Tales of NOT Perfectheart : A ToPh AU (Chapter 1)

Instructions

The day is so clear in my mind. The day everything changed. It all started that one morning. No one expected what would’ve come when we exiled Perfectpaw. It was a morning like any other. I had woken up to an empty apprentice’s den. Again. It was always so lonely with Moonpaw always in the medicine den with Frostface and Perfectpaw exiled. I had almost missed the days when Perfectpaw and I would go to training together and he’d just…be himself, I guess. I decided to hang out in camp for a bit until Moonpaw woke up. I sighed. Part of me was a bit worried about Perfectpaw. He always depended on Mom for things. Could he really survive in his own like that for so many moons? I thought it would be fine. I was so stupid, so gullible, so WRONG to think that. Especially since that was moments before HE walked in. Dave was a fluffy, almost navy and white cat. He looked old, almost like a father. That’s what I assumed, since he was holding a frail, bleeding cat, looking like a young apprentice. But I couldn’t see the young cat from where I was sitting. “Help!” Dave said, frantically passing off the young cat to Frostface. “He-he got into a fight with a kittypet and I just…I just found him lying there by a tree, bleeding. I can’t tell if he’s bleeding or not, I don’t know what to do-!” “It’s okay, it’s okay. You did your best. Just like I’ll do, but it looks unlikely for this young one. Moonpaw!” Frostface called out for Moonpaw. Moonpaw, calm as ever, walked out, but as soon as she saw the young cat, she started nervously sweating. Moonpaw muttered something I couldn’t make out. Obviously, I was worried, so I walked over, and that’s when I saw it. There he was. Just…lying there, bleeding out. As the young cat’s breaths became more labored and fast, Frostface suddenly saw it, too. His eyes widened with fear. “I’m…I’m so sorry, Moonpaw.” Moonpaw just…stared at him. She’s never cried before. But I… I started sobbing. Everything else stopped. Nothing else mattered. My brother was dying before he could even become the one thing he had always wanted. He just wanted to be a warrior. I wanted to hear his voice one last time. I called out his name in a desperate attempt to get anything out of him. “Perfectpaw!” My name is Tansysong, and is my story. Of how one loss started a chain reaction of sadness, fear, anger…and perseverance.