Flamepaw's Destination

Chapter 31

 It had been a few moons since the birth of Flameclaw's kits, and each day they were growing stronger and gaining more personality. Applewhisker's kits had moved out of the nursery, but thankfully, a new queen had moved in and had given birth to three kits, which made perfect playmates for Flameclaw's.

Barkfern came to visit often, though the kits did not seem to need him as much anymore now that they had found their new playmates. Even Flameclaw felt that she did not need to be watching them as diligently anymore. In a few moons, they would become apprentices, and she'd be a warrior. Her paws tingled just thinking of the idea.

With each passing day, Flameclaw grew more accustomed to SnowClan and felt like everyone had invited her in and had accepted her as a true member. Her kits seemed to be SnowClan through and through (though they possessed no SnowClan blood).

There were days, however, that Flameclaw grew depressed and longed to be back in RiverClan with her old clan members. She had grown fond of some SnowClan cats, but it would never replace the relationships she'd had in RiverClan.

Her kits' constant need to hear stories of RiverClan saddened her at times as well. Recalling the memories was always joyful, but as soon as the story ended, Flameclaw was left with a sense of disappointment that these memories would never take place again.

One morning, Flameclaw opened her eyes to find Daisykit's eyes peering into hers. Flameclaw let out a quiet shriek and sat up immediately. Daisykit let out a laugh and tumbled to the floor in laughter.

"You should've seen your face, Momma!" she shouted. Goldkit and Snowkit were giggling with her.

Flameclaw rolled her eyes and gently nudged her daughter.

"It's not polite to wake cats up that way, you know," she warned. "I hope you haven't been doing that to any of the other queens."

"No. Just you," Goldkit assured her, though his snickering convinced Flameclaw otherwise.
She slowly laid back down though sat back up when Daisykit began to shout.

"No, Momma, stay up!" Daisykit urged.

"Why? You've just woken me up from a nice nap," Flameclaw complained.

"We want to go outside with Cloudkit, Hazelkit, and Ripplekit, but their mother is asleep, and the other queens said we couldn't go out alone," Snowkit explained.

"They didn't offer to watch?" Flameclaw wondered.

"No. They said to ask you," Goldkit added.

Flameclaw sighed. Sometimes she wondered why the other queens needed to constantly rule the nursery. Wavestorm didn't even have kits. Why couldn't she have offered to watch them?

"Fine. Let's go outside," she said.

The three squeaked and ran to grab their friends. Flameclaw led her kits outside with the other three following behind. They immediately jumped into their games--fighting battles and tossing moss-balls, and such like that.

Flameclaw watched the other three kits play. They, too, were not of SnowClan blood, but they got along well with her three. There were three of them—Hazelkit, Cloudkit, and Ripplekit. Two toms and one she-cat. She was glad that Goldkit could finally play with some other toms besides his two sisters.

Hazelkit was the only she-cat, and she had a brown tabby pelt. Cloudkit was the largest out of the bunch—a pure white tom whose pelt was just a shade lighter than Snowkit's. Ripplekit was the second largest, another tom, and, like Daisykit, he had a gray tabby pelt, though his seemed lighter than Daisykit's.