Chapter 7, The search begins

Skyfeather's next week was boring. It went by slowly, and she had nothing to do but lie around in the nursery and wait. What did happen was that Snowfeather's kits opened their eyes.

Stalkkit had yellow eyes, and Silverkit had ice-blue ones.

That evening Snowfeather left the den and came back later. All the kits were scampering around, yowling at their mother for food.Then two nights later Skyfeather's stomach started to throb.

Are they coming? She wondered. She was wide awake. Maybe Darkflame would come in. Maybe he wouldn't. Maybe she would die. Maybe she wouldn't. Maybe one of the cats would wake up and get him. Maybe they wouldn't.

She sat wondering for over to hours. Then Leafcloud stumbled into the nursery.

"Oh sorry," she mumbled, "I was half asleep."

"Don't go!" Skyfeather called at her friend. Leafcloud turned around. "What is it?"

"The kits might be coming. Get Darkflame and Shadowflight."

Leafcloud stumbled out of the den and returned within five minutes.

They all waited for another two hours. Leafcloud began to yawn and mutter about the way Ashfur would send them on patrols, and they wouldn't have enough sleep.

Skyfeather's belly had stopped throbbing long ago, but suddenly it seized up in pain.

She stifled a scream. Leafcloud stared down at her with huge amber eyes.

The pains started coming every minuet, and Skyfeather whimpered every time. Darkflame was carefully sorting the herbs he had brought.

Suddenly the pain became unbearable. Now they came every second. Skyfeather couldn't even move. Then she could.

She had her first kit.

Leafcloud thought it looked weird and was tired so she left, and Shadowflight followed.

"What should we name it?" Skyfeather asked her mate.

He looked down at it. "It's a male." He mewed, placing an herb in front of Skyfeather.

"You name it," Skyfeather ordered.

He paused. "Arrowkit," he said finally.

The kit was dark red.

The next kit Skyfeather had was a male. He was grey. "Stonekit," she decided.

The third was a white female. "Whitekit." She named it.

XXX

Leafcloud bunched her muscles and landed on the boulder on the inside of the border to WindClan. She let her eyes scan the fields. Then she looked back into ThunderClan territory. There was no Ashfur.

She saw Brownclaw come bounding foreword, and she say patiently on the rock. She knew what she was going to tell him. She also knew what he was going to ask.

"Oh, Leafcloud," he muttered, "I…I heard about how you got punished. Are you okay?"

"Yes," Leafcloud whispered.

"You must have felt terrible when they told you it was against the warrior code."

Leafcloud paused for a split second. "I already knew it was." She mewed in a small voice.

His eyes darted back and forth, before meeting the amber eyes that were trained on him. "Then why did you do it?"

"Because you asked me to." Leafcloud meowed quietly. And then Brownclaw's face seemed to grow, and his yellow eyes widened. His mouth shaped the word 'oh' but no sound came out.

"Do you…?" he asked, his voice just a rasp. The moon made his face glow. It was the middle of the night.

"Do you…love me?" he rasped.

Leafcloud could barely feel the ground beneath her paws. "Yes."

"I…love…you…too…"

Leafcloud swallowed hard, or tried to anyway. Her whole body was stuck.

"For how long?" he asked her.

"Since…since Mudpaw made a copy of you, and I found you lying on the moor. But I didn't know it. Not until you just asked me."

XXX

Shadowflight was thinking about her dream. The dream where Firestar had told her that there was something on Nightwind's grave.

She had nothing better to do then what he said.

She padded out of camp, then around to the back where there were many graves, some new and some old. She instantly saw the slightly fresh one that was Nightwind's.

And there was a tiny black kit on it.

The kit was tiny, probably a newborn. It was fuzzy black. Its tiny eyes were closed.

Was this what she was supposed to find there? She didn't know where the kit came from, or anything at all about it other then the fact that it was tiny and black.

"Hey!" she shouted, entering the camp, "I found this kit out in the forest."

Ravenstar instantly directed her to give it to Snowfeather.

Shadowflight bounded back to Nightwind's grave and began to dig. She dug for ages, and found not even a trace of hair.

She backed away. Nightwind was definitely not in the grave. She entered camp again, feeling worried.

XXX

Shadowflight padded into the nursery with Leafcloud two days later. She had told her friend all about the dream, and not having Nightwind in the grave.

Snowfeather was asleep. Her kits were asleep to, except the black one that had been found on the grave.

It was awake, and was much older looking. It looked about four moons old. Much too old for a kit who was a newborn to days ago.

And it had ice-blue eyes.

Suddenly Shadowflight remembered something, from long ago…

Shadowkit watched as Sorreltail's two kits, Flamekit and Darkkit, leaped on top of each other. Her third kit, a small fuzzy black one with ice-blue eyes, watched patiently. Her siblings continued to tussle, but when she tried to join the game, they gave her sharp nips on the legs.

Shadowkit looked up as Ravenflight entered the den suddenly, and looked down at her.

"Why are you so weird?" Ravenflight whispered, "Why don't you sleep on your back, or purr? Why don't you play?"

Shadowkit didn't answer, even though she could hear perfectly well. Ravenflight knew something that she didn't.

Shadowflight looked down at the black kit again. It looked just like the one that had tried to play with Flamekit and Darkkit. This was Nightkit!

"I remember that Nightwind looked just like that when she was a kit. She…yes, this is her."

"It can't be her," Leafcloud said. She placed a paw on the kit's chest. "This kit is ice cold. I don't think that this cat is even alive. I think this is just a body."

"Firestar told me to wait until it died, so I am. But this kit is growing fast…"

She stopped. The mystery was too hard.

"Just wait," Leafcloud whispered as she padded away.

Shadowflight gave a frustrated look down at the kit and padded out.

Hm…random chapter, I know. The next chapter contains more!