Hi! My name's Mattia. Scout leader, albino hare, poison expert (betcha didn't know that!), half-clown (or so Goldtail says). I was orphaned when I was really little. Some say my parents were killed by some vermin, others say they abondoned me because I'm white and they thought white beasts were bad luck. I don't care really. It's in the past and I've got a future that's more important.
Anyway, I was orphaned, then adopted by a badger family who thought I'd make a good playmate (sometimes I wondered if it was playTHING) for their new badger cub. They named me Mattia (duh!) which means "gift." My adopted father's name was Graystripe and my mother was Gitano (say it jei tano). My adopted brother was Allard.
Graystripe started teaching me everything a warrior should know (being one himself). He even showed me how to scout. And do a bunch of other stuff. He even taught me a game that I now use as a weapon. Darts! You know, the ones you hold in you're paw and throw at a target. He showed me how to use them and I was fairly good. Ok, really good. He even nicknamed me "Dart."
Gitano was a herbalist, no, a poisonist is closer. And she taught me to recognize poisons, and cures for poisons. She even made me immune to almost every poison avaliable. I can drink enough poison to kill a full grown male wolf in seconds and not even have a stomach ache. It's very reasuring to know I can't be poisoned. And I'm also a VERY good food tester, but Snaggletooth won't let me near the food. I'm just trying to help the Sentinels! But I'm getting off the subject.
Once I got a little older, I started to feel that I didn't belong with Graystripe and Gitano as much. I found a small cave at the base of a tree and kinda turned it into a home. I kinda alternated from living with Graystripe and living on my own. Eventually, I said good-bye, but I still go back and visit every now and then. I started making poisons and making darts that had a hollow needle. I managed to put the poison inside. Now you know how the darts became a deadly weapon. But not all my darts are deadly. Some just have a sleeping potion in them. The ones with the black fletches are poisonous and the ones with the red and black stripes are sleepious. I keep the black ones in a special pouch on my right side and the striped ones in a pouch on my left side.
One day, several seasons ago, I was walking in Mossflower. Just minding my own business, looking for some Black Bane (at least, that's what I call it), when I heard what sounded like a war. I followed the sounds until I came to a clearing and hid in some bushes. What I saw was a very big male badger and four squirrels with feathers weaved in their tails. Just the squirrels had feathers, not the badger. The squirrels weren't really doing anything to the badger, just climbing all over him.
"Gerroff! You filthy feathered vermin!" the badger shouted grabbing one by the tail and flinging him in my direction.
I lept out of the bushes as the squirrel crashed into them. He looked dazed for a moment, then his eyes focused on me. He smiled. "Oooo! Pretty ghosty hare to play with!" To my shock, he drew out a knife and lunged at me, but I was so scared that I moved a lot faster. I grabed one of my striped darts and threw it at him. Then I dropped and rolled underneath him to avoid the knife. It (the dart, not the knife) hit him in the shoulder. He turned around, looked at the dart, looked at me and flashed an even bigger grin than before. "Night, Night!" he said and fell over.
Then all the noise stopped. The other three squirrels jumped off the badger and ran to the fallen one. The smallest one, who had really dark red fur compared to the others, proded the fallen squirrel with his footpaw. "Arrowpaw?"
He looked at me. "Is he dead?"
I shook my head. "Check the pulse, dummy! He's just asleep! He'll wake up any minute."
The badger growled, "Couldn't you keep him out 'til at least next season? He's the ringleader. Whatever he does, the rest of 'em do." The squirrel, Arrowpaw, started mumbling.
I turned to the the small squirrel. "If you guys promise not to attack me or the badger..."
"The badger's name is Strongpaw!"
"Ok then! If you guys promise not to attack me or Strongpaw, I won't put you all to sleep." I pulled out one of my striped darts and tossed it from paw to paw.
"Um! Point taken! I'm Darkfur! And these are my brothers, Brushtail," He pointed to a squirrel with a really puffy tail, "And this is Curltail," he pointed to a squirrel with, what else, a curly tail. He smiled! "If you can't tell who's the oldest, just remember your ABCD's."
"ABCD's?" Strongpaw said, looking puzzled, but I got it.
"Their names! Arrowpaw, Brushtail, Curltail, and Darkfur. The first letters of their names form the first 4 letters of the alphabet."
Then Arrowpaw woke up. He yawned and stretched. "Hmm! 'S funny. I dreamed that a ghost hare stung me. Hey, the ghost hare followed me out of my dreams. Just don't sting me."
I smiled and put the dart back in my pouch. "Just don't attack me or Strongpaw."
He nodded, then looked at Curltail, and smiled, and snatched a feather off of Curltail's tail. Then the four squirrels had a game of running around the forest, stealing feathers from each other. I relaxed and talked with Strongpaw and made some food. But the food didn't last long, between the big badger and four hyper squirrels.
I kinda started to like Strongpaw and the Squirrels and spent a lot of time with them. One day we were walking through the woods when I heard and enraged voice. "Let us go! You skunk spawn!"
I signaled the Squirrels and Strongpaw to be quiet and snuck towards the voice. Climbing a tree, I looked out over a small clearing, filled with about a dozen vermin. And chained to a tree, was a brown hare with a long scar across her face. Tied to a tree next to her, was a fox?? Or was is a wolf??? With feathers??? And hanging from a branch in a net was a large golden bird. All three looked mad! Then an evil badger with a stained saber came up to the hare and lifted her chin with the sword tip. Then he spoke to the rest of the vermin. "What do you say, mates? Shall we have a little fun with these tresspassers?"
He raised his sword and...