Foxbright's Wish

Chapter One.

"That was a great cat, Foxpaw." The praise sent a rush of pride down his pelt, causing his eyes to shine as he turned and looked towards his mentor. The vole that hung limp in his mouth dropped at the older toms paws. "Keep that up, and you'll be good to go for your first assessment." 

"Why do I feel like there was a 'but' somewhere in that sentence?" Foxpaw responded, tipping his head upwards and taking a few steps backwards to eye his mentor. Despite how cold everyone said that Tigerfrost was, he seemed a lot more patient with him than anyone else. Foxpaw couldn't help but wonder if it was due to his past and how he had lost his parents. If that were the case, he wasn't entirely sure he liked that. The thought of getting any sort of special treatment simply because his parents were dead bothered him to no end, but the last thing he'd ever do was bring that up. 

"Because there is. You're a very bright cat. You're fast, strong, and there's no doubt in my mind that you will make an excellent warrior of Lakeclan, however you rush into things without thinking, not to mention your behavior towards other apprentices lately is unacceptable. They are your clanmates and you should treat them as such." The old warrior shook his head and got to his paws, his icy eyes narrowed onto the apprentice. Foxpaw held the stare before finally looking away with a shrug. 

"Whatever you say, Tigerfrost. Anyway, Can Finpaw come hunt with us next time? He hasn't been out with us since we've become apprentices and it's been an entire moon!" Foxpaw knew that ignoring what Tigerfrost said was only going to bite him in the tail later, but he didn't want to listen to a lecture right now. In fact, he didn't want to listen to a lecture at all. He was well aware that wasn't too kind to the rest of the apprentices, but that was because they were all a bunch of mouse-brains! The only cat he really liked was his mentor and his brother. Of course he liked Jaystar, but every cat liked the leader! 

"Mossfire wants him to focus," Tigerfrost scuffed some leaves over Foxpaw's catch and began walking forward towards the next area that they would be hunting. The young apprentice immediately rushed to keep up, but huffed. "With you around, he won't be able to. He gets too flustered and trips over his own tail. We both thinks it's best to keep the two of you separated for training. You can see each other when you get back to camp. It's not the end of the world." The words stung his pelt. He looked towards his mentor and narrowed his eyes. What did he know? His brother had always done better with him around! So why were things different now? Nothing had changed as far as he was concerned. The only thing that seemed to change was Finpaw.

Finpaw was different now. All he ever did was sulk around the camp, keeping to himself. Whenever he did have a chance to speak with him, he'd be outside of Shadywing's den, staring inside like a lost kitten. It was getting sort of annoying, but whenever Foxpaw would confront him about it, Finpaw would simply shrug him off and walk away. He didn't understand why he was isolated now. They had been so close before, so what had changed? It hurt him a lot to know that his brother couldn't confide his feelings to him, but at the same time it just made him angry. They made a promise to stay together. 

So much for that.

-

"Hey Finpaw! Guess what!" Morning had shifting into afternoon, causing the sun to cast an intense glow down on the camp. Foxpaw was just as energetic as he had been when he left and it seemed that there was no stopping this apprentice. 

"Hmm?" Finpaw, who lazily lay off to the side in a shady area glanced over at his brother. 

"I caught a vole in the morning and then after that I caught a bird, and I nearly caught a rab—Hey! You're not even paying attention!" Foxpaw swiped his paw across his brothers face, his eyes narrowing. "Why do you always ignore me! Come on, we always share stories!" 

"I'm sorry, Foxpaw - I just.. I don't know." A low sigh came from the small brother and he laid his head down on the ground, his eyes staring off in the distance, or more importantly, the medicine cat den. "I just don't think I belong here, at least not as a warrior." Foxpaw stared down at him, confusion clouding his amber eyes. What did that even mean? Not as a warrior? 

"What do you mean, Finpaw? Wait, do you want to be a Medicine Cat?" Foxpaw almost laughed, which caused Finpaw to look up at him and then away. "That's a joke, right? You promised we'd be warriors together!" Finpaw said nothing in response, which only made Foxpaw more angry. He pushed his paw into his brothers side, forcing him to look at him. "Talk to me!" All Finpaw did was stare at him with a blank expression on his face, but no response came, at least not at first. Not until Foxpaw allowed his claws to slip out and into Finpaws side. 

"Ow! Foxpaw!" Finpaw jumped to his paws and immediately moved away from his brother, his eyes wide and his pelt ruffled. "Why'd you do that?"

"Because you wouldn't answer me!"

"So you clawed me? What's wrong with you?" 

"What's wrong with me? What's wrong with you?" At this point, the brothers argument had gathered quite a few audience members, one of which being Shadywing. She was a gentle she-cat and though she had a mischievous side to her, she always meant well. 

"Now you two need to settle down. What has your tails in a twist?" She asked, now standing in the middle of the two." Foxpaw's eyes immediately narrowed at the sight of the medicine cat. It was her fault his brother was like this. It was her fault he was going to lose the only cat he had left! 

"Leave us alone!" Foxpaw all but screech, half tempted to launch himself at the molly. "It's your fault. He's wants to be a dumb medicine cat like you!" 

"I-I never said that!" Finpaw finally whispered, his head lowered to the ground. He looked about ready to cry at this point. "I just don't feel good enough to be a warrior. I've watched Shadywing do everything since we were kits and I just think I'd fit in more there... That's all. I suck at hunting, I suck at battling. It's not about what I want, Foxpaw. It's about what I'm better at." Now it was Foxpaw's turn to stare at his brother, but he wasn't the only one. Shadywing watched to, but she was silent. She had a direct order from Jaystar to stay out of it, but she desperately wanted to offer the spot to him. 

"You do what you want, but know that if you choose that path, you're not my brother anymore!" And with that, Foxpaw ran off. 

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A/N: These are probably going to be short chapters since I'm juggling this and a Warrior Cats discord server too. :')