[Tundra x Mackenzie Valley Wolf] Willow [update 3-20-16]

[Deleted]

OOC
Name: Sage
Years RPing: Many
Other:
How You Found Us: Fate!

General
Name: Willow
Birthday: March 20, 2015 – Vernal Equinox
Gender: Female
Species: Mackenzie Valley (dominant) x Tundra Wolf

Physical
Height: 20 inches.
Length: 55 inches.
Weight: 75 pounds.

Coat Color: Silver undercoat with ebony markings, including a distinct dark “stripe” on her forehead, between her ears, and along her back. Her tiny paws are all milky white. Her short, stubby tail is pure black.

Eye Color: Vivid yellow.

Health Issues: Physical developmental disability: at birth, she will be small and presumed to be a runt. Her condition will be discovered as she ages. While most of her body develops normally. While her sisters grow and thrive, Willow will remain small for life. She is prone to bouts of intense pain due to skeletal abnormalities. The pain intensifies if she does not keep active on a daily basis, and she must work to keep her muscles lean and fit or else risk further disability.

Other Information: Born with a rare mutation, dwarfism, Willow has very short legs and a short tail.
Mental
Mental Stability: Unstable

History: Mother – a liar and misfit. Father – a failure and a coward. From nothing comes nothing, and Willow’s heritage is humble, if not humiliating. She is the unfortunate consequence, one hapless member of a faulty lineage: generations of unwanted offspring, her own parents raised by unloving mothers. Neither Athena nor Sanris knew the wolf who sired them.

Unwanted and unloved from the start, mother Athena was the last remnant of her own mother’s misdeeds, a reminder of the brute that had taken advantage of the aging wolfess. Her earliest months were spent wandering from place to place across Anikira as her littermates wasted away or disappeared. She had nothing but her cruel and relentless mother, who had not even bothered to name her dirty, flea-bitten young. Why name a miserable little thing without a chance to make it? The silver pup seemed doomed to the same fate as her siblings. One day, her mother simply vanished, leaving the nameless, malnourished, flea-bitten pup alone. She was taken in by a nomadic pack, and was taken under the wing of an aging healer. The healer bestowed the pup a name: Athena, after the goddess of wisdom. Athena thrived under her car, but the healer was accused of poisoning their alpha. Sentenced to banishment, the healer left, and with her, Athena’s protection. She was quickly claimed by a much older, larger brute, one of many bitches he had taken as his own. He brutalized Athena, who was still under two years old, raping her every night even though she was not yet old enough to conceive. Finally, Athena poisoned her “mate” and slipped away as he writhed in agony. She wandered around Anikira, learning how to hunt and how to heal her wounds and the wounds of other solo wolves. Her independence was stolen away when a bear mauled her, leaving a foreleg badly injured. She could no longer have her freedom.

Athena met a large she-wolf named Valeria, who was going to claim a territory in the name of a new pack, one that respected females’ dignity and worth. Athena decided a pack so welcoming toward her gender would be a safe choice, if she had to settle down for her own protection. Since joining Valyn, Athena has found lonely existence, punctuated by one night of reckless abandon...

Sanris. Like Athena, he would never know his father. Sanris was a scared child. His mother survived by stealing prey from other packs, often to her own detriment if she was attacked. His survival instincts developed at a young age, and he was cognizant of the reality that life was harsh, and you had to do what was necessary to survive. His mother gave up on Sanris, living him on his own to fend for himself and learn to make it in a hostile world. Selfish and deceptive, Sanris managed to survive on his own until he found out about a new pride, said to be the best Anikira had to offer: Osani. They were a violent, murderous pack, and Sanris wanted to be allied with the winning side. The so-called best pack in Anikira died off, however, leaving Sanris with one more decision to make: Where do I go next? Soon, another new pack emerged, led by giants and warriors, with the goal of producing the most capable, fearsome pack. Sanris allied himself with the massive wolves, more certain than ever he would be on the victorious side in the growing turmoil encompassing Anikira.

Willow and her siblings were conceived of lust and deceit, a second generation mistake. A fateful, stormy night, the first night of winter, Athena and Sanris met. Neither wolf would learn the other’s true moniker. Instincts overcame logic, and the two mated. Immediately, Athena regretted the decision, and Sanris vanished into the darkness. Athena discovered her condition weeks later. Shamed and alone, she kept her secret from the pack. Willow was born the third in a litter of four, in the early morning hours of the first day of spring.

Personality: Folklore recalls ancient beliefs about the willow tree: magical, melancholy. The name is apropos for the wolf it was bestowed upon.  Her early months will be happy, but the fates will not be kind as she ages.  When she is a pup, Willow will be a cheerful little thing, tagging along after her mother to learn about herbs and healing, or pestering Jaienyx, the beautiful female she admires with questions and admiration. She is seldom far from her sister Lethe’s side. As a child, Willow is loving and sweet, and eager to please. She is like a little pixie, flitting about the lands in a daydream. She is full of wonder and enthusiasm about the world around her and everything in it. She takes an interest in many things: the stars, the trees, animals, and the hidden meaning behind each. She could sometimes be caught talking to trees – and she is very certain they are speaking back to her, just not in a way that others can comprehend.

She has vivid dreams nearly every night that she interprets to be meaningful: a sign of things to come, whether good or bad, a warning. Others may not believe what she sees and experiences are actually true, but Willow believes wholeheartedly that she has a gift that outsiders just don’t understand. Young Will is a she-wolf who, when in her carefree state, is musically inclined, enjoying a good howl or singing a song as she goes about her day. She invents little tunes, hums often, and loves the melodic sound of others’ voices.

As she grows older, Willow will become very involved in her quest for spirituality, worshipping the goddess of the moon, interpreting subtle signs around her, and honoring the passing seasons with secret rituals with only those she trusts the most (namely Lethe). She reveres nature and the goddess and the cycles of nature. 

Her interest in healing develops at a very young age. She will learn how to heal, and though her mother is hesitant to teach her, Will has a particular fascination in the plants that sicken a body rather than mending it. She is amazed at the duality of nature: how one thing can be both bad and good, and the way that something innocent can be deceptive and deadly. Unknowingly, she can make a wolf uncomfortable with her curiosity, studying everyone and everything around her. She could stare at a leaf for a long time, looking at all of the veins and every little detail.

As the pups around her grow tall and strong, Willow’s dwarfism will become more apparent with every passing month. Her legs are stubby, an odd match and very different physique from the pups born at the same time as her. This differences will make Willow self-conscious, and she will slowly withdraw from many of the Valyn wolves, with the exception of her mother, sisters, and Jaienyx. She has an intense attachment especially to oldest sister Lethe, to whom she is fiercely loyal and loving toward. She has no interest in meeting the father she never knew, and faintly remembers the brother she was born with, sent away as a pup to live with the dreaded Kairos pack – the pack their father belongs to.

She is deeply sensitive to both her own feelings and those of everyone around her.  As she ages, her intense emotions will seem almost overwhelming, running deeper that most. When her emotions threaten to crack the surface, she will become quiet and withdrawn. Willow is different, forever set apart due to the genetic mutation that will come to define her in the minds of those around her, and by the deep emotions she feels. She will develop a fascination with the outside world and become prone to wandering away to explore new, interesting places. She craves knowledge and spiritual meaning, along with finding her true purpose in life.

Adulthood will offer no respite from the challenges of adolescence. A fateful meeting with a devil from Kairos will foreever alter the course of her life - and not for the better. All the while, she will stand firm in her faith for the goddess and for her own dignity.

Image:  Pup (with Athena):

Adult: