Flowertail groaned, lying on her side with her flanks heaving. These kits were not going to come easily, as she could tell from the intensity of the pain she was currently feeling. What a horrible time to be giving birth to kittens into this world, for as new lives were coming one was being lost. She shut her eyes tight as she let out another cry. Rowanleaf stood beside her, glancing anxiously over her shoulder as her apprentice sat next to Toadstar, watching him on his deathbed, coaxing him, soothing him.
Flowertail yowled as she could feel the kits inside of her, trying and struggling to get out into the world. But she wasn't ready. Even if they were, she definitely wasn't. She was too young for this…she was too young for love, for kits, as she had only just become a warrior not even a moon ago. She opened her eyes to see Leafpelt approaching her, concern lighting his gaze.
"Leafpelt…" she moaned to her mate. "You…you should be with Toadstar…he's dying."
He leaned down and licked her on the ear. "No. I'm going to stay with you." He cringed as she cried out again.
Russetleaf leaned down and gave her some leaves, but she pushed them away. "No…" she was too weak to eat anything. All she wanted to do was to curl up in a ball and die. The first kitten came out, finally. But she wasn't done. This was just the beginning. The pain returned again.
After what seemed like hours, far after Toadstar had taken his last breath and joined StarClan, Flowertail was finished. Seven kits lay at her stomach, all dead. All born dead. There was not a single one alive. She bent her head and stared at the stars. Why? Why, StarClan? Why must I suffer so much only to be faced with dead bodies surrounding me?
"Flowertail!" Russetleaf's urgent call made the queen jump. "There's one alive! She's just barely…but she's breathing." The medicine cat stared rubbing her paws along the kit's pelt, a gray tabby, and Flowertail could see for herself that it was true. She had one daughter alive. This birthing wasn't in vain.
With a faint smile at knowing she had a daughter alive, she laid her head back and fell unconscious, too tired to keep her eyes open any longer.
In her dreams, she was in an empty field, with nothing in sight, nothing but the long grass hiding her from view. The sky was dark, a pitch black that had no stars and no light to shine down onto her and illuminate her pale pelt. She arched her back in fear at smelling someone approaching her.
"Who's there?" Flowertail demanded to know. "Who are you?"
A small, black cat emerged from the bushes to face Flowertail, his pelt surrounded by a starry veil, coating him like a barrier of protection. "Don't worry, Flowertail. It's only me, Sparrowpaw."
"Sparrowpaw!" Relief melted across the ShadowClan queen's gaze as she embraced her brother. He had died from a badger just two moons ago, and Flowertail still hadn't fully recovered from the tragedy.
However, Sparrowpaw pulled back and looked at her with sternness, almost a glare, in his eyes. "Flowertail, what have you done?"
The she-cat was taken aback. "I-I don't know. What did I do?"
"Your kits were never meant to happen. I thought it would be okay when they were all dead, but one of them…one of them lived. This never should've happened! That kit is a curse to ShadowClan and she should never have been born!"
Flowertail hissed. "What do you mean? No kit is a curse!"
"Oh, really?" Sparrowpaw retorted. "She has powers beyond your imagination. If her energy is not harnessed and controlled, she will kill off every cat in the forest one by one. She was supposed to be dead!"
Flowertail had no idea how to react. Her kit was a danger, a menace to the Clan? "I don't understand."
"Flowertail, she has the power to destroy anything she wants to, anything that stands in her way! While she is still young, her power will not show much, but once she is older destruction will reign not only upon ShadowClan, but upon all the Clans of the forest. She has to be killed, or she will kill all of you."
"No…no, I'm not killing my only kitten!" The pale she-cat shook her head, water welling up in her eyes and blurring her vision. "You can't make me!" Before he could stop her she bounded away from her brother into the clouding darkness, and his words followed her, echoed in her head. "She has to be killed, or she will kill all of you." But she didn't understand. How could one tiny kit kill an entire population of cats? Besides, it's not like she would want to. She would be raised with love and care. No one had to know she had these so-called powers. Subconsciously, Flowertail found herself promising herself and her kitten something. "I will protect you, little one. No one will harm you, I promise." She blinked and lunged forwards, as if leaping out of her dream and back into the waking world.