A second home, a second chance

(ooc: direct continuation of this topic)

Dappleleaf hoped that Pumpkin would stay put, mostly for his safety. As quickly as she could (which was nowhere near as fast as she'd like), the elder hobbled over to Nettlestar's den. She believed the best in her leader, and knew she would make the right decision, what ever that may be. Leadership skills weren't exactly part of Dappleleaf's many talents - she tended to just do what she wanted. If only a younger her could've followed the advice she had given her leader. Nosing her way through the lichen that covered the entrance of her den, she spotted Nettlestar in the darkness.

It wasn't that surprising that the scarred she-cat was still in her den: the sun had only just begun to rise, and was barely visible above the treetops. She kept her voice quiet in case she was still asleep, "Nettlestar," Her voice echoed slightly off the walls of the stone den, cutting through the relative silence, "Sorry to wake you, but we have a visitor who I think would like to meet you. He's outside camp at the moment, should I bring him through?" With that, she withdrew from the den and waited outside. She caught Pumpkin's eyes through the camp entrance, and silently urged him to wait.

Pumpkin followed the older she-cat through the forest, and as they came through a small tunnel of brambles, they emerged into a clearing full of cats of every colour, shap and size. "Wow... So this is what you were talking about!" he exclaimed. Dappleleaf told him to stay put whilst she went to speak with the leader, he obeyed politely.

Nettlestar stood up and shook out her pelt as soon as Dappleleaf said her name. The she-cat had in fact been asleep, but she always slept lightly.

"A visitor?" The she-cat asked. Was there any chance this was about the missing kits? She doubted it was the mystery perpetrator, but could it be someone who knew something about it, who had seen some kind of evidence, or even the kit herself? Whatever it was, she trusted Dappleleaf. "Yes, I will meet him. Go ahead and bring him into camp,"

Dappleleaf nodded at Nettlestar's words, and padded back over to where she had left Pumpkin. Her pace wasn't as rushed as it had been previously, but she still wished she could walk a little faster. When she was finally across camp, she beckoned him to come with her. "Pumpkin! Come on." she gestured with her head to the centre of the camp. As she lead him deeper into camp, they got a few stares from the surrounding cats, most of which were just waking up. Some gazes were hostile, others friendly, some just confused. How would her clanmates take this? She believed (or it may've just been wishful thinking) that most of them would be accepting: Pumpkin wasn't the only cat here with non-clan blood. Would Nettlestar approve though?

Pumpkin padded along behind her, noticing a lot of strange glances in his direction. He ignored them. Dappleleaf lead him to a den, glancing at hi as if to say 'good luck' as he went inside.

Nettlestar watched as Dappleleaf went to fetch her mysterious visitor, both curious and a bit apprehensive about what exactly was going on.

Soon, a cat appeared before her, not bearing the scent of any of the other clans. This only confused her further-- what could an outsider want with her? Was it possible this was a loner who, while passing through the territory, really had seen something suspicious linked to the missing kit? She was still doubtful of that, but who knew? She supposed there was always also the chance that it was an outside cat who had, for one reason or another, come to seek shelter in ThunderClan. Thinking about it, that was probably the more likely scenario-- but either way, she wouldn't jump to conclusions. She wanted to hear what this cat wanted directly from him.

"Greetings," she said, respectful, but slightly distant, "My name is Nettlestar, I am ThunderClan's current leader. May I ask who you are and why you are here?"

(ooc: Khamosa said it was ok if I posted before her because dappleleaf is less relevant in this part) 

He glanced around the den nervously, and replied "Hey, uhm, I'm Pumpkin and, well, my owner was moving here from australia, (which is further from here than you could ever imagine) when the..." he gulped, "The car crashed and he died" he said calmly, only his eyes gave way to the immense amount of emotion that he was hiding. After a short minute or so he continued, "Anyways, I ran and then the next morning dappleleaf found me, and brought me here"

Nettlestar listened as her guest spoke. She did not know what some of the words he used meant-- she had no clue where "Australia" was (but if it was truly farther than she could imagine, then she wondered how the tom had gotten here), or what a "car" was, but she assumed that it crashing was a bad thing (she struggled to think of any good forms of "crashing"). She waited patiently as he was overwhelm by emotion, and then finally continued on.

So, he was an outsider looking for a place to stay, not someone with information regarding the kit that had gone missing. The gray she-cat couldn't help but be vaguely dissapointed, but it was alright-- she was happy to welcome Pumpkin to ThunderClan, if that was what he wanted, and provided he was willing to be an active part of the clan like everyone else here.

"I am sorry for what you have had to endure," she said, dipping her head respectfully, "And if you wish to stay here in ThunderClan, you are welcome. You would not be the only member of this clan not to be born here. But if you do want to make this place your home, you must be willing to follow our ways-- we all work together to hunt for and defend the clan. Everyone here goes through training-- as an apprentice-- to understand how to hunt and fight and learn the code we all live by. If you want to live here, you, too, will have to undergo this training. If you don't wish to do this, then I would be happy to still provide you temporary shelter. But that is all it could be-- temporary. So the question is, then, have you come here to stay?"

The she-cat watched him with her cool green gaze, waiting for his answer.

He thought for a second, then replied "I suppose I do intend to stay, I mean, I'm fine with training" He smiled hopefully at the older she, looking forward to his new way of life in the forest.

[Just gonna add this because it might be helpful- he probably won't need as much training as other kittypets that may have joined since he had a bit more of a free (sorry ik that was cringey, I couldn't think of another way to put it ;-;) lifestyle compared to them, he spent a lot of the time exploring and getting into trouble with kangaroos sort of thing]

"Good," the she-cat said, smiling politely "Then ThunderClan is happy to welcome you to its ranks,"

She paused, regarding the former kittypet. She had one last request she wanted to make of him.

"There is one more thing. We have a naming tradition in the clans. Our names change over time with each new milestone-- as apprentices, we gain the word paw, as warriors that word is replaced by one of many, many possibilities, to signify something about ourselves. When you are officially made an apprentice of this clan, will you be willing to change your name to match our tradition?"

[OOC: That's fine, though Nettlestar will ask him to go through apprentice training regardless of whether he already has some hunting and fighting experience, because she sees it as an important part of clan life to have trained under a mentor and learned about the clan's ways]

He paused. The idea of changing his name swarmed him with guilt, he gulped. "I'd like to keep my name as just pumpkin, I-It was the name that Oscar gave me, I want to keep that part of him alive" He smiled weakly, eyes clouding with sadness again,
[Okay, sure- I understand :D ]

Nettlestar nodded respectfully again. She didn't know who the "Oscar" that the former kittypet mentioned was, but she did hear the emotion in the tom's voice, and it was clear how important his name was to him. She understood that very well-- the importance of names. Her own warrior name had meant much to her-- in a strange way, perhaps one of her greatest regrets in becoming leader was losing that name. If someday she found herself approaching the age her father had lived to, and made the decision to retire, as he had, she would embrace having that name back.

"Very well," she said simply, "If the name carries strong meaning to you, then you may keep it. Welcome to ThunderClan, Pumpkin,"