Five Truths About Nettlesplash
i.
Her last kit. Her third son.
Fallowfern is exhausted. She looks at him for a moment, then murmurs, "Nettlekit".
She goes to sleep.
ii.
A litter of four is overwhelming for any new mother. Fallowfern has her paws full with her lucky rabbit, her sweet plum, and her bubbly creek.
She doesn't mean to let her quiet nettle slip into the shadows, but it happens all the same.
iii.
He is three moons old when he and Plumkit are wrestling beside the river, and Plumkit accidentally pushes him in.
Only three moons old but he spends the rest of his life with a fear of drowning.
iv.
His mentor, Patchfoot, tells him that he has extraordinary tracking skills. Nettlepaw thinks that it's nice to finally stand out for something.
When Harrykit goes missing and Nettlepaw is the one who finds him dead at the bottom of the ravine, he thinks he is cursed.
v.
His littermates are born to be warriors. They climb and hunt and fight like their lives depend on it.
Nettlesplash sticks to the shadows and sulks. What's wrong with me, he wonders.
(Bonus i.)
"I get it," Birdflight says one day. "To them, being a warrior is all that matters. They don't even consider the world outside of our territory, but it's all I can think about."
"We're bad warriors," Nettlesplash says.
Birdflight laughs, and Nettlesplash think he must not be so awful if he can make Birdflight laugh.
(Bonus ii.)
He hates being a warrior, he hates feeling trapped in SkyClan, but he hates himself most of all when Birdflight leaves the Clan in search of a new adventure and he can't bring himself to leave with her.