"Caustic! Wake up!" Cinder yelled, making Caustic jump up.
"What?" He asked irritably. He hoped it was good; he'd just been having a nice dream about eating a fat rabbit.
"Cinnamon's in labor! She's outside!" Cinder replied, panting and out of breath. He must've ran back into the barn.
"Really?!" Caustic asked. He ran out to Cinnamon, tripping over his paws. He would never forgive himself if he missed the birth of their kits. Cinnamon was near a patch of tall grass, yowling and wincing in pain. Lucy sat next to her, trying to comfort the other she-cat.
"Breathe, Cinnamon. It'll be over soon," Lucy meowed calmly to Cinnamon.
"I am breathing!" Cinnamon spat, yowling in pain as a spasm rippled through her body. Lucy turned her head up to watch Caustic as he ran over to Cinnamon.
"Congratulations, Caustic. You're going to be a father," Lucy purred, dipping her head again. Oliver, just stepping out of the ban from being woken with Cinders ruckus, blinked his eyes sleepily, then screwed his face up at the harsh sunlight.
"What's going on...?" He murmured groggily, padding slowly towards them.
"Cinnamon's in labor," Lucy said.
"Is she okay?" Caustic asked worriedly, lowering his gaze and scuffling his paws in the dirt.
"Yes. She's been in labor for a while now. She might give birth soon," Lucy meowed to Caustic, flicking her white-tipped tail. "Cinder, can you hunt for Cinnamon? She's going to be exhausted by the end of this," The brown she-cat addressed Cinder, looking over at him. "And maybe find something that can hold water, like a bowl or something?"
"Okay," Cinder replied.
"I'll go with you," Oliver nudged him, then shrank back. "I mean, if you want me too, that is." He meowed warily.
"That's fine," Cinder said with a smile and started to walk away. Oliver padded after him.
"Do you want to hunt or get her water first? I mean, everyone back there is probably hungry anyways," Cinder asked as his tail touched Oliver's.
"Yeah, we can go hunting if you'd like," Oliver agreed. An owl hooted somewhere near them, and Oliver jumped, his fur fluffing out.
"What?" Cinder asked.
"That owl scared me," Oliver meowed, his fur lying flat again.
"We can kill it," Cinder said.
Oliver shrugged. "I guess." Cinder crouched low to the ground, his head barely peeking over the tall grass. Cinder slowly crawled in the grass, keeping his eyes on the brown-grey owl. He quickly jumped onto the owl, clawing his wings and biting its neck. The owl flapped its wings and started to move slowly off of the ground as Cinder looked at Oliver. Oliver leaped up, desperately trying to hold on to the owls leg. Cinder bit down harder on the owl, pushing its wings down with his paws. Cinder stopped biting the neck of the owl to bite his left wing.
The owl fell to the ground with Cinder and Oliver. Oliver let go of the owl and jumped down, spinning around to watch Cinder and the owl. Cinder stood back up and looked at the owl, then Oliver. Oliver quickly padded over and bit hard into the owl's neck until it stopped moving.
"That took longer than I thought it would," Cinder said, panting. Oliver let go of the owl and looked back up.
"Yeah," he flicked his tail. "Sorry."
"For what?" Cinder asked.
"Taking so long. We really need to get food to the others, especially Cinnamon," Oliver lifted up the owl with its wing. "You can get the other side. I can't drag this all the way there." Cinder grabbed the other side with his jaws.
