FERNTALON

Two sleeping bodies laid against her belly, illuminated softly from a low light that seeped into the stone den through a veiled entrance in front of her. The ceiling was low and warm, the floor beneath her a small flora of grass that was comfortable enough to sleep on, much unlike the rest of the place she had called home her entire life. Unlike the other side of the vine-veiled ivy entrance, this room was safe. It was secure, it was warm, it was dry. She found no better place to spend her days than here, with her two sleeping kits and the chaos of life completely disconnected. Her brown tabby pelt had been groomed to perfection from the comfortable idleness that looking after her two small kits had left her with, both too young to open their eyes. She sometimes missed the thrill of the hunt, the flow of air over her fur, the tang of achievement in her mouth, but freshkill seemed to taste so much better with her kits beside her. She loved them. Nothing could ever change that.
         As the light seemed to intensify outside of her chamber, she decided to reach a tabby paw forward to bat the ivy veil away and greet what little of the Clan she would find outside - yet only two cats laid idly in the sunlit grass of the sheltered medicine clearing. Unlike the rest of the tunnels and caverns littering the hillside CavernClan called home, the medicine clearing was a high-ceilinged, spacious expanse with soft grass underpaw and the calming trickle of a stream through the middle of it. With enough space for an injured cat to do physical activity, it was no miracle that this space had been allotted to the Healers. Their sleeping den and the nursery were directly conjoined to the medicine clearing, both separated from the clearing by a veil of ivy for privacy. Further along the clearing, small expanses under rocks had been turned into little coves for injured cats to rest with sunlight dappling their pelts. The tabby she-cat could only just see the tunnels that lead to the gardens and the herb storage, but she could remember her sister spending most of her days there in her apprenticeship.
         "Ferntalon!" A mew caught Ferntalon off-guard, her ears standing up as a figure in front of her padded forward from the sunlit expanse outside the nursery. The figure was a strange-pelted brown tabby with glowing green eyes and white lower legs, underbody and jaw - her sister, Mothflower, Healer and smartest cat she had ever met. A veil of ferns decorated one of her ears, with a moth's wing at the bottom of it - a gift from her mentor Rainwatcher for completing her apprenticeship with flying colors. Ferntalon stretched her nose forward to nuzzle Mothflower's pelt in greeting as she laid herself down near her sister. "You seem well, the kits?"
         "They're beautiful... Both healthy, and they're suckling well." Ferntalon could hardly stop herself from purring her words as she looked down to the two sleeping kits at her belly, two identical brown tabby kittens with their eyes shut, tucked into the heat of her body. "I couldn't be prouder of them if I tried. Talking about kits, where's Miragekit?"
         Mothflower flicked her head in the direction of the tunnels to the gardens, her gaze burning a passionate green as sunlight caught them. "She's with Rainwatcher, exploring the gardens, as I once did - though more supervised than when I tried it," Mothflower purred the last part of her sentence as sunlight began to pour more and more into the tame clearing.
         "I see you have an apprentice lined up for you. Are you going to try to skip her Cave Apprenticeship?" Ferntalon asked with a small purr, her sister's gaze troubling slightly.
         "No. I would rather she be a kit for a while longer. I'd rather not put her through what Lynxfur went through. RiverClan's medicine cat, she was made a medicine cat apprentice at four moons old, and her mentor was gone by eight. She may be younger than me, but she's the oldest cat I've ever met."
         "You know the other Clan's... Medicine cats? What's a medicine cat?" Mothflower's words confused Ferntalon, her gaze flicking over to her sister. They had never hidden secrets from one another before even if it had caused arguments between them, but this seemed like something extreme that Mothflower had completely hidden up until now.
"Healer. It's the main Clan's words for Healer. And yes, I do. Where do you think I go every half-moon?" Mothflower looked at Ferntalon with a small amount of amusement in her gaze. "They're not so bad, I don't see why we hide from them. I share herbs with them sometimes, they're a lot easier to grow in the garden than it seems for them. I'm not sure if they even have a garden. And no, Rainwatcher didn't teach me to do this, it was my own ideas and they won't be passed down to Miragekit."
         Ferntalon opened her maw to respond, hundreds of questions raging in her mind. What else was Mothflower hiding from her in that massive mind of hers? Yet, as she went to speak, loud footsteps echoed into the medicine clearing. Mothflower got up at once and padded over to the frame of a massive white tabby that dominated the grays and greens of the medicine den. The cat held two mice and a rabbit in his massive jaws, his gaze scanning over the sun-dappled medicine clearing in a respect-filled awe. Dropping the prey at his feet, he nodded to Mothflower. His voice was deep but playful as he spoke to the Healer, "I wish warriors could sun ourselves here, its so much calmer than the rest of the tunnels."
         "If you could it would stop being calm, mouse-brain," Mothflower responded with a small smile to her maw. The two were in much better spirits than the last time Ferntalon had seen them together, having just gotten off the back of a disastrous mission outside of Clan territory.
         "Anyway, one mouse for you..." He said, dropping a mouse at Mothflower's paws, before padding towards Ferntalon. She wasn't sure she trusted the size of the white tabby, wrapping her tail around her kits and herself subconsciously, yet she found respect dawning in her chest as he stopped a small distance away with a warm blink to the two sleeping kittens at her belly. "First time I've seen them... They look like strong kits, and knowing how Ashstrike's kits turned out I'm sure they'll grow up to be the forefront of our Clan one day. She told me to tell you that she'll be visiting later, she's just on patrol right now," his voice calmed her as he laid a mouse down by her belly.
         Padding backwards, he took the rabbit in his jaws and gave a knowing glance to Mothflower who had settled herself beside Ferntalon once more. Mothflower responded with a small nod, a deep blink to the white tabby who turned and padded to the far corner of the caves. Ferntalon could make out a small patch of tortoiseshell fur where the white tabby had disappeared to, low murmuring voices starting from the far end of the clearing. Shooting an inquisitive glance to Mothflower, she was immediately rewarded with an explanation.
         "Kitewing's in here because of smoke she breathed in during one of Alpinetail's plan. Alpinetail was devastated afterwards, and I think he brought it upon himself to make sure she got better. He's been visiting her daily, bringing her food and making sure she's doing fine. He even got her to do exercises yesterday, but I'm not sure if her breathing will ever truly recover. Like the father she's never had."
         Pain shot through Ferntalon's mind, immediately breaking her gaze from her sister and bringing them to her kits. Her kits were condemned to the same fate as poor Kitewing, with no father figure to speak of. They were too precious, too innocent, too young to know the truth of what had happened to their father. They would know, in time, how Pantherdapple had abandoned her after he had first realised she was carrying kits, how he had barely looked at her since, how he had actively avoided her. She had loved him with all her heart, but he had left her heartbroken and alone. She had to protect these kits. She had to make sure they lived. She had to make sure he saw what they'd grow up to be. Without him.
         "I told you; you know. I told you he was nothing but trouble," Mothflower's words brought Ferntalon out of her mind, but she could not meet her sister's eyes. It hurt too much. She was right. But it had hurt Mothflower too, and Ferntalon knew that. Adderfrost, their brother, had walked out of their lives with Pantherdapple, the two had always been best friends. Ferntalon had met Pantherdapple through Adderfrost, after all. But after everything, it felt cold that the two had left together. Cold to her, cold to Mothflower, cold to the kits.
         "I know," Ferntalon spoke in a low voice, a long string of silence settling between the two of them. "But I refuse to let that drag these kits down. I refuse to let their awful decisions make my kits' lives a mess. I may not have a mate to love any longer, but I have a family. I don't need a father for these kits, and may any cat be damned that thinks otherwise!"
In the shocked silence that followed, one of the kits stirred, then the other as if joined at the hip. "Talking about them," Mothflower spoke softly after Ferntalon's outburst, "what will you call them?"
         In the silence that followed, An eye cracked open on one of the kits. A perfect kit's blue. Then the other, then her brother's followed suit.
         "The tomkit will be Finchkit," Ferntalon nuzzled the tomkit, who seemed to grab out at her maw with playful stubby limbs, his kit-blue eyes adjusting to the soft lights of the medicine clearing with intrigue. Yet the other kit had no such reaction, instead staring out into the greens beyond and taking a stubby step forward - away from Ferntalon's reach.
"And the she-kit will be... Sparrowkit."