In the new territories, perfect for the five Clans to coexist once more, leaf-bare was lasting longer and prey was becoming scarcer. In the ShadowClan camp, a young warrior was sitting guard, waiting for the clouds overhead to break and release a fresh wave of snow. Not wanting to freeze, he stood and stretched, padding around the camp and listening to his Clanmates sleep in their dens. The camp, a hollow against a mountainside, was protected from the wind by bramble bushes and pine trees. Small caves served as dens for the warriors, queens, and apprentices. A stream cut through the edge of the hollow, a hollow log beside it that served as the medicine den. The elders slept in a den woven from a bramble bush and waxy leaves, while the leader's den was a cave above the others, with a ledge jutting a little ways out from the mountainside.
Pausing to stretch, the warrior twitched his ears at the sound of a low moan. Taking a moment, he poked his head into the nursery, peering in.
"Frostfang," one of the queens, Sorrelheart, hissed, "get Ivyleaf. They're coming."
Blinking, he pulled back and vaulted across the camp, barging into the medicine den.
"Ivyleaf!" he called.
"Quiet, Frostfang, we're sleeping!" Wolftail, the medicine cat's apprentice, hissed from his nest.
"Sorrelheart's kitting!" he mewed, tail flicking.
Ivyleaf poked her head out from her nest. "Now? In the middle of the night?"
Frostfang nodded as she shot up, cuffing Wolftail around the ears to wake him up. "Get raspberry and borage and meet me in the nursery," she ordered, whisking out of the den with a stick clamped in her jaws. Frostfang, noticing his friend getting up groggily, went back to the herb store and pulled the leaves she needed. Wolftail nodded when he saw, leading the way to the nursery.
"At least some cat knows how to find herbs in the store," Wolftail muttered, tail flicking nervously.
"Only cause you'd recite to me endlessly during training," Frostfang mumbled around the leaves, spitting them out by Sorrelheart's nest. Wolftail pulled a clump of moss from the cave wall and dunked it in the snow outside, bringing it back for her to lick.
"Thank you, kit" she wheezed, flinching as a contraction made her stomach spasm. Wolftail licked her between the ears, pressing his nose to her temple for a moment.
Flamefur, one of the other queens, nudged her kits to Frostfang. "Can you take them outside and keep them occupied? This is going to be a rough birth."
He nodded. "Sagekit, Foxkit, come guard the camp with me," he mewed cheerily. "We can keep an eye on the forest."
"If someone comes can we fight?" Sagekit asked, bounding in front of him.
"No," he purred, laughing. "But you can wake up the warriors if someone comes and hide in their den."
"No one's getting past us!" Foxkit declared, clawing at an imaginary opponent.
"Shh," Frostfang mewed. "We don't want to wake the camp."
Foxkit clamped his jaws shut, ginger fur fluffing out in the cold. Sagekit purred as he stood at attention, scanning the edge of camp.
In the nursery, Ivyleaf put a paw on Sorrelheart's flank. "This is a large litter," she mewed worriedly. "At the next contraction, push."
Sorrelheart nodded, wincing and bracing herself. Yowling as she pushed, the first kit slipped out, breaking its sac as it hit the nest. Wolftail picked it up and dried it off before putting it against her belly. Flamefur, glancing at Swiftstep, left the nursery with her. Outside, cats were poking their heads out of their dens.
"Are we being attacked?" Leafspring, the deputy, called down.
"Is it those filthy fish-eaters?!" Dustfoot, the oldest elder, yowled.
"What's going on?" Russettail, a senior warrior, yawned.
"Sorrelheart's kitting!" Foxkit yowled to the camp, bouncing in the snow. Sagekit, beside him, added, "We're going to have playmates!"
Grayfur, Sorrelheart's mate, shoved his way out of the warriors den, trailed after by his four older kits, Duskstorm, Dawncloud, Badgerpelt, and Rosefur. The tom darted into the nursery, his other kits milling about outside until Wolftail joined them. By then, Sorrelheart had yowled more and woken up Palestar, who was talking to Leafspring on the Cliffedge.
"Five kits!" he yowled to the Clan. "Three toms and two she-kits!"
"Oh, good, we need kits," Cloverfur, the other elder, purred.
"How will we feed them?" Kitetail asked. "We can barely feed ourselves!"
"We'll figure it out," Palestar said. "We may have to go beyond our borders, but this many kits means the Clan will thrive come new-leaf."
Frostfang, leaving the kits with their mother, went over to Wolftail. "Happy to have more siblings?" he asked, sitting beside Rosefur.
"They're healthy, but this kitting made her weak," Wolftail fretted. "And five? We may have to ask Ducktail for borage after Swiftstep kits."
"This is good, though," Dawncloud said. "We've lost too many cats this leaf-bare - rebuilding our numbers is important."
"Assuming we don't lose these ones before new-leaf," Duskstorm pointed out.
"We'll hunt extra to make sure they're fed," Badgerpelt said.
"Has she named them?" Rosefur asked her littermate. As she did, a crack of thunder sounded overhead, making them all jump.
"Thunder in leaf-bare?" Cloverfur asked.
"An omen!" Dustfoot yowled.
"A storm, more likely," Icefoot mewed from her spot beside Snowtail. "Look, it's starting to snow."
"Think it's an omen?" Russettail asked Wolftail, glancing at the flakes drifting down from the sky.
"Looks like weather to me," he mewed, looking at the nursery. Grayfur came out and leapt onto the Cliffedge, murmuring to Palestar and Leafspring.
"Did you name them?" Rosefur yowled. Ivyleaf sat next to her, watching Grayfur.
He fluffed out his chest with pride. "Redkit, Owlkit, Sootkit, Thistlekit, and Stormkit!" he yowled. "Owlkit and Stormkit are she-kits, Redkit, Sootkit, and Thistlekit are toms, and they're all healthy!"
The Clan yowled cheerfully at the news of their new Clanmates. Badgerpelt and his sisters went in to see their new siblings with Russettail and Bluefoot.
"Oh, they're beautiful," Dawncloud purred. The five kits were nestled against Sorrelheart's belly, suckling as their family cooed over them. Redkit, the eldest, was a ginger tabby with white points like Russettail, but his fur was an even darker ginger. Owlkit was brown, cream, and ginger, with paws as white as the snow outside. Her tail tip, ear tips, nose, and chest were white as well, clean and neat. Sootkit was a solid dark gray, his fur sleek and short. Thistlekit was a lighter gray with white points, his fur longer. Stormkit, a little smaller than Sootkit, was the same blue-gray as Grayfur and Bluefoot with Sorrelheart's long fur.
"They're going to be a pawful," Russettail laughed, touching his sister's ear with his nose.
"They're worth it," Sorrelheart breathed, looking at them adoringly. "Oh, they're worth it."
As she fell asleep and her family left, the snow continued to fall.
ALLEGIANCES:
Leader: Palestar - pale tabby she-cat
Deputy: Leafspring - light brown tabby tom
Medicine Cat: Ivyleaf - fluffy white she-cat
Apprentice, Wolftail - dark gray tom
Warriors:
Shadefrost - elegant black she-cat
Russettail - white-pointed ginger tabby tom
Brightflower - ginger and white she-cat
Bluefoot - blue-gray she-cat
Grayfur - blue-gray tom
Kitetail - black and white tom
Duskstorm - dusty ginger she-cat
Dawncloud - pale ginger she-cat
Badgerpelt - long-furred black and white tom
Cloudpelt - gray and white tom
Brindlestorm - dilute calico she-cat
Rosefur - pale ginger she-cat
Hawkfeather - golden brown tabby tom
Eaglefeather - golden brown tabby tom
Icefoot - white she-cat
Snowtail - white she-cat
Frostfang - white tom
Queens:
Flamefur - bright ginger tabby she-cat (Sagekit - pale gray she-cat, Foxkit - ginger tabby tom)
Sorrelheart - long-furred dilute calico (cream, brown, and white) she-cat (Redkit - white pointed, dark ginger tom with darker tabby stripes, Owlkit - pretty, long-furred brown, ginger, and cream tortoiseshell with white points, Sootkit - dark gray tom, Thistlekit - white pointed dark gray tom, Stormkit - small, long-furred blue gray she-cat)
Swiftstep - black and white she-cat (Firekit - bright ginger tabby she-cat, Blackkit - black tom, Whitekit - white she-cat)
Elders:
Dustfoot - ancient pale brown tom
Cloverfur - golden brown tabby she-cat, has a permanently injured hind leg