Elkdrift

Character art by Sci

## Appearance

Elkdrift is a brown oriental shorthair tabby she-cat with dark green eyes. Her right ear is torn and she has numerous scars.

## Personality

Elkdrift is tough, sweet, caring, and deceitful.

## History

Elkdrift was a tough lady, small and sort of sweet despite being a little intimidating. But that was only a front. She was secretly very involved with the gang The Glaring Eyes, tempted as a young apprentice into their mysterious allure when they took over ReedClan.

When she was young, she was naive and kindhearted, which the gangs used to their advantage. She was wandering the territory when she found a few of the gang members also in their territory. She tried to stand up to them as she had been told, but instead of fighting, the two gang cats decided to try and get her to join their side. They quickly used their cunningness to find Elkpaw’s weak spots, and soon enough she trusted them. She quickly became good friends with them, becoming unloyal to DustClan. She would do small things like visit them during hunting patrols instead of getting prey for the Clan or sneak out when she was supposed to do chores. Eventually, she stopped believing in StarClan, which angered them greatly.

When she became a warrior, she started getting riskier jobs like listening in on the leaders plans or stealing herbs from the medicine den for the gang. Elkdrift thought she was doing the right thing, because she thought the Clan’s ways weren’t logical, like the gang cats told her. She came to hate her Clanmates, and vowed to never take their side on anything, but put on an act so she wouldn’t be found out.

However, that all changed when she met a tom-cat. His name was Pythonscale. He was young, peppy, and optimistic, and reminded Elkdrift of herself before the gangs. So she became very involved with Pythonscale’s life, and he quickly fell for her facade. She felt sort of guilty about it, and consulted her gang friends. They told her not to worry, and that the manipulation was a good thing, so she decided not to show Pythonscale her true self. They quickly fell in love, with Pythonscale’s being real and Elkdrift telling herself she wasn’t actually in love. She still involved herself with the gang, but made sure to spend time with Pythonscale. They talked about many things, both shallow and deep. In talking with Pythonscale, Elkdrift noticed that her old morals were returning. She would ask him questions about the Clan’s morals and whether or not StarClan was actually good. She found that not only did he share her old, naive beliefs, but also had evidence and reasoning behind them, and the part of her that was buried behind gang beliefs had been “revived”. She started to reflect on what she had done, and felt slightly guilty. She realized that her loyalty had been broken in two ways: one way going to DustClan, and the other going to The Glaring Eyes. With this revelation, she decided to accept Pythonscale’s love and became mates. But, she still didn’t tell him about what she was doing with the gangs.

Soon after they officially became mated, she found out she was pregnant. She went to her gang friends and told them this, and they said that it shouldn’t be an excuse to get out of “duties”. They then started to try and give her more violent jobs, like attacking other clan cats, including her own. She was appalled by this, but she didn’t want to tell them, so she instead made up fake cats that she said she attacked, but actually didn’t. All during this time, she became bigger with kits; to her, it felt like guilt was piling on her shoulders the more she lied.

One day in winter, the gang became suspicious of whether or not she was telling them the truth. They interrogated her for hours until she left in anger for trying to keep her there, and they knew that she wasn’t faithful to them anymore. They followed her, and found her out on a walk with Pythonscale. She suddenly started having contractions; she was having the kits early. Pythonscale panicked, and tried to pick her up to bring her back to camp, but the gang cats appeared and stopped him. They told him all about what Elkdrift did, all of her deeds to the gang. They left them both behind, saying that they didn’t need Elkdrift anymore anyway. He became frozen with shock and couldn’t help Elkdrift, too caught up in what she had done. Elkdrift slowly birthed all the kits, but was slowly dying because of blood loss. When she was done, Pythonscale approached and simply asked, “Is it all true?” She only responded with, “I regret everything. Please, don’t let these kits make the same mistake I did.” Then, she died. When Pythonscale observed the kits, he found that only one had lived; the other three died because they were too weak to withstand the cold air. Pythonscale then picked up the bodies and the remaining kit and brought them back to DustClan. He simply left the bodies in front of the medicine den, the kit in the nursery, and ran away, too overcome with the shock and sadness of the betrayal to stick around. He never returned to tell them what happened to her and what she did.

Elkdrift was sent to the Dark Forest because she never made up for her deeds against the Clans. She stayed there, regretting all that she did in her life, but believing that she deserved what she got.

She communicates with her son Cobraglare (sometimes others) through the Dark Forest, and monitored his training with Wildwinds. She warned him when Wildwinds became reincarnated.

At first, Cobraglare was shocked to learn of his mother's involvement with the Gangs. Over time, however, they grew closer.