The snow was melting, leaves rustled. All was silent. But this silence lasted only for mere moments as a pain filled howled filled the vacant once silent air. Inside a hole in the ground were two cats. A cream she-cat laid there her underbelly bulging with the promise of new life. And now… now that life was coming. She pushed, but only the blood came. Oozing everywhere staining her lower half. Only the blood and pain would come. Where the kits stuck?
The cream colored cat let out another sound of pain as blood came out. The smaller gray and brown cat frantically pawed through leaves until she came to tiny seeds. She picked up them in a leave; she quickly rushed them into the other cat, nearly dropping most of them. She pushed them to the she-cats mouth. Her eyes darted looking around for anything else but she was too young to think of anything else. She grew more upset when her companion rejected the medicine.
With a worried scared look, the tiny cat than mewed desperately, "Please… Softwind, take them you're in pain," She rolled then back in front of the laying she-cat's muzzle. The cat this time didn't bother to move them away, she was growing too tired.
The other cat laughed her voice strained, "Heh, this pain it is my punishment for my mistake isn't it. I must take it for its StarClans will," She cringed in pain biting another scream back as the pain racked though her whole body. She groaned pushing. She grinding her teeth pushing harder, part of her knowing that she deserved it but her other half wishing it all would end. But the spasms of pain made themselves known in her muscles and in her bones. She looked at the poppy seeds she desired their numbing effects but yet her concise would hurt more or was it the guilt. Was it that she wished for the pain? She had no answer to her own questions.
"It can't be, StarClan wouldn't… not this pain please take them, or at least the thyme," The young cat's voice was strained with misery. She was pleading her grey eyes wide with concern for the older cat's condition. The cat once again chuckled though her discomfort, "Kit, StarClan does many things and I've... I've done something too horrid and now I must pay for it. It is only fair,"
She pushed harder wincing biting her tongue. Slowly the sounds of a mewing kit came. Blood soaked its fur as it lay there now cold. The Grey cat came to it pulling it out of the way so the others could come. She pulled it…her towards the mothers belly so it could start feeding. Once closer to the mover, the tiny she-cat began to lick the kit. Allowing it to warm and be clean.
The older cat smiled, felling the tiny warmth of the new life by her belly. She tried to suckle but no milk came. The cat's eyes closed, "Figures that I would have no milk for I was never to be a mother. Why would StarClan give me milk to suckle new life it was forbidden for me to do so," The kit mewed distraught. The little newborn she-kit was scared and alone. She could feel the cold leaking into the cavern. Her mother had no milk and she was hungry, she could not hear her mother's screams but she could smell the blood and feel her mother filch in pain. The poor thing somehow born all alone in the coldest of the moons.
The brown and grey she-cat could feel the young kit pains as all she could do is watch the other cat in pain. Oh StarClan she wished to run, to run away. Maybe to get help but she feared leaving for a moment. But she didn't know what to do, she was so young. She couldn't do anything, StarClan help them. She stared frantically trying to think but her mind was blurred all she learn in the past half moon was gone. It all was just gone.
She sat there watching her heaving in pain and try effortlessly to push out the other kits. Soon another came but in a wrong way, it wasn't head first. It came out in a sickening position its body twisted. Was the poor creature dead before it ever lived? Was StarClan this cruel to punish the unborn kit for its mother's one mistake? Were they cold enough to punish the innocent fragile thing? The young cat hoped not as she made her way to the unmoving kit. She picked it up hoping that StarClan had mercy, mercy for an innocent who had yet to break any of their laws.
She placed it…him by his sister. The she-cat began to furiously lick in a rhythm to start his lungs, to help him breath. To hope he wasn't stillborn. Closing her eyes and paying as she licked off the blood, warming the still body, "Please live come on live please, he hasn't done wrong. Please just breath, cry. Please," The she-cats heart pained her as she relentlessly willed the kit it breathe. Then she felt it, a soft faint cough. Her ears were filled with the sounds of the newborns cries. He was alive, "thank you StarClan, thank you for having mercy on him,"
"What do...please tell me what they look like," She heard the cat whisper, her voice fading. Her eyes were unfocused and faded. She looked as strained and tired. She was no longer able to see that well. Her eyes were sore and tired. She felt like fainting but the spasms of pain refused to let her rest.
Her gray eyes looked to the bleeding cat, wide and anxious. She stuttered now more than ever fearing for her mentor's life, "Just like you, beautiful. They're beautiful just like their mother," It indeed was the truth; the little she-kit looked just like her mother. The little tom was a dark gray. He probably took after the father, whoever it was.
Finally another made its way into the living world, it cried louder than its litter mates. The bloody kit cried as she carried it to its litter-mates. Hurriedly cleaning the tiny she-kits fur it was revealed she was the color of sand, neither cream nor dark grey but sand. The now found mother relaxed, for this was the last of the kits. Her swollen belly gone and now three new lives lay by her side.
She opened her tired eyes and turned her head, looking to the crying kits. "One last beauty StarClan has given me before my time is up. One last before my punishment is final," Her voice faded as she laid her head down. Her eyes closed, she finally could feel no more pain, "Please StarClan forgive a medicine cat who had forsaken her duties for her own selfishness, and please do not punish those around me for it was my greed and lust that caused this pain,"
The she-cat had stopped cleaning the little wailing kit and turned to her mentor. The older she-cat was fading away now. She had lost too much blood. They both realized this now. The younger cat came to her senior with a heavy heart she pleaded, "Don't talk like that, you'll get better, I promise you'll get better. You have to rest that's all,"
"It's time Kit for you to face the truth, I am long gone. You must let go and realize everything is going to be honey and butterflies. You are not going to save every cat who comes in, especially in times of war," She rested than continued, "You must realize this or you must learn the hard way like I have,"
Her body grew cold as she let out her finally breathe, "I apologize for leaving you like this, Sparrowpaw," Than she was gone.
