Claye 🌲

R.I.P Claye - First wolf I ever encountered; first and only finisher for his hunting party; friend of many, but especially Friske, a chaser in the same hunting party. He will be missed. His personality was Optimistic.


Backstory:
Claye was born in the Spruce Lake Pack to his mother Lunare and his parent Magpie. He had a normal puppyhood alongside his siblings Rocky, Bramble, and Dusk. At the time, though, Spruce Lake Pack was clinging onto a small scrap of territory amongst the much larger territories of several other packs, and they couldn't support a large number of wolves. Claye's siblings chose to go to other packs when they became adolescents, but Claye was desperate to stay, and he was allowed to. He was trained as a finisher by Willow, the pack's main trainer.

Spruce Lake pack managed to hold onto their territory for over three more years before another pack attacked them in early summer. The survivors scattered and were disbanded, most of them never seeing each other again. Claye, scared and lost, fled out of the Coniferous Forest where he'd been born and into the mountains. He spent a long time wandering through these unfamiliar lands, never staying in one place for more then a few days and eating mostly by scavenging.

During late autumn, he stumbled into a wolf who he knew well - Birch, who had been his friend back in the Spruce Lake Pack! They were both overjoyed to see eachother again, and Birch told Claye that his name was now Friske. It was obvious to them that they should stick together after somehow finding each other again, and so they did.

Soon, it was early spring, and Claye and Friske were tired and hungry after a harsh winter. That's when Reina found them. She offered them a place to stay in return for them helping her and her packmate to hunt. Claye was a naturally positive wolf, and he trusted them; Friske was naturally sociable and he wanted to be with a pack again. It turned out to be one of the best decisions they had ever made, and the pack, Istone, became their new home - one that Claye would defend with his life.

He died peacefully in his sleep after serving Istone Pack as a finisher, alongside Friske and the rest of his hunting team, for the past three years of his life. Claye had devoted his entire life to his pack and never had any puppies, but he was happy to has simply been a hunter in the pack that had become his new family. He wouldn't have wished for anything else.