Chapter 61: Celestial Twins
I awoke to find myself on a raised stone platform in the center of the Unseen Stars camp. My once dwindled powers were rejuvenated. From upon the platform, I rose to witness what had become of my kits. Splitpelt and Snowtuft, both intensely dutybound cats, noticed my awakening. As Splitpelt approached, I felt something, a resonance. Somehow we were bouncing power between each other creating this loop of energy that was not bound to our current power storage limits. It was, in a way, a shared pool of energy that we could both draw from but draw speed was based upon proximity to each other.
"Ah. King, it looks like the Mother has revived." Mewed Snowtuft who broke my concentration.
"King?" I asked, tilting my head at Splitpelt.
He lowered his head, slightly embarrassed before replying, "yes. It seems we aren't free from worship titles as well. I'm embarrassed to say, we've been named after nursing den keepers since we tend to your kits."
I suppressed a giggle as I asked, "Does that mean…"
Splitpelt seemed to dip lower as he replied, "yes it means that Frecklewish is called Queen. We accepted the titles when we ascended."
I was never going to let Frecklewish live this down. Live this down? I mean we aren't alive. I scheduled pondering the phrase for later. Splitpelt said they'd ascended, but they didn't match me. I looked closer at Splitpelt and looked at his pool of energy. While I was a broad, my powers were shallow. I was like a swamp or bog. The limits to how much I could do were broad and sweeping, they lacked depth. My powers were longer lasting and more influenced the world more, Splitpelt's was small and dense. His powers would be more instantaneous and focused than mine with the trade off of range and lasting influence.
"So what happened while I was out?" I asked curiously.
Something about the tension in the air clued me in. My time unconscious hadn't been as calm as I'd hoped.
"You know. The usual. Fighting off hordes of pests who can't seem to stay dead, trekking across the width of the Darkforest. Fighting a monster cat taller than the trees." Splitpelt joked.
A monster cat? That was both interesting and terrifying. The Darkforest had the capability to create beasts of that size? Then another thought occurred to me, the one that made my claws itch.
"I missed all the fun?! The first real threat we've seen here and I happen to nap through it. What poor luck." I hissed with joking annoyance.
"To be fair, you being unconscious is what made that thing. Those cats that wouldn't stay dead merged to become the beast. They wanted to kill you to become a god, so their desires shaped a form to best solve their problem. Honestly, we got lucky that Frecklewish and I could ascend to become strong enough to defeat it. Before we did, it shrugged off our attacks like they were nothing. We thought we were unstoppable before. Kinda puts things in perspective." Splitpelt mewed philosophically.
"Hey. There's two ways to live, or in our case, exist. We can focus on the past or future. We always know what we'd do in hindsight and we can mourn that we didn't, or we can look forward to ahead using our mistakes as our guides. Now we know I can't afford to overstrain. We've also gotten a reality check that we aren't all powerful. Despite our strength, we are mortal and fallible. Even Starclan is not faultless, so we must never pretend we are… Anyways, how's Frecklewish coming along?"
"Any day now. I'm kind of worried for our kits. Frecklewish ascended while she still has them." He stated with worry.
"I'm sure they're fine." I mewed.
Almost as soon as those words were out of my maw, I heard screeches of pain coming from the nursery. It was the good kind of screeches, the ones meaning new life was coming. Boragepelt and Leafpaw came rushing over with herbs and a good sized stick in their jaws. They probably could have just conjured them when they got in, but some habits die hard. Splitpelt and I resolved ourselves to wait outside while Frecklewish gave birth. We're both rather big cats. Any space we occupied would inhibit our medicine cats' capabilities.
Boragepelt left first with Leafpaw following. "You can go in now. You've got two lovely kits. One male golden and one female of slightly mixed colors." Mewed Boragepelt.
Mixed colors came off as deliberately vague, but the Darkforest doesn't exactly abide by normal Earthly rules. Frecklewish met us with a warm smile, her tail wrapped forward to conceal the two bundles of joy we'd created. Slowly she shifted her tail away to reveal them. One was golden, as we were told, but he had a poofy main to match. The little tom took on Frecklewish's golden coloration but mor vibrantly. He was the bulkier of the two. I could already tell he'd be a fighter like Splitpelt and I. The other was of a more dark coloration, something between blue silver and black. What made this kit especially distinct was the coloration on her face. A sliver of white silver half circled her face, thicker in the center, but the oddity was its smoothness and uniformity. It was like a crescent moon.
"They're beautiful. What are you thinking on names?" Splitpelt stated lovingly.
"I want them to have paired names. What do you think Mapleshade?" Asked Frecklewish.
I stared closer at the two trying to come up with something when the little tom shook out his mane followed by the she-kit turning to face me curiously. It is then when I knew what they had to be.
"The tom must be Sunkit and the molly Moonkit. What do you think?" I stated tensely.
Moon and sun were rarely used names within the clans. Often, they were associated with greatness or calamity. To name a kit after heavenly bodies was to wish then a life worth remembering, whether through infamy or fame.
Frecklewish just nodded with a tell all smile. "That's perfect. No kits of ours could ever be ordinary anyways. Might as well give them the blessing of memory."
Almost in agreement, the two kits crawled themselves between the three of us, snuggling into all three of us.