Nettlefern's family
Nettlefern's relationship with her family is in one word: messy. She was born as Nettle to a young rogue queen named Owl, and for the first few moons of her life, she knew only the company of her mother and her three siblings. Her father was a flaky and unreliable tom named Scratch, who she only ever met twice, and who never lifted a paw to help her little family.
She was born at the very end of leaf fall, and the cold and lack of prey combined with her mother's inexperience led to the preventable deaths of half of her litter. Her two siblings, Sparrow and Pounce succumbed to the elements, and with them, Nettle's trust also disappeared. While the loss of her siblings embittered Nettle, it sparked a much more noticeable change in her only remaining brother, Marsh.
Marsh was hardened and jaded by loss and became aggressive to any outsiders, remaining soft only around Nettle. He was especially cruel towards his mother Owl, and while Nettle had never been able to become close to her in the face of Owl's failure to protect her kits, Marsh went out of his way to be cruel and dismissive of her.
When Nettle and Marsh were both only eight moons old, Marsh announced that he was leaving, and asked Nettle to come with him. Forced to choose between her mother and brother, Nettle reluctantly followed Marsh as he set off, and left her mother behind. Before long, Marsh had gathered a small group of rogues who were as hostile as he was. Nettle found herself being dragged along as her group tracked down and ambushed other single rogues and loners for their prey and territory, and began to question her loyalty to her power-hungry brother.
Over time, Nettle's uneasiness grew as her group's actions became more violent and severe, until eventually, after witnessing her brother and his goons set a trap with seemingly abandoned prey and ambushing a young and vulnerable loner, she decided that she had had enough. Without even a parting word to her brother, she left him and joined the small young cat who her former group had attempted to ambush, and is now setting out to make a better life for herself with a group of cats who will actually care for one another.
After changing her name to Nettlefern and getting to know her companions Cloverspark and Flickwhisker, Nettlefern finally began to settle into her new life. Though she is glad that she left, Nettlefern still sometimes finds herself missing Marsh, reminiscent of the kind young cat she once knew before grief changed them both.
Though Nettlefern never quite lost her gruff exterior, she has softened considerably, and her past experiences with losing her young sister and brother left her with a soft spot for young cats and a fierce protective streak, as she is determined to never lose any of her family, whether they are chosen or by blood, ever again if she can help it.