A young ginger kit collided with Leafpool. The medicine cat looked down in surprise.
"Lionkit!" she meowed. "Aren't you supposed to be in camp?"
Lionkit twitched his tail. "I was bored."
Leafpool stared down at him, thoughts whirling through her head. Lionkit was the brother of Hollykit and Jaykit, children of Leafpool's sister Squirrelflight and Brambleclaw. Or so everyone, but Leafpool knew...
It had been the start of leaf-bare. Squirrelflight was in the nursery, her face screwed up with pain. She had just given birth to two kits, but one was stillborn and the other was so weak that it had died a few minutes after it had been born. Leafpool hadn't had the heart to tell her sister her kits had died, so she decided to do something daring.
"Wait here," she mewed quietly. She padded away, a determined gleam in her eyes. When she came back, she held a small black kit in her mouth. She put it down and nudged it towards Squirrelflight. After two more trips, there were three tiny kits nestled into Squirrelflight's belly.
Leafpool gazed sadly as the ginger queen began licking the kits, believing them to be her children. But they weren't Squirrelflight's.
They were Leafpool's.
Leafpool had been with Crowfeather long enough to become pregnant. She had mannaged to keep it a secret from the rest of the Clan, but even they noticed. So, soon after they were born, Leafpool had hidden them in her den and told the Clan that they had died. They had believed her.
But now they weren't Leafpool's now. They were Squirrelflight's.
Leafpool shook herself. "Well, that's no good excuse," she scolded Lionkit. "You know that kits aren't allowed to leave the camp without a warrior escort."
Lionkit yawned. "So?"
Leafpool heard a rustle of leaves behind her. She sniffed the air before sighing. "Come on out, you two."
After a pause, Jaykit and Hollykit stepped out.
As always, Leafpool was struck by how much they looked like their father... like Crowfeather.
"I better take you home," she mewed, nudging Hollykit in the direction of the camp. The kits started complaining, but Leafpool was firm and they were soon heading home.
Leafpool stood still for a second, closing her eyes. When Bluestar, Lionheart and Yellowfang had visited her seasons ago in dreams, they hadn't been wrong. Leafpool was following a difficult path.
After all, how many medicine cats have to watch their children growing up, Leafpool wondered, when they're calling someone else 'mother'?
