Pearlpelt is the Bane now. The Bane is not Pearlpelt anymore. It's fairly simple. It's always been, really. He was just a pup, once. Too small to understand. He had a mother, then. She called him Pearlpelt, but he was always the Bane. He was always going to be king.

Pearlpet. Pearliegirlie. Ripred has an assortment of "nicknames." Each one drives the Bane insane. He's charged at Ripred more times than he can count. And it's only been a week so far. Only a week. He hits his head on a wall every time, or gets a tail to the face. And then he cries. He shouldn't cry. When he's a king, he won't have to cry.

Razor had called him Pearlpelt, too. The Bane is a title, he had said, but Pearlpelt's your name. But Razor is dead. Razor is dead, and the Bane didn't mean to, he didn't, he didn't he didn't he didn't he DIDN'T—

Razor is gone now. He is gone and now there is no reason for the Bane to be Pearlpelt. It does not matter. He's the Bane. That is what everyone calls him; that is what he's fated to be. There's no King Pearlpelt, but there is a King Bane. There is no need to be soft like that.

He had flinched, when he was a pup. He hadn't wanted to be the Bane. He hadn't understood. Only that the Bane was what his father called him. Only that that was reason enough for violence. So much blood on the cave floor. So much blood.

But he is the Bane. It doesn't matter what he would like to be called. Twirltongue says that the Bane is admired. He's strong and he will be king. And if he goes out of control, if his claws grow quick and are stained with blood, it will only be natural because he is the Bane. No one will mock and call the Bane names and live to do it twice. The Bane is the epitome of what a rat can be. He's what the warrior is to the killers.

Pearlpelt is none of these things. Pearlpelt is a nothing. His name is easily forgotten. He's beaten and scorned and hated. He's weak and he trembles at his father's name.

The Bane is the Bane. It's who he is. It will all be made right, one day. When he is the king, of course. It will all be made right.