Chapter 31 Planning and New Kits
A quarter moon had passed, it was cloudy and getting close to snow. Lightclaw was eating a squirrel and thinking about how he was going to kill Snaketooth, Brightshine, Dasiypetal, Whitestar, Moon, and Wolffang. There were many complexes to these kinds of things and the most important one was that there should be no witnesses. Lightclaw had many moons to plan these things out, but thinking of ways to actually kill someone and make it look like natural causes wasn't easy. There are many parts to these things and they all needed to match up and be perfect; if anything goes wrong, the natural cause theory would change the suspicion into murder. Lightclaw continued eating and thinking, wondering on how he would kill his victims. He looked at the medicine cat den, all he had to do was make sure that Cloudberry and Doespring ruled out the cause of death as natural causes. To be fair though, choices for natural cause deaths were slim and low and to make a natural cause death so perfect was difficult, complicated, and complex. Lightclaw realized that this wasn't going to be easy and he wondered if he could actually do this at all. Lightclaw took the last few bites from the squirrel and stood up. He took the squirrel and buried it into the woods. Lightclaw went back to camp and looked around; no one was outside of their dens, everyone was in their dens and were asleep. Lightclaw looked down and wondered and thought about how else he could kill his victims; it soon became apparent that if the natural cause plan doesn't work, he might consider plan B and even he knew that this one would lay more suspicion on him than the first one. A few moons has passed and it was now Greenleaf and it was nighttime. Lightclaw entered the camp and approached the fresh kill pile. He was about to grab a pigeon, but heard a yowl from the nursery and perked in surprise. Lightclaw looked behind him and saw Snaketooth pacing back in forth with Whitestar, Daisypetal, Brightshine, Wolffang, Icetuft, Loudtooth, and Leaftumble gathering outside of the den, and other warriors soon joining them. Cloudberry was in there, comforting Feathershine as she was in pain from giving birth. Suddenly, Lightclaw heard another yowl and it was coming from the slave nursery. Lightclaw looked and saw Neetlespring was pacing back and forth with Darkheart, Blackfur, Tinydawn, Duskstorm, Shadowstripe, Nightcloud, Mistyheart, and the other slaves gathering outside of the den. Doespring was in the slave nursery, comforting Dustfoot from the discomfort and pain of giving birth. After a few more moments of labor, kit wails could be heard from each nursery, both fathers were overjoyed and everyone was ecstatic. Lightclaw headed towards the slave nursery, but stopped when he heard a yowl.
"HEY LIGHTCLAW!" a voice yowled.
Lightclaw turned around and saw Brightshine approaching him.
"Aren't you going to see Snaketooth and Feathershine's kits?" Brightshine asked.
"Uh, no. I'd rather be with brave blood than cowardly blood." Lightclaw retorted.
Brightshine stared at her brother in disbelief, cats stared at him; shocked, angry, or not surprised. Snaketooth stared at Lightclaw with a death glare, but Lightclaw didn't care and just kept walking. He approached the other slaves, they got out of the way, but smiled. When Lightclaw entered the den, Nettlespring, Darkheart, Flowershine, Duskstorm, Shadowstripe, Nightcloud, and Mistyheart were already in the nursery. Nettlespring looked at Dustfoot and their new kits with pride and everyone else looked at them warmly. Lightclaw smiled and saw a dark brown tom with black eartips, paws, brown chest and a dark brown she-cat. Nettlespring and Dustfoot looked at Lightclaw and smiled.
"They're beautiful, aren't they?" Dustfoot asked warmly.
"Yes, they are. What are their names?" Lightclaw meowed.
"Well, the tom is Deerkit and the she-cat is Mudkit." Nettlespring purred.
"They're beautiful, just like you and Dustfoot, Nettlespring." Flowershine meowed.
"And those are nice names." Lightclaw added approving.
"Thank you, both of you." Nettlespring meowed.
"Hurray, I have a younger sister!" Duskstorm meowed ecstatic.
"Yes you do Duskstorm. You have two strong kits, Nettlespring. They'll make an excellent addition to Lightclan." Darkheart purred.
"Yeah, as slaves." Lightclaw thought bitterly.
He looked at the kits and knew their future. These kits would grow up as slaves and this hurt Lightclaw; meanwhile, Snaketooth and Feathershine's kits would grow up as warriors. Lightclaw wouldn't let any of that happen, but he needed to know when it was a good time to murder Snaketooth or any of his other victims. Lightclaw left the den as several slaves were coming in to see the newborn kits. Lightclaw looked over at the nursery and saw several warriors entering the den to see Feathershine's kits. Lightclaw wouldn't be wasting his time going in there and just headed towards the fresh kill pile, but a yowl stopped him.
"LIGHTCLAW!" a voice yowled.
Lightclaw turned around and saw Snaketooth approaching him and he was furious. He got into Lightclaw's face, barely touching noses with each other, and Lightclaw unsheathed his claws. Cats watched with terror; each one was worried if there was going to be a fight.
"Listen well Lightclaw, if you think that I'm a coward, think again! I will not let someone like you think that I'm a softy like you or the other…." Snaketooth growled.
"I didn't say you were soft, Snaketooth. I said that you were a coward, regardless if you are a pro-slave or anti-slave cat!" Lightclaw snapped.
Snaketooth looked at him in disbelief, everyone else looked at him shocked. Snaketooth soon got angry again.
"Tell me, have you really forgiven me?" he asked.
Lightclaw couldn't help but smile and got close enough to whisper into Snaketooth's ear.
"And if I did, that doesn't mean I like you." He whispered.
Lightclaw walked past Snaketooth, leaving him in disbelief. Cats watched in complete shock as Lightclaw walked past them. Whitestar, Cloudberry, and Brightshine saw the confrontation and wondered if Lightclaw really did forgive them. A few days passed and the kits had grown into healthy, playful little balls of fluff. Lightclaw laid in the middle of the clearing and was eating a squirrel. He saw Feathershine's kits leave the nursery and were playing warrior. They were both she-cats and their names were Blossomkit and Blightkit; Blossomkit was a white, brown, and ginger tortoiseshell with blue eyes and Blightkit was white with blue eyes. Lightclaw looked at the slave nursery and saw Deerkit and Mudkit run outside and was playing mossball. Lightclaw looked at Blossomkit and Blightkit and wondered on when it would be a good time to kill their father. He didn't want to be cruel and take their father away so soon, he at least wanted them to get to know their father. There was also the idea on how he was going to kill their father, but one thing worried Lightclaw; were the kits going to be better or like their cold-hearted father.