Bluefur's Choice

The Choice

Snow swirled in the freezing leaf-bare wind. Leaping joyfully in the cold were three tiny kits.

Bluefur stared at them, nearly overwhelmed by grief. Soon her kits would be gone, living in RiverClan with their father. She had made the plan with Oakheart just a few days earlier at the Gathering. Tonight was the night. Today was the last day her kits would know her as their mother.

How could she go through with it? What if Goosefeather was wrong? According to him she was meant to be the fire that would save ThunderClan. She shook her head to clear it, flicking snow from her ears. Why was she trusting Goosefeather of all cats on the decision that would affect her entire future- and her kits' futures as well.

Looking at them now, she took in their appearances. Stonekit was the biggest, his fur a dark blue-gray. Even though he was young, Bluefur could already see his likeness to Oakheart in the curve of his head and his long powerful limbs.

She turned to Mistykit. Of all her kits, Mistykit resembled her the most. Everything about her- her pelt, her eyes, the way she frowned when her littermates caught her with a surprise pounce- Bluefur knew that she must have looked like that too, long ago.

And Mosskit. Bluefur blinked at her tiniest kit with affection. Her small daughter's fur was pale gray and white. Bluefur often wondered whether Mosskit had inherited her coloration from Oakheart's side or her own. Mosskit often insisted on staying at Bluefur's side, although she had been joining her littermates to play more recently. The tiny she-cat was with them now, trailing a few pawsteps behind them as she tried to push her small frame through the snow.

Bluefur glanced away from her kits, and saw Goosefeather watching her from across the camp, his pale fur shrouded in the lightly falling snow. Apparently taking her gaze as an invitation to approach, Goosefeather padded up, his pale blue eyes glinting in the reflected light from the icy ground. "Bluefur, you have made your decision. You cannot turn back."

Bluefur's heart fluttered in her chest. How could he know that she had been having second thoughts?

The mews of her kits broke through her reverie. "I can jump higher!"

"No I can!" Mistykit and Stonekit pounced at each other, whipping up small clouds of snow.

Wordlessly, the old medicine cat turned and left, and Bluefur felt a chill spread through her pelt.

She continued to keep an eye on her kits, her mind elsewhere. Would her Clan survive if she wasn't made deputy? Surely the fate of ThunderClan could not rest on a single cat. If it was really StarClan's will for her to be leader, couldn't they have sent her a sign to prevent her from seeing Oakheart in the first place? Bluefur fluffed out her fur, startled by her own thoughts. The ways StarClan worked were a mystery; she shouldn't be questioning them!

But all she had to go off of were the words of Goosefeather, and a single vision of Thistleclaw covered in blood.

Mosskit pounced at a tiny hill of snow, scattering it everywhere, and Bluefur felt a burst of grief. She had learned that from one of the warriors, and if she stayed in ThunderClan she might be able to put that technique to good use. She would learn how to hunt forest prey, not fish from the river.

The more she thought about it the more certain she became: her kits' destinies lay here, not in RiverClan. Stonekit and Mistykit and Mosskit would all become loyal warriors of ThunderClan.

Goosefeather was still staring at Bluefur, and she raised her chin, meeting his distant gaze. No, she thought, willing Goosefeather to understand. I will not do this.