Chapter 11. New mother
" How ungrateful!" Lilytail raged inside his head. It took a while for the impact of the words to truly sink in. Leopardheart pushed them away even further away from her body and onto the sandy floor.
The kits coughed and sneezed as the sand entered their small noses. Silentpaw heard Greywing come in through the entrance, humming happily.
" Hello my dear I got you some…. Why are the kits on the floor?" Greywing dropped the fish and looked a little confused. Leopardheart turned her head away. Greywing picked up the small white she-cat and put her back into the nest, near Leopardheart's belly.
" Hmm, they seem hungry, I think they need feeding.." Greywing was cut off. Leopardheart growled .
" I'm not feeding them! Not right now!" Leopardheart got up and snarled in Greywing's face.Silentpaw backed up a little.
" What do you mean you won't feed the kits? You said you wanted them…" Greywing seemed really hurt. Leopardheart growled at both of them to leave. Greywing looked as if he had just been smacked in the face as he walked out. " She's a lier and a backstabber!" Lilytail snarled.
Gingerpaw stared out across the large river. It wasn't as fast as the previous time, but it still didn't seem inviting. Their mentors took them to a small pond beside the river.
" Welcome to the training pond! This is where you will learn to swim, before you are moved into the river" Crabfang explained. Bumblepaw nodded eagerly, wanting to prove herself a good swimmer.
" You can paddle in the shallow part of the pond, to get used to the water, Don't go past the large rock in the middle. Thats where it gets deeper" Brambledip said, seemingly emotionless.
Bumblepaw smiled and leaped in. The brown she-cat dipped her head underwater and paddled around, enjoying the water.
Gingerpaw dipped a paw in, before pulling it out quickly. She heard a scoff from Brambledip. He muttered something, before talking to Crabfang again.
Not wanting to seem weak, she waded in, with all four paws in the water. The horrible feeling of the cold seeped up her legs and turned into a shiver. She went in even further.
" Come on Gingerpaw! Once you get used to it, its really fun!" Bumblepaw laughed as she paddled around, chasing some frogspawn that she had spotted.
Gingerpaw waded in more. The cold water sloshed around her belly fur making her gasp in shock. It was freezing! Just get it over and done with and then you can do hunting, or fighting or help Silentpaw in the medicine cat's den. She thought to herself as she paddled in further.
Her back was covered by water. Her short fur seemed to fluff up in the water. Bumblepaw swam over. " Try and see if you can catch something!" Bumblepaw laughed in and annoying way.
Just to make the annoying apprentice shut up, Gingerpaw paddled in so only her head poking out of the water. It was a really nasty, having that water sloshing around her body but as long as she wasn't seen as weak, that was ok.
" Right you two, stay in the water. we are going to come in and teach you some basics" Brambledip droned.
The two toms slid in. " So I can see both of you know how to swim, so we are going too teach you some practises to save yourself incase something bad happens" Crabfang explained.
The two apprentices nodded. " OK! so lets give an example. Brambledip has got caught in a current and needs to get out. Whats the safest way to get out?" Crabfang asked them.
Gingerpaw thought. " Do you swim out of the current by going under and then to the side, so you pop up outside?" Gingerpaw asked, sounding rather unsure. Brambledip sighed and shook his head.
Silentpaw cleaned the kits and fed them a leafy mulch. Leopardheart had gone to speak with Nightstar and had demanded that they were cleaned and fed in the medicine cats den.
The three kits lapped the mixture up mewing happily. The mix had been chewed up and placed on the leaf next to the kits. Silentpaw had to dip his paw in and feed them a little, before making sure none had gone into their small noses and then putting the one had had fed down, to feed another.
The sun had risen and the camp was busy. He felt pleased that Cloudfang had given him the duty of looking after the kits. They were extremely hungry though. Their own mother hadn't even fed them.
Silentpaw remembered when his mother went into shock after his father died. His father died fighting the same badger that killed Gingerpaw's father. She didn't feed him or Rabbitpaw for a week. They were fed by Willowheart, along side Tigerpaw and Gingerpaw.
The shock of his father not being their for him seemed to silence him, even though he didn't meet his father. His father died four day before he was born and three days before Gingerpaw was born.
The clan lost two fine warriors that day. Silentpaw was brought back into the real world by Ferretwing.
Ferretwing was a young queen, her kits were still very small and weren't aloud out the nursery yet. She stared at the three little bundles of fur in the nest. She smiled sadly.
" I'm afraid to say, Leopardheart has given up her kits, I'm going to be looking after them" Ferretwing said sadly. She sat down in the nest with the kits. The smell of milk seemed to drag the kits away from the leaf mulch and towards the young queen.
" All cats old enough to catch their own prey, gather here beneath the high boulder for a clan meeting!" Nightstar's loud voice was heard all over camp.
Silentpaw nodded politely and left Ferretwing to feed and clean her new kittens. All cats were gathered outside. Greywing was hunched over and looked as if he had died inside. Leopardheart was nowhere to be seen.
" I am sad to say, Leopardheart will no longer be looking after her kits" Nightstar began. There were shocked gasps from the clan.
" I would like you all to avoid talking about this at gathering's or around camp or to Leopardheart" Nightstar said. " Why is she saying this to all the clan?" Lilytail sounded angry.
There was a snarl and Leopardheart rushed out of the warriors den.
" You don't need to tell every cat! In fact they might as well know the WHOLE story! Well if you want an answer, HERE IT IS: I don't love Greywing and never have and I needed to help my clan somehow! so I had kits! Is that good enough for all of you nosey creatures?!" and with that she stormed back into the warriors den fuming.
There we go! That was so dramatic. Just saying Leopardheart didn't have a great start in life so, all will be revealed why she's odd. Also why do you think she took Greywing as a mate, because she could be lying about wanting to help the clan… or she might not be!