Halfheart

Halfheart is currently a warrior of FallClan. He’s a fairly reserved tom who’s generally only ever seen with his family or Sproutsong. Nevertheless, he is a good warrior with a lot of loyalty to his Clan.

## Relationships

### Kits

Mosspaw & Mallowpaw (daughters), Shellpaw & Rainpaw (sons)

### Parents

Pondstep (mother, dead) & Snailshell (father, dead)

### Siblings

Fawnstripe & Berrykit (older sisters, dead). And he basically sees Sproutsong and Pricklewool as older brothers, though they aren’t related.

### Other Relatives

Fernsway (niece), Reedkit, Gladekit, & Glacierkit (nephews, dead), Fisherfrost (uncle, dead), Birdheather & Nimblestorm (sisters-in-law)

### Friends

Drizzlesnow’s not just his wife, she’s his Best Friend <3. Also Sproutsong, Pricklewool, Sootsnow, Fennelfoot, and Silkfur. Formerly Fawnstripe, Dillpaw, & Acornsprig (all dead)

## Appearance & Personality

### Appearance

Halfheart is very much just A Guy. He has an average build, not too lean or too muscular, and medium-length fur that is thick, but not particularly coarse or soft. He stands at a typical height of 9.4 inches and his body language is usually fairly withdrawn. He looks vaguely worried most of the time and the tip of his tail is almost always twitching. He spaces out a lot and has a tendency to stick his tongue out a bit when he’s thinking hard about something. His tail curls up into a knot at his left hip whenever he is especially concerned about something, making it very easy to tell if there’s anything on his mind. He also keeps a couple of green star gladiolus flowers tucked behind his left ear, presents from his daughter Mosspaw.

Halfheart’s pelt is light brown, patterned with traditional classic tabby stripes with a few paler fawn markings on his chin, chest, belly, tail-tip, toes, above his eyes, and over his peachy-pink nose. Where his appearance deviates from the standard brown tabby is at the right side of his face, which is pure and solid white beyond an unbroken line down the middle of his head, starting right between his ears and ending at the base of his chin. The toes of his right paws, front and back, are also white. He has mild dark green eyes with a few creases from old stress underneath them, but they crinkle up into crow’s feet when he smiles.

### Personality

(+): Devoted, loving, loyal, empathetic

(=): Easygoing, reserved, unobservant, overthinks things

(-): Pessimistic, avoids heavy topics, snaps under pressure, a bit lazy

Worth noting is that he’s an absolute sweetheart with his family and would walk the length of the world for them without hesitation. His brain tends to “lag” a bit at times, but he isn’t slow or stupid by any means, despite how he may come off at first. He really does mean well. He’s kind of like an old dog in cat form.

## Biography

### Kithood

In the first month of summer, Halfkit was born in a single-kit litter to Pondstep and Snailshell of OasisClan. Everything went downhill from there.

0-1 moon: happy times. plays with fawnpaw a lot. also spends a lot of time with fennelkit, & dillkit since they’re his age. sheepkit is 2 moons older while shadowkit & brightkit are 3. half is too young to rlly do anything with them. his parents are v doting, especially since they had just recently lost a kit in their previous litter (fawnpaw’s). he also gets frequent visits from sootsnow, MC’s messenger and an old friend of Snailshell’s. the same moon he’s born, there’s a fishing competition that his parents go to and so he and the other kits are all briefly babysat by fennel & dill’s dad. he’s kind of mean, but halfkit is too young to notice this.

2 moons: snailshell eats bad prey and dies. oops. halfkit and his family are with him in the medicine den when he dies, but halfkit doesn’t really understand what’s going on and has to be pulled aside by fawnpaw so she can explain that snailshell isn’t coming back. this is is news to halfkit and he doesn’t like it. pondstep is also sad and moves back to her birth Clan, FC, with halfkit & fawnpaw. halfkit is also sad bc he had just gotten old enough to rlly start making friends with fennel + dill. oh, and also bc of his dad. but i digress. in FC, he meets his uncle fisherfrost who is being v supportive of pond and halfkit likes him. his denmates are shalekit & waverkit, who are 5 moons old already, and oceankit, who is his age but fairly shy, so he is forced to mostly just bother the apprentices for entertainment. those being, aside from fawnpaw, the following: pricklepaw, sproutpaw, acornpaw, & lagoonpaw. Sootsnow also still shows up sometimes.

3 moons: shalepaw & waverpaw become apprentices. also, fawnpaw establishes a friend group w/ prickle, sprout, & acorn. they swing by to play with halfkit a lot and he thinks they’re all pretty legit. fawn also brings him back to oasisclan sometimes so he can get a real feel for his birth clan and also reunite with fennel & dill. sometimes her friends tag along. she tells him all about different kinds of trees and their roots and their leaves, and halfkit likes that bc it’s stuff that their dad had told to her and it’s almost like hearing words from snailshell, whom halfkit doesnt really remember all that well. she also shows him how to climb trees. it’s fun, especially since pondstep is always sad and tired n doesn’t do too much with him. just general fun times.

4 moons: fawnstripe becomes a warrior! so do pricklewool and lagoonfrost. halfkit thinks this is excellent. he thinks it’s less excellent when fawn suddenly starts spending a ton of time with some slightly older warrior named mottledgorse, bc suddenly she cant bring him out to oasisclan nearly as often. he tries to bug sootsnow & fisherfrost into taking him instead, but sootsnow is usually too busy and fisherfrost just doesn’t think it’s be a good idea. at least he can still try and talk pricklewool, sproutpaw, & acornpaw into it sometimes. oh, and the queen truthcrest gives birth to valorkit & noblekit. halfkit thinks that they are weird and tiny.

5 moons: sproutsong & acornsprig become warriors! sproutsong decides to be a messenger like sootsnow and halfkit thinks that is cool. also, pondstep starts acting sick. that’s worrisome. the medicine cats arent sure what’s wrong with her so they try to just quarantine her in their den. this unfortunately leaves halfkit in the nursery without his mom, so he kinda just hangs out with oceankit, her mom brookfeather, and truthcrest since her kits are too young to spend time with yet. he doesnt mind oceankit’s company, but they’re not particularly close at all. he misses fennelkit & dillkit and he likes it when prickle, sprout, & acorn come by. then fawnstripe becomes mates with mottledgorse. very quickly. huh. halfkit supposes that’s cool for her, even if he finds mottledgorse annoying. OaC probably hosts its Clanwide battle training thing at around this time. Someone probably brought Halfkit over so he could play around with Fennelkit & Dillkit while everyone else sparred.

### Apprenticeship

6 moons: halfpaw is apprenticed to fisherfrost! fun times. he is excited about this. his denmates are now Oceanpaw, Shalepaw, Wavepaw, and a she-cat named Blossompaw who honestly intimidates him a little bit. Excellent. he gets a lot of help and extra pointers from sproutsong, acornsprig, & pricklewool. fawnstripe, too, to a certain extent, but mottledgorse doesnt seem to like her spending time with halfpaw or with her old group of friends. halfpaw finds this weird and wrong and decides that he officially Does Not Like mottledgorse. he doesnt say anything, though, bc he knows that fawnstripe knows mottledgorse better than he does, and surely his big sister wouldnt be wrong about something like this. he also gets to go to his first gathering and meets a ton of cats and it’s a little bit overwhelming for him. he does see fennelpaw & dillpaw and he gets to geek with them about their new names and their mentors and such, though. oh, and pondstep is still sick.

7 moons: Shalefang and Waverstream become warriors and an apprentice named Drizzlepaw moves from OrC. she seemed pretty uptight and careful at first, but after being paired up together on a fishing trip, Halfpaw realizes that she’s actually somewhat endearing in her own right and they become fast friends. he tries to help her learn to relax a little and have fun, thinking that it’ll come in handy later. there is also a HC hike and i think it’d be fun if Halfpaw went with Drizzle, Fennel, Dill, and probably a random adult or two to keep them all in line. In other news, though, only about a week after the hike, he receives word from oasisclan’s messenger that dillpaw has died of greencough. halfpaw is caught extremely off guard by this and is utterly devastated. he travels to oasisclan that night to sit vigil for his friend, and he does his best to comfort fennelpaw through it- only for fennelpaw’s dad to also die a couple of days later. his mom leaves the clans and fennelpaw passes through FC the following day to share the news and also to tell halfpaw that he’s on his way to MC and is gonna live there now. halfpaw is v sad for his friend, but glad that they’re at least still gonna share a border. he misses dillpaw a lot, but he still has drizzlepaw by his side and he tries to take comfort in that fact. oh, and fawnstripe is suddenly pregnant. that happens. and pondstep’s condition is getting worse still. and suddenly acornsprig is also getting very weak. it’s not a good month for halfpaw.

8 moons: pondstep and acornsprig both die. halfpaw was able to sit a short distance away and be present for acornsprig’s death, but he wasn’t even there for his mother’s. pondstep’s had been overnight and unexpected. this is *also* not a good month for halfpaw. halfpaw is, in fact, not doing well! his training completely falls apart and he struggles to muster up the motivation to even leave his den in the morning. he pretty much just stops caring abt his progress. it’s the lowest point of his life by far. he can’t go to fawnstripe for comfort since mottledgorse is kind of isolating her, and as much as sproutsong and pricklewool try to be there for him, he kind of just shrugs them off. he’s at a pretty serious risk of just drifting irreparably far away from everyone at this point. fortunately for him, drizzlepaw is not keen on this and kind of forces him to get his *carp* together. after one occasion where he ignores fisherfrost’s directions and gets sentenced to gathering moss for the elders for the rest of the day, drizzlepaw unexpectedly lies that she had been distracting him and gets herself punished alongside him. halfpaw is v confused bc this isn’t smth she would normally do, but they have A Moment n she tells him sweet things like he helped her loosen up a bit and now she wants to return the favor by helping him, n he has to pull himself together for the cats he still has, etc etc, its sort of a wake-up call and halfpaw realizes that she’s right and he takes her words to heart and promises to actually. y’know. start healing.

9 moons: halfpaw gets it together and goes back to trying during training. he reaches back out to his friends & remaining family. it still hurts like heck but he’s doing Okay. he finds ways to cope. he climbs around in trees in OaC with his friends. He starts collecting leaves, one from each type of tree he comes across, and stores them in his nest. he and Drizzlepaw start to find fun in little games where they challenge each other to find shells that meet certain criteria- a certain size, shape, color, pattern, etc- and gather as many as they can before exchanging them as gifts. He keeps the shells he gets from her in his nest, too. His nest just becomes a mess of little trinkets he is amassing.

10 moons: Valorpaw and Noblepaw become apprentices and Blossomburr becomes a warrior. Halfpaw is pretty neutral towards the new appies. Things are mostly fine. Up until one day in particular, though, where Halfpaw is just chilling with Drizzlepaw when Pricklewool suddenly bursts into camp with a dying Fawnstripe and her four newborn kits. That’s alarming. Halfpaw is quite freaked out by this and he tries to see what’s happening, but cats aren’t being allowed into the medicine den so as not to distract the medicine cat, and halfpaw finds himself stuck just pacing outside and trying to convince himself that everything‘ll be fine. the medicine cat eventually pops out and informs everyone that fawnstripe has died, along with three of her four kits. and that’s… hard to take. his last remaining family save for fisherfrost, gone just like that. halfpaw tries to visit her daughter fernkit, but mottledgorse is very possessive of the kit and doesn’t let anyone but him come near. pricklewool starts distancing himself from everyone, too. halfpaw still has drizzlepaw and sproutsong, though, and he knows better now than to fold in on himself because of his grief. he has healthier ways of dealing with it and does his best to make the most of that, just spending time with drizzlepaw and sproutsong and communicating with fennelpaw through sootsnow. it also comes to his attention that if drizz hadnt made him get it together he’d probably be in a very terrible space right now and he is extremely grateful for that. he kind of falls head over heels for her and is very obvious about it and sproutsong teases him relentlessly. it’s cute. Oh, and some guy named Goldthicket gets exiled for murder. Halfpaw thinks that’s pretty wild. There’s also an OrC daylight gathering. Halfpaw definitely goes and probably just hangs out with Drizzlepaw, assuming she also goes. He’d be happy for an opportunity to spend more time with Fennelpaw, too.

11 moons: a she-cat named Emberpaw becomes an apprentice. Halfpaw thinks she’s a little odd with how timid she is and how she has weird scars all over her face. He’s nice to her whenever he can be. Nothing too eventful happens. He keeps playing around with Drizzlepaw and Sproutsong and training with Fisherfrost and getting growled away from the nursery by Mottledgorse. When Fisherfrost is ready to give him his assessment though, Halfpaw hesitates. He really feels like he wouldn’t even be able to become a warrior if not for Drizzlepaw and it just feels wrong to him that he should get his name before she does. So he decides to postpone his assessment another moon so he can take it with Drizz instead. It’s sweet.

12 moons: Oceandusk becomes a warrior and Halfpaw celebrates Fennelfoot’s warrior name at the next gathering. Things are chill for the most part until Mottledgorse gets exiled after he is caught clawing Fernkit. That’s startling. Now that he’s gone, though, Halfpaw makes more of an effort to connect with his niece. It doesn’t really work out all that well, however, because Fernkit seems to have taken after her dad and is very aggressive and hostile and doesn’t really let anyone spend time with her. Halfpaw keeps trying for a good long while, but he eventually backs down. There is a FallClan fishing competition and he has fun with Drizz. He probably works with Fennelfoot. He and Drizzlepaw spend their little night at Silver Falls the day before their assessment and the whole time Halfpaw is just like “omg i love her sm” and then they end up passing and earning their names. Halfheart actually hates his name, but he thinks Drizzlesnow’s is beautiful. He’s internally freaking out during their entire vigil and he passes the time by making weird faces in an effort to make her laugh. he really loves her laugh.

### Warrior Life

13 moons: Pricklewool unexpectedly pulls Halfheart and Sproutsong aside to tell them that he’s moving to OrC. Halfheart is surprised and a little upset by this. He doesn’t understand why. He’s not mad about it at all, though. he wishes his friend well and is sure to stay in touch through messengers and seeks him out at gatherings after that. everything else is pretty chill. Halfheart is mostly just getting used to being a warrior. he continues collecting leaves and shells and the like.

14-15 moons: just chilling, I’m pretty sure? Not much happens. Halfheart keeps having a fun time and keeps being in love with his bestie and keeps being playfully made fun of by Sproutsong for it. He’s in a fairly good spot.

16 moons: Valorstorm and Noblecrown become warriors. And Fernpaw becomes an apprentice! Halfheart thinks that is cool. He attempts to start conversation with her once or twice but it still doesn’t go over particularly well and he sorta dejectedly decides that it isn’t worth it to keep trying. Fernpaw may look like her mom, but she seems to have her dad’s temper and halfheart really just doesn’t want to deal with that.

17 moons: Emberglow becomes a warrior. Also, Halfheart’s feelings for Drizzlesnow are driving him up the wall and he really wants to do smth about it but he’s terrified of overstepping and losing her friendship (and also of the fact that getting a mate while young had not ended well for Fawnstripe). He talks to Sproutsong about it and Sprout tells him to just go for it. Half’s like “OKAY BUT HOW” and Sprout’s like “she’s from OrC right??? Maybe you can do the orchid proposal thing??” and Half thinks that’s a good idea. He musters up his courage and gets to work preparing, firstly by hunting down a rlly nice little island that looks pretty and smells sweet and has a lot of flowers on it. in the center there’s a hollowed-out tree. Halfheart examines this. He decides that he can work with this. He has a vision in his head of what he wants the proposal to be like and he decides to follow that. so for the next step he goes around talking to cats and trying to figure out what plants attract fireflies and/or butterflies. he finds out that butterflies are unfortunately not out at night and so he will have to resort to moths. this is fine. moths are pretty, too. he finds out that fireflies like goldenrod and frostweed while moths like morning glories and primroses. great. excellent. so halfheart goes to orchidclan and is like “pricklewool help i dont know what flowers look like or how to plant them” and he probably gets relayed to the meddie Riverhawk for plant help instead. Bc he can recite tree facts for hours but he knows nothing abt flowers. So she helps him get seeds and he gets to work trying to make a nice little garden area on the island. He is only working on this either really early or really late, for the record. during the day he’s just hanging out with drizzlesnow or sproutsong like he usually does. There also would’ve been another OaC battle practice event thing. Halfheart wouldn’t have wanted to participate but was probably talked into it by Fennelfoot. He failed epically.

18 moons: he keeps working on the island and trying to grow his plants. it turns out frostweed doesn’t grow well in the island’s soil so he resorts to asters instead. that works a little better. he also starts trying to make a nice little pathway up to the hollow tree using pretty stones and shells and all that. he’s just very antsy and wants everything to look perfect and adjusts random things whenever he can while he’s waiting for all the flowers to grow. It’s actually rather difficult to keep his preparations a secret from Drizzlesnow since she’s with him a lot of the time. He probably got caught sneaking out at night once or twice and his only excuse would’ve been something stuttered out along the lines of “I’m working on something and you’ll see it later”, which he really hoped she wouldn’t get suspicious of.

19 moons: Halfheart keeps working on the island and checking up on the flowers. He brings Sproutsong over to take look at it and get his thoughts on what he should change or anything that needs fixing. Sproutsong thinks it looks good so Halfheart is like “okokok” and just continues waiting for all the flowers to bloom. Towards the end of the moon, they finally do. it looks gorgeous and it’s great and Halfheart keeps coming over every day for like a week just to make sure everything’s in shape and to recite what he thinks he’s going to say and to make sure the flowers are working- and they do work. over a few days, fireflies and little white moths start congregating around the island at night and it looks really nice and neat. he can’t believe it actually worked and now he’s freaking out bc this means he actually has to go through with proposing. he probably gets cold feed and starts second guessing and sproutsong or someone has to shake him by the shoulders like “NO DUDE UR SO CLOSE CMON CMON” and convinces him to actually buckle down and do it sjsjdjfb. so for the final step, he goes back to orchidclan looking for a wedding orchid only to find out that orchids don’t actually grow this season. shoot. before he can panic too much tho, someone (probably pricklewool) points him towards a mallow flower and is like “hey look it’s similar enough it’ll do right??” and halfheart is in absolute shambles but he goes along with it and takes the mallow instead anyways. he puts the mallow down in the hollow of the tree on the island and then waits until the following night to propose. he’s probably an anxious wreck for the entire day beforehand but once the sun sets, he tells drizzlesnow that he wants to show her something and brings her to his island. everything’s just like he’d hoped it would be with the exception of it being a mallow instead of an orchid. so he walks her down the pathway to the tree hollow, picks up the flower, offers it to her, and asks her to be his mate. then he immediately panics and forgets what he was going to say afterwards and starts rambling about how he’d wanted an orchid but there weren’t any and he did look but it was the wrong season and mallow was the next best thing and he hoped she still liked it and she actually has to talk over him in order to say yes. halfheart interrupts himself to be like “w,w,wait huh” and she repeats herself and says she does want to be his mate and it’s the greatest day of halfheart’s life. he shows her around the island and talks about all the flowers and they admire the blinking of fireflies and fluttering of moths and halfheart probably brings her up to the top of the tree where they get a really beautiful view of the sky and the water and the other islands in the distance and it’s cute. After a little bit they go into the hollow, which Halfheart had already made all comfortable with moss and such in case it went well so that they could curl up and spend the night together without being having to be crowded into the warriors’ den listening to everyone else snoring. that morning he’d also caught some of their favorite prey and left in there so they have a lil something to snack on. it’s sweet. they do that. the next morning halfheart is like “are you sure you don’t want wedding orchids???” and drizzle just says that she left OrC for a reason. it’s wholesome. they’re wholesome. also, there’s a HC hike. halfheart definitely goes with drizzlesnow, assuming she wants to. they probably get randomly assigned to a group.

20 moons: halfdrizzle are still being wholesome. halfheart is over the moon and he starts bringing back random little gifts for drizz every time he leaves camp. he is having a great time. Well, one of the apprentices accidentally throws out his entire leaf collection along with his moss one day. Halfheart is a little sad about that. He restarts it and stays optimistic, though. there’s really nothing that can get his mood down at this point.

21 moons: Drizzlesnow tells Halfheart that she is expecting his kits. Halfheart is absolutely ecstatic and also simultaneously panicking because, *oh god he’s not ready he has no idea how to be a dad he’s going to have BABIES and they’re going to be TINY HALFHEARTS and TINY DRIZZLESNOWS and he doesn’t know what to DO, DRIZZLESNOW WHATS HE SUPPOSED TO DO,* but drizzlesnow assures him he’ll do fine. halfheart is so excited though. he tells literally every cat he sees about it. someone walks by and he’s like “HI HOW ARE YOU did you hear that MY WIFE IS HAVING BABIES” and theyre like “yes twenty times” and he’s like “WELL SHE IS”. He starts puttering around the nursery constantly just making sure everything is nice and comfy and secure in there and seeing if drizzlesnow needs anything. he is so incredibly stressed in the best possible way. he just feels like he’s not doing enough to help pfft

22 moons: Fernsway becomes a warrior! Halfheart congratulates her and thinks about how proud Fawnstripe would be if she were here. Fernsway had calmed down a little bit since her younger moons and although Halfheart still isn’t really sure how to approach her, he’s glad to see that she’s doing better. He’s just chilling for the most part and spending time with Drizzlesnow in the nursery. She has befriended the one other queen in there, a she-cat named Silkfur who had joined FallClan a few moons ago and now had a pair of one-moon-old kits, and so Halfheart ends up spending a fair amount of time with her as well. There’s also another OrC gathering that they probably went to. Halfheart would’ve gone either way for a chance to see Pricklewool.

23: Fernsway leaves for HorizonClan. Halfheart is a little saddened by this, but he decides he’ll keep an eye out for her at the next gathering and during Clanwide events. Whenever HC’s messenger Mistrunner passes through FC, he’ll ask her how Fernsway’s doing. For most of the moon though he’s just skittering anxiously around the nursery and talking with Drizzlesnow about what their kits might be like. also, at aforementioned next gathering, it is announced that MC’s leader Minkstar has lost all 9 lives to some weird illness while having her kits. Halfheart finds that a little foreboding, and is even more disconcerted when Fennelfoot tells him that said illness is actually spreading in MC.

24 moons: his kits are born! The entire time Drizz is kitting, Halfheart is just. So. Nervous. The last time someone he cared about had babies it went very badly. There are three medicine cats now, but that doesn’t make him any less frantic. they aren’t letting him in the nursery to watch because he’s freaking out so bad and keeps getting in their way. he pokes his head back through every twenty seconds to ask if she’s okay and has to be physically pushed back out. it’s mostly excitement nerves at first, but the kitting starts to take a while and it makes him genuinely scared. He starts pacing around outside again which only makes it worse since that’s what he was doing when Fawnstripe died. He’s like trembling and about to cry the whole time and probably had to be calmed down by Sproutsong and Fisherfrost before he had a heart attack or smth lol. It’s finally over though and he finds out that the reason it took a while was because there were FOUR KITS. he has FOUR KITS, WHAT. he almost passes out. he goes in to see them though and he cries a lot bc they’re beautiful and he’s so proud of his wife and it’s sweet. Drizz names Shellkit and Mallowkit after some of her favorite experiences they’ve shared together and Halfheart names Mosskit and Rainkit after Drizzlesnow herself and the moment she turned his life around. He loves his family. He is a very happy dad. His own father hadn’t gotten the chance to raise him and he was determined to give his kits what he’d never got to have. Oh, and only like a few days later the plague reaches FallClan. A ton of cats get sick. A few start to die. The borders all shut down indefinitely. It’s a source of emotional whiplash and Halfheart is now very frightened for his brand new family. And also for Sproutsong and Sootsnow since being a messenger puts them at higher risk. He’s just generally frightened.

25 moons: Halfheart is in the nursery pretty much constantly, just spending time with Drizzlesnow and Silkfur and all six of the kits. He is very involved with helping his kits learn how to walk and talk and such and he spends more time in the nursery than out. He brings them little toys and decorations for all the nests and basically finds any excuse he can to spend time with them lol. But on the downside… Fisherfrost dies of plague. And so does Oceandusk. It’s not great. Halfheart hadn’t been that close with Oceandusk, but she had always been kind and genuine and he would miss seeing her around. He hadn’t been too close-knit with his uncle, either, but Fisherfrost had been his mentor as well, and Halfheart had always respected and looked up to the older tom. It stung to lose them, but he would keep his head up. He had kits now, and nothing would stop him from being the best dad he could for them. Oh, and Milkweedstar also dies. That happens. Weepingstar takes over and Halfheart thinks that is cool. He thinks she is cool.

26 moons: Halfheart’s kits are now old enough to do kit things. Mallowkit and Mosskit befriend Silkfur’s slightly older kits, Turtlekit and Puddlekit. Shellkit and Rainkit are more interested in following the apprentices and warriors around. There are a few cats, including “Uncle” Sproutsong the deputy Stormclaw, who are willing to entertain their games, but plenty of others who have no interest in such things. Halfheart tries to entertain his sons and help them burn off some of their energy by just taking them on little walks a lot. While doing this, though, he notices some things that seem… off. Shellkit runs out of stamina very quickly and gets easily rendered breathless. Rainkit’s right eye seems unfocused and he always appears to have trouble discerning distance and tracking motion. He brings this up to Drizzlesnow, and the medicine cats deduce that Shellkit has some kind of lung deformity while Rainkit has a growing cataract. There really isn’t anything they can do about either issue- they can guess that Shellkit will always be a bit weaker than other warriors and that Rainkit will eventually lose the vision in his right eye entirely. It’s kind of devastating news. Half n Drizzle really aren’t sure how to pass any of that along to their kits. Halfheart suggests that they just *don’t.* He thinks they ought to tell the kits what exactly they were diagnosed with, sure, but nothing more than that. He says that he has complete faith that their kits will be able to overcome whatever hindrances life throws at them and there’s no point in telling them anything that discouraging. He also wonders if Shellkit has the same thing that Acornsprig had. That thought scares him, though, so he just pinches it off right there. If there’s anything good to come of it, it’s the fact that Mosskit and Puddlekit both have an interest in herbs and they like to pretend to be treating the other two. So at least they can make a game out of it.

27 moons: Halfheart continues being a good dad and a good husband. Shellkit accidentally breaks one of Halfheart’s favorite shells that he’d brought them and feels really bad about it. Halfheart is a little upset to lose the shell, but he isn’t angry at his son and instead just brings him outside with him. Shellkit is probably expecting to get in trouble or something, but Halfheart just tells him that to make up for it, he gets to help him find an even prettier shell as a replacement. They have some bonding time outside of camp and it’s cute and fun. What *isn’t* fun is the fact that Halfheart gets word that over in MC, Sootsnow has the plague. That’s rather nerve-wracking, actually. In other news, ALL THREE MEDICINE CATS DIE. Yeah. Puddlepaw, still a brand new apprentice, takes over for them and is struggling quite a bit. Halfheart does help him out sometimes- not a lot, but when he thinks Puddlepaw would most appreciate it- and he is very concerned about how Mosskit is insistent on spending a lot of time with him. It’s a huge plague risk and Halfheart tries to talk with her about this, but she doesn’t really get it and just wants to help her friend. Halfheart allows it with reluctance, but no longer than an hour or two per day, and not at all if there are any infected cats around. It’s a precarious balance between being the lenient dad that he is and, yknow, not wanting his daughter to die. but he tries.

28 moons: literally nothing actually i’m pretty sure everyone is just chilling. to the best of their abilities, at least. it is how it is.

29 moons: the plague finally ends! This is a massive relief to Halfheart. Everyone he cares about is safe. Well, excluding the ones that died. But that’s okay. Some traveling group of cats knew a herb that could cure the plague and everyone ended up being fine, including Sootsnow. So that’s very good. Also, a somewhat older warrior named Brokenslip starts stopping by some to get to know the kits. Halfheart is a little surprised by this, as he’d never really taken Brokenslip for somebody who’d enjoy spending time with children, but he’s good with them and they all seem to like him well enough- especially Rainkit. Halfheart decides that Brokenslip is A Cool Dude.

30 moons: His kits become apprentices!!! Rainpaw’s mentor is Brokenslip and Mallowpaw’s is Tidewave. Halfheart approves of both of these decisions. Mosspaw’s mentor, however, is Graydusk. Graydusk is young and inexperienced and Halfheart’s a little worried about that, but fortunately he and Mosspaw both just end up tagging along with Tidewave and Mallowpaw for the most part. Halfheart is so incredibly proud of his kids and he gifts them each a shell from his collection to hold onto. He’s also very glad to be back to sharing the warriors’ den with Drizzlesnow lol.

31 moons: the borders finally open back up! the first real gathering since the plague started is a wild one. Halfheart is proud to have his kits’ names announced and thrilled to get to see Pricklewool, Fennelfoot, and Sootsnow again. He introduces them all to his kids. A little after this, Sootsnow unexpectedly comes to him in FallClan and lets him know that Fernsway has made some friends in HorizonClan and that she’s willing to see him. This is surprising, but Halfheart’ll take it. He goes to visit her in HC and they chat a little bit and he tells her about his kids and they agree that he’ll introduce them to her at the next gathering. It ends a little awkwardly, but hey, it’s still the longest interaction he’s ever had with her, so it’s a win! There is also another HorizonClan hike and Rainpaw refuses to stay behind in spite of his young age and his bad eye, so Halfheart accompanies him along with Drizzlesnow and Brokenslip. They’re not trying to win at all and are just moving at their own pace and having a good time.

32 moons: mostly just chilling. mosspaw gifts him some nice flowers one time and he thinks it’s the sweetest thing ever and he wears them behind his left ear at all times now. at the gathering, he introduces mosspaw & rainpaw to fernsway. also, there’s an announcement that rogues in twolegplace are apparently amassing an army and war is approaching. that’s not ideal. halfheart is mostly just concerned for his kits. but whatever happens, he knows that he’ll stand by his family and help them fight to the best of his ability.

33 moons: 👍

## Other

### Trivia

- Halfheart makes me so sad. He has lost so much. He knows grief better than most warriors twice his age. But he’s such a sweetheart in spite of it all </3

- Going off of this, when they eventually die, Half either has to go before Drizzle or they have to go together. I accidentally gave him the Suncurrent treatment. Don’t take this poor man’s wife from him.

- Halfheart’s love language is quality time. That’s what speaks the most to him, at least. He tends to express his own affection through giving gifts.

- His favorite flowers used to be peonies, but it changed to mallow after he became mates with Drizzlesnow and it has been ever since. He’s also become fond of gladioli ever since Mosspaw gave him one to keep in his fur.

- On that note, he brings little presents home for Drizzlesnow and his kits every time he leaves camp. He never comes back without some pretty flowers or colorful shells or cool rocks or their favorite prey or something of that sort. He is just constantly giving them gifts all the time and they just have to deal with it and find somewhere to put them lol. This will also be added to his bio later.

- His favorite prey is red tree vole. He likes to hunt for them in OasisClan when he can. In his home Clan, though, he’ll eat pretty much any fish even though he’s secretly not too fond of them. Except for walleyes. He *really* doesn’t like walleyes. He’s not a fan of eating frogs, either.

- Halfheart is really good at climbing trees. He likes to climb trees. He’s only decently okay at swimming, though. He has the wide paws and mostly waterproof fur of a FallClan cat, but he still prefers to use the stepping stones.

- He also hates mosquitoes. And he likes to look at dragonflies, but their buzzing freaks him out a bit. Same goes for bees, hornets, and wasps. He isn’t scared of them, but he’s wary. He’s always been a big fan of butterflies, moths, and fireflies, though, particularly after drawing them to his island. He likes spiders and beetles and centipedes, too. He just thinks that most bugs are neat. Excluding his random distaste for ants. He just mildly despises them for no reason. It’s funny.

- Also, he is highly allergic to both fleas and bees. He does not know this because he has never been bitten or stung (yet), but it is true. He is. He got it from his mom. L.

- Shellpaw’s asthma is hereditary. Snailshell had it and it skipped a generation. Halfheart never learned of this, though, because Fawnstripe hadn’t known Snailshell long enough to find out, either, and Pondstep had never mentioned it to them. He’ll probably be told by Sootsnow at some point.

- Congrats to him for being one of the few characters I own without any physical scars (yet).

### Quotes

None yet! Imagine if he interacted with his wife /j