Timber That Falls From Mountain

Timber That Falls From Mountain "Timber" is a ruddy, ticked reddish-brown she-cat with a lighter underbelly and chest, and bright, sharp green eyes.

## Personality

She is hardheaded, strong-willed, passionate, and impulsive. When she sets a goal for herself, she will stop at nothing to achieve it; she will work herself to exhaustion or even collapse if it means doing what she set out to do, and she doesn't much care what rules she has to break or what orders she has to disobey in order to do what she thinks is right. When she feels things, she feels them strongly, tending to have very potent emotions, to the point of her feelings often overwhelming her logic and leading her to make snap decisions, not all of which are good ones. She relies far more on her instincts than she does on careful planning or logical thinking - in fact, she almost never has a plan before she jumps right into something, typically being very reckless and throwing herself headlong into a situation, whether that means leaping into battle at the flick of a tail, or jumping in to muck about in a social situation or conversation. She is typically very opinionated, her strong-willed behavior leading her to be more than willing to get into shouting matches with other cats to defend her stance, sometimes verbally lashing out against others who she believes are being stupid or unjust. She has a very strong sense of justice, though she sometimes sees things in black and white, rather than seeing the shades of gray in between; she hates bullies with a passion, and will stand up for anyone who is mistreated or excluded in a heartbeat, even if she doesn't know them, but will sometimes consider aggressors simply as "evil" or at least cougar-hearted, rather than trying to see their perspective or understand the reasoning behind their actions. Her opinionated and stubborn behaviors fuel a bit of a temper within her, and she can exhibit very aggressive or even violent behavior towards those that rub her the wrong way, particularly the bullies, liars, and traitors that she takes special issue with. Her stubbornness and passionate attitude also drive her to challenge or question authority relatively often, and she can be slightly scornful towards those who mindlessly follow orders and are content not knowing things, as Timber herself is actually quite curious. She is fascinated with the idea of what lies beyond the Tribe of Stone Mothers' territory, whether in the surrounding mountains and valleys, or in the unknown. While she does tend to question authority, she greatly admires older and more experienced members of the Tribe, especially other cave-guards, and longs to learn more and more from them, a hunger for knowledge and validation driving her to learn things beyond the training she received as a to-be. Despite all of her disagreeable and temperamental tendencies, she is a deeply loyal and caring cat, wishing for nothing more than to protect her Tribe-mates and loved ones, willing to fight, die, and even kill for them if necessary, usually without a single thought for her own wellbeing. However, while she is very protective of those she cares for, and compassionate when trying to encourage or comfort a loved one, she has little in the way of empathy and is prone to taking things at face value, evaluating situations or ideas solely by her own arbitrary perspective and rarely ever thinking deeper about them unless someone else points things out for her. Though her usual behaviors and general attitude tend to give the impression of bravado, Timber does hide plenty of insecurities, often the first to blame herself if something goes wrong. She views herself as weak in some regards, and does fear rejection and failure. Though she has strong convictions in her own actions, she doesn't exactly trust herself to be left solely responsible for others, as she fears that her temper and recklessness will end up getting them hurt.

## History

Timber was, as all Tribe cats are, raised without a father, reared by her mother, Leaf, and the rest of the kit-mothers, and grew very close with her mother at a young age; while she was hotheaded even as a kit, and argued with her mother from time to time, she would do anything to make her happy, and was constantly going out of her way to make her smile, even if she wasn't the easiest kit to raise and sometimes made things difficult on her unintentionally. The family only grew when Leaf took in a Little Blossom who the Tribe named Rose That Grows From Stone (Rose), who became Timber's adoptive sister. Leaf begged Timber and the Ancestors for her daughter to become a prey-hunter rather than a cave-guard as her to-be ceremony approached, not wishing for her to get hurt or killed and lose her, after she had already lost other family in the past. Timber was, of course, stubborn, and determinedly stuck to her wish of becoming a cave-guard, refusing to listen to her mother's pleas and getting into numerous loud arguments with her that caused a bit of a rift between them, in addition to harboring a little fear and resentment towards the Ancestors at the prospect of being forced into something she didn't want. However, one day, a thunderous crash echoed from the tops of the mountains, signaling a landslide that prompted the Tribe to evacuate camp. Leaf picked up Timber to carry her as they fled, but ended up dropping her kit when a rock fell and crushed her hind legs. Timber crawled back to her, desperately trying to remove the rock even as more rubble rained down, but with her urgings, eventually left to stumble after the rest of the Tribe, eventually reaching safety while the cliffside - and Leaf – were buried under rock. Timber was wracked with guilt, blaming herself for not being strong enough to free her mother, and feeling horrible for leaving her to be crushed alive. She vowed to be the best cave-guard in the Tribe as a result, wishing to gain the strength to protect all of her loved ones from then on. Rose and Timber leaned on each other during this time, and added their life-long friend Ripple Of Raindrops On Water (Ripple) to their little ragtag family, seeing as Ripple's mother (a prey-hunter) was also killed in the landslide.