"Joyous" Occasion [Dumpster Fire Children birth; open to kits, mates, moss]

Inside the warm, cozy nursery an anxious queen paced, panting softly, before pausing and hunching over to let out a soft groan. She gritted her teeth, her bushy tail-tip lashing almost angrily, but the queen didn't notice. She was looking elsewhere. At last - at last - the first signs of an ice-paled sunrise began to wash over the frozen landscape, beginning to illuminate ThunderClan's camp in a soft lavender light. Dacedream's green-hazel eyes were glinting with discomfort, pain, fear, and exhaustion. She had been awake since just after moon-high, when a sliver of moon began to descend the sky. She hated being in the nursery. She hated not being able to lay her chin across Houndheart's shoulders or to tangle her muzzle up in Duskrain's dense chest fur as she slept. The nursery was the warmest den in camp without a doubt, but it wasn't the right kind of warmth. It was lonely, even with the occupants of the den sleeping restlessly with their eyes half-opened and watching Dacedream closely, as they had been for the past half-moon since she'd been urged to make a new nest there for herself and her kits to come.

Dacedream had felt a bit restless and uncomfortable since she had moved to the nursery, but somehow the thick-furred tortoiseshell queen knew this was different. And she was terrified. She had awakened to a sudden clench of pain in her abdomen that immediately made her heart pound. It subsided for a long time, but then it came again. The same happened again. And again. So the she-cat had begun to pace. The contractions happened more frequently. She grit her teeth and bore it as the sliver of moon disappeared down the sky behind the tree-line. More than once she glanced helplessly at the walls of the nursery towards where she knew Mossbloom slept, or towards where Duskrain and Houndheart must be. Don't you dare disturb them, her thoughts would tell her condescendingly. Haven't you bothered them enough the last half-moon? They're sleeping! Let them sleep. And so she continued to pace, and the pain increased, and then dawn came.

The light of the risen sun seemed like permission, in some way. Looking guilty, Dacedream finally lumbered over to another queen and prodded the she-cat awake. One look into the stricken tortoiseshell's face was enough to alert the other queen entirely, and with a few small words to her own kits she stood from her nest and raced from the nursery to fetch Mossbloom. In the meantime, Dacedream felt another jolt of pain, and she hunkered over with a low, miserable moan. She felt sick. Was she killing her kits? Were they killing her? Was this what kitting was supposed to be like? As the pain subsided Dacedream let out another whimper and swayed to her paws again, moving towards her nest and glancing at the entrance of the nursery at the sound of rustling. "H-H-Hello?" she greeted anxiously.

The sun had just started to peek over the horizon when Mossbloom sat up at rustling nearing the entrance to her den, shivering as the cold air ruffled the fur where she had just been curled in the moss. The scent of the nursery reached her before the queen did, and she was already on her paws retrieving the herb bundle from under the moss she had stored it by to keep it protected from the cold as much as possible. Murmuring around the herbs in her mouth, she nodded to the excited queen who had fetched her, motioning to a nearby stick with her tail. This one was wider than the one she had provided Ferretnose with, after it had broken in her jaws she wanted to make sure that this one would hold firm.

The two quickly moved to the nursery, pushing past some of the clans earliest risers moving around numbly, as if still asleep. As she entered the nursery, the shaky voice of Dacedream warbled through the air, and the green eyes of the medicine cat softened as they landed on the standing queen. She set the herbs next to the nest that held Dacedream's scent - stale, she noted with a bit of concern, and cold, how long had Dacedream been awake - before moving to the pregnant queen's side and offering her shoulder as she guided her back to her nest. The other queen set the stick down then set to corralling the curious kits that had gathered either back to their nests or out into the snow, with a promise to send some cat with water-soaked moss.

Mewing her thanks as she gently guided Dacedream to lay down, Mossbloom took quick note of her progress. The contractions were quick, the poor she-cat must have been awake while the moon was still high. Soft eyes met the others as she delicately rolled out two juniper berries, one more shriveled than the other, and an older looking chervil leaf. "I know they don't look great, but they're the best I have Dacedream... I'm sorry. How are you doing? Eat those, they'll help with the pain, and we'll get you situated, okay?" With careful paws, Mossbloom helped guide the kits into place as best she could, checking in with Dacedream repeatedly through the process. Once it was almost time, she extracted some fresher looking raspberry leaves and some crinkly borage, setting them next to the stick that she had brought in anticipation. "It's almost time, Dacedream, you're doing just fine. You'll do a wonderful job, I know it. I know it hurts, but I promise it won't last long, you'll be uncomfortable for a while afterwards but it won't hurt like this anymore. Okay?"

The sight of Mossbloom's white-patched calico face peering into the nursery's entrance immediately let a small amount of relief blossom in the pit of her belly amongst the uncomfortable muscle spasms. The medicine cat couldn't call out a greeting with her muzzle full of herbs, but the look of sympathy and care in her soft green eyes was louder than anything. Dacedream ducked her head slightly, feeling embarrassed for needing to rely on the strong and graceful she-cat emotionally even as she leaned against Mossbloom for physical support. The other queen had dipped into Dacedream's vision and then back out again, but the young warrior barely registered the other she-cat's presence. Her gaze was fixed on her nest, her thoughts solely on getting to it and whatever pain-relief she hoped that the medicine cat had brought with her. She felt like she was going to be torn in two.

Dacedream slowly settled into her nest, and less than a moment later Mossbloom had produced two little wrinkled berries and a leaf. The queen almost wanted to laugh bitterly at how tiny and unhelpful and insignificant they looked in the face of her current crisis. Kitting... This really is kitting, she realized with horror. How could little plants help this? "It's ok-kay, Mossbloom, they're okay," Dacedream mumbled despite her thoughts, bending forward nervously to pick them up. Almost as soon as she began to chew the queen felt another contraction, and it took all her restraint not to drop the precious herbs right back out with a yowl. She chewed them with a grim determination, and as the pain ebbed she swallowed the pulp and scrunched her face with disgust. "The Moonstone herbs are better," she said wearily.

The sun hadn't yet risen over the treeline when Dacedream knew it was time. As promised, Mossbloom had helped get her into a more comfortable position, and for a time it did feel as though the herbs helped to ease the pain. Now, though, the cramps were stronger than before, and it felt as though she barely had any time between them. Mossbloom's kind, attentive voice broke through Dacedream's pained haze to assure her that the time had come; the medicine cat offered her more herbs, and immediately the tortoiseshell queen lapped them up. She had no idea what the herbs did, but she hoped whatever relief they surely brought came sooner than later. Dacedream's green-hazel eyes swept anxiously around the nursery. "I'm waking up the entire camp," Dacedream whimpered. Another contraction began, but the medicine cat's wisdom seemed to have been correct about how much less it would hurt. She moaned as the dull pain mounted, "Ohh, Mossbloom, everyone's going to be so annoyed with me..."

---

Dacedream didn't know how long she had been giving birth. The sun was now over the trees and streaming brightly through the entrance of the nursery, glittering off the snowy terrain outside. Inside, it was over. The tortoiseshell queen lay panting in her nest, knowing that there were apparently four bundles of fur beside her waiting for her attention. Dacedream hadn't had the strength to look at them - she was terrified. She just wanted to give birth and be done. Now it was done, and still she hadn't looked at them... the kits she'd birthed. Slowly she blinked her green-hazel eyes and lifted her head. Her whole body trembled with the effort, and there was a deep, permeating ache that felt like it was being kept under a heavy, hazy blanket - the herbs, most likely, but it was hard to be sure. Her gaze fell on the kits, focusing on the tiny bodies just a whisker's length away from her belly...

... and for several long moments, Dacedream's expression was blank. She was silent save for her shallow breaths. She stared at the four kits: a tiny tan tabby she-kit with white patches and fat paws; a rich brown tabby-calico she-kit whose fur already made her body slick; a lean patched white-and-brown tom with dark ears and orange stripes on his face; a little orange-and-gray calico with small white paws and a speck of white on the chest.

"Sparkfrost," Dacedream said, her voice toneless but weak. She blinked slowly, staring at the final she-kit. A hauntingly, achingly familiar pelt sat before her. Her voice broke a little as she added, "M-Mossbloom, it... the kit... Sparkfrost..." She couldn't break her gaze away from the small thing. "Do you think... Is it... can it be... daddy...?" she asked. Her eyes began to glint with fear amidst the exhaustion. She didn't know what to think - she didn't know what the answer could be. Some part of her did, though: Sparkfrost was in StarClan now, and he had seen she was unhappy. He had seen she didn't follow his wishes. This was... a punishment. A reminder of how she'd failed him. A warning... of how she'd fail all of these kits, too.

Yet unnamed, the third-born kit, the biggest of the litter and the only tom, squealed his displeasure into the very atmosphere. He had been warm and comfortable and secure one moment, and then suddenly, deposited into this world of cold and hard and uncomfortable. How DARE?! The tomkit yowled, stumbling forward, over his siblings in search of what his instinct told him was sustenance and protection - his mother's belly. But he didn't quiet, and he wouldn't. Not until he had some sort of explanation as to why everything had changed!

It was cold.

She was squirming bundle, shrill mews fracturing the frigid atmosphere, her petite paws flailing. Life. She was alive, instincts propelling her sleek body towards the aura of warmth. Everything was a fuzzy blur, white noise ensued in her mind. All she knew of was the bleak environment cutting at her skin, and of the wiggling figures floundering close-by.

The she-kit's mewling was high-pitched, and desperate. Everything was black. Everything was dark. Where was she? Where was the warmth she knew she had to find?

She didn't know how long she had been aimlessly wriggling, thrashing her limbs, unknowingly thumping softly against her littermates. The pile of kits felt warm. Maybe she regretted leaving them. But her empty stomach told her otherwise. Squeaks flew from her mouth as she numbly, blindly, stumbled towards her mother. The queen's scent engulfed her senses. It put her at ease. The whimpering never ceased, until she finally felt the warmth press against her paws. Milk. Milk. Letting out a cry of satisfaction, her tiny pads began kneading against Dacedream's belly, her mewling finally finding a halt. This was nice. She liked milk.

She let out a squeal of utter dismay and indignance when her brother thrashed over the top of her. Her small form flailed in argument as she attempted to push him away. How dare he... this was her milk, her mother. She tried, to inital failure, to push him, and everyone else out of her way. It seemed she had finally found a place of contentment when her mewling stopped once again.

It was warm now.

She didn't know of her mother's blank stare, or the uncharacteristic dullness in her tone.

All that mattered,
was that she felt safe.

The little tan tabby with the extra toes squeaked and squirmed against her littermates, trying to move towards the scent of milk and the large source of warmth. She hauled herself blindly over one of her bigger siblings, all of which were squealing and thrashing about as well. She didn't know it, but she was the littlest of her siblings, and as she struggled towards Dacedream, she let out an indignant squeal as she was pushed out of the way by her only brother. Finally, slowly, she reached her mother's belly, and began to suckle, her mewling finally silenced by the warm milk.

Duskrain had noticed the cold wind cutting through her pelt ever since Dacedream had moved to the nursery. There was an empty space left in their large nest, and even though Houndheart remained present, he wasn't nearly as warm or welcoming as her lover. Duskrain often awoke early before dawn and simply lay with her eyes open, listening to the beating of the heart next to her. There used to be two, but Dacedream's was far away. It stumped Duskrain that Houndheart had given Dacedream kits. Duskrain didn't want kits, so she was glad the tom decided to give them to her nestmate instead. But Duskrain was also angry. She remembered following Houndheart around camp, asking him why Dacedream was sad. Did having kits in your belly make you sad? If so, why did Houndheart put kits in Dacedream's belly? Duskrain frowned as she rolled over onto her back, gazing up at the bare branches clinking together in the wind. A shiver ran down her spine and she pressed herself closer to the lanky tom that rested next to her, green eyes wide. The past few days had instilled a restlessness inside of her. Dacedream couldn't go out on adventures with her anymore, at least that was what Mossbloom had said. And Houndheart was grumpy. Duskrain often passed the time by hunting alone, or quietly watching Ferretnose's kits as she picked burrs from her pelt. Someday she could watch Dacedream's kits as well.

The light of dawn barely crested the sky as a pattering of paws breezed past the warrior's den. Duskrain sat up, ears alert and eyes wide. She sniffed and stalked through the darkness, following the sound to the nursery, where a yowl threw her off guard. Duskrain jumped and bounded to the thick bramble den, tail flicking to and fro. Dacedream was wet and tired, and four small beasts were at her belly. Kits. Mossbloom's soft voice softly crooned over the sound of tiny mewlings and the panting of her nestmate. Duskrain didn't say a word, and instead turned tail to wake Houndheart. "Houndheart." She said emotionlessly, simply. "Dacedream made kits! There's four!" Excitement creeped into Duskrain's voice at an impossible pace. She half-tugged, half-pushed the tabby tom out of their nest, running past him to the nursery once more.

"Dacedream!" Duskrain purred, forcing her claws into the ground to stop the fierce urge to nuzzle her nestmate. She didn't want to step on the kits. Duskrain looked at them strangely and remembered that she used to be that small as well. "Are you tired? Are you sad?" Duskrain catapulted questions at Dacedream, frustrated that she couldn't empathize with the situation. Maybe Dacedream would like some worms, or a squirrel. Maybe Dacedream was cold.

Suddenly, she was alive.

Then the race began. Each of her siblings knowing nothing but to go to where food was, and that they did. She was the last of the kits to be acknowledged by their mother, though when she had been her mother felt nothing towards her except fear. It was as if at that moment that there was already a path laid out before the newly-born she-kit, one that she had no control over. Deaf and Blind, the orange-and-grey calico kit wailed out a mew that had surprising ferocity. Stopping to take breaths, she was almost hesitant to find her mother.

Once her siblings had stumbled by her or on top of her she knew she had to go with them. She struggled to find her way, and suddenly she was surrounded by open space. Where did the warmth go? Her mews were more desperate and continuous now than they had been, the wails of a desperate child.

Somehow though she turned herself around the right way and felt the warmth coming from her mother and her siblings. Finally, she reached her mother's belly- accidentally swatting her smallest sibling in the face in the process. Wasting no time, she hastily found a spot unoccupied by her siblings and no longer felt the need to cry out. She found it.

Her mother's milk comforted her entirely, it was all she wanted.

The past couple moons had been filled with an overwhelming amount of firsts for the tom. Each passing sunset, he grew further and further from his youth. Some things about Houndheart would never change, not his bold-headedness, nor his spite for the world, but now he held the title of both deputy and father. Finding out Dacedream was going to have his kits was a shock. Nothing was different between them, or in their relationship, but the pair was left to both wrestle with their feelings of parenthood. There was something special about the idea that like as his own deputy father before him, the tom would have kits who could now boast their parentage. Yet, to think of his own parents caused a knot to form both in his throat and chest like a tough piece of freshkill. With Dacedream in the nursery as she grew closer to kitting, he was left alone with Duskrain. The comfort of how friend was a complicated beast. He had to push several things out of his mind to keep her at his side.

He was curled into a tight ball, as if the would would disappear the further he sunk into his own fur. A voice broke through the blackness of sleep and at first Houndheart groaned and willed it away. But Duskrain was relentless. She was at his side, pulling him from the nest and shoving him towards the nursery as she chattered on about something. His sleep-lagged brain finally picked up on what she was saying. Kits. Houndheart froze as the other warrior darted forwards. This wasn't just something that was supposed to happen eventually, no, this was a thing happening right now. The deputy swallowed and stood to walk stiffly towards where the kits and queens slept. As he peered inside, he finally understood what his denmate had been telling him... he had four kits. Four whole kits that held both he and Dacedream's blood in their veins.

Houndheart couldn't bring himself to meet Mossbloom's gaze as he settled down next to the mother of his kits. His nose nudge little Jaykit, helping the tom in his search for warmth before pulling back. He'd hardly interacted with kits before this was unusual. And yet, he also could not help the blossoming feeling in his chest like he needed to help protect these little things as they grew. Immediately a sensation warmed his ears and paws. It was something rare that he felt, different from when he looked at the medicine cat that now sat in this den, different from when he was near his friends... this brand of love for his offspring was new. He had missed the expression on Dacedream's face and her words from before, glancing away from the scene as he finally asked, "Do they have names yet?"

Her whiskers twitched with relief as Dacedream commented about the Moonstone herbs, feeling slightly more relaxed than before with the comment. Everything would be okay, she just knew it. She couldn't let them down, not this time, all of the kits and their mother would be okay. "If anyone is annoyed with you send them straight to me, they'll be clearing ticks out of the forest for the next season. The camp is waking on it's own dear, don't worry." With that, she prepared for what was coming, and in what felt like a whirlwind of heartbeats and also moons there were four blind, gently moving kits at Dacedream's belly. Sitting back on her haunches, Mossbloom took out a deep breath and smiled, pulling borage from the herb bundle and placing it in front of Dacedream.

As she met Dacedream's gaze, however, Mossbloom's heart clenched in fear as she saw the look on Dacedream's face. No, all of the kits had been fine just a heartbeat ago. Had she missed something? Forcing herself to follow the queen's gaze, feeling bile rising in her throat due to the nerves, she was relieved and confused to find a normal, moving kit. Looking back to Dacedream questioningly, her words finally clarified Mossbloom's confusion. "Oh...." She breathed, nearly silent, as she looked back to kit and it registered that it was an almost exact copy of the queen's father. Her tail touched to the she-cat's flank gently as she pondered her answer. "This is probably your father's way of reminding you that he's always by your side. He would be very proud of you, Dacedream, and since StarClan called him away this could be his way of showing it. I... I can try to find him and ask, if you'd like - though I make no promises that I will be successful."

Rustling at the entrance to the nursery caught her attention, and she looked in time to see Duskrain and Houndheart padding in, Duskrain immediately bombarding the tired queen with questions while Houndheart pointedly avoided her gaze. Turning towards the she-cat, Mossbloom interrupted the questions firmly. "Dacedream is undoubtedly very tired, Duskrain, please don't overwhelm her quite yet. Although she may be hungry soon, if you would like to bring her some fresh kill when she's ready?" She nudged the borage towards Dacedream once more her voice gentle. "Eat these, they'll help with your milk. I'll leave you all to relax and chat, but I'll check back in a little bit, okay? Before sunhigh, promise." Looking up to Houndheart, still intent on his kits, Mossbloom felt a pang of hurt which surprised her. "Congratulations, you two." She mewed, before turning to start to make her way out of the den, looking back to the queen with a concerned look on her face. Was she alright?