Perfection [ warriorcats fanfiction ]

x.iv

Nightpaw puzzled over her mentor's words. Fate suggested the supernatural, the idea that she couldn't control what happened. She twitched her ears. I don't believe that, she mused. There's something I can do, something, surely, I can change.

Nightpaw frowned, Silverleaf's words bringing in a shred of doubt. Is there, though?

Silverleaf shakily stood up. "No point in staying here all day," she murmured, and Nightpaw wasn't sure if her mentor was talking to her or to herself.

Nightpaw padded in front of her mentor. The older she-cat was walking slowly through the undergrowth, stopping to sniff at every twig and leaf and piece of bark.

Her paws heavy, Nightpaw made her way back to the camp. She was soon fox-lengths in front of her mentor, and when she turned around, she couldn't see the silver-white tabby.

Nightpaw sighed as she let her paws and thoughts wander.

I thought I wanted to have kits.
Maybe not. Maybe not, any more.
I don't want them to end up like Snowykit. I don't want them to end up like Dawnpaw.
I can't possibly understand how Silverleaf feels.
Not yet, anyway.

Maybe I will.

Maybe I will when my sister dies.

Nightpaw paused and looked around. The trees were taller than they normally were in the territory, and the ground was a carpet of dead leaves and fallen pine needles.

I've been here before.

She smiled at the memory.

I was here before.
With Puddlepaw.

She sat down. I wish Puddlepaw was here now.

Nightpaw stood up and began to pad back to the territory.

I know how to get back this time.

She followed the now-familiar pathway, seeking out the landmarks of strange trees and colorful flower patches.

I wish I was lost again. It was more fun to be lost.

She thought the next bit unconsciously.

With Puddlepaw.

She sighed as the trees that bordered the camp came into view along the horizon. The sun was setting and the sky splashed red and orange on the apprentice's dark pelt.

Nightpaw stopped outside of the camp.

Something was different.

Something was wrong.

The feeling hung in the air like fog after a rainstorm.

She felt that something was waiting inside the camp. Something for her.

The apprentice took a tentative step closer to the main entrance to camp, fighting the urge to run away and escape the unknown inside.

"What happened?" The anguished shriek belonged to her sister, and Nightpaw darted into the camp, her heart pounding. What happened? Something happened?

Of course something happened. The fear was almost tangible.

Dawnpaw met Nightpaw with wild blue eyes. "Blackpaw-Blackpaw-"

"What's happened, Dawnpaw? What happened to Blackpaw?"

Her sister didn't reply immediately and Nightpaw snarled, lashing her tail. "Tell me what happened, Dawnpaw!"

Puddlepaw's voice shook Nightpaw out of her flurry of emotions. "We don't know. No cat knows."

Nightpaw narrowed her eyes in disbelief. "I-I'm sorry? What?"

Puddlepaw was somehow still calm. Still collected even though something terrible had happened to his brother.

"Blackpaw is still alive, but barely. We-we're not sure what happened, he was just eating a squirrel, over there-" Puddlepaw flicked his tail to motion to a corner of the camp- "And then he was just....on the ground. Barely breathing. And no cat knows how."