A soft mew dragged Fireheart out of a dream in which she'd been stalking a blackbird on top of the Great Sycamore. Yawning, she blinked her eyes open sleepily and looked down in the direction the voice had come from. Her heart softened as she took in the wide, cheerful eyes of her now two-moon-old daughter, Briarkit. The little black molly's face lit up with excitement when she saw that her mother was awake.

"You're awake! Yay!" Briarkit chirped happily. "Now we can play together!"

"Wait a moment, sweetheart," Fireheart meowed, chuckling. "We still need to wait for your brother to wake up too."

"No fair," Briarkit pouted. "Why does Scorchkit always sleep so late?"

"I don't know, Briarkit. Some cats just like to sleep later than others," she told her daughter. "Your sister, Stormflare, used to wake up at the crack of dawn every single morning, but Mistyfoot and Stonefur always slept until it was nearly sunhigh."

The entrance to the nursery rustled slightly, and Fireheart turned her head to see Beepaw and Petalpaw pushing their way inside. Her daughters were carrying bundles of moss and feathers in their jaws, which they placed around her nest. Fireheart purred and adjusted herself so that she could touch her nose to their foreheads in greeting, making sure not to disturb Scorchkit, who was still sleeping soundly at her belly.

"Good morning, you two," she meowed. "Is your training going well today?"

Beepaw nodded. "Bluefur said she's going to teach me battle moves today after I finished bringing you fresh bedding," she meowed excitedly.

"That's wonderful, dear," Fireheart purred. Turning to Petalpaw, she asked, "And what about you?"

"It's going great!" Petalpaw replied cheerfully. "Runningwind said he's going to take me hunting later. He says I'm one of the best stalkers he's ever seen. I caught a rabbit that was almost as big as me the other day."

"I'm glad to hear it," Fireheart meowed warmly, giving Petalpaw a gentle lick between her ears. "Your father and I are very proud of both of you."

Briarkit let out a sigh, looking at her older sisters with undisguised envy. "I wish I could be an apprentice too. Then I won't have to wait for Scorchkit to wake up before I can do anything fun all the time."

"When you become an apprentice, I think you'll wish that you could sleep more, like he does," Fireheart told her kit, chuckling. The tiny black kit just looked at her disbelievingly and she shook her head. "Just wait, Briarkit. You'll be an apprentice before you know it, I promise."

"I know," Briarkit meowed, letting out a dramatic sigh. "But that's not for another four whole moons! I haven't even been alive for four moons, and it already feels like I've lived forever!"

Fireheart just shook her head to herself. Ever since the day of her birth, Briarkit had always been the most energetic out of any of her children. No matter what, it seemed that she was never satisfied unless she was allowed to be active. When she was a quarter moon old, she had begged Fireheart to let her become an apprentice and was subsequently disappointed to learn that she would only be permitted to start training when she had reached her sixth moon.

At that moment, Stormflare poked her head inside the nursery with a mouse in her jaws. "Hi, Fireheart. I thought you might be hungry so I brought this for you."

"Thank you, Stormflare," Fireheart murmured as her oldest daughter placed the mouse at her paws.

"Did you catch that all by yourself?" Briarkit asked, staring at the mouse with wide eyes.

"I did," Stormflare confirmed, an amused look on her face.

"Wow," the little black molly breathed. "That's so cool. I want to learn how to hunt too! But I still have to wait for stupid Scorchkit to stop sleeping before I can even leave the nursery."

"Briarkit! Don't be so nasty." Fireheart shook her head and looked up at Stormflare. "She's been waiting to play ever since she woke up this morning. I told her to wait for Scorchkit, but I think she might start jumping on him if he sleeps much longer."

Stormflare glanced down at her younger sister. "If you want, I could take her out to play," the tortoiseshell warrior offered. "I'm not on any patrols until sunhigh, so I'm more or less free until then. That should give Scorchkit enough time to wake up without her pouncing on him."

"Would you? That would be great," Fireheart meowed gratefully.

"Yay!" Briarkit cheered. "I get to go outside and play!"

She leaped to her paws and raced out of the nursery, forcing Stormflare to chase after her. Looking rather amused, Petalpaw and Beepaw meowed a quick goodbye to Fireheart before turning around and padding out of the den more slowly. Chuckling to herself, Fireheart tucked her paws underneath her chest and took a bite out of the mouse Stormflare had brought for her. It was still juicy but noticeably smaller than usual, a clear sign of the approaching leaf-bare season.

At least this time, there was still prey left in the forest. Fireheart shivered as she remembered the bitter leaf-bare during Stormflare's first few moons. The entire Clan had gone hungry, even Fireheart and Bluefur, who had been entitled to extra prey as nursing queens. Weakened by hunger, Larksong, Mumblefoot, and Weedwhisker had been unable to fight off colds and had joined their ancestors in StarClan. Mosspetal had nearly died of starvation as well until Fireheart offered to help nurse her.

As she finished off the last of her mouse, something shifted in her nest. Glancing down, she saw that Scorchkit had opened his eyes and was looking up at her sleepily. Purring, she touched her nose to his forehead as his jaws parted in a yawn.

"Well, hello there," Fireheart meowed. "Did you sleep well?"

"Yeah," Scorchkit replied, yawning. He stood up and stretched his tiny legs in front of him. "Where did Briarkit go?"

"She went outside to play with Stormflare. You can go join them if you'd like," she told her son.

"Okay." Scorchkit shook out his fluffy pelt and walked out of the nursery. "Bye, Fireheart."

"Don't bother Poppydawn!" Fireheart called out to him. "She's still sleeping. And make sure your sister doesn't cause trouble."

Now that she was alone in the nursery again, Fireheart decided it would be a good chance to get some more rest. She would need all the energy she could get in order to be able to watch her kits later. Closing her eyes, she curled up in her nest again and fell back asleep. As she did so, the flame-colored queen thought she heard someone else enter the den, but she had already dozed off before she could be certain of anything.


If there was one thing that raising three kits had taught Fireheart, it was that she couldn't count on getting too many hours of sleep at a time. No matter how many different ways she tried to explain the concept of silence, Stormflare, Beepaw, and Petalpaw had never been able to grasp the meaning until after they left the nursery. The trend had more or less continued with Briarkit, although Scorchkit was an exception since he was naturally a quiet cat.

Even when her kits weren't there to wake her up, Fireheart usually found herself awake after a short period of time anyway. She suspected it was an instinct of some sort, or perhaps there was a StarClan cat guarding the nursery, whispering in her ear to wake her up whenever Briarkit was about to get into trouble. It was certainly useful, even if it did have a habit of sending false alarms.

StarClan, what I wouldn't give to be able to sleep for a moon right now, she thought wistfully.

Reluctantly, Fireheart pushed herself out of her nest and padded slowly out of the nursery. Now that she was awake, she might as well stretch her legs. As she walked outside, something jumped onto her back and latched on with tiny claws. Fireheart let out a yowl of surprise before realizing that it was just Briarkit. The small black molly giggled, her amber eyes–so much like her father's–shining in triumph.

"Got you!" she meowed happily.

"Hello there, sweetheart," Fireheart chuckled, gently placing her daughter back on the ground. "What are you doing?"

"We're playing a game," Briarkit meowed importantly. "And I'm the Clan leader. Scorchkit is my deputy and Stormflare is a rogue that invaded our camp."

"Oh dear," Fireheart replied, feigning a look of exaggerated horror. "A rogue invasion? That's not good at all. We're lucky to have two brave warriors like you and your brother to protect us."

Briarkit puffed her chest up proudly as Scorchkit walked over to join them. "Hi, Fireheart," he greeted her cheerfully. "Are you going to play with us now too?"

"Of course she is!" Briarkit insisted, turning to her brother. "That's why she came out here. Right, Fireheart?"

"Well, I suppose I have time for a few games," Fireheart replied slowly, pretending to ponder the question. Briarkit and Scorchkit beamed with excitement. "What do you say we play a few rounds of hide-and-seek?"

"Yay!" both kits cheered.

"You're it, Fireheart!" Briarkit chirped, turning and speeding away with Scorchkit hot on her heels.

"Don't go out of the camp, now!" Fireheart called out to them. Shaking her head, she closed her eyes and began to count. "One...two...three...four..."


Okay, so I checked the results for the polls and Briarkit and Scorchkit were the pretty overwhelming favorites. They were the only ones to get ten or more votes, after all.

The babies are here! Well, technically they've been here for about two moons, but we'll ignore that. Fireheart certainly has her paws full with little Briarkit. But hey, at least Scorchkit is easy. He's going to have his work cut out for him keeping his sister in line when they get older...

On another note, the special arc I have planned for Fireheart begins in the next chapter, so get ready for that. No really, I mean get ready because I'm about to hurt all of you.

Responses to a few reviews:

Kitty-Guardian Hootryd: Tigerclaw will never leave the honeymoon phase :). And yeah, normally two kits who were suckled together being mates would be kind of weird, but that was only done as an emergency solution to help save Moss, so they weren't technically raised as siblings and don't consider each other as such.

Featherleaf53980: Yes, Mosspetal is a girl. In this AU, Bluefur kept her kits, so Mosskit didn't die. She got to grow up and is now mates with Stormflare, Fireheart and Tigerclaw's daughter.

Dogwolf12: :D

KrazyKube: Well, technically they aren't related, but they are family. They would only be related if they shared the same blood, but since Fireheart was born a kittypet, that isn't happening anytime soon. As for the antagonist, that will make an appearance in the next chapter. No prophecies though because for one, I can't write them, and two, they're pretty much useless.

Thanks for reading!

-TheShadowedWarrior