Thrasher

Johnny, a previous house-cat, and a wild molly named Owl were excited as they learned they’d be having kittens. Even better, they’d get to raise these kittens alongside their friend Sweetpea who was having her own. Thrasher and Wren were born to Johnny and Owl, and shortly after Sweetpea gave birth to her son Junco. The three were like siblings, the connection between them showed with their bird-related names. As they grew, the bond between Junco and Thrasher grew, while Thrasher couldn’t get herself to tolerate Wren’s immature and spoiled behavior.

Thrasher didn’t mind it when Wren and Junco spent time together since it gave her precious alone time. While she wasn’t shy, she didn’t quite enjoy spending time with multiple cats, since it spent her energy. But Junco was cool because she didn’t feel that way with Junco, she had a lot of fun talking with him. When Thrasher got into learning how to hunt, she was excited to share her information with Junco. Eventually, both of them got it all down almost perfectly.

Now that Thrasher, Junco, and Wren were getting older, they were encouraged to find a home to call their own. Wren was more hesitant to leave his parents while Thrasher was determined to become independent. She was already really good at keeping everything in order, the responsible type. When Thrasher and Junco talked about it, Thrasher felt a hole in her heart at the idea of leaving Junco behind. So she asked him to follow her, and he happily agreed to come with her. She had to change her plans but she couldn’t be any happier knowing her friend would be sticking with her.

All this happy news and yet Thrasher was feeling more and more uncomfortable with herself. Her identity didn’t feel right, and she often questioned why. She could be hard on herself when it came to getting things wrong but… she didn’t feel like she was insecure about that. Then Junco brought up that they didn’t feel male or female, nor nothing in between, and suddenly it clicked for Thrasher. After a long talk, Thrasher was able to sympathize with that type of feeling, only it was a little different for them; they only didn’t feel female.

Once Junco was a year old too, Thrasher figured it was time for them to leave. They said their goodbyes to their folks, excited to start this new life of theirs. Like their parents once did, they’d find a home to call their own. Thrasher and Junco talked about what the future could hold for what seemed like an entire day. And after that, Thrasher felt like they finally figured their gender identity out: they were a trans tom. Junco’s overwhelming support meant so much to him, and he felt completely content for once in his life.

Though they found many places that they could call home, Junco and Thrasher wanted to wait until they found the perfect one. Besides, Thrasher was having a lot of fun having no say in what happened next, and that was unlike him… in a good way. Despite him liking that unpredictability, he still wanted to feel in control and responsible, so he was overly strict on when he and Junco would wake up. Combined with the nerves of needing to survive out on their own, this upset Junco and it resulted in their first real argument.

While Thrasher and Junco compromised on a looser schedule and Junco seemed fine now, Thrasher was sad they had the fight at all. Things suddenly didn’t feel so okay, and Thrasher was criticizing himself heavily over not figuring out a better way to do things. But he didn’t want Junco to have to reassure him about it, either, since it was his fault. Thus, he’d stay quiet about it.

Thrasher and Junco would go on to meet a lot of different cats. Some were hostile, some were friendly and entertained Junco with their stories. One wanted to stay with them, her name was Ruby. She was a former house-cat, sort of like Thrasher’s father, but less experienced. Junco and Ruby immediately hit it off and would hang out a lot in an attempt to learn more about each other.

Resources were even lower than it already was before and Thrasher brought that up to Junco. It was difficult having another mouth to feed when that mouth wasn’t bringing anything to the table herself. Junco insisted Ruby would learn over time and they could just wait it out. Thrasher wasn’t convinced but he set it aside; the more he thought about it, the more he thought he was feeling that rare thing called jealousy.

He felt as though Junco was growing out of their friendship, seeing as they only stayed connected by being close, not out of sharing a lot of views or enjoying the same things. That was evident to him when he saw just how well Ruby and Junco got along whenever they talked around him. Thrasher nearly reached a point where he’d mention his feelings, being the direct tom he was he didn’t like letting his problems go on for too long. But then Ruby announced she didn’t enjoy being a wanderer all too much; she missed her humans and life outside was hard. Junco was sad but understood, and offered to walk with Ruby to her human’s home. Thrasher followed them but kept his distance except for when he had to say goodbye to Ruby.

Thrasher and Junco were back on the move, occasionally meeting other wanderers as always. One mentioned these strange colonies forming nearby. Curious, Junco wanted to check it out since they were close by anyway. Even if they didn’t sound hostile, though, Thrasher didn’t want to get involved with them. Little did Thrasher know, they’d soon need the help of the colonies.

During the night, they were ambushed by coyotes. As Junco struggled with being caught by some undergrowth, Thrasher fended off one of the coyotes, a bite scraping him in the process. The two managed to get away successfully and despite Thrasher only being lightly bitten, the wound was still terrible. Junco was obviously grateful and tended to Thrasher best they could, but there was nothing they could do after that. With one cat hunting for two now, Junco was struggling, and Thrasher’s wound was somehow worsening.

Junco decided they’d bring Thrasher to the colonies to see if they could help the both of them, especially Thrasher. Thrasher hesitantly agreed to go. Even if he was in no state to go, he was scared of the situation worsening. The first colony they bordered was the Lake Colony, and there they met the leader, Coral. After they saw just how kind and motherly Coral was, Junco reassured Thrasher that he was in good paws now.

Thrasher was surprised by how nice the Lake Colony cats were, but he felt like a fish out of water. Compare that to Junco who was thriving in a community like this, happy to provide help for the Lake Colony cats in exchange for Thrasher’s stay. Junco visited him and asked if they finally found their home, here. Junco fit in here. But he didn’t.

Thrasher told Junco they could stay, but he wouldn’t. Junco offered to keep traveling in that case, but Thrasher no longer saw the connection between them. Going down different paths in their life would be fine, especially considering it felt like Thrasher and Junco’s lives revolved around each other when they didn’t have anything in common anymore. He told them straight that he didn’t see a future where they could both be happy and together, and as much as Junco seemed hurt by that, it was the truth. Junco lashed out at him that he shouldn’t end their friendship based solely on the fact that he didn’t want to be in the Lake Colony, then stormed off, and just like that they were on bad terms now.

Thrasher snuck out that night. His bite was still bad but he didn’t want the Lake Colony’s hospitality if the only thing tying him to it was Junco. Running far past the Lake Colony’s border, he noticed blue and yellow eyes gleaming at him. He stopped cautiously and out of the shadows emerged a beautiful white molly. Like something out of a legend.

He introduced himself as Thrasher when she asked who he was, and the questions didn’t stop there as she pondered aloud how he got that wound. A coyote. What was he doing out here? It was complicated. That wound doesn’t look healed yet, are you okay? I’m getting along.

When he asked who she was in turn, she responded that her name was Lune. She led her own group of cats, though they weren’t a colony. Somehow, she was able to calm him down from his scattered state of mind, and he ended up telling her more about why he just left the Lake Colony. With that air of serene power, Lune offered to take him into her own group until he was ready to leave, at least to get back on his feet. Maybe this was the road he was meant to go down. Thrasher agreed to go with her, feeling comfortably tired.

Lune let Thrasher rest in her den while she prepared one of his own, and while he recovered further he met the rest of the residents. The Lake Colony was welcoming, but many of the residents here felt somehow different, Thrasher liked them all. And something interesting about Lune’s group was just how functional it seemed. Spider and Lune ran it together, assigning daily duties to each of the cats. Now that Thrasher was feeling better, he asked to have some duties of his own, and so joined the group in the process. That excitement of starting a new life from months ago was returning to him.