The sun beat down on the nursery floor from the holes in the roof. Scrunching her eyes, Gingerkit realized that it was only the midday sun.
She and her littermates had been playing with a ball of moss all morning and Gingerkit had gotten exhausted and padded back into the den. Laying down in her mossy nest, she smelled a sudden pungent smell and sat up.
For a second, she thought that she had caught a glimpse of something...shiny. Bright. Small. And for some reason, she thought that she saw a hint of golden on the object. It had disappeared as quickly as it appeared and Gingerkit immediately forgot about it as soon as she her a loud moan in camp.
Rushing out to see who the voice had come from, Gingerkit realized that it had come from Dreamfeather. Leopardkit, Mudkit, and Waterpaw were huddled around her.
"Gingerkit! Waterpaw yelled, taking calm charge, "Fetch Doveflight from the medicine den!"
"I'm right here!"
Doveflight, who had recently gotten her warrior name, raced to the cats. "What is it?" Before Waterpaw could answer, Doveflight realized what was happening and was nudging Dreamfeather up and to the nursery.
"Where's Pouncetail?" Waterpaw called, bounding after her.
"He went out to fetch some catmint to stock for leaf-bare." At the time, Gingerkit realized, the season was leaf-fall.
Dreamfeather stumbled into her nest. Moaning, she groaned, "Where's Berrypelt?"
"He's out on patrol," Doveflight answered. "Now sit still and chew these." She pushed over some leaves for eating.
Turning to Waterpaw, she muttered, "It's too early. The kits have a risk of being premature."
Waterpaw stiffened. Gingerkit knew that she wasn't supposed to listen, but it was too tempting. Shivering, she wondered what being "premature" meant.
Dreamfeather bit down hard on the sticking she was holding and a lump of cream fur rolled onto the sweat-soaked moss. Doveflight shoved it gently over to Waterpaw and instructed her to lick its fur the wrong way.
"That'll keep it warm," she explained.
Waterpaw did as she was told and licked its fur kind of roughly.
This happened twice more. Dreamfeather crunched on the stick twice more, and once a kit came, Waterpaw would keep it warm. A red lump and a cream-and-red lump rolled onto the moss.
Suddenly, Gingerkit heard commotion in the camp. She ran out to see that it was a very surprised Berrypelt, who was barging past everybody to the nursery.
"How are...they?" Berrypelt demanded.
"They're fine!" Gingerkit squeaked. "At least, I think so..."
Before she even finished, Berrypelt rushed past and into the nursery. Gingerkit followed him through to the back bracken-strewn wall where Dreamfeather and the kits were laying.
"They're beautiful," Berrypelt whispered, and rubbed his muzzle in Dreamfeather's fur. "What shall we call them?"
"I think the creamy one should be called Honeykit," Gingerkit volunteered. All the cats stared at her in misunderstanding. "You know, because she has a couple of gold-brown stripes on her tail."
Berrypelt switched his gaze to the little kit. "I never noticed that. Well done, Gingerkit."
"And this one reminds me of an apple," Dreamfeather commented, nudging the red one. "Applekit."
Berrypelt suddenly gasped at the remaining kit.
"Look at his foot!" He exclaimed.
The cats whipped their heads around to the red and cream kit to see that his paw wasn't moving as the rest of his body was. Doveflight gasped.
"He..." she started. "His foot has...it's got four toes..."
Sure enough, she was right. Gingerkit could spot another fourth toe on his front paw.
"Fourkit," Berrypelt whispered.
"Are you sure?" Dreamfeather asked worriedly.
"His fourth toe makes him special. We should name him for his uniqueness." Berrypelt licked his newborn kits.
"You all go outside," Doveflight ordered the kits and Waterpaw. "They should be alone."
Gingerkit, Leopardkit, and Mudkit scurried out into the middle of the camp while Waterpaw went to find her mentor. The kits started talking about the newborns.
"I hope that they can play warrior and mouse with me!" Leopardkit squeaked, her belly rubbing over the ground.
"And moss ball," Mudkit added, flicking Leopardkit with his tail.
"And I hope that Fourkit'll be alright," Gingerkit mewed worriedly.
"Relax, Gingerkit!" Leopardkit nudged her playfully. "Soon you won't have to worry. We're becoming apprentices soon, remember?"
YOU ARE READING
Gingerheart's Destiny
DiversosGingerkit is like any other cat in MoorClan. She plays games with moss. When she's an apprentice she hunts and fights. But she has the fate of her Clan in her paws, though she might not know it. Yet. She's seen things that other cats couldn't see; s...
