Prologue
The stars neglected to shine tonight. I stared up at the empty darkness, hidden in the shadows of a oak tree; it must have been a bad omen. If it was a bad omen, then it was all of my fault.
I was holding kits. I had never meant to ever bare them! What was worse, the medicine cat apprentice, who was one of the two cats who knew, said I was going to have these kits tonight! Two of them, he had said. I tried not to think about the kits, instead of where I was going to give birth to them!
Cherryclaw, Daisyfeather, and their brother, Splashnose, where sitting vigil tonight. How was I going to get past them? Too many questions! Why had I done this? Why had I agreed to all of this distress and problems?
Lifting my paws quietly, I decided to scope out where I was going to have these kits tonight, and since I didn't want them, who I was going to give them to!
As I snuck out of the dirt-place tunnel, nearly giving myself away, I remembered what my mother, the rogue Daffodil, had meowed the night she gave us away. "My kits, I have heard of these Clan's my fellow rogues have talked about, and I want you to join them. If I recall correctly," my mother had paused for a moment, then began her rumbling again. "then there are four Clans: ThunderClan, ShadowClan, WindClan, and RiverClan. I want you to go to the Clan of your choice."
That night, she left us. I went to ThunderClan. My taller sister went to ShadowClan, and my smallest sister went to RiverClan. WindClan, well, WindClan did not please any of us.
But the night I was given away was not the point. It was my sisters. I could give one of my kits to Mousefang, my sister, of ShadowClan, and one of my kits to my sister, Dapplepelt, deputy of RiverClan.
I silently trudged throughout the forest, trying to find a place where no one would recognize my scent. WindClan! They didn't know who I was, just the scent I carried! The border would be nice.
My paws flew across the ground as I sprinted as fast as possible, due to my pregnancy slowing me down quite a bit. Soon, I would give birth, and the first scent my kits would smell, would be of different Clan's.
When I reached the border of ThunderClan and WindClan, I skidded to a halt. I smelled WindClan scent, all right, but for some reason it seemed stronger than normal...
"What are you doing here?" Hey, I knew that voice! It was Greenbird, the medicine cat of WindClan!
"No-nothing, Greenbird," I stuttered at the bulky tom.
"Liar," hissed Greenbird. "Don't you think I would know the scent of a queen about to give birth?"
"Don't tell anyone," I begged, then said in a bolder tone, "Besides, as soon as I get them delivered, I'm giving them away. To my sisters. I don't want my kits."
Greenbird opened his mouth like he was about to say something, but a yowl cut him off. "Who was that?" I hissed to him, but then I felt a rippling pain go through my stomach. It was me!
The WindClan medicine cat looked at me in fear. "Did you bring herbs with you?"
"No! I completely forgot!"
Greenbird's pale blue eyes flashed in utter horror, and soon all I could see was his light gray hindquarters racing across the moor. Traitor. He was going to report me! What if I lost too much blood? What if I died because of him?!
Trying to fight back the pains continuing to wrack my body and ripple down my stomach, I hauled myself across the border with only two of my paws, and continued to haul myself across the moorland. I didn't even care who saw me, as long as I didn't die. As long as my kits didn't die. I may have been giving them away, I may seem heartless, but I didn't want to see something innocent, especially at their first breath of air, die.
Something light gray speckled the corner of my eye. I tried to turn around to see who it was, but found I only had enough strength to give birth to these kits. If I wasted my energy, then I would die. My kits would die. And my mate would probably kill himself in grief. A weak smile appeared on my lips. He did love me.
I heard panting, and I smelled the faint scent of raspberry and borage leaves, along with the scent of WindClan. Greenbird had come back for me. I immediately felt guilty for thinking he would let me die. He may be from another Clan, but he had been the first friend I had.
Greenbird dropped the leaves next to my mouth. "Chew," he ordered.
I hungrily lapped the leaves up, they tasted funny, but not disgusting. I moaned and rolled on my side.
"Why are you going into ThunderClan territory?" I asked at the retreated Greenbird. My friend turned around. "A stick. You are going to be in a lot of pain, and WindClan doesn't have any trees near us."
My claws scraped the ground in agony as pains rippled. There was unfortunately nothing I could do about it, except maybe kill myself, which I already mentioned would get my mate and my kits killed, too.
I let out a screech. A long, loud pain filled screech. My mind didn't even register that my screech might have waken up all of the Clans.
A few minutes into the labor, I smelled ThunderClan scent. Not WindClan scent, so it couldn't be Greenbird with the stick. As the figure's paws pounded closer to me, I realized who it was, and I didn't want him here at all.
It was my mate. The long-legged white tom was at my side in the next five heart beats. When he looked at me, his eyes widened with shock, and he seemed to be fighting down complete panic. Instead, he rasped his tongue against my fur. "I came as soon as I heard you were in pain," he murmured. I attempted to push him away.
"I don't want you here," I hissed at him. My mate backed away, hurt.
"Why?"
"All of the pain I'm going through, is your fault!" I screeched, letting my anger out. "You decided to do this to me! Even when I desperately did not want it to happen and––" My voice got muffled by my mate's white with black striped tail covering my mouth, his eyes narrowed to slits as he looked into the distance.
"WindClan," he hissed, and when Greenbird came into view with a large stick, my mate leapt at him, claws flashing and ripping.
I could barely work up enough strength to call out, "Greenbird is okay! He's helping me out! Get off of him!"
My mate froze, and Greenbird took his chance to bowl my mate over and pick up the stick in his jaws.
"You are the one who abandoned us just for her," hissed Greenbird. "You would have been better off as a WindClan cat."
I remembered how my mate had left his birth Clan, WindClan, just to be with me. But just look at all of the trouble that has caused!
Greenbird ran towards me, and our muzzles nearly touched as his placed the stick into my mouth. My lips could barely fit around it.
Greenbird told me and my mate, "The first kit is coming." Then he turned towards my mate. "You might want to leave now, it will be hard to see your mate in so much pain."
My mate growled, and he refused to leave, instead getting closer to give me a small lick on the ears. "It's gonna be okay. These kits are going to be the best warriors of ThunderClan ever," he told me.
With screech of pain, I pushed as hard as I could, knowing how to give birth since watching a queen in the nursery give birth. A kit slithered out, and Greenbird darted forward to give the sack a nip, and the newborn kit lay on the ground. Through the blood on the kit's pelt, I could make out a black kit with silver stripes.
Greenbird picked up the first kit and passed it over to my mate. "Lick." Then Greenbird directed his attention back onto me.
"Last kit," he murmured to me.
I nodded.
"Push!" Greenbird yowled.
I could barely contain my yowls and screeches of pain as the last kit slithered out. I twisted my head and nipped the sack, giving the kit freedom to slither onto the moorland grass. I lapped the blood off of the kit, finding that it was a light brown kit with a white belly and white paws.
Greenbird and my mate came over to me, my mate holding the silver-striped kit. I noticed that the brown kit was smaller than the silver-striped kit.
"Both she-kit's," announced Greenbird joyfully. My mate's hazel-colored eyes swelled with pride.
"What do you want to name this kit?" asked my mate, nudging the silver-striped kit toward my belly.
I was grateful for him letting me name this kit, but I said, "You stupid tom! Silver stripes! Duh! Silverkit!" I tried to let a small portion humor and emotion seep into my voice so my mate knew I wasn't trying to be mean, just trying to make fun of him a little.
"You name the last one," I told my mate. "It's your turn."
"Fawnkit," my mate breathed.
"Silverkit and Fawnkit," I mewed. "Welcome to the world, little ones."
A voice cut in on me and my mates emotions. "Listen, this is all very heart-warming, but don't you have to deliver these kits to your sisters?" he asked me.
My mates ears pricked up. "What? You're giving them away? What happened to what I said: '...best warriors of ThunderClan ever'?" He didn't sound mad, he just sounded sadly confused.
"That was what you wanted," I murmured. "It's not what I wish. Please let me do this."
"All right. But no matter what happens, I will always love you." Greenbird looked on in disgust. I sniffed. I couldn't expect him to know about this kind of stuff, anyway!
I let my kits feed from me for a long time, so that they could have at least enough strength to last the night while my mate and I delivered them to their new homes.
My mate looked at me sadly. "Are you ready to go?" he asked, picking up Fawnkit in his jaws. I did the same, picking up Silverkit while I pushed myself to my legs. "As ready as I'll ever be. But," I added, taking a glance at Greenbird, "do you promise not to tell? Do you promise not to tell we've been in your territory?" I tried sounding a bit formal.
Greenbird dipped his head. "I promise. I'll also help you by covering up your scent with my own, how do you feel about that?"
"Thank you, Greenbird." I touched noses with him, then started to pad away off to RiverClan territory. I could feel Greenbird's eyes on my back until we were completely out of sight from him.
As we reached the new territory, I hopped carefully into the river, knowing that it would wash away my scent. I was lucky to have my beautiful white-pelted mate, for I could barely swim, and he could very well.
I had been in the RiverClan camp for a battle patrol, but remembered it better as the place where my sister had snuck me in to check out her new home. So I knew that the river led straight into their camp, so my scent would never mingle with RiverClan's scent.
My paws trudged in the water, making odd sploshing sounds as I tried my hardest for me and my kit not to be carried away by the current. I cast a brief glace over my shoulder to see my mate, his eyes glittering with amusement as he walked effortlessly through the water while carrying Fawnkit.
Slowly, but surely, all four of us made it to RiverClan camp. If I had recalled correctly, last time I had been to the Gathering, my RiverClan sister had been very close to having kits, the only queen in the nursery, she had told me. One more shouldn't make much of a difference, I decided.
I snuck into the nursery, not even close to being caught. RiverClan cats were clever, I decided, but work too hard and get tired. My point saying that the cat guarding the camp was sleeping on duty.
As I adjusted to the small nursery, I noticed that my sister had given birth to two kits already, a large dark-brown she-cat, and a smaller dark-brown tom. Just like my mother Daffodil. There was no herb-scent on her, so that could only mean that my sister had done the birthing by herself. My sister was foolish, but she seemed perfectly okay. I guessed that the Clan didn't even know that Dapplepelt had given birth already.
"Dapplepelt!" I called softly into my sisters ear. "Dapplepelt, wake up!"
Dark brown eyes stared back at me. All I could see was her eyes, because her pelt was pitch black. Her eyes didn't exactly show up, either. "My sister! What are you doing here? You shouldn't even be here? If Birchstar found out that her deputy was letting in ThunderClan cats, she'd––"
I cut her off. "Look, I'm here to give you this kit." I held up Silverkit, and though her black pelt was invisible, her silver stripes shone brightly. "I didn't want this kit, and yet I had her anyway. I want you to take care of her. Her name is Silverkit," I added.
Dapplepelt looked confused, but she picked up Silverkit anyway, and started to groom her before setting my kit beside her belly. "She will be happy here. You should leave now," murmured Dapplepelt. Silverkit let out a sad mew.
But I left.
After meeting back up with my mate, we walked into ShadowClan territory, even though nothing could disguise our scent. I heard that ShadowClan cats were battle-hungry, and I also heard they were planning on attacking us tomorrow, so why not give them a reason?
ShadowClan was so busy catching up on sleep to battle us tomorrow, that they sent no one out to guard the camp. Me and my mate easily wove our way into the nursery, where only my sister, Mousefang, was laying, with dead kit bodies scattering the ground. I counted four of them.
"Mousefang!" I said in shock, startling Mousefang out of sleep. "Mousefang, what happened?"
Mousefang's dark-brown body stood up, where she ran and touched noses with me, before her eyes glinted with sadness. "I gave birth to my kits tonight," she murmured sadly. "Three of them were still born, and the last one wasn't strong enough to stay alive. The other queens took their kits to the elder's den to let me grieve alone."
"That's awful!" I said sadly and in sympathy, but my plan was working nevertheless, "But would it make you better if you took one of my kits?"
"One of your kits?" asked Mousefang. "I thought you said you never wanted kits! I believed you were serious about that!"
"I was. Until this mouse-brain over here," I flicked my tail toward my mate, who was still gripping Fawnkit in his jaws, "Begged so hard I gave in."
Mousefang looked at my mate with emotion. "And I glad you did. Nothing could make me happier right now," she mewed.
I placed Fawnkit next to Mousefang. "Well, if you want Fawnkit, go ahead. Me and my wonderful mate must be off!" I forced happiness into my voice. It was painful, trying to be happy, because my heart had just been clawed to shreds, laying at the bottom of my ribcage.
Mousefang took Fawnkit to suckle, and as my mate and I left the ShadowClan camp, we heard Mousefang's voice. "One kit! One kit is alive!"