Life 3:13

Another beautiful Spring day dawned over Riverclan. Despite the early seasonal flooding, Riverclan was doing well. With the coming Gathering, the current hot button topic of Brokenstar's current whereabouts would be a fascinating bit of gossip to check into for the eternally kittish apprentice Snakepaw. Though, Snakepaw still had some waiting to do. The Gathering was still a few days out.

Snakepaw was once again checking in on Silverstream. Her pregnancy was advancing nicely according to Snakepaw, but her medical complications meant that at any moment, this could take a turn. Thus, Snakepaw was currently feeling Silverstream's belly to check on the positioning and size of her coming litter.

"So, how are they?" Silverstream mewed with a wince. She wasn't allowed to be on her medicine while Snakepaw checked because her abdominal muscles might shift the kits while she's on the pain killer.

Snakepaw carefully felt out the coming kits' forms, briefly appearing shocked before nodding to himself. "Honestly, given your size, I was expecting a litter of four. It surprised me that there's only two."

"Did something happen to the others?" Silverstream jerked, setting off another cramp, making her hiss in pain.

"Calm down. You didn't lose any kits. I just meant the two are much bigger than I expected. We among the medicine cats usually call kits that grow this quickly lucky kits. Kits that are born big tend to be more resistant to illness and are often big enough to apprentice at only five moons old. This is both a good thing and a bad thing. It's definitely good for your kits. They'll more likely survive when we induce your labor early, but this is technically bad for you. Given your medical condition, your body will have issues dilating for the birth. Given your kits' sizes, there's more of a chance that this could do irreparable damage to you. I don't believe you're going to have any more kits after these two." Snakepaw explained clinically.

"What do you mean induce labor?" Silverstream queried.

"I mean, we're going to convince your body to give birth to your kits prematurely. This is for both your and your kits' safety. In about a half of a moon, Mudfur and I are going to give you a medicine blend that will begin the process of you giving birth. Your kits will be premature, but given their size, it'll likely balance out to them being a kit for six moons like normal. For this, we're going to need an extremely low stress environment. Is there any place you know of that you consider calming? We will also let any cat you want to attend regardless of affiliation. Anything we can do to keep the birth as low stress as possible will be allowed. Given this, we highly recommend getting accommodated with the nursery and stop doing warrior work until after the birth." Snakepaw answered in a calm tone, ensuring that he maintained a professional front for something so serious.

Silverstream caught on about the potential danger of the coming birth. "Do… Do you think I will survive this?" She mewed with a shaky voice.

"It's not about if I think you will survive. Do YOU think you will survive?" Snakepaw mewed putting special emphasis on 'you'. "Willpower is an amazing thing. I've seen many cats who I thought positive were going to die, only for them to push through their pain and survive through sheer willpower. If you are to survive this, you have to want it. You have to decide that you will not die to this, despite how easy it would be to just let go. Starclan may even ask you to come. You must deny them saying it is not your time yet. I've seen a clan leader have their entrails strewn across the ground, but they pulled them back inside them and denied Starclan from taking their final life. I've seen cases of Greencough where the sick cat scarcily has a heartbeat and are ice cold, but through willpower, they survived long enough for their body to fight off the sickness. I've even experienced this myself when I lost a leg. I denied my ending knowing that my duty was not yet fulfilled. So, Silverstream, will you survive your pregnancy?" Snakepaw demanded, rallying her for her coming struggle.

Silverstream's eyes were firm with determination. "Yes. I will survive. For my kits, I will live. I swear this with Starclan as my witness." She answered with conviction.

Snakepaw nodded with approval. "Yes. You will survive by your own strength, and I will be there to aid you every step of the way. We will do this, and you will see your kits. I promise." Snakepaw mewed with his own resolve.

Silverstream met his eyes with an unyielding resolution to survive this. Snakepaw's matched hers, knowing that Silverstream's progeny would likely one day be another of Snakepaw's many destiny bound friends. After giving Silverstream her medication, Snakepaw trotted away to meet the head medicine cat Mudfur.

"You did very well back there Snakepaw. While I'm sure that you've got far more experience than me, It gives me pride to see you practicing what I call real medicine." Mudfur complemented.

"Real medicine?" Snakepaw asked with a head tilt.

"Yes. The most powerful and real medicine of all is hope. When a cat gives up, there is often nothing that can be done to heal them. Any medicines and poultices just won't do their job well enough. Trust me, I've seen it plenty. I've seen a cat die by a cold because they felt miserable and just gave up, withering away. By that same merit, I've seen a kit with a birth illness catch Greencough somehow manage to claw his way back to health by sheer determination. It shames me to admit, but I believed that kit to be a lost cause, so I rationed the medicine to other cats, but they proved me wrong. They survived long enough for the illness to subside into only Whitecough. I wish you had gotten a chance to meet them. Whiteclaw had a tough early start, but he was willful enough to overcome all his shortcomings." Mudfur mewed wistfully. "Leopardfur practically raised him. I imagine part of her stress is that she never got a chance to properly mourn his loss."

"He sounds like a wonderful cat. Maybe you should let Leopardfur know that he's likely one she'll see when she gets her nine lives." Snakepaw replied.

Mudfur's ears pricked in shock. "How did you know about the nine lives ceremony?"

"Psh. You really think a cat as old as me wouldn't know about it? I was there when it was developed. This was during my self-loathing phase, so I even let Starclan get me killed a few times so they could try and replicate it. The most amusing part of it is that because they based it off me, they cannot possibly give more or less than nine lives to a leader unless the previous leader still lives. They tried three at first so they could give three to the deputy as well, but it failed. They discovered the only way to somewhat replicate it was to give three lives three times over. Three is a very powerful number." Snakepaw mewed cryptically.