Chapter Text
PROLOGUE - FROSTDAWN - THE VISION
Frostdawn hummed softly to herself as she padded down the foggy riverbank. The sun was still not risen. The perfect time to collect watermint. She stopped at the river’s edge, where the herb was growing, and started collecting it. It is watermint, right? She checked and nodded, satisfied. She wouldn't come back with the wrong herb again.
Frostdawn had been distracted lately. A secret was hovering in the air; she could feel it. StarClan was flashing in and out of her dreams, a sign that something was amiss. Now she just had to figure out what…
She snapped out of her daze when an echoey chuckle floated through the foggy air. It had come from nearby - she thought. The fog muffled everything. Frostdawn quietly followed the direction she thought it came from. She stopped as the figures of two cats appeared, wreathed in mist. Frostdawn crouched and slid into a nearby patch of reeds. She stepped closer, close enough to identify the cats if she tried hard enough. She opened her mouth, letting the scents flood in. RiverClan, yes, expected… But WindClan? Interesting.
Of course, romances from cats from other Clans were allowed now. But something was still strange about this. She moved closer, twitching her ears to hear the conversation.
“I have to tell you something”, a she-cat’s voice said softly, sounding nervous. Nightsky. Nightsky was a sensible warrior, one of the few who rebelled against Splashtail, even in small ways. Frostdawn wouldn't think that she would have a forbidden - no, not forbidden. A romance with a cat from WindClan.
“What is it?” mewed the tom, sounding excited. That voice was familiar…
“It sounds like you already know,” purred Nightsky. The two cats stared into each other's eyes. Frostdawn looked away quickly. She shouldn't be intruding in this private moment. What had gotten into her? She started to side away, but froze when the lithe tom stood up, purring, his shape immediately familiar. She knew who he was.
Harestar.
Frostdawn sighed silently. StarClan, help them. She knew Nightsky - she would never abandon her Clan, even for love. And Harestar couldn’t, he was the leader. So the love-struck pair were stuck, doomed to secret meetings forever.
“I want to hear you say it,” purred Harestar, weaving around Nightsky and bringing Frostdawn back to where she was. That Harestar was the tom didn't change anything; she still should not be here.
Nightsky stood up, intertwining her tail with the leader. “I’m with kits.”
Frostdawn flinched as a glow enveloped her, and a night sky specked with stars appeared, hovering in front of her. Two of the stars grew and took up almost the whole sky, filling her sight with their glow. They joined together, getting even brighter, then broke in six pieces. One by one, each of the pieces grew bigger, showing a picture inside of them, then disappeared.
A Shattered pine tree in a forest filled with Shadows.
A Cloud passing through the sky as Thunder rumbles beyond.
Ashes raining from the Sky, floating down gently.
The sun setting at Dusk while Wind rustles the grass.
A reflection of a swooping Raven on a River.
A Wisp of cloud curled around a bright Star.
Then the stars joined together and widened, shining brighter and brighter until Frostdawn had to look away. Harestar and Nightsky appeared in front of her again, and the glow disappeared. Frostdawn had no clue what any of it had meant. But she still felt relieved. The nagging sensation of a secret just waiting to be found out, the instinct that StarClan was restless, they were gone.
A few moons later.
Frostdawn hurried to the nursery, carrying chervil and thyme in her mouth. Nightsky was having her kits. She ducked inside. Mothwing was already there, and Icestar, whose only kit was Nightsky, was pacing anxiously.
“Icestar, out!” Mothwing snapped. “Go get a sturdy stick.” She flicked her tail at Frostdawn. “Thanks.”
Nightsky yowled and Icestar hurried into the den, panting. She dropped a stick near Mothwing, who pushed it next to Nightsky and said “Hold this in your mouth for the pain. Push!”
Frostdawn stepped closer as Nightsky gave a heave and a grey bundle slid out, squirming. It gave a fierce whine as soon as Mothwing passed it to Icestar. “Start licking! Nightsky, you’re doing great. A healthy she-cat! Now push!”
Another kit slid out, this one black. It scratched at Frostdawn with tiny claws when she started to lick it.
“A tom. Come on Nightsky!” Mothwing urged. She felt the mother’s belly. Nightsky groaned and the third kit appeared, wailing loudly. Icestar took this one, but it wouldn't stop yowling.
“Another beautiful she-cat. Just two more,” Mothwing encouraged. “Come on!”
Five kits? Frostdawn flicked her ear in surprise. “Are you sure, Mothwing?”
“No,” snapped her mentor. “There might be six! Push, Nightsky!”
Nightsky shrieked as a light grey kit came into the world, motionless. Frostdawn took it and licked it furiously. It finally started to squirm, and she breathed a sigh of relief.
“Last one!” Mothwing felt Nightsky’s belly. But she looked unsure.
Nightsky gave a last yowl and two kits, one much much smaller than the other, emerged. Mothwing handed the bigger one to Frostdawn and started licking the tiny white one urgently. The dark grey one that Frostdawn was licking whimpered, curling up into a ball. Frostdawn nudged it to Nightsky and it burrowed in the she-cat’s fur.
Mothwing’s one didn't move, lying there silently. Icestar gave the kits she had to an exhausted mother and stepped toward Mothwing. Frostdawn shook her head and Icestar stepped back, watching anxiously from the doorway. Nightsky moved her head, looking at the small bundle desperately. At last Mothwing stepped back, tail drooping. “It’s too late.”
Nightsky keened in grief, bringing the white kit closer to her and licking it herself. But it remained motionless. The she-cats watching bowed their heads, sadness filling them for this innocent kit who was taken so young.
The mother pulled her kits closer, pushing the dead one away. “I will name them now,” she meowed raspily. Mothwing nodded.
“Wishkit,” Nightsky choked out, looking at the tiny white body. “How I wish she was alive.”
Then she nudged the black tom with her nose. “Shatterkit, because my heart is shattered.”
She turned her head to the white she-cat, who was still meowing, but quietly. “Ashkit, for she looks like Wishkit. The ashes of what is left of her.”
The oldest she-cat gurgled, and Nightsky looked at her. “Cloudkit, as her pelt looks like clouds on a stormy sky.” Frostdawn twitched her tail, instinct stirring a memory.
Nightsky shifted her gaze to the second tom. “Duskkit, for dusk is falling.”
A raven cawed, mournful and slow, and Nightsky cocked her head. Then she pulled the smallest kit, the she-cat that had come with Wishkit, closer to her, meowing “Ravenkit, for the raven who is mourning my kit’s death with me.”
Nightsky laid her head down, finished. Frostdawn stepped out of the den and looked at the fading sky. Something was off…
And as the first star twinkled, it being dark enough to finally see it, it came to her.
Shatterkit, for the Shattered pine.
Cloudkit, for the passing Cloud.
Ashkit, for the raining Ashes.
Duskkit, for the sky at Dusk.
Ravenkit, for the Raven’s reflection.
And Wishkit, for the Wisp of cloud.
The vision she had seen was about these six kits. And Frostdawn, with a slowly growing sense of doom, didn’t think it was a vision that she would agree with.
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