Lost Hope: Book 1: The New Star

Chapter 24

I've done this before, nothing bad is going to happen, Starfur told herself as she hurried over to the nursery behind Scarletpetal.

Phoenixwing was lying on her side, breathing hard. Starfur crouched down beside her and gave her face a gentle lick.

      Turning to her apprentice, she said, "Go and find a stick, please."

      "Of course!" Dandelionpaw said, and raced off.

      Phoenixwing groaned with pain as her belly convulsed. Starfur lay a paw on her and felt the movements. Scarletpetal crouched beside her.

      "Is she going to be okay?" she asked, her voice full of worry for her sister. She flinched as Phoenixwing let out a whine.

      "She's going to be just fine," Starfur reassured her, putting her tail on the she-cat's shoulder in a comforting gesture.

      A moment later, Dandelionpaw appeared with a stick in his jaws. He dropped it in front of Starfur's paws.

      "Thanks," she said, taking the stick. She gave it to Phoenixwing, who took it in between her teeth and bit down.

      The queen's belly convulsed again, a sharp scream, the stick splintered, and a wet bundle of fur slid onto the moss.

      "Watch me," Starfur told her apprentice, who was staring in wonder at the newborn. He nodded, and observed her as she nipped at the shiny sac that encased the kit. Starfur passed the kit to him. "Start washing it," she instructed.

      Hesitantly, Dandelionpaw began to lick the kit's fur. The small kit mewed piteously as he did.

      Phoenixwing gasped as a second kit followed it's littermate. Starfur nipped this one's sac as well and gave it to Scarletpetal.

      "Welcome to the world, little kit," Scarletpetal meowed as she groomed it.

      "A tom and a she-kit," Starfur declared as she looked at the two. She nudged then toward their mother, where they began to suckle.

      Phoenixwing sighed and looked at her two newborns fondly. "They're so precious, aren't they?"

      "Yes, indeed," Scarletpetal agreed.

      "I'm sure their father will be just as happy," Starfur said, wondering how much information she could get out of the new mother, but Phoenixwing just nodded.

      "Thank you, Starfur," she said.

      "No problem," Starfur purred, and backed out of the den. Her apprentice followed her, his eyes gleaming with awe.

      "That was beautiful," he said. "I can't wait to see those kits grow up."

      "Yes." Starfur sighed. "Welcoming kits into the world is one of my favorite duties as a medicine cat."

      But that will be gone soon, she thought. When she'd run away with Darkmoon, she wouldn't have to deliver any more kits. Well, not until she had her own. The thought warmed Starfur.

      Soon, she promised herself.