Shattered Heart

Nightpaw was awake late into the night.

Cragpaw, his fellow medicine cat apprentice and brother, had long since fallen asleep, and Stumpwhisker had disappeared to do whatever he got up to in the hidden corridor. The dark apprentice always pretended he couldn't hear the ragged coughing from beyond the fern screen—the pained moans, the sudden slithers of jerking paws and tails—but they haunted him.

Yet, the mysterious sickness wasn't what was on his mind.

Instead, his thoughts were reeling as he remembered his mentor's words from earlier that day. "A medicine cat may not fall in love, take a mate, or have kits. Upon treading this sacred path, you are sacrificing romantic love in aspiration to love your Clan. Do you understand?"

He could still feel the intensity of Stumpwhisker's vision as it burned into his eyes. The one time Nightpaw felt as though the tom's unspeakably terrifying gaze could see right through him instead of his brother, taunting him with those words.

A mate and kits.

Nightpaw was young, sure. He shouldn't even be thinking about such a thing. But... he'd always found himself mesmerized by Hollypaw. Her bright, jovial nature, her witty tongue, and the way she could boss around her peers like she were the Clan leader herself.

A purr clogged his throat before he realized it.

Nightpaw instantly swallowed the sound, his golden eyes anxiously fretting about the den, spying the shadows for any sign of Stumpwhisker. To his good fortune, the tom still hadn't appeared.

Perhaps he was simply living a kit's fantasy. He'd chosen the path of a medicine cat, and he was bent on pursuing it. He enjoyed every moment, and would do nothing to risk it.

Satisfied, he set his head down, but a small whisper of a thought plagued the darkest shadows of his mind. I would never break the code... would I?

He squeezed his eyes shut and fell back into a troubled asleep.

~❀~
March 19th, 2023.

This short is inspired by a story I plan to inevitably write, titled "Shattered Blossom". It's a story about a medicine cat apprentice who struggles to uphold his position in competition with his brother, meanwhile, a disease is slowly wiping out the Clans.

This is a small snippet from his brother's POV, detailing one of Nightpaw's deepest secrets: the desire for a mate and kits. I'm still not sure if I'll have him pine after Hollypaw specifically in the story, but she's certainly an interest. I want him to be a true, flirtatious "lady's man" before finally settling on a decision.

Funnily enough, I decided for his full name to be Nightheart (prior to the release of the newer series).