Dawnflower's Sorrow

Chapter 16

Two moons have passed since Nightclaw had her kits and Dawnflower padded into the nursery after eating a rabbit. It was Greenleaf now, so prey is plentiful. Tigerstorm was watching the kits as she ate and they took turns watching their kits. When she walked in, Tigerstorm met her half way and nuzzled her before walking out and leaving for the rest of the day to train Rainpaw. Both Rainpaw and Blackpaw are doing great in their training and they would be warriors in the next two or three moons.

Dawnflower saw Brookkit and Thornkit playing together. Dawnflower has noticed that they have been getting rather close to each other in this last moon and that concerned the orange and white queen. Otterkit and Hawkkit were wrestling together and Honeykit was playing with Bramblekit and Tawnykit. Nightclaw was nowhere to be seen. She sneaks out at night sometimes and just leaves her kits. "Where's momma? I'm hungry." Darkkit complained to her brother, Mudkit. Tawnykit heard them and she agreed as well. Thornkit wasn't paying attention, he was too busy playing with Brookkit.

Dawnflower sighed at hearing the kit's hunger complaints. How could a mother leave her its like that? "I have enough milk to go around, you can have some of mine." Dawnflower said with reluctance. Even though she didn't like Nightclaw, no kit should go hungry. "Really?" Darkkit asked in surprise. Dawnflower nodded and laid down on her side. "Thank you." She said with a purr and Dawnflower nodded. Her own kits joined in except Brookkit, who was playing with Thornkit. "I'm only doing this once, Thornkit. You better get some now because I'm not doing it later." Dawnflower said with an attitude to the young kit and they both bounded over and suckled.

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Nightclaw padded into the den and she looked frantic when she didn't see her kits right away. She then looked at Dawnflower and saw that all the kits, even Nightclaw's, were asleep by her belly. Nightclaw glared at Dawnflower and the orange and white queen got up slowly and quietly, so as not to disturb them. "What do you think you're doing?" Nightclaw hissed. "Being a better mother then you'll ever be." Dawnflower hissed back. Nightclaw growled and went to attack Dawnflower but she dodged it and batted her hard with unsheathed claws. Dawnflower hissed and growled and knocked Nightclaw off her feet. Nightclaw was smaller than Dawnflower, muscle wise, and Dawnflower was stronger and better built than the black cat, and Nightclaw knew it.

Dawnflower pinned her down and bit down on her neck hard as a warning. "Don't ever do that again, or I'll kill you." Dawnflower said softly and menacingly into Nightclaw's ears. "I'd like to see you try." The black cat said with a dry laugh and Dawnflower growled and released the menace. She turned and saw all nine kits huddled up, scared, shaking, and wailing. "Come on kits." Dawnflower said and lead her kits out of the nursery. They reluctantly followed, out of fear, but did so anyway. She lead them to a shady tree and had them sit down in front of her. "Me and Nightclaw were just... playing." She lied with a smile, so as not to scare her kits. "That didn't look like playing." Otterkit said, her voice wavering with fear. Dawnflower went to speak but was interrupted by Bramblekit.

"I thought it was cool!" He exclaimed and the four other kits nodded in agreement. "Well I for one, don't like all that fighting." Otterkit said and Hawkkit looked at her with confusion. "But you were playing with me earlier." He said and Otterkit shook her head. "That was only play fighting. That looked like real fighting." She said and he shrugged. Dawnflower would like them to try fresh kill but they're still too young. The kits quickly forgot about what had happened in the nursery, for they were soon rolling around in play fight.

A few minutes later, Blackpaw padded up and laid down beside Dawnflower. "Hey, you're back early." She said with a smile and he nodded. "Yeah, Brackenfur said that I deserved the rest of the day off because of how amazing I was doing." The black and white apprentice said proudly. Dawnflower smiled proud and purred in response. The kits came rushing over and Blackpaw laughed and played with the kits as well. He would make a good father as well, Dawnflower observed with a smile. Nightclaw's kits bounded over, or tried to without stumbling and falling, and played with Dawnflower's kits.

The orange and white queen looked over and saw Nightclaw pad out of the nursery. The black cat stopped and the two queens locked eyes, glaring at each other with Nightclaw lashing her tail angrily. She then padded out of camp once more and Dawnflower rolled her eyes. Otterkit shortly padded to her mother and laid down in the crook of her chest and front leg. Dawnflower looked down and purred as she licked her kit. Within minutes, the tiny kit was fast asleep and purring.

Dawnflower noticed that Otterkit has become a sort of 'outcast' with the rest of the kits. That didn't cast her out, she just didn't have interest to play with them recently. She also noticed that they had specific best friends within the kits. Brookkit and Thornkit were practically inseparable and Bramblekit and Tawnykit were getting closer and Honeykit and Mudkit were best friends already and Hawkkit and Darkkit were getting closer every day. Of course they all played with each other and were all friends but they all went back to their groups, Dawnflower noticed.

Blackpaw had padded away awhile ago to talk to his mother, Mistyheart. Tigerstorm had returned awhile later and they head butted each other gently as a form of greeting. The kits ran over to him and played with him. He was back earlier than normal and Dawnflower didn't mind that. Otterkit, hearing the commotion, had woken up and was joining her siblings in a chorus of joy and playfulness. "Nightclaw left again." Dawnflower informed only soft enough so Tigerstorm could hear.

He gave a wide eyed look and Dawnflower nodded. "I'm practically raising nine kits instead five." She hissed in annoyance as the kits played, not paying attention to what the adults were talking about. "She's a horrible mother. She's out all the time, being disloyal to her clan. She's probably meeting a loner or being a kittypet and a clan cat at the same time; you can't do that. And she's leaving her kits to fend for themselves if it weren't for you. If you weren't there, her kits would have already been dead." Tigerstorm said as he gave a sympathetic look to the four kits.

As much as Dawnflower hated Nightclaw, she still felt sympathy for her kits. They shouldn't have an absent mother. The kits started getting tired and Dawnflower giggled. "Ok kits, come on. Back to the nursery it is." She said as she got to her paws and the kits followed and they padded in one by one, with the two adults following lastly. She laid down and let all the kits suckle one last time before going to sleep. It was her secret; suckle and sleep. Within minutes, they were done and asleep, sound on one moss bed. Tigerstorm padded behind her and laid down and rested his chin on her neck. All of them fell asleep quickly and soundly.