An earthen tom crouched beside a ginger she-cat, a swollen gash on her flank. Three kits huddled beside him watching as the she-cat breathed quickly.

The tom pressed his nose against her cheek.

"Root, you can't leave us. We've come so far. We need to find a home." he murmured. The kits pressed closer as Root took a breath.

"You can find it. Protect them, Ash." She paused for another breath, "I'll always be with you. All of you." Her head raised as she spoke, her muscles shivering at the effort. Her gaze swept over all four cats around her. "Always." Her head fell back down and she took gasping breaths. Ash stood and wrapped himself around her, burying his nose in her soft fur, her once sweet scent souring from the infection in her wound. The kits shuffled around and gathered to their mother. The black and brown dappled she-kit buried herself as far into her mother's fur as she could and began to sniffle.

"It's okay, Drizzle." the golden tom kit squeaked to her. "We have Ash yet to protect us and find a home. He'd never let anything bad happen to us." The adult tom's ears flattened from guilt, though he knew the kit didn't mean it as a jab. The kits still had confidence in him even though it was their mother who fought a dog and all he can do is watch as she slowly died in front of them. The third kit agreed, nuzzling himself in with his siblings.

"Yeah! Don't worry, Root. We'll find a home and then we can play all day long and sleep when we want and our paws won't hurt anymore cause we won't need to walk all day."

The three kits eyes began to droop as they settled together and Ash forced himself to purr to keep them comforted. He knew by morning Root would be dead and they would have to continue without her. He began to grow anxious. Three kits were hard enough to take care of while traveling with their mother, now he was alone. The tom closed his eyes and willed himself to sleep. He was going to need all his energy to finish the journey.

Startled at the cold feeling of water soaking into his fur Ash opened his eyes and looked around. He was laying in a giant body of water, light sparkling off the surface. Splashing to his side drew his attention as he watched the three kits play in the water. He grew confused, they were much bigger than when they had gone to sleep, and they had definitely not fallen asleep in a lake.

"Kits" he meowed "be careful, don't go too deep."

The kits kept playing, showing no sign of hearing him. Is this a dream? He wondered to himself. The tom looked around again. The shore on the lake they were closest to was lined with various trees and bushes, the leaves full and green. It confirmed it was a dream as it was still early into newleaf when they had gone to sleep. Is this our home? Do I have to find this place? Root would have loved it. The tom sighed remembering her death. If what he is seeing is when they first get to their new home they have at least two moons of traveling yet. His gray pelt prickled with apprehension. Will they actually make it? Two moons traveling alone with kits? Ash's thoughts were interrupted with a scream.

"Ash! Ash help! Drizzle!" he whipped around to look at the kits to see the two toms standing in the water staring at an empty spot of water, the only movement being some ripples. He stood quickly and rushed over, surprised when one of his paws stepped off a steep edge. He could hear the two kits cries of fear as he fell and was submerged. He scrambled to get to the surface for air and ducked back down squinting through the water trying to look for Drizzle. To his relief he saw a small shape fighting to try to get to the surface and he clumsily swam towards her, but his paws moved slowly. Fighting harder fear gripped him as he saw the kits paws slow to a crawl. The tom desperately reached out a paw towards her, just brushing her fur as he felt teeth grip his scruff.

Jerking he opened his eyes again gasping for breath. The sour scent of infection filled his nose again and realized he had woken up. Soft light filtered onto them through the thin bush they had rested in and it was silent. Roots gasping breaths had stopped while he was asleep. Ash looked down and saw the kits still asleep. Drizzle was tucked between her brothers her dappled fur sticking out from Lightning's goldfur and Soot's gray. They were always protective of their sister, Lightning a bit more expressive of it. He would puff out his chest and claim to fight off whatever tried to hurt her. Soot was a bit more gentle, aiming to just comfort rather than physically get rid of the problem.

Sighing, Ash stood up, his paws already sore. He pressed his nose to the top of Root's head one last time then moved his attention back to the kits.

"Kits," he prodded them with his paw and they stirred, "it's time to get up." A pair of bright yellow eyes blinked open and a yawn stretched Drizzle's jaws. Fear gripped the brown gray tom again. In his dream Drizzle was drowning, does he save her? He has to, he can't lose any of these kits.

"Are we leaving again?" he heard Soot ask. Ash nodded and looked at the two toms. Soot was staring up at him with his amber eyes and Lightning was just waking up.

"We'll catch something to eat before we go too far though." He watched the kits stand up and stretch. They started heading out from under the bush. "Say goodbye to your mother," He meowed. The three stopped and Drizzle turned around quickly and rushed back. She rubbed her muzzle against Root's and sniffed. The toms gathered around her.

"Bye mama. We'll be sure to find this new place for you." the she-kit sniffled.

"And I'll be sure to fight a dog and avenge you." Lightning stated. Ash ducked under the leaves of the bush and brushed his thick tail over Root's body and beckoned the kits to leave. They followed silently.

Blinking in the sunlight he looked at the kits as they gathered around his paws. Their expressions were somber as they wait for him to decide what their next move would be and he looked back up trying to decide which direction to start walking. He turned away from the sun and started on their journey again, the three kits following quietly.

A/N Exciting to be writing again! I'm very pleased with how this has turned out and I will definitely be trying to keep up. I don't plan on having any prophecies, but I'll try to keep it interesting.

Thank you for reading!