Yay, we made it to 30 reviews! *throws confetti* Thank you to everyone!
Hissing Mist: Thanks! That was (sort of) the intent! Well, they're Clanmates, and he was looking like he wanted to say something to her, so it was sort of the respectful thing to do, I guess? Thank you so much!
Guest: Well, he's going to be even more important in a bit... and maybe ;) but no...
Sapphire-Glow: Wow, what a great review! Minnowpaw and Emberpaw ARE going to be important later, but in different ways. And don't worry, it won't be. Emberpaw is not going to be the love interest... but he's taking a different sort of interest in Hawkpaw for reasons that will be revealed later. And wow, that's an interesting theory on Minnowpaw! I love writing scenes with her (there's more coming up) :)
LilacArtist: You're the 30th reviewer! And hmm... maybe there's a reason for what you're saying about Emberpaw... and no, not the love interest.
Just because I was asked this multiple times: Emberpaw and Hawkpaw are NOT going to be a pairing (as far as I know). I have something so much better in store for Hawkpaw... *evil laugh*
Enjoy the chapter!
I don't own Warriors.
CHAPTER 5: READY OR NOT
"Get up! Get up!"
Someone was yowling and prodding her flank far too severely for her liking. Hawkpaw rolled over onto her belly, pressing her face into her moss nest, and swiped a paw blindly out behind her, hoping to get the rather obnoxious intruder off her tail.
"Get up, Hawkpaw!"
Then there was a thorn hooking into her pelt, not deeply enough to draw blood, but painfully enough to draw her back onto one side. Her paw made contact with a furry, vaguely familiar limb, and Hawkpaw's disoriented mind struggled to place her surroundings. She should have gotten to sleep earlier.
Not a thorn—a claw. Hawkpaw growled and blinked fully awake, squinting at the light that filtered through the lichen into the medicine den. Whoever was jabbing at her wasn't kind enough to block out the sunlight for her, so Hawkpaw lifted a forepaw to catch a better glimpse of the inconsiderate silhouette. "What? What is it?"
Leopardwish had her forepaws pressed up against the soft nest as she hissed in Hawkpaw's face. "Get up. Now. The kits are coming!"
"What?" Hawkpaw was on her paws in a heartbeat, suddenly alert as she rushed past the still-sleeping Stormwhisker into the back of the den to pick up the herbs. Her mind, however, did not quite seem to be rushing at the same speed as her frantic claws, so she racked her brain for the herbs. "Raspberry and... poppy seeds?"
The spotted ginger she-cat was already at her heels. "Finally! I was about to start without you, but I thought you might want to help."
"I went out to look for more borage, as you said, because Honeypool already consumed all of it. What else do I need?" She pawed at the poppy seeds for a moment before turning to a crisp-smelling bundle of crinkled leaves. "Ragwort, to help with the pain?"
"Maybe you should have done that earlier, instead of playing with Sorrelkit all—stop it!" Leopardwish cuffed her around one cheek, forcing her to spit out the plant in shock. "You need to relax, Hawkpaw. That isn't ragwort."
Hawkpaw widened her eyes, gaping uselessly at the herb she had now made a mess of on the den floor. "It's... parsley," she realized, recoiling slightly. "I'm so sorry, Leopardwish, I—"
"Not now." Her mentor's tone was brisk as she picked up the foul-smelling leaves that Hawkpaw recognized as true ragwort. "Get some chervil root, too, the biggest one you can find. Cedarfang will want something to bite down on when the kits start coming. And StarClan knows, there'll be quite a few of them."
Parsley, she repeated silently, as she numbly nudged the chervil root into the bundle of herbs at the medicine cat's paws. She'd mixed up ragwort and parsley. If Leopardwish hadn't been here, she would have dried up Cedarfang's milk and—
An earsplitting screech sliced like claws through her thoughts, and she might have mistaken it for a battle cry had she not been provided context. Cedarfang!
Leopardwish was already out, her plumy tail swishing urgently as she carried the herbs with her, but Hawkpaw hesitated, staring after the shape of her mentor. She had confused ragwort and parsley. It was a novice mistake, one she might have made in her first few days of training under Leopardwish, yet she had made it now, nearly a moon into her apprenticeship. Ragwort and parsley. She couldn't stop repeating the herbs in her mind, as if somehow, saying their names over and over would redo the past few moments.
Ragwort and parsley. What sort of medicine cat made that sort of mistake? Was this a sign? Hawkpaw narrowed her eyes against the vivid thoughts. Cedarfang deserved a better kitting than what she would end up providing her.
"What in StarClan's name are you waiting for?"
The sleek head of the ThunderClan medicine cat poked back in through the lichen, annoyance and something like desperation flashing in Leopardwish's amber eyes, but Hawkpaw was rooted to the ground, appalled. Ragwort and parsley.
She was panicking, and she knew it.
Hawkpaw lashed her tail. "I think you should do it by yourself."
"What are you meowing about?"
"I don't think I'm ready." She was surprised to find that her tone was steady.
Leopardwish cuffed her again, this time making contact with her left ear, and Hawkpaw flinched at the lack of sympathy in her mew. "Get out here, Hawkpaw. You'll be fine." She was already bounding out, but Hawkpaw hesitated again under her mentor's ire, if only for a heartbeat before picking up a large root.
I'm not going to kill her. It was a medicine cat's job, wasn't it? Dealing with this stuff on a regular basis? Leopardwish will be there. She'll catch me if I try to do the wrong thing, and she'll be instructing me the whole way through...
But this is going to be a painful birth, a small voice nagged, in the back of her mind.
Hawkpaw slumped against the bracken of the den entrance, watching the dark tip of Leopardwish's ginger tail disappear into the nursery. But Leopardwish has dealt with worse, hasn't she? She's probably helped queens kitting loads of times.
If you want to be a medicine cat, she told herself fiercely, you have to learn by watching what Leopardwish does, not by hiding in the medicine den and waiting for her to get back. She scoffed. Hiding! She wasn't even a warrior, and the thought still offended her.
"Hawkpaw!"
Leopardwish's furious yowl sounded over the kitting queen's agonized shrieks, and Hawkpaw blinked, not having noticed Cedarfang's cries over the tumult of her own thoughts.
She shook out her fur and bounded over to the nursery. It was nearly sunhigh, and she idly wondered why Leopardwish hadn't woken her earlier. Perhaps she'd known Hawkpaw hadn't returned from the forest until well past midnight with the scraps of borage she had found—measly amounts, after all they had used up already. Or perhaps—
Hawkpaw froze, taking in the scene before her.
Cedarfang was laying on her back, her claws extended and slashing at nothing, while the dappled medicine cat spoke to her in murmurs so soft that Hawkpaw couldn't pick them up even from the nursery's entrance. Beside them, Sandstrike's tail was twitching as he peered over his mate's writhing body, and Honeypool had huddled her kits up against her, presumably to prevent them from witnessing the other queen's suffering.
The stench flooded her senses, though it wasn't as overwhelming than it had been when Stormwhisker had returned from battle with scarlet matting his pelt as if he'd fallen into a lake of blood. But Cedarfang's bleeding was minimal, and the scent was slightly different from any battle wound she'd seen—
"Over here, furball!" Leopardwish snapped at her, and Hawkpaw padded over to drop the chervil root at her mentor's feet, being sure to keep her distance from the kitting queen.
The gray-brown queen's mottled body convulsed, and she screeched again, the sound prompting Hawkpaw to take yet another pawstep back, flattening her ears. Her mentor whipped around and glared, an unsettling expression Hawkpaw had never seen on the gentle she-cat's face. "She's having kits, Hawkpaw, not invading the nursery! You can come closer."
She did, her hackles raising instinctively when Cedarfang snarled at another spasm, then flattening as she realized that the aggression wasn't aimed at her.
Beneath the layers of agitation and concern, something like curiosity welled up inside her as Cedarfang bit down on the root she had brought, muffling a gasp. Gazing up at her mentor, she saw that Leopardwish's momentary frenzy had dwindled into a muted unease as she touched Cedarfang's moving pelt.
"Here, Hawkpaw." The medicine cat removed her own paw from the queen's swollen belly. "You try it. You should be able to feel her pushing the kits out."
This time, Hawkpaw didn't hesitate before lifting a white forepaw and placing it where Leopardwish's had been. Her eyes widened as the muscles beneath the queen's soft fur rippled powerfully, and nearly drew her paw back as another contraction seized her quivering belly. "Sorry!"
"Not much longer now," Leopardwish mewed gently, balancing on her hind legs to tenderly massage the queen's abdomen. "Hawkpaw, when you see the first kit, make sure you release it gently. You don't want to hurt it."
Me? Aren't you going to show me how it's done first?
As if she could sense Hawkpaw's apprehension, Leopardwish lifted her head to study her across the queen's body. "I won't let you hurt it."
Sandstrike hissed from the other side of the nursery. "You better not!"
Oh, StarClan. Hawkpaw shot the older warrior a sharp glance, and he backed away, shuffling his paws remorsefully and muttering an apology that she twitched an ear to acknowledge. From the corner of her eye, she saw Leopardwish fix the light brown tom with a similar stern gaze. Kitting, it seemed, ruffled everyone's fur, not just the expecting queen's.
"Here's the first one!"
Cedarfang's body contorted sharply as she let out a shriek higher-pitched than the ones that preceded it, and sure enough, when Hawkpaw positioned herself at the she-cat's paws, a single, tiny sac tumbled into the moss, soaked and unmoving.
She lowered her head to nip the little kit free from the sac, drawing her teeth as far in as possible so that she wouldn't bite the squirming bundle inside it. "It's a she-kit," she mewed dully, a little stunned at the process. "But she isn't breathing. I need to lick her, right?"
But she was doing it even before catching Leopardwish's nod, and exhaled loudly and placed the tiny she-kit into the nest when she let out a thin mewl. She's alive.
The queen pushed herself up, craning her neck with some effort as she surveyed her daughter, but before Hawkpaw had the chance to nudge the she-kit into its place by her mother, Cedarfang yowled again, twisting so horribly that the medicine cat apprentice was forced to look away for a heartbeat. When she opened her eyes again, she could practically see the waves of pain billowing down the queen's flank, making her fur crease rather frightfully.
"The second one's coming," she heard Leopardwish tell the queen, but before the words were out, the fronds rustled to reveal a panicked Brackenhaze bursting into the nursery, panted as the medicine cat turned to her. "What is it?"
"Come quickly!" the she-cat gasped. "There's something wrong with Stormwhisker!"
Ooh, what a fun way to end a chapter! What do you think is "wrong" with Stormwhisker? Thoughts on Hawkpaw's anxiety about the situation? I tried to make her dramatize her thoughts so that she's even more anxious about helping her mentor than she should be.
I've come up with names for some of the kits, but it would be great if you could come up with names for a cream-furred she-kit and a mottled brownish she-kit. Thanks in advance!
Review! All feedback appreciated!