Tern

Tern is currently a young (apprentice-aged) loner living in an abandoned rabbit burrow not far from OrchidClan's outer border.
Name- Tern 
Gender- Tom
Clan- None
Rank- Loner
Family- Parsley (brother), Auk (sister, deceased), Lunis (mother, deceased), Snatch (father, irrelevant), Myrtlepelt (unofficial adoptive mother, sort of), Aloe (unofficial adoptive sister, sort of)
Friends- technically also Aloe, I guess
Enemies- Myrtlepelt
== Appearance & Personality ==
==== Appearance ====
Tern looks like a tern. He's a small, skinny tom with short white fur. A part of his head - his ears and the top half of his face, with an opening through the forehead - is black. He has amber eyes. His tail-tip is also black, and he has a couple of small black spots elsewhere across his body. There are a couple of thin, pale scars scratched into his right shoulder and left cheek, all from Parsley during Myrtlepelt's forced "practice-fights".
==== Personality ====
Tern used to be easygoing and optimistic, but he has since become more reserved, suspicious, and chary of almost everything. He is easily frightened now, and very defensive. He is always on edge. When he's alone with someone he trusts and is comfortable with, however, he becomes calmer and friendlier, and he likes to joke around. He's a gentle cat deep down.
== Backstory ==
==== Kithood / Early Life ====
Tern, Parsley, and Auk were all born as loners to Lunis and Snatch. For the first two and a half moons of their life, everything was fine. They lived in a little den dug out of the side of a hill, and Snatch would catch prey and bring wet moss for them and for Lunis, as well as nuts and feathers and leaves to play with and other such things. They all got along great. One day, though, Snatch brought them a rat that turned out to be diseased. Auk fell ill and died, and Lunis also developed a horrid sickness from it. Snatch was mortified and felt extremely guilty for having brought them the rat, for he hadn't realized it was sick. Lunis was afraid that the disease had to be contagious, so she told Snatch to take Tern and Parsley and leave her to die. He refused, though. This infuriated Lunis, and she accused him of wanting to get the rest of their kits killed just so he could stay with her. This accusation upset Snatch to the point where he ran off on his own, without even taking his sons with him. Lunis knew she had to care for her surviving kits somehow, but she didn't want to infect them. The next half-moon was a great struggle. It was hard on Tern, and he didn't understand where Snatch had gone, or even what exactly had happened to Auk. He grew very close with Parsley.
When they were three moons old, Lunis decided she was too sick and too weak to risk staying with her sons anymore. She snuck out of the den one night and laid down somewhere near OrchidClan's border to die alone. Tern and Parsley were pretty freaked out in the morning and went looking for her, and they were understandably distressed upon finding her dead body. While they huddled there, a young OrchidClan exile named Myrtlepelt came across them. She decided to take them in, and, well... take them in she did.
Myrtlepelt moved the two kits into an abandoned rabbit burrow not far from the edge of OrchidClan. It was in constant danger of collapsing and suffocating them all, but Myrtlepelt seemed completely unbothered by that fact. She was a very harsh and cruel cat - not the motherly type at all. She cared about Tern and Parsley, but... not exactly as cats. She cared about their potential. That was all. She valued strength and ferocity, and was relentless in showing it. Starting on the very day she found them, she started making them "practice-fight" with each other every morning - claws unsheathed, aiming to draw blood. Tern was smaller than Parsley, and thus always took the brunt of the pain. It was awful for both of them. In the beginning, Parsley would try to avoid hurting Tern, but Myrtlepelt would only punish him for that - either by claw or by lack of food. It varied. Tern recognized that what Myrtlepelt was doing was by no means okay, but he didn't have the courage to stand up to her. He knew full well what could happen to him if he ever tried. And the truth was, they needed her. They were still young. They couldn't catch prey. They couldn't defend themselves. As much as they hated to admit it, the skills she was teaching them would come in handy in the long run. 
That didn't mean they had to enjoy it, though. The permanent scars on Tern's cheek and shoulder came from those early practice-fights, for Parsley was always ordered to attack the same spots over and over again. Myrtlepelt's aim seemed to be to build them up and make them powerful and beastly like her. She was failing, though. Instead, she was just messing up two perfectly good kits. Tern was being broken down and made into a timid shell of the happy cat he used to be, and Parsley was turning into a defensive, prickly disaster. They hated Myrtlepelt and they missed their parents. On one occasion, Parsley compared Myrtlepelt to Lunis and in return got slashed across the back of the neck. They had only been staying with Myrtlepelt for a few weeks by that point, and already things were looking awful for them. When Parsley pulled Tern aside the following night and told him that they had to get out, he agreed. But how? How could they escape without being hunted right back down? 
They had to wait an entire moon for the opportunity. Then, when they were four moons old, Myrtlepelt once left for a hunting trip that she'd earlier claimed would last for the entire night. It wasn't much, but Tern and Parsley decided that they had to seize the chance; if they got far enough away, there was a chance she wouldn't be able to find them, right? So a few minutes after she'd left, they made their move and snuck out of the rabbit burrow. They were nervous and on edge, and tried to move as fast as they could. Where? They didn't know. They were just heading off in the opposite direction than where Myrtlepelt had gone. They figured that if they were lucky, they'd make it somewhere they'd be taken care of. 
They hadn't gotten far, however, when they came across the corpse of a loner named Laurel - and at her stomach there were three nameless newborn kits. Tern was mortified, having immediately been thrown back to finding his own mother's dead body. Parsley ignored it and insisted that they kept moving, but Tern had been taking a closer look and he noticed something. One of the three kits was still alive. He immediately felt terrible for the kit, and knew they couldn't just leave it there to die. Parsley disagreed, not wanting to lose their opportunity to get away from Myrtlepelt, but Tern was adamant. They argued for a bit until Parsley eventually caved in and agreed to bring the kit back to Myrtlepelt. Tern was upset that they wouldn't be escaping, but those feelings were greatly overshadowed by his gladness at having saved the kit. As they made their way back to the burrow with it, he decided to name her Aloe. He knew it was a plant, and he liked the sound of the word; it was cute - much like she was. He was already getting sort of attached to her, much to Parsley's dismay. They made it back in one piece, and once Myrtlepelt returned, they managed to convince her with only some difficulty to take care of Aloe. 
For the next four moons, they continued living together in the collapsing burrow. Tern was still much fonder of Aloe than Parsley was - as Parsley still held a bit of resentment toward her for foiling their escape attempt - and enjoyed encouraging her to do kit things such as talking and standing up and stuff. He also had fun letting her play around with his tail. He pretty much just loved her like the big brother he was. Eventually, though, Myrtlepelt got fed up with how little work he and Parsley seemed to be doing, and she abruptly stopped hunting for them. Her explanation was that if they wanted to live, they would figure out how to catch their own food. Parsley tried to argue with her and called her crazy, but all he got in return was a scratch across the muzzle. So he and Tern submitted, leaving the den to try hunting for the very first time. It... didn't go too well. They weren't even coming close catching anything. Tern was very concerned about having left Aloe alone with Myrtlepelt, though, so as soon as it became clear that nothing would be accomplished, he straight up ditched Parsley and returned to the burrow early. Myrtlepelt was furious with him for having done that, so Tern agreed to eat nothing that night as a consequence. That was fine by him, though - he got to make sure she didn't try anything on Aloe. He was really, really protective of Aloe, as she sort of reminded him in a way of Auk, and he wanted more than anything to make sure she stayed safe from Myrtlepelt. It was motivating for him. Whenever he was forced to go out hunting, Tern always had a pretty bad time. He couldn't manage anything bigger than a squirrel. He did, however, like to catch pretty things like dragonflies and butterflies to bring back and show to Aloe. They weren't very filling, but when he couldn't catch anything else, they sufficed. Besides, he enjoyed making her happy. It was the least he could do. Sometimes, when he couldn't catch anything, he would dig up the buried skeletons of his previous catches and eat those. After all, Myrtlepelt always prohibited them from sharing their prey (with each other, at least. They were responsible for feeding Aloe, too, since she was still too young to hunt). He was always terrified of Myrtlepelt, always hungry, and always sore from his practice-fights. But rather than miserable, that made him determined. He knew how badly he and Parsley were doing, and if anything was going to keep him going, it was the hope that they would be able to prevent Aloe from having to suffer the same way they were. He stayed tight with her and would repeatedly promise that they'd get out eventually - although the problem was, he didn't know how they'd survive once they escaped. 
As time went on and Aloe aged, Tern kept suffering through those despicable practice-fights, losing each and every time, always exaggerating his reactions to make it seem as though he was in more pain than he really was - just to appease Myrtlepelt. He was greatly upset once Aloe was forced to participate in the fights as well, but there was really nothing he could do to prevent it. The best he could manage was to avoid attacking her by mainly focusing on Parsley. When she turned three moons old, she was made to join them on their hunting trips. While it wasn't fun for any of them, they started using it as a brief time to talk amongst themselves and think of plans to get away. In spite of their awful circumstances, the three of them managed to remain close, united in their hatred against Myrtlepelt and their determination to flee as soon as they were strong and stealthy enough to have the opportunity. Parsley let go of his grudge over the first failed attempt, and instead embraced that the three of them were a team and would be getting out together. 
Finally, when he and Parsley were eight moons old and Aloe was four, Myrtlepelt decided that it was time for him and his brother to fight to the death. The stronger one would prevail and leave the burrow - then Myrtlepelt would be alone to do as she pleased with Aloe. Really, the whole fight was rigged against Tern. He'd always been the weaker brother, and all four of them knew it. Predictably, though, he and Parsley both refused to do anything of the sort. Aloe started arguing against the idea as well. Myrtlepelt didn't like that and started trying to threaten them. Then Parsley started attacking her. Realizing that Parsley was probably going to get himself killed that way, Tern joined in, and so did Aloe. It seemed like they were almost doing well at first, what with the element of surprise and all - but the fact was that they were three scrawny and undersized runts while Myrtlepelt was a fully-grown murder machine. She easily overpowered them, not only clawing Tern pretty hard along his side, but also ripping out Aloe's right eye. The fight was pretty clearly lost by then, so Tern and his siblings backed down, only for Myrtlepelt to yell at them to get out and away. They did that without hesitation. Parsley suggested that they head toward Clan territory, as it was the only place they knew how to get to - and that's what they did.
They sort of just hobbled along and tried to not completely break down until they reached the OrchidClan border and were found by a pair of warriors named Lionspark and Suncurrent. They seemed nice enough, and Tern was really just relieved to see kind faces. He hadn't had much experience meeting cats who weren't his siblings or Myrtlepelt. At least, not since Snatch had left and Lunis and Auk had died. He was still frightened of being tracked down by Myrtlepelt and was very concerned about Aloe's eye, though, so the three of them hurried along after the warriors until they reached OrchidClan's camp. There, they were given food and tended to by the medicine cat, Swallowfrost. Parsley talked to the Clan's deputy, Leafshine, and was offered the chance to stay in OrchidClan. He presented that idea to Tern and Aloe, and they also agreed that it was most likely their best option. Tern was still uneasy in the new setting with all of the new cats, but he was sure he could grow to trust them, and he just wanted whatever would be safest for himself, Parsley, and Aloe.
Not much else has happened yet. 
== Other ==
==== Trivia ====
* He is a good boy.
*He and Auk were named by Lunis because she felt like going with the seabird theme. Snatch named Parsley, though, and broke the pattern she had going. Parsley's name was going to be Petrel originally. But Snatch yeeted that out the window.
*Tern sometimes calls Parsley "Pars" for short. Pronounced "pärse".
==== Quotes ====
"She'll die if we leave her here. She must be cold and hungry."
.
Parsley: "I just don't think it's a good idea..."
Tern: "What, d'you think it's a good idea to kill a kit?"
Parsley: "She might end up being killed either way—"
Tern: "But if we don't do anything, there's no doubt about it."
.
Parsley: "You know I don't mean..."
Tern: "I know, but there's no way we're leaving her here to die with the rest of her family. She's somehow still alive, and it would be awful to just let her die after finding her."
Parsley: "But Myrtlepelt—"
Tern: "Shut up about Myrtlepelt, will you?"
.
"Well, would you rather let Myrtlepelt give her a name? (...) How about Shadow? Echo? Mallow? Aloe?"
.
"Aloe? Aw, you're adorable."
.
"You're a good kit. (...) She sort of reminds me of Auk."
.
Parsley: (to Aloe) "You'll be living with us now, I guess. Good luck."
Tern: "Don't talk like that. We’re gonna get out of here with her as soon as we can. You said so yourself, didn’t you?”
.