nightshade

intelligent • careless • disloyal

a cat that let grief control her and her actions later in her life. she was once someone that only knew love for her family and clan. nightshade was an intelligent warrior that loved too hard and fell too easily.

upon losing her mate, who she considered to be her soulmate and other half, she became filled with so much sorrow that she couldn't even take care of herself, let alone her three children at the time. her lonely heart never recovered. overtime nightshade's grief was replaced by a burning need for revenge. it filled her every thought to the point that she could barely think of anything else.

earlylife

a young and aspiring kit with loving parents and two brothers. her dad could be stern at times, but she knew deep down that he did it out of love for her. her mother was gentle yet fussed over her with worry every time she got a little too rough with playing and ended up minorly injured. nightkit always had big dreams of becoming a warrior and following in her parents' steps as strong warriors of the marsh. she has never been scared of getting her paws dirty and loved play-fighting with her brothers. even when she became an apprentice her aspirations never changed. she had a strength in hunting and fighting, anything using her claws really. she developed a love of grooming and cleaning her fur after a long day of training.

nightpaw became very close to an older apprentice named reedpaw during training. they were a perfect pair that loved rivaling each other to friendly challenges. she cheered him on when he became a warrior before her, yet they still took every chance they could to hangout together. when she became a warrior reedpaw, now named reedtail, asked her to become official mates. she accepted readily as she was already deeply crushing on him. they were still just as inseperable as ever and their love only deepened because of it.

birth of her kits

many moons after nightshade welcomed her first litter of a single kit, honeykit. she and reedtail cherished and spoiled him with every ounce of their combined love as first time parents. she loved how the tiny ball of fur resembled her and her other half so much. her favorite pasttime of grooming her fur grew to include grooming her son and mate whenever they allowed her to. the little honeykit always fussed about her dotting on him, but he allowed it nonetheless.

nightshade was a proud mother when she watched honeykit become an apprentice. reedtail was by her side, just as proud, if not more than her. honey grew to resemble his father more everyday and nightshade loved it. she became even happier when she welcomed her second litter of kits, bearkit and sandkit. honeypaw had just finished training and came rushing into the nursery to meet his new siblings with an excited look, reedtail quick to follow behind, having just arrived from a patrol. she was happy to have more cats to share her favorite hobby with. the tiny bear and sand were quite similar to their older sibling when he was still in the nursery. they never missed a chance to fuss and get away from her, but she always found an opening to lick their fur and keep it tidy anyways.

reedtail's death

her blissful moments changed when one of her brothers, tidepool, came rushing into the nursery one late afternoon. he was shaken to the core as he explained what happened. her kits didn't understand the words her brother dropped on their mom as nightshade sat there, staring off with widened eyes. reedtail and her other brother were found dead near the border of the marsh. they had gone on a hunting patrol together and never returned with no real explanation as to what had happened, only signs of a battle. her whole outlook on life changed. nightshade did nothing but stare off into a distance no one knew of. her parents and tidepool had to visit frequently to get her to do anything but sit in silence. she no longer found joy in grooming herself or her kits. she struggled to even look in honeypaw's direction for longer than a few minutes. he looked and acted so much like her beloved reedtail. her heart hurt too much when she tried to face her children that inherited his traits. her family looked at her with pity and worry, but nightshade was nothing but a shell of her former self.

she became better at taking care of herself again over time, or perhaps her family grew used to the routine of forcing her to. honey took on more work to care for his younger siblings in her stead, and didn't ask for her attention and love as much anymore. she would leave the camp for long periods of time during the day, and many assumed it was her taking some time alone to recover from her grief. no one was expecting the day when she arrived back to camp, a tom from dryland following behind. she refused to look at her family when the cats of the marsh surrounded her with confused looks. she faced the leader and simply said she would leave to join dryland with her new mate. she gave no other explanation, even when yells of questions filled her ears. honeypaw, with bear and sand at his feet, watched his mother's back as she turned away and disappeared with the dryland tom.

nightshade fully changed and her past aspirations were left behind when she lost reedtail. although she never told anyone, her true goal was to get to the bottom of what happened to her past mate and brother all those moons ago. it was theorized by many that they had been killed by cats in a squirmish over the territory's borders. the only evidence was the small bites and clawmarks that could only be given by a similarly sized creature. she never forgot the foreign scent on their bodies or the color of the fur in their claws when she grieved over them. nightshade was on a mission to avenge her mate, her other half.