"Let all those old enough to catch there own prey gather to the Treerock for a clan meeting!" Pinestar's clear voice rang out.
Everyone ran up to the Treerock. Pinestar waited for everyone to get there.
"You all know about the cat the hunting patrol brought back. I have decided to let her join the clan. It would be good for us if we had a queen with kits!" Pinestar yowled out.
She was met with silence, until Reedfang let out a defiant yowl.
"What about prey? It's leaf-bare! We can't afford this!" Reedfang yowled out.
Everyone murmured there agreements.
"That may be, but we need more cats. If we don't have a queen, we might not be able to expand," Pinestar pointed out calmly.
Reedfang glared at the leader, as he knew that her word was final. But his glare quickly turned to shock as he heard a painful screech.
"Raid is giving birth!" Frostclaw yowled out, who just happened to be checking up on her.
Everyone began running around in a panic.
"SHUT UP!!" Frostclaw yowled over the panicked mews and pained yowls.
All hybrids looked at him with wide, frightened eyes.
"The patient needs peace and queit right now. Manzanitapaw, I need you to help me," he motioned for his apprentice.
Manzanitapaw quickly scurried over to her mentor.
"Good, I need you to give me three poppy seeds from the medicin den," Frostclaw didn't look up from the birthing queen.
"Poppy seeds ease pain," Manzanitapaw noted mentally, and grabbed them.
"Thank you Manzanitapaw. Here Raid, eat these, they will ease your pain," Frostclaw gently held out the poppy seeds.
Raid sniffed the seeds cautiously and lapped them up when she realized they were safe to eat. Raid's yowls weren't as loud, but they were still very painful sounding. After a lot of gentle coaxing, twenty-five minutes later, two healthy kits were born. Raid thoroughly licked her tiny kits. One was a calico she-kit, the other was a long-haired gray tabby she-kit.
"They're beautiful," Manzanitapaw whispered as she stroked the calico with her finger.
"Yes, what are you going to name them?" Frostclaw asked.
She picked her tongue up from the gray tabby.
"The calico will be named Dawn, and the gray tabby will be Dusk," Raid lowered her tongue back down to the tabby.
"If they are to be clan cats, they should have clan names. They shall be Dawnkit and Duskkit," Manzanitapaw told her.
Raid nodded slightly, but didn't look up from her kits.
"I'm going to announce the news to the clan. You stay here and give her some borage leaves," Frostclaw got up.
"Borage leaves can help increase supply of milk and can bring down fever," Manzanitapaw said thoughtfully.
"Correct," Frostclaw nodded before he walked out of the nursery.
Frostclaw padded to the center of the camp.
"Everyone! I bring great news! Raid has given birth to two healthy kits! They are named Dawnkit and Duskkit!" Frostclaw yowled out proudly.
Everyone cheered, high-fived, and sighed with releif, a few went over to see them. Sparrowtail rushed over to see the kits.
"Awww!" she crooned, and stroked the long-haired tabby's cheek.
Duskkit's claws shot out and sunk into Sparrowtail's finger, without any thought of letting go. Sparrowtail let out a small gasp of pain and tried to tug her finger away. Duskkit sunk her claws in deeper, blood trickled out.
"Let go!" Sparrowtail tugged harder, but no luck in getting free.
"Duskkit, please let go of her!" Raid licked at her kits claws in an attempt to loosen them.
Duskkit only sunk in her claws even more. Sparrowtail let out a painful wail. Though she was just a kit, her claws were already long and sharp. Frostclaw rushed in to see the dilemma. After five minutes, they got her claws out of her finger. Frostclaw was about to put dock and marigold to the wound, but Dawnkit was already licking at it.
"What a sweet little kit," Sparrowtail purred softly.
"Yeah," Frostclaw agreed, but his gaze wandered suspiciously to the suckling gray tabby.