Name: Saitou

Gender: Male

Age: Teens

Breed: Caribou

Personality: Saitou doesn’t need his bulky form to show someone he’s top notch. He can outsmart anyone he comes in contact with, if he feels he needs to. He’s relatively young when it comes to his herd, so his amount of comebacks and background knowledge make for very shocking encounters among other animals. He loves to plan and to see his concepts in action. However, he is a typical teenager. And while his intents are usually good, he can’t help causing mischief every now and then.

Apologetic and empathetic as well, Saitou is surprisingly sensitive. This paired along with knowing just what to say is usually a great combination to comfort another. Though he does have his share of problems hidden way down, and sometimes those things can come to bite him in the butt, making him lose his calm for minutes at a time.

History:  Saitou was born among a quarreling herd somewhere up North. His mother and father were second in command to the big leaders, but even they couldn’t seem to stop the bickering and fighting. This was where Saitou grew up, in the middle of everything gone wrong. His parents attempted to shelter him from all this. The winter season had kept the whole herd on edge, making food impossible to find. And with the predators waiting in the shadows to snatch them up, it was only a matter of time before things got out of control.

Saitou’s parents’ attempts weren’t entirely in vain, though. While their son had to fight every now and then against the younger caribou, and grew stronger and stronger, his mind became his greatest ally. He didn’t necessarily grow up to be a brute like some of the others born around his time. And for this, both he and his parents were exceedingly grateful.

Though one night, humans camped out near their homelands. Saitou was now in his teen years, and was able to fully fend for himself. The herd had calmed down a bit and reunited a lot more since the spring time had come. But now it was summer and they soon found that the humans weren’t there for just a camping trip. Guns resounded through the air. The herd scattered into fragments of separate caribou.

Saitou and his parents attempted to escape, and Saitou managed to make it. But he had been falling behind. And his parents had to come back and get them. They instructed him to run. And to keep on running. And while he wanted badly to freeze in place, he knew that his attempts to help them would be futile. He was more brain than bronze. And they knew that too.

So he did what they said and kept running. For all Saitou knew after that, they could have been dead. But then, he hadn’t seen them get shot either. So they could have lived, too. He never got the chance to find out.

By the time he was so tired his legs threatened to collapse on him, he came across another herd. He tentatively approached them, and tried his best to talk their new leaders, Terra and Argo. They happily accepted him into the herd. But before long, winter came again. Saitou got very bad mental images of déjà vu. He didn’t like this season. In fact, he sometimes made himself believe he hated it.

The herd was forced to move south. And honestly, Saitou liked Terra and Argo’s decision, despite the thoughts of the rest of the herd. He didn’t want his past experiences to ever happen again. They haunted him deep down. And so they kept moving onward. Saitou was surprised that he got along with another caribou so well. His name was Tuktu. And apparently, he was the leaders’ son.

He and Tuktu talked a lot, and before Saitou knew it, he had someone he could call a friend. He liked this. It seemed to pay off the hardships of his past. Though, a tragedy soon made itself present. When the herd came to a farm owned and maintained by humans, Saitou felt the déjà vu come on all over again. The news Taifa, Tuktu's aunt and Terra's sister, brought of their leaders’ deaths saddened the teen.

He tried his best to comfort Tuktu, but his mind was also on something else. Since he had arrived at the herd, he had learned little by little about the recent past. And he began to have major suspicions about Taifa and her mate, Caius. He believed something wasn’t right. And it annoyed him that he couldn’t prove anything or figure out entirely what was bothering him about the situation.

When they arrived in an unfamiliar forest, Saitou was overjoyed with the sudden burst of food available. The herd didn’t seem to be entirely happy, but Saitou was. And that was good enough for him. Tuktu seemed to be having a nice time, socializing with other animals around the forest. Some including Bambi, Feline, Thumper, and Lakia. All of them seemed incredibly kind, and Saitou talked to them every now and then. But perhaps not as frequently as Tuktu.

Saitou still has suspicions about Taifa. He doesn’t think that the old leaders, Tuktu’s parents, were simply captured. He knew they had to have been smarter and more agile than that. His mind began racing, going to work. And Taifa’s want to overthrow The Great Prince made for even more unsure thoughts. Saitou is as suspicious as ever.

Crush/Mate: Open

Parents: Kage & Selena (both (c) Anileu)

Siblings: Punuk

Other: N/A

~ lines by saske italian wolf, slightly altered by me; thanks saske! (: ~