Mosskit watched as her littermates lifted their heads, their eyes glazed and sleepy.
"We have to keep moving," Bluefur told her kits.
"But I was just getting warm," Mistykit yawned.
"You'll be even warmer soon," Bluefur murmured.
"Where are we going?" Stonekit demanded.
"I'm taking you to meet your father," Bluefur replied.
Stonekit looked confused. "You mean Thrushpelt? Runningkit told me that's who White-eye said our father was."
"Your real father. Oakheart. From RiverClan."
Mosskit stared at her mother.
How can we have a father in RiverClan, when our mother's from ThunderClan?
"From RiverClan?" Stonekit squeaked, echoing Mosskit's thoughts.
"Hurry up," Bluefur meowed, pushing them outside.
Mosskit thought for a moment. She had heard from the warriors that Sunningrocks was at the river that bordered ThunderClan and RiverClan territory. Bluefur had said that their father, Oakheart, was from RiverClan.
She's taking us to Sunningrocks to meet him. Then we'll go back to camp. Now I understand!
Snow still fell from the sky, but it was more of an elegant dance, instead of a raging fiasco. The storm was over.
Mosskit padded next to her littermates, her claws itching with excitement. So many questions buzzed in her head.
What did her father look like?
Would he like Mistykit and Stonekit?
Would he like her?
After a short while, Stonekit tripped, and bumped his nose onto the ground. Mosskit stifled a purr of amusement.
"Ow!" her brother yowled, "This ground is hard!"
Mosskit rubbed the ground with her paw. He was right. The soft snow had been replaced with hard rock. She looked to her side. A huge pile of rocks towered before them.
So that's Sunningrocks. Doesn't look as special as the warriors said they were. Just looks like a pile of boulders.
Suddenly, a new, fishy smell slithered onto Mosskit's scent glands. She wrinkled her nose.
What is that?
She turned around. Standing not far from them was a tomcat. His fur was sleek and reddish-brown.
Is that him?
His eyes were grass-green. She cast a glance at her brother.
Just like his.
She looked at Bluefur and then Mistykit. The two she-cats looked exactly alike. Their fur color was the same, and so was their eye color. Blue-gray and ice-blue.
Mosskit's tail drooped. She looked nothing like either of her kin. Then an image of the StarClan cat she had met flashed in her mind.
Her fur was white, like Mosskit's, and her ear tips were the exact same shade of gray as Mosskit's patches. And her eyes…they were a brilliant blue, just like Mosskit's.
That cat had also told her that they had more in common than she thought.
Then it dawned on her.
She must've been my kin!
She hadn't realized that Oakheart had padded up to them. His eyes were glowing with love and pride. Mosskit beamed back at him. She was about to introduce herself, when he had turned his gaze to Bluefur.
"Are they okay?" he asked her.
Bluefur nodded, her eyes locked onto her litter. "This is Stonekit," she touched her nose to each kit as she told him their names, "This is Mistykit. And this is Mosskit." Confusion filled Mosskit as her mother began to back away. "Please take care of them."
What?
She stared up at her, wide-eyed. What in StarClan's name was she talking about? "Bluefur?" she mewed, "What are you-"
"I'll carry the small one." Oakheart picked her up by her scruff. Mosskit winced. She didn't want Oakheart to carry her. She wanted to go with Bluefur.
But her mother had started to walk away.
Stop. Stop! Please…
Mistykit and Stonekit cried out to her.
"Bluefur, come back!"
"Where are you going?"
"Are you coming back to get us?"
Suddenly, Bluefur broke into a run, as if she couldn't bear to hear Mistykit's and Stonekit's cries.
"Bluefur…?" Mosskit rasped, "Bluefur!"
Pain seared Mosskit's heart as Bluefur crashed into the snow-capped bushes.
"What's going on?" Mistykit mewled.
"What's gonna happen to us?" Stonekit wailed.
Oakheart silenced them with a flick of his slender tail. "Hush, little ones. Stay close, and be sure to stay on those stepping-stones."
"Where are we going?" Stonekit asked him.
"To RiverClan. To your new home."
"But I don't wanna go to RiverClan!" Mosskit protested, "I want Bluefur!"
Oakheart seemed to ignore her. He stepped onto the stepping-stones, not fazed at all by the churning water of the river. Tails drooping, Mistykit and Stonekit followed.
Mosskit felt like she was going to be sick. Why had Bluefur given them up? Didn't she love them?
She didn't bother to pay any attention to the new territory; she was too tired and too sorrowful. It looked like her littermates were, too.
Finally, the cats arrived at an island. Oakheart and the kits passed through the entrance. The bracken-colored tom and his kits entered a large clump of bushes.
Agonizing memories filled Mosskit as her belly brushed moss bedding. It reminded her too much of her old nest, back in ThunderClan.
Stonekit and Mistykit flopped down beside her, instantly falling asleep.
Mosskit only half-heard the conversation that flitted above her head.
"Oakheart? What have you got there?"
"Kits, Graypool. Will you take them? They need a mother to look after them."
"But…Whose kits are they? They're not RiverClan's. Where did you get them?"
"I found them in the forest. They're lucky a fox didn't find them first."
"In the forest? Oakheart, don't talk to me as if I'm mouse-brained. What cat would abandon her kits, especially in this weather?"
Bluefur. Mosskit winced.
"Rouges, maybe, or Twolegs. How would I know?"
Because you were there, you liar!
"Graypool, please…your other kits died, and these three will die too, unless you help them."
"I have plenty of milk. Of course I'll help them."
Mosskit heard Oakheart sigh as the queen, Graypool, brushed her and littermates to the curve of her belly. The scent of her milk must have woken Mistykit and Stonekit, because the two kits pressed their muzzles to her belly and began to suckle.
Mosskit didn't suckle. Her belly felt hollow, but not with hunger.
Despite the tiredness that clung to her paws, she got up, and headed for the entrance, where Oakheart had just disappeared through. She followed her father outside.
"Oakheart?" she mewed. The brown warrior turned to her. "When's Bluefur coming back?" she asked, lowering her voice in a whisper.
Oakheart looked down at his paws.
Pain clamped in Mosskit's chest. "She isn't, is she?"
Oakheart didn't reply. He didn't have to. Crying, Mosskit darted back into the nursery and flopped down into Graypool's nest, stuffing her face in the moss.
The words of the StarClan warrior echoed in her head, "You might not like what you see when you return, little one."
Now she understood what she had meant.
Suddenly, a feminine voice yowled excitedly, "Kits! It's a gift from StarClan! A real miracle!"
Where's the miracle? All I see is a nightmare.