Chapter 3
Smokewhisker's eyes were filled with shock as he watched his former mate pad out of the camp. He stood in the middle of the camp, his only kit sitting in front of him. The gray tom looked down to the kit and noticed that she was shivering; he placed his tail onto her shoulders, leading her back to the nursery. A tortoiseshell she-cat followed them into the nursery and looked at Ashkit with a worried glance.
"Is she alright?" The she-cat asked Smokewhisker as she stalked over to the shivering kit. "She's fine, but she will get hungry soon and I'm not sure how I will feed her without Swiftshadow." He replied. The
"What do you mean, without Swiftshadow?" The tortoiseshell questioned, wrapping her tail around the kit. "Swiftshadow doesn't want Ashkit because of what happened to Duskkit and Cloudkit, and because of that she believes that Starclan has abandoned us." The tom sighed.
"I can take care of her" She exclaimed, Smokewhisker's eye lit up with hope, "Really?" He inquired, forcing down a purr as he looked at the she-cat and his kit.
"Of course, I was about to move into the nursery to have my own kits, it won't make a deference if I move a few Sunrises early." The she-cat chuckled, the gray tom started to purr, "Thank you, Blossomtuft!"
Ashkit looked at Blossomtuft's amber eyes. 'Do mine look like that?' She wondered to herself.
"Do you want me to get you some fresh-kill?" Smokewhisker asked the queen.
She shook her head, "No, but could you go to Berryleaf's den and get me some herbs?"The tom gave her a confused look, "Why do you need herbs?" He questioned.
"Berryleaf told me that there is an herb that helps queens with their milk. I would need that to feed Ashkit"
Smokewhisker laughed, "Oh, I'll go get it from him then" He padded closer to the small kit and touched noses with her. "I'll be right back, okay Ashkit?" She looked into his big icy blue eyes as he spoke, "Can I come with you?" She asked him.
"No, it's far too cold for a kit to be outside of the nursery right now" Smokewhisker chuckled as he pulled away from his daughter and padded out of the nursery.
"Do you want to play a game?" Blossomtuft questioned the kit as she walked over to an unused nest and pulled a mouthful off. "What kind of game?" The she-kit inquired as she watched the queen. "Well you play with this ball of moss, but it's supposed to be prey" She told the tiny kit as she turned the patch of moss into a ball.
"Here I'll show you what to do" She crouched down into a hunting crouch, moving all of her weight to her haunches and lifting her tail off of the ground. Moments later she pounced at the moss ball and looked back at Ashkit, holding the moss ball in her mouth. Blossomtuft dropped the ball back down and turned back to the kit, "You try now."
The she-kit crouched down like Blossomtuft showed her; she moved her tail as she concentrated on the moss ball. "Don't move your tail, the prey will here you coming" The queen told her. Ashkit lifted her tail up and looked back at Blossomtuft, "Do I attack it now?" She asked and the she-cat nodded. The gray tabby looked to the moss ball, shook her haunches and jumped at the moss ball.
She looked back at Blossomtuft, holding the moss ball in her mouth. "That was great Ashkit!" The she-cat bubbled as Smokewhisker came back into the nursery with the herbs. He put them down beside Swiftshadow's old nest and looked at Ashkit with a smile, "Ashkit-" He was cut off by a loud yowl coming from the entrance of the camp.
"Froststar, Riverclan is attacking!"