Birch scrambled over his mother's back, squealing as he slid down to rest in between her paws. His mother blinked her eyes open drowsily and gently cuffed his ear. Birch ducked her paw, purring with amusement. "Wake up, wake up!" he squeaked, kneading her side with his paws. She grunted and turned over, closing her eyes again, but the kit was persistent. He scrambled back on to her back. "Wake up!" he tried again. This time, his mother got up so abruptly he fell off with a yelp of surprise. "I almost can't wait until the housefolk find good homes for you," she tapped his head with her tail as Birch's littermate, Holly, came scurrying up to her now-awake mother. "Tell us a story!" she cried, jumping up and down with excitement. "Yes, tell us about how we got our names!" Birch's eyes lit up.
The she-cat licked a paw and drew it over her ear while her two kits waited impatiently. "Well," she finally began, wrapping her tail neatly around her paws, "One day, before you two were born, I wandered into the forest outside this very house. I was chasing a squirrel, you see, and I was so caught up in catching it that I didn't realize how far from home I was. Suddenly, just when I was sure I'd get the squirrel, I was lifted into the air!" She paused as her kits gasped. They'd heard the story many times, but they never seemed to get tired of it. "It was one of the workfolk I'd seen before, outside the house. They'd seemed harmless from inside the garden, but now, they were carrying me away! I yowled and screeched, but they didn't try to take me home. They didn't know where I was from, because I'd slipped out of my collar earlier that day. I'd thought I was so clever before, but now, I was realizing my mistake.
"The workfolk took me inside one of their monsters. I tried to escape, but before I could even run, they'd stuffed me into a cage. For days, I was stuck, cramped inside an unfamiliar cage with disgusting food and dirty water. There were cages all around me too, also filled with cats. I tried not to give up hope that I'd ever escape, but it was hard.
"A few days later, a new cat was moved into the cage next to me, a forest cat. There were many forest cats around me, and a lot of them seemed to know each other. This cat was distraught and confused, just like the rest. She wasn't used to cages and pellet food."
"So what did she eat?" Holly asked.
"She caught her own food in the forest. Squirrels, mice, rabbits, birds. For her, the pellets tasted even worse than they did for me. I tried to get her to eat though; it was the only way she could stay strong.
"At first, she seemed a little wary of me, but we soon became friendly. So friendly, in fact, that when her sister came to rescues her, she made sure I was rescued too. She even let me come with her to her Clan. Her Clan was like her family, only it was much bigger than any family I'd ever seen before. They didn't like me at first, because I was a kittypet. They called housefolk 'Twolegs', and to them, Twolegs were a threat. I think they felt that any cat that lived with Twolegs was a threat as well. I felt out of place at first, but then I found out that one of the cats, a she-cat named Ferncloud, had lost a kit. I felt so sorry for her that I offered to take care of her last remaining kit until she felt better. That was what made me feel better about living with the Clan for a while.
"Why did you only stay for a while?" Birch asked, even though he already knew the answer.
His mother shifted slightly. "Because I missed my housefolk. Besides, I was also beginning to realize how hard life in the forest was. You had to fight all the time, for everything I generally took for granted. It was hard and I couldn't live with it. I'd come searching for freedom, but I'd realized that freedom came with a price. So I left."
"Then we were born!" Holly chirped happily, bouncing on the spot.
"Then you were born," her mother repeated, "And I named you after Ferncloud's two kits, Birchkit and Hollykit."
"I bet you liked Birchkit better than Hollykit, didn't you?" Birch asked, sliding a glance at his siter to see if she'd understood his hidden taunt. She had, which was made obvious when she growled and pounced on top of him.
Cody watched her two kits play-fighting on the carpet, her heart welling with love for them both. They didn't understand the true meaning of her story. They understand the meaning of freedom and forest life and how much a mother really loved her kits. To them, it was simply an amusing tale of their mother's misadventures. Cody sighed and leaped up on to the windowsill. The forest gazed back at her. Sometimes, she wondered where Leafpool, Birchkit and the rest of the Clan were now. Had they found their new home? Was Birchkit a warrior? Had Ferncloud had another litter? She liked imagining up answers sometimes, but she knew that real answers wouldn't come to her soon. Maybe not ever.
She gave the forest one last glance before jumping back down to her kits. Wherever the Clan was now, whatever they were doing, she hoped that they remembered her. She hoped that she was in their stories, like they were in hers.
A/N: I guess I should reference the Warriors Wiki, for brushing up my knowledge of Dawn without making me drag my lazy self all the way upstairs to get it.