Morning Alas...

[Yoko]

Sandtail lay on her side, clear blue eyes wide awake. She had hardly closed them all night. She did not at all find it uncomfortable to have an extra bundle of fur laying against her. Stormkit, nestled between Violetkit and Creamkit, was so still and quiet that she hardly noticed him. Her concious was eating at her, keeping her up.

She had not at all expected to feel so much guilt. She had been making up for their last arguement for days, but that paled in comparison to the suffering Rivermist must be going through, losing her kits. The sandy-tailed queen felt her pain, but was oldly distant from it too. The night was long and the silence had now become unnerving now.

Carefully, Sandtail shifted onto her side, whispering, "Rivermist? Are you awake?"

[nightstorm]

Rivermist sighed softly, and opened her eyes. "I've been awake," she whispered softly, in response to her friend's inquiry. "I haven't slept all night." She glanced down at her side, where a few of her kits slept. None of them were pressed into her fur as usual, not even Shadowkit or Silverkit. No, Silverkit was pressed against the wall of the nursery, as far away as she could get in the crowded den. Rivermist's eyes darkened with sorrow.

She rolled onto her side, and met Sandtail's gaze. "I hurt them..." she said quietly. "I should have told them the truth a long time ago...now they hate me." Her eyes flickered to Stormkit, and the pain deepened. She drew a shaky breath. "i'm such a mousebrain...and now...Ravenstar has decided to split them amongst all four Clans....how could he do such a thing! Why? Hasn't StarClan punished me enough already?!" She kept her voice quiet, but the agony and bitterness was clear enough. She felt a burning anger towards her leader. Leader he may be, and he might have her loyalty as a WindClan cat, but she no longer thought him the wise leader she once had. He was a cruel, sly cat, who thought only of himself, and what would benefit him, without any regard for what pain it might cause others. To take not four, but six of her kits away, leaving her only a fourth of her original litter? Madness! Foxfur's demands were reasonable, but Ravenstar's....she would never forgive him.