New Horizons

Chapter 17

The sky was a billion pure eyes of light and the grass green underpaw, it was as if night and day had become one beautiful moment. Dawn had come. "Mistcloud!" exclaimed Cloudkit from where he sat by the entrance, looking back with his beautiful blue eyes glistening. "The rains stopped and the suns up!" Mistcloud nodded, noticing Graystripe beside him. "Graystripe, when can we go out?"

"We have to make sure the rains properly stopped," Graystripe replied as he got up and headed back to where Mistcloud lay with the kits. "How are you feeling this morning?"

"Better," she mewed before nudging the six kits to feed. "How is Cloudkit this morning?"

"He's good," replied the grey tom. "Very excited to see new things."

"As any young kit would be," Feathershade mentioned, sniffing the kits. "How's your milk?"

"Her milk is fine, Feathershade, there's no need to worry," Cinderpaw mewed as she limped over. Feathershade, although seeming to not trust the medicine cat a lot, nodded and padded away to where Nightstream was still sleeping. "She worries a lot."

"I know, I think it's because I'm looking after both of Silverstream's kits." Mistcloud explained. "Feathershade and Silverstream, when we were apprentices, were great friends. Practically inseparable." Cinderpaw nodded as Fireheart came back, a vole hanging limp in his mouth. He padded over dropping it in front of Mistcloud.

"I got this for you, everyone else's is outside the entrance," he meowed gently, nudging the vole further with his paw.

"Thank you," she purred before eating a little bit of it. "Cloudkit! Come, you need to eat."

"Okay!" the five-moon-old kit called back, padding over, and starting to eat the vole with Mistcloud. After everyone had eaten their breakfast, the group started getting up and headed on their journey once more. As they ventured further east, they soon came across a steep slope.

Cloudkit's ears drew back upon seeing the slope. "It's okay," Weaselpaw meowed, staying close to the kit. Cloudkit nodded, following behind the group. Near the mid of the slope, they saw two other cats. Two toms, both with dark brown coats and amber eyes.

"What are you lot doing here?" growled the larger tom, the smaller tom staying behind his hind paws. "Well?" he snapped after a while.

"We're just passing through," Cinderpaw meowed softly. Weaselpaw stood protectively in front of Cloudkit, sneering at the two.

"Weaselpaw, enough," Feathershade chastised. "Don't sneer at someone who's territory we are on. Especially someone whom we don't know, it's a dangerous act." Weaselpaw nodded, stepping down but still protecting Cloudkit. "Sorry about my apprentice, she's very protective of little Cloudkit here."

"Cloudkit? What type of name is that?" asked the younger version of the tom.

"Enough, Buddy," the other tom growled before turning back to the cats before him. "What do you plan to do here?"

"Like I said, we're just passing through. We come from the bottom of the slope," meowed Cinderpaw once more. "We plan to cross the slope and settle there. If you two wish to join us, we'd be more than happy to have you."

Buddy turned to look up at the tom in front of him with hopeful eyes. "Please, Melman? You know we're not accepted here!" The other tom, Melman, sighed before glancing back to where the cats were gathered. "Please?"

"Fine," he sighed. "We'll join you." The others nodded and, once more, the group headed off.

Mistcloud watched through half-lidded eyes as Fireheart looked back at the group, concern flitting through his eyes when they landed on her. "Mistcloud?" Angel asked, pushing up against her. Cloudkit rushed forward, Cinderpaw beside him.

"Mistcloud? What's the matter?" Cinderpaw asked, tail flicking uneasily. Mistcloud sat, setting Featherkit and Stormkit down. Breath started to come short to Mistcloud. That's when she felt it – contractions. "Something's not right here... Fireheart! We need to rest, I think Mistcloud's carrying another kit that wasn't born with the others!"

Fireheart felt his heart jump to his throat. Mistcloud had another kit stuck in her, and yet no one had noticed. "We can stop on the left side," he called back before quickly padding over, settling down beside the she-cat. "We'll rest tonight, then continue to move on tomorrow." Cinderpaw nodded as she got to work, Melman padding over and resting his tail on the she-cat's back.

It was late morning when the kit was born, but he was tiny. "It's a boy," Cinderpaw murmured, nudging the kit to where all the other kits were cuddled together. "You did good, Mistcloud."

Fireheart touched his nose to the kit's head, noticing the dark grey colouration of the kit. "He's beautiful, Mistcloud," murmured the warrior as he gently rested his tail on the queen's flank. Mistcloud nodded, licking the kit fiercely.

As the day drew on, the kitten only grew weaker. Every cat, other than the youngest of the group and Mistcloud, knew the young kit's fate, who Mistcloud had named Tinykit. Tinykit was too small to survive the night, let alone survive until evening. "Mistcloud," Nightstream started, sitting beside his sister. "We all know Tinykit is too weak to survive." Mistcloud knew her brother was right but didn't want to admit it and so she shook her head, choosing to ignore the tom.

The day soon turned into dusk, and it was clear that Tinykit was barely holding on. "Tinykit," Mistcloud mewed only for no response to come back from the small body. "Tinykit?" Still, there was nothing. "Tinykit!"

Cinderpaw rushed over, hearing the distraught queen meowing for her youngest and smallest kit. "Mistcloud, what's wrong?"

"It's Tinykit," the distraught queen meowed quickly. "He's not responding!" Cinderpaw padded over, sniffing the kit before bowing her head sadly before looking at the she-cat in front of her. Mistcloud knew that look in Cinderpaw's eyes as she had seen that look in Mudfur's when Morningkit was born. "No, please, Cinderpaw... You're wrong! Tinykit... Tinykit isn't... dead. Right?"

"I'm sorry, Mistcloud," the apprentice apologised before gently picking up the dead kitten and removing him from the living kittens. Graystripe and Fireheart had both rushed in when hearing the she-cat's distraught wailing, hearts breaking as they watched Cinderpaw take Tinykit and bury him, placing a flower on top of the upturned dirt.

"Oh Mistcloud," Fireheart whispered, resting his forehead against Mistcloud's, the sympathy he felt clearly being received by the she-cat. "I'm so sorry. Try to get some sleep, okay?" nodding, the she-cat rested her head down, curling her tail around the other kits as Cloudkit bounced over, settling beside his new adopted mother as they all fell asleep. Fireheart curled beside the grieving mother, slowly falling asleep as Buddy and Graystripe offered to stand guard.

After resting for the night, the group decide to continue onwards up the steep slope to try to get to the other side of it to the new territory. They had gotten to the peak of the slope when Lily mentioned that they should rest. Ravenpaw agreed, mentioning how they could use this time to train the kittypets/loners. The others agreed immediately.

After finding a place to camp for the quarter of the moon they were going to rest, they started to train almost immediately. "When we find a place to camp, Cloudkit," Mistcloud started. "You will be apprenticed, and Weaselpaw, you will most likely be able to become a warrior by that time." Cloudkit and Weaselpaw looked at each other with bright eyes, excited. Mistcloud turned to Ravenpaw, who had opted to stay behind to look after Mistcloud and the kits. "You could become a warrior as well, Ravenpaw."

"That'd be nice," he agreed, smiling at the she-cat. Mistcloud nodded, turning back to pay attention to her kits who were chasing each other, playing with Weaselpaw.