Zatenya - Female - Raekerin

[[Copperyn]]

Name: Zatenya
Preferred or nicknames: Zay
Age: 4 years
Gender: She-wolf
Pack: Raekerin
Rank: Alphess
Appearance: Zay is a sleek girl, all lean muscle and graceful bones. Her coat is short and sandy, tawny hues making up the majority of her coloration. Darker grey is peppered across her back, and cream and white blend lightly on her throat, chest, and legs. tiny amounts of black are present on her face and shoulders, doing little the darken her coat, but accenting her features slightly.

Zay isn't especially tall, but her form is fit, used to fighting even though she is small and built for swiftness, not strength. Dark amber eyes watch the word with calculation and ambition.

Picture: click

Personality: Zay can be perceived as rather sarcastic and dry-humored, and that's not far from the truth. She's a thinker - politics are her strength, and even as alphess, her ambitious nature means she is rarely satisfied with the status-quo. Little goes on in Raekerin that she's unaware of, and few get away with disrespect without finding themselves faced with either her teeth or some sort of demotion. Although she never lets an insult go unanswered, her method of rebuttal is rather hard to predict - she might snap her jaws at that very moment, or she might smile it away, letting you forget what you've done, until, months later, you find yourself on a suicide mission for the pack.

Although she's normally in an ill mood, Zay is not particularly violent or cruel - she rarely acts without provocation. Most of the time she is an efficient leader, demanding of respect, but also delivering on the promises she's made to her pack. Her abition leads her to want the best for them - now that she has accomplished her personal goals, her goals revolve around strength and solidity for her pack.

Zatenya's whole life has been a struggle to the top, and she has had to work hard to get there - physically smaller than others, and a female, she's had to rely on wit and swiftness to get her where brute strength could not. She is a judgmental creature, instantly dismissive of wolves who take on airs of prestige, or who go about relishing in how "evil" they are. Her respect is earned by level-headed wolves, especially those who have proven themselves in times of battle. She enforces the ranks in Raekerin strictly but fairly, and her forgiveness is something that must be earned.

History: Zay has been a tenacious girl from day one. Born the smallest of three to a pair of lowly combatants, she constantly found herself in a struggle to assert herself over her two larger brothers. Naturally ambitious and dominant, as they grew older, she came out on top through her intelligence - a bright fire, compared to the dull flickers of her siblings.

As she grew within the pack, she frequently had issues submitting to wolves of authority, except the alpha himself. As a youth, she perceived the weaknesses of the other ranked wolves and dismissed them all as useless, with no thought to their strengths, or why the alpha chose them for those roles. This earned her some unpopularity with the older members of the pack, but she cared little.

At adulthood, she was made a wildcat combatant, and proved her strength both in practices and in a skirmish with a band of loners. Although strong-willed, she proved to have a good head for battle strategy, and, as the current wildcat commander grew old, she was promoted.

With time and experience can some degree of wisdom, and Zay found herself forced to be more forgiving of the weaknesses of others - mostly because she was more perceptive, and came to realize that all wolves had weaknesses, even the current alpha, who she had so respected as a younger wolf. She began to disrespect only those whose weaknesses she found greater than their strengths. The change in behavior was small but perceptible - most thought she'd simply grown up and mellowed out, although the fiery young commander could hardly be called "mellow", only "mellow-er". Still, her respect for most of her comrades improved, and thus, so did their respect for her.

A year and a half after being made commander, the aging alpha made an announcement - she was to be his heir, and lead the pack once he stepped down to the rank of elder. The announcement was not entirely unexpected, for he had never chosen a mate or produced offspring - but many thought that the little female was too young, too hot-headed for the role. Chief among these naysayers was the beta, Flint. He saw himself as deserving of the role, although the alpha had passed him over for the choice due to his bloodthirstiness.

Soon after the announcement, the alpha was killed by a fall from a steep mountain path, and Zatenya was thrust into the role of alphess. Flint instantly challenged her, attempting to seize Raekerin from her, and his followers stood behind him. Knowing she could not beet him and his fighters that night, she made the difficult decision to surrender to him. She was made a captive and held in a small cave, guarded at all times.

From her confinement, she formulated a plan - not all the pack supported Flint, especially within the lower ranks, he was disliked due to his violent motives and policies that did little to improve anyone's life. Slowly word spread that Zay was gathering supporters, and many recognized that while she might have been strict and even vicious to those who wronged her, she had also always been fair, and capable. A moon after Flint's challenge, Zatenya staged a coux - the wolf guarding her prison was on her side, and she and her supporters swept through the camp, until all of Flint's wolves had deserted him or died in the battle. Zatenya fought Flint herself - the battle was long and she was already tired, but her tenacity, combined with his underestimation of the she-wolf, resulted in victory.

It was the bloodiest time in Raekerin since the packs formation at the end of the wars, and most of the higher-ranking wolves were dead or run away, supporters of Flint. Zatenya restructured the entire pack the next day, and Raekerin began to rebuild.

Since that time, Zay has proven herself a capable alphess, and while her quick temper may at times put her at odds with her pack members, or potential new recruits, her skill as a leader cannot be disputed.

Roleplay Example:

The nameless wolf was a young adult, gangly and thin. She struggled forward, shamrock coloured eyes slightly glazed, swollen tongue lolling out of the side of her mouth, slipping past ivory canines. She looked straight ahead, but didn’t see where she was going, for hunger and thirst had erased everything from her mind but her destination. Everything that was left, that is. Her paws stumbled over the uneven ground, and once or twice it seemed as if she might crumple to the ground, but each time, by some turn of fortune, she kept her feet. Her only memory was waking up on the shore of a raging body of water – the sea, depthless and angry - her mind a hopeless fog, a week before. She was a wolf with no recollections of her identity, or anything else. She’d started out in the first direction that had occurred to her, for that direction seemed as good as any. That intention had become her single purpose, and, as hunger and thirst rent her tired body and mind, a grim, all-consuming obsession.

A wolf with no memories is a sad thing indeed. She had no reason to live. No family, no beloved, no commitments, no beliefs, no title, no rank, no ties to this earth. All too often, a wolf who has forgotten everything will give up life, or become reckless and suicidal in a need to feel alive. Not so for this nameless one. Her determination was to reach that mysterious place that her heart told her lie north. Every energy she possessed was directed toward this single goal. Due North.

She crossed harsh terrain, all the time focused on this single reason to live. Hunger weakened her and she began to run a fever. Her determination to reach the “Place that Lay Ahead” was the only thing she possessed, the only thing keeping her from insanity or death. The fever passed, for not even that could overwhelm her single-mindedness.

The nameless one stopped, her drive to continue vanished, dissipating to be replaced with a feeling of accomplishment and overwhelming exhaustion, accompanied by returned clarity of mind. She staggered a few feet and fell on her side panting heavily. She would have lay there and possibly died, but for a scent she caught on the slight breeze. The scent of water.

She limped painstakingly toward and into the brush at her right, emerging into a rather densely grown area. She walked for a small distance, toward the source of the smell. Soon her ears caught the sound of a babbling stream and she picked up her pace, if only by a fraction.

She reached the small stream and began to drink gladly, delighted at the feel of cool water on her parched and swollen throat. Thirst quenched, the she-wolf studied her reflection. She didn’t recognize the wolf staring back at her, but the jewel-green eyes were oddly haunting. Shaking her head, she walked into the tiny stream and over, for it was only about as wide as her tail was long. She emerged into a sort of small clearing, ringed with trees and clothed in long grasses.

The she-wolf fell in a heap, and this time nothing distracted her. She drifted into a half sleep, and as she neared true sleep, a name came to her. ‘Petra’. Its meaning was completely lost to her, but she hardly cared for poetic terms or useless meanings, anyway. It was a name, and it would do. Satisfied, she drifted into a deep and dreamless sleep.

Some while later she awoke, and became aware that she was hungry, and in an unknown place. By smell she could tell that it was relatively well traveled, though, oddly, unmarked. Well, I suppose that’s a bit of luck…[/i>]she thought, but with a touch of sarcasm – after all, her present situation could hardly be called ‘lucky’. She rose to her feet shakily, and looked around. It seemed empty, but then again, it was quite clear that it was at least somewhat inhabited, and one could never tell…

She sat back onto her haunches, ears flicking back and forth in curiosity. (Her ears always gave her away, although she didn't know that). She needed… someplace. She was sure that this – these? - packs weren’t hers, but – where on earth was she from, anyway? She knew her name, Petra, but beyond that? The ocean, then wandering, blindness, and now this. She considered calling out. She needed a pack, but… what if these were enemies? One thing she did know – she needed some answers.

Well, she’d never been one to shy away from a risk. At least, she didn’t think[/i[ she had been, but then again, she couldn’t remember. Nevertheless, it seemed like the right thing to do. Sitting around until something happened would gain her nothing, and at least this way she could dictate her own damned terms. And perhaps find some food - food was good. Tilting her head back, she let out a single howl. Her voice was soprano, and somehow deceptively melodic. She studied the strange sound, ears pointed to catch its echoes. Well, that, at least, was to her liking. As for the rest of things, she’d simply have to wait and see.


Your name: Copperyn
How did you find us?: Dunno
Other characters: n/a

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[azil]

Aw, I like her! <3
ACCEPTED!

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