Sunstar shivered as she remembered how painful receiving all of her lives had been

except for a few when she received them half a moon ago. Her mother had given her two

lives, love and leading. She was not looking forward to the gathering tonight, her mother

was a very important leader, and although the other leaders didn't always agree with her,

they still respected her, even Shadowclan. She blinked and noticed Moonspeckle staring

intently at her. She padded over to her sister and licked her head softly. "Do you miss

her?"

The black she-cat looked down sadly. "Yes, but not as much as Lionstripe does, he's

hardly eaten. I think he's depressed." Suddenly her eyes lit up. "But I do have something

important to tell you."

Sunstar nosed her sister side. "I know you're expecting kits."

"Yes, but you are too! You're about a half-moon along."

Sunstar stared at her sister stupidly. "Are you sure? I don't think I am."

Moonspeckle purred at her sister's denial. "Yes I'm sure. You're way bigger than me."

Sunstar groaned inwardly and turned to the fresh-kill pile. "That's why I've been hungry

all the time."

Moonspeckle chuckled and padded over to her mate, Eaglestripe. Sunstar didn't know

what she was going to do. Should she tell Rabbitfur? Goldenpoppy? Of course she

should tell her best friend, but what was the clan going to do while she was taking care of

her kits? What if the other clans attacked when she was taking care of her kits? There

were so many questions that she didn't have the answers to.

"Who are you taking to the gathering tonight?" came a voice shattering the young

leader's train of thought.

"Silverclaw! Don't sneak up on me like that!" Sunstar meowed angrily. Silverclaw

looked down apologetically. "I'm sorry; I thought you knew I was there."

"It's fine, I was thinking, a badger could have snuck up on me. To answer your question,

you, Goldenpoppy, Doveleaf, Rabbitfur, Iceclaw, and Smallfang."

"Obviously you would choose Rabbitfur." Silverclaw replied with his lip curled. "He's

the father of your kits."

Sunstar shook her head, she was at the point where she didn't care how her brother knew

what he knew. "I'm sorry Silverclaw," she replied wearily, "I don't know what to do, I

don't want these kits. I just don't want to make it look like I'm favoring or taking things

away from some cat."

Silverclaw nosed her side. "I know I haven't been the best brother, but I love you. You

may not trust me, but I would do anything for you and the clan."

Sunstar purred at her brother. She was surprised at the uncharacteristic show of love.

"Thanks, you know I've never trusted you?"

"Yeah, I know, I've seen the way you look at me. I haven't given you any reason to trust

me, I was always telling our mother things. It was never against you, it was against

Rabbitfur, I never trusted him. I always thought there was something off about him, I

think he just wanted to be with you because you're close to power."

Sunstar shook her head at him. "It's okay, we both didn't really trust someone. I love you

and you love me. This is the best day ever, besides the fact that I have kits coming in a

moon and a half. Speaking of which, I don't think Goldenpoppy is ready enough to be

leader, would you and Eaglestripe mind leading for a while?"

Silverclaw looked very surprised. "Of course! Thank you very much!"

Sunstar nodded her head. "Do you want to go hunting with me?"

Silverclaw hesitated, but replied with an even tone. "Yes, I'll just have to go tell Dewfall

that I won't go hunting with her. Wait, can she go with us?"

Sunstar shook her head and Silverclaw chuckled at his sister's opinion. He bounded off to

Dewfall and Sunstar watched him tell her he couldn't go. Dewfall looked crestfallen, but

she nodded her head. Silverclaw turned and padded over to his sister.

"Let's go."

They padded out of camp and hunted in the forest. They managed to catch a squirrel and

two mice, even in leafbare. When they got back to camp Sunstar announced who would

be going to the gathering, and that they needed to make sure to keep the food shortage

quiet and to not talk about what happened with Snowstar, the other clans didn't need to

know that greencough had taken her last two lives.