Tiny Paws in Turmoil (Open)

Snowfoot had been asked to come to the nursery for a reason undisclosed. The she-cat poked her nose into the unfamiliar den. “You called?” she asked the cat who’d sent for her. But then she saw something that made her breath catch in her throat. Darkpelt. The queen had been sickly ever since the flood, and it seemed it had finally claimed her. Two tiny fuzzballs huddled by her side. Burntkit and Sablekit, Darkpelt’s kits, were motherless. Snowfoot looked to the other cat. “Does this have anything to do with the other times I’ve adopted kits?”

Pressed against his mother's body, Sablekit mewled pitifully. The warmth was quickly seeping from her lifeless corpse, leaving the kit cold and wanting. The small black kit pushed away from the body, squirming his way around the nursery in an endless abyss of darkness. Each movement was a labor for the newborn kit. His tiny head eventually bumped into something soft, which send the kit spiraling into another fit of weak cries.

A shivering Burnkit lie down next to his mother. He was too cold and didn't have any energy to move. He heard his sibling wail but just raised his ears momentarily and then just let them relax. Burnkit also wanted to wail but couldn't.

Nightstalkers face was a painful one, as he stood amongst a deceased queen and her now orphaned kits. "I can't say it hasn't played a part." He mewed, worry and concern churning his gut. "If you could take these kits in, these kits with no mother and getting weak and sick by the moment, I would be in your debt." Grief coloured his tone, the passing of a queen was so monumental a moment, not just to him, but every Shadowclan cat. "You've shown yourself exemplary, raising your kits, I could think of no one better than to take these two in. If you will accept?"

Snowfoot didn’t hesitate. “Of course I’ll accept, though I’ll obviously need help nursing them from a ThunderClan queen. I’m glad to care for kits in this way. I just… really wish it wasn’t necessary, you know?” The black and white she cat padded over to the kits, laying down just barely touching them. She hoped they would come to her warmth, even if she couldn’t nurse them.

Burnkit barely processed that a cat had settled next to him. He recognized this cat as Snowfoot. Burnkit felt a little warmer and secure with this cat beside her. He felt warm enough to settle into a deep sleep. As he was sleeping he had a dream of a very familiar scent which he could not see.

Sablekit registered the shifting fur beyond the darkness settling next to him. The sudden warmth had him disregarding his empty stomach for the moment however, as he pushed himself into the warmth of the cat.