The Forgotten Fire

Prologue:

  "Mama, mama!" the shrill voices of kits young for many moons came.
The eye lids of a black she-cat flew open at the mews, her green eyes flashing with recognition. Attention on the kits, she forgot about the sleeping warriors who lay around her and moved to her paws, asking, "Nightkit, Mistkit, what are you doing here? Is StarClan calling for me so soon?"
"No," the she-kit who looked like her mother meowed and her sister added, "come meet the new kit!" The kits, starshine illuminating their pelts, turned tail and dashed out of the warriors' den. Their mother followed them with quick steps, only hesitating when she passed their littermate, a large tabby tom who had grown into a strong warrior.
The sisters led their mother across the clearing and toward the nursery, where cries from a queen were escaping the carefully crafted den walls. Several days prior a kit had been born, and it seemed more were coming this very night; it was a very good thing as without kits the clan would soon run out of apprentices and eventually have fewer warriors.
The sisters excitedly shrieked some more. "C'mon!" "Come see!"
The one-time queen ducked her head as she gently entered the nursery, not quite aware her presence would go unnoticed as she had merely stepped out of her body for this dream. Her soft steps follower her daughters' nonexistent trails until she was looking down a pale ginger tabby queen being assisted by the silver medicine cat and his spotted apprentice.
"Goldenflower's first litter," the dark queen murmured, her deceased kits bouncing as the young queen's first child entered the world.
"Fire, fire!" the little ones were singing as they excitedly hopped up and down.
'If I didn't know any better,' their mother thought, 'I'd think their paws were on fire.' But the thought did not last long because she instead asked, "What're you talking about darlings?" There was no fire around, not even a hint of burning-scent in the air.
The daughters looked to their mother, their eyes large and round like moons, their tails standing up straight and they were stretching their limbs to be as tall as could be. "Fire alone will save the clan!" they exclaimed in unison.
Confused, the queen's ears fell back a moment and she looked, puzzled, at her daughters. She opened her mouth to speak, but before she could another cat from the afterlife appeared.
"Forget what they're telling you, Leopardfoot," the speckled grey tom half-growled, "they misunderstood what they shouldn't have even heard." He gave the kits a stern look.
"Goosefeather," the black she-cat, Leopardfoot, asked, "what is going on?"
He huffed as his pale blue gaze moved from her kits to hers. "This kitten," his tail lashed toward the fuzzy bundle now nestled into Goldenflower's belly, "is going to do nothing but destroy the clans."
Leopardfoot was shocked a moment, but then her ears fell flat, "You're just as insane in death as you grew to be in life!"
His ears fell flat as well and his eyes narrowed, "For a moment I had forgotten that these sorts of kits appeal to your sympathy." With that, he padded around her kits, and all three of the StarClan cats were gone and Leopardfoot found herself in the darkness of sleep before waking to morning's first light.
Ignoring her body's feeling of grogginess, she rushed out of the warriors' den, pushing by her clanmates, and rushed toward the nursery. Before she was too near she heard voices.
"She's obviously her father's daughter," the leader commented.
Her deputy's voice floated out on the milk-scented air from beside his higher-up, "Have you already decided on a name?"
Leopardfoot was entering the den as Goldenflower's tired, but proud, response came, "Yes. Her name is Firekit."
"Perfect," the deputy purred, "she's beautiful."
"Oh," the grey-blue leader meowed as Leopardfoot approached alongside her, "come to see our newest clanmate, Leopardfoot?"
Leopardfoot nodded and met Bluestar's blue gaze as she responded, "Yes, I heard Goldenflower even in my dreams and woke with an intense interest."
Bluestar flicked an ear toward the queen and kit as Leopardfoot was finally close enough to see with no obstructions.
The bundle of fur was dark brown with ginger patches and a bushy ginger tail. A cloud in the sky moved and sent shaft of light into the den from a gap in the ceiling and the ginger fur appeared as brilliant as a blaze in the forest.
Leopardfoot's tail swished and she looked at the kit in wonder, recalling what the cats of StarClan had said to her. Redtail purred and gave the kit a lick, Goldenflower admired her firstborn, and Bluestar's voice warmly mewed, "Firekit—she'll grow to be a fine warrior and serve her clan well."