This Is What We Know ✔️

x. unimaginable

WARNING
THIS CHAPTER CONTAINS UNSETTLING AND POSSIBLY TRIGGERING DEPICTIONS OF SEXUAL ASSAULT AND TRANSPHOBIA

chapter ten;
unimaginable

h e r o n p a w

"Finchpaw, get over here," Sabledusk snapped impatiently, and Heronpaw flinched at the name. It had been moons since he came out to the clan, and most were accepting of the young tom cat. Some muttered under their breaths but remained pleasant. Grousepaw and Kavaleaf remained by his side fearlessly. Larkpaw refused to say anything.

But Sabledusk? The tom cat was cruel and cold towards his apprentice, and on a good day he would do the bare minimum of acknowledging his new clan name.

Today, Heronpaw could tell, was not a good day.

The tom cat pushed through the thick underbrush of AlpineClan's northern territory, his back filling with the pinpricks of thorns and anxiety. What did the horrid tom cat have planned now? More disregard for his persona? An overdo beating Heronpaw hadn't experienced in nearly a moon?

"You're such a pretty molly," Sabledusk mumbled when Heronpaw came into the present light. He shook out the flowers tangled in his pelt Ploverpaw had placed there with the help of Kavaleaf. He hoped he didn't shake out the bravery as well. "It's a shame you go on pretending to be a tom cat when we all know the truth. It's okay to like mollies, Larkpaw does after all-"

"Don't mention my sister," Heronpaw interjected suddenly, vexed by his words. He needn't defend himself, however, as he loved himself more than he needed Sabledusk to approve of him. "Don't ever say her name to me again."

Sabledusk moved closer suddenly, eyes brandished with hatred and a yearning for control that sickened the orange tabby peering up at him. "Larkpaw," he said softly, teasingly, biting his tongue in glee as Heronpaw's enraged disposition. "You're funny, and a mousebrain, if you think I can control what I say or what I do, Finchpaw."

The apprentice flinched.

Sabledusk lifted his head with a wicked gleam in his eyes. "Perhaps I should remind you who you are, what you are, you mouse brained molly in disguise."

Heronpaw's eyes lost focus the moment he was captured and settled into place, focusing on the overtones of the color green as pain enveloped him. He had never noticed how beautifully emerald the grass was, as it blurred in and out of focus around him.

He could almost taste the dew on his tongue and smell the scents of it after rain, rolling around him.

Not once did he think about Sabledusk, about the way he was staking his claim and improper opinion over him.

Heronpaw remained focused on the grass, remembering how tall it had been starting to get when he first met Ploverpaw.

He blinked his blurry eyes into focus once the weight of the tom cat was lifted off of him, and he sprang into the underbrush towards a place that wasn't home for a hint of safety.

His ancestors greeted him in the form of a nightmare he wouldn't awaken from until three days later.