WARRIORS // Uprooted

Chapter 1

Disclaimer; This story features very heavy topics. The story has been rated Mature for this reason, but for an added warning, all of the "heavier" chapters are marked with a *. Read those chapters at your discretion.

Enjoy!

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At first, there was warmth. Then, there was sudden shock, and movement, and confusion and pain. Then there was cold, neverending cold, agony in the chest, flailing and crying for comfort.

It was thus that Leechstone was born.

Snuggled against two siblings, Foxstone and Leopardstone, the tortoiseshell kitten settled into her new world and suckled at her dam's belly. Brindle's tail swept across their backs, bringing them warmth. Her rough pink tongue dragged across Leechstone's back, comforting her into a soft purring sleep.

She didn't think enough to be distressed when she was taken by the scruff in her mother's jaws and carried out of the dark whelping den. Her eyes were sealed firmly shut, and her ears were folded over, completely deaf. She had no context to connect each mingling scent, and so everything was an unknowable blur.

The ground under her became soft and powdery, and she squirmed in the dust looking for the sweet milk she'd been drinking down so blissfully.

And then there was pain. Blinding pain.

She let out a cry that she could suddenly hear. Her ear had been bent upward, and there was pain tearing through her tiny body even after her assailant had left. The noises of the world bounced around in her skull, scrambling her infant thoughts and making her scream out in terror. If she had the ability to formulate questions, she'd ask why?

Despite her pain, her mother scooped the kitten up - along with her littermates, who were also crying out - and carried them back to the den. There she settled, licking each of their badly injured ears, cleaning them of blood that was already beginning to dry. She hummed soft words into the kits' newly-opened ears, but Leechstone could make no sense of them, so she listened to the lull of her mother's heartbeat. It put her to sleep.