Lighthollow
The Brash Windclan Warrior
The fresh air in his lungs as he bounded across the moors was better than any herbs to ease the pain consuming Lighthollow's chest. Hailgaze's younger brother took a sharp, deep breath in as he stopped atop a jutting rock, heather and long grass brushing his fur as he sat, twitching slightly at the fronds brushing him. He'd been sent out on a hunting patrol- with the clan not long back from the mountains and still mourning the deaths of those who perished during the journey, namely Skipperpaw, Littlewoods' previous apprentice, Lighthollow knew it was more important than ever to be hunting to provide for the clan. And yet, he couldn't get his mind to focus.
He thought of Skipperpaw, her poor broken body as it had laid in Littlewoods' den, the other tom fighting desperately to save her life, and he found himself wondering how he would feel if Skipperpaw was his kit. Starclan may have sent Littlewoods a replacement in the form of Moosepaw quickly enough, but he could tell that the tom still grieved deeply for such a young life lost. He wondered if it would be worse than losing an apprentice or a mentor, if his own kit had been the one not to make it. Losing a clanmate hurt a lot, of course, but to imagine it being his own child...
Lighthollow shook his head as a dandelion seed almost made him sneeze, distracting him from his thoughts. He wasn't really sure why he was thinking so hard about kits. He was still young, he had a lot of moons ahead of him, provided he not end up meeting a fate like Skipperpaw's, and he hadn't truly managed to convince himself that he was... well, good enough to try and talk to Morningblush about settling down. Perhaps it was his relentless denial of the fact he wanted to do so that made his brain subconsciously try to convince him. Or maybe it was the fact that he'd noticed her looking a bit rounder over the past moon. At first, he'd just assumed she'd been enjoying the increase of fresh-kill since Windclan had successfully made it back and begun work on the camp, but...
The longer it went... the more he began feeling... excited. Excited at the prospect that she could be expecting kits. And yet, he somewhat dreaded it. Sure, he and Morningblush had hooked up before, but he'd done a godawful job of expressing his feelings to her every single time the topic came up. He had stubbornly and almost shyly fumbled, and muttered, and even sometimes just outright changed the topic. Unbeknownst to him, Morningblush had also had a fling with another tom. Stormytide, a Riverclan warrior. Although, one thing was for sure, if she was pregnant, he was going to step up.