Leaves in the Wind
Epilogue
. . .
Leafstorm
When she had seen her sister giving birth, Leafstorm hadn't expected for it to hurt so much.
Oh, how wrong she was.
Leafstorm lay on her side in the middle of the nursery as her sides rippled and contractions wrought her body. She tried her best not to scream, but it was really hard not to.
Especially when it felt like she was going to die.
Literally.
Then, Leafstorm gasped, her eyes stretching until the whites were showing.
The medicine cat apprentice, Lionpaw, bent down and pressed a single paw to her belly.
"Pain?" He inquired.
Leafstorm let out a sharp intake of breath and nodded.
"Try breathing more than you usually would," Lionpaw suggested.
Leafstorm didn't bother responding, so she simply nodded once more and tried her best to regulate her breathing.
"Will it be long?" She managed to croak.
This time, it was Darkflower who answered, "Not long now, in fact, I think the first one's coming right now."
Leafstorm gasped, Lionpaw moved to her haunches, and she trembled as a small bundle gradually began to slip out onto the nursery floor. Lionpaw grabbed it, nipped open the birthing sack containing the kit, and began to lick it with the ease of an experienced medicine cat.
Leafstorm didn't have time to sigh in relief as she felt another one coming. And this one had her arching, mouth open in a silent scream of pain as her stomach rippled.
Soon enough, another bundle had slipped onto the ground, and this time, it was Darkflower who had gotten to it. And she licked the blood off easily, settling the kit by her belly.
Almost immediately, the two kits began to suckle, kneading her with fierce paws.
Wait, was that the last one?
Leafstorm almost whimpered at the thought of giving birth to yet another kit, so she asked, "How many more?"
Lionpaw pressed her flank. "They're the only ones."
Leafstorm sighed in relief. "Thank StarClan," she breathed. "I don't think I could ever go throught that again!"
Darkflower then went over to the entrance and called the other Queens back in. By that time, Blackwing had alread given birth to her kits: a strong, healthy male called Mistkit, and a beautiful grey she-cat called Rainkit. Dawnhaze's two kits: Oakkit and Streamkit had become Oakpaw and Streampaw respectively.
And as it had already been two moons, Leafstorm's own apprentice had become a warrior called Breezefur. His sister, Ashfall's apprentice, had also received her warrior name: Dustcloud. Lionpaw was the only one of Silverflame's kits to not receive his name. But he was a medicine cat and she didn't really know how they received their names.
Besides Mistkit and Rainkit, the only other kit was Leafstorm's sister's daughter: Rosekit.
The little white kit was as beautiful as her mother, with thick, snowy fur, fierce green eyes, and a patch on her chest that reminded Leafstorm of a fiery red cloud.
Leafstorm smiled tiredly as her mate, Ashfall, took a seat beside her. He appraised her with gentle blue eyes, and her smile widened when he carefully licked her ears.
"Well," she murmured. "Enjoy the kits."
"What gender are they?" Ashfall asked softly.
Leafstorm hummed thoughtfully as she gazed down at them, and then she looked at Lionpaw and his mentor for clarification.
"You have a healthy tom and a beautiful she-cat," Darkflower announced, smiling down at her.
Leafstorm glanced at the kits currently suckling at her belly.
One kit was a light, smoky grey colour, and he was frighteningly large, even more so than his sister. His sister was completely jet-black in colour, just like her father, but she was tiny, her brother's huge form seeming to engulf her.
Leafstorm sighed, murmuring, "I want to name the tom, you can name the she-cat."
Ashfall nodded, and he gazed down at his daughter with a thoughtful look on his face, before finally murmuring, "Call her Nightkit."
Nightkit, huh?
"Hmm," Leafstorm hummed. "What should I name him?"
Then, after a while of thinking, the perfect name popped into her head as if it had been placed.
"Stormkit," she decided. "I want to call him Stormkit."
Ashfall blinked in surprise, but he didn't question her, and for that she was grateful.
Leafstorm simply opted to gaze at her son and daughter in pride.
I can't believe that I never wanted kits.
. . .
Meanwhile...
In a den, far away from ThunderClan, a beautiful silver tabby she-cat had given birth to one kit: a tom. A large, heavily built tom stepped from the shadows of the den, his scar-filled face filled with harsh approval.
"Very good," he purred. "He seems strong, but he is my son, after all."
"What will his name be?" The she-cat whispered, holding her single kit against her protectively.
The cat was silent for many moments, before finally uttering a single word: "Dusk."
"And we will continue with the paln, Shroud?"
"Yes," he growled, then he chuckled somewhat darkly. "Make sure that you don't murder your son out of spite again, Silverbreeze."
"That was all Storm," the she-cat snapped. "And he had to go and get himself killed. Bah, if I had been the one fighting, instead of being in that kit's body, then we would be ruling the forest by now!"
Shroud scoffed before gazing down at his new son, Dusk. "Don't be so confident, Silverbreeze," he drawled. "You may never know when it may get you killed."
Silverbreeze didn't reply, and so Shroud scoffed one last time before disappearing.
Dusk, she mused, suited her kit very well, and it was much more creative than when she had named her other son, Silverflame.
But Dusk wouldn't fail like she did, and Silverbreeze was determined not to abandon another kit as she had done with Silverflame. No, she would raise Dusk the proper way and make him aware of his goal.
He would destroy ThunderClan from the inside out.
. . .
And that is the end of Leaves in the Wind.
It's been awesome writing this, and I hope you stick around for the sequel which should be out in around the next week or two! And thank you so much for all the reviews, it really boosted my writing knowing that someone is reading and commenting at the same time!
See you in the sequel which does not yet have a title!