General

About

Scaeden's mother was a breeder. She mated with the strongest lynxes and produced the healthiest kits. He barely has any memory of his mother. The only thing he can remember from the short time when she was around is bright blue eyes on a bold-colored lynx, which he has always assumed was his mother’s. Scaeden wasn’t always called Scaeden. His birth name was Drop, named after the rain-drop markings on his sides. His mother named his whole litter after things she had only ever seen that were able to leave the confinements of the city. Drops of rain were one of them, and his sibling’s names were Bolt (after lightning), Sparrow, and Breeze.

There is a specific memory that Scaeden has that is mostly shrouded in mystery because of a particular event that happened shortly after his encounter with a strange, yet familiar lynx. There was an arena cat owner that liked to work with the breeders that Drop’s mother belonged to. When Drop’s litter of four was born, the breeders took him, his siblings, and his mother to see the owner. The owner took particular interest in Drop and another of one his siblings. However, as the owner and the breeder were talking, Drop noticed a pair of bright, icy blue eyes peering at his mother through the bars of a cage. Drop snuck off to the curious cat, not bound to a chain like his mother was. His sister, Bolt, called him back, but he ignored her. This older cat was covered in intricate armor and scars. Drop was fascinated. He smiled, but the moment didn’t last long. The owner saw Drop and, angry because the breeder let his litter wander around so freely, denied any possible sales and sent them away. That was Drop’s last chance to ever get to grow up alongside his half-brother, Soren.

Disappointed in the unfortunate event, the breeder looked for anybody to sell the cubs to. There was a rich, insane owner who wanted to take all four cubs off the breeder’s hands for reasons the breeder was unaware of. Selling the litter and leaving, the owner took the cubs immediately into a cage with two tigers, crazed with bloodlust and delusional beyond saving. He meant to use the cubs as ‘play things’, just a treat for his two prized champion fighters. He tossed them into the cage, and the tigers lunged.

Two of the cubs were dead within minutes. Sparrow and Breeze laid in bloody heaps in front of the two surviving cubs, paralyzed with fear. The tigers went after Drop and Bolt, but Bolt, much smaller but more brave than Drop, leaped in front of her brother and got smacked down, a sickening crunch echoing when her small body hit the hard ground. She fell limp and bloody, and Drop suddenly became furious, but still terrified. When one of the tigers lashed with his fangs at the remaining cub, Drop let his claws out and bloodied the tiger’s eyes. By this time, the crazy owner had taken an extreme liking to Drop’s enthusiasm, and when the lynx cub ran by the cage door, the human scooped him up and threw him into a nearby empty cage, making a promise to turn him into a real killer. The owner then gave him the name he would keep for the rest of his life; Scaeden.

The newly named arena Gladiator didn’t watch when the owner raked his sibling’s bodies out of the tigers’ cage and threw them out into the street to rot. The trauma from the horrifying experience wiped Scaeden’s memory of his older brother, and ever since then, he always associated the icy blue eyes with his mother.

For the first year of his life, Scaeden was trained to be a Gladiator in the coliseum. At first, he hated his training, but as soon as he made his first kill, a young ocelot cub, he realized how powerful he could be. As he began winning more and more, his owners began to put him in the arena with big cats. Every fight he entered ended in a kill. His owner raked in tons of money from him, but went bankrupt after betting on a small cub while drunk one night. The cub lost, obviously, and Scaeden's owner handed over all their money. When he came to the next morning, he realized what he had done. When he realized what he had lost, he began training Scaeden as hard as he could, so the Emperor would choose him to be a Hunter and he would get the large amount of money for it. Scaeden's battles became quicker and easier, his kills more efficient. When the Emperor noticed this, he immediately chose Scaeden to be a Hunter, and his owner was paid a great deal.

Scaeden liked the life of a Hunter significantly more than the life of a Coliseum fighting cat. There was the perfect amount of freedom, and instead of his fights being for show and money, they were real. The fights meant something. Scaeden felt a sense of importance and meaning when he Hunts for Empire cats. Because of this, he loves his job and is a better fighter now than he ever was before.

When Scaeden was 3, he got himself into a series of Hunts for the Air Empire leader, Valon. It was an accident, really. He happened to hear the cry of a fellow Hunter fighting an Empire cat. He ran to the cry to see it was Selineen. He had known there was a small party of cats in Air Empire trying to retrieve Valon; and he suspected they were going to need help because of a thunderstorm that was raging through the night. One thing led to another, and he found himself in the middle of a tussle between an Air Empire patrol and a few of his fellow Bounty Hunters, Caelina and Kleio. In the Air Empire patrol was the Air Empire leader, Valon. During the battle, he and Valon grew a deep hatred for each other. Scaeden didn't realize that his hatred for Valon would get him mixed up in some very odd situations.

The Bounty Hunters lost that battle, and Scaeden was furious. He hated Valon, absolutely hated him. He came up with another plan to capture the serval, and soon, he and Selineen were off in Air Empire again. They tricked Valon into trusting them, and Valon led them straight into Fire Empire to confront the Fire Empire Gladiator Nimbus and her leader, Soren, who is also Scaeden's half-brother (neither one of them know this yet). Little did Valon or Soren know, Scaeden had a patrol of five more Bounty Hunters waiting for them in Fire Empire. Just as the meeting with the two Empires was coming to a close, Scaeden launched the attack. Again, the Bounty Hunters were forced to retreat, but Scaeden did accomplish something that no Bounty Hunter had ever tried before; he got two Empires to mistrust each other greatly. He also managed to get himself and Caelina, who was in the patrol, captured by Fire Empire. When they were taken to the camp, they noticed they weren't alone. Two Bounty Hunter apprentices, Furie and Juno, were also being held captive after a failed attempt to raid Fire Empire's camp and capture the healer.

This is when Scaeden's life began to get turned around. The four captive Bounty Hunters were given a chance at the life of an Empire cat, and the offer was hard to refuse, but eventually, they did refuse. Fire Empire cast them out into the dreadful abyss of the unknown lands, beyond Empire territory, left to fend for themselves. On their way back, Scaeden, enraged with the fact they had been just thrown out like trash to die, managed to find Shadow Empire's territory, and managed to capture three of their Empire cats in revenge. When they reached the city, the Hunters made him their new leader.

Scaeden now stands strong, an new, fiery hatred for the Empires burning in his chest. But somehow...he still finds it hard to imagine himself taking down Fire Empire. Maybe one day he'll find the strength to do so, but for now he will make do with the other four Empires.

Scaeden's scars are all from Bounty Hunting, except his ear. The scars on his side he got from Andromeda, the Fire Empire Silver Gladiator. The ones on his face are from Soren, Fire Empire Leader. His paws are also scarred underneath the bandages from Vayea (Air Empire Silver Gladiator) and Andromeda.

Scaeden gets very bad migraines and backaches from when Valon (Air Empire Leader) smashed his back and dislocated a part of it.

Relationships