WARRIORS // Uprooted

Chapter 17

"Hey, Leechstone. Wake uuuup."

"Hmm?"

"It's a big day, you'll want to be awake for this."

"Mmmmhhrrr."

"I know. Come on, let's go."

"Mm. Wait. Dunlin?"

Leechstone jolted awake when she realized that was Dunlin speaking, and not someone else. When she met his gaze he smiled at her. 

"That important?" she asked, standing up and shaking her coat out. The den was empty. Huh.

"Of course. Come on," he said, backing up so she could emerge. All of the Stones were mingling around, and their mentors were talking covertly to each other.

"What's going on?" Leechstone asked. Her fight with Snailnose, although having happened a week ago at least, still had her hopped up, and the execution had her anxious. But this was a different sort of buzzing activity - genuine excitement, of the good kind. She hadn't felt that... ever. Especially not with her own people.

"It's a big day," Dunlin told her. "Just trust me. It's a secret, but it's big. And good."

Leechstone tilted her head. 

"All cats old enough to speak the Truth of the Roots, come to the Tallstone for a Clan Meeting!"

As if she hadn't heard that a hundred thousand times lately.

As she walked, she noticed the Thralls pushing their Stones to the front of the crowd, and continued to be so confused she felt like her brain was getting obliterated.

They sat down, and she noticed RootClan attending as well, all glowering characteristically at them. Snailfall didn't smile when they locked gazes. She was pretty sure he hissed, and that brought her more pleasure than their little night together.

She liked it when he didn't like her.

"Some of you may remember that late last winter, me and Acornflower decided to try out a project. Our number of Thralls were only nine, not including Owl and Tawnymoon."

Tawnymoon dipped her head at the mention.

"This project was called the Spring Breeding Project. All of the Thralls were to either mate or get pregnant by the end of Winter - and, heavens to StarClan, it happened one way or another. Not only did we get a sky's worth of Stones,  but all save for one survived!"

She turned to the Stones. Leechstone felt her blood run icy, remembering how casually the queen had ordered the death of her mother and grandmother.

"Thanks to RootClan's protection you all made it to adulthood, instead of killing each other somewhere in the woods. Thanks be to RootClan."

Leechstone sneered. "Thanks be to RootClan," all the Stones said, markedly unenthusiastic.

"Now then. From this day until you die, you will be fully grown Thralls. You can drop the 'stone in your name now. Clan dismissed."

Leechstone - Leech, actually - blinked a few times. Her head spun and it felt like the breath had been stolen from her lungs, but she felt little emotion. RootClan had dispersed pretty fast, and only a few apprentices remained, playing as if nothing had happened. Noone called out to congratulate her or her peers.

She turned and padded out into the woods, giving a nod of acknowledgement to Raggedfur on her way out. Of all the Warriors, he had her best respect, and she barely knew him. He seemed like the dad type to her.

Who was her dad? It was a passing thought that mattered little, but it did make her wonder.

Today she had been tasked with hunting - or so she'd been informed when she happened across Maggotpaw, the Singer's apprentice.

First she found a squirrel, then a rabbit, then a mouse, and then another mouse. And she missed all of them!

When she missed the rat she found after that, she grew exasperated and flopped on the ground, and that may have been the worst idea ever. She instantly moaned and rolled over, her belly panging angrily.

Am I pregnant? she wondered abruptly. She remembered Dipper stubbornly refusing to lay on her belly when she first realized it. And she had hurt herself several times trying to hunt...

"Hey," Snailfall said as he padded into the little tussock of grass she was flattened out on. "Uh. Congratulations."

"For what?"

"Becoming a Thrall."

"Gee, thanks for that," she grunted, rolling back over. "Uh, congratulations for becoming an asshole," she said mockingly.

"Funny."

"Hey, it doesn't mean much to me, but why do we only have one-part names as adults? You have two."

"Only Warriors have the honor of a suffix," Snailfall said dryly.

"Are Clustercats without honor?" She asked.

"Yeah."

Funny. Are your kits without honor?

"If a RootClan cat had kits with a Clustercat, would those kits only have half-honor?" Leech asked, tail curling around her belly.

"Course not," Snailfall said. "That can't happen. That's not possible."

"Are you sure?" Leech asked incredulously. "Because if my suspicions are true, I might be carrying yours."

Saying it out loud set fear in her gut. Oh no.

Snailfall turned and looked at her with wide green eyes. "... What?"

"I think I'm pregnant," she said. "And in my entire life you're the only sad pinecone I've ever let inside me... So it can't be anyone else's."

"But... that's... that's not.."

"It's poooossiiiblllle," Leech sang mockingly.

"I can't have kits in the cluster!" Snailfall wailed pathetically. "I can't! It's - my kits were supposed to be Warriors like me!"

"They're Thralls now," Leech said flatly. "Does that count as kitnapping?"

"This is not the time for joking!" Snailfall snapped.

"We could run away together," Leech said, thinking about that option. "I don't particularly find that exciting, because we could die, but that.. could work."

"I can't leave," Snailfall mewed softly.

"Why not?"

"I can't give up my place as a Soldier! They're just starting to respect me as an adult, and giving me missions, and... I just can't."

"So your rank is more important than your babies?" she asked.

"Of course they are, they... they'll be Clustercats."

"I'll pretend that part didn't suck," Leech said. "Fine, if you don't want to leave then help me leave."

"Listen. I don't want my kits to be Clustercats. But I really don't want them to be rogues."

"Mm." Leech rolled her eyes. "Listen. If I don't tell anyone that they're yours, then will you do me one favor?"

"What is it?" Snailfall looked desperate.

"Do your best to keep them safe. From behind the scenes of course. Even if noone knows they're yours, noone has to know for you to protect them, especially if they don't realize you're doing it."

Snailfall twitched his ears. "I... I can do my best," he said.

"Thank you." She nodded her head. "Happy hunting, asshole."

With that, she trotted off to do her job. Or at least, the best she could make of it.