Keekitah

Keekitah was a young female fish crow who served as the familiar and companion to Hawthorn, a lost former prince of Aryn. Her story continues alongside his. Keekitah was created and RP'd by speckledplanet.

## Personality

* ***Confident, Energetic, and Kind.*** Despite her size and rather awkward upbringing, Keekitah prides herself on her ability to adapt and overcome with both power and pleasantries. She is not a shy bird and has always been fascinated by other species (including her own) and often tries to find ways of interacting with everything and everyone she can, even if it might be a bad idea in the long run. Keekitah loves nothing more than to show others how smart and cool she is, often bordering on boasting about her skills while concealing the fact that her world view is very limited and *very* whimsical at that. She's a bit ignorant, but at least she means well.
* ***Emotional, Maternal, and Stubborn.*** It's hard to imagine Keekitah as a sobbing mess of feathers but, life happens. While the fish crow is driven by her sociableness, she can be overwhelmed somewhat easily and takes quite a lot of other's commentary and quips on her person to heart. She can hold a grudge but does her best to move past it, if not for herself, for their sake. Sometimes if she's pushed just right, Keekitah might show the creature she's speaking to how ruthless a crow-raised-raven can really be.
* ***Assertive, Devious, and Petty.*** All sunny days have their end and Keekitah is no exception. Underneath the black veneer she wears so proudly harbors a bird that has *issues.* Keekitah isn't very good at taking orders from folk she doesn't know or trust, and if someone tries to bully her to get their way, she'll waste no time opening her beak to tell them just how little they mean to her. In the moment it's all talk and not anything she means long term, but Keekitah is notoriously bad at apologizing or owning up to her mistakes— something her raven family has tried and failed to change about her, and one of her main reasons she began to ignore them rather than see reason. It takes someone she has unconditional love and respect for to really get through to her, and unfortunately, no one is quite *there* with her yet.

## Pre-Group History

Keekitah was born to a family of ravens in Spring 2022 after the raven family found her egg abandoned within the confines of pack territory. It appeared to the ravens that she was the casualty of war from when the white dogs stormed the plains, and it was only her nest's position in the trees that prevented her from falling prey to their bottomless stomachs. Her egg was introduced to the raven's clutch mostly out of pity once the expecting parents realized the future hatchling still had warmth to her shell and a heartbeat within it.

It didn't take long for the crow to hatch, and soon after she was surrounded by several other adoptive siblings that made her upbringing much less lonely though no less challenging. She was significantly smaller than the rest of the brood, leaving her to be the odd-bird-out when it came to feedings and attention. To make up for this, Keekitah learned to be loud and often found herself bullying her way around the nest (something that she's deeply ashamed of present day.) As a result, Keekitah has a smattering of scars and minor injuries from her will to survive. Her adoptive family did their best to accommodate for her and she was not oblivious to the lengths they went to make her feel included. It's only when she encountered the criticism from the elder of their family that she came to realize how... unique her circumstances were.

Without their constant vigilance, she wouldn't have stood a chance. Any other raven family might've given up on her, but not them. And when Keekitah was large enough to fly, she did her best to repay them by bringing them objects of interest or small meals she could scavenge when the white dogs were absent.

Little by little, the dangers of the world seemed to pass and word had spread throughout the birds that seemed to signal that the scourge wolves had finally been cauterized. Keekitah was left with more questions than answers as she began to see more wings take flight and resume migrations that she'd never thought possible: where was her flock? What happened to them?

When the raven family set off after their white-hide pickings and half buried feasts ran dry, Keekitah did make an attempt to keep up with them in both body and mind. She often had to rest longer than they did, she ate less than they did, and her interests in remaining within their flock was waning day by day as they traveled the great blue skies in search of greener pastures. All her life she had been constantly at odds with herself and her place within the family and now that there was no longer a *need* to stay with them... she began to wonder if she might be able to make it on her own.

This was a thought that reached its climax when the family came across a grizzly scene. Two wolves had clashed, one had fled, and she had made the split second decision to follow him to avoid the talk of *fresh meat* and *gracious offerings* that were presented by her kin. They would do nothing without the elder present and she was, fortunately, *away,* searching elsewhere for their next meal. It gave her time to investigate and sate her curiosity without their prying ears and loose tongues.

She had followed the bear-dog to a hollow past the musk of a pack border. It'd been the first time she'd ever crossed the threshhold of one and she felt invigorated by her newfound rebellion.

But... There was something sobering about finding a wolf ten times her size holed away with the stench of blood and salt clinging to him like a corpse. He looked so small despite being larger than life and, in some ways, she felt like she knew what he was feeling. To be a bully just to survive... to have to *fight* just to earn your keep... maybe that's all it was. A fight between strangers.

When his eyes met hers, she was certain that the blood he carried was justified. How could a beast look so sad even when they were painted red? She tried her best to smile, to soothe the pain that knit his brows and forced him to wheeze out his pathetic wolf-whistle from his dirtied hunter-lips. Clearly he was suffering, and she was too in her own way. The elder was not here to chastise her, to warn her of their teeth and their dirtied fur and tell her about how they were only good for fattening the chicks. The ravens were often all talk, and Keekitah didn't care much for listening to them lately anyways.

**"Quite the bark,"** she'd said softly, hopping from foot to foot. **"But y'aren't gonna bite Keekitah, are ya? Let her help. And if y'still wanna bite, well, I'm sure she can find ya something meatier."** Food seemed to be the last thing on this wolf's mind and she was momentarily struck down by her own poor choice of words. That didn't stop her from following through on her offer to find someone to help him, though, and he didn't protest when she took flight from the dark, musty hollow.

Wolves almost always ran in packs, right?

So where was his?

## Trivia

* Keekitah has a prominent throat ruff due to her habit of vocalizing / singing. She often used it as a dominance display around the ravens and remains a habit she falls back on quite often.
* Minor scar on the left side of her beak due to a small scrap with one of her much larger adoptive-siblings.
* The fish crow speaks in both first and third person with little rhyme or reason for it. Is she aware of this? Probably! But any attempts to stop it have proven fruitless.

## External Links

* Official Application Sheet
* speckledplanet's deviantART Gallery