MoonClan's ambitious story/(1): The First Four Leaders/3/39

### Chapter 39: Swift Recovery

Birchcreek was eating a sparrow and a squirrel in the medicine cat's den as usual. His right hind leg was still healing, but he wasn't sure what he could do about it except wait for it to heal more. He remembered what he told Mountainpaw, Mountainkit at the time, seven and three-quarter moons ago, when he was almost becoming an apprentice and smiled. *"Well, every time you wait, you get closer to anything. So wait."* Though he wasn't sure how *long* he would have to wait. Kits become apprentices at fixed times, usually at six moons but sometimes more if they joined the Clan at a later time, like Spottedpaw. But injuries had no fixed times to heal, and it depended on the injury and the amount of care. Birchcreek wasn't walking that much as his Clanmates gave him and his other two injured friends, Whitestripe and Swanpaw, fresh prey that they hunted and some fresh water, much like Clanmates do with full-term pregnant queens. So he thought not walking that much would speed up the time of recovery. He was still only able to limp as putting pressure on it would hurt a lot for him anyways. For a moment he had a thought his leg might be somewhat permanently damaged, but he shook that off. Birchcreek knew his leg bones didn't shatter completely, it was just broken at several places, so he still had hope he could recover.

Whitestripe and Swanpaw still had to heal, though. They were doing much better now, too, except for the fact that it still hurt them to move their hips, so they still couldn't move around that well. Birchcreek remembered Shadowclaw's joke about Icemoon doing everything for Whitestripe after Whitestripe became a warrior, and Whitestripe had replied that he would only need to do so if he became a queen or the prey started breeding like crazy. *Well, that turned out to actually happen.* Icemoon had been giving him and Swanpaw prey she caught now, too. Of course, to prevent stagnancy, Clanmates were moving them around, and Whitestripe and Swanpaw healed enough to finally get to go to the nursery for the first time after their fall and see Dustkit and Oakkit, which was where they were right now, and it was a wonderful time.

Birchcreek was in the medicine cat's den by himself since he needed to rest his leg so he didn't go to the nursery with them, but he was able to feel it getting better which was great for him. However, he was getting a little bored since he usually talked to Whitestripe, Rainpaw and Swanpaw and also Lilypool while she was in the den, and he got to know the older medicine cat much better than he used to, especially about her littermate, Fallkit. It was odd to think Lilypool was his mother's maternal cousin since she was much older than even Petuniaheart and Blazesky.

Then while he was thinking, his mother entered the den with a mouse and a wet mossball. "Hello, Birchcreek, I figured you'd need some water," she greeted warmly.

Birchcreek smiled back. "Thanks, Petuniaheart, though I don't need the mouse, I already ate."

"Oh, don't worry, it's for me to eat while I chat with you," she said, putting down her mouse and gave him the mossball.

Birchcreek nodded and took a sip from it. "I guess that's fine. I was just thinking about Whitestripe and Swanpaw's injuries."

Petuniaheart nodded back, though she looked a little sad at that. "I am glad they are doing much better now, thanks to Lilypool, Rainpaw, and of course you."

He just looked down humbly and waited for her to continue, since of course, it was true that he saved and helped them out, especially on the emotional end.

His mother's expression looked excited about something. "Speaking of which, I heard they're visiting the nursery. It seems like Birdkit, Waterkit and Flowerkit still remembered them when they all sneaked into the medicine cat's den together which makes sense, and of course, Petalkit already did."

Birchcreek chuckled, remembering his older niece trying to steal a few juniper berries before Rainpaw and Thymepaw caught her in time. "They are pretty lively, even for kits."

Petuniaheart beamed, since of course, they were her first grandchildren, and Petalkit seemed like one, too, since she was her daughter's foster daughter. "I know. I know they will be great warriors and medicine cats in the future, and they will be able to succeed, including Petalkit."

"I wholeheartedly agree. And what about Dustkit and Oakkit?"

She beamed even more at the mention of her great-nephew and niece. "They're doing so wonderfully. Dustkit's the older and more talkative of the two, but Oakkit is easily as crafty as him, maybe even more! Her shyness probably comes from being around her parents and brother, but when she's by herself, she's more outgoing, kind of like Robinpaw and Soarpaw as kits, and perhaps Jumpkit, too, as Thymepaw and Lilackit always seemed to overpower him a little while they were around him, but he was more loud by himself, and Robinpaw and Soarpaw were more comfortable away from talkative kits and around other shy kits."

Birchcreek nodded, thinking of something humorous, taking another sip of water. "I guess that means they're passively talkative, or assertively shy? Maybe aggressively shy for Whitestripe and his littermate, and perhaps Jumpkit, too."

"I guess you can say that. However, for me and Blazesky, like Primrosepaw, Quailclaw, Whitestripe, Mountainpaw and perhaps Petalkit, we *only* used to talk to our family members, and I guess I could say we were just a little aggressively shy."

He was a bit surprised to hear his mother's anecdote of her and Blazesky being aggressively shy, since he thought they were simply shy. Even now they didn't usually talk much, except when explaining something or telling a story like right now, kind of like most of their kids, including himself when it came to serious matters.

Petuniaheart continued, "We were the only kits in the leader's den along with Maplestripe, because we were the leader's kits, of course, and since Queenheart, Lilypool and Maplestripe's mother, left the Clan, Moonstar had to nurse him for some time, almost a half-moon. So we were only friendly to each other, Moonstar, Orangehill who was our father, and Lilypool, who became a full medicine cat at seventeen moons when we were two moons old. Blazesky was the more quiet one, Maplestripe the thoughtful one and I was the boisterous one."

Even though he knew it already, Birchcreek felt a little weird to think that kits could actually stay in the leader's den, since it was usually a secluded, high-risk area. But then again, Moonstar was the only she-cat leader he knew who had kits after leadership so far, since SnowClan Snowstar didn't have any. But he was more surprised to know more about his mother's personality back then, and it oddly reminded him of the two trios he had heard so far, which was probably what she was referring to, at least the first one anyways. He didn't mind that Petuniaheart decided to launch into a story about her past since she didn't often do so anyways, and he was curious to know.

"Everybody in MoonClan was interested in us for obvious reasons, but it was very annoying for me as I really wanted to be by myself. So like Whitestripe and his sister, I tried to scare off any visitors by acting boorish. But for some reason, Snowstar and Forestcreek, Snowpaw and Forestpaw back then, were persistent on meeting us, and even their mentors, Barktail and Poppyfall, couldn't stop them!"

Birchcreek knew that Barktail was Littleclaw's father and his father's mentor, while Poppyfall was Watereye's mother, and apparently also the cousin of Rosepetal's father, Cloudear, but of course, they had both died before he was born. He wondered if his mother's story was about rivals to lovers, as it sort of came off like that to him. It was very weird to him considering they were his *parents,* and to top it off, they already shared grandchildren now, too.

"But luckily, their mother, Lilyear, managed to convince them that they can chat with me when I was older. Since she seemed nice enough, Moonstar decided to make her my mentor. Of course, you know that Honeyflight became Blazesky's mentor since Moonstar knew that she can trust her skills, and that was when Blazesky finally got a good friend, Littleclaw, her son, of course."

Birchcreek nodded, knowing his paternal grandmother had mentored his mother, and his uncle and Littleclaw were close friends since the former was an apprentice, and that was why they had mated with the two MoonClan kittypet sisters and their kits were close to each other. He wondered if it was common to mate with one's mentor's child, since he knew that Lilyear had probably influenced her son and her apprentice to be together. Littleclaw and Blazesky were also best friends, Peonyclaw and Flipsnow had befriended Rosepetal, Nightnose and Nutclaw since they usually visited their mentor's children in the nursery, Birdkit, Waterkit and Flowerkit seemed to admire Whitestripe very much for being their mother's apprentice, Robinpaw had become better friends with Mountainpaw, Lilackit and Jumpkit after being apprenticed to Flipsnow, and Thymepaw seemed to really want to be friends with Soarpaw.

"However, when I got apprenticed to Lilyear, it wasn't the case for me since I thought Snowstar and Forestcreek were too outgoing for me, and I was also a bit skeptical of Flipsnow and Peonyclaw when they joined but Blazesky was quick to befriend all of them. Apparently, Snowstar wanted to mentor one of them since his father was a kittypet, of course, but Watereye and Diamondfly had snatched the opportunity before he could. Luckily I had befriended the two sisters sometime later, too, and tried to make them feel comfortable since I was the leader's daughter. I also felt the same as Snowstar when I had wanted to mentor Goldenlily, Goldenkit at the time, and she also wanted to be my apprentice, but Moonstar gave her to my father, Orangehill, instead. We were both exceptionally angry at her for that." Petuniaheart smiled at that, which seemed so different from Birchcreek's usual thoughts about her personality.

It felt odd for Birchcreek to see his mother smile at mischief she might have done in the past since she usually seemed so calm and patient, especially in his kithood. But Petuniaheart seemed oddly happy at Birdkit acting mischievous, too, and totally ignored Whitestripe and Stonetooth's attitude towards others as kits, and so had Blazesky, and Birchcreek realized it was probably because they were like her, too. But he figured Petuniaheart must have mellowed down after starting to have kits, which was why he never saw her like that.

But the most important part was that Goldenlily wanted to be Petuniaheart’s apprentice and was apparently upset that she couldn’t be one. Birchcreek silently wondered if this had to do something with her mating with Swiftclaw later on in warriorhood. *Was she feeling alienated from what she felt comfortable with, in this case Petuniaheart? Did she feel that Swiftclaw was much better than Orangehill? Wasn’t Petuniaheart still there to fill her void?* He remembered that Greenheart, Goldenlily’s mother, had also died when she was an apprentice. *Did that further deepen the pain?* He wasn’t sure if he could ask his mother about it since she most likely wouldn’t have known.

"So what happened afterwards?" he asked. "And were there any kits in the nursery when you were born? And were Flipsnow and Peonyclaw nice?"

"No, the nursery was empty, and I think they were when they joined, but Peonyclaw started becoming more boisterous during apprenticehood. And Goldenlily was angry, of course, and didn’t want to train for a quarter-moon, since we were like best friends. Apparently Moonstar thought I was too shy for the task while Orangehill knew how to convey information properly, but she promised that I would get someone later. But eventually, I outgrew my shyness and immaturity and decided to start a family with Snowstar, and of course I got Redwater as an apprentice. And I was happy for Littleclaw and Blazesky when they had kits with Flipsnow and Peonyclaw, of course. And I was a little comforted when Goldenlily eventually joined the nursery, too, and so we hoped that our children would be friends, and of course, that was the case.”

”So, you basically changed in a way similar to Whitestripe, right? And Goldenlily did, too?”

Petuniaheart nodded. ”Yes, of course. But it was sad for me to see her die, of course, since other than my brother, she was my like mind, even if I was fourteen moons older than her. But I just wanted to tell you that change can occur, and that a shy kit can be an outgoing warrior, and sometimes vice versa.”

The dark brown warrior thought he might be vice versa since after the death of Goldenlily, he had quieted down a bit. His friends and family had been worried about his mental health since he hadn’t talked as much as he used to. Now, he figured he was still outgoing, though in a more modest way, but also more serious.

“I guess I can agree with that,” said Birchcreek. “A lot of things can change due to circumstances.”

Petuniaheart nodded again and said, “Yes, I just wanted to spend time with you to keep you company. I know you liked my company the best in kithood, considering your behavior.”

Birchcreek smiled. He knew that he used to sleep so much in the moss bed he shared with his mother in the nursery.

“This was a good chat, wasn’t it? Now I think I should go and train Mountainpaw now,” continued his mother.

”Yes, of course. I hope Mountainpaw does well,” he replied.

Petuniaheart nodded and got up to leave the medicine cats’ den. Birchcreek wondered what he should do now, but then he remembered that he hadn’t gone to the elder’s den in a while, not even for a half-moon before his fall since he was so caught up in all the chaos that could occur to worry about the elders.

When he entered the elder’s den, he saw something curious; Littleclaw, Rosepetal and Nightnose were with Wisdomheart, and Watereye and his former mentor were with Redear. Wisdomheart had mentored Littleclaw, who in turn mentored Rosepetal, and of course, she mentored Nightnose. And Redear had mentored Watereye, and of course, he mentored Peonyclaw.

He wondered if there was a mentor-apprentice session going on, or if Littleclaw and Watereye wanted to visit their elder mentors (and for Littleclaw, also Honeyflight), or both, so Birchcreek decided to join Redear, Watereye and Peonyclaw. *At least Blazesky and Sealbranch and Dandelionpaw aren’t visiting Honeyflight,* he thought humorously. *Or Pinetail, Orchidmoon and Heronwing.*

Wisdomheart, Peonyclaw and Nightnose smiled at him when he entered since they had a close relationship to him. The other cats acknowledged him, too, and the dark brown warrior smiled back, since of course, he was the most popular cat in the Clan now, equally along with Rainpaw.

”Hey, we’re just visiting our mentors while visiting their mentors, too!” Nightnose said happily.

”I guess I should do the same to equal you then,” Birchcreek joked back.

”Good luck!” Honeyflight exclaimed from a corner of the den.

Birchcreek smiled and asked his former mentor, “What are you talking about anyways?”

”We’re listening to Watereye’s story about Anna,” she replied.

Watereye nodded. “After mentoring Peonyclaw, I got a great feeling about kittypets, and my view of them increased significantly.” Peonyclaw looked a little proudly at that. “Then I happened to meet Anna, and of course, she was nice like Peonyclaw. I didn’t find any suitors in the Clan, so I decided to become her mate. I told Peonyclaw about it first, and of course, she wanted to help us out, especially when Anna gave birth to Nightnose and Nutclaw. When they were weaned, Peonyclaw and I took them to MoonClan since they would probably have been taken away by Anna’s Twolegs, and I renamed them Nightkit and Nutkit.”

”Did Peonyclaw help with bringing them back? She was probably nursing Violetrain and Fireclaw,” Birchcreek asked.

”No, but I *did* make them feel comfortable in their new surroundings,” Peonyclaw replied. “That is why they are still great to me today. I even offered to nurse them if they hadn’t been completely weaned off from Anna, but of course, they were.”

Nightnose was obviously eavesdropping, so he nodded. “Yep, that’s all true.”

”That must be great, but I was also wondering, what were their original names? Since you said they were renamed,” the dark brown warrior continued.

Watereye shrugged. ”I don’t honestly know. Anna didn’t seem to know either, since she only heard her Twolegs refer to them as Anna’s older kit and younger kit, or Anna’s kits for both.”

”Is that the same for Flameeye and Redwater?”

”I am pretty sure, because their mothers never named them themselves,” Peonyclaw replied.

”I remembered thinking it was foolish to take away kits from their mothers, especially for Twolegs, but the four seemed to have adjusted well,” Redear said, sounding much older than Watereye and Peonyclaw.

”Redear *was* very grumpy at his apprentice for it,” Peonyclaw said with a smile. "Since of course, his mate died when Blackfur was young. But he was pretty strict in general."

"He use to scold me as an apprentice, always," Watereye added.

"That was because you acted too rowdy for my liking," Redear replied. "It was no wonder you were so drawn to Peonyclaw."

Birchcreek was a bit surprised to learn that Watereye might have been more like Peonyclaw back then, or at least similar that he didn't like to appeal to authority if it didn't suit him. But he nodded. "Redear, how often do Heronwing, Robinpaw and Soarpaw visit you, anyways?" he decided to ask the elder.

Redear replied without even moving, "More often than you'd expect. They might have been terribly shy, but not to me or their mother. They visited the elders' den more often than they did the nursery."

Birchcreek nodded, feeling a little relieved that Robinpaw and Soarpaw were still talkative to their grandfather. He figured Whitestripe, Stonetooth, Berrypaw and Primrosepaw were not at all receptive to their grandparents, especially the ones who never left the elders' den like Wisdomheart, Laketail and Streamclaw. He didn't really see them communicating all that much with them as kits, unlike Thymepaw and Forestcreek for example, who always interacted.

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

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