Chapter 26

Ashwinter sat in the cozy nursery with her tail wrapped over her paws. Honeymallow sat facing her in the far right corner. Smoketail dozed in the far left corner—her and Blackfeather's kits were due to arrive any day now.

" Did Burtail mention how many kits you're going to have?" Ashwinter asked curiously.

Honeymallow nodded. "Yes, she said there would probably be about two."

Her friend beamed at her.

" Do you have any names in mind?"

Ashwinter watched Honeymallow's face fall for a moment and felt a pang of regret—did she say something wrong?

" No, I'm sort of stuck. I want to name one of them after something in the medicine cat den, like a herb or something, but I don't know where to begin."

Ashwinter asked " Well, can I help you with it?" She knew it wasn't exactly her place to ask.

Honeymallow instantly brightened. " Sure!"

"Okay! Let me think…" she tried to think of herbs she had seen medicine cats use in the past. " Well, there's borage, burdock, catmint, chervil, and goldenrod…but none of those are really good for a name…"

Honeymallow thought for a second. " There's comfrey and dock and honey…"

" And lavender and marigold, juniper, and thyme," Ashwinter continued.

Honeymallow picked it up from there. " Tansy, yarrow, watermint, garlic, horsetail, coltsfoot, and stinging nettle," she took a short breath, " Those are all the ones I can remember."

Ashwinter nodded slowly. " I think the best out of the list were chervil, honey, lavender, marigold, juniper, thyme, yarrow and tansy."

"And nettle, if you took 'stinging' out of it," Honeymallow added.

" True, true. I think frost, birch, willow and ivy would be good choices too."

" Oh! How about Blackkit or Sunkit or Nightkit?" Honeymallow asked. Ashwinter nodded her head in approval.

" And you could name them Coudkit or Yellowkit or Rainkit or Moonkit or Daykit or Firekit, or…. or…."

Honeymallow purred. " Slow down! I can't use them all…I have to save some for you!"

Ashwinter snorted. " Me? Have kits? I think not!"

" You never know…anyway, I like Yarrowkit, Frostkit, Cloudkit and Ivykit out of all of them…I'll just have to narrow it down to two."

" Nice. It all depends on whether they're she-cats or toms, though."

Honeymallow smirked. "Yeah, and their colouration. Cloudkit could go both ways, though. Frostkit could too, I guess."

" Oh, please, do keep going…your conversation is helpful," Smoketail spoke up.

" Sorry if we disturbed you, Smoketail," Honeymallow apologized.

Smoketail shook her head. "No, no, no. Really, I need to figure out some names pretty soon, too!"

" How many kits are you going to have?" Ashwinter asked her former mentor.

" Burtail told me five," she answered.

Honeymallow inhaled sharply. " Oh, jeez. You're going to have your paws full!"

Smoketail nodded, smiling slightly.

" You could use Blackkit if one looks like Blackfeather. Plus, it would be like naming it after its father, so it's honourable," Ashwinter suggested.

Again Smoketail nodded. " Moonkit's a nice name as well. So now I really just need three more…"

" You could have a Sunkit, too, if there's one that's the complete opposite of the Moonkit," Honeymallow meowed brightly.

" Honeymallow," Smoketail asked suddenly, " is there anyone who's going to help you with your kits? Like a tom?"

Honeymallow looked confused. " You mean, be like a father to them?"

" Exactly."

" Uh…no. No, I don't think any tom is interested."

" Well, what about Russetclaw?" Ashwinter inquired, " He's always in here." I t was true—he often visited these queens.

Honeymallow sighed slightly. " Yeah, he comes to talk to us."

Smoketail smirked. " I think he'd be happy to help you out. Haven't you noticed the way he looks at you?"

" Uh…. no…"

Smoketail nodded knowingly. " I see."

Honeymallow pricked her ears. " Ashwinter, I think Dustrise is looking for you," she meowed, looking out the nursery entrance.

Ashwinter pricked up her ears as well and faintly heard some one call "Ashwinter!"

" I think you're right, I better go see what he wants," she replied. " See you guys later."

" Bye," Honeymallow meowed.

Smoketail nodded her goodbye.

Ashwinter squeezed out of the nursery and into the camp clearing. She trotted towards the elder's den.

" Ashwinter! There you are!"

Ashwinter turned to see the dark tabby brown tom rushing towards her.

" What's up, Dustrise?" she asked, turning to face him fully.

" Well, I was just wondering if you'd like to go hunting with me."

Dustrise looked sort of nervous, like he was afraid of her saying no.

Ashwinter smiled at him. " I'd love to. Where are you planning to go?"

The sheepishness melted out of his face. " I thought we could go down to the river."

" Sounds good to me!" she tried to sound overly enthusiastic—she didn't want him to think she was unwilling to come.

He grinned. " Okay, let's go!"

Ashwinter pounced after him with a huge smile on her face.