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If you were to ask Haystack where she came from. She would probably laugh, and tell you some bogus story about growing up normally before joining Buckthorns Warren. But, what you wouldn't know, is that that question is the most single dreaded and feared thing that you could ask that gentle lioness. Or perhaps, you would want to ask her about her two chattering feathered companions, or about the headdress of feathers she keeps hidden in her den that no one's allowed to go into.
She is the single most loved doe in Buckthorn's warren.
And probably the most mysterious.
If you were to get her on a really bad day, when she just needed someone to listen and ask her any of those questions, you might get an answer. And it would be something like this;
Haystack was born to an affectionate but strict mother. Her father was nice but prideful and neither spent much quality time with her, but she truly didn't care. Haystack was a performer, just like her mother and father. And not just any, she and her parents were the star performers at the:
"Circus Flayrah!"
When she was an adolescent, however, her father was sold to a neighboring circus that needed a new star. And when her mother was given to a Zoo, she was dragged away kicking and screaming, although we'll never know if she was desperately trying to stay for her daughter or the circus. A nice trainer was brought in and Haystack was finally named Lybra, the cat of 1,000 wonders.
She was taught all sorts of nifty tricks.
She was truly a cat of talent. But everything started going downhill from there.
Her beloved circus was bought out by a new owner. And he was fierce. When she messed up during performances, she would be whipped. The first night of the new show, when she messed up and was whipped, the whole audience become horrified and called the police. But when they wouldn't show up, they took matters into their own hands and tried to steal her away. They were ripping at her, un-knowingly hurting her, so her loyal trainer took her and dropped her at the doorstep of a purely animal circus, one of amazing talent, just like her. The trainers there taught her only one trick, only one thing she had to do, she was the "Feline friend of birds"
The act was supposed to go something like this,
They would put a belled collar around her and she'd prance around like a house cat. They would then release two trained parrots into the arena but instead of catching them (like a house cat would) she would bat around at them for some time until the three of them would do some acts. The parrots would hold up hoops for her to jump through and other things like that. The act would end when the birds gave her a headdress of feathers before she would bow and leap off the stage.
The people loved it, they would laugh at the humor in such a huge cat acting so docile, and then they would cheer at how she worked with the birds. It took some time, but eventually, her act gained some much fame that a talent scout from a neighboring circus caught wind of it and came to see her. After watching the act and how everyone responded to it, he made an offer to the circus they couldn't refuse, one for millions of dollars for the cat and her birds. However, she would never see a stage again.
Her new owners took her parrots and kept them locked in a cage from her, they then bathed her and took many pictures of her before posting them on a website to be sold to some big money-maker in America. Her old trainer, the nice one, stumbled across the site and desperate to save his beloved feline he raided the home, freeing her and her birds, where she was let loose on the plains of Africa, disappearing into the night. When Buckthorn found her, she was still wearing her headdress, her birds perched on her shoulders, hungry and scared.
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