Snowpaw sat in silence at Fourtrees. It was a still a while until moonhigh, but he had to get out of camp. He sat and remembered his conversation with Nightpaw.
"How's it going?" Nightpaw asked.
"Fine." Snowpaw replied. "Why are you here? The gathering was yesterday."
"I wanted to meet you and our other two friends tonight at Fourtrees at moonhigh." The Shadowclan apprentice explained. Snowpaw nodded and meowed a quick goodbye.
"I'm glad you came."
Snowpaw's heart was racing as he turned around. "Great Starclan, Lilypaw, you scared me."
"Sorry." She replied with a laugh. They both scented Softpaw and watched as the pretty light gray and white Thunderclan apprentice padded into the clearing. She joined them on the Great Rock and Snowpaw noticed a jealous glint in Lilypaw's eyes. He thought Lilypaw was pretty, but she wasn't even close to how pretty Softpaw was, even though she was pregnant.
"Hi." She meowed. Even her voice was prettier than Lilypaw's.
"Hi Softpaw. How are the kits?" Lilypaw asked, trying to make her feel uncomfortable. Softpaw's mouth formed a small circle and she replied with disappointment in her voice. "They're fine. I'm going to tell the clan that they're Whitefoot's. Now they'll have a father they can be proud of." She sighed sadly. "I just wish he was actually their father. He's so wonderful."
Lilypaw's eyes flashed with satisfaction and Snowpaw growled quietly at her. She stuck her tongue out at him and he chuckled at her. "You're acting like a kit." He turned around and saw Nightpaw trying to creep up behind him. "What are you doing Nightpaw?"
"Foxdung!" The black apprentice growled in frustration. "I was trying to sneak up on you!" He unsheathed his claws and scratched them against the Great Rock. Softpaw giggled softly at his immature behavior. "Wow Nightpaw, I thought Shadowclan warriors were supposed to be calm, cool, and collected."
Nightpaw pounced on her playfully and Snowpaw gasped. Softpaw smoothly rolled out from underneath him and sat up. "Watch the kits!"
Nightpaw froze in embarrassment. "I'm so sorry! I forgot and I can't get over an apprentice having kits."
Softpaw snorted and was about to reply when a misty figure appeared in front of the four apprentices. Softpaw stared in amazement at the pretty ginger and white she-cat with stars in her pelt. "Are you a Starclan warrior?"
The she-cat hesitated and replied. "Well, I was never a warrior, but I was welcome into Starclan to watch after my kits. It's hard to try to help them though, because if I help one it might hurt the others."
"How?" Lilypaw asked.
"They're all in different clans." Her gaze bore into their pelts.
"Us?" Nightpaw squeaked, his fur tingling with realization.
Snowpaw stared at Nightpaw. How had the Shadowclan warrior apprentice's thoughts gone to that?
"Three of you are mine." The Starclan cat meowed clearly.
"Which ones?" Nightpaw asked eagerly. Snowpaw didn't want to know if he wasn't clan-born.
"You, Lilypaw, and Softpaw."
Snowpaw breathed a sigh of relief. He was clan-born. He watched as the she-cat brushed her starry pelt against her three kits. Softpaw was stiff and didn't react, but Lilypaw shrunk away. Nightpaw touched her shoulder. "I think I remember you. Is your name Luna?"
"Yes!" The she-cat meowed in surprise. "Did you remember that from when I gave you to Applestar?"
Nightpaw shook his head, trying to remember. "No, I think a brown tabby was talking to you."
Softpaw's ears perked up. "Oh yeah! I remember her! What was her name? Something to do with birds, I think."
"That's right!" Luna mewed excitedly. "It was Bird! Snowpaw, she is your mother."
Lilypaw sat in silence with here eyes slitted. Finally she spoke. "Why did you give us away?"
"I'll just tell you guys the story." Luna replied. "Bird and I met and we both wanted kits, and we wanted to have them raised in the clans. My father was a Thunderclan warrior and my mother joined for a short time. My father was killed in battle and my mother left and had me. Bird was born in Windclan, but her mother, Moonfur, had to give her a loner because she couldn't care for her. Softpaw, Lilypaw, and Nightpaw, you three are part Thunderclan. Snowpaw, you are half Windclan. One other thing is that Smallstar is my half-brother, so you three come from a good bloodline."
The four apprentices sat in silence. None of them knew how to react to the information.
"Do we have to tell any cats?" Snowpaw asked anxiously.
"Oh no!" Luna replied. "You don't have to tell any cat. Your leaders are the only living cats that know about it. Your foster mothers all think you had other mothers that died."
Snowpaw looked around at his three friends. "Why am I here? We aren't all related."
"Oops!" Luna exclaimed. "You all have the same father."
"So we're sibling." Lilypaw clarified. Luna nodded and started to fade away. "Good luck my kits. You all have great destinies to fulfill."
Snowpaw looked at his two sisters and brother and saw them all staring down at the ground in shock. None of them were clan-born, but they all had destinies to fulfill? Lilypaw growled a quick goodbye and Softpaw mewed something about having to go see the medicine cat to check on her kits. Nightpaw touched noses with Snowpaw and whispered in his ear. "I'm glad you're my brother, I don't think I could handle those two by myself." He backed away with a twinkle in his eyes. Snowpaw turned and ran all the way back to Windclan, thinking the entire way. Why me? And why them? Why can't we just be normal?