Chapter Two
The warm scents of milk and ferns wreathed around Snow's nose. She twitched her whiskers in amusement as she watched the kits play. Sight on Misty Morning, their mother, sighed gently and blinked. The pale gray she-cat was the first kit borne into the Tribe, and was named for the hope she had given. The camp-guard had been apprenticed to Snow, and had learned the ways of both Healer and camp-guard.
Sight's kits, borne to Snow's brother, Thunder on Stormy Night, were nearly six moons old. Old enough to become to-bes.
"Snow on River's Ice, get off of Light That Shines on Bloodstained Grass this instant!" The bigger silver tabby kit leapt off of the smaller gray kit. The queen's fierce rebuke only stopped the kits for a second, and then Light pounced on Snow again and they continued to wrestle.
"Did you name them?" the Healer's blue eyes were soft with longing.
"Just one. Light That Shines on Bloodstained Grass. I named her after Blood That Sustains All Life. Thunder named the other one, Snow, after you. The greatest Healer our Tribe has ever known."
The white she-cat flattened her ears. "That's not true! I'm not the greatest. Not by a long shot!"
Sight blinked her crystal blue eyes, and whispered, "You are. You killed the Blood Hawk, and ended Sen No Yoru Wo Koete Itami. You brought our Tribe back and made it great again. You are the daughter of Sweet Rain That Falls in Spring, and Fire That Burns Forever. The Tribe of Endless Hunting used to whisper about a snow-white cat with a deadly black paw that would rise up and protect us! That was, and still is, you, Snow."
The gray she-cat licked her paw and drew it over her ear. Snow looked at her, ears flattened in disbelief, tail flicking uncomfortably
"I should go now." Snow rose to her paws, gave one longing look at the kits, and turned from the nursery.
As the Healer ran, Sight called, "You can't run from your destiny forever!"