Post by Kitty on Mar 14, 2010 9:05:04 GMT -6
((Obviously, these cats aren't all mine. You guys know who belongs to who. Also, this isn't guarenteed to happen, only what I think would happen to Dapplepaw should Hedgie's story come true.))
"Quick, Dappleheart! Fetch Feathercloud!" An urgent feminine voice broke into the tortoiseshell's light doze in her nest in ShadowClan's nursery. "Nightshade's having her kits!"
Immediately, Dappleheart was on her paws. She'd known Nightshade's kits were due any day now, and it was very convient that the kitting managed to hold off until Dappleheart's own kits had been born so that she wouldn't be waddling out to the medicine den to fetch Feathercloud and her apprentice, Tawnypaw.
"Keep an eye on my kits!" she ordered Honeydapple, the other queen. She cast a loving look at her kits, barely two days old, then she was running out of the nursery, straight for the medicine cat den.
She pushed in and almost tripped over a sleeping Tawnypaw, letting out a hiss of annoyance at the apprentice's inconvenient placement. Feathercloud was still curled in her nest - it was not yet dawn, after all. That's where Dappleheart would be, too, had there not been a more important task at paw.
A tortoiseshell paw prodded the tiny medicine cat in the side. "Feathercloud! Wake up!" Dappleheart hissed in her ear. "Nightshade's begun her kitting!"
Within heartbeats, Feathercloud was up and moving. She retrieved some herbs - borage, Dappleheart thought, to help the black queen's milk come. She herself had been eating some of those daily for the past moon or so. "Tawnypaw, get up! We're heading to the nursery!" the medicine cat announced, flipping her apprentice over the face with her tail as she passed and headed to the nursery, Dappleheart following behind.
But upon reaching the nursery, the young queen lingered outside instead of following Feathercloud in. She could hear Feathercloud ask Honeydapple a few questions, such as when Nightshade began her kitting, and whether she had had any water. Tawnypaw whisked by and vanished inside, only to return moments later and head across the clearing to the medicine den.
Nightshade and Dappleheart had never been the greatest of friends, although recently their friendship had progressed from "enemies" to merely "tolerance". Which was better than their previous constant jabbing and mocking. Perhaps it was the kits that had done it; when Nightshade discovered she was pregnant, Dappleheart was the first cat she came to. Of course, that tolerance had fallen away for a period of time, when Dappleheart thought that her mate was cheating on her with the black she-cat. Of course, it was now obvious that Reedwhisker preferred Nightshade over Dappleheart, but she didn't know that then. And then, soon after, Nightshade told her the truth, the truth that Reedwhisker was happily oblivious to. Nightshade's kits were Dreamfur's, not Reedwhisker. And so while he chose to believe that the black she-cat's kits were his, pushing Dappleheart away and leaving her feeling broken and wounded, Dreamfur, Nightshade, and the tortoiseshell all knew the truth.
But, Reedwhisker still had kits in the nursery, just not the ones that he thought were his. And this was something Dappleheart and Dreamfur intended to make him aware of, and soon.
Finally, after a few more moments of lingering outside, Tawnypaw returned with some water-soaked moss, and Honeydapple's head poked out of the nursery. "Your kits are mewling for milk," she informed Dappleheart, who dipped her head and returned to her nest inside the now-crowded nursery, gazing down at her five kits - Specklekit, Volekit, Flamekit, Firekit, and Redkit. Three toms and two she-kits, her darling little kits that were already a pawful. She curled around them and blocked out the noise of the nursery, and dozed again as they suckled.
Her nap did not last, though, because Honeydapple soon reawoke her, and she sat up. Dappleheart's kits were now all asleep in a pile. "She's had a she-kit and a tom. Feathercloud and Tawnypaw left us to keep an eye on her." Curious, Dappleheart approached the queen and sniffed the two kits at her belly.
"Names?" she inquired, looking up at Nightshade with large amber eyes.
Nightshade looked tired but content, which was to be expected after a kitting, and her eyes were warm as she gazed down at her two kits. Her tail touched a black kit, almost an exact replica of Nightshade herself. "This little black one is Dark-kit. He's the tom. And this she-kit," her tail moved to the toroiseshell female, "is Patchkit."
"Beautiful names for beautiful kits," Dappleheart purred.
"We've sent Heronstripe to wake Reedwhisker and tell him that his kits have been born." At Honeydapple's voice, Dappleheart promptly froze, although the tabby queen was too busy grooming one of her own three kits to notice. "I'm not sure why he hadn't already been informed of this, but better late than never, I suppose."
Dappleheart turned away from Nightshade and her newborns and returned to her nest rather stiffly, an unreadable mask to hide her emotions immediately dropping down over her features of its own will.
Her mind flew back to the last real conversation they'd had.
"You always loved her more than me, Reedwhisker." Dappleheart's voice was aching, just like she was on the inside.
"Dappleheart! I love you both!" Reedwhisker protested.
"Save it. I'm done with you, Reedwhisker. I've had enough of this mousedung. I know you've been sneaking off with Nightshade. Why else would she be having your kits?" With that, Dappleheart turned tail and disappeared into ShadowClan's territory, hurting, feeling betrayed, and leaving a sad-looking tom behind. Reedwhisker betrayed her. Who was to say the rest of ShadowClan wouldn't?
And soon after that, Nightshade and Reedwhisker made up, leaving Dappleheart feeling used and broken beyond repair. She felt the same pain every day, when Reedwhisker paid his daily visit to his mate.
That could be me.
But he never loved you as much as Nightshade, mousebrain.
And so she was torn, between love and hate.
Dappleheart curled around her kits, and lay there for only a few heartbeats before Reedwhisker pushed into, followed by Heronstripe. Her eyes followed him emotionlessly as he crossed the den, and he cast a glance that seemed wistful at her. But that was probably just wishful thinking. She watched, that place in her chest aching as it always did when she saw him. She didn't respond when he spoke to her - what was the point? - and he continued on to Nightshade. They held a conversation, and then something changed.
Finally. The mousebrain must have put the facts together and discovered the not-so-obvious, because he gasped and said, "I...I have to go!" With that, he fled the den.
Now was the time. For the second time that day, Dappleheart told Honeydapple to watch her kits, leaving a bewildered Heronstripe behind with the equally confused queen. Nightshade was a bit better off, and Dappleheart assumed she'd explain it to them.
The tortoiseshell slipped out of the den and followed the fleeing Reedwhisker. She was joined by Dreamfur - he must have been lingering nearby - and the two set out after the ginger tom.
They caught up at the Burnt Syacamore, where Reedwhisker finally stopped and leaned against the burnt tree. "They're not mine." Reedwhisker's voice was hollow, shaken, and Dappleheart felt a stab of pity for the warrior.
But of course she wasn't going to say anything right now. Best to let Dreamfur take care of it, then add on. The two of them had been waiting in the shadows together, both seemingly alone in their Clan. Besides, this was the part when Dreamfur had to explain that Nightshade's kits were his.
"No, they're not. The kits are mine, Reedwhisker. I'm so sorry. I wanted to tell you, but Nightshade said she didn't want you to know. Dappleheart and I decided we'd tell you after the kits were born, before she found out she was carrying your kits," Dreamfur explained sympathetically. Reedwhisker looked up, eyes wide. Dappleheart met his gaze, and she could see something - just a little something - there in his eyes. Hope?
"Mine? Those kits I saw are mine?" Reedwhisker's nose pushed into Dappleheart's shoulder, and sympathy rose in her again. She licked his ear, and finally said the longest thing she had said to him in moons. It was a relief to get it out, a relief to finally say those words.
"C'mon...I can't leave our kits alone for long, and you still need to meet them." It was surprisingly easy to talk to him. It felt right, and she'd missed this feeling. "Dreamfur will take care of Nightshade and her fox-hearts."
"Hey! My kits are not fox-hearts!" Dreamfur protested, but he was laughing. The two of them had managed to bring some light into this conversation after all, and Dappleheart had to laugh too.
Reedwhisker leaned on her shoulder as Dreamfur led the way back to camp. "What did you name them? The kits?" His voice sounded hoarse, like he'd gone a while without water or talking.
"Redkit, Specklekit, Firekit, Volekit, and Flamekit." Dappleheart listed. She recalled naming them by herself, with no help from their father, and felt a bit sad. "I was going to name Redkit 'Reedkit' but it would've given too much away, so I couldn't," she admitted. Redkit looked exactly like Reedwhisker did, after all.
They reached camp, and Dappleheart led Reedwhisker to the nursery. An upset-looking Heronstripe intercepted them. "Dappleheart?" he pressed. "Is he alright? He looks...." The tom trailed off.
Time for your humor to brighten the day again, the toroiseshell thought sarcastically as she meowed, “Broken, hollow, wounded in a way Feathercloud and Tawnypaw can’t fix, if that’s what you mean.” She showed him to their kits.
"They’re ours? Really ours?’ He whispered, and the queen nodded. Her smile was bigger and happier than his own, because finally he was meeting their kits. This was something she'd wished for ever since their birth.
“Born two days ago, if you can remember back that far," she meowed jokingly. Her tail pointed to a kit. "Volekit’s the easiest to tell apart. She’s the brown tabby on the left." As she introduced each one, her tail moved down the line. "Then there’s Specklekit…she’s that little tortoiseshell. The three toms are Redkit, and his pelt’s the darkest of the three. Then Flamekit and finally Firekit. See how busy his tail is? Just like yours, Reedwhisker. He even has little white toes.”
Reedwhisker nodded. “They’re beautiful.” He let out a yawn, and Dappleheart looked at him pityingly. He must be worn out from the events of the day. Actually, the tortoiseshell herself thought she was going to take a nap after her left. Heronstripe stepped in as Reedwhisker meowed, "They're beautiful," and let the ginger tom lean on him so that Dappleheart could return to her kits.
"C'mon, little brother. You look like you haven't slept in days! Moons, even!" Dappleheart choked back laughter at that, and curled around her kits. The two left the den, leaving the queens with their kits and Dreamfur.
Finally Reedwhisker knew the truth. Live wasn't back to usual yet, but perhaps, in time, it would mend.
"Quick, Dappleheart! Fetch Feathercloud!" An urgent feminine voice broke into the tortoiseshell's light doze in her nest in ShadowClan's nursery. "Nightshade's having her kits!"
Immediately, Dappleheart was on her paws. She'd known Nightshade's kits were due any day now, and it was very convient that the kitting managed to hold off until Dappleheart's own kits had been born so that she wouldn't be waddling out to the medicine den to fetch Feathercloud and her apprentice, Tawnypaw.
"Keep an eye on my kits!" she ordered Honeydapple, the other queen. She cast a loving look at her kits, barely two days old, then she was running out of the nursery, straight for the medicine cat den.
She pushed in and almost tripped over a sleeping Tawnypaw, letting out a hiss of annoyance at the apprentice's inconvenient placement. Feathercloud was still curled in her nest - it was not yet dawn, after all. That's where Dappleheart would be, too, had there not been a more important task at paw.
A tortoiseshell paw prodded the tiny medicine cat in the side. "Feathercloud! Wake up!" Dappleheart hissed in her ear. "Nightshade's begun her kitting!"
Within heartbeats, Feathercloud was up and moving. She retrieved some herbs - borage, Dappleheart thought, to help the black queen's milk come. She herself had been eating some of those daily for the past moon or so. "Tawnypaw, get up! We're heading to the nursery!" the medicine cat announced, flipping her apprentice over the face with her tail as she passed and headed to the nursery, Dappleheart following behind.
But upon reaching the nursery, the young queen lingered outside instead of following Feathercloud in. She could hear Feathercloud ask Honeydapple a few questions, such as when Nightshade began her kitting, and whether she had had any water. Tawnypaw whisked by and vanished inside, only to return moments later and head across the clearing to the medicine den.
Nightshade and Dappleheart had never been the greatest of friends, although recently their friendship had progressed from "enemies" to merely "tolerance". Which was better than their previous constant jabbing and mocking. Perhaps it was the kits that had done it; when Nightshade discovered she was pregnant, Dappleheart was the first cat she came to. Of course, that tolerance had fallen away for a period of time, when Dappleheart thought that her mate was cheating on her with the black she-cat. Of course, it was now obvious that Reedwhisker preferred Nightshade over Dappleheart, but she didn't know that then. And then, soon after, Nightshade told her the truth, the truth that Reedwhisker was happily oblivious to. Nightshade's kits were Dreamfur's, not Reedwhisker. And so while he chose to believe that the black she-cat's kits were his, pushing Dappleheart away and leaving her feeling broken and wounded, Dreamfur, Nightshade, and the tortoiseshell all knew the truth.
But, Reedwhisker still had kits in the nursery, just not the ones that he thought were his. And this was something Dappleheart and Dreamfur intended to make him aware of, and soon.
Finally, after a few more moments of lingering outside, Tawnypaw returned with some water-soaked moss, and Honeydapple's head poked out of the nursery. "Your kits are mewling for milk," she informed Dappleheart, who dipped her head and returned to her nest inside the now-crowded nursery, gazing down at her five kits - Specklekit, Volekit, Flamekit, Firekit, and Redkit. Three toms and two she-kits, her darling little kits that were already a pawful. She curled around them and blocked out the noise of the nursery, and dozed again as they suckled.
Her nap did not last, though, because Honeydapple soon reawoke her, and she sat up. Dappleheart's kits were now all asleep in a pile. "She's had a she-kit and a tom. Feathercloud and Tawnypaw left us to keep an eye on her." Curious, Dappleheart approached the queen and sniffed the two kits at her belly.
"Names?" she inquired, looking up at Nightshade with large amber eyes.
Nightshade looked tired but content, which was to be expected after a kitting, and her eyes were warm as she gazed down at her two kits. Her tail touched a black kit, almost an exact replica of Nightshade herself. "This little black one is Dark-kit. He's the tom. And this she-kit," her tail moved to the toroiseshell female, "is Patchkit."
"Beautiful names for beautiful kits," Dappleheart purred.
"We've sent Heronstripe to wake Reedwhisker and tell him that his kits have been born." At Honeydapple's voice, Dappleheart promptly froze, although the tabby queen was too busy grooming one of her own three kits to notice. "I'm not sure why he hadn't already been informed of this, but better late than never, I suppose."
Dappleheart turned away from Nightshade and her newborns and returned to her nest rather stiffly, an unreadable mask to hide her emotions immediately dropping down over her features of its own will.
Her mind flew back to the last real conversation they'd had.
"You always loved her more than me, Reedwhisker." Dappleheart's voice was aching, just like she was on the inside.
"Dappleheart! I love you both!" Reedwhisker protested.
"Save it. I'm done with you, Reedwhisker. I've had enough of this mousedung. I know you've been sneaking off with Nightshade. Why else would she be having your kits?" With that, Dappleheart turned tail and disappeared into ShadowClan's territory, hurting, feeling betrayed, and leaving a sad-looking tom behind. Reedwhisker betrayed her. Who was to say the rest of ShadowClan wouldn't?
And soon after that, Nightshade and Reedwhisker made up, leaving Dappleheart feeling used and broken beyond repair. She felt the same pain every day, when Reedwhisker paid his daily visit to his mate.
That could be me.
But he never loved you as much as Nightshade, mousebrain.
And so she was torn, between love and hate.
Dappleheart curled around her kits, and lay there for only a few heartbeats before Reedwhisker pushed into, followed by Heronstripe. Her eyes followed him emotionlessly as he crossed the den, and he cast a glance that seemed wistful at her. But that was probably just wishful thinking. She watched, that place in her chest aching as it always did when she saw him. She didn't respond when he spoke to her - what was the point? - and he continued on to Nightshade. They held a conversation, and then something changed.
Finally. The mousebrain must have put the facts together and discovered the not-so-obvious, because he gasped and said, "I...I have to go!" With that, he fled the den.
Now was the time. For the second time that day, Dappleheart told Honeydapple to watch her kits, leaving a bewildered Heronstripe behind with the equally confused queen. Nightshade was a bit better off, and Dappleheart assumed she'd explain it to them.
The tortoiseshell slipped out of the den and followed the fleeing Reedwhisker. She was joined by Dreamfur - he must have been lingering nearby - and the two set out after the ginger tom.
They caught up at the Burnt Syacamore, where Reedwhisker finally stopped and leaned against the burnt tree. "They're not mine." Reedwhisker's voice was hollow, shaken, and Dappleheart felt a stab of pity for the warrior.
But of course she wasn't going to say anything right now. Best to let Dreamfur take care of it, then add on. The two of them had been waiting in the shadows together, both seemingly alone in their Clan. Besides, this was the part when Dreamfur had to explain that Nightshade's kits were his.
"No, they're not. The kits are mine, Reedwhisker. I'm so sorry. I wanted to tell you, but Nightshade said she didn't want you to know. Dappleheart and I decided we'd tell you after the kits were born, before she found out she was carrying your kits," Dreamfur explained sympathetically. Reedwhisker looked up, eyes wide. Dappleheart met his gaze, and she could see something - just a little something - there in his eyes. Hope?
"Mine? Those kits I saw are mine?" Reedwhisker's nose pushed into Dappleheart's shoulder, and sympathy rose in her again. She licked his ear, and finally said the longest thing she had said to him in moons. It was a relief to get it out, a relief to finally say those words.
"C'mon...I can't leave our kits alone for long, and you still need to meet them." It was surprisingly easy to talk to him. It felt right, and she'd missed this feeling. "Dreamfur will take care of Nightshade and her fox-hearts."
"Hey! My kits are not fox-hearts!" Dreamfur protested, but he was laughing. The two of them had managed to bring some light into this conversation after all, and Dappleheart had to laugh too.
Reedwhisker leaned on her shoulder as Dreamfur led the way back to camp. "What did you name them? The kits?" His voice sounded hoarse, like he'd gone a while without water or talking.
"Redkit, Specklekit, Firekit, Volekit, and Flamekit." Dappleheart listed. She recalled naming them by herself, with no help from their father, and felt a bit sad. "I was going to name Redkit 'Reedkit' but it would've given too much away, so I couldn't," she admitted. Redkit looked exactly like Reedwhisker did, after all.
They reached camp, and Dappleheart led Reedwhisker to the nursery. An upset-looking Heronstripe intercepted them. "Dappleheart?" he pressed. "Is he alright? He looks...." The tom trailed off.
Time for your humor to brighten the day again, the toroiseshell thought sarcastically as she meowed, “Broken, hollow, wounded in a way Feathercloud and Tawnypaw can’t fix, if that’s what you mean.” She showed him to their kits.
"They’re ours? Really ours?’ He whispered, and the queen nodded. Her smile was bigger and happier than his own, because finally he was meeting their kits. This was something she'd wished for ever since their birth.
“Born two days ago, if you can remember back that far," she meowed jokingly. Her tail pointed to a kit. "Volekit’s the easiest to tell apart. She’s the brown tabby on the left." As she introduced each one, her tail moved down the line. "Then there’s Specklekit…she’s that little tortoiseshell. The three toms are Redkit, and his pelt’s the darkest of the three. Then Flamekit and finally Firekit. See how busy his tail is? Just like yours, Reedwhisker. He even has little white toes.”
Reedwhisker nodded. “They’re beautiful.” He let out a yawn, and Dappleheart looked at him pityingly. He must be worn out from the events of the day. Actually, the tortoiseshell herself thought she was going to take a nap after her left. Heronstripe stepped in as Reedwhisker meowed, "They're beautiful," and let the ginger tom lean on him so that Dappleheart could return to her kits.
"C'mon, little brother. You look like you haven't slept in days! Moons, even!" Dappleheart choked back laughter at that, and curled around her kits. The two left the den, leaving the queens with their kits and Dreamfur.
Finally Reedwhisker knew the truth. Live wasn't back to usual yet, but perhaps, in time, it would mend.