I know that in my Seven Hunters story I had him with a mother, but I think the orphan idea might actually work better from an explanatory point of view. His difficulty in dealing with other children, his clinginess to Ali, and his lack of social graces could be explained in part due to the lack of a dedicated parental figure. As such he would effectively be raised by the herd in an ad hoc fashion, which could lead to the development of traits to deal with a hard herd lifestyle, namely: competitiveness, toughness, and a certain necessary coldness to deal with the lack of emotional warmth.