MoonClan's ambitious story/(1): The First Four Leaders/2/25

### Chapter 25: Lack of Care

Mountainpaw and his mentor, Petuniaheart, were bringing back plenty of prey at sundown, since it was green-leaf. They had a good surplus of supplies, already, but they decided to bring more since there were going to be more kits on the way. Sandleap, a new nursing queen, and Begoniaclaw would need extra nutrients. *At least we don't suffer from greencough or other leaf-bare problems much,* he thought happily. The last leaf-bare, he hardly remembered anything bad happening, and it went by pretty smoothly. He had been surprised to learn from elder Clanmates about terrible leaf-bares, especially the leaf-bare before the dawn of the Mountain Clans.

He also heard that Begoniaclaw ran out of milk finally, but she was still a queen, of course. Petalkit and Mousekit were now being nursed by Sandleap, which he thought was interesting. Apparently when Sandleap's kits were born, Begoniaclaw's milk was nearly out, and it couldn't suffice both kits that much. Until, of course, Sandleap gave birth.

Shadowclaw and Snowstar were on a hunting patrol together, too. Before they left on the patrol, Quailclaw and Birchpaw seemed to be wondering why he hung out so much with his former mentor, also their father. *I don't know,* the gray tom thought, *but I love my mentor as a father, too. And I guess Snowstar likes me, too.* Mentors were like the secondary mothers or fathers of the apprentice (in most situations, anyway, excluding Stonepaw and Nightnose). As for Snowstar, he didn't know, but he thought that Snowstar missed being a mentor, even while being a leader. He used to go on patrol a lot more with Shadowclaw when the latter was still an apprentice. So still going on patrol together probably gave them nostalgia.

However, Shadowclaw remembered what happened about four days ago. Sandleap's kitting. However, Birdkit was acting similar to Mousekit and Primrosepaw, which made him worried. Rainpaw, Primrosepaw, Swanpaw and Nightnose were watching Birdkit way more than usual, even skipping some important duties. Hailstream and Nutclaw were fine with this, since they were also worried for their niece, but Stonepaw was definitely not pleased. It seemed like she didn't care her mentor's kits were also her first cousin's kits, all she cared about was training, and not about other Clan problems.

*Like AdderClan,* he thought in disgust, still remembering her incident with Swanpaw. He agreed with Peonyclaw about her behavior towards Stonepaw, but he was still confused about Zebrapaw and Birchpaw's neutral behavior towards her. Even if Zebrapaw was her littermate, Shadowclaw didn't know if it was good to be nice or neutral to her. But Birchpaw *was* usually friendly or at least okay with everyone (except if he felt like he was getting annoyed, like what happened when Zebrapaw and Stonepaw became apprentices), so he thought he might be okay with Stonepaw.

Meanwhile, Swanpaw was with Primrosepaw and Birdkit. Hailstream and Nutclaw said that it was okay for them to stay there. They probably still remembered Goldenlily, as she was either their mentor or father's mate, and so did Swanpaw. She sighed, wishing she hadn't died. No one understood her as well as *she* did, since Goldenlily was her mother, and taught her which signs to use to communicate with other Clanmates. She cared about her a lot, and didn't know how exactly to cope without her. When she bled to death... Swanpaw sighed again. It seemed as if the entire world crashed on her, and it looked like that to her older siblings, too. The entire moon without her was very gloomy, and it seemed the same to Nightnose, Nutclaw, and Hailstream, too, despite not being directly related to her, so Nutclaw and her didn't do *that* much training as they were supposed to be doing, only once every other day.

But Swanpaw was even more worried about her younger sisters. Before *they* were born, she was the youngest. Or at least, out of the surviving siblings, since her younger littermate, Vinekit, died before birth. Petalkit was probably still fine, but she was acting too shy for a kit. *Similar to Mountainkit before we met him,* she thought. But Mousekit... Swanpaw didn't know what to do about her. Rainpaw and Lilypool gave her so many herbs, including thyme for greencough, but Mousekit still wasn't responding to anything. Swanpaw didn't want her to die. Goldenlily died for her and Petalkit.

As for Birdkit, she knew she was Moonstar's first great-grandchild and Snowstar's first grandchild, so she was pretty important. She was also Nutclaw, Birchpaw and Rainpaw's niece, and Violetrain and Zebrapaw's cousin's daughter. And also Primrosepaw and Dandelionpaw's second cousin's daughter. And *her* third cousin's daughter, which she thought was a very far off relationship. However, she seemed closer to Birdkit than ever, because of whatever condition she had. Primrosepaw and Swanpaw were both relieved when they figured out that she could still move normally. The former told Birdkit to run quickly through the nursery, and a few seconds later, she obliged, and she ran without freezing or being sluggish. But she was acting sluggish when it came to actual thinking. It took her a while to process anything, as if time was always running a few seconds backwards for her. It nearly brought Sandleap, Nightnose, the grandparents, Rainpaw and Primrosepaw down to a nearly broken state when they figured out her actual condition. She couldn't be a warrior like Primrosepaw could. Not when warriors needed to analyze the situation and react immediately, for nearly every single skill. Primrosepaw could still analyze the situation quickly, and try to do *something,* at least. But Birdkit's delayed analysis of the world was nearly life-changing, regardless whether she had normal reflexes or not.

Mountainpaw also thought about Birdkit, since she was obviously his mentor's granddaughter. He didn't know what to think, since he had no idea about medical conditions. *That's supposed to be for medicine cats to think about, right?* he thought. However, his friend, Rainpaw, and her mentor, Lilypool, seemed to be getting too overwhelmed with all of this. Swanpaw and Primrosepaw didn't need so much supervision after a couple of moons after their birth, but it seemed as if Mousekit and Birdkit would need to be monitored even as apprentices. *Could Birdkit even* become *an apprentice?* he wondered all of a sudden. Lilypool announced her condition to the Clan, and that condition was so severe that she could *not* be a warrior, ever, since she risked being too incompetent in hunting and easily dying in battle. It was still being debated whether she could become a medicine cat or not, but in emergencies, she would not work so well as a medicine cat, either.

As for Mousekit, he remembered what Lilypool told him a moon ago. *She... has a problem... with her lungs. Her lungs... have mucus in them, and she is coughing out a lot.* Mousekit was having a ton of trouble breathing, even while coughing out too much, however. Rainpaw and Lilypool regularly had to tickle her chest in order to get the mucus out, and tried to trickle down a mixture of herbs down her throat, but Mousekit usually ended up coughing it back up.

He still hadn't told Zebrapaw, Birchpaw, Shadowclaw, Icemoon, Swanpaw, Berrypaw, Primrosepaw, or his mentor, or anyone else, but with Birdkit's arrival, he wasn't sure if he wanted to tell the latter six about it. Lilypool had told Rainpaw about it so that the latter could help her, but she was extremely broken after hearing that. But he wondered if it would be a good idea to tell the former two, since it seemed like they were struggling with all of these Clan events, too (the former having to deal with Stonepaw). After all, Birchpaw was the youngest uncle of Birdkit, and Zebrapaw the mother's cousin.

Petuniaheart asked her apprentice in a jovial way, "Mountainpaw, do you want to do anything else?" She probably was training Mountainpaw to take her mind off of her granddaughter's condition, which was fine with him. He liked training, too, as the camp's energy was getting too unbearable at this point. First, Goldenlily, then Mousekit, then Birdkit. He wished it would stop, but Honeyflight once told him, "Once hardships begin, there are usually a chain of bad things to come. To endure them means you can have good times again." He didn't know if that was good or bad, though.

"Um... maybe we can eat lunch?" Mountainpaw replied uneasily. Petuniaheart nodded in agreement. She probably felt burnt out, too.

There was no one else at the prey pile except for Birchpaw, who seemed lost in thought, and didn't even notice him. *Probably about Birdkit,* Mountainpaw thought, picking out a squirrel.

Petuniaheart greeted her son after depositing their prey and picking out a hare. "Birchpaw, how was your training?" Birchpaw didn't respond for a few seconds, similar to Birdkit, until he looked at Petuniaheart.

"Fine, maybe. I wonder why she didn't tell me much about SnowClan or AdderClan," he replied quietly.

Mountainpaw tilted his head in confusion. "Well, she is a good mentor, right? She's also my aunt, which makes us closer, and your mother is *my* mentor, too!"

Birchpaw nodded. "She *is* a pretty good mentor. I know Petuniaheart is a good mentor, too. Redwater told me especially so." He smiled at her, and she smiled back.

"Well, I still have to carry on duties, you know," Petuniaheart replied. "Being a daughter or mate of two leaders doesn't mean I should slack off or get special treatment." Birchpaw and Mountainpaw nodded in agreement with her, especially with the former being the youngest *child* or *grandchild* of two leaders.

Mountainpaw wondered if he should tell Birchpaw now. Birchpaw seemed to be stronger than most like Primrosepaw and Stonepaw, but he could still be very much affected by Birdkit, too. *But is Mousekit's news going to affect him adversely?* he wondered. He hoped not, because Birchpaw already seemed to have so much riding on his shoulders.

"Um... Birchpaw? Do you mind if... I told you some important but... *bad...* news?" Mountainpaw started cautiously in the form of a whisper.

Birchpaw just nodded worriedly, but said nothing. Petuniaheart also heard, however, and frowned at Mountainpaw's words. "What is it?" the new grandmother asked.

"Uh..." Mountainpaw inhaled sharply. "Mousekit... has too much mucus in her lungs...! She has trouble breathing."

The mother and son stared at their friend or apprentice for many moments with a shocked expression. *Apparently Lilypool, Rainpaw or Snowstar didn't tell anyone else other than me, not even their family members,* Mountainpaw thought sadly. It pained him too much to see such a big thing like this happening. How could he help Mousekit?

Finally, Petuniaheart was the first one to speak. Her expression seemed calm, but her tone was quiet and slightly worried. "Are Lilypool and Rainpaw doing anything to try and help?" Birchpaw just nodded slowly.

Mountainpaw nodded, and told them what the two medicine cats were struggling to do. Petuniaheart and Birchpaw looked like they did not want Mousekit to die either, but they were completely helpless in doing so, since they didn't know medicine. Primrosepaw also seemed helpless because she had barely learned any.

Meanwhile, Shadowclaw and Snowstar were in the same forest which eventually led to the cliff off into the creek that Primrosepaw fell into. They were trying to catch adequate prey, as they wanted to prepare for any sort of mishaps that could happen due to food absence.

Shadowclaw managed to catch five mice and one sparrow, and Snowstar three mice and three sparrows, which were pretty good enough.

"Should we catch any more?" Shadowclaw asked informally. "I know the prey pile is plentiful but..."

Snowstar shrugged, distracted in thought. "Well, we should take this haul back first." Shadowclaw frowned, because of his leader's tone. He knew he was also worried about Birdkit. The entirety of MoonClan was worried about her, including Shadowclaw. But warrior duties still had to continue, even if a newborn kit was diagnosed with a life-changing condition.

They both went back to camp, and also deposited the prey in the prey pile. They saw Petuniaheart, Birchpaw and Mountainpaw talking. About Mousekit. Shadowclaw wondered what about Mousekit they were talking about, until he heard about the subject.

"How will she survive with mucus in her lungs?" Mountainpaw wailed, putting his head in his paws sadly. Petuniaheart and Birchpaw's expressions looked sad but they didn't say anything, sort of like Swanpaw.

Snowstar's eyes were wide, but Shadowclaw gasped in shock. *"What?! What are you talking about!"* he exclaimed.

Snowstar's expression also became sad. He told his former apprentice in an apologetic tone, "Lilypool told me, Rainpaw, and apparently Mountainpaw about it. I didn't want to tell you not to worry you, but..."

Shadowclaw shook his head wildly. "No! N-Not after-after Goldenlily died!" A billion harrowing thoughts shot into his brain. *Mousekit! Don't die! Not for your siblings' sake! Don't DIE!* he screamed internally. He looked up at the stars and wondered if Goldenlily was seeing this. *I don't want you to join StarClan, too, Mousekit!* He didn't know what to do if that happened. He adored his sisters more than any tom did. If one died, he would feel like a failure, even if it wasn't his fault at all. For not being able to help even a teensy bit.

Swanpaw was still in the nursery. She was watching both Mousekit and Birdkit at the same time, and so were the other cats in the nursery. Before, Nightnose used to spend a ton of time in the nursery with Sandleap to make sure nothing terribly bad happened to her, but he still did some warrior duties. Now, he seemed to have become a queen himself, permanently staying in the nursery to watch over his daughter. Of course, this pissed off Stonepaw greatly, but Nightnose and Swanpaw couldn't care at all. Swanpaw was also with Primrosepaw and Begoniaclaw, who were monitoring Mousekit and Birdkit, too.

Birdkit was playing Chase with the other kits, but the older kits easily noticed how off Birdkit's playing was. But even Waterkit and Flowerkit started to notice, too.

When Birdkit was the chased, she usually didn't acknowledge it until it was too late and she got caught. And she didn't realize she got caught until Thymekit, Lilackit or Jumpkit had to remind her, which took her a few more seconds to process, and it made her really confused. The three older kits were fine with reminding her for the first few times. However, as Birdkit kept not noticing that she got touched until a few seconds afterwards (usually four or five seconds), the older kits started to show slight annoyance towards her behavior. When she was supposed to be the chaser, she usually kept missing the kits as they ran around the nursery. She only caught her sister, Flowerkit, twice when she stood still as she wanted to be the chaser instead.

"Uh... no offense, but is she fit for Chase?" Thymekit asked Sandleap, slightly annoyed.

Sandleap just became sad. "Maybe you need to go slower. I remember when Primrosepaw was a kit, her friends usually played the game slower," she said, trying to remedy the situation. Waterkit and Flowerkit got confused as they didn't understand why, but Thymekit, Lilackit and Jumpkit just nodded.

Primrosepaw nodded empathetically with Birdkit, too. "Yeah... they had to do... that, otherwise... I couldn't play... with them, which... would be sad... for me."

"Well, but I want to be active, though!" Jumpkit exclaimed. "I want to be a good warrior!"

"Me too! *Is* Birdkit going to be a warrior? Or a medicine cat?" Lilackit asked inquiringly.

Flipsnow explained, "Well, my kits, part of being a good warrior is being a good Clanmate to your fellow warriors. Birdkit is your fellow Clanmate, so you should also try to make her feel better."

"Maybe a medicine cat," said Birdkit out of the blue. "Medicine is cool!"

Rainpaw smiled. "See? She likes medicine. She doesn't *have* to be a warrior!"

Swanpaw was still watching them from a sitting position. Of course, she couldn't say anything to help Birdkit. She wasn't even sure if she could communicate with Birdkit, since the she-kit already had trouble with listening to sounds. Visual sign language was probably going to be next to impossible for her to decipher, since her thinking was delayed. But she smiled, letting Birdkit know that she was supportive of her regardless of her condition. After four seconds, Birdkit smiled back at Rainpaw and Swanpaw.

"Do you want to have a mate or kits, though?" Redwater asked cautiously. "You do need to decide this before you become a medicine cat."

Begoniaclaw nodded and frowned. "Yep, I can say it myself, being in *AdderClan* and all. The medicine cat after Amberleaf, Hollyclaw, became a medicine cat because her mother, Cougarlily, who was also Amberleaf's friend, wanted her to. So Hollykit accepted, however, when she became a medicine cat, she decided that she wanted kits, and was regretting becoming a medicine cat. Luckily she didn't break the rule, because she died from greencough."

Rainpaw nodded. Swanpaw wondered if Birdkit understood the entire explanation, because while she had no idea how it was like for Birdkit, she wondered if a ton of dialogue messed with her thinking. Nightnose looked at his daughter curiously.

Birdkit seemed to be thinking. Then she said, "I am a kit, though."

Flowerkit said to her sister, "Me too! But I like kits!"

"Me three!" Waterkit exclaimed cheerfully.

Rainpaw smiled. "Well, that is fine, you can always decide when you are older."

Suddenly, Swanpaw yawned, which made everyone look at her, including Birdkit after her usual time. It had sort of become instinctive for the entire Clan, including the newborn kits, to look at her whenever she moved, especially if she moved abruptly. Since that was the only way she could speak, anyway, even if it was an involuntary movement like yawning. She just smiled tiredly back at them.

Nightnose smiled back at his brother's apprentice. "Are you sure you want to stay here, Swanpaw? Maybe you can sleep here if you want."

Swanpaw just shrugged, which meant, "I don't know". She yawned once before, but after doing a little fighting training with Nutclaw, so not inside the nursery. She was feeling sleepy since she was here the entire day. *But no, I have to watch the kits.*

But then suddenly, Swanpaw frowned. She remembered someone very important. *Mousekit.* She and Petalkit were both sleeping next to Sandleap, so they weren't participating in the game. Rainpaw, Swanpaw and Primrosepaw were sitting next to Sandleap, just like Nightnose was, since both Mousekit and Birdkit were with her. Swanpaw prodded Mousekit slightly, to see if she would respond. She didn't.

Swanpaw blinked and patted her. She resented in a lot of situations where she couldn't speak, especially the situation where she had to wake someone up, if they had to do warrior duties, or something else important, so she usually ended up using physical force, which she excelled in the most, since public speaking was out of the picture, unlike Primrosepaw. Mousekit still didn't respond. She patted her harder.

By this point, everyone noticed what she was doing. Primrosepaw also frowned. "Uh... is Mousekit still sleeping?"

"Probably," answered Sandleap. "You should probably let her sleep, since she has *that* condition." She also frowned at the mention of the condition.

Primrosepaw just nodded slowly, however, Swanpaw had an awful gut feeling. That something was terribly and utterly wrong. She didn't know how to say this, but she frowned even more, the frown turning into a disquieted grimace. She patted the floor loudly, and Petalkit moved her tail very slightly. But Mousekit did not even move a whisker.

Everyone caught onto Swanpaw's unease sooner or later, and they looked at Mousekit. Rainpaw's frown copied Swanpaw's, and she also shook Mousekit. "Mousekit?"

*Suddenly, Swanpaw and Rainpaw gasped at the same time (Swanpaw making the motions for it). They pulled their paws away and looked at each other with a ton of shock. Swanpaw felt like Mousekit now. She started feeling like she couldn't breathe, and she looked outside the nursery, at the stars.* No. Not this.

*Mountainpaw shook his head at Shadowclaw.* "No, no! Don't worry! Surely! StarClan can't be testing us like this!"

*"How do you know it's StarClan?" muttered Birchpaw anxiously. "Maybe it's nature. StarClan can't do everything, especially things like* this!"

*Petuniaheart and Snowstar looked at their son with a perturbed expression. Snowstar started, "I think so, but still, we should pray that StarClan-"*

*Suddenly Rainpaw ran outside the nursery.* "OH NO! LILYPOOL! COME HERE! COME!" *she screamed at the top of her lungs.*

*Shadowclaw and Mountainpaw both gasped loudly at the same time. Other cats from their dens also came to see what was happening. All together they ran to the nursery.*

*Swanpaw had buried her head in Mousekit's pelt. Everyone in the nursery was as shocked as Swanpaw was, including the older kits. Petalkit had woken up by now, and looked like she was wondering what was happening. Then she looked at her littermate.*

*There was no pulse from Mousekit.*

*Shadowclaw and Icemoon gasped. The newborn kits were pretty confused what happened.* "No! MOUSEKIT!" *the two littermates said at the same time.*

*The rest of the Clan also gasped when they heard what happened. Mountainpaw drastically wondered how this could have happened.*

*Shadowclaw and Icemoon ran up to Mousekit, and Petalkit, Birdkit, Waterkit, and Flowerkit, seemed to be confused why everyone was sad, until Shadowclaw exclaimed,* "Mousekit! MOUSEKIT! WAKE UP! DON'T DIE! I FEARED THIS ALL ALONG!"

*"Me, too," murmured Birchpaw, standing next to Mountainpaw, his expression looking blank. Mountainpaw could say nothing. Neither could Swanpaw, even if she* could *speak. She wished for Goldenlily to come back along with Mousekit, but nothing happened. For a moment she thought she heard a voice.* Don't worry, Swanpaw. She's with me now. And Lightkit and Fallkit. *Swanpaw gasped.* Goldenlily.

*Icemoon started wailing loudly.* "NO! GOLDENLILY! MOUSEKIT! COME BACK FROM STARCLAN!" *she screamed at the top of her lungs. Shadowclaw sobbed, the grief of losing Goldenlily resurfacing. The queens, Nutclaw, Maplestripe, Sealbranch, Hailstream, Quailclaw, Zebrapaw, and Primrosepaw were next to Mousekit, too, and they also looked really sad, and they couldn't think of anything to say to comfort their troubled friends.*

*Petalkit was shocked as well. Then she also started wailing for Mousekit. Shadowclaw sobbed even more. The world started spinning and he couldn't make sense of anything anymore.* Goldenlily! MOUSEKIT! *he cried internally. Then he collapsed on Mousekit, too, her body getting cooler by the moment, trying to hide his face from everyone and everything.* GOLDENLILY! MOUSEKIT! *Then he heard a voice, like Swanpaw had.* Don't be sad, Shadowclaw. I took Mousekit with me, along with Lightkit and Fallkit.

*Shadowclaw blinked.* Lightkit? *He didn't know what to think about except that Mousekit went to StarClan peacefully, and stopped sobbing, but murmured, "There is no more life." He slowly started feeling dizzy from all of this... and everything turned black as he went out.*

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

*← Previous Chapter: Chapter 24: Sandleap's KitsNext Chapter: Chapter 26: Birdkit's Problems →*

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