Promises to Keep

Just something I made up. Yeah. Enjoy. ~Forest

Promises to Keep
I was outside, she was inside. She had all of her dreams, I had all but one.

From a distance I could watch her paws nimbly pass over the herbs and berries necessary to care for a sickly cat. I could watch her tongue rasp over the heads of a kit with a cold, an elder with greencough, a beaten warrior. I could see her slender neck bend to reorganise the plants that she knew so well, to stretch after a long night of worried sleep.

I couldn't take it anymore. I had made my promise moons ago; I intended to keep it. It seemed as if she had forgotten.

Something snapped. My patience. I walked into her medicine den.

Her kind, beautiful face looked up. Her sky-blue eyes widened with surprise. "Are you okay?" she asked.

"I'm sick," I told her meekly.

"Is there anything I can do to help?" she asked me.

I sat in the moss nests that she kept so clean for her patience. "You can," I whispered.

She sat next to me. "How?" She licked my ear.

"I made a promise to you a long time ago..." I began, not sure if she would remember.

But her eyes brightened. "Yes," she whispered. "Yes! I've been waiting and waiting until this day!"

All because of a promise.

I stared from a distance as she made up a lie to every cat who asked. "I didn't want to," she explained, always quietly, always bashfully, "but he forced me. I'm scared."

When in fact it was beautiful.

We were finally together, after moons of waiting. A newly-appointed warrior and a seasoned medicine cat, in love, together because of the promise of our offspring.

All because of a promise.

My sons and daughters all had her eyes, her fur, and my personality.

They were obviously her kits, and she took care of them like so while balancing her medicine cat duties. She handled it perfectly, graciously, and I looked after them when she couldn't because I was her best friend.

They scrambled over one another in their sleep, never quite comfortable in their skin just yet, and loudly mewled when they wanted their mother. The older kits were quite interested in the younger ones, but my kits couldn't care less.

One night she said, "You're their father figure, don't let them down."

"I won't," I replied.

She said, "Don't let me down."

All because of a promise.

She sat and cowered because he was so angry, so ashamed, so terrified of his ancestors' wrath. He struck her down and all her dreams down and sent her away.

All because of our decision.

All because of my promise.

She returned once a moon to see her kits, how they have grown! she proclaims, but she can never see them for long. She has gone rogue, her scent would give my kits away.

One day she was found. One day my kits faced their mother and said, under their leader's watchful gaze, that they had visited with her once a moon.

I stood off to the side. I was still not their father. I would never be.

Because, without hesitation, their leader killed them all.

I saw their blood on the ground and turned away in disgust, all because of a promise.

I had something and I lost it.

I had somebody and I lost them.

I had love and I lost it.

All because of my promise.