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Chapter 37

Echoripple swayed on her paws and her jaws parted in a large yawn. It was just barely sun-high and she stood in the middle of the hollow in Fourtrees, the sun beating down and snow slowly melting in the warm sun which was tempered by the cold wind.

She shivered and sat down, too tired from walking across ThunderClan territory after not having much sleep the night before. She glanced at Leafsong who was watching her carefully. The medicine-cat was afraid the stress of the meeting would make her kit early, but Echoripple doubted that.

Talking to Cinderstar had been stressful, this would be nothing compared to the anxiety that had led up to her talk with her leader. She narrowed her eyes against the sun and stared toward WindClan's moor.

As she watched, two shapes appeared on the moor, one a bright golden that glowed in the sun and the other was a slightly larger grey figure. Sunglow and Jaystar. She thought, scrambling to her paws.

She flicked her ears as a noise sounded from the ShadowClan side of the hollow and two shapes appeared behind a group of bare bramble bushes. They too were golden and grey, but reversed, the larger cat was golden and the slighter one was grey.

Both leaders and their cats reached her about the same time. Lionstar looked her over with tired blue eyes and she realized how old looking he was. His pelt straggly and his tail dropping. His eyes were dull and his scarred muzzle meant he was old, with there being so little fights.

Jaystar was younger, his grey tabby fur sleek and his lithe figure was well muscled while his clear green eyes skimped over her, as if assessing her in his mind. Sunglow blinked friendly at her, but didn't move from her leader's side.

Featherfall left Lionstar to touch her muzzle though. Lionstar and Jaystar flicked their ears in shock but said nothing as Featherfall plaintively gave her paw a quick lick before sitting down about a tail-length from her leader.

Echoripple was too tired for courtesy. And she had made the same argument so many times before that she did it automatically, but found the results were reversed in the end. Jaystar she'd suspected, being the code-tight cat he was, didn't actually even give her a tough opposition, just a few curious questions which she answered promptly.

Lionstar, on the other paw, was much more difficult. Being such an old cat as he was, Echoripple thought he'd be wise enough to see the wrong in the sacrifice. She hadn't counted for, though, that he was so old that he clung tight to something he'd known his entire life. His old mind not as open to this new idea.

In the end, Echoripple had to be satisfied with the answer, "I'll think about it," from the elderly golden tom. Echoripple watched him leave with Featherfall talking with him, obviously still trying to convince him.

Jaystar didn't move until Lionstar had disappeared and then he turned toward her. "Don't worry about him, he'll be dead before long and you already have all the other leaders on your side, the sacrifice won't go through I'm sure," Jaystar mewed, his green eyes glinting kindly.

He dipped his head to her respectfully, "I always wondered how a rogue got along so well in the Clans, well I guess now I know, even if you don't live in your birth Clan. But I need to be getting back to my Clan" Jaystar mewed.

Sunglow touched noses briefly with Leafsong and then her, her eyes bright with relief and hope for the future. Echoripple managed a purr and nodded to the grey leader. She watched him go, getting an uncanny feeling that he reminded her of some cat. She also thought his remark about her being a rogue was a little strange as well, and promised to delve deeper into the mini mystery.

She rested a few moments on her side, dozing until sun-high passed and she had the strength to get back to her paws and start on the long trek back to SkyClan territory.

She and Leafsong stuck to the river, carefully creeping through ThunderClan territory, hoping they weren't discovered. Even though the Clans didn't fight, ThunderClan would still drive them off with a feel of their claws.

Echoripple sighed with relief as they crossed the border and Leafsong visibly relaxed, her calico fur lying flat again and her shoulders became less tense while her steps became less quick and nervous.

Echoripple rested again a little ways into the territory, exhausted from the long walk with all that extra weight. Leafsong was nice enough to catch them a squirrel to share and they made it back to camp just before dusk.

Echoripple stumbled across the clearing, her tail dragging in the slushy snow and her ears cocked to the side tiredly. Leafsong answered the cascade of questions while she stumbled to the nursery with Raincloud at her side.

She sank into her nest and Raincloud curled beside her without a question and slowly licked her fur that was spotted with muddy snow until it was clean. Echoripple soon fell asleep to the rhythmic strokes of her friend's gentle tongue.

…

When she woke again, moonlight was filtering into the nursery. Spottedsky was curled in her nest, her growing belly shining silver in the thin light. For a moment, Echoripple didn't know what had awakened her, then she felt it again, a kick in her belly, stronger then when her kits were just sliding around in her belly.

She muffled a groan of pain and she flopped back down, laying on her side with her face angled so she could look out the nursery at the night sky. At first, she thought it would pass in a few moments, but it didn't, it just got stronger until she had to wake Spottedsky up to go get Hollypelt her Leafsong.

While Spottedsky had gone, it got worse. Strong convulsions took over her body, making her limps flail and making her toss and turn. Her head became dizzy and she could hardly tell what was a dream and what was real.

Then she heard a voice, cool and comforting, like a splash of cold water on a hot day, come through the wild, heated, dizzy array of lights and noises. "Echoripple, its going to be aright, you're just kitting and its gone a little wrong, but we'll take care of it, don't worry," the voice belonged to the stonehearted medicine-cat Hollypelt.

But even in her disordered world, she thought she could detect the uncertainty in Hollypelt's voice. On and on the pain went with the flushes of heat and sudden chills and the unbearable pain in her lower back and belly.

She could hear voices murmuring anxiously outside the den, always hushing when she cried out, and growing louder again as she went silent. It became a game to her and her dizzy state and she focused on that as the first rays of sun appeared and steadily got stronger.

The voices were called away and she was left only with Leafsong's and Hollypelt's words that she couldn't make out. She was exhausted, too tired to keep convulsing even and she lay shivering feebly. She could tell by the anxiousness in the air that Hollypelt and Leafsong were scared. What they were scared for was beyond her mind at the moment.

Herbs were stuffed down her throat, but her mouth was too dry to chew them or even make any sound. Her eye-lids became heavier and they began to close. Her ears twitched, the only sound she could hear was the steady thrum of a set of paw-steps outside the nursery, pacing anxiously.

She focused on the murmuring voice that was evidently praying to StarClan. For what? she wondered, unable to wonder fully. Her eyes were just closing, to the dismay of the two medicine-cat's standing over her. When a sudden sharp pain shot through her and her eyes flew open and she let out a thin shriek of pain.

It all happened so fast, one after another. Three sharp bolts of pain that turned her fur on end and made release a blood curdling shriek. Then it was over, nothing hurt, nothing made her dizzy, nothing moved.

She was vaguely aware of warmth and a fierce desire washed over her. A desire that overcame her exhaustion. She opened her eyes again and lifted her head. Leafsong and Hollypelt were both there, asking her questions anxiously and shoving herbs toward her, but that wasn't where her attention was.

Three kits were curled at her belly. Two she-kits and a tom, and to her they looked like they couldn't have been more perfect if StarClan had bestowed them on her themselves. Their tiny, flattened ears and small, twitching paws curled in the most delicate and perfect way possible.

Their silent mews and tiny, pink, parted jaws were the most special thing in the world. Their tiny, crumpled tails and matted fur which looked slimy to every other cat, looked softer and cleaner then fresh snow.

Overcome by a fierce passion that she had never remotely come close to in her mission, she licked her kits until, worn out by exhaustion and urged by the medicine-cats, she allowed herself to rest.

But she couldn't sleep. The absolute wonder of the new life kept her awake through the day. She was hardly aware of cats poking their noses in the nursery every few moments and either Leafsong or Hollypelt giving her herbs and instructions to sleep every other time she turned her head.

Eventually, by evening, she was beginning to calm down. Her kits were suckling quietly and Spottedsky slipped past her back to her nest where she tried to make a conversation, but Echoripple was finally beginning to be tired out and couldn't make much out of Spottedsky's talk of how great Nighthawk was, Especially since, in her opinion, he was the most revolting cat she knew.

Eventually, Spottedsky went to sleep, giving Echoripple's ears a rest. Her belly growled, although she'd been given a small mouse at sun-high and plenty of herbs, she was still starving. But Leafsong and Hollypelt didn't want her stuffing herself and making herself sick, so she had to wait, although she thought it was totally ridicules.

Because her grumbling belly wouldn't rest, she focused on her kits instead. Her only tom had a dark ginger pelt with white paws, he was the largest and had a crooked ear, just like Blackear, she thought. She unconsciously named him Slashkit, after his father, as she was sure he was Slash's kit, even though he obviously favored her side of the family.

The next largest kit was a delicate looking dark silver she-kit with a black stripe running down her back, like Slash's white stripe, and a black spot on her head, in between her ears. Staring at her for a few moments, Echoripple named her Ripplekit, giving her own original name to her daughter.

Finally, the last kit, the smallest kit by a lot. She swallowed hard, this kit was black and skinny, with long fur and one, lone, white ear. Echoripple tried to tell herself that her father and brother were black, but she couldn't deny the fact that the kit's head shape and gently rounded ears belonged to only one cat she knew.

Nighthawk's kit. But I name her Riverkit, because she is only mine and is only my legacy.

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