Appearance

The majority of Deadweight's fur is blonde, though she has a cornsilk dorsal stripe along her spine, a colour which also coats her neck in a ruff. Her most notable markings however are her red points- beginning just below her elbows and knees, her legs go from wine red to a dark mahogany at her feet. Her muzzle is also this same, dark shade of reddish brown, trailing up to a point in the middle of her forehead. Her tail feathering is also a very pale shade of beige, similar to her ruff and dorsal stripe, and her eyes are a gleaming gold.

In build she is small, and often gaunt. Due to some deficiencies in her cartilage, her ears flop, and she has some hyperextension in her joints. There is a bit of a droop to her muzzle, accenting her large, doleful eyes. She is very flexible, but also quite weak. In childhood she suffered a dislocated hip, and never fully recovered so she went the majority of her life barely being able to do more than a rough amble. Her tail is often low-slung, and there is a deep, sagging arch to her back. She often guards her movements, as if fearful she will reinjure herself.

History

Perrywine came into the world and was much the same as her siblings- a beautifully coloured puppy, healthy in all regards. It was only when she began to reach the mobile stage where she began to flag, as it took her longer than the others to become stable on her feet. Even once she was mobile she was clumsy, awkward and ungainly- seemingly able to trip over nothing and lose her balance because of one errant movement of her tail. The floppiness of her ears was a peculiarity, but along with everything else about her, she was more or less just dismissed and labelled 'weird.'

She wasn't very popular. She couldn't keep up with the other youth, and they certainly wouldn't wait for her. When she sought reassurance from her parents she was overlooked, and often ignored as though she was a mark of shame on their family. She became accustomed to getting little more than a roll of the eyes and a disappointed frown, and so she settled for being the last to feed, and became very quiet in order to escape notice.

Bullies were tough on her during her adolescence, and though she tried to tune them out, she could not protect herself when they began to physically joust and jostle her. She submitted without a fight, but often got tossed about, dragged, covered in dirt and mud depending on the mood the other adolescents were in. One particularly bad shove caused her to trip and her hip was dislocated. Her condition was met with some concern (finally) but while the healer tended to her, it became clear that the pack would only invest a minimal effort in keeping her alive if she couldn't keep up once she healed.

She was christened "Deadweight" and it became her identity at her coming-of-age ceremony. It had been her nickname for some time, but when the elder of the pack pronounced it in front of the audience, it was met with the most applause she had ever been given. She accepted the name, as heavy and backhanded as it was.

She found peace only in the little things- glimmers, if you will. But the majority of her life was spent suffering from chronic pain and anxiety, as well as the crippling efforts it took for her to keep up with her pack and contribute enough for them to even allow her to feed on the pack's kills. Eventually, because she could not contribute to their hunting efforts, some of the pack members became so bitter that they refused to let her eat simply out of spite. She foraged as well as she could, but eventually spiraled into severe decline early in the winter of her third year.

She was left behind, gasping for air when she collapsed, and was picked apart by scavengers before her heart had stopped beating.