Quick explanation: Halffur became warrior and then when Flametail died, Littlecloud had a dream from StarClan saying she would be the next medicine cat. Then Littlecloud died.
"Blackstar!" Tawnypelt yowled. "The kits are coming!"
"Now?" Blackstar asked.
Tawnypelt rolled her eyes. "Yes, now. I can't order them to stop, can I?"
It was just like Ivytail to have her kits when the medicine cats were at Moonpool. Tawnypelt nudged the she-cats swollen belly with her nose and realized the first kit was almost out. A wet, dark shape fell to the moss in the nursery and laid eerily still.
"Lick!" Tawnypelt ordered, nudging the kit to Dawnkit, who began licking it clean.
A second kit wriggled feebly, blindly scrabbling towards its mother's belly. Tawnypelt lowered her muzzle and quickly cleaned the kit off.
Dawnkit stopped licking and looked up. "She won't wake up." She fretted.
Tawnypelt turned her attention to her daughter and the kit, beginning to rub the newborn kit. Tigerkit helped her.
"Has Rowanclaw returned with Littlecloud yet?" Tawnypelt called urgently.
"No sign of them!" Blackstar replied, pacing back and forth.
Tawnypelt wished she hadn't been the one told to help the leader's mate while she gave birth. Just because her brother's son was a medicine cat didn't mean she knew what to do.
"Tawnypelt, she still won't wake!" Flamekit mewed, sniffing the newborn.
She looked down at the still kit and sighed. "Dead."
"Dead?" Tigerkit asked, eyes round. "StarClan lets kits die?"
"StarClan doesn't have power over life and death. Cats die. If you're alive, you're one of the lucky ones." Tawnypelt said shortly, examining the queen and her kit again.
Dawnkit's jaws fell open in a soundless mewl of surprise. Tawnypelt regretted her sharpness. "I'm sorry, but I need you to be like warriors and sit vigil."
Tigerkit started to reply, but realized his mistake and closed his mouth, nodding.
"Another one's coming." Ivytail hissed.
Sure enough, a moment later a tiny kit came out, mewling loudly and powerfully despite her size.
"Is that a good sound?" Blackstar demanded, thrusting his muzzle into the nursery. He caught sight of the three older kits standing vigil around the body of his stillborn daughter. "No!"
Tawnypelt lifted her head from the third kit. "There was nothing I could do. She was born dead. But your son and your second daughter are alive."
"Are you going to name them?" Dawnkit squeaked. "Can we play with them?"
"I'll name them." Blackstar said firmly.
Tawnypelt ushered her kits away from Ivytail. "You can't play with them until they get bigger." She told them, ignoring squeals of protest as she nosed them into their nest and licked their ears. After a moment, their arguments turned to sleepy murmuring.
"This one is Nightkit." Blackstar said, standing over the dead kit. "The tom is Darkkit and the she-cat is Halfkit."
Darkkit had smoky black fur and Halfkit was equal parts black and white.
"Like the half-moon she was born under." Littlecloud said, padding inside and dropping a bundle of roots wrapped in a large leaf. "A good choice, Blackstar. Ivytail, this is borage. You need to eat it so your kits will have enough milk." He added to the queen. As soon as she ate it, he vanished through the nursery entrance.
Tawnypelt couldn't bear to be in there with the grieving family any longer. "I'll get you a toad to wash it down with." She said hastily, hurrying outside.
"How'd it go?" Rowanclaw asked worriedly.
"Ivytail and two of the kits are fine. The first one died. I tried, but she wouldn't wake. I did everything, and my best still wasn't good enough."
He flicked his tail tip over her shoulder before pressing against her reassuringly. "I'm sure you did everything anyone could. You're no medicine cat, you're a warrior. No one could expect any more than that."
.
.
Halffur glared up at her new mentor. "I hate you already. You've got an extraordinary knack for being an annoying, beetle-brained furball."
Jayfeather looked back at her coolly. Well, he seemed to. She knew perfectly well that blue gaze did little to the effect of actually seeing her.
"This is going to be quite the ceremony." Firestar muttered under his breath. "After you, Blackstar."
Blackstar shot the ThunderClan cat a withering glance I had yet to perfect and jumped smoothly onto the Highledge. "Cats of ShadowClan and ThunderClan! Gather here beneath this… rock to hear what I have to say." He said scathingly, making rock sound like the worst kind of word for the thing he was standing on.
Angry muttering broke out among the ThunderClan half of the clearing, while ShadowClan cats twitched their whiskers.
Firestar bounded up beside him, treating him with an angry gaze. Hmm, an angry glare versus being openly humiliated by a rival standing and addressing your clan in your own camp… Halffur thought with amusement. My father definitely looks to be the winner here.
"Littlecloud joined StarClan last night." Firestar explained. ShadowClan—and a few ThunderClan cats—bowed their heads for the moment.
"What does this have to do with us?" A ThunderClan cat yowled. "Why are they in our camp?"
It was a young cream warrior glaring up at Blackstar. Halffur's claws sunk into the earth.
Jayfeather cuffed her ear with sheathed claws. "If you rip his throat out I'll have to kill you, find another ShadowClan apprentice, and still patch him up so he can continue being a nuisance."
"Thornclaw, I'll see you in my den later." Firestar hissed.
Blackstar lashed his tail. "Littlecloud's apprentice died a few moons ago. We have no medicine cat. Jayfeather is the nearest medicine cat without an apprentice. He'll train a ShadowClan apprentice in lieu of Littlecloud. This apprentice will live with you for the next several moons." He was interrupted by a storm of muttering from both Clans.
"I don't want some ShadowClan spy wandering around, stealing kits and prey and poisoning herbs and the freshkill pile." An elder grumbled.
Firestar glared at her. "Mousefur, hold your tongue."
"Halffur, come up here." Blackstar said.
"I thought he said apprentice! Isn't she a warrior?" A kit said.
Halffur's whiskers twitched. Kits were the same in every Clan. She padded up to her father and sat beside him.
"Jayfeather," Firestar said as the blind tom climbed onto the rock.
She noticed a few scars on Jayfeather's pelt and for the first time it occurred to Halffur that though he couldn't be more than a leafbare or two older than her, he'd been through a lot.
"Halffur, is it your wish to become the ShadowClan medicine cat?" Blackstar asked.
"It is."
Firestar addressed Jayfeather. "Jayfeather, do you wish to take on this apprentice?"
"I do."
"Then I name you Halfpaw once again." Blackstar said bitterly. "May StarClan guide your paws as you become a medicine cat without the comfort of a ShadowClan mentor."
Halfpaw shuddered and touched noses with Jayfeather awkwardly.
The cats below were silent. Blackstar leapt down and waved his tail. The ShadowClan cats, who only included Ivytail, Darkwood, Rowanclaw, Tawnypelt, Tigerheart, and Dawnpelt, vanished through the entrance tunnel while Halfpaw walked to the back of the camp.
A cream-coloured, long-furred tom shouldered her as she walked past. "Whoops, sorry, Halfpaw."
Halfpaw had worked super hard to get her warrior name after being ill for a moon the last leaf-fall, and now Jayfeather had refused to take her unless she gave it up again.
"Don't mind Berrynose." A young she-cat told her. She blinked her blue eyes encouragingly. "I'm Dovewing. Jayfeather's brother was my mentor. He's always grumpy, you'll get used to it soon."
Halfpaw wasn't ready to be nice. "I'm not surprised he's grumpy. Who would want to be a HalfClan cat and have to stay with ThunderClan?" She asked loudly.
The kit who'd spoken before, a little gray ball of fur, bounced up to her. "Do you really eat kits for breakfast in ShadowClan?"
As much as she hated everyone in that camp and their awful scent, Halfpaw couldn't help being amused. "If we do, you're in big trouble, aren't you?" She hissed, baring her teeth.
His eyes got wide and he scrambled backwards. A silver she-cat whispered with him, and then they slowly approached her again, his sister in the lead.
Halfpaw pretended not to notice them. The tom pounced on her tail, sinking tiny claws into it. Though the claws were so small they itched rather than hurt, she yowled and keeled over. His sister climbed up onto her and bared her teeth.
"Get off of her, she's a guest." A queen said briskly. "I'm sorry, Halfpaw. They've been cooped up in the nursery while the snow melted."
"It's fine." She replied, climbing to her feet as the kits sulked.
The queen looked fondly down at her offspring. "I can't wait till they're apprenticed."
"They won't be as cute then." Halfpaw realized she sounded like a doting big sister. "They'll pick up ThunderClan scent and start reeking." She added disparagingly.
"Stop harassing Millie; we've got work to do." Jayfeather snapped.
"Bye, Halfpaw!" The kits called, already climbing over their mother.
