Dragoncrest Cliffs But I’m still tired of sleeping with the light on

Every syllable of his full name crashed down on Stingray like the swing of a hammer. He felt himself crouching lower and lower with every strike of Meerkat's voice, and when ma indicated that he was to stay right next to her, he scurried obediently into place. Mr. Bubbles was conspicuously absent now. Of course he was. He loved getting Stingray into trouble and then disappearing, and Ray was too young to see the red flags in such a friendship.

He peered up at Bronco while Meerkat introduced him. Uncle Bronco was as scarred as scarred could be, almost rivalling Rosalyn. Maybe even topping Rosalyn. Stingray thought scars were pretty cool, so his first impression of his uncle was that he was a badass. But then Bronco started making fun of his name.

His second impression of his uncle was that he was a jackass.

Ray pulled a face when Bronco called him stinkray. He was already feeling a little down and self-conscious on account of being caught red-handed sneaking away from the rendezvous site and knowing he was gonna be in trouble later, so having his name made fun of certainly didn't help. Maybe on another day, he'd have taken it for the joke it was. Today, it just hit wrong. It didn't help that Mr. Bubbles had appeared again in the trees and was laughing at him.

He turned to sniff at his own shoulder, then looked down at his toes, saying nothing in response.