Poppyblaze

Poppyblaze is a dark grey, almost black she-cat with a missing front leg, severe scarring over the left side of her face, back, and chest, a shredded left ear, and one deep, storm-grey eye.

## Personality

Poppyblaze doesn't talk much. Wait, actually, she really doesn't talk at all. She can of course, but what's the point? She doesn't like to, and no one listens, so why should she? She'll make noises of course, little grunts and whines, but almost never full words. She'll only fully speak to someone she loves and trusts very much. She'll want to know them like the back of her paw, she'll want to know that they'll listen and consider, and she'll want to know that they return the same level of trust and respect she holds for them. Even when she does talk, it's almost never more than a short two or three word answer, and she speaks quietly, so the cat she's speaking to may miss it if they don't know what to listen for. She relies heavily on another cat's understanding of her body language to communicate, as it's often subtle and easy to misinterpret. A flick of the ear here could mean three different things, while an eyeroll there could mean another, but a swish of the tail right then definitely means this. But even without her words, Poppyblaze is filled with attitude and sass. If she thinks someone is being dumb, they'll know. She gets irritated rather easily, and since she can't exactly interrupt whatever cat is being a dumbass, she tends to huff and puff and walk off to huff and puff at one of her siblings. Unless, of course, a sibling is the cause of the huffing and puffing. In which case, she'll walk away to huff and puff at the moss in the nest. She gets defensive easily, and isn't afraid to use her claws when she feels wronged or offended in any way. She is perfectly capable of handling herself, and so hates when a cat tries to defend her. She also finds it difficult to ask for help, since she prefers to struggle a bit and figure it out herself than ask for help and get treated like a kit.

## Long Posts

Poppypaw dropped into a battle crouch and leaped to the side once more, turning quickly on her paws to slash at the air before sitting heavily, panting. Her whiskers drooped with exhaustion, but a pleased smile rested on her muzzle. She flopped onto her side and looked up at the stars, her tail swishing lazily over the grass. Her gaze flicked over the little pinpricks of light, picking out a few particularly bright ones to focus on. She caught her breath, but she stayed in her spot and let the cool breeze ruffle through her fur. She pricked her ears to listen to the sounds of the meadows, humming happily at the birds chirping in the distance and the rustling of the breeze in the grass. She cocked her head curiously as a strange sound reached her ears, a sort of snuffling and snorting. A sour, pungent scent filtered into the air around her and she froze, her eyes widening and her heart beginning to pound. She rolled onto her stomach swiftly and pulled herself to her paws silently, flattening her ears to her head as she peeked over the long grasses.

A huge black-and-brown beast was sniffing around an old rabbit warren at the bottom of the hill, it's strange ears pricked and it's tail wagging back and forth rapidly through the air. Poppypaw's breath hitched and she began to creep backward in an attempt to get away discreetly. As silent as she thought she was being, the dog's head snapped up, it's black eyes fixing on her and it's ears flattening against its head, its lips curling in an ugly snarl, baring its long yellow teeth. Poppypaw gasped and froze, her fur rising along her hackles and her claws digging into the soil. The dog began to stalk toward her, growling low in his throat, and the apprentice stared up at it until it was nearly close enough to reach out and pluck her up in its jaws.

The moment its rancid breath hit her nose, Poppypaw leaped away, sprinting down the hill faster than she'd ever run in her life. The dog's heavy paws thrummed on the ground behind her, its deep barks and growls echoing through the hills. Her heart seemed ready to pound right out of her chest and every sound was amplified around her. The dog steadily began to gain on her as she raced toward camp, and she screeched with terror as it bit at her tail, ripping out a chunk of fur and spurring her on to run faster and faster, until her claws ached from ripping out dirt and her muscles screamed for relief. As she approached the rise near camp, she sobbed and turned her pawsteps away, tears clouding her eyes and beginning to fall down her cheeks. *I can't lead this monster into camp! Half of the warriors are at the Gathering!*

Instead, she raced toward the badger sets, hoping one of them would be small enough that the dog couldn't follow her in. Somewhere in the distance, a bird called out an alarm. Poppypaw sobbed openly as she flew across the meadows, stumbling once or twice and tumbling head over heels down a hill once, ripping her claws in the dirt and tearing the pads of her paws on thorns and stones. The dog slipped in the mud, giving her another tail-length lead, but the gap was closing fast and Poppypaw had no options left. She wailed as the badger sets came into view. Salvation was so close, but the dog's hot breath was on her haunches and every bark rattled her bones. She screeched as sharp teeth suddenly closed on her tail and she was yanked back and thrown into the air, crashing to the ground at the bottom of the rise she had just climbed.

She looked up and sobbed. The dog now stood between herself and her only hope of survival. Her chest heaved as she fought for breath and her entire body ached, but adrenaline pumped through her veins and she pulled herself to her paws again, dropping into her newly-practiced battle crouch. The dog snarled and stalked down the hill toward her. It lunged suddenly, jaws snapping, and Poppypaw dodged by a hair's width, only to find her paws to raw and sore to retaliate as she stumbled. The dog's jaws closed on her haunches and dug into her flesh, ripping straight through to the bone as it lifted her into the air and shook her like a wet piece of moss before flinging her away and pouncing once more, its claws digging into her side and its teeth closing on her neck. She screeched as she felt her ribs breaking under the weight of the dog, thrashing wildly as she tried to get away. She finally managed to slip out from under the brute and dodged another blow, stumbling with every move she made. The fight gradually made its way up the hill again, Poppypaw dodging every blow aimed at her as the dog lunged and snapped, until she wasn't quite lucky enough.

The dog landed a heavy blow against the side of her head, its claws ripping through her flesh, shredding her left ear, scraping over her eye, and ripping flesh off bone until nothing was left but a mangled mess. Poppypaw was slammed to the ground and the dog picked her up by the spine, throwing her back down a few tail-lengths away.

Poppypaw sobbed as the pain grew worse and worse with every blow. Her vision was going black around the edges, ringing filled her ears, and her nose was filled with the scent of blood and fear as she was thrown down the hill, closer to the sets. *StarClan, why me!?* she wailed internally. *What did I do to deserve this!?* Her mind filled with the faces of her friends and family- Rainflash, Orien, Icepaw, Mousepaw, Copperpaw, Nutfur, Firesong, Swiftpaw- and she mentally cried out to all of them as another bite was taken from her scruff.

She gasped when she was suddenly lifted into the air by her right foreleg, the dog's teeth crunching straight through the bone. Poppypaw wailed in pain and thrashed and struggled to get out of the beast's grip, despair flooding through her in waves, terror crashing over her with every breath. She gave one last screech of desperation- a cry for help- before she lost every sense and feeling in her body. Up was down and left was right as the dog shook her furiously, until suddenly a white-hot pain flared through her whole body, worse than anything before, and she was suddenly flying through the air, landing in a bloody, mangled heap just in front of the badger sets. With the last of her strength, she dragged herself through one of the holes in front of her, only to yowl as it dropped into a steep fall, sending her tumbling down into the dark. Outside, the dog howled and barked and dug at the hole, furious to have let its toy escape, and Poppypaw lay in a sobbing, trembling heap at the furthest corner of the set, her blood pooling around her and choking her with the stench of it.

Her blind terror remained until the dog gave up its frustrated quest to get her back, morning light beginning to seep into the set as she grew dizzier and dizzier, her breathing shallowing and her uninjured eyes drooping shut. *I'm so sorry,* she thought foggily. *I wasn't strong enough. I'm sorry, Firesong. I'm sorry, Nutfur. I'm so sorry.*

And as the sun crested the horizon, Poppypaw resigned herself to death, giving in to the warm, comforting blackness that blanketed her, her breathing shallowing to almost nothing and her muscles relazing. Her pain melted away, and her tail gave one last twitch before she fell still.