Sacred Trust

Willowpelt blinked. she looked at the bright forest around her with wide eyes. She breathed in the clean and crisp air happily and looked up at the sun high over-head, amazed at its brilliance. The whole scenery looked so pure and amazing, she still couldn't believe he invited her here.

A tom appeared around the corner of a tree, a shrew in his jaws. Willowpelt felt her heart flutter as the cat came close to her. But wariness crept in her pelt as well.

He dropped the shrew before her. "How are you, Willowpelt?" he asked, eyes bright.

The she-cat dipped her head to the tom she's seen many times since she was an apprentice. "I've been well. Spottedleaf has received her medicine cat name... But you already knew that, of course." she added hastily.

He blinked in amusement. "I did see, and she was happy about it... is something wrong?" he asked sudenly.

Willowpelt jumped like a squirrel. She shook her head quickly. "No. Nothing's wrong," she assured him.

The tom blinked. He weaved around the pale gray she-cat to comfort her. She sighed and closed her eyes, breathing in his cent.

Then she remembered why she wanted to see him in the first place. She pushed him away. "... I'm pregnant."

Willowpelt didn't look at the cat, but she heard him inhale sharply.

"Pregnant?" he gasped. "But... but with who?"

She narrowed her eyes, but didn't answer.

He understood. "Me? No, it can't be. I mean... are you sur―"

"Of course it's you!" Willowpelt snapped. "You helped me become pregnant, you're a tom, we mated, so now you'll have to help me find a solution to this!"

"A solution to what? And how can we be sure that's even my kit? Or... kits?" he asked, eyes suddenly suspicious. "I mean, I'm unable to have kits with you, remember?"

Willowpelt's fur bristled. "Remember the promise I made to you?" she mewed quietly.

A nod.

"That I would never mate with anyone else, that I'll wait for as long as I could until we have a chance to be with each other forever?"

Another nod, though reluctant.

She grimaced. "I still never turned my back on that promise. Like it or not, you are the father."

"..." He turned away, confused.

"It seems Starclan is as influential about the living as I thought," Tawnyspots mewed quietly. "How do you... feel about this?"

Willowpelt looked into his amber eyes for a moment before raising her eyes to look at a branch overhead. "Scared and confused," she admitted. "Would there be any problems?"

Her Starclan lover shook his head. "I have no idea. I don't think this has ever happened to anyone else before. At least not to my knowledge." He sounded more amused than scared. Willowpelt, on the other paw, felt as if she had a burr stuck in her throat.

"But you're dead!" she screeched, looking back down at the tom and ignoring the fact that just moments ago it was she that was trying to convince him about truth. "How could I be pregnant with you if you're dead!"

Tawnyspots narrowed his eyes thoughtfully. Couldn't he at least look scared about this too? Willowpelt thought angrily.

"Could you have possibly mated with a tom in your clan? Or..." he hesitated. "From another clan?"

"I already told you―No!" Willowpelt snapped. She turned away from the gray tom with a huff. "I promised to you that I wouldn't take another mate until I died. And I had kept that promise! How many times do I have to remind you until you get it through that thick skull of yours?"

Tawnyspots didn't answer. But she could feel his eyes staring at her back. Her pelt prickled uncomfortably. Why did it have to be this way? She had tried to find some possible solution to this. Tried to figure out if she had indeed mated with another clan cat or Kittypet (ugh!). But no... of all cats, it had to have been a spirit!

She sighed as if the whole responsibility of being a mother suddenly crashed on her shoulders. "I don't know what I'm going to do when our kits are born," she murmured.

A pelt brushed against hers. Willowpelt unconsciously pressed deeper into his.

"….promise me this." She turned around to stare directly into Tawnyspots eyes. She waited for him to nod before she continued. "That you will watch over them and never leave them from your sight. You helped create these kits with me, and you're going to be a father to these kits, even though you are dead. Understand?"

Tawnyspots stared at the she-cat before himt, his jaw hanging open as his eyes took on a distant look. Willowpelt blinked in shock. What was happening to him? Was he sick?

But no, he's a Starclan cat, so he couldn't get sick, could he? Maybe he... was he having a premonition?

Suddenly laughter escaped his throat. The gray tom shook his head, raising his tail as he continued laughing. Willowpelt could only stare in shock, her fur bristling slightly. "You remind me so much of your mother," he finally mewed reminiscently when he was able to control himself.

The she-cat's eyes narrowed to slits. "And is that supposed to be funny?" she spat, still a bit miffed at her ordeal.

Tawnyspots stopped laughing, but his eyes still looked amused. "You have her attitude, all right," he smiled.

Willowpelt stared at his amber eyes for a long moment before turning away again.

Stupid tom.

She jumped when she felt a tail on her shoulder.

"Here." he nosed the shrew closer to her. Willowpelt stared down the prey but didn't make a move towards it. Tawnyspots sighed. "If not for me, then for our kits. Please?" he mewed pleadingly.

The she-cat shot him an acid look before tucking herself to devour the prey. The Starclan tom nodded in approval before settling himself comfortably before the she-cat. Not once did Willowpelt bother to look up and address the tom or asked if he wanted to share the prey. Though she did feel guilty about it. After all, he did catch it for her.

When she finally finished her meal the pale gray she-cat stood, swiping her tongue. She began grooming her muzzle.

"... we can't be together like this," she mewed finally.

Tawnyspots dropped his jaw, but Willowpelt didn't see it as she was paying far too much attention cleaning her whiskers to avoid his gaze. "But... I love you," he stated bluntly. As if I didn't know that already. "You know that I do, Willowpelt. I've been able to watch over you and guide you when you were lost, and―"

"That's enough!" Willowpelt growled, her heart aching as she said this. "You're not making this any easier. "Please, for me and the kits just... just stay away from me for now on."

The gray tom opened his jaw, but a sharp glance by the she-cat entitled him to hold his tongue. He nodded.

"...I promise to watch over our kits and guide them," he mewed quietly.

Willowpelt nodded stiffly. She opened her jaw to say something else, but suddenly looked around, ears pricked. Another cat was coming their way.

"Uh oh," the Starclan tom murmured. He quickly pushed Willowpelt behind him. "Keep running the other way," he hissed.

"What are you―"

"Just go!"

"Is that Starclan?"

"Go!"

Willowpelt nodded numbly. She took one last look at the Starclan cat that gave her many happy moments before turning and bounding in the opposite direction. Sudden darkness hit the she-cat, and she found herself lying in her moss nest in the Warriors Den.

"Hey... stop kicking!" Lionheart growled.

Willowpelt looked around, blinking sleep from her eyes. "Sorry," she whispered, realizing she must have been fidgeting in her sleep.

With a sigh the she-cat lay her head back on her paws, staring at nothing in particular.

Tawnyspots... the tom that died while Willowpelt was still a kit. The same tom that visited her in dreams constantly, and in which Willowpelt fell in love with in no time. Who would be there for her whenever she felt lonely, scared, doubtful or angry. In which they would run, play, gossip, discuss the going-ons in her clan, the...

Willowpelt unconsciously curled her tail around her stomach.

...the stimulating moments they had together...

The she-cat grimaced. "You may be dead, Tawnyspots," she whispered, "but you'd better watch over these kits like a leader watches over their clan."

A brief scent of bracken touched Willowpelt's nostrils. She closed her eyes and fell into a dreamless sleep.

((_endpage_))

"That's it Willowpelt, just a little further," Spottedleaf encouraged.

The gray she-cat groaned under her breathe and pushed, digging claws into her nest. She felt a ripple in her body and something empty out of her, and with it most of the pain. She let her head flop back on her nest, exhausted.

Great Starclan, that was the most painful experience she had ever―

A tiny mew broke through her thoughts.

She looked around at the tiny kit curled in her stomach. Immediately the rest of her pain escaped as she felt a purr rise in her throat.

"Congratulations, it's a tom!" Spottedleaf cheered.

Willowpelt could only nod.

One-eye, who had watched the preceding and helped Willowpelt through the pregnancy, was purring quietly herself. "So who's the lucky tom?" she smiled. "You never did get to tell me."

Willowpelt didn't answer. She merely gave her kit a long look.

"Darkkit."

"Come again?"

"Darkkit." Willowpelt looked up to stare at One-eye. "I'm going to name him Darkkit."

One-eye tilted her head in confusion. "That's a lovely name, goes well with his pelt. But who's the father?"

Again, Willowpelt didn't answer. She merely looked back down her kit. His pelt looked a bit pale, but she knew it would darken when he was older.

But it wasn't because of the kit's pelt Willowpelt gave him that name. But for what she felt when she realized she was pregnant with a kit whose father was dead. A kit who may never get to see his father, learn from him, or be encouraged when he grows...

She suddenly lifted her nose, the faint scent of a bracken hung in the air before it vanished. No one else in the nursery seemed to notice.

She sighed and laid her head on her paws, curling her stomach around her kit with small comfort.

She never did dream of Tawnyspots again.

Got this idea from the official Warriors Forum, when people realized, and questioned, how Tawnyspots and Willowpelt became parents of Darkstripe. I understand it was a mistake on Vicky's part to confirm Tawnyspots and Willowpelt were mates, since Tawnyspots had died before Willowpelt even left the nursery.

So I figured, fan-fic-wise, what if Tawnyspots had met Willowpelt in her dreams, came to love her, they got freaky with it, and created a kit of their own?

If Tigerstar could make Brambleclaw and Lionpaw bleed in reality just by fighting them in their dreams, and if Silverstream was able to feed Firestar a fish in his dreams for him to feel a full stomach in reality, then I could actually see a starclan spirit and live cat get freaky with it to produce kits in the series... if the authors will go that far.

The spiritual cats are as influential of the living then even they may realize 0_0

And the Cat coming their way before Willowpelt left her dream was Sunstar looking for Tawnyspots.