Before, when a populous and thriving RiftClan still existed, some of her Clanmates wondered why such a cheery and helpful cat was named Bitter by her parents.

No one asks that question now.

Bitter-root has always been the type of cat to be aggressive with those who lived outside her Clan’s borders, and while she is no longer a RiftClanner, that has not changed. In fact, it has only ever gotten worse since she moved to LochClan; while she may have once dealt with the enemy Clan with some level of professionalism, it would now be no less than a blessing from StarClan if she didn’t get violent with warriors from her old Clan on sight. Keyword, there, being warriors — even on days where she carries herself with so much loathing that she’d love nothing more than to walk into her old camp and kill a few of her old Clanmates until she finds whichever one it is that she really hates, the one that’s caused her the pain she now lives with, she would never dream of harming a kit or killing an apprentice. She has always enjoyed spending time with younger cats, and would often spend her free time playing with kits in the nursery and offering advice to apprentice. If given the chance, she would love to play around with a monarch’s kits again, or help them train a younger cat; one of her old qualities that still remains strong in her. Another is that she still deeply enjoys being helpful in any way that she can, even if her motivations have changed from just wanting to help to taking her mind off of her grief. Still, if there’s ever a place for her to extend a helping paw, then she’ll do it and do it happily.

Since she’s joined LochClan, she’s been avoiding the RiftClan border for all that she’s worth. She wouldn’t say that she’s content, living among cats she once thought of as her enemies, but it’s better than living among pitying glances and murmured condolences and, somewhere among them, an enemy. She has no interest in seeing her old Clanmates.

Besides, the company she has now is all well and good.

Bitter-root has… various thoughts on LochClan, even as one of them. She likes getting to live with other cats — she couldn’t imagine how awful everything would be if she was all on her own again — and her opinion of her new Clanmates has changed since she’s joined them. They were the cats who were kindest to her at her lowest, after all — especially Snarlecho — so how could she not change the way that she treats them? While she once treated LochClan cats as somehow lesser than RiftClan ones, it’s become clear to her now that she’d been wrong; they are just as good, if not better (in some cases) than RiftClanners.

Even with those positives, though… Snarlecho welcomed her into her Clan and she would do as she asks without hesitation in thanks for that, but she worries, too. Her new leader seems to be so unliked by her new Clanmates: what does that mean for LochClan?

What does that mean for her?

Born and raised as a proud RiftClanner alongside her sister, Nightsoil, Bitter-root has always been a cat eager to serve her Clan, cheerful and bright and bushy-tailed. She would constantly volunteer for border or hunting patrols, when she was old enough she proved herself as a dedicated and encouraging mentor. In her time, she was given four apprentices to train, all of which she loved deeply: Emberheart, Sleetfrost, Brightspeckle, and Turnstonepaw. Additionally, early in her time as a warrior, she fell in love with a tom named Yarrowfrost, whom she became mates with. They had a litter a few seasons after they got together: three kits named Chipmunk-kit, Scalekit, and Thrushkit.

Most of those cats are dead, now, thanks to the White Death.

But Thrushstrike’s death was more suspicious than the rest, the life-ending blow across his throat too calculated, the fur caught in his claws not entirely cleaned away.

After, left as the only remaining cat in her family, Bitter-root refused to live alongside her son’s murderer. She left RiftClan, plotting her revenge for nearly half a moon, but her loneliness only turned her all the more bitter. When she stumbled onto LochClan territory, not noticing where she was going, and was confronted by a patrol, she asked to join them. The patrol was reluctant — she had been an accomplished and well-known warrior of RiftClan, after all — but took her to speak with their leader anyway.

Snarlecho let her in.

She doesn’t want to leave the territory she lived and her family died and was laid to rest in behind. She likes the idea of starting something new here — of leaving life behind instead of more death.

It’s the best she can do, after all.