The Story of Star
{{ I didn't really know where I wanted to go with this character, so I thought that it might help if I developed more of a back story to help myself roleplay her out. I normally don't have this much difficulty, but in this case it was necessary for me (perhaps because she is such an odd species, and nothing like anything I've played on this MUCK) and perhaps you might find it entertaining for yourself. Enjoy :) }}
This is the story of how Star, the mute Sea Lion, came to wash up on the Western Shores...
The stormy seas battered the ship between its swells like a plaything, waves whose height well exceeded the sides of the vessel crashed onto the main deck, further drenching the unlucky crew in their attempts to keep the ship together. As another wall of water swept over the floorboards of the ship, it managed to snag an unfortunate rat, whose hold on the mast was just not tight enough; dragging him completly across the deck and slamming him into the barrier that protected the deck from the elements. He attempted to scramble upright, but the next swell managed to finish the job, pulling him overboard and introducing him to the depth's harsh embrace. So high was the urgency of their situation, that the rest of the crew did not even notice their comrade's descent, they were clutching at their only hopes of survival, however fleeting those were becoming.
Below deck, the situation was not much better; the ship leaked, and the rower slaves (for this was, if you hadn't guessed by now, a pirate ship) and prisoners were up to their thighs in cold, salty seawater. Those chained to their benches could only pray that the beasts frantically running about trying to locate the leak were successful, and those scrabbling against the ships walls, feeling for the hole that gave the water entrance, could only hope there was only one. There was another type of beast chained in the bleak belly of the ship, though she was not chained to an oar, nor to a bench, but to the wall. A small sea lion, no older than 3 seasons, strained against the metal collar that pegged her to the wood; she did not understand exactly what was happening, but the urgency and fanatical energy that coursed through her surroundings pursued her to attempt to rip free of this prison, a feat that she had never managed before and would not manage today.
This is, of course, Star; how she came to be on such a horrid ship is a rather short tale. Sea Lions live far away from Redwall and Moledeep, even to get to Salamandastron from their home is a far, far stretch; and ships rarely pass through their territory. However, this one did; on complete accident, of course, but nontheless they passed through Star's home. They would not have seen any of the Sea Lions at all (for they were gathered, sun basking, on a glacier), had it not been for Star's bad timing. The young Sea Lion, in pursuit of a fish, only saw the ship when it was too late and seeing an immediate chance for some black market money from the creature, caught her in a net and dragged her aboard.
Thus, Star was introduced to the Salty Dragon - which sounds more like the name of a seedy tavern than a pirate ship - and its charming crew of stoats, sea rats, weasels, and its captain: a sea wise, bad tempered fox by the name of Captain Blueclaw. Then, nearly a full season later the storm hit, which brings us back to the current story.
In the end, the storm defeated the ship, its crew, slaves, and captain were sinking with it: but the slave master, in a fit of pre-death kindness, unlocked the metal collar that bound Star to the wall, thus allowing her to escape. Even though Sea Lions are strong swimmers, they too are naught but a speck of dust to the raging seas, and though she struggled to get as deep as possible where the swimming was easier, she always had to come up for air. Still, she managed to get along for awhile with the tiring task of taking a breath, then diving as deep as possible, swimming for a ways, then going up for air again; and eventually she was defeated, knocked unconscious by the sheer force of a rolling wave.
By some two-sided miracle, she was not killed: on the contrary, she woke up on a beach. Though, the bad news: it happened to be just outside the black market the pirates had in mind for her final destination (the irony is inescapably); it wasn't hard to catch her, she was exhausted and barely put up a fight. She found herself chained up once more in a cage, and displayed to the market as a work slave.
An aged stoat called Ripper bought her at this point, and she was introduced to a life of hard labor. She was the seaside equivalent of a work horse,
Ripper made up a harness for her and she would pull his boat so he would not have to row, and he trained her to fish for him. She was a servant of the whip, and lived this way for a full three seasons. Ripper had one daughter, and two granddaughters who would occasionally visit; one of his grandchildren gave the Sea Lion the name 'Star' and made her up a collar, and asked Ripper to make it waterproof. Even after Ripper died, and Star managed to escape she wore the collar; she had grown used to it, and barely noticed its presence, and she did not have the intelligence, nor the appendages needed to remove it.
Her instinct drove her to try and get back home, she did not know the way and swam blindly for miles and miles, she could sleep in the water, and she did not see dry land for weeks on end. She simply swam. It was another storm like the one that destroyed the Salty Dragon that dropped young Star onto the Western Shores, tired, weak, and hungry; leaving her at the mercy of whatever came next, and beginning a new chapter in her short, tumulus life.
