"Leafpool! Leafpool look! I caught a sparrow!" Adderpaw came through the brush, sparrow in his jaw.
"Great! That looks big enough to feed two of the queens!" she praised.
"Really? Cool I'll bring it to them along with the thrush, vole, and a few mice!." Adderpaw meowed, placing the sparrow in their little pile. Leafpool loved hunting with Adderpaw, Whitewing, Heatherpaw, Brightheart, Amberpaw, Spiderleg, and Birdpaw. But Spiderleg wasn't there and said he would catch up after checking to see if Birdpaw was up to hunting.
"Look, another vole!" meowed Heatherpaw, coming into view with another of the rodents.
"Good job." Whitewing praised from behind Leafpool. Leafpool turned and saw she had a squirrel.
"Anyone seen Amberpaw?" meowed Brightheart from the bushes with three mice dangling from her jaw by their tails.
"Here I am Brightheart." Came Amberpaw, dragging along a pheasant.
"Wow Amberpaw... great!" Brightheart purred.
"Glad your feeling better Birdpaw." Came Spiderleg's voice.
"Whoa that thing is huge!" came Birdpaw as they saw the two tomcats coming into the small clearing they were in. Birdpaw went and sniffed the pheasant. "Hey guys! You caught this Amberpaw? Cool!" The apprentice seemed jumpy and excited to hunt with his friends.
"Hey Birdpaw." meowed Adderpaw.
"Good to see you!" Heatherpaw added.
"Good to be out in the fresh air! I needed to get away from the scent of those herbs. Though it was nice talking with Echopaw and Jayfeather." he meowed.
"Nice talking to Jayfeather? He's always so grumpy!" Amberpaw groaned.
"Maybe if you hadn't have played with his herbs when you were a kit he would be so grumpy with you." Brightheart teased. Leafpool chuckled.
"Well lets get back to..." Whitewing stopped mid-sentence, only to realize that all the apprentices went off to hunt again.
"Don't worry Whitewing, let them hunt. We do need a lot more fresh kill for the queens and kits and kits to be born." Spiderleg meowed.
"Stocking up for leafbare already?" laughed a familiar voice. All the mentors turned to see a border patrol made up of Sorreltail; the one who had spoken, Bumblestripe, Mousewhisker, and Honeyfern.
"Not exactly." laughed Leafpool.
"Do you need some help carrying that back to camp?" asked Honeyfern.
"Yeah sure." replied Leafpool. All the border patrol cats started grabbing fresh kill and Leafpool struggled to pick up the pheasant.
"Here let me help." Spiderleg meowed.
"Will you keep an eye on Birdpaw?" Spiderleg asked, before they headed aback to camp.
"Yeah of course." Whitewing nodded.
"That goes for Adderpaw too." Leafpool meowed.
"Yup, sure thing." Brightheart replied. And off Leafpool went with the patrol and Spiderleg.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ BACK AT CAMP ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"Hey Leafpool, Spiderleg. Do you want to help us bring fresh kill to Dovewing, Briarlight, Blossomfall, Ivypool, Hazeltail, Cinderheart and the kits?" asked Bumblestripe.
"I can't wait to check on Briarlight." Mousewhisker purred.
"Yeah sure!" Leafpool meowed grabbing the sparrow Adderpaw caught for Cinderheart and Hazeltail. Spiderleg nodded and grabbed a few mice for the kits. Bumblestripe and Mousewhisker carried the pheasant,which was big enough to feed at least four cats, to give too Dovewing, Briarlight, Ivypool, and Blossomfall. As they got to the nursery they were greeted by Frostkit, Snowkit, Mintkit, Windkit and Leopardkit.
"Mom look Grandma Leafpool brought us food!" Leopardkit mewed, prancing around Leafpool's paws.
"Oh good, thanks Leafpool." Cinderheart purred. Spiderleg put the mice down for the kits. Leafpool put the sparrow down for Cinderheart and Hazeltail.
"Hey Dovewing. Hey sisters!" Bumblestripe purred with laughter as he licked each on of their ears. He and Mousewhisker placed the pheasant for Dovewing, Briarlight, Ivypool, and Blossomfall.
"Thanks guys." Dovewing meowed as Bumblestripe laid beside her and Mousewhisker laid beside Briarlight.
"So Ivypool, Blossomfall, Cinderheart, Hazeltail. Any visits from Molefang, Foxleap, Lionblaze, or Thornclaw?" asked Spiderleg.
"Yes Foxleap, Molefang, and Lionblaze came this morning and brought us food. They said Thornclaw sent his love. He's always so busy." Hazeltail chuckled.
"Yeah being deputy in all he sure has his hands full. But I'm sure he will find time to visit." Leafpool meowed. All of a sudden Briarlight gasped in pain.
"Briarlight? Are you OK?" Mousewhisker meowed anxiously.
"The kits! I think they're coming!" she yowled.
"I'll go get Jayfeather and Echopaw!" Bumblestripe meowed and stormed out. Leafpool raced to Briarlight's side along with Spiderleg.
"OK Briarlight just take deep, smooth breaths... in... out..." Jayfeather came in along with Echopaw.
"Echopaw go fetch Briarlight a stick to bite down on when more pains come." he mewed and came over.
"Alright..," he pressed his ear to Briarlight's belly, "I'm guessing two maybe three." he meowed as Echopaw returned and placed the stick down for Briarlight. She quickly bit down on it as Jayfeather told her to push. A creamy brown and white kit with a bushy tail plopped into her nest. Jayfeather handed it to anyone who was close to it, happening to be Spiderleg, who rasped his tongue on its fur. He licked backwards to stimulate breathing and the kit began mewling.
"A she-cat." he meowed, placing her in the curve of Briarlight's belly as Jayfeather hands him another, a gray with a dark brown stripe down its back and bushy tail, that was just born. Leafpool could tell he was stifling a laugh and gave Jayfeather a strange look that the medicine cat could not see. Spiderleg then licked the kit backwards as he did to the other one. He placed it with its sister.
"A tom." he meowed a bit questioningly as Jayfeather gave him yet another kit, gray and white. Spiderleg gave Leafpool a confused stare before going to work at licking this one and then placed it by its siblings.
"Another tom." he announced then sat and wrapped his tail neatly around his paws, as if waiting for another kit to be handed off to him. But instead Jayfeather gave a sigh and sat.
"That's it. Congratulations Briarlight, Mousewhisker." he meowed.
"What are you going to name them?" asked Echopaw.
"The gray tom with the dark brown stripe down his back can be Graykit What do you think of the others Mousewhisker?" She asked her mate.
"The creamy brown and white kit can be Daisykit and the gray and white one can be... Smokekit." Mousewhisker meowed and nuzzled Briarlight, who purred and nodded.
"Alright we'll leave you be." Jayfeather meowed. He and Echopaw dipped their heads respectfully and left.
"Congratulations Briarlight, Mousewhisker." Leafpool meowed.
"Thank you." Mousewhisker replied.
"Can I talk to you?" whispered Spiderleg.
"Yeah," Leafpool replied, "See you guys later." she meowed and followed Spiderleg out of the nursery.
"What is it Spiderleg?" she asked.
"I don't know... It was just weird Jayfeather kept giving the kits to me." he meowed. Leafpool shrugged.
"Well he gets very strange when he helps birth kits. He focuses only on that and doesn't care who he hands the kits to." she told him. Spiderleg nodded.
"Yeah, I get it, but why me EVERY time?"
"I don't know Spiderleg maybe it meant something, maybe it didn't," she purred with laughter, putting her head under his, "you don't need to worry."
"Yeah, you're right." he purred, licking her in between the ears.
"Lets go to bed, I'm beat!" she mewed with a yawn. Spiderleg nodded and they both went to the warriors den, curling up close beside one another. With his warmth Leafpool got very drowsy. Before she fell asleep she had a few thoughts.
Does Spiderleg really like me? Would we ever have kits, too?
*Authors Note: Still to short? What'd yah think? I had lost it TWICE and had to pretty much start over TWICE. But I'm finally done with this chappie!*