Prologue

3 cats stood in the room... 3 more waiting to come. The the older tom had a big smile on his face, as you could tell that he was quite excited for what was going on at the moment. The older she cat, and the younger she cat did not share those same smiles.

You could tell that the she cat was in a lot of pain. As most were, at not just their first litter, but all litters after that as well. This was not her first litter however, as she did not have a smile as well, because she still had sad thoughts at what had happened to her first litter long ago.

She was scared for this one. Her mate had left her, after promising that he was going to stick through with her through all of this, unlike her first mate had done. A few days after he had said that to her however, he then went missing, and was never seen again.

She was quite sure that he had lied about it, but when she asked his friends, they had told her that they had not seen him, and they had no clue what had happened to him. It scared her a bit, but she would much rather think that he had left her, than think that he might have died.

She closed her eyes, as the older she cat kept on repeating the same words to her over and over again. It hurt her a lot, but she could tell that she was going to make it through this. She began to yell in agony, as she kept on trying her best, over her mother yelling the same words to her.

"Keep pushing! Push! Push! Nifty! You can do this!" She kept on yelling to her daughter over and over again. Eventually, the first 1 began to slide out of her. The older mother slowly grabbed it, and then carried it to the tom so that he could clean the kit up, and warm it as well.

She then continued to yell the same thing that she had just a few moments ago, as slowly but surely, the 2nd kit of the litter began to pop out just like the last one had. She picked it up, and took it towards the tom, just like she had done before.

The tom was freaking out a bit, because he now had to take care of 2 cats at once, and he had still not finished taking care of the first. He tried to relax himself, as he knew that he had gone through this before, and he should not worry himself about it.

He took the 2nd kit in, with a big smile on his face as he nodded to his mate, trying to keep her calm at the same time as well, as it had not been her first litter that she had helped take out, but he knew that she was freaked out because of what had happened to the last one.

The older she cat did not share the same smile on her face, as she just wanted to get this over with, as it was such a stress on her. She turned her head around, to go back over to her daughter, as she could tell that there was at least 1 more in there.

The tom could tell that she had a lot of stress on her shoulders as well, as he quickly said one thing to her, to get her to calm herself down a bit. The she cat did not turn her head around to hear what he had to say, but she did stop herself to listen.

"Brokenfoot, do not worry, things will end up okay... They always do." He said to her. He was not sure if what he had said was true, as he knew what had happened to Nifty's first litter. It did seem to manage to relax Brokenfoot quite a bit however.

In her head, she knew that her mate was right. Her daughter had stayed with them through all that had happened long ago in the past. Her brothers were not happy with her at all for it, as they had left their parents, due to them not wanting to move in with twolegs.

It was just hard for them though, as they never were good at hunting, and they were lazy as well. She had been the only one that had stuck with them, it at least put some what of a smile on the face of Brokenfoot. She turned her head back to her mate, as she smiled at him, and then she nodded back to him at the same time.

"I know... Riverwood taught me how to do this, I love you so much Pintclaw, she said back to her mate." Pintclaw looked at her for a few moments, and then he nodded with a bit of a smile on his face at the same time as well. He was happy that it had at least cheered her up a little bit.

He then watched as she went back over to where their daughter was, waiting to give birth the the last cat of their litter. He trusted his mate quite a bit, even if she had been a bit of a failure to her mentor. He had always made sure to tell her that, til the day that he had passed along.

It seemed as if he blamed her for what had happened to the clans. There was nothing that she could have done however, as she was simply a medicine cat, and not a leader. Even if she were a leader, he was not sure how much that would have helped in the first place.

The cats of the clans of the clans had already made their decision, they had chosen to live a careless life, and to not trust in the cats of the stars. Pintclaw felt like he might have a bit to blame as well, but he now saw where the clans had gone wrong.

None of that mattered anymore to him anyways, as there was no going back on a thing that had happened over a hundred moons ago. He turned his focus back on to his mate, and his daughter, as he heard his mate begin to yell the same words to her again.

This time, it seemed as if she was ready for the kit more than last time, as it seemed to plop out like it was nothing at all. The kit began to move around, almost as if it had already somehow learned how to walk. It then fell over, as the older she cat picked it up and took it to the tom.

The younger she cat sat there for some time, as you could tell that she was quite tired, and worn out what all that had just happened. She had her eyes closed, as it seemed as if she was going to fall asleep right in front of her new born kits.

The older tom and she cat did not seem to be paying her any attention though, as they had their eyes on the new born kits, that were all luckily perfectly fine, and did not seem to have anything wrong with them, besides the last kit that had come out.

She seemed to have something wrong with her back right paw, none of the cats seemed to quite realize it just yet, as they had their eyes on just the eyes of the young kits. They had not quite opened their eyes just yet, as they needed to get ready for the light.

The younger she cat, that had sat there for a long time, almost as if she might have died, finally opened her eyes, and lifted her head to see her new born kits. They were too far away from her, as her eyes were a bit blurry from the pain that she had just endured.

She tried to blink it off just a few times, but it did not seem to do very much use for her, as she then groaned to herself. She was far to weak to lift herself up, as she fell over a bit. The mother of the younger she cat noticed it, and she turned her head over to her, a bit worried as she spoke to Nifty.

"Nifty... Stay still... You need some rest right now, we will take you the kits to you once we have cleaned them off, so that they may get some food from you." Brokenfoot said to Nifty. Nifty sat there for a few moments, as she still had her head lifted up, hoping to see her kits right now.

She groaned a bit, as it did hurt her quite a bit to even lift her head up, as she laid it back down, so that she could rest herself up. She knew that she was about to have a long next few moons, but she knew that it would be worth it in the end.

She closed her eyes, just as she had done earlier, as she breathed in and out, with a bit of a sigh of relief, happy that this kit was okay. She laid there for just a bit longer, until she began to speak back to Brokenfoot, choking on her words through the pain of even trying to talk.

"Thank you mother... I will love to see their beautiful faces." She said back to Brokenfoot. Brokenfoot turned her head back over to her daughter, and then she nodded back over to her. She knew that Nifty had not seen it, but it did seem to cool down the air in the room quite a bit.

They were lucky to be inside, at a safe place at the moment, as one of Niftys friends had let her stay at his house, so that she would not have to give birth in the freezing temperatures. They were lucky that the twolegs were out of the house for a few days.

It had been perfect, and lucky timing for them. Nifty was even thinking about moving in, and living with them, if the twolegs would let them. Her kits needed a safe place to live, and to grow up at. This was certainly a great place to be at right now.

Nifty smiled, as she finally could hear the footsteps of the 2 cats, as they were walking over to her finally, to let her see her kits. She opened her eyes, and she smiled at her mother and her father as she saw the big smile on their faces at the moment.

Her father and mother dropped the kits off below her, as they crawled on to her breast, to get milk from her. She smiled as she felt the warmth of her kits all over her. She then turned her head over to her father, as her father had suddenly began to speak to her.

"Nifty, have you thought of any names for the kits?" Her father said to his daughter. Nifty sat there for a few moments, as she had in fact thought of names for the cats, but she also wanted to wait and see what they looked like first, to see if the names would fit.

Her kits looked beautiful as well, as she had a huge smile on her face at the same time, as she watched her kits suck milk out of her breast. She looked at each of them for a few moments longer, as she then hesitated, as she could see a bit of her old mate in one of the kits.

It hurt her a bit, as she looked away from the kit, trying not to think about her old mate all that much. She then looked back over to her father, as she nodded to each of the kits, as she began to tell her father the names that she had thought of for them.

"Yes... This 1 is going to be Pike, this one is going to be Gift, and this one-" she began to say, until she saw the spot on the cats paw that did not look correct at all. She squinted her eyes at it, as it was the kit that looked like her mate. She sat there, and then she decided to change her mind, as she thought of a better name for the kit. "This one is going to be called Limp."