MoonClan's ambitious story/(1): The First Four Leaders/2/24

### Chapter 24: Sandleap's Kits

After an hour, Rainpaw had managed to teach Primrosepaw a few things about herbs. Primrosepaw got a gist of it; cobwebs were for closing open wounds, marigolds for inflammation and healing wounds, thyme for cough, especially whitecough and greencough, and so on, but she wasn't sure if she could remember that much. *Well, it's only my first day trying to learn,* Primrosepaw motivated herself. *I can learn much more in the following days, and even moons!*

Lilypool and Dandelionpaw entered the medicine cat's den, and they both looked surprised to see Primrosepaw with Rainpaw in there. But Primrosepaw didn't have to explain as Rainpaw was already on the horse doing so.

"She wants to learn some medicine to help in emergencies in case we can't do everything!" Rainpaw explained excitedly.

Lilypool raised her eyebrows in surprise, but in positive surprise. Dandelionpaw grinned when she heard this.

"So basically, Primrosepaw wants to be a better Clan member!" the medicine cat apprentice concluded her short but uplifting speech.

Dandelionpaw abruptly turned to her sister. *"Oh really! That is so great to do! What a good Clanmate you are!"* she exclaimed in the same tone as Rainpaw.

Primrosepaw beamed. She always wanted to be special. Special in *some* way, somehow. Other than having slow reflexes, that is. And this was a way she could do that. Thinking about it made her nearly fly over the moon. She thought she could see StarClan for a moment when she looked up through the mouth of the den, but of course, it was sunup. She snorted at her stupidity for thinking that she could see the stars, then she very heartwarmingly and appreciatively thanked Dandelionpaw and Rainpaw.

Lilypool also beamed. "Well, looks like I have *another* apprentice under my pelt now!" she bantered. "Of course, you will still need to do warrior duties, but it's good if you also help us!"

Primrosepaw nodded. She felt like she could become a completely normal cat like her other Clanmates. Or even a super cat, that could bound over the trees of the mountainous forest and the steep rocks of the rocky mountain, and maybe over the moon if she tried. This praise reminded her of her first day of training with Dandelionpaw and their mentors, where everyone was cheering them on. This was more private, but just as meaningful.

They chatted for a while about Primrosepaw's superb abilities of medicine. Primrosepaw decided to ask her sister, "Why did you... come in here, any...way, Dandeli...onpaw?" She usually couldn't say Dandelionpaw or Begoniaclaw's names fully without stopping since they were longer than other cats' names, but that was fine for her.

"Oh, I wanted to give my aunt and my best friend two hares that I caught," answered Dandelionpaw, bouncing up and down cheerfully similarly to Jumpkit. "But it turns out *you're* in here, too! What a great surprise!"

Primrosepaw grinned. Her sister was *just* like Rainpaw and Shadowclaw. And perhaps Spottedpaw, too. Very friendly, humorous, outgoing and light-hearted.

Then Rainpaw looked at the nursery and noticed her brother, Birchpaw, in there. "Speaking of which, should we go to the nursery? I love it there because kits can be born!" For a moment she grimaced, but then her expression turned back to normal. Primrosepaw knew why, of course.

*Hopefully nothing happens to Sandleap,* she worried and hoped at the same time. *Two of the same horrible event can't happen in a row, right?*

Lilypool and Dandelionpaw noticed the tension, too, but they ignored it and agreed with her.

They all entered the nursery and Birchpaw was surprised to see them enter. *Well, cats normally enter, so it's not a big deal,* he thought.

Rainpaw saw her littermate and exclaimed, "Guess what?!" She explained everything, which made the entire nursery shocked.

"Wait, really?!" Thymekit exclaimed in joy.

"That is *so cool!"* Lilackit added. "I want to learn medicine and warrior skills, too!"

Birchpaw thought he should be surprised, but he wasn't, for some reason. He always had some thoughts going on in the back of his mind about Primrosepaw working with herbs. Obviously, he had no reason to think that could be true after she became a warrior apprentice... until now. But he smiled at his sister and the younger apprentice, since his sister could be a young mentor now, technically.

Begoniaclaw smiled. "I was *just* telling a story about Amberleaf, the first AdderClan *medicine cat,* too."

Sandleap added mirthfully, "What a StarClan coincidence it is."

Primrosepaw just nodded. She sat down next to Birchpaw and asked, "Maybe you can... tell us the story... too?" Dandelionpaw and Rainpaw nodded eagerly.

"I have heard of the story from my mentor, Calmpond, too," said Lilypool, chuckling. "Of course, he knows Amberleaf very well since the Tribe, when he was just Calm. In fact, Amberleaf, before Amber, was *adopted* by Calm's aunt, Sand, known as Sandpounce *now!* After her mother, Dawn, died, that is." Lilypool grimaced for a moment but she became normal again.

Birchpaw blinked. *Really?* he thought, his mind swirling in random places. He had never known this before, either. He began to wonder exactly how many things Peonyclaw didn't tell him, and he suddenly felt a huge hole of curiousity, which was opposite to the sky raining. It felt like the sky sucking up rain, sucking up all information he needed to know about everything. He remembered when he was Birchkit again, wanting to learn everything from the elders and the queens, and he was very curious and wanting to make friends with everyone, which is why he started the drama with Zebrapaw on that day the latter became an apprentice. But he mostly learned from the elders as they had lived a lot longer, and had probably been queens already. But now, even queens had something seemingly better than the elders to say, like Begoniaclaw, and the medicine cat, Lilypool. Begoniaclaw *was* from an enemy Clan, after all, so her secrets would be juicy, but also important for MoonClan.

Rainpaw nodded exuberantly. "Lilypool told me that story, too!" She then frowned and whispered to Birchpaw and Primrosepaw, "Dawn died sometime after giving birth to her, though." Begoniaclaw and Lilypool had heard her and nodded sadly.

Primrosepaw and Birchpaw copied Rainpaw's expression. Birchpaw wondered how many queens had died so far giving birth to their kits. Amberleaf was probably slightly older than Honeyflight (as he remembered from Peonyclaw's story) since Honeyflight was only a very young apprentice (or at least the right age at the time). Primrosepaw wondered how it was possible to die from kitting, anyway, since she wasn't good at medicine. *Well, that's another reason I am doing this,* she thought.

Thymekit, Lilackit and Jumpkit looked like they were wondering what they were talking about, and Petalkit started paying more attention to them. She was only a moon old, but it seemed like to both apprentices, she was somehow acting similar to Primrosepaw as a kit.

All of a sudden, Sandleap's expression changed from heartwarming to shocked. She gasped and looked at everyone's faces wildly, and it looked like she was feeling uncomfortable. Birchpaw and Primrosepaw were confused, but Lilypool and Rainpaw looked like they recognized her expression.

"Oh no!" the experienced medicine cat exclaimed. *"Sandleap's kitting!"*

Everyone looked shocked at this revelation, including Sandleap herself, but except Rainpaw, who nodded seriously and ran to get a stick and other herbs that might be needed, including cobwebs and other stuff. After what happened to Goldenlily, the two medicine cats felt that the extra precautions were obligatory.

Upon hearing that Sandleap was kitting (Lilypool yelled really loudly), the soon-to-be grandparents, Petuniaheart, Snowstar and Watereye, the father, Nightnose, all aunts and uncles (which were Sealbranch, Hailstream, Nutclaw, and Quailclaw) and Zebrapaw, Swanpaw, Shadowclaw, Icemoon, Spottedpaw and Mountainpaw rushed in nearly all at once. Even Blazesky, Peonyclaw, Fireclaw, Violetrain, Flipsnow, Redwater, Soarpaw, Robinpaw, Berrypaw, Maplestripe, Honeyflight, Littleclaw, Daisyfoot and Flameeye came in a little bit afterwards. A lot of cats were in the nursery now, and some were standing outside. Of course, Stonepaw wasn't here, as Birchpaw and Primrosepaw knew she had no interest in kits, only Begoniaclaw apparently. Birchpaw worried that Stonepaw might be up to something while talking to Begoniaclaw, but he shook that away since his sister was kitting.

Petalkit gasped when she saw the amount of cats in the nursery, and shrank back against Begoniaclaw, which reminded Birchpaw of when Mountainpaw and him were kits, and he was very shy, just like Zebrapaw and Stonepaw were. Primrosepaw knew that Petalkit was as young as *she* was when she nearly fell into the creek off of that terrifying cliff, so she knew how Petalkit would be vulnerable at that age. She remembered her earliest memory, which was her fall off the cliff. She had barely remembered anything else from that time period, as she was probably too young for those memories. But she still remembered scary traces of that memory, like how Quailclaw probably only remembered his fall from the time period of one moon old. She shuddered slightly, not wanting to remember that, of what she had barely remembered. Most of the things that she was told were from other cats that were there, especially Quailclaw, Quailpaw at the time.

Since this was the first birth after Goldenlily's, everyone was immensely worried about Sandleap, including Begoniaclaw, despite having not witnessed it, or spent a lot of time with them, only one moon.

As usual, Sandleap was given a stick to bite on if she felt any pain, but it didn't look like she needed to use it, unlike Goldenlily, who was screeching in immense pain, so other cats were still relieved, sort of. Primrosepaw wondered what she could do since she had barely learned anything. She decided to soothe Sandleap even though she didn't seem like she needed it. Nightnose, her sisters (including Rainpaw), Petuniaheart, Honeyflight, Redwater, and some other past queens were already doing so.

After just half a minute of labor, Sandleap gasped, and a light-grayish blue kit came out, and there was no blood or anything else worrying. But it still looked like there were more. Everyone still looked skeptical, however, including Birchpaw and Primrosepaw, since it could still be possible something terrible would happen. It almost seemed to the two apprentices that everyone was holding their breath.

Lilypool and Rainpaw quickly checked the kit, and the former smiled in joy. "A she-kit." After this, Forestcreek had also arrived in the nick of time. But Stonepaw was still nowhere to be seen.

Everyone was still holding their breath as two more kits came out, another light-grayish blue kit and and a very bright yellow kit, close to pink, kind of like Primrosepaw and Swanpaw.

"The second kit is a tom, and the last one is a she-kit, too!" Lilypool said happily. Rainpaw grinned from ear to ear, and so did most of the other MoonClan cats, especially the father and grandparents. Birchpaw and Primrosepaw just smiled, and they looked over at their friends. Nutclaw, Violetrain, Shadowclaw, Icemoon, Mountainpaw and Dandelionpaw looked like they wanted to play with the kits immediately, and so did the older kits, who looked exhilarated at arrival of the new kits. A few cats were cheering like the kits, and most just thanking StarClan that Sandleap's kitting was swift and smooth, with no dangers, including Begoniaclaw, Applefall, Flipsnow, Quailclaw, Zebrapaw and Swanpaw (Swanpaw was holding one paw up to the sky). Birchpaw and Primrosepaw did, too.

Sandleap finally relaxed after the labor and closed her eyes for a moment. Then she opened them again to look at her new kits. She smiled subtly at them, and with a lot of love, as the two apprentices knew mothers usually did.

The light-gray tom-kit was the first one to open his eyes and get up. "Who should name them?" Nightnose asked his mate cheerfully.

"Maybe we can each choose a name for one kit and for the third one, we can both choose?" Sandleap suggested. Nightnose agreed immediately. The beige she-kit opened her eyes and got up next. They both looked around at her surroundings.

"What would you want to name your kits?" Petuniaheart asked her new-mother daughter warmly. Snowstar and Watereye nodded in agreement. After all, Sandleap and Nightnose made them grandparents for the first time.

"I will name the first kit... Birdkit," Sandleap replied with a soft smile. "After..." She looked around. "Swanpaw and Robinpaw." A lot of cats chuckled. Swanpaw and Robinpaw smiled even though it was probably just a joke, since Swanpaw and Robinpaw seemed random. Birchpaw thought that Birdkit's prefix sounded like his, which made him smile, too.

"And Heronwing and Quailclaw, too?" Robinpaw asked hopefully.

Sandleap nodded eagerly. "Them, too."

"She doesn't really have to be named after anyone, though, but it is nice," Sealbranch said, but in a polite voice so no one got offended. Then she looked at Nightnose, and so did Sandleap and the other cats.

"Okay, I will name him Waterkit, after my father," Nightnose said. Watereye smiled, and so did Nutclaw, Peonyclaw and Petuniaheart. Birchpaw remembered that Watereye mentored Peonyclaw, so she was also friendly with her mentor.

"And the last one... Flowerkit, maybe? After a lot of cats named after flowers," the new mother said humorously. Nightnose nodded in agreement. Primrosepaw smiled. Lilyear, Petalfrost (Lilyear's sister), Rosepetal, Dandelionpaw, Lilypool, Peonyclaw, Petuniaheart, Violetrain, Daisyfoot, Petalkit and Begoniaclaw all had flower prefixes. But Goldenlily had a flower suffix, while Rosepetal had both. She wondered if Sealbranch or Amberleaf's suffix counted as one, too.

Primrosepaw suddenly frowned, and looked at Birchpaw, who realized the same. They exchanged looks that had the slightest bit of worry (as to not worry anyone else), but it could still be detected.

They looked at the light gray she-kit, Birdkit, but she wasn't opening her eyes or getting up yet, despite being born first out of her three littermates.

Rainpaw, Lilypool, Sandleap and Nightnose realized this, too. They all copied Primrosepaw's expression. Their worry spread to all the other MoonClan cats, as they all looked at Birdkit, including Waterkit and Flowerkit, who looked confused why their sister wasn't getting up.

"Oh no!" exclaimed Lilypool anxiously. "Is Birdkit okay?" She checked to see if she was alive, and she sighed in relief. It was now a few minutes from their birth, including Birdkit's, but she still seemed to not be doing anything.

Primrosepaw froze. She wondered if the worst could happen. Or something below the worst, since Birdkit wasn't dead, but she wasn't sure if that was better than being dead. Being reflexively disabled.

The yellow she-apprentice tried to remember what other cats said had happened when she was born, especially her parents and Birchpaw, Rainpaw, Swanpaw, Mountainpaw, Zebrapaw, Lilypool and Wisdomheart, since the five apprentices obviously would remember her birth. Dandelionpaw, then Dandelionkit, had woken up first. Primrosepaw, then Primrosekit's brain was still sharp, but she seemed to have trouble getting up due to her slow reflexives. So Lilypool stimulated her reflexives by licking her pelt.

Birchpaw also thought that Birdkit's situation reminded him of Primrosepaw when *she* was born. He had been watching Rosepetal's kitting at the age of four moons old, so he had remembered it clearly. Primrosekit had been acting sluggish, and now, so was his niece, Birdkit. He looked at Primrosepaw worriedly, and wondered if she would do something. Some of the other cats also looked at the young apprentice, including Maplestripe, Flipsnow, Rainpaw, Dandelionpaw and Mountainpaw, as they probably also thought of what might have happened with her when she was born.

"Uh, is she going to get up?" Nightnose asked very uneasily. Finally Stonepaw arrived looking bored. But then her expression shocked when she saw what happened, and seemed confused at everyone's anxiety.

Primrosepaw decided to do what Lilypool did before. She wasn't sure why her aunt wasn't doing it now, but maybe she was trying to monitor Birdkit first. The newborn she-kit barely seemed to be responding at all.

The young apprentice licked the kit's pelt slowly and gently, and everyone's confused gaze was on Primrosepaw now, especially the new parents and the littermates. Rainpaw smiled at Primrosepaw appreciatively and did the same. However, Primrosepaw was still exceptionally worried about one thing. *Condition... does she have my condition?* Birchpaw was thinking the same thing, too. If that were the case, she'd be the fourth cat to have a medical condition, the first three in order being Swanpaw, Primrosepaw and Mousekit, which he didn't know how to react to.

After about half a minute, Birdkit finally opened her eyes to nearly everyone's delight, especially Sandleap and Nightnose, and Primrosepaw and Rainpaw stopped licking. All of Primrosepaw's friends and elders (which was almost the entirety of MoonClan) were smiling at her and Rainpaw gratefully, and they both smiled back.

Waterkit and Flowerkit were also happy, too. "Yay!" they both squealed cutely. They had no idea who Primrosepaw or all of the other cats including their parents were, but they were just ever so happy that their sister, Birdkit, finally woke up. Stonepaw seemed to look bored again, but she smiled, too.

Birdkit stared at the ceiling for a few seconds before focusing on her mother. Sandleap licked her once and said, "Birdkit? Are you awake?" Birdkit didn't respond. Instead she just stared at her. Now it was Swanpaw's turn to frown. Birchpaw and Primrosepaw saw her expression, and were a little confused until they figured out why.

Swanpaw didn't want Birdkit to be mute. And Primrosepaw didn't want her to be reflexively disabled. If Birdkit had both, she could definitely not be a warrior or a proper Clanmate, since Swanpaw communicated by moving her limbs around, and with some of the signs, she had to move quickly as she needed to get the message across, such as "Look at me" or "Here I am!". Not to mention she was extremely good at listening and with her warrior skills since she couldn't do much else than that. And Primrosepaw mostly excelled in public speaking as she was pretty intelligent for someone of her age and condition, not actual warrior moves, although she was getting there. Swanpaw and Primrosepaw's strengths were the other's weaknesses. And Birdkit would be off to a bad start in life if she had both. Swanpaw and Primrosepaw's grimace was evident on their faces.

Waterkit and Flowerkit tried to poke Birdkit slightly so she can get up like they did, but frowned when she didn't even notice them.

After a few seconds, Birdkit saw her siblings and Nightnose, but she still didn't respond. Birchpaw bit his lip. *Hopefully she can still be a warrior or medicine cat,* he worried with great unease. He remembered what he had been thinking. To prepare for anything unfortunate that could happen. But he hadn't predicted another kit like Swanpaw, Primrosepaw or Mousekit to be born, that too in his older sister's litter. He thought it would be many more moons before another kit was born like either of them, but all four of them were born within a single year, Swanpaw being eleven moons old. He grimaced as the two she-apprentices were doing right now. *Has the Dark Ages of MoonClan hit already? Will there be more mishaps to come?* Birchpaw never recalled this happening in his kithood. Well, the Battle of Moonstar's Death happened, Primrosepaw fell off the cliff, Stonepaw pushed Swanpaw into a ditch, and that fox came and bruised Zebrapaw and Swanpaw, but it was mostly still okay, for *him* anyways. Until Goldenlily's death. *Is her death... a bad omen?* He hoped not. He didn't know what to do if something else terrible happened. *Not one more mishap. At least for a moon!* He tried to hide it, but inside he was churning with a ton of fear and anxiety of what could happen in the coming future, especially the near future. He leaned against the nursery wall for support, behind his littermate, Rainpaw.

"Uh, Birdkit? And Waterkit and Flowerkit?" Nightnose said, trying to sound happy, but the fear was also evident in his tone. "I'm Nightnose, your father." He smiled. "This is Sandleap, your mother. Rainpaw and Lilypool are the medicine cats!"

Waterkit looked excited. "That's cool!" Flowerkit nodded excitedly. "I agree!" Birdkit said nothing, but stared at her father.

Lilackit smiled at them. "Hey, I'm Lilackit! I'm also a kit! But an older one." Thymekit nodded. "Me too! Do you want to play?"

"Yes!" the two newborn littermates squealed. The situation reminded Primrosepaw of Lilackit and Jumpkit, and Birchpaw and Rainpaw, when the latter two were kits. The pairs consisted of a tom-kit and a she-kit, of which the she-kit was older, which was the opposite in this case. And they were all outgoing. However, Birdkit was also part of their litter. But she wasn't joining in. This worried Primrosepaw greatly.

Finally, after what seemed like forever (though only about ten minutes since their birth), Birdkit spoke. "Yes?" she uttered loudly. Then she finally got up on her feet. The relief felt by the cats filled the atmosphere, and everyone relaxed, some cheering, others thanking StarClan yet again, especially Swanpaw. She wasn't mute! But Primrosepaw still wondered if she was reflexively disabled. She hadn't opened her eyes or gotten up for many minutes. *Even I didn't take that long to do each of those things,* Primrosepaw thought disdainfully. She opened her eyes at the same time as Dandelionpaw, but getting up took her just a few minutes, with stimulation from Lilypool.

"Hey, can you understand me?" Primrosepaw whispered in Birdkit's ear. Birdkit ignored her for a few seconds, still looking at Waterkit and Flowerkit, which made Primrosepaw wonder about an even worse thing, deafness, until she turned her head towards her. Then she said, "Yes?"

It seemed as if everyone was still very skeptical of Birdkit and how she was acting, including her newborn littermates, since she was acting too slow. It seemed like her brain was acting too slow, in fact.

Lilackit asked slowly, "Do you want to play, too, Birdkit?" Birdkit didn't respond for a few seconds, instead looking at everyone's faces. Then she nodded. "Yes!" Waterkit and Flowerkit smiled, not noticing anything wrong with their littermate, since they were too young and immature to understand, but everyone else could definitely tell something was off about her.

"Alright, but first, you should nurse," said Sandleap, chuckling. But she looked worriedly at her strangely-behaving daughter. Her two other kits nodded, but Birdkit didn't listen for a few seconds, until she also nodded.

Most cats usually left the nursery after the kitting process was fully over and the kits were ready to nurse, and some family members, friends and other kit-lovers stayed behind to watch the kits and play with them. However, it seemed like nobody was leaving, not even Stonepaw who probably wouldn't be interested anymore. Instead, they seemed to be in a disquieted silence when it came to Birdkit, including the parents and grandparents. The MoonClan cats looked at each other as if they were wondering if someone was going to leave, but no one actually did. They watched the kits nurse with varying expressions on their faces, some worrying, some confused, some grimacing, and others blank. But they were all negative.

Finally, after a few more seconds of unbearable tension, Snowstar announced, "Okay, everyone, back to your duties!" Then he waited for most of the cats to leave, especially the ones who weren't related to Sandleap or Nightnose that closely through blood or friendships (excluding Stonepaw, of course), before walking up next to his youngest child, Birchpaw.

All of Sandleap and Nightnose's immediate family and Lilypool, Shadowclaw, Icemoon, Zebrapaw, Swanpaw, Mountainpaw, Dandelionpaw, Primrosepaw and the other kits and queens were also still here, of course, but they all had a slight frown on their faces, looking uneasy.

Primrosepaw wondered what condition Birdkit had exactly, since she was also *reacting* slowly to everything. Primrosepaw didn't do that, in fact, she was quite quick to understanding, so her brain wasn't affected by her condition. Somehow only the nerves in her *limbs* were slow. The young apprentice had great fear that Birdkit's brain was also slow, like her limbs. Primrosepaw wanted to help Birdkit out, but she didn't know how, exactly. She was only a young apprentice herself, seven moons old, and she still needed to do her duties. Picking ticks out of elders' pelts was a common duty for her since it was one of the duties that didn't require constant agility, but she could still miss the ticks. She sighed, wishing she could be a warrior already, but she thought that Hailstream was doing a good job already.

Snowstar looked like he was going to ask Birchpaw something but the latter was the one to speak first.

"Snowstar..." he started very uneasily in the volume of a whisper, his voice shaking. "Do you... do you think... this is an ill omen?"

**This is a chapter subpage of MoonClan's ambitious story (1): The First Four Leaders.**

*← Previous Chapter: Chapter 23: Important DecisionsNext Chapter: Chapter 25: Lack of Care →*

*← Previous Part: Part 1: Little Birchkit's LifeNext Part: Part 3: Birchcreek's Selflessness →*