Daybreakheart lay on his father's nest in the warrior's den, his paws clutched around the lupine flowers he had gathered just earlier that day. His gaze was hollow, the tears that had once filled them having run dry. He was gone. His pa, the one who had brought him and Eventidedream in, had treated them as his own. They were his kits, even if they weren't biologically related. Daybreakheart had tried to think back to everything he had experienced with his father. He was always there, supporting him and his siblings in everything they had done. That made him happy for a moment, until he realized the other common thread that lied there. For everything his pa had done, he had never shown him enough gratitude. He thought back to his apprenticeship, a time in his life that he had come to look back on with guilt. His father's death only soured those memories further. He had spent too much time training. Too much time worrying about how good /he/ was. Too much time trying to prove who he was to everyone else, when in reality, he was the only one who cared. Had he even thought of his father then? After his fight with the dog, Daybreakheart had thought he had gotten better. He'd figured out what made him feel like a true part of the clan. But in all the time he had spent helping others and serving his clan the best he could, had he forgotten about who was meant to mean the most to him? He had known his father was sick, but he hadn't worried about it too much. He had assumed it was only because of the cold weather, that his father would get better soon. But he didn't. And now he was gone, and Daybreakheart knew he would be perfectly at peace in Starclan and that he would get to see his pa again someday, but he only wanted to see him again now, to tell him how sorry he was, how he wished he could have done things differently. He'd tell him how greedy he had been, to only focus on himself so often, ignoring all the cats around him. He thought it had been greed. It had never been greed, only the guilt trying to tell him as much. But as he looked down at the flowers in his paws, he could only see a reflection of himself. These flowers, the ones he had once been named after. Some cats said they stole the nutrients out of the earth, greedily taking from any of the other plants beside them. With a shuddering inhale, Daybreakheart drew himself up to his paws. He picked through his fur and found curls that would help the flowers stay on his pelt. A constant reminder of his failure. And he vowed to himself that he would never let himself fail another cat again.
( I don't know how to draw flowers y'all :( )
