Thorn

Thorn used to be a prized envoy and magnificently skilled ranger for Wind Pack. It only seemed natural that she would one day lead the pack; her Alpha and Beta, Star and Leaf, were getting up there in age, and they'd already given the blue-white she-wolf her fair share of responsibilities. She was intelligent, charming, and charismatic, excelling in almost every field. Thorn was the perfect role model to most, and while she was looked up to by many, she couldn't help but feel that there were hardly any wolves on her level. She appreciated their trust in her all the same, however, hoping to live up to their expectations of her.

On a less positive note, Thorn was also very ambitious and rather entitled--if she felt as though she deserved something, she would go after it, no matter what...even if that something was another wolf. She tried to do what she thought was right, but being treated well and conditioned for success her whole life had warped her judgement. While noble and virtuous on the outside, Thorn was in fact sly, arrogant, and keenly manipulative when it came to getting what she wanted, and would lie to herself as well as others to justify her own actions.

Thorn had a very complicated and frequently-changing relationship with her friend Shadow. The two were both born in Wind Pack, only one moon apart, as the youngest of their generation--and so, naturally, they spent a lot of time together during their puphood. Thorn came to like Shadow, as he was sweet and easygoing; a nice balance to her own bold passion and ambition. They befriended one another fairly quickly and remained close until they moved out of their mother-wolves' dens.

As apprentices, Thorn and Shadow were neck-to-neck in skill, and together they could ace any challenge. Thorn's mentor, Black, was Shadow's father, and so Thorn and Shadow trained together quite often. Their mentors liked making them compete to challenge each other. They enjoyed their little competitions, and while they were certainly rivals, they also considered themselves to be best friends. When Thorn started taking advantage of her skill to get power and respect, however, Shadow was unimpressed. Shadow's ambivalence was the primary thing that kept Thorn grounded, although she never would have admitted it aloud.

Thorn was one of the first wolves to notice the white spots appearing on Shadow's fur and point them out. He was briefly quarantined in the herb store, and while Thorn was disappointed to lose her training partner for a short time, she wasn't too concerned; she was confident that he'd be back in no time. After Shadow's mother died and he began regularly visiting the herb store despite his quarantine being lifted, however, Thorn became worried. For weeks on end, she watched him grow and closer with the herbalist, Flurry, and fall behind on his training. She was upset about it, and it was really getting to her. She couldn't bare the thought of Shadow leaving her to train as an herbalist and the two of them never becoming rangers together. And so, finally accepting that she was developing feelings for him, she confronted him one day as he fetched herbs for Flurry. She confessed that she couldn't bare to live in a pack where Shadow wasn't a ranger alongside her to help her be better and stay by her side. Shadow was taken aback, but her words touched him, and he agreed to continue training as a ranger apprentice. He stopped helping Flurry and returned to his old duties. Thorn was thrilled and relieved to have him with her again, but the impression it gave her was ultimately a bad thing--it gave Thorn a feeling of control over Shadow, and she now felt as if she could tell Shadow to do anything and he would listen to her. He was already her best friend, after all, and he'd already given up herbalist training for her; surely that was what it meant, right?

As time went on, however, things only went downhill. At Gatherings, Shadow began growing close with wolves from other packs like Wild and Frost. Thorn was dismayed upon noticing this, disliking the concept that she alone was not good enough for him, and deciding that Shadow was just too naive to understand the risks of inter-pack friendships. She came to the conclusion that she would have to save him from himself, whether he liked it for not. This is when she began enlisting her friends to help her in her goal--to cut Shadow off from his 'dangerous' associates and keep him where she could have an eye on him at all times. She'd almost lost him once already, and she didn't want him slipping out of his grasp again.

So, using the fact that she was looked up to and respected to get what she wanted, she told Fern, Jagged, and Vole to work for her, and the three other apprentices would spy on Shadow, both during Gatherings and on normal days. They would report back to Thorn on everything they saw or heard that they found to be worth nothing. Shadow caught onto her ploys quickly, however, and he was angry with her for it. They finally broke into a bitter and intense argument near the Thunder Pack border that was only stopped once Frost saw them and intervened. Frost sent Thorn back to her own camp, but this event only steeled her resolve and doubled her belief that she was right. She'd been trying to do what was best for Shadow, and yet his meddling Thunder Pack friend had stepped in and turned her away without even knowing what they were fighting about. Thorn and Shadow's relationship had soured drastically by the end of their time as apprentices, but Thorn was still determined to 'help' him regardless of what it took. She loved him, after all.

After earning their ranger ranks, there was still a long period of tension and uncertainty between Thorn and Shadow. Thorn had herself convinced that she had his best interest at heart, but Shadow was made uncomfortable by her advances and the strange, possessive mindset she seemed to hold over him. Once they had each received an apprentice of their own, however--Thorn with Timber and Shadow with Pool--they both decided to turn over a new leaf and try to be friends again. It was hard at first, especially for Shadow, but Thorn kept insisting that she cared about him and wanted only what was best for him, and he hesitantly allowed himself to open up to her again, forgiving her for her prior offenses.

Despite that, the brief spell of peace did not last long. On one occasion soon after Timber and Pool's ranger ceremonies, Thorn was following Shadow and caught him meeting up once again with Frost at the border--something she had trusted that he would no longer do. Infuriated at her failure to contain him and frightened for his inability to comprehend what he was doing, she went straight to the pack's Beta, Leaf, and told her what she had seen. She did not like going to such great measures, but she felt as though she had been left with no choice--and so she requested that Shadow be prohibited from attending Gatherings until he had proven himself to be a loyal member of Wind Pack. Leaf agreed to her suggestion, and Shadow was banned from Gatherings for many moons to come.

Needless to say, this plunged their relationship into the rocks, and what they'd managed to mend was broken all over again. After that, Thorn and Shadow were barely even on speaking terms, and it was hard for them to so much as exchange words without devolving into a fight. Thorn started to become bothered by how unhappy she was making him, her belief that she was doing what was best for him beginning to falter. Shadow didn't see it that way, and Thorn was beginning to think that maybe he wouldn't thank her for it one day as she'd thought.

Thorn truly did love Shadow, but the things she admired about him (his kindness, thoughtfulness, and intellect) were also the things that threatened her. Both were kindred spirits, but wanted completely different things. Their ideologies contrasted each other glaringly, and it was a difference neither one was prepared to overcome. If they were to ever get together, they would both have to do a lot of learning and growing first. Deep down, Shadow still loved her, too--just not in the way she wanted him to. He didn't return her romantic affections, and chances were that he never would. Thorn began to realize and accept that of her own accord. At first, she'd felt she'd deserved his love and should have earned him as her mate by then, but those thoughts became to crumble as their friendship did.

As Thorn became aware of her actions and how they'd impacted the one wolf she'd never meant to hurt, she became incredibly angry with herself. She went to extreme lengths to fix things: exiling herself from the pack. Late one night, she snuck away from Wind Pack and didn't look back. If she was no longer there to meddle with Shadow's life, he would be much happier, surely?

Thorn traveled as a lone wolf for a long while, slowly shaping herself into a new wolf, a better one, less ambitious and possessive, kinder and friendlier. When she came across Pepper's pack, she saw her chance for a new start as a new wolf, and eagerly offered up her skills as a pupsitter.

Daughters: Blue, Sweet, Snap
Mate: Shadow
Adopted Daughters: Aqua, Dawn, Biscuit
Adopted Sons: Midnight