WARRIORS // Uprooted

Chapter 9*

A fat red leaf slapped Leechstone's face as she listened to the cries coming from Dipper and Dunlin's den.

She lashed her tail fearfully as she swatted the leaf away, looking at Brindle. "Mom, is it always this loud?" she asked.

"Yes," Brindle sighed.

"I've never heard a RootClan queen shriek like that," Leopardstone said, her voice heavy with worry.

"Poor auntie," Foxstone mewed.

"RootClan queens have Acornflower there to deliver them herbs to reduce the pain," Brindle explained. 

"Why don't they give them to us?" Foxstone asked, flicking her tail.

"If anything else, the screaming can't be pleasing to listen to," Leopardstone said.

"Because they take pleasure in hearing our pain," Brindle said bitterly. "Plus, in their eyes it'd be a waste of herbs."

Leechstone noticed a new fire in her dam's voice that she'd never heard before. Were those freedom meetings making her more intense, more confident? She had to wonder.

It felt like an eternity had passed, and the sun had sunken below the treeline, when their grandmother Sycamore finally padded out. She was beaming, and her forepaws were coated with thin blood. "Two mollies and one tom!" she announced joyfully.

Leechstone jumped to her paws. "Can we go see them now? Can we? Please?"

"Go ahead," Brindle laughed, nudging her kits' rumps with her nose.

Leechstone lead the charge into the den, grinning and fur bristled up as she nearly bonked noses with Gullstone and Sedgestone, who were just as eager.

"You're older," Leechstone said. "You first!"

Gullstone and Sedgestone quickly made their way in, and the three sisters waited. When the emerged, Gullstone was giggling. "They're so cute," the white-and-black molly said, "You won't believe how tiny they are!"

"Yeah, they're tinier than you were," Sedgestone said, teasingly touching noses with his cousins. 

Leechstone crawled her way into the den, followed by her sisters. Dipper was laying exhausted on the floor, curled around three tiny wriggling shapes.

"Oh," Leechstone sighed softly as she realized they were kittens.

"They're beautiful, auntie," Foxstone complimented, bowing down to sniff at the backs of the three tiny shapes. "They- they're bloody," she said in alarm.

"You're bloody," Leopardstone added, looking at Dipper's haunches, where thin blood was smattered all over the understide of her tail and the floor of the den.

"I know," Dipper sighed. "I'll clean myself off once they fall asleep," she said. "Giving birth is a messy process."

"Yuck," Leopardstone sniffed.

"What did you name them?" Leechstone asked, fascinated by the tiny squirming beans.

"The eldest is the little pale tortoiseshell here," Dipper said, indicating with her freckled nose. "I named her Morningstone. The secondborn was the dark tortoiseshell, and her name is Neritestone. The runt is this little ginger tom, and he's Tigerstone."

"They're wonderful," Leechstone said, smiling. "Look, Morningstone's huge!"

"Just like her father," Dipper said with a small nod.

"Do you think any will be deaf?" Leopardstone asked.

"I don't think so," Dipper said. "None of them have any of Dunlin's white on them."