A brand new chapter!! I hope that everyone is enjoying the story so far and are prepared for some angst and character regression soon!!! Though besides the ominous warning that was just dropped me and my Beta hope you enjoy!

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Grrrrrr! Grrrrrr! Grrrrrr!

"I'm a fierce foul-smelling fox and I'm going--" Dustpelt let out a screech of pain as both Squirrelkit and Tawnykit took hold of his tail with their nettle like claws.

"Wait! I didn't--" Dustpelt became squashed under a pile of squealing kits as they jumped the dark brown tabby warrior before he could even finish his sentence.

Fireheart was observing her kits closely, amused, as the flame-pelted queen watched from the sidelines as Dustpelt played with her kits. Fireheart's friends have been on routine kit patrol, as it was dubbed, where they took time out of their day to interact with Fireheart's kits and spend time with them. Mainly either to teach them things or play.

She was initially surprised when Dustpelt and Longtail had been volunteers, but she quickly found it amusing, especially when Squirrelkit had asked Longtail where he got the v-shaped nick in his ear.

"Alright, get off of me!" Dustpelt shook the squealing kits off of him, only to have Leafkit and Bramblekit take their places.

"You're going down, you stupid fox!" Bramblekit announced.

"This isn't fair!" Dustpelt pleaded. "I'm outnumbered! There's seven of you and only one of me!"

Squirrelkit suddenly got a mischievous glint in her eyes that Fireheart already wasn't a big fan of before she turned to face Fireheart. "Then maybe mom should join you!"

"Oh, I don't know-how" but Fireheart couldn't finish before Mothkit was probing her side.

"Yeah, come on mom! Let's all play!"

Dustpelt's whiskers twitched in amusement at the new mother being forced into the game. "Yeah, come on, Fireheart, are you scared?"

Fireheart snorted, of course she wasn't afraid of her own kits. It's just that they could be a pawful at times, and also they were quickly growing and she was so small… "How about we play moss ball instead?"

Fireheart's kits interest quickly switched from the game of attack-the-fox to a game of moss ball, much to Dustpelt's disappointment, and Fireheart leisurely spent time rolling a wad of moss off in the distance only for her kits to retrieve it back.

Or at least she did so for a while until she was called away from their side by Runningwind. ThunderClan's new deputy. Although it appeared that not many truly saw Runningwind as the new deputy, in fact, most of Fireheart's Clanmate's still referred to Tigerclaw as Clan deputy. Runningwind himself would always seek out Tigerclaw's permission before setting up any patrols and running most things through with the former ThunderClan's deputy. It was as if nothing really has changed regardless of Tigerclaw no longer officially being deputy.

Fireheart left her kits in Dustpelt's care, trusting him more in this life than her previous one to safeguard her kits. Fireheart happily greeted the wiry, light brown tabby tom as she came to stand before him.

"What can I do for you, Runningwind?" Fireheart asked politely.

"I know you've been wanting to go out on patrol lately and Tigerclaw thinks that you're more than ready to get back into the light work of being a warrior so would you like to go on a patrol near Sunningrocks?" Runningwind asked, not pressuring the new mother but offering her the task.

It's been nearly a moon since Fireheart had her kits. In that timeframe the flame-pelted mother of seven had never felt happier. However, when you've felt the thrill of a hunt or excitement of a patrol or just been cooped up in camp for so long you tend to miss the time spent as a warrior. Going on patrol would be a nice change of pace and one small break from her kits wouldn't hurt.

"That would be great!" Fireheart meowed. "Let me just check with Dustpelt." Runningwind nodded in understanding and walked away to do whatever he needed to do.

Fireheart made her way back over to Dustpelt and her kits, who were now arguing over who most deserved the moss ball. "Hey, Dustpelt, would you mind watching over them while I go on patrol?"

"Sure, I can take care of them while you're gone. How hard could it be?" Dustpelt waved her off, promising that they'd be alright in his care.

"If you need anything while I'm gone, get Goldenflower!" Fireheart called over her shoulder as she walked towards the warriors den.

"Who wants to go on a patrol near Sunningrocks?" Fireheart asked as she poked her head into the warriors den, surprised to see Graystripe there, grooming himself, and only two other warriors. One being Darkstripe, who simply glared at Fireheart before leaving, and Sandstorm.

"Yeah, that sounds like fun!" Sandstorm yawned and stretched her back legs. "I'm assuming we're leaving soon?"

"Just as soon as the other patrol gets back." Fireheart replied. She glanced at Graystripe expectedly.

"Sure." Graystripe huffed, but in his eyes Fireheart could see he was secretly excited, and she could guess why. This would be a chance for Graystripe to learn about how Silverstream was getting on in her pregnancy.

Out of the corner of her eye, Fireheart could see Sandstorm glaring at Graystripe, as if he were an enemy rather than a Clanmate.

She noticed, especially recently, that Sandstorm wasn't the only one showing outward distaste towards Graystripe. Limited warriors were willing to be in the same patrols as him, but Graystripe didn't seem to care.

Why was he more of an outcast than in her previous life? What had changed so much that Silverstream seemed to be the only thing on Graystripe's mind?

"Anyway," Fireheart cleared her throat. "Let's head out now, shall we?"

She left the den without waiting for Graystripe or Sandstorm's answers, as they waited near the gorse tunnel for the patrol to return.

Once Mousefur returned with Longtail, Swifttail, and Thornpaw in tow, Fireheart and her patrol got up to greet them.

"Did you guys run into any trouble?" Fireheart asked.

Longtail shook his head. "None at all, it's strange, going from a lot of troubles to none at all. Although I guess ShadowClan and WindClan are happy after…you know."

Mousefur scoffed. "Personally, I think we needed a break from it all. Hopefully after this we can just go back to normal border arguments for a while."

"That would be nice," Sandstorm admitted.

"I'd like it if there's no arguments at all." Fireheart said, watching as her Clanmate's paused to look at Fireheart as though she had two heads. Too soon?

"Yeah, I'd be nice to have closer ties to RiverClan." Graystripe agreed, much to Fireheart's delight.

"Well perhaps having no arguments is for the best." Longtail agreed after a few moments of thinking.

"Imagine if we ended up supporting each other." Fireheart tried to sound off-pawed, as though it were just a passing thought that she hadn't thought and planned endlessly over. "We'd keep an eye out for danger for each other. Be warned ahead of time and be able to communicate without any violence."

"Sounds like a far-fetched daydream." Mousefur snorted, but Fireheart could see in the way that her apprentice and Swifttail shared look that the idea had struck imagination and curiosity in them.

"Well, we'll be off now." Sandstorm interrupted, gesturing for the patrol to move. "We're losing daylight after all."

Fireheart nodded in agreement and bid farewell to the other patrol. The trip to Sunningrocks was uneventful, though Sandstorm did manage to catch a rabbit, once again showing off just how great she was as the best hunter in the Clan, and decided to bury it and come back for it later.

Once those sunbaked rocks came into view both Sandstorm and Fireheart leaped onto the stones, happily sighing as it relaxingly warmed their paws.

"Graystripe, come and join us!" Fireheart called down to her friend, who seemed to be staring off into space.

Graystripe gave her a dismissing flick of an ear. Disappointing Fireheart at being brushed off by her friend when it was such a nice day out to relax with friends.

"Well, more room for us." Sandstorm meowed, looking down upon Graystripe with agitation.

"It's really warm out today." Fireheart remarked as she settled down beside Sandstorm. Trying to ignore how Graystripe made her feel at once again turning her done when all she wanted was for them to spend time together as friends.

"It should be warm enough by now for your kits to go outside for the first time." Sandstorm mused, giving Fireheart a pointed look. "They've been driving the warriors mad with their constant escape attempts."

"They act just like Cloudkit." Fireheart murmured, shaking her head fondly.

"He's going to be an apprentice soon." Sandstorm remarked, seeming excited. "I'm hoping that Bluestar makes me his mentor."

"You want to mentor Cloudkit?" Fireheart asked in surprise.

"Don't think I can handle him?" Sandstorm asked in fake indignation.

Fireheart's whiskers twitched in amusement. "Of course you can. I'm just concerned if Cloudkit can handle you."

Sandstorm lightly cuffed Fireheart over the ears. Teasingly growling when Fireheart dodged, looking ready to pounce on the laughing flame-pelted queen.

"We should be patrolling the border, shouldn't we?" Graystripe suddenly interrupted, halting the two she-cat's merrymaking.

"There's plenty of time in the day to finish patrolling, Graystripe." Sandstorm said exasperatingly.

"There's really no rush." Fireheart tentatively agreed, seeing the way that her friend was growing restless.

"But what if something were to happen and we aren't there to deal with it?" Graystripe insisted, "maybe we might even run into a RiverClan patrol that might need to tell us something."

"You know, Graystripe," Sandstorm said slowly, "you've been awfully interested in RiverClan ever since the flood. Very antsy to go on every patrol that's going towards Sunningrocks. What, are you planning on joining those fish-faces?" It was said as an insult and nowhere near the truth, but it still causes both Graystripe and Fireheart to stiffened at the mock accusation.

"Of course not!" Graystripe said a little too hastily and with a little too much force. Causing Sandstorm to look at him weirdly.

"I think his behavior is just because he just wants to go back and stuff his face in the fresh-kill pile." Fireheart said the first thing that came to mind, cringing at how mean it came out but it did throw Sandstorm off and caused the pale ginger warrior's leaf-green eyes to sparkle in mirth.

"Alright then." Sandstorm meowed, dramatically standing and stretching, deliberately taking her time so that Graystripe's own annoyance would mount.

Fireheart shyly stepped off the stones and tried to engage a conversation, one where Fireheart would apologize for what she had said, but Graystripe was still ignoring her.

Fireheart sighed and resigned herself to a disheartening patrol. But midway through a rustling on the other side of the river drew their attention and from the reeds stepped a RiverClan patrol consisting of Mistyfoot, Stonefur and Loudbelly.

Fireheart perked up at the appearance of Mistyfoot, both she-cat's had got on splendidly these past couple of moons, bonding over motherhood and updates on their day to day lives. Although never going into too much detail about their Clan's important secrets. Or at least not yet if things were to go Fireheart's way.

Mistyfoot also seemed to liven up as she caught sight of the ThunderClan patrol, but where she seemed to brighten when looking at Fireheart, her eyes seemed to dim on Graystripe. The stark difference of seeing them threw the flame-pelted queen for a loop.

"How are you, Mistyfoot!" Graystripe meowed, sounding over eager.

"How are your kits doing?" Fireheart hastily added, coming close to the bank of the river.

"Oh, they're doing fine." Mistyfoot nervously meowed, "Reedkit and his siblings have been introduced to swimming and have begun playing in the shallows of the river."

"Amazing!" Fireheart gasped, truly meaning it. Who would have thought that RiverClan cats would be introduced to swimming at such a young age.

Mistyfoot quickly nodded, flicking her tail to Stonefur and Loudbelly and signals for them to carry on. Both RiverClan toms seemed to not mind that the pale blue-gray she-cat was talking to a patrol of ThunderClan warriors, trust had been built or at least enough for them to feel comfortable that neither side would attack the other. Both Stonefur and Loudbelly waved towards the ThunderClan patrol out of courtesy and continued on with their patrol, leaving Mistyfoot behind.

Sandstorm drifted further down the border, seeming uninterested at what the trio were talking about. Mistyfoot made sure the three were alone before she spoke, "I've some terrible news to tell you both, "Mistyfoot took a shuddering breath, steeling herself at what she had to tell them. "Silverstream had recently had her kits, a she-kit and a tom-kit--" utter joy lite up Graystripe's face, his yellow eyes were stretched wide in astonishment, and he looked ready to race across RiverClan's borders in order to go see them.

"What do they look like? Do they have name's? How's Silverstream, did she--" Graystripe was cut off by a moan of deep aching pain that came from Mistyfoot. At first Fireheart was worried that Mistyfoot was truly hurt but the grief that darkened the RiverClan queen's face spoke of deep emotional pain.

"Something had gone terribly wrong during the kitting, Mudfur had done all he could, but Silverstream died giving birth." Mistyfoot told the shocked pair. Fireheart more so than Graystripe.

I thought that she died because she came to meet Graystripe at Sunningrocks when she started kitting. I thought that if she was in RiverClan, where there's a fully trained medicine cat with other warriors to help her, that Silverstream would survive this time. Was Silverstream destined to die despite it all? Fireheart snapped out of her thoughts as Graystripe began to wail, deep, aching wails that grated on the ears and broke the flame-pelted she-cat's heart due to the fact that her friend would have to go through losing Silverstream a second time.

Fireheart was only thankful that she and Mistyfoot were the only ones around to hear him. Fireheart pressed up against her best friend, trying to lend him some support, even Mistyfoot swam across the river to press up against him, and Graystripe didn't even react to getting wet.

It felt like moons before Graystripe was even a little bit close to calming down. When he stopped wailing, Mistyfoot decided to add, "Silverstream told me to tell you that she loved both you and the kits."

Graystripe mutely nodded, accepting those words.

"What's going to happen to the kits?" Fireheart inquired, wondering what would happen to the Half-Clan kits that were both secretly RiverClan and ThunderClan.

Mistyfoot paused, seeming to grapple with herself on something and then promptly stated something shocking, "I think it's best if they never know their real father." Mistyfoot meowed, looking as though a weight had been lifted off her shoulders. That statement seemed to have weighed her down up until this moment.

"B-but Graystripe has a right to those kits!" Fireheart blurted, her jade green eyes wide in disbelief as Mistyfoot turned to avoid making eye contact, appearing guilty.

"Silverstream's memory shouldn't be tarnished, especially if the Clan finds out about Graystripe. She should die with dignity and I fear what the Clan might do to the kits and how they'd treat them if they found out about their parents."

Fireheart's mouth was gaping. To live a lie about their heritage sounds like a massive betrayal. Graystripe had a right to those kits just as much as Silverstream did, and now that Silverstream was gone, wouldn't that mean that Graystripe should have them? But then again, Mistyfoot did have a point, Half-Clan kits wouldn't be treated equally as a full blood member would be. Fireheart recalled how tough it was for her to be a part of the Clan when having kittypet roots.

Mistyfoot and Stonefur would also be treated differently if the truth about them being Bluestar and Oakheart's kits ever came to light.

"What are their names?" Graystripe asked, completely out of it and not seeming to grasp the conversation that both Mistyfoot and Fireheart were having.

"Their name's are Willowkit and Dewkit," Mistyfoot softly replied, sympathy showing deep within her ice-blue eyes.

Graystripe nodded, going silent once more.

After a while Mistyfoot stood to leave. "I have to go, my patrol must be wondering where I am." Mistyfoot regrettably told them. "If you really care about Silverstream and the kits, you'd think carefully about what I said." Those were her departing words as she slipped back into the river and disappeared into the reeds on her own side of the border.

Fireheart tried to nudge Graystripe to his paws but the big dark gray tom wouldn't budge. He just continued to sit there, lost in his misery and grief of losing Silverstream.

The new mother decided to sit next to her best friend, still pressed against him. After a few heartbeats, Fireheart decided to speak up. "Graystripe, I really am truly sorry about Silverstream and not being able to see your kits, but Mistyfoot is right."

After Graystripe didn't say anything, Fireheart was about to get up and go join Sandstorm, to leave Graystripe to his grieving. However, Graystripe spoke up before she could. "Fireheart, you'd do anything for me, right?"

Fireheart blinked in surprise but quickly nodded, "of course I would! I'd do anything for you, Graystripe!"

Graystripe turned to stare up into Fireheart's eyes, to perhaps check if she truly meant what she said, and he nodded back in satisfaction when he confirmed it.

It was a great relief to the flame-pelted she-cat when her friend finally heaved himself to his paws. He was a bit stiff from staying in the same position for so long but he moved more fluidly once he started walking.

"Come on, let's find Sandstorm before she throws a fit." Graystripe meowed, his whiskers twitching as he bumped shoulders with Fireheart as he began heading down the border.

The action stunned her for a moment. That had been the most friendly thing Graystripe had ever done to her since he had begun spending so much time with Silverstream.

Graystripe looked over his shoulder when he seemed to realize that Fireheart wasn't at his side, he waved his tail and beckoned Fireheart to catch up, "Are you coming, Fireheart?"

Fireheart blinked and happily raced to Graystripe's side, feeling warm inside at the return of her best friend.

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When Fireheart and the rest of the patrol descended down the Ravine, Fireheart was practically glowing with elation. So much so that Sandstorm had kept glancing at her weirdly throughout the rest of the patrol, and even more so when her and Graystripe stood so close together and were chatting away in their own little bubble.

It must have looked strange from an outside perspective, what with neither Graystripe and Fireheart not talking like they used to these past couple of moons, but that's only because they didn't know the reasons for it. Fireheart had her best friend back and she was happy from that.

When they came through the gorse tunnel and stepped into camp Fireheart couldn't help but let out a murmur of amusement as she saw Dustpelt seemingly running for his life as a horde of kits consisting of her own, Brindleface's, and the ringleader Cloudkit, chased him around in a circle around the clearing.

It was utterly ridiculous but if Fireheart was being chased around by ten kits she'd probably be running too. Especially with how vicious they sometimes tend to behave with those unsheathed little claws of theirs.

Dustpelt at some point finally realized that Fireheart had returned and made a beeline straight for her. It was greatly amusing as the much bigger and taller warrior tried to hide behind such a short and lithe queen but it was effective to get the kits to halt at the sight of their mother.

"You're back!" Hawkkit squealed in joy.

"Did you see us chase Dustpelt around?" Cloudkit asked, shooting Dustpelt a smug look as the warrior glared right back.

"That I did. I hope you've all been behaving since I was gone. Didn't give Dustpelt too much trouble did you?" Fireheart asked, giving the kits an inquiring look.

"We didn't give you too much of a hard time, did we, Dustpelt?" Fernkit asked after prompting to speak from the other kits. The little pale gray with darker flecks she-kit stretched open her leaf-green eyes, making them look wide and shiny, as she locked onto Dustpelt's amber ones.

The dark brown tabby warriors glare wavered into a soft look as he stared down at Fernkit. It wasn't a secret how much Dustpelt favored her out of all the other kits, even though he sometimes went out of his way to avoid the sweet tempered little she-kit.

"I suppose they weren't too much trouble." Dustpelt meowed, rolling his eyes as the kits cheered and Fireheart let out an amused snort.

"My, you have a lot of kits, Fireheart." Graystripe meowed as he sidled up beside her and gazed down at all her kits in wonder.

Dustpelt shot the dark gray tom a disbelieving glare, "you're just now noticing?" The dark brown tabby warrior asked, flabbergasted.

Graystripe timidly shrugged. "I've been busy."

"Too busy to--" Fireheart gently laid her tail onto Dustpelt's shoulder, shaking her head which caused the dirt-colored warrior to bite back his words and instead grumble something that the flame-pelted she-cat didn't want repeated in the presence of her kits.

"Do you want me to introduce them to you?" Fireheart softly asked, and only felt slight disappointment when Graystripe shook his head. She's supposed it was too soon and too fast for him when he's grieving over Silverstream and the separation of his own kits.

"Maybe later?" Graystripe suggested, his shoulders hunched and he just appeared so tired all of a sudden.

Fireheart nodded and then watched him head towards the warriors den. It was heartbreaking to watch but she was sure that he would pull through in the end.

"Do you want to play with us?" Tawnykit asked, nudging her mother's flank.

"Oh, and what were you playing before?" Fireheart asked curiously, head tilted to the side.

There was a shared mischief amongst them as their heads turn to each other, Fireheart knew that something was about to happen, something that she only had a split-second to brace against, before squealing kits began piling on top of the yowling new queen all while Dustpelt let out rumbling sounds of amusement in the background.

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Fun Facts

Both me and my Beta did one of those "what's your Warrior Cat name generators quiz' ' my Beta got an amazing and beautiful name, Dewleaf, what did I get? Puddlebreeze, life is unfair and I'm pretty sure both my parents and leader hate me!

Silverstream still died but things have certainly gone off course. Now Feathertail: Willowkit and Stormfur: Dewkit have different name's and nobody besides Mistyfoot and Fireheart know that Graystripe is their father and Mistyfoot wants Graystripe to keep it that way.

Fireheart is so conflicted, she truly thinks those kits have a right to know their father. That Graystripe has a right to be their father but she understands the consequences of everything coming to light and those kits will get the brunt of it all.

Dustpelt acting like an uncle to Fireheart's kits is adorable to me.

Graystripe and Fireheart becoming friends once again after Silverstream's death is kinda sad when you really think about it.

Graystripe never meeting Fireheart's kits till now is confirmed!!