AN: this is the history of me/my tribe self. I know it isn't much but I just had to write it down.
Tigress:
I was reborn the day my parents died. I was 15 and I felt like my life had ended. I was a little over weight at first but within a few short months I slimmed down. This happened because of lack of food and the fact I was forced to be constantly moving. Violent tribes surrounded me and I didn't wish to join them.
The first change I made was adding feathers to my wardrobe. One feather for every person that I loved and missed, although it was only the people I was closest too. I narrowed the list to 6, my step dad, my brother, my mother, my grandmother and grandfather on my mom's side and my great grandmother. They were the people who meant the most to me and I wanted to never forget.
Soon I formed a small band of people, close friends of mine, to help survive. Because of this I started wearing tribal makeup. It helped to tell others that I wasn't alone in this new and dangerous world. 3 red claw marks on the cheek was our mark. We had chosen the name predators because it was intimidating and because we were hunters, we survived by hunting for food and trading the extra meat for things we didn't have.
My new name came next, one of the young ones that had joined our small tribe was attacked by one of the other tribes. As leader of our little group I rushed into battle to protect the young girl. I barely remember what happened next but my best friend said that I was crouched down over the girl growling and hissing like a wild beast. When one of the guys again tried to get to the girl I pounced on him like a tiger and beat the living daylights out of him. By the end of the fight I was covered in bruises and lacerations but everyone in our area called me Tigress because of how fiercely I fought. I was feared but respected by many. No one threatened my cubs any longer and I liked it that way, they were safe. The tribe all adapted and took animal names to add to our tribal prestige.
My clothing gradually changed after that. While at first I wore just normal tshirts and jeans my cloths began to adapt, first they grew darker in color and soon I was wearing mostly only black and dark denim jeans. But then one day when we went to trade I saw a beautiful corset that had tiger print on it. Soon small things were added to my outfit. The corset, then an arm band of the same material, then a wrist band. But then the little girl I had protected gave me a gift, it was a handmade headband. It was black studded leather and soon I evened out my armband and wrist band with matching leather bands on the opposite sides. The headband was her way of showing everyone else that I was the leader of our tribe. She said it was like a crown to show I was the queen. I appreciated the gesture and although I felt far from a queen I wore it anyways.
I acquired my combat boots when we had to defend ourselves from a rival tribe. The Bulldogs had set up base at an old Air Force base when the virus hit. They got it in their heads that they would rule the whole area and gave everyone the ultimatum to join them or die⦠my tribe refused and they tried to attack. Luckily the woods were our home and they were lost in the strange area. 3 people died that day and although I felt bad for killing two of them I took my trophies, a pair of combat boots, because my old shoes had a hole in the sole and winter was soon approaching, and a pair of dogtags. I didn't lose any sleep over their deaths, I was protecting my tribe, the bulldogs were out to kill us and I had no other choice.
The final change came just before my twentieth birthday. I cut off my long hair. My hair, which at one time was nearly down to the center of my back was lopped off to my jawline. It was the final stage of my transformation. I no longer resembled the person I was before the Virus I was Tigress, and only tigress. My life would never be the same, even though the world was starting to calm down a bit as kids began to realize we had to look into the future or we would never survive. The world had adults again, but we weren't the same as the ones who died. We were new, we had starved, we had killed but we had survived. Tomorrow had finally come and it was time to move on and start anew.
