“Where are we going?” he mewed.
“To the place where ThunderClan lives,” Leafpool told him. “In a big hollow full of warm dens and places for you to play. There will be lots of other cats there, and a big lake to cool your paws when it gets hot.”
For a moment Lionkit looked doubtful. “But I liked living in the hollow tree.”
“I know you did. But you’re getting too big to stay there forever! You are a ThunderClan cat, Lionkit, and you need to join your Clanmates.”
“Will they like me?”
“They will love you,” Leafpool purred.
Squirrelflight returned with a rather scrawny vole, which she shared with Leafpool. When they had crunched the last of the bones, Leafpool gently untangled her kits from her fur. “Come on, little ones. Time to go.”
“I don’t want to walk anymore,” Jaykit wailed. “My paws hurt!”
“Climb onto my shoulders,” Squirrelflight meowed, crouching down so he could scramble on. “I’ll carry you for a while.”
“That’s not fair!” grumbled Hollykit. “Just because Jaykit can’t see, it doesn’t mean his legs don’t work!”
“But his legs are much shorter than ours,” Lionkit pointed out, looking down at his fluffy forepaws. “We can manage better than he can in the snow. Race you to that tree, Hollykit!”
Leafpool watched her son and daughter scamper ahead, throwing up specks of snow from their tiny paws. They are so close already, my three beautiful kits. As long as they have one another, they can survive anything.
They followed the steep-banked stream until they could see the open stretch of grass leading down to the lake, then turned and headed along the ridge above the ThunderClan boundary. The snow had melted here and all three kits trotted along, sniffing the new scents.
“We’ll have to cross the border soon,” Squirrelflight mewed.
Leafpool nodded. She felt sick with dread. One small paw step would change everything, plunge her back into her life as a medicine cat, when she had barely become a mother. She slowed down, her paws as heavy as rocks, and Squirrelflight kept pace with her, resting her tail lightly on Leafpool’s back.
Lionkit had scrambled onto a fallen tree. “I can see the lake from here!” he yowled. “It’s as big as the world!”
“Let me see!” panted Hollykit, trying to haul herself up. Her scrabbling paws knocked Lionkit off balance and he fell off the trunk with a yelp.
Leafpool was about to run over to him when she stopped. She looked at Squirrelflight. “You go,” she mewed. “They need to learn that you are their mother.” The words stuck like thorns in her throat and the trees blurred around her.
Squirrelflight’s gaze was warm and full of sorrow. “Are you sure?” she asked quietly. “I know what we agreed, but you can still change your mind. I will do everything I can to help you, whatever you decide.”
Leafpool leaned against her sister’s shoulder for a moment. I wish everything were different! Oh, my kits, I am so sorry! Then she straightened up. “I am sure. Be good to them. Love them more than life.”
“I will,” Squirrelflight promised.
Leafpool rubbed some of her milk scent onto Squirrelflight’s fur, then watched as her sister trotted over to the tree trunk to rescue Lionkit, who was unharmed but squeaking indignantly on the other side. As Squirrelflight pulled Lionkit clear of the ferns, Jaykit and Hollykit clustered around her.
“Can you help us all climb up?” they mewed. “We want to see the lake!”
Squirrelflight curled her tail around them. “Of course I can, my darlings,” she purred. “One at a time, no pushing!”
Leafpool forced herself to turn away and walk into the undergrowth. She needed to find some herbs that would stop her milk. There was a patch of wild parsley growing close to the border. Nosing carefully through the bracken, she found the frost-nipped plants and picked the leaves. Some she ate at once, wincing at the sharp taste, and the rest she rolled up to carry back to her den. I am the ThunderClan medicine cat, she told herself. My sister has had three kits, and I could not be more delighted.
They crossed the border close to one of the tunnel entrances and began to descend the slope toward the hollow. Hollykit stopped by the tunnel and peered in, her fur flattened by the cold wind.
“Stay away from there!” Squirrelflight warned. “It’s not safe for cats to go inside.”
Lionkit scrunched up his nose. “Who’d want to? It’s all dark and scary!”
Jaykit was sniffing a clump of moss. “I can smell cats!” he squeaked.
“That’s right, little one,” Squirrelflight mewed. “Those are your Clanmates.”
Hollykit trotted over and butted Squirrelflight’s belly. “I’m hungry! Where’s all the milk gone? You smell the same, but I can’t find anything to eat!”
Leafpool watched as Squirrelflight stroked Hollykit with her tail. “I’m sorry, poppet. My milk has gone, but there’s a lovely cat called Daisy who will have plenty for you.”
Hollykit pouted. “But I want your milk!”
Leafpool’s belly ached with a pain more fierce than the birth of her kits. She hung back as Squirrelflight led them down the narrow path beside the hollow. She couldn’t risk the kits picking up the milk-scent that still clung to her. When she noticed a deep patch of snow among the roots of a tree, she stopped and rolled in it to clean off the last traces of kit scent. Then she rubbed herself against a patch of damp ferns, covering her fur in sharp green flavors as further disguise.
In the distance, she could hear Squirrelflight telling the kits about ThunderClan, how they would grow up to be great warriors, strong and skilled at hunting and fighting.
“I know how to fight already!” Lionkit boasted. “Watch this!” He launched himself at a branch that lay on the fallen leaves, then stumbled back as a twig poked him in the eye. “Ow!”
“Come on, little warrior,” Squirrelflight meowed. “Let’s see if we can get you home in one piece!”
“Why aren’t you walking with us anymore?” piped a small voice beside Leafpool.
She jumped and looked down at Jaykit’s dazzling blue eyes. “I… I had to fetch some herbs,” she explained after putting the leaf wrap on the ground. “I’m the medicine cat for ThunderClan, you see.”
Jaykit put his head on one side. “You were in the hollow tree, weren’t you?”
“That’s right. I am your mother’s sister. I came to look after her while she gave birth to you.”
“Why didn’t she stay in the Clan to have us?” Jaykit asked.
Leafpool’s heart began to beat faster. “Because we had to go on a journey together,” she meowed. “And you came unexpectedly. But it’s my duty to care for all of our Clanmates when they are sick or in trouble, so it’s lucky I was there to look after your mother.”
Jaykit blinked his beautiful eyes. “Does that mean you can make me see?” he mewed. “Hollykit and Lionkit can see things, I know. And I guess you and my mother can. Why not me?”
Leafpool felt her heart crack. “I don’t know,” she whispered. “I’m so sorry. I can’t make you see. I would if I could, I promise.”
Jaykit shrugged his tiny shoulders. “Okay,” he chirped. He spun around and scampered down the slope, following exactly in the paw steps of his littermates. He grabbed at Hollykit’s tail as he passed, and she squealed.
The barrier of thorns loomed up in front of them. Squirrelflight hesitated, and Leafpool saw her take a deep breath. She knew she was asking so much of her sister, not least that she spend the rest of her life lying to the cat she had so recently chosen to be her mate. I know these kits are worth it! Remember what Feathertail said, that their destiny will shape the future of all the Clans.