Warriors: Sounds of the Forest

Chapter Nineteen: Blackheart

I gazed sleepily around the nursery, letting my mind wander as my kits slept on. 

Before a few days ago I had never thought that when I had kits that they would be not of Thunderclan, but of Moonclan, as we had agreed to call ourselves. And though I was proud of my new clan, I felt a small longing for my old clan, not that many of them would accept me after I had chosen to leave them. Besides... Perhaps this clan would be better. After all, Starclan had given these cats the powers of the original four, and even Splashstar (or rather Splashkit now) had approved of my coming here. 

Still.. Thoughts of what Riversong could be doing in Thunderclan clouded me head, like, when would Darkpaw receive his full name, and, how good of a deputy Echostream would be.

A quiet mew distracted me from my thoughts. "What's wrong?" I looked down to see Middnightkit gazing up at me with her bright blue eyes.

I lifted my paw and gently scratched my words in the ground. 'Nothing that you need to worry about.' she and the others had just opened their eyes yesterday and though they had learned to speak through listening, but since they were only a few days old they had picked up my language just as easily.

"Are you sure?" she mewed again causing Greykit and Snowkit to stir. 

I gently brushed my tail against her muzzle, signaling for her to shush. But it was to late and the other two kits had woken up leaving Splashkit still asleep.

"Can we go outside?" Greykit asked, his navy blue eyes glinting in the morning light that filtered the cave.

I looked over at Splashkits sleeping body and thought. Then scratching in the ground I wrote 'When Splashkit wakes up.'

The three kits nodded but instead of all sitting and waiting Snowkit leaped onto Splashkit causeing her to wake up with a squeal.

"What was that for?" the kit hissed as she pushed Snowkit off of her. "I was having this great dream where we were battling Shadowclan!"

"Oh yea?" Greykit said tauntingly "What was your warrior name then if you were fighting?"

"I was Splashstar! Leader of Windclan!" Splashkit said loudly with pride.

"But your a Moonclan cat!" Snowkit gasped.

"How could you be leader of a clan you've never been in!" Middnightkit added.

Splashkit looked puzzled, "You're right." she said in confusion "It seemed so clear when I was dreaming though..."

It was then that I realized that she was having a flash back to one of her previous lives. Before the conversation could get worse I began to nudge the four of them out of the den.

"Ahh. " purred Tigerfang as he saw us come out of the nursery, a small fish resting at his paw. "So my little warriors have awakened at last!" then with his gaze catching mine he continued "I was just going to bring this to you! Snowstar wants the rest of us to practice using our powers so we can be better prepared for what Starclan has in store for us."

Since my kits had been born, our clan had been busy training their powers, and though I did not have any that I knew of, it felt good to see my mate having a good time training. 

"Show us a trick!" Snowkit squealed as she pounced on her father "Light up one of the boulders and make it warm!"  

Then after a few moments (and after being toppled over by the other three kits as well as Snowkit) Tigerfang nodded and gently brushed them off.

Eyeballing a flat rock that sat against the edge of the wall that surrounded us, he stood strait up and stuck his tail stiffly out behind him. He let his claw sink into the soft ground and opened his jaws, which sent a thin bolt of light into the rock, causing it to glow with unnatural warmth. 

When the glowing died down the four kits leaped onto the stone and sprawled out on their bellies.

'Good trick!' I said with my tail. 'maybe you could put it to use this leaf-bare!'  

Considering it was already late leaf-fall it would defiantly help us avoid green-cough and freezing to death.

"Tigerfang!" Pinefall, our deputy, called "Snowfire wants you and I to practice at the grass-clearing!"  

The grass-clearing was a small enclosed aria of field that had been Windclan territory before it was given to us, it was surrounded on all sides by ferns and bushes that marked the Windclan Border.

Turnning to me Pinefall added "Careful when you let your kits play out here Blackheart, the water here may not be deep to us but it could drown a kit if one fell in!"  

I nodded in response, though the tone he used towards me did prick my fur, the Shadowclan tom had not left his prickly attitude back in his old clan, though it seemed that he never used it when he spoke to Snowfire.

Tigerfang walked closer to me and purred as he brushed against my pelt "Don't worry Blackheart, I'll teach him a lesson during our practice." 

I let out a silent purr as I rested my head on his shoulder for a moment.  

He then slowly pulled away and followed Pinefall out of camp.

"Bye bye!" Splashkit called from were she was on the stone. Her words were quickly joined in by the other three.