And I think I've fallen in love with her. XDI see the end date has been changed to the 15th, so there will probably be more art XD
Scratch again, there's been a family emergency and I'll be away for another day or two so unless I get home early and draw very fast, you can consider my form complete.
And HERE is Kavé with her warpaint
I hope it's ok, it just looks complicated it would actualy be pretty easy to put on. I wasn't sure if the war paint was only supposed to go on the face, or the whole body, so i just did the whole body, because it would be much easier to remove parts than add more later. Username: lmnporcher
Cat's Name: Kavé (pronounced Kah-vay)
Gender: female
Age: Young Adult
Species: Mountain Lion
Rank: Tracker
Does your cat have the Sight?: yes
What is your cat's Sight Bird?: Chickadee, male
Sight Bird's Name: Niko
Personality: Extremely quiet and mysterious, Kavé is a bit like a book in a foreign language stored on the topmost bookshelf; unreachable and unreadable to most. She keeps her thoughts to herself, and hides her emotions deep within. She feels that others must earn her trust and respect, and will not show any to those who she feels do not deserve it. She is untrusted by most, and many doubt her loyalty due to her inverted nature and because she was not born in the clan, though she doesn't have any recollection of life outside the clan due to the fact that she was brought into the clan when she was only about 4 days old. However, Kavé herself is very sure of where her loyalties lie, and that is with her clan, the Velocia, and it's leader. She would do almost anything to serve them, including dying, though she would prefer not to have to go that far. Her two goals in life are to 1) Help bring back the other half of the gem for her clan and 2) survive. Kavé loves the dark and the shadows, and hiding in them, and is a keen observer of details, making her excellently suited for her rank as a tracker. Her secret dream is to one day be promoted the the rank of spy.
Skills: Steath, Instinct, Vision, camouflage and the Sight.
Story:The night was darker than usual, even for a night of the new moon. The heavy cloud cover obscured even the faint light of the stars, leaving the valley shrouded in an impenatrable shroud of black. A scream wrenched the night air, echoing off of the towering mountains and reverberating through the souls of cats who moved stealthily through the night like spirits, on the watch for a kill. High up on one of the mountains, a female mountain lion shook in fear, huddling two tiny kits to her belly. In the dead silence, she could hear pawsteps creeping closer, ever closer to the cave in which she hid. She hoped, prayed to the stars that they would not be discovered. She pawsteps passed by the mouth of the cave and began to recede back into the darkness. She let out the breath that she had been holding as quietly as she dared. It seemed like she and her family might survive this night of death.
One of her kits sqeaked. The mother could only stare at it, listening with utter terror as the pawsteps stopped. Once again they began to pad slowly, delibratly, back in the direction of the cave. The mother cougar was frozen with dread. She could do nothing to stop the advance of whatever cat the pawsteps belonged to, nothing to save her family. She should never have left her clan on that fateful day, should have accepted the humiliation and shame. At least then her cubs might have stood a chance. She should never have tried to raise her cubs to the life of a loner.
She raised her head. Her time was up, the paws were derectly outside now. She might die tonight, but at the very least she was going to go out with a fight, and she was going to protect her precious kits for as long as she could. She stodd up silently, pushing her kits into the back corner, hiding them in the darkness behind her. And just in time.
"Well well well, what do we have here." Droned a male voice from the entrance. "What do we have here?"
A huge leopard, his coat the colour of the night, padded up, his lithe mouvements showing his deadly intentions. This was a night of death. He breathed into the cougar's face.
"Hello Karim." He said with mock happiness on his face. "How nice to see you again. But I did excpect that you at least would have found a much better hiding spot." He shook his head. "Tisk Tisk. We are going to have to show you a lesson."
The mountain lion, Karim, bared her teeth at him. "You can try." she snarled.
"My dear, I always try." He responded. And then he pounced.
Karim met him head on, and they grappled together, fighting for their lives. Karim was determined to live, to save her kits. The fight went on for what seemd like an eternity. But Karim was weaker, having had no clan to rely on during her pregnacy and birth, and even though she fought as hard as she could, she was tiring. Finally the leopard threw her off, and she hit the stone wall of the cavern with a dull thud, blood dripping form her wounds. She could not move, even as the male walked up to her.
"And now, you are going to DIE!" He spat in her face.
"So be it." She said, eyes full of loathing. "But you are nothing but a coward." She would say nothing more.
~~~~~~~~~~~~
3 days after the night of the new moon, a scout, scouring the mountains, came upon the cave. There was a strong scent of blood within it, and as he entered a gruesome scene met his eyes. The carcass of a mountain lion lay strew accross the floor, a pool of dried blood surrounding her. He shook his head. The days after the new moon brought many such things. The scout turned to leave, but a tiny sound emenating from the back corner of the cave stopped him. He turned around, and padded back, stepping gingerly over the remains of the cougar. There was another squeak, and the scout looked about. His eyes came to rest on a tiny heap of fur, a cub, huddled in the corner and mewling. Beside it there was another cub, but this one was dead. He looked back at the live one. It's eyes were still closed. If it did not find milk soon, it would meet the same fate as its sibbling.
The scout watched it, frowning. He would prably get in a lot of trouble if he brought it back to the clan, but he couldn't just leave it there to starve to death, could he? Maybe he should just kill it outright. It would be a mercy for the tiny kit. He bent down, setting his jaw in determination. But before he could bite down to deliver the killing blow, it looked up at him and wailed. He gazed at its tiny face. This kit was innocent, and try as he might he could not kill it. So he gently took its scruff, loose from near starvation, and carried it back down the slope. As he went, a breeze sewpt down from the mountain. He almost dropped the cub in surprise as the wind, in a voice faint but familiar wispered. Take care of Kavé He put the cub down gently at his feet. "K-Kavé?" He repeated, bewildered. Kavé it said again, and the wind faded away. The scout shook his head, picked up the cub, "Kavé", and began again to take the kit to his clan, the Velocia and it's new life.
~~~~~~~~~~~~
Kavé glanced up at the sky, her eyes following Niko, her bonded bird as he flitted through the air. She had discovered that she had the sight when she had been very young, and had found Niko shortly after. She remembered that day; It had been bitterly cold, with a biting north wind coming down from the mountains. Dark, purplish clouds threatened snow at the edges of the valley, and Kavé's adopted mother had been eager to get Kavé and her other cubs, as well as herself, into shelter before the storm broke. But Kavé had wandered off to explore, absorbed in studying the patterns on a fallen maple leaf, totaly oblivious to the cold and wind until it began to snow.
Kavé remembered how frightened she had been as the wind picked up the flakes, which used to be fluffy and fun, and had turned them into sharp daggers of cold and thrown into her face. Confused and scared, she'd tried to remember which direction she had come from, but the whiteness was disorienting and she soon became lost. Shivering, she began to hawl her little cold body through the deepinging snow. Just as she was about to give up she bumped smack into a tree trunk. She huddled up to it, close to despair, but then she heard a small noise from above her. She looked up. A tiny little grey bird with a black cap and chestnut breast looked down at her. It chirped at her, a delightful little noise. Chicka-dee-dee-dee-dee-dee. She had blinked at it, wondering how it kept up such a cheerful attitude in a storm like this.
The bird fluttered down from its branch. It landed in front of Kavé and chirped again. Chicka-dee-dee-dee-dee-dee It said, but this time more like a question. Kavé stared at it. Then it flew off a little ways, and stopped. Chicka-dee-dee-dee-dee-dee. It seemed to Kavé like the little bird wanted her to follow it, and so she did. Again it moved off a bit, and again it chirped. Chicka-dee-dee-dee-dee-dee And Kavé followed. They did this fro some time, ignoring the storm, until Kave bumped her nose on something hard. She'd looked up, and she'd realized that the bird had led her back to the den. With the last of her energy she had bounded inside. Her adoptive mother had greeted her with licks and cuddles, glad that she was back safely. Kavé had looked back to the entrance, and standing there was the little bird. She had beconed at the bird with her tail, and he had come over. And they had remained inseperable since.
Kavé broke from her reverie, and glanced back up to the sky where Niko flew around in circles. She closed her eyes, willing herself to connect with him. When she opened them again, she was high in the air, looking down on the mountains from a true bird's eye view. She asked Niko to turn, and they sped away accross the sky. Niko landed higher up on the mountain face, where Kavé could see most of the valley. She looked down. She could see her own body laying almost out of sight farther down on the mountain. She should have hidden a bit more. Oh well, she would go back momentairly. She scanned the mountain face and the forest below, looking for any signs of the enemy. She was none. Still, she wasn't satisfied, and she scanned the sky. No other birds in sight.
Clouds, however, were a different story. It was an overcast day, the sky turned a dull grey from the thick covering of clouds who didn't yet want to let loose the rain they held in their bellies. To the east and the north, the clouds darkened to an almost black. Tonight would be exremely dangerous, even for a night of the new moon. With the clouds, there wouldn't even be any stars to give their feeble light. Kavé dropped her sight back into her own body and frowned. Her job as a tracker would get difficult tonight. She looked back at the clouds. She could only hope that the rain, at least, held off.
Night fell, and the darkness was deeper even than Kavé had thought it would be. She watched for mouvement from her hidden vantage point high in the mountains, and seeing none. She felt a drop of rain on her head. She shook it off, wanting to growl but knowing that it could give her away. She sighed as the rain drops began to fall faster and with increasing frequency, until it was pouring down in sheets. She resisted the urge to scream her frustration to the heavens. How was she supposed to be reporting on enemies when she could barely see in front of her face, let alone other cats sneaking through the darkness far below her.
Suddenly she froze, intinct telling her that she had a visitor. She crouched down on the rocks, and watched as a jaguar padded in front of her hiding spot. She breathed a sigh of relief as she realized that he was from her own clan. But she couldn't shake a certain feeling of unease, like someone watching her. She sat up straight. Like someone watching her? She spun around just in time to meet the attacking leopard head on. He was large for his species, and she was small for hers. With a sinking feeling she realized that he was much larger than her. He took advantage of this and swiped at her face. She ducked, but not fast enough. His claws tore through her ear and forhead, leaving behing them 2 bloody scratch marks on her face and two tears in her ears. She wanted to yowl in pain, but her training made her hold back. She merely gasped, realizing that this would probably scar. With renewed fury she dove on him lashing out with claws and teeth, using her smaller, lithe shape to dodge his blows.
He backed off for a momment, getting ready to charge. Kavé saw her oppertunity. He ran at her, gaining momentum and ready to use the full bulk of his body to crush her against the wall. Just as he was about to leap at her, she dodged to the side. As he tried to stop, Kavé lept, landing square on his back. He tried to roll her off, but she stayed on even as he rolled overtop of her. She pinned him on his side, and as he tried to get up she smashed his head back to the floor. She heard a crack, and he spat blood, and a tooth, out onto the rocks. He growled and threw Kavé off, getting to his feet. She landed hard on her side, knockinging the breath from her lungs. It came back quickly, but instead of getting back up, Kavé merely looked up at him, feigning fear and submission. Her opponant grinned cruely, showing that one of his upper canines was missing. It looked rediculous, and despite the situation Kavé had to smile. Then he charged her once more.
Kavé readied herself, gathering her legs beneath her. He carreened towards her, and once again leapt in for the kill. But it would be Kavé's kill, not his, for she lept and clamped her jaws around the throat of the leopard, and used his own momentum to tear into the flesh. He fell, landing on top of Kavé, who immediatly sqirmed her way out from under him. The leopard tried to get up, but his legs failed him and he fell, taking one last breath before his eyes glazed over and his chest stilled.
Kavé stood there, panting, fur plastered to her skin from the rain, which was still coming down in sheets. It seemed to her that she stood there for an hour, though it was really a matter of moments. Had she really killed him? She had. It was her first real kill. She turned away, and as soon as she broke from her trancelike state, her ear began to hurt. A lot. She became aware that what she had taken for warmer rain on her neck was actualy blood, seeping both from her ear and the twin gashes on her face. Gingerly she padded away, minful of other hurts. He had also clawed her leg, and though it wasn't very deep or large it still stung.
She padded silently away from the scene, keeping to the shadows, alert and watchful. The she stepped on something sharp, which dug into her paw pad. She held in a cry of pain, and looked down to find the offending object. It was a tooth, the same tooth she realized, that she had knowked out of the leopard's mouth. She looked at it curiously, then an idea came to her. She picked it up gingerly in her mouth and set it, pointy side up, on the stones. She knelt down, using her paw to position an intact part of her mangled ear over the tooth. Then she pushed down. It hurt more for a little bit, but it soon blended with the rest of the pain, and Kavé ignored it and her other wounds. Then she slipped back into the shadows and resumed her vigil, watching the enemy from the shadows until dawn should break over the horizon and the killing, for the most part, cease.
Art:They're links, sorry. They were too big. And apparently I cannot draw cougars under pressure, even though normaly they're my specialty. :p
Art 1< Finally, an OK one. And btw, it's not Kiowa she's fighting, but the dark grey leopard that killed her mother. At least that's who I think it is.... well it's a leopard anyways.
Art 2
Art 3
Art 4
Art 5 < I hope this works, I coloured Kavé's markings and colours onto a drawing I had done previously. If it doesn't, please just don't count it. But I did finish said drawing sjust today o that I could do this.
Facts:
1. The Velocia clan beleives that the life of the dead star born can be revived if both of the halves of the gem come together in the moonlight on the full moon.
2. All the cats from the valley of astrum are decendants of stars, the original cats being known as "Star Borns"
3. The heavens gifted the power of "The Sight" to all those that remained faithful to them after the death of the last Star Born. The sight allows the cat with the sight to bind their soul with that of a bird, and to see through the eyes of said bird.
4. The night of the full moons is a night of peace.
5. The night of the new moon is a night of "no rules" and most cats kill instead of capture.
