Willowshine awoke in her den, completely rested and pleased with herself due to her new "kits". Of course, this is all kept secret due to the medicine cat law of "no mate, no kits". Nothing can be done about anyway, Starclan's laws have been with us since the olden days. She thought as she wiped her eyes clear of the morning sleep and went to the river to clean herself in the water.
She was gonna do that, until her "son" woke up and raced after her and jumped onto her back and playfully batted her in the sides and neck. She reared back and grabbed him by the scruff and held Rollingpaw in front of her so that he could do nothing but hang there. "Good morning to you too, you little rascal." She said as she put him down and let him sit in front of her, with the obvious smile on his face.
"Good morning, where are you going?" He asked, curiosity shining in his warm yellow eyes.
"I was going to the river to wake up and get a good wash," she leaned down and whispered in his ear, "you and Cedarpaw can come with me if you want, have a little family wash." She smiled at him with a kind, welcoming, and motherly smile as he rushed away to see if his sister is two came back after a minute or two and they all padded their way to the river.
"Those three seem happy together." Mistyfoot commented to her clanmate, Beechfur.
"Yes, if only she wasn't a medicine cat, she could have a mate and actually take those kits as her own," he hung his head down and sighed, "she's seen so much shit happen in such a little life." They both padded away and went in search of food for the clan.
"'Seen so much shit' is an understatement, bub," Mothwing complained at Beechfur, "And the next time you drag a dead body with one of your friends, please be more gentle next time, you pitiful, no-name, numb nut, ASS-WIPE!" She yelled at his face but she knew nothing she said would be heard.
Willowshine and her two kits soon made it to the river and were already diving into the water, ready to have some family fun while they were not needed. Rollingpaw had splashed Cedarpaw with water in the face so hard that she actually flew out and back into the water like she got sucker punched.
"Hey! You need to calm down with those, you know." Cedarpaw said as she pulled herself back above the water.
Rollingpaw sheepishly rubbed his head and gave a nervous chuckle, "Heh, sorry sis. I guess I don't know my own strength."
"How is it a test of strength when you're using water?" They both laughed at their small banter and soon sloshed over to Willowshine who was simply floating on her back, just basking in the bright summer sunlight on the clear blue river. She felt the vibrations of her kits coming towards her and she turned over to face them.
"Are you two having fun?" She asked. The two apprentices nodded with a joyful fervor which pleased Willowshine to her bones. If only Jayfeather were here to see these two, Oh, he'd cry out in joy, but he's stuck setting up the meeting for his cele-!
She had frozen in place within the water which nearly made her sink to the bottom, but she quickly splashed back which startled her two kits.
Oh Starclan, I forgot to tell Leopardstar about the celebration! I have to tell her immediately. She then started swimming towards shore and dried off. "I'm so sorry you two, we'll have to play later," She said hastily, "I have to go talk to Leopardstar."
The two apprentices had followed her out of the water and had dried off as well. "Aww, what could be so important?" Cedarpaw complained, obviously not wanting to see her go when they were starting to have fun as a family.
"What do you need to talk to her about?" Rollingpaw asked, quite curious about what could be so urgent.
"I need to talk to her about my ma-…magnificent friend over in Thunderclan, everyone who knows Jayfeather (I hope many do) will be very surprised by what happened to him." Willowshine explained, careful to not give away anything about Jayfeather and her relationship to him.
"Oh well in that case, go, run, tell her!" Rollingpaw said as he pushed her onwards and they both chased after her as she made her way to the leader's den.
"You do know that you nearly spilled the beans about you and Jay," Mothwing reminded with a touch of apprehension laced along the sides, "That was a nice fucking save, but try and be more careful with the gossip. There's already enough of it going around with you being gone for the length you were."
"This coming from the cat who thought it'd be a good idea to say 'fuck it, let's run through Windclan', honestly, you need to learn to pick a personality and stick with it." Willowshine replied, rather annoyed at how Mothwing was suddenly being cautious when she was just yesterday saying 'Fuck this' and 'Fuck that' and 'I'm invisible so you can't see that I'm fisting your asshole out you Leopard-printed beyotch'.
Mothwing turned her glittering head to her apprentice, the kits, than back to her apprentice and said, "I'm trying to do what's best for you, your mate, my clan, and your kits. So don't get fucking testy with me because I'm helping you out. And, never ever mock my ass again." Mothwing finished with a nudge to the shoulder and a pad towards Leopardstar's den, "You coming or not?"
Willowshine nodded towards her and pushed herself on to the entrance. "Leopardstar," Willowshine called, "its Willowshine, I want to speak with you."
From inside she could hear her leader getting up and the slightly aging bones creak and pop with every step she heard her take. The leader poked her head out of her escape and said, "Ah, Willowshine, how glad I am to see you well rested and radiating with your predominantly chipper attitude. Please, come in." Willowshine entered the dim den and sat straight in order to be as professional about this as possible, sadly it didn't work, when her secret kits walked through and sat beside her, disregarding the fact they just entered the leader's den without permission.
"What are you two doing? Leopardstar and I are-." Willowshine started.
"We know." The two apprentices said in unison.
"Hahahahaa. Well, I knew you two were always one's for not caring where you went and you heard. You two can stay." Leopardstar laughed.
The two apprentices both looked at each other, smiled, looked up at their mom and smiled huge smiles that she could never resist. She smiled back down at them and went back to sitting professionally. "As you know, I was over at Thunderclan due to their medicine cat, Jayfeather, coming down with a sickness and it needed my attention," Willowshine stated with a steady and smooth tone, "It was a rather sudden occurrence and I doubt his apprentice was trained enough to handle a case like his."
"Beep-Beep, Bullshit alert, Beep-Beep!" Mothwing repeated as she padded in circles which made Willowshine crinkle and twitch an eyebrow that, hopefully, went unnoticed.
"After he had finally woken up, a wonderful thing had happened," She looked at the two apprentices and placed her front paws on both of their ears and pulled them into her pelt in order for them not to hear what she'll say, might as well keep it a surprise for these two, "He can see now. They have invited all the clans to the lake in order to celebrate. Thunderclan wanted me to tell you about this in order to gain your approval and confirmation that Riverclan will attend this gathering. Of course, this is your call." She said, silently hoping that Leopardstar will be shocked and pleased at this news and will let their clan attend.
Leopardstar looked at her with surprise laced around her pupils and a slow starting grin that brought her hopes up higher, "Well, that is something to celebrate, isn't it? Very well, the clan has been quite grim for the past few days and since Mothwing's unfortunate accident didn't help out much either, it'll be nice to see this clan smile for a little bit even if just for a day," Leopardstar said with a thoughtful smile and sorrowful, reminiscent eyes. "Just for a day…"
The two apprentices looked at the leader and wondered what she and Willowshine were talking about since it wasn't every day that you saw your leader go into such a state of thought especially in front of a medicine cat and two apprentices. "Thank you Leopardstar, now if I may leave you to your thoughts, I'll be going." Willowshine said, removing her paws off of her kits' ears and made her way out of the den with the two in tow.
"Finally, not a damn thing stopping us now. All we need to do now is just wait till the show hits the road." Mothwing said as she stretched out and laid herself out on the ground.
"Well you do that, I'm going with my kits to pick up where we left off," Willowshine responded as she turned to face her kits who sat patiently waiting for her to tell them what they're gonna do, "Come on Rollingpaw, Cedarpaw. Let's finish what we started at the river and we'll get ourselves some dinner, ok?"
"FOOD!" They both yelled with their irresistible smiles that could melt the coldest of hearts.
Willowshine had padded quite a bit before she realized that the two apprentices lagged a little and had turned their heads towards the back. "You're not coming with us?" Cedarpaw asked
"No, I just want to lie down in peace for a little bit and think some stuff over." Mothwing replied with the same thoughtful smile as Leopardstar.
"What you were doing in Leopardstar's den was hilarious!" Rollingpaw laughed as he nudged his sister to go ahead and get a move on.
"We'll talk to you when we get back, okay?"
"Alright, have fun, love you my angels!"
The two apprentices chuckled and replied, "You're the angel here, foolish!"