The Eterna

Neriteflame is a rather average-sized cat, albeit perhaps a little lighter and sleeker compared to some. She is not bulky, but she has enough muscle to lend some strength behind her blows. She stands a rather standard 10 inches tall, 15 inches long excluding her tail, and weighs roughly 8 pounds.

Neriteflame shares a lot in common with her father. Her fur is mostly golden-brown, appearing almost red-orange in some lights, slashed across with thin black stripes that tend to blend into the fur. The only spot of white is around her chin and lower jaw, fading into cream on her chest, and her eyes are a leafy green.

Despite being a rather averagely sized cat, Neriteflame's skill lies in her endurance, strong blows, and spontaneity. She may not be the fastest and most agile of cats, but she knows how to use her paws, and she is good at putting momentum and ferocity into each strike. Neriteflame is far from fond of water and is not the best climber, but she does sport excellent balance once she's found some footing.

+ Alert + Confident + Decisive + Resolute + Audacious

As her name suggests, Neriteflame is not unlike a brand of fire. In fact, her fiery personality and headstrong nature make her almost the embodiment of fire; unpredictable and difficult to stop with dangerous potential. She is not always the most pleasant to be around, keeping others on their toes and seemingly changing mood on a whim. However, her headstrong nature also lends her the ability to take necessary risks, hold her ground, and not second guess her decisions. With her alertness, spontaneity, and physical skills, she could be quite the adversary.

However, Neriteflame is not all bold and confident. Tucked beneath the surface are high expectations, insecurities, and a fear of abandonment. She has a tendency to push others away with her sharp tongue, and it is not all unintentional. Deeper connections unnerve her. However, most of her interactions - indeed, many of her actions as a whole - cater to her impulsivity.

Neriteflame is not one to slow down often, making patience and restraint a difficulty. Tying this in with a touch of selfishness, Neriteflame is known to disregard orders and consequences in favor of following her impulses. This is not to say she does not care, but it can get herself and others into trouble when she rushes in without thinking rationally. This impulsiveness however can lend itself to protectiveness, albeit rarely, and not necessarily in a gentle way. She prefers to leave others to their own devices, but she has been known to intercept on behalf of others.

Born as a single kit to two loyal, respected Saberclan warriors in the midst of the Great War, Neritekit was expected to be a prodigy. With her father's pelt and mother's build, many also assumed she would acquire her father's skill and mother's poise. They were not entirely wrong, but they set their bar too high.

Or perhaps they did not. Perhaps they never really expected these things, just hoped for a loyal and hard-working young clanmate - but these whispered possibilities stuck with Neritekit as the expectations she imagined them to be. They became her expectations, and she would grow to hold herself to them fiercely. She would make the clan proud, make her father proud.

As she grew into her apprenticeship, the bar Neritepaw had set for herself only stretched higher; and it became clear she would do anything to reach it. Neritepaw threw her everything into training, and she had a lot to give, but it seemed there was such thing as giving too much. With temper, impatience, and stubbornness to prove herself, Neritepaw found herself rushing in without a plan or tackling problems too big head-on more often than not. It was this that saw her apprenticeship lengthened.

It took a lot of effort for Neritepaw's mentor to drill some kind of patience and restraint into her, and even then it took plenty of focus on the apprentice's part to keep it there. But these moments of clarity paired with her unpredictable nature and drive saw her through to warriorhood. Under a calming paw, she would make an excellent warrior. And so at fifteen moons, Neritepaw became Neriteflame.

Although her fire was at times a liability, Neriteflame proved a force to be reckoned with as she grew with the war. Locked in an alliance as Eagleclan gathered unruly outside forces, her unpredictability became a true asset. It was simply a shame she lacked that level-headedness. Even by her seventh moon as a warrior, Neriteflame was still unruly with no signs of slowing down. It was one of these times rushing in headfirst that lead to her losing her father.

Part of a three-member patrol investigating reported dog and twoleg scents, Neriteflame was to protect her team as necessary but follow Maplestream's lead. His directive that led them up into the trees was a logical one, but Neriteflame grew impatient with the waiting. Seeing an opening, she managed to drop down and scratch up the smaller dog enough to scare it away, but failed to account for the larger one. She was cornered when her father came to save her. He tried to draw the dog away, but it was fast, and the bark of his escape tree was smooth.

The rest was a blur. At some point Neriteflame had scrabbled under a thorn bush; or perhaps she was dragged there, teeth in her scruff and the weight of her patrolmate keeping her pinned. The dog's jaws were clamped around her father. He was crying out for help; she might have been crying back. The little dog had returned, but it wasn't attacking. A vine held it taught. A twoleg at the other end of the vine yowled at the bigger dog and took Maplestream away. There was nothing Neriteflame could do.

Somehow, Neriteflame's patrolmate managed to keep her from rushing fruitlessly after them. She was in shock by the time he had half coaxed, half forced her back to camp. She could only blame herself.

Maplestream was not the only parent she lost that day.

As the warrior recovered, her mother grew distant and cold. Tension forced a wedge between them. Neriteflame was not sure what angered Starlingfeather so much - some said it was her looks, others claimed she was a painful reminder, but Neriteflame became convinced otherwise. Her mother blamed her. In Neriteflame's mind, she was right, but this acknowledgment only made things worse.

When Starlingfeather took a new mate, her former apprentice hardly older than Neriteflame herself, their relationship strained to its limits. Neriteflame lashed out at her mother; first with words, and later with claws. Starlingfeather was betraying Maplestream. She tried to tell her mother he was alive, Neriteflame was sure of it. But her mother never listened. No one did. Claws breaking skin was when the ties were officially severed beyond repair.

Starlingfeather and Deerleap proclaimed she would not be allowed to meet the kits - for their safety. Like she would hurt a bunch of squirming newborns. Neriteflame countered that they were no siblings of hers. She claimed she had no family left, not in Saberclan. Yet something kept her tied there. As disconnected as she became from her kin, she cared about her clan - unlike her mother she knew what loyalty was. At least she thought she did.

As if to prove her proclamation, Neriteflame's family began to drop like flies. First came Deerleap, although she did not mourn his loss. Even so, the whispers that Starlingfeather seemed to hardly mourn herself, that perhaps she never loved the tom, had Neriteflame visiting for the first time. Her first look at her siblings. But the meeting between her and Starlingfeather scorched the hope that she might still care. Neriteflame had left disheartened and angry, convinced more than ever that her mother was heartless. She never did greet the kits.

Mosskit came next. One of the trio Neriteflame had never even touched, snuffed out like a light. Only a few moons later, Starlingfeather herself fell in turn. Part of Neriteflame felt guilty, still not acknowledging her younger brothers, now orphaned, but she never attended the vigils. Never reached out to comfort them. And then fell Fernpaw.

Left to watch her only remaining brother thrust into a new role, having lost his brother and mentor in one fell swoop so soon after his mother, Neriteflame's guilt and protective instincts ate at her. Yet whenever she approached Mushroompaw, her temper only spiked, or she could not meet his eyes. She did not see the signs, that she was doing just as Starlingfeather had done to her. Perhaps they were not so different after all.