"Hey everybody up!" A call from Dancing Feather was sounded. Cats were getting up all around but one just curled her enormously long tail over her nose and tried to bury herself further into her nest, what did it matter? She thought, nobody would miss me anyway.

"Hey freak!" a stone hit her in the back of the head and she opened a bright yellow eye to see Falling Almond standing there with a taunting sneer on his face. "Get up! Didn't you hear the deputy; or are you deaf too?"

"I'll give you deaf." she muttered, opening her other eye, a rich orange before swatting the stone irritably back at his paws. But grudgingly she got up, stretching and shaking herself off. She padded bleary-eyed out of the den, being deliberately tripped by Falling Almond on the way out, but still heading to the gathering place. The deputy was giving directions to other cats, but as some saw her approaching they separated and made a large space in the crowd. She sat down heavily and watched the other cats leave with patrols.

She didn't even know why she was sitting there, she was always given the same job and those other mouse-brained cats weren't much company in the first place. The deputy rested his gaze on her, "Thunderstrike, your usual job," he began, "Checking the security of the inner territory." He was echoed by Thunderstrike in a monotonous tone. She got up, flicking her tail in annoyance as she disappeared through the rock lined tunnel.

She had heard his speech on how important this job was but she knew he had just made it up because he was as biased against her as every other flea-brain in that stupid clan. So around the inside of the territory she went, once, twice, three times. She had no reason to be back before sunhigh, she would be sent back out to check again anyway if she had even thought of doing so. She walked the trails until her paws ached with exhaustion and she had to sit down and rest underneath the shade of a large oak tree. So she rolled onto her back and stretched out to watch the clouds.

Thunderstrike noticed dandelion fluff being stirred up from nearby and watched it floating carelessly in the hot Greenleaf breeze. She found herself getting jealous, it wasn't tied down or judged for being the way it was. She felt that she was getting riled thinking about it, so consciously she got up and shook herself off, starting back to camp. As she was passing the Claw Rocks she picked up a scent, mouse.

Following the scent with her eyes as well as her nose she spotted it near a large patch of tall grass encompassing the Claw Rocks that extended towards her.

Quietly she went into the hunters crouch and let her tail rest on her back so it wouldn't trip her and she took light pawsteps as she followed the outside of tall grass. It was a painstaking process because there were many rocks and things to make noise but she slowly worked her way near it. Before she got as close as she had wanted the mouse picked up her scent and started to dash away, but she pounced on it and snapped its neck with a blow from her paw. "Good one, pay more attention though mousebrain," she muttered to herself.

She stared at the fresh-kill, you're allowed to hunt for yourself if you're not on hunting duty, she reasoned with herself, besides, no one wants to go near the fresh-kill after I've chosen. She decided to eat it before returning to camp, then checking with Dancing Feather that she had done as she had been asked. Not instructed any more tasks so wearily she dragged herself into a corner of the camp and curled into a tight ball. She liked the feeling of the sun against her pelt, and the den was way too stuffy for her most times.

"I hate this," she muttered, "How did I even end up here?" Not even she knew, the elders once told her she had been found half dead by the entrance of the camp and the previous medicine cat had rushed her inside the medicine den without another word about it. Sparkling Dew had died many seasons ago not long after Thunderstrike had been named Thunderpaw, and under extremely strange circumstances. The other cats had started whispering that she was a cursed cat and that her eyes were the mark of the dark forest or whatever they called it.

After that cats always flinched from her gaze and even the ones she had come to be really close friends with refused to speak to her again; she was pretty much a loner among a clan. When she had finally been given her name, Thunder That Strikes During Storms, the incessant torment became even worse and she had no idea why. The names always confused her, she had overheard that it was because of Tribe ancestry but they had moved to this territory and adopted clan ways to adjust.

Whatever that meant.

Thunderstrike was beginning to doze off, tired out from her round patrol and her thoughts still buzzing, when she heard a voice she knew all to well. "Hey freak!" it shouted from the entrance. She sighed lifting her head from her paws, she had a feeling this was going to be a very long day.