Silvershine dropped a mouse and a thrush on the fresh-kill pile. She was ashamed at how little she had caught for how long the patrol had been out. She stretched lazily, she'd be on the evening patrol soon and then she could sleep. She remembered being outraged a few days before at how often she had to go on hunting patrols and still be expected follow up on border patrols, but it was leaf bare and the Clan had to be fed. A pang of hunger shot through her belly. Myself included, she thought, snatching back the mouse. Carrying it by the tail, she headed across the clearing.

"Five days! Five days!" Flavorkit sang as she ran around the clearing excitedly.

A mrrow of laughter escaped Silvershine's lips around the mouse as she settled down to eat. She looked to Tigerstripe who was sitting off to the side watching her kit's antics.

"Silvershine," Tigerstripe said, "have you met Bluemist's kits yet?"

"Oh, no, I haven't," Silvershine said once she'd swallowed, just now realizing she'd been so busy over the last two days that she hadn't even had the time to meet the kits.

"Well why don't you?" Tigerstripe asked. "I think Bluemist has had enough rest."

"O.K. I think I will," Silvershine agreed, gulping down the last of the mouse. "Hey, she'll be alone in the nursery with her kits soon, huh?"

"Yes she will," Tigerstripe agreed. "I do feel bad about leaving her. She's a first-time queen like I was, and with leaf-bare here, it's going to be colder in there with less cats. And her kits are so young, I'm worried."

"Well don't be," Pepperface emerged from the nursery. "I'll take good care of her and her kits, and not just because I'm a medicine cat."

"Yes, they're in good paws," Tigerstripe agreed. "They're lucky to have such a great medicine cat as kin."

"Kin?" Silvershine asked. "Pepperface?"

"Ashcloud and I are littermates," Pepperface said. "Didn't I tell you that?"

"I thought you were an only kit!" Silvershine said.

"Nope," Pepperface said. "I was the first, but not the only. Anyway, they're sleeping now, so it's a good time to visit if you're quiet."

Silvershine nodded and headed into the nursery. Inside, Bluemist had just finished eating an herb of some sort. Her two tiny kits were curled up against her belly. Silvershine remembered when Tigerstripe's kits had looked like that when she had pulled Flavorkit, at that time Dawnkit, out of her mother when she got stuck.

"Hello, Silvershine," Bluemist mewed a quiet greeting.

"Hi," Silvershine kept it short so as not to wake the kits. "How are you?"

"A little tired, but doing just fine, you?" Bluemist asked. "How's the prey running."

"It's not," Silvershine muttered. "Leaf-bare stinks like mouse bile."

Bluemist let out a mrrow of amusement. "I wish I could help. Leaf bare is such a bad time to have kits."

"But if there's no kits in leaf bare, there'll be no apprentices in newleaf," Silvershine pointed out.

"This is true," Bluemist consented. "Someone has to do it. Now, on to the real reason you're here." She brushed her tail over her kits. One was a light orange tabby with a white underside and the other was a brown tabby.

"Hey, I wanted to see you too, you know," Silvershine said.

"It's fine," Bluemist said, "everyone wants to see the new kits. It's not that no one cares about me, but I know how this works already. I don't mind, they're beautiful kits, who wouldn't want to see them?"

Most kits are beautiful, Silvershine thought, knowing that that was the general compliment given to new queens, but she said nothing.

"So, this is the oldest, Pinkkit," Bluemist rested her tail on the orange tabby. "She was just a ball of pink fluff when she was born. She still sort of is too. And her little sister is Harekit."

"They're so cute," Silvershine purred.

Harekit's mouth stretched wide in a yawn which ended in a sneeze.

"Aww!" Silvershine purred.

Bluemist licked the tiny she-cat. "I just hope it's not an early sign of greencough."

"Does she sneeze a lot?" Silvershine asked.

"Well, sometimes it's a cough," Bluemist said, "but it doesn't happen a lot. Mostly when she yawns."

"What does Pepperface think?" Silvershine asked.

"She thinks it's cute," Bluemist replied. "Maybe I should call her 'Sneezekit.' She does check on Harekit once a day to make sure she doesn't develop anything, but she thinks it's nothing."

"Thank StarClan," Silvershine said. "She's a great medicine cat."

"StarClan has blessed us with her," Bluemist agreed. "It's a miracle in itself that she lived, or did she tell you?"

"No, she did," Silvershine replied, remembering the medicine cat's story of how she was practically dead at birth.

Pinkkit rolled over and yawned, but her yawn didn't end in a sneeze or cough, but in a mew though her little eyes stayed closed.

"Oh sorry, I didn't mean to wake her!" Silvershine said in a hushed mew.

"It's alright," Bluemist soothed. "She's just a kit, she'll sleep again soon and for most of the day."

"Well, I'd better go before I wake Harekit too," Silvershine started to back out. "They're really wonderful, even if they don't do anything yet."

"Just you wait, they'll be reeking havoc soon enough," Bluemist said.

"I don't know weather to be happy or scared," Silvershine joked.

"We'll see, won't we?" Bluemist asked.

Silvershine nodded and turned to leave, waving with her tail as she did. As she exited, she nearly ran head-first into Ashcloud who was coming in.

"Oh, sorry, Silvershine," Ashcloud exclaimed.

"Shhh!" Silvershine hissed, "Harekit's asleep."

"She is?" Ashcloud lowered his voice. "Good, she needs her rest."

"Don't tell me you're worried too," Bluemist said.

"I can't help but worry," Ashcloud replied. "What if she's getting Greencough? What if she gives it to Pinkkit and to you? What if it becomes Whitecough? What if…"

"Shhhh," Bluemist whispered. "Calm down. Everyone will be fine. She probably just swallowed some moss when she inhaled too deeply."

"Maybe," reluctance hung in Ashcloud's voice. Silvershine could understand his worry; losing any cat for any reason was bad, but a kit dying was the worst, especially one of your own. She took this opportunity to slip out of the den.

"There you are!" She was greeted almost instantly by Canyonleaf running up to her. "Where've you been? The patrol's waiting for you!"

"Oh, sorry," Silvershine apologized. "I was in the nursery."

"Again?" Canyonleaf groaned as they headed to the camp entrance. "Honestly, Silvershine, you spend so much time around kits some of us are starting to wonder if you're expecting your own."

"I do not," Silvershine protested, "the kits spend time around me."

"Whatever," Canyonleaf rolled her eyes.

"Finally," Tailwind, the leader of the patrol, exclaimed. "Now we can leave!"

Canyonleaf fell in step beside Adderfang, leaving Silvershine with no one to talk to. Dotpaw padded excitedly behind her mentor, Sparrowheart, and Mosspaw walked beside her.

It was decided that they would head to the RiverClan border first.

"Hey, Silvershine," Canyonleaf called back, startling Silvershine a bit, "speaking of the kits, you think you're gonna mentor one of them?"

"I dunno," Silvershine replied, casting a sidelong glace at Adderfang who had a look of disgust on his face, but remained silent. "Have I really been a warrior long enough?"

"I don't know," Canyonleaf replied. "But StarClan knows you're the best choice to mentor one, you've already bonded with the kits and they really look up to you."

"That's true…" Silvershine said, nervously. She didn't like being reminded of how Tigerstripe's kits looked up to her, since it put more pressure on her to be a good example. And being a mentor would only be worse.

"I think young warriors make the best mentors," Canyonleaf went on. "They understand what it's like to be an apprentice and can get along better with younger cats. Not to mention they just finished their own training, so it's fresh in their mind. They know what to teach since they just learned it."

"Yea, but they lack the battle experience that a true warrior needs," Adderfang spoke up. "An apprentice being trained by such a young warrior is missing out on that."

"You were trained by a young warrior," Canyonleaf pointed out. "Rainfall wasn't much older than us when you became his apprentice."

"I know," Adderfang grumbled. "I was his first apprentice and he didn't have a clue what to do at first!"

"Hey, someone's gotta be the first apprentice, right?" Silvershine asked.

Adderfang just frowned.

"So it's not that hard to picture you being a mentor," Canyonleaf said. "Hey, maybe I can mentor one too!"

"If they're given to young warriors you can bet it'll only be one," Adderfang said. "Stormstar wouldn't have all three of them be the first apprentices of young warriors. There's only hope for one of us to mentor a kit."

"Do you wanna mentor a kit?" Silvershine asked, hoping to have as little competition as possible if this was true.

"I'll do whatever Stormstar says," Adderfang replied. "But honestly, not really. I'd rather focus on being a warrior first to get the experience to properly mentor a great warrior."

"Gotta be one before you can train one," Canyonleaf agreed. "But it doesn't really look like there's much going on."

"There hasn't been much going on for moons!" Adderfang exclaimed, "we're overdue for large-scale war!"

Silvershine flinched at the mention of war. She hoped Adderfang was wrong, but in her heart she knew that there couldn't be peace forever.

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Silvershine tossed and turned in her in her nest. She couldn't manage to get to sleep. She felt like there was water leaking into her nest, but it wasn't raining. Still, her fur grew gradually more wet as she moved and the rustling of grasses was accompanied by a squishing sound. Unable to put up with it any longer, Silvershine sat bolt upright, claws digging into the sodden ground beneath her. As her eyes flew open, she looked around in shock. She wasn't in the warrior's den anymore but in a thick patch of reeds. When she peered through them, she could see a bunch of cats curled up, but they were larger than her Clanmates. A scent suddenly flooded over her in such a massive cloud that she wrinkled her nose against it.

"RiverClan! How'd I end up in RiverClan?!" She whispered to herself, but immediately slapped her tail over her lips. The RiverClan cats remained asleep, not showing any indication that they had heard her. Silvershine breathed a sigh of relief, but then tensed up again as a movement caught her eye.

A starry cat was making its way through the sleeping cats. Her white pelt shimmered brightly in the dim light. Silvershine recognized her mother instantly, but didn't call out to her for fear of waking the other cats. Moonsong padded up to a pair of cats sleeping close to each other. Silvershine had seen them before at the border. On the evening patrol, actually. She was fairly certain they were mates.

Moonsong prodded the tom in the side until, with a moan, he woke up.

"I'm not on the dawn patrol," he yawned, not yet opening his eyes.

"It's not dawn yet anyway, you stupid furball," Moonsong meowed.

The tom's eyes flew open and he stared at the starry warrior in awe. "M…Moonsong?!"

Moonsong nodded.

"Wh…what happened to you?!" the tom leapt up, not even disturbing his mate. Silvershine realized this must all be a dream that only the three of them were involved in.

"Oh, I'm glad to know you care!" Moonsong spat.

"Of course I care!" the tom protested. "I've always cared! What happened? Where did you go?!"

"You happened!" Moonsong shouted. "Thanks to you, I was discovered to have your kit, and banished from my Clan! And did you even bother to look for me? No!"

Rockstripe! Silvershine suddenly realized the identity of this RiverClan warrior.

"Wh…what did you expect me to do?" Rockstripe asked. "I…I had no idea what was going on in WindClan. Did you want me to go and ask what happened to you? Do they even know?"

"No," Moonsong replied, "I wouldn't tell them. That's probably part of the reason I was banished."

"So then….how did you…." Rockstripe couldn't bare to say it.

"Die?" Moonsong finished for him. "What's it matter to you? You've forgotten all about me!"

"What?!" Rockstripe exclaimed. "No I haven't! I could never have forgotten about you! How could you even think that!?"

Moonsong did not meet his eyes, instead she looked down at the light orange she-cat that slept beside him.

"So I take it you found out about Peachfern," Rockstripe said.

Moonsong only glared at him. "How could you?"

"W…well, she liked me!" Rockstripe protested. "What could I have done? I mean, there's nothing wrong with her, she's a nice cat. I've got no problem taking her as a mate. The only thing standing in my way was…love. I loved another cat."

"So you just threw that love away," Moonsong spat. "You disgust me!"

"No!" Rockstripe exclaimed. "I never stopped loving you! I still love you! And if I could, I would be with you. But…I couldn't tell her that. What could I have said to her 'I'm in love with a cat from another Clan'? You know I can't say that! And you can't expect me to!"

Moonsong turned away. "And you had a kit."

A kit?! Silvershine thought. I have a brother or sister?! Who? What apprentices are in RiverClan? What cat was…Scratchpaw.

"Again, what else could I do?" Rockstripe asked. "She is my mate after all. I'll admit that I do love her," this received a snort from Moonsong, "but I love you more."

"You can't love two cats any more than you can live in two Clans!" Moonsong snapped. "You have to choose!"

"Choose what?!" Rockstripe asked. "My living mate or my dead love? Moonsong, you're wonderful, but that's not much of a choice. Knowing that you're dead, I know I made the right choice."

Moonsong's eyes burned with rage as she turned back to her lover. "Oh, so you were just waiting for me to die so that you could be free to take another mate! I see how it is! You're nothing more than a scrap of crowfood! I can't believe I ever loved you!"

"That's not fair!" Silvershine shouted, leaping from her cover.

"Silvershine!" Moonsong exclaimed.

"Wh…who's that?" Rockstripe asked.

"Moonsong, you can't expect Rockstripe to give up on love just because you two can't be together," Silvershine said.

"I can expect him to be faithful!" Moonsong protested.

"Um, who are you?" Rockstripe asked Silvershine.

"No you can't!" Silvershine spat, ignoring her father. "Your love was never meant to be, StarClan doomed it from the start!"

"StarClan can drink mousebile for all I care!" Moonsong hissed. "They set up these mouse-brained rules about Clans anyway when they were alive! And they wanted to take you from me!"

"Take her?" Rockstripe asked, "from you?"

"StarClan doesn't control everything!" Silvershine spat. "That was an accident! And it's beside the point anyway! You should be happy for Rockstripe's sake!"

"How'd you know my name?" Rockstripe asked.

"Happy that he's abandoned me?!" Moonsong demanded.

"Happy that he's moved on!" Silvershine snapped. "Happy that he's not waiting for a cat that'll never come back to him. Happy that he's happy, that he has a mate and a kit."

"He already had that!" Moonsong retorted. "He had us, but he wasn't content with that were you?!"

"Now hold on," Rockstripe said, "what is going on here anyway?!"

"You know what, maybe he wasn't!" Silvershine interrupted. "Maybe he wasn't content with breaking the warrior code! Maybe he didn't want a kit that should never have been born! Maybe he realized he was making a big mistake!"

"Mistake's been made!" Moonsong snapped. "He can't take it back. Do you want him to anyway?"

"I should've died anyway!" Silvershine spat. "StarClan was punishing you, I'll bet! You can't have your mate, you can't have your Clan and you can't have your kit!"

"Your kit?" Rockstripe asked. "Are you…?"

"StarClan is fox-hearted!" Moonsong snapped. "What did I do wrong anyway?! How can you outlaw love? Why are we even in Clans?!"

"How the heck should I know?!" Silvershine spat. "But it's a little late to question that, don't ya think?!"

"Can I say something, please?" Rockstripe asked.

"No!" Moonsong spat.

"Sure," Silvershine said.

"No, he can't," Moonsong said. "This doesn't concern him!"

"It's about him!" Silvershine shouted. "How can it not be about him?! Moonsong, you're not making any sense anymore!"

"Is that anyway to talk to your mother?!" Moonsong demanded.

"So she is…" Rockstripe began.

"I don't care!" Silvershine spat. "It's the truth! And if I can't tell you the truth, who will?!"

"I could try," Rockstripe took a step forward so he stood between them. "Moonsong, you're not being fair."

"Don't talk to me about fair!" Moonsong spat. "You-"

Rockstripe covered her mouth with his tail. "To tell you the truth, right now you're making yourself look really bad and making Peachfern look better. I will admit you said one thing right, I can't love two cats. If I try to love both of you, I won't love either of you the way you disserve to be loved. Moonsong, I'm sorry, but our daughter's right. This was wrong, and it was never meant to be. I'm so sorry for all the trouble I've cause you, and if I could take it back, I would. But what's done is done. I'm sorry, but I can't love you anymore." He turned his back to the two she-cats and lowered his tail from Moonsong's mouth which was now agape with shock.

"S…so, that's it?" Moonsong asked. "It's over? You've chosen her instead?"

"Moonsong, it was over before it began," Rockstripe said, "and I'm a fool to have not seen that. I have already chosen Peachfern and I can't take that back either. This is goodbye."

"Alright, then," Moonsong lowered her head, but Silvershine could see that her eyes were clouded with grief. "Goodbye."

The scene before Silvershine began to blur and blew away like dust on the breeze, returning her to darkness and sleep in her own nest in the WindClan warrior's den.