Nightleaf

Nightleaf is a lean, large, scarred tom with long, thick, matted fur, and a broad face. Despite his fluffy look - his fur is not actually that pleasant to the touch, due to his poor diet.

Nightleaf is a big black ticked classic tabby tom with white/light spotting on his neck, belly, back paws, face and ears. He also often carries a sharp leaf on his ear, or is seen carrying nettles in his fur.

Nightleaf is usually happy to treat other cats in itself, they like the job, but it's not exactly the same when it comes to talking with his patients, or any cat in general. He still partly misses the time when he was a warrior, able to go on patrols and participate in battles, but they learned to live without it, mostly. Due to his past wrongdoings and behavior a lot of cats in ShadowClan still don't exactly trust him, but it did get slightly better when new cats who didn't know him from his early days started talking with him.

Nightleaf is typically quiet and reserved, and doesn't like talking much, however when you get to know them better, he might start treating you less like air. He is prone to violent breakdowns when stressed out.

After his mother gave birth to him, Brokenkit and their deaceased sisters: Wishkit and Hopekit, she gave them up, to Lizardstripe to take care of, both of them were picked on by their adopted littermates, Runningkit, Deerkit and Tanglekit, and not exactly liked by their adopted mother either, so they ended up all on their own often, their mother Yellowfang tried forming a meaningful relationship with them, but eventually both of them decided it's not worth it, Driftkit a bit begrudgingly.

He and his littermates were apprenticed at the same day, him getting Flintfang as a mentor, Through their apprenticeship he mostly followed in his brother's pawsteps. Training with their claws unsheathed, and practically turning each training session like a battle to the death, once during such session he sent Tanglepaw to the medicine den, he wasn't too upset about it though, he even thought she deserved it, like earlier he and their brother were still pretty much loners, most of the clan liked them both more though, the feeling just wasn't mutual.

Driftleaf and Brokentail get their warrior names a lot quicker than the other apprentices, due to their father being leader at that time. He just did usual warrior duties at that point, with a bit more fighting, but that didn't last long. When Brokentail advised to fight the rats threatening their territory, Driftleaf went too, but things ended up going south when he got a breakdown in the middle of the fight, that ended up getting Foxheart killed by the rats, when they got back to camp, his father was furious and forced him to be a medicine cat as punishment.

Driftleaf got angry at his father, so they changed his name to Nightleaf in retaliation, after Yellowfang told him how bad an idea that is, they only end up feeling more proud of his decision. Nightleaf eventually got used to his job, although they are not comfortable enough to admit it near Brokentail. One time when his brother used Nightleaf's position to his advantage, in his scheme to attack WindClan and get rid of Cloudpelt, and he refused to treat him later, Yellowfang was furious with them and she scratched his ear for his behavior, Raggedstar ended up angry with Yellowfang, and not Nightleaf, even defending what he said, and ending it off with saying that maybe Nightleaf is just a better medicine cat than both her and Runningnose.

Nightleaf continued his job normally, and was not at all surprised when his father Raggedstar ended up dead by Brokentail's claws, hidden as a WindClan attack, but he did hide the fact that they know too well what actually happened. He went with Brokentail to The Moonstone, it being disguised that they 'needed to grieve together', on the way Nightleaf told Brokentail that he knows about their fathers real cause of death, their brother starts getting defensive and aggressive, but Nightleaf calmly replied that if he wanted to give Brokentail's secret away, he would have done it by now. After that Brokentail became Brokenstar, and quickly after started to make young kits apprentices, and at some point, even giving Nightleaf an apprentice, to battle train with, and not teach him to heal.

While prohibited, Nightleaf tried countless times to teach their new apprentice, Brownpaw, to hunt, but the kit was often too distracted or talked too much, in the older toms opinion. Due to not knowing how to deal with cats, and especially kittens, Nightleaf yelled and punished Brownpaw a lot, often telling him to sleep outside of camp, or telling him to sit in nettle patches. Brownpaw tried complaining to Brokenstar and the older warriors about how Nightleaf was treating him, but they all said the same thing, that Nightleaf just wanted to make him a stronger warrior. Brokenstar himself even going as far as telling Brownpaw that he deserves the treatment he got.

Nightleaf got fed up with their duties, his apprentice and ShadowClan at some point, and went to Twolegplace to relax, a lot. Where he met a kittypet she-cat Berry, the kittypet came up to them and told him that she wanted to join a clan, Nightleaf told her that it is not possible, because she's a kittypet, especially knowing how his brother Brokenstar treats cats that aren't 'strong enough' or 'useful'. The kittypet got offended and stormed off, Nightleaf forgot about her, until they saw her again a few sunrises later, she apologized to him for her earlier reaction, Nightleaf decided to continue meeting her, mostly purely out of amusement. However, he did end up catching feelings for the she-cat a few moons into their meetings, but they were too shy to tell her his feelings yet.

Shortly after Brokenstar reveals he killed his own father, the previous leader - him and all his followers, Nightleaf included, are all exiled, they live as rogues for a while, they then attack ThunderClan, because in their minds, they ended up exiled because of their attack. After Brokenstar becomes injured and imprisoned, Nightleaf runs away. With Tigerclaw's help, he along with a band of rogues, end up attacking ThunderClan once more, but this time Nightleaf ended up badly injured himself, so they ran away once again, to the Twolegplace, Nightleaf almost ended up bleeding out, but Berry saved him (with Twoleg help). After they wake up, Nightleaf wants to go back to the forest, but Berry advises him to stay. And it does for a while, until his old friend, and former partner - Blackfoot, goes around looking for them, and brings him back to ShadowClan, which leads to Nightleaf ending up under Tigerstar's leadership.

Nightleaf doesn't trust Tigerstar, he didn't even before he became leader, the first time he met him, they knew he's bad news, but he learned to ignore it, as long as they could live in ShadowClan. He's still a medicine cat and most cats don't exactly trust him, but he gets by. He doesn't play a big role in any of Tigerstar's plans and stays a background character in most of them, he's present in TigerClan camp during Stonefur's execution, and is put off by the ordeal, especially that his current best friend, Blackfoot, is the one who caused his death, and gladly. They have no emotions when Tigerstar dies, but he is slightly afraid of losing his home yet again. They almost choose not to participate, but finally he does participate in the fight against Bloodclan as a medicine cat, and a warrior.

Nightleaf doesn't do much after this, he stays loyal to their clan, but becomes even more prickly when the prey shortage begins, he goes out hunting each day, sometimes being successful, sometimes not so much. He gives most of his prey to the recently enough Clan-accepted Berry, going under the name of Morningpaw now. Due to not eating a lot, they don't think a lot before saying something, either. They end up saying things he didn't mean to out loud, like ShadowClan's struggles, or being strongly unkind to other cats, but especially himself. They're terrified when the ShadowClan camp gets destroyed, and doesn't argue much against leaving, he even slightly enjoys the journey, growing closer to some cats during the journey, mostly Mothwing.