Since his arrival in the Clan - ThunderClan, as the Clan cats called it, and there were several other Clans with different names that Serpentberry had mentioned that Stinger couldn't imagine wasting his time memorizing - the rest of the Clan cats had been nothing but vaguely welcoming. They did, of course, seem to regard him and his siblings with some hesitance, as was to be expected of strangers in their home, but with what Stinger assumed was a combination of the kits' ages and Serpentberry's protection - and she did seem to hold some power here, being capable of healing - he and his siblings were left alone in Serpentberry's care. After all, she'd declared them her own when they had first arrived, without sparing a thought to their real mother, or to how they felt about the change.
Worst of all, Serpentberry had graced Stinger and his siblings with proper Clan names, ones that she seemed rather proud of having chosen - everyone now referred to Nettle as Faithkit, Needle as Falsekit, and Stinger himself had been called Thornkit. He supposed it wasn't far off from his real name, unlike his siblings', but that didn't decrease his distaste for it any - and how could it, when whenever this new name of his was uttered by the Clan cats, it was accompanied with reactions he couldn't place? It was as if the name that Serpentberry had decided for him held some hidden meaning beyond just denoting his age-rank that he didn't know about, and that frustrated him to no end. Ultimately, it wouldn't matter, but for the time being, while his sister was sick and in need of Serpentberry's care and he played along with the ThunderClanners, it would rankle him.
For as long as Stinger could remember, it had been him, his littermates, and their mother, and that had been it. That family unit of four was all he'd needed, and it was all he would continue to need. Being thrust into ThunderClan meant being surrounded by a multitude of other cats, all of whom had Stinger on edge, but at least the older cats left him alone for the most part. It was the kits around his age that couldn't get the hint to leave him alone, and though Stinger did his best to bare his teeth and warn off the kits that wandered too close, there were still plenty of times when one snuck through while his mind was elsewhere - and elsewhere typically meant worrying over Nettle's well-being when he was refused the chance to be glued to her side. As was the case when a tabby kit appeared at his side, calling him by that forsaken name - though, to her credit, it wasn't said with the same weight as the adults said it.
"My 'deal'? What's that supposed to mean?" Stinger hissed, assessing the she-kit that now sat before him. She seemed far too eager to be talking with him. "What's your deal, huh? Don't you Clan cats have to go out and do training, instead of bothering me?" Perhaps not the best comeback, but Stinger had never claimed to be good with words - if anything, that was Needle's specialty. He could talk circles around Stinger any day, as hard as that was to admit.
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THORNKIT—he/him + 02 moons
ThunderClan kit
NPC ♡ NPC | adopted by Serpentberry
Brother to Falsekit, Faithkit
Mate to N/A | Father to N/A
Mentored by N/A | Mentoring N/A
penned by Archivist
