Call of Blossoms

The crescent moon hung high overhead as Blossomstep's muffled yowl broke the quiet of the night. It hadn't been long after the Gathering that she discovered she was expecting kits, and she had been beyond thrilled to share the news with Wolfcall. As much as she had longed to share it with Spottedstar as well, she wasn't entirely sure how he would take the news, let alone even see her. As another round of blinding pain gripped her entire body she yowled again, failing to bury her muzzle in her new nest in the nursery this time. How long would this pain last? Was this her punishment for not following Spottedstar home, choosing to fight instead? She whimpered softly, gray eyes barely peeking open as she searched for the figure of her mate. Was he there? Had he come to sit with her? Was Sagelight and Honeysong on their way now? Would they be able to help? Oh hair on a squirrel's pelt she hoped so.

He'd spent the last quarter-moon sleeping outside the nursery, not wanting to crowd the queens inside, but needing to be close to his mate. The news that they were expecting kits was more than exciting to Wolfcall - it was exhilarating, life changing, the most important thing he felt like he'd ever do. The young tom was ecstatic to become a father, and had taken to spending every waking moment by Blossomstep's side, ensuring that she was safe and fed and pampered to the point he was sure he was getting on her nerves. But it was worth it, and now it was time.

His head snapped up at her yowl, and Wolfcall blinked drowsily as he bolted to his feet. "Blossomstep?" he started to poke his head in to the nursery, but another yelp of pain made him start in realization. The kits! It was time for them to come! "I'll be right back!" he assured her, turning on heel and sprinting to the medicine den. "Sagelight! Honeysong!" he cried into the den. "It's Blossomstep! The kits! Hurry!"

Once he was sure they were sufficiently roused, he returned hastily back to the nursery, slinking in to stand behind Blossomstep and grooming the top of her head with slow, relaxing strokes. "I'm here, they're on their way, don't fret my love."

Just as it felt like he was finally drifting off to sleep, he faintly heard his name through the haze between sleep and reality. Who was that...who's voice? Someone needed him. He was so tired...He just wanted to sleep. But, as always, duty called... Sagelight grunted as he got to his paws, shaking the sleep out of his eyes. He shook out his fur to get some blood pumping again, blinking awake as a familiar black pelt careened into the medicine cats' den. "Wolfcall...Blossomstep?" he mumbled absently, exhaustion thick in his voice. Oh stars, her kits were coming. Sagelight snapped awake with a violent start, adrenaline coursing through his veins almost immediately. The tom began rummaging through the herb storage for what he needed, talking to himself. "Wolfcall, tell Blossomstep we'll be right there. Honeysong, wake up and fetch me a stick or two, then meet me in the nursery! I've got the rest."

The only other births he had helped with were Spottedstar's litters, his nieces and nephews...And now one of his nephews was having a litter. Ah, they all grow up so fast...He couldn't help but feel rather old as he darted out of the den and into the nursery, a generous supply of chervil and raspberry leaves held in his mouth. Without checking to see if Honeysong was behind him, he crouched down in front of Blossomstep and deposited a few chervil leaves and some raspberry leaves by her face. "Chew on these but don't eat them. They'll help with the pain. Honeysong will be here soon with a stick for you to bite down on. In the meantime..." The medicine cat shifted over and placed his paw on the soon-to-be queen's swollen stomach, feeling for the kits. "Let's see...there's one, and two...and a third...four...five...six? No, five. You've got five kits, Blossomstep, so hang in there." Sagelight's old fire seemed to be alight in his eyes with the excitement of a kitting. Stars, how he had missed feeling so exhilarated. Maybe this would be a good thing for him.

"Honeysong, where is that stick?"

"I'm coming!" came the muffled, elusively sharp response of the younger medicine cat. Honeysong had been bolted awake immediately by everyone's shouting, and she had set herself to work in finding a sturdy-enough stick that wouldn't easily give under the strength of Blossomstep's powerful jaw. Though, it had been hard to reach anything with Sagelight rushing to and fro around the storage. She had been just about to enter the nursery when she heard her uncle's loud call for her. Having taken the shout as impatience, Honeysong's sleep-induced crabbiness turned immediately into irritation. "I'm moving as fast as I can, Sagelight, sheesh!" she hissed under her breath once she deposited the stick next to him, grateful for the loud noises in the den drowning out her remark. She didn't want Sagelight to be mad at her.

As Wolfcall returned to her side, she pressed her nose into his chest. Faintly she could hear approaching pawsteps, and bit back a groan as paws that were firm but gentle moved over her rounded belly, and Sagelight's voice reached her ears. F"ive?!" She exclaimed before her tail curled in another wave of pain. She moved her head over to the leafy smelling herbs and wrinkled her nose for only a moment before taking them between her teeth and biting down, hoping with all her might that they would help the way the medicine cat said they would. Five kits... Was Sagelight certain? Would there be less, or maybe more? Honeysong came then, dropping a stick near Sagelight that Blossomstep eyed. A much sharper pain than the others soon came, and Blossomstep couldn't resist the urge to spit the herbs to the side as she let out a yowl of pain. The kits were coming.

~~~

After what felt like moons, it was finally over. Blossomstep lay on her side, exhausted and panting, a splintered stick just outside of her jaws. The pain had been unlike anything she had ever felt, but as she wearily lifted her head to survey the six tiny bundles of fur next to her belly, blind and almost impossibly small. Her head turned to look to her mate with a sleepy grin, and she purred weakly as she licked his cheek. "Look, Wolfcall. Six kits. Our kits." Looking back to the tiny creatures that seemed so unbelievable despite being right in front of her, her eyes started to fill with tears again, but not those of pain. "Why don't you name the first one? We can take turns." She choked out around the lump in her throat as she gently nuzzled the nearest kit with her nose.

Warmth. The little kit felt warmth. Suddenly, she was pushed out of the warm, safe haven she was in and brought out into the real world. NO! Nononono... The little kit panicked, pushing her way through the wriggling mass that were her...siblings? It was cold. So, so cold. She needed milk. The cream and grey she-kit pushed herself, finding the scent of warm milk. Sighing in relief, she nuzzled next to her mother, drinking in her fill of milk.

The wet encased kit gave many mews of surprise after she was pushed out of the safety of her mother’s womb. A rough tongue tumbled the large white and grey kit while she inhaled Blossomstep’s scent. She was shivering from the shock. After having her first poop in the new world she now resided, the she-kit nestled towards her siblings warmth and found herself a tit to mark as her own. The sweet milk gave her the first experience of taste and she gobbled the milk that made a mess on her face. After taking her fill, she mewed for quite some time and then fell asleep amongst her siblings, including watchful eyes of the Skyclan cats.

The kitten, soaked from the birthing process, emerged into the cool morning air, immediately beginning to mewl, wiggling into the warmth that was in front of her, it was a wonderful smell, making her mouth water, so she went closer, finding a nub, and another warm body next to her. She couldn't hear or see anything, only smell and feel. this fact made her flinch, but she continued towards the nub she felt earlier, and by instinct, latched on and suckled, the milk filling her mouth, and warming her tummy. The grey kitten suckled her fill as she felt tongues on her fur, but she paid them no mind, feeling safe as one by one more bodies piled in.

Six kittens. At the sound of that, Wolfcall's head swam for a moment. Stars knew they needed the numbers, but six in one litter? That was just short of miraculous. The deputy's throat tightened as a surge of emotion overtook him, and wordlessly, he pressed his cheek against Blossomstep's, closing his eyes. He had never been happier in his life than he was at this moment. And if he never was again, that would be enough.

Prompted to name the first kit, Wolfcall opened his eyes, leaning in to nose at the one she indicated - a brown-striped tom with a strange reddish hue to his coat. Their only son. His brow drew together at the rust-red color, the same as, "Blood..." he didn't even mean to say it, and the utterance startled even him, but once it was out, Wolfcall couldn't deny that it seemed a fitting name. Unconventional, yes... and perhaps even a little cruel, but still fitting. Doubling down on his reasoning, the dark tom nodded. "Blood. So we never forget what it took to get us here."

Ages. Eons. Millenia. Moons... none of this meant anything to a kit that had not even drawn breath yet. So all he knew was that he had been in a warm albeit cramped place that he was content with. Occasionally he heard the sounds of his mother. Her voice. Her heartbeat. Her breath. Even inside her he wanted to respond... he knew that she was the most important thing in his small universe right now. So when his cramped slumbering place became smaller, then bigger, then smaller over and over again in waves.... a part of him panicked. He felt his siblings struggle around him, though he did not quite have the concept of what a sibling was yet. The strange movements, the intensifying howls of his mother in pain, the sudden extra room as one kit left the mother after the next... The kit began to thrash as if to fight the strange force that had suddenly entered his place of peace. Still, the inevitable happened and the kit left his mother's womb with a rush of cold air upon his tiny frame. He inhaled sharply, then unleashed the most powerful scream that his newly found lungs could muster. He writhed and squeaked in protest of this new environment, feeling around with his tiny paws for some sort of direction or hint of what to do or where to go.

Warmth... he crawled towards the warmth. He bumped into familiar masses of matter beside him as well. Something powerfully instinctive drove him forward and he began to skim the warmth for.... something. He didn't know, nor could he think for very long. Something to his right nudged him, putting him off balance for just a moment. He nudged it back as hard as he could, determined to find the thing that he knew he needed. His mouth skimmed over his mother's belly again, and finally found one of her teets. As he suckled and warm, mother's milk flowed into his tiny body, he knew that that was it... that's what he needed. From then on, he was content with drinking in the pale fluid of life. Whatever had happened before or what would happen after was no longer his concern. He had found his place in the world for now. He was home.

In the beginning, there was-- well, to say nothing wouldn't be entirely accurate. There was warmth, and comfort, and safety, and a naive innocence that shielded the newborn kit from the ways of the world, the ways of the Clans and the forest and the stars. An innocence that, like any shield, would crack and break with time, and a warmth that would undoubtedly fade, replaced with the cold, harsh winds of reality in the forest, a comfort and safety that would fall away like petals from a flower- in time.  But the kit was mercifully unaware of this. She did not know peace or war, the stars or the earth, predator or prey, Wind or Thunder, River or Shadow; she did not even know Sky. All she knew was the warmth of her mother, her father, her siblings. But in the beginning, there was nothing.

And then, there was. There was existence in the world, an independent agent of life and breath- and as the kit opened her eyes for the first time, she knew light. And as her ears twitched to take in the mewls of her siblings, she knew sound- and what a cacophony it was! (And one, of course, the kit contributed to.) And she knew, against all odds, safety. As long as the cats in her presence remained, she would be safe, and cared for, and the shield would last a little longer. But unlike her siblings, the kit did not yet know thirst; so instead, she sat, just a few feet away, her fur a gleaming amber-orange, like a gentle flame. And she watched, her gaze fixed on her mother, her father, her siblings, the strange cats who smelled of weirdness and seemed to be helping with the whole situation-- yes, she watched, and with every passing moment, gained just a little more awareness.

I'm awake. I'm alive, the kit thought, her fur shimmering like fire in the light as she turned to watch her littermates, giving a loud mew of- well, existence, really. Not mewing for anything specifically, but now that she could, she might as well. (And then without the faintest level of self-awareness; And do they have to be so loud?)

Silence and warmth. That's what the world was. A little she-kit had accepted that as a fact, seeing as it was all she'd ever known. What could there possibly be beyond this dark, warm nest? This was her universe. Her everything. So, it understandably came as quite a shock when her universe began to shift. She could feel other little shapes press against her, seemingly in a hurry. Where could they be going? This place was already perfect. She didn't want to leave. But it seemed she didn't have a choice, as some invisible force began to push her out. Why couldn't she just stay here? She struggled against the pushing, but her efforts were in vain as she soon found herself outside of what she'd previously assumed to be her universe. She felt something she'd never felt before. She had nothing to compare it to, but it felt horrible. Like her throat was burning yet her outside had been plunged into ice cold water. She was entirely wet, but her throat was wet in a different way. There was an odd metallic-smelling liquid coming from it. She opened her mouth, wanting to alert this new world of her discomfort- but nothing happened. Her throat burned more with each attempt to make noise, and eventually the kit gave up. A new instinct filled her body, urging her to eat. On autopilot, she followed her nose to a big warm object. It reminded her of her past world, it radiated the same warmth. Not really understanding why or how, she latched onto a teat and began to drink.

Blossomstep blinked, her content expression giving way to confusion and shock. "Blood?...," she echoed, the surprise evident in her mew. She looked at the tiny tom, fighting the urge to refuse the name absolutely. "... Alright, Bloodkit. May you always remember your roots, and strive to create your own to join the rest of our clan." She touched her nose to his little frame before turning to the others, silently looking over each of them before nuzzling the she-kits gingerly in turn. "You will be Adderkit, may you be as quick and poised as your namesake. Dewkit, I hope you will be as gentle and reassuring as the morning dew on the forest floor. Firekit, may you be a light in our clan, and forge your name for yourself. Summitkit, may you stand tall against the challenges that you will face, and overcome them. And Mistkit.... May you be as steady and beautiful as the mist that shields the forest, yielding to nothing." She looked up to Wolfcall, eyes shining with tears. "What do you think?"