Chapter 3: Surprise Visitors
The sun had risen several times since that night. Leafpool was now among the “huge.” She felt too tired and weak to do much else than lie around, eating and sleeping in the warm sun. Her kits would be due any day.
Crowfeather was being quite the worrisome mate. He rarely left Leafpool’s side, only to make dirt and for the occasional hunt. Leafpool had explained to him how to deliver the kits and what herbs to use, and this eased his anxiety a considerable amount.
Moss and Sparrow were overjoyed that the two Clan cats were staying. Moss stayed with Leafpool as well. The queen would be a good rock of experience on the day Leafpool kitted. Sparrow spent most of his time hunting, trying to feed six cats as well as himself. The hunting was good around the barn; just like at Ravenpaw and Barley’s; it was teeming with mice. Sparrow kept a pile of fresh-kill in one corner of the loft. Leafpool was struck by nostalgia as she looked at it for it reminded her of the fresh-kill pile back in ThunderClan.
Otis and Stormy were being kits, surprisingly enough. Sparrow nearly strangled the two of them when they decided how much fun it would be to bounce on Leafpool’s much larger belly. Their innocence amused Leafpool greatly. (“You shouldn’t eat so many mice, Leafpool,” Otis squeaked seriously in a matter-of-fact tone.)
Raindrop, being the more mature of the kits, stayed by Leafpool’s side with Crowfeather and Moss. She was also much less naive, so she was assigned to preparing the herbs for Leafpool.
Soon, however, Leafpool became restless. She pleaded with Crowfeather until he reluctantly let her go out, and he let her on the condition that he and Moss came with her. Sparrow stayed at the barn with the kits, and the other three cats departed for the forest.
“Fox dung!” snapped Crowfeather. The squirrel he had been stalking shot up a tree and chittered furiously at him once it was high up among the branches. The WindClan cat looked loathingly at the twig, now snapped in two halves, that had given him away.
“It’s okay,” purred Leafpool. “You’ll get better in time.”
“I still can’t get used to forests,” sighed Crowfeather. A faraway look entered his eyes. “I miss the moors.”
Leafpool felt alarm stab at her. Crowfeather apparently noticed the look of fear that appeared on her face, for he added, “But I’m not going back to those moors.”
Moss waved her gray tail, silencing Leafpool and Crowfeather immediately. Leafpool spotted her quarry - a pheasant the size of a large tomcat was only a few yards away. Leafpool was amazed that the huge bird hadn’t spotted them already.
Crowfeather sprang for it.
The pheasant made a shrill alarm call before dashing away into the undergrowth.
Moss rolled her green eyes and muttered something that sounded suspiciously like, “Tomcats!” and ran after him. Leafpool half-trotted, half-waddled in their wake. Great StarClan, she felt huge! I wish these darn kits would be born so I didn’t feel like a bloated badger!
Once Leafpool had finally caught up with them, Crowfeather had the neck of the pheasant in his jaws and was looking characteristically pleased with himself.
“That’s what happens when you try to run from a WindClan warrior,” he commented when Leafpool came up. Moss rolled her eyes.
“Um... excuse me?” a very soft voice spoke up.
Moss pricked her ears, Crowfeather dropped the pheasant and tensed, his teeth bared and sharp, while Leafpool stood rooted to the spot. That voice... she had heard it somewhere before, maybe in a dream...
“Relax, Cody. I recognize one of them,” a harder-sounding voice meowed, and out of the undergrowth stepped Sasha.
The tawny-colored rogue was leaner than the last time Leafpool had seen her, just before the Clans left on the Great Journey. Now she could count all of Sasha’s ribs.
The cat beside Sasha, the one who had spoken up earlier, was a soft-furred tabby with round blue eyes. The last time Leafpool had seen this cat was when she left the makeshift ThunderClan camp to return to her Twolegs.
“Cody!” gasped Leafpool, stumbling forward awkwardly to greet her old friend.
“Leafpaw?” Cody blinked. “Is that you, Leafpaw?”
“I was Leafpaw, I’m Leafpool now. Oh, Cody, I missed you!” Leafpool plunged her nose in her kittypet friend’s shoulder.
“I missed you too,” purred Cody. “I was so scared for you and your Clan. I heard all those awful sounds coming from the forest... How is Birchkit?”
Leafpool remembered the bond that Cody had formed to Ferncloud’s son while they were still in the forest. “He got along well. His new name is Birchpaw.”
“That’s good.”
“Who are you?” Crowfeather asked Cody pointedly, a hint of his old hostility in his voice.
“This is my friend, Cody. Cody, this is my mate, Crowfeather. And that’s Moss.”
Cody dipped her head. “Nice to meet you.” She then seemed to notice Leafpool’s swollen belly. “Oh! You’re expecting a litter!” she squeaked in surprise. “Congratulations! When are they due?”
“Any day now.” Leafpool turned to Sasha, who seemingly felt ignored. “How are you, Sasha?”
The tawny rogue grimaced. “Not as good as I used to be. I’ve had to leave the Twolegplace by your old forest. Too many Twolegs. They’re still trapping cats left and right.”
Leafpool shuddered, remembering how she had been caught in a Twoleg cage herself.
“That’s when I saw your friend here,” Sasha gestured to Cody, “being chased by a dog. She didn’t seem like she knew what she was doing.”
“The brute ambushed me in an alleyway,” growled Cody.
Leafpool twitched her whiskers, pretending to know what an alleyway was. “What happened to your Twolegs, Cody?”
Her eyes were blue pools of sadness as she explained, “My Twolegs abandoned me. I don’t know what happened to them, and I don’t know where else to go. I’m glad Sasha found me, or that dog might have killed me.”
Leafpool’s eyes widened. “Oh, Cody, I’m sorry...” She couldn’t really sympathize with the kittypet because of the Twoleg factor, but she knew firsthand what it was like to lose one's home.
“You can stay with us if you like,” offered Moss. “There are plenty of mice in our barn.”
“Thanks,” Cody dipped her head, “but I don’t know how to catch mice.”
Crowfeather’s whiskers twitched, and Leafpool glared at him.
“I can teach you how. It’s not that hard, really.” Moss’s green eyes were full of sympathy.
It was thenLeafpool felt an intense pain in her belly, stronger than what she usually felt. It felt as though sharp claws had just sliced her open from her chest to her hindquarters, and she dropped like a stone. A piercing, agonized yowl erupted from her mouth.
“The kits are coming!” gasped Sasha.
“Fetch Raindrop and the herbs!” yowled Crowfeather to Moss, who hesitated.
“I’ve kitted before,” Sasha told her. “Go on.”
There was a loud leaf-crackle as Moss dashed off.
“Crowfeather...” moaned Leafpool, another agonizing jolt in her belly making her fur stand on end.
“I’m here,” murmured Crowfeather. His scent smelled strange, too sweet, not at all like a WindClan cat’s...
This was the last coherent thought Leafpool had for a while. She yowled again, releasing pure agony into the air. Oh, StarClan, please take me soon!
Yay for cliffie, my first one of the chapter! XD I'm particularly fond of the double entendre in the chapter title, in which "surprise visitors" could stand for either Sasha and Cody or Leafpool's kits. :3