Delta's Renaming Ceremony

Standing atop the Jaggedrock, Thornstar looked out over the camp with a neutral expression. She'd made her decision regarding taking in the two cats who had stumbled into her camp the other morning.

They would stay.

Salmonburn had been a Shadowclan cat for long enough, and she recalled him being genuinely grief-stricken at the prospect of being left behind. She hadn't made the call, but she'd understood Scorchstar's reasoning. It would have been bad for the alliance if they came across as kit-stealers, and they'd desperately needed that alliance at the time.

But that didn't mean Thornstar had agreed with it.

The loner wasn't awful either, she had to admit. Yesterday when she'd taken the pair out into the deep marshes in an attempt to see how much the tom remembered, Delta had shown some promise in navigating the marshes. For having little to no experience, she was far from awful. Though she was still far from being a warrior.

Thornstar would remedy that.

Lifting her voice into a gruff call, the she-cat summoned her clan in her typical Thorn way.

"Get your mange-ridden tails over here, rats. Clan meeting."

"Delta. Step forward, kit."

Thornbriar waited expectantly for the ginger she-cat to obey. Her scarred, mangled pelt stood out amidst the crowd just as much as Thornstar was sure hers once had. She felt for the loner.

Which, admittedly, was one of the reasons she'd chosen to accept her into Shadowclan.

"Days ago, you and your mate Salmonburn made the journey and the choice to travel to our camp and ask us for shelter. You requested to join Shadowclan and become our clanmate. I told you I would consider it." Narrowing her gaze, she watched the she-cat's reaction to her words.

Nervousness.

Good, she was smart then.

"Now, I give you my answer. Delta, today you will be reborn as a cat of Shadowclan." Turning her gaze to the sky, Thornstar narrowed her gaze.

This was part of the ceremony she could do without.

"Spirits of StarClan, you know every cat by name. I ask you now to take away the name from the cat you see before you, for it no longer stands for what he/she is. By my authority as leader of Shadowclan, and with the approval of our..."

She sighed and looked at the ginger she-cat again. This wasn't gonna work. Kissing Starclan's backside wasn't in her agenda for today.

Or any day really.

"You know what, your name is Cardinalpaw now. I'll teach you how to not be stupid until you earn your warrior name. If you try to pull something cute, don't fool yourself into thinking you won't be removed from the territory. Forcefully."