the lost one (Spark's backstory)

OOC: Talking with NPCs and stuff that came from the past go in Meta Musings, so that's why this is here

Squirreltail gazed around the nursery, watching her kits play around. It was difficult trying to take care of her kits, but she seemed to be able to do so properly. After all, they are all very wonderful kits to be around. At least, most of them were. While she loved her daughters Heronkit and Drizzlekit, as well as her sons Rushkit, Quailkit, and Sunkit, Flamekit seemed to always get on her nerves.

Whenever he asked where his father was, for example, the she-cat couldn't bring herself to tell him. Squirreltail still had trouble dealing with her mate's death in the fire just a few moons ago. It was something that she couldn't help but associate with Flamekit. She didn't know what came of her when she named him that, but it felt like he was connected with the fire that drove SkyClan out, just here to torture her some more.

While the rest of the kits were playing Clans with each other, Flamekit was standing back, just... watching them. Once he seemed to be bored of that, he walked up to Squirreltail. Oh no.

The ginger kit stared up at his mom, his mouth opening to speak once again. "I have a question."

Squirreltail was sweating inside, but she tried to not let it show. "Yes? You can ask me anything." Really, anything but one thing in particular.

"Mom, where is Dad? Everyone else has one, what about me and my siblings?"

Anything but that.

The queen paused. She couldn't speak to him about his death. She needed to avoid any type of conversation about it. "Well..." she said, trying to stall for time. "You should go and play with your brothers and sisters. I'll tell you another time."

"You always say that!" he whined. "But you never tell me! I ask and ask and ask and you don't tell me." The ginger tom sat down in front of her, pouting. "Well, I'm not moving until you tell me."

Squirreltail sighed. "You don't want to know the truth," she said coldly.

But Flamekit was undeterred. "But I do want to know the truth!" he squeaked.

"Really?" Squirreltail snarled. "You don't want to know the truth! Because the truth isn't pretty. The truth is that every time I look at your stupid face, I see the blazing fire that took him away! So could you be a good kit and shut your mouth for once?" It was wrong of her to yell at him. After all, how would he have known what she had experienced? But the she-cat was in too much of a rage to even comprehend what she was doing.

Flamekit seemed stunned by her outburst. Tears built up in his eyes, as his face turned from anger to genuine fear. "O-okay..." he said, walking back to the inside of the nursery.

Good, she thought, walking out of the nursery to see the kits running rampant around the camp. She could care less, honestly. Her emotions were completely out of control. I hope that I never get to see that kit's face ever again.

Little did she know that the tricksters of fate - with Asylum as their vessel - would make it so.