blow us all away / renaming

[Needledrift]

Carrionkit and Foxkit, Ferndance had said their names were and for perhaps the first time ever, Needledrift had to admit that her mate's quirky nature had tiptoed a little too far. Bloodkit and Bonekit were just as strange and macabre, sure, but she could pretend that they were named after the afterbirth and ivory color of their son's base coat respectively - the first thing that Ferndance would see and a physical descriptor as most cats were named after. But Carrionkit and Foxkit....

Carrionkit was not a mangled corpse being picked over by vultures and maggots. She wasn't Sprucepaw's dead body made animate. She was covered in downy kitten fluff, soft and sweet, her scent wreathed in mother's milk and pine needles. She was colored like her mother, all darker tips and lighter belly, and she nursed politely next to her siblings. Needledrift imagined that Halfshade might've liked this one, had they returned in time to save her from the illness that took her.

Foxkit, on the other hand, didn't remotely resemble a fox. With her wispy fur and white-spattered face, she was closer to .... well, to Chilledstar... than anything.... A sort of heart-pang spread through the grey and white she-cat's chest at the thought of naming her daughter after her distant friend, the friend she so brazenly disavowed before the whole clan. Maybe you shouldn't be leader anymore, she had sniffled out and she didn't even have the decency now to not have meant it. Chilledstar was tired and driven to their wits end by the role they had taken on. They were a husk of a cat stuck in a semblance of power. Needledrift had never imagined that Chilledstar would've made a good replacement for Briar...star... and yet here they were. Chilledstar was the worn-through leader of ShadowClan and she... she was just another nay-sayer to their rule, no better than Betonyfrost or Siltcloud or any of the rest...

No, her daughter didn't deserve that legacy either.

"Snowykit. She decided for the fluffy black kitten. Not after Chilledstar directly, but for Hailstorm. And Frostbite. And Iciclefang. All pinnacles of strength and courage. Cats that her child would one day meet and grow to admire and emulate. "- and Shadekit." She nuzzled the black tabby kitten in turn, christening her with a kiss atop her head. After their home. After Halfshade. Duskpool. Sharpshadow. Nightbird.

Snowykit and Shadekit, named for some of the most respectable cats the forest would ever see. They would grow into their names, she was sure of it.

@FERNDANCE @snowykit @SHADEKIT speech is in #B9D0F5​

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[splashdance]

Once graced with snow and blood, once denoted Foxkit - the shadow-colored kitten wriggles in the warmth of the nursery all the same. An epithet means nothing in the face of milk and snuggles at the end of the day, though truth be told that if she were to encounter the very thing she was named after, she would be no more than Fearkit. Scaredkit, properly. Gutskit - Bloodkit, if her sister were not already named it.

But Needledrift is kind enough to save her and her brown colored sibling from fates defined by destiny. The meanings are long lost on youths like her, however Snowykit, seems to be a child of great timing. A mewl, quiet and impartial, calls just as Needledrift purrs her new name to her. Snowykit she shall be, named after strength and courage, and cats she will only meet once in a full moon. Named for the flurries set adrift, burying a body she does not know.​