Hello again! Yes, I am still in the world of the living, but I am afraid I have been suffering from a serious disease called ELS, also known as Extreme Laziness Syndrome. Sorry, but it is a very serious medical condition that I suffer from. Luckily today it was less serious so I could finally update! Okay, I'm done ranting now, on to the chapter!

…

Ferncloud cringed as she felt her soon-to-be-born kits shift inside of her. Since this was her second litter of kits she had been able to hold back her cries of pain that had woken up the entire camp last time.

"It's alright, Ferncloud," Cinderpelt soothed softly. "The first one's almost here, just stay calm." She turned to her apprentice who was string at Ferncloud intently, waiting for the kits to come. "Leafpaw, do you remember what to do?"

Leafpaw nodded quickly without taking her eyes off the kitting queen. This was the first time she had helped Cinderpelt with kitting during her apprenticeship, and she was determined to get everything right. She had only been an apprentice for two moons, and she wanted to impress her mentor by doing everything perfectly.

The first kit that was born was a brown tabby she-cat who was slightly smaller than usual; the second kit was pure white all over, which was unusual because his father was a dark brown tabby and his mother was grey with dark gray flecks.

Leafpaw was still bust licking the first kit when she was born, so she didn't realize what was wrong until after the third kit, a large brown tabby she-cat had been born, Cinderpelt had begun licking her, and Ferncloud had collapsed from exhaustion.

"Cinderpelt!" she called franticly as she stopped licking the white tom, "He's not breathing!"

Cinderpelt sighed, not even slightly shaken by the news. "You have to warm him up, Leafpaw. You said that you remembered what to do." She wasn't yelling, but Leafpaw could tell that she was annoyed.

"I did remember!" she protested. "I licked him to warm him up, but he's still not breathing!"

Cinderpelt's eyes widened as she darted over to the kit.

"I don't understand," Leafpaw continued while Cinderpelt tried to figure out what was wrong with the kit. "His heart's beating, he's warm, and he appears to be fully healthy." She trailed off, unsure of herself, and snuck a glance over at Ferncloud. She couldn't help but be a little relieved that she didn't know what was going on yet. Ferncloud was fiercely protective of all her kits; she would be devastated if this one didn't survive.

She was so busy thinking about Ferncloud that at first she didn't notice her mentor's shift. When she did look back she saw that Cinderpelt was gazing up at the stars with confusion in her eyes. "I'm going to talk to Firestar," she announced suddenly. She turned to her apprentice, "Call me if anything changes."

"Alright," Leafpaw called as Cinderpelt limped as fast as she could towards Firestar's den.

Leafpaw sat down in front of the seemingly lifeless kit and watched him curiously, but nothing changed. At least, not until the first rays of sunshine peaked over the horizon. At that moment the small kit twitched and started coughing softly.

Leafpaw's eyes widened as he instantly jumped to his feet and started looking around wildly. His eyes were dark amber, and they flew around the den rapidly, taking in every part of it. For some reason it made Leafpaw uneasy. She wanted to leave the den before he noticed her, but the lost look in his eyes kept her rooted to the spot. "Are you alright?" she forced herself to ask.

The white kit whipped around at the sound of her voice, and stared at her with cold, narrow, calculating eyes. "No, I am not okay," he growled. "Where am I, and why on earth am I a-? " He stopped. "Never mind, I'll figure that out later, but who are you?"

Leafpaw blinked in surprise. "You've just been born into Thunderclan," she explained. "You mother, Ferncloud, and your two sisters are over there," she added, nodding over to Ferncloud and her kits. "I'm Leafpaw, the apprentice medicine cat, and right now you're in me and my mentor, Cinderpelt's de- Oh right!" She darted out of the den, offering no explanation as to where she was going, and ran out of sight.

The white kit cocked his head curiously at where she had disappeared and waited for a few seconds before deciding that she wasn't coming back anytime soon. He wandered over to a small pool in the back of the den and began to study himself curiously.

His fur was pure snow white, short, and made him look like a cotton ball. His eyes were the same dark brown that they had been before and he found himself slightly relived that that aspect of him was the same.

"See!" Leafpaw's voice rang out from the entrance of the den happily, causing the white kit to whip around in alarm. "I told you he was okay!" She was speaking to a larger dark gray she-cat whose eyes were wide with astonishment and disbelief.

The larger cat raced over to the kit and started studying him curiously while the small white kit shot her annoyed, angry glances. He tried to just wait for her to stop, but she showed no intentions of quitting so he leaped out of her way and let out an angry hiss. "I'm fine! Whatever was wrong with me before is fine now, so just get away from me!"

Cinderpelt stepped back in shock; not even Dustpelt was that prickly. She tried to figure out how best to respond to his anger, but she never had the chance. Ferncloud let out a yawn and blinked drowsily up at the cats. Her eyes found her son and she smiled warmly at him.

Leafpaw stepped closer to her mentor. "What are we going to tell her? She'll just worry if she knew," she whispered urgently.

Cinderpelt nodded. "You're right; she doesn't need to know, no one does," she decided, "Only you, me, and Firestar even know about this anyway."

She was right of course; no one had to know about this, but still, it felt wrong to keep something from the clan. Leafpaw glanced uneasily over at Ferncloud who had gathered all three over her kits close to her and begun licking them gently. Leafpaw saw the white kit hiss in annoyance.

After endless questions over whether her kits were alright, and what seemed like moons of licking, Cinderpelt suggested that the group move back to the nursery.

Ferncloud agreed and picked up her oldest daughter then Cinderpelt grabbed the youngest kit, which left Leafpaw staring at the white kit awkwardly in the empty medicine cat den.

"I can walk on my own you know," he snapped before she had the chance to do anything. "I don't need you to carry me."

She hesitated, but he had already padded out of the den. She hurried after him and found him staring around the camp at all the different dens. "The nursery is that one," she indicated, pointing with her tail.

"I know that," he growled angrily as he stalked over to the den where Cinderpelt and Ferncloud had disappeared.

Leafpaw didn't bother to ask how he could possibly know that if he had never been out of the medicine cat den before.

When they entered the nursery the white kit discovered that it was not going to only be his mother and his siblings living there. There was also a pale ginger she-cat laying in the corner and a young tortoiseshell and white she-cat with sparkling amber eyes.

She jumped to her paws when she saw the group then grabbed the squirrel that was sitting in front of her and padded over to Ferncloud. She dropped the squirrel in front of the queen and grinned. "There you are!" she mewed brightly, "I thought that I would miss my assessment while waiting to see the new kits!"

Leafpaw smiled. "Sorry, Sorrelpaw, we didn't mean to make you wait."

"Oh it's fine; I'm the one who wanted to see the new kits anyway." She glanced over at the kit Ferncloud had been carrying and smiled. "They're so cute, Ferncloud," she purred, her gaze sweeping across the two dark brown tabby she-cats and coming to rest on the white kit. She blinked curiously. "That's odd," she murmured as she padded over to the white kit. "He looks kind of like Cloudtail."

"Well let's hope he doesn't act like him," commented a new voice from the entrance of the nursery.

Ferncloud smiled. "Dustpelt," she purred.

He walked over to his mate and licked her head affectionately. "They're perfect."

Leafpaw and Cinderpelt exchanged a glance.

"Oh, and Sorrelpaw," Dustpelt continued, glancing over at the tortoiseshell and white apprentice as he settled down next to Ferncloud and their kits, "Sandstorm was looking for you, something about your warrior assessment?"

Sorrelpaw's eyes widened. "Right!" she exclaimed as she hurried out of the nursery. "Thanks, Dustpelt!" she called over her shoulder as she rushed away.

"We should be going too," Cinderpelt added after Sorrelpaw was gone. "Send someone if you need me, Ferncloud."

Leafpaw shot one more glance at the white kit before following her mentor out of the nursery.

He let out a sigh of relief; finally everything would be quiet and he could think.

The silence didn't last long though, because not 10 minutes later there was another cat trying to make his way into the nursery. "Ug," he mumbled angrily as he broad shoulders caught on the thorns that surrounded the narrow entrance to the nursery. He was a large dark brown tabby with amber eyes that were narrowed in frustration at the moment.

The white kit looked away angrily; so much for quiet. He needed time to think about what had happened to him, but it seemed like every cat in the universe wanted to see him.

"Hey there, Brambleclaw," Dustpelt meowed, "Come to see the new kits?" His eyes sparkled, bursting with pride.

The white kit rolled his eyes. Well he's obviously not here to see you.

"They're beautiful," Brambleclaw meowed kindly, touching noses with Ferncloud. "Have you chosen names for them yet?"

The white kit's ears perked up in interest.

"Not yet," Ferncloud sighed, exhaustion evident in her features.

"Well what on earth's taking so long?"

Everyone's attention shifted over to the small white kit. He blinked; he hadn't realized that he had spoken aloud. After a few moments of awkward silence he decided to go with it. "Well?" he prompted Ferncloud, staring deep into her eyes.

"Go on, Ferncloud, he wants his name now so you might as well," the pale ginger she-cat said warmly, breaking the silence.

Ferncloud glanced over at her quickly before turning back to her son. His gaze was hard and cold; it challenged her in a way she had never seen before.

"Icekit," she decided.

He blinked at her.

Icekit. I guess that will be fine.

The other cats in the den were staring at him, waiting for his opinion on the name he had just received.

"It'll work," he replied shortly.

His answer was not a good one at all, but it seemed to satisfy his mother.

He knew that his new name was nowhere hisreal name, but he highly doubted that these cats would be willing to call him Bakura. In fact, he highly doubted that these cats even suspected that he was different, save for Cinderpelt and Leafpaw, and perhaps Firestar, whoever that was. They still didn't have even a remote chance of putting everything together though, so he wasn't worried. Not that he would have been worried if these cats did know who he was, they wouldn't hurt him anyway. Still, he would remain a secret to everyone until he could figure out how to get back to Ryou.

He sighed and laid down facing away from the other cats. Being a cat is way more complicated than it should be.