“she was sharp like thorns, but thorns protect the bloom.” Bramblekit knew she was different from the start. She loved everybody, but went about showing it wrong. She’d come off as snarky and overconfident when she was just trying to be nice. Rude and arrogant when her complimentary tone was a bit too sarcastic. It was hard for her. Her family, sisters and mother- her father ran away when she was young to chase a mindless dream of his- urged her to behave her best. They loved her for who she was and understood what she was trying to do. “She was snarky, rude…but also the bravest cat I’d ever know.” She bonded closely with her mother in the end of her kit hood and beginning of her apprenticeship. Her mother would whisper to her about how proud she was of her, and Bramblepaw would explain what she was trying to do and how she thought of the world. Bramblepaw was imaginative, empathetic, emotionally intelligent. She couldn’t tell anyone how she felt about them, leading to arguments against her sisters. Bramblepaw’s family was very close, they depended on each other, so the arguments were always forgiven in the end. Nothing lasted forever. It was when rabid dogs came she knew what she had to do. Bramblepaw was a skilled apprentice, the fastest in her Clan, dare say the entire territory. She was known for beating MoorClan apprentices in races and leaping the farthest- alongside her “rude attitude.” Her mentor and mother were incredibly impressed daily, and pride always shown in their gaze. Even though warriors fought the dogs with all their might, Bramblepaw knew the disease the dogs carried. She braced herself before racing away. The dogs followed her, always at the nip of her tail. She fled from the territory, leading the dogs far away from her Clan. From the Clans. She lead them beyond a mountain range, nearly a light year from any Clan’s territory. That’s where she fell. She couldn’t last forever, and slowed down. She stopped beneath a tall oak tree before one of the dogs tackled her. That was it. She was…dead. What she didn’t expect was when she woke up. It was dark and cold and smelled of rot. She was sent to the Dark Forest. She didn’t understand why. Only villains went to the Dark Forest, the worst of the worst. Was she really that evil? Was her misunderstanding of how to go about making friends that wrong? She lost her life saving her Clan from peril- and was sent to the Dark Forest as “reward.” She wasn’t wrong, either, StarClan had made a mistake they couldn’t undo. She was accidentally sent to the Dark Forest to live the rest of her afterlife. She’d never see her mentor, friends, family- mother. She curled up and screwed her eyes closed. This was her life now.
Song is Sparks by Coldplay
