their old clan, they didn't want to lose what they had worked so hard for. Rabbitfoot eventually agreed to rebuilding the clan but refused to take the name and lives they offered as: “What sort of leader would I be if I couldn’t lead without the status symbols?”. He told Scatteredfur of his plan and asked her to be his deputy. She agreed. The next day he spread the news to as many cats as he could, the news that there would be a meeting at sundown for anyone who cared to come. It was at that meeting he announced that he would reform the clan. It was not well received. He told the cats his reasoning and that he would happily step down as leader once the clan could support itself, but he could not disappoint their ancestors, or any ancestors, even if they weren’t his own. |