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Squirrelkit laid next to her mothers back, lazily batting at Leafkits tail as it swished gently in the calm breeze. Leafkit was bored of waiting, but there wasn`t much else to do. Her and Squirrelkits father, Firestar, had promised to spend some time in the nursery, but it appeared like he would never come.
She sighed quietly. Bored, bored. She wanted to eat, or play with Mother, or do something interesting. But there was nothing to do. Just laying here, counting brambles, swishing her tail…
A rustle came from outside the nursery. A bright, fiery pelt, and –
“Father!” Squirrelkit and Leafkit said in tandem, jumping up to rush and meet him. Sandstorm jolted awake, looking over to watch her mate and kits.
“Finally!” Mewed Squirrelkit. “I was suuuuuper bored, I might`ve died!”
Firestar chuckled. “Really? Good thing I`m here while your mother gets her sleep.”
“Too late for that” chimed Sandstorm. “Already awake again.”
“Oh, dear. Well, you go back to sleep, and I`ll take care of the kits, how about that?” Firestar offered happily.
“Fine by me… just don`t let them run wild in camp, okay?” Sandstorm turned over again, to chat with the other queens, not waiting for a reply. Leafkit knew Mother was joking.
“I`ll do that, love! Come on you two, let`s do something fun.” Firestar lead his daughters out of the nursery, and into camp properly. The two she-kits were four moons old, so they were let out of the nursery plenty, but not enough, to them.
“Okay, something fun, something fun… any ideas? Leafkit, Squirrelkit?”
The two happily shared their ideas, despite them mostly being the fanciful wishes of a kitten. “Teach us hunting!”
“Eat all the herbs!”
“Give us our apprentice ceremony!”
“Tell us a story!”
The orange tom laughed. “I can`t exactly do the first three, but the last sounds good. Any stories you want to hear?”
The she-kits paused, wracking their collective two braincells. A chorus of ‘uhh’s and ‘uhm’s could be heard.
“I`ve told you about how your mother and I got our names, maybe I could tell the stories of yours?” Firestar prompted gently.
“Yeah!” They mewed in unison, like they had some sort of mind-connection synching them up.
“Wonderful! I`ll start with your name, Squirrelkit.” The clan leader led his kits to a flat area of the camp, a regular spot to eat prey. He sat down, Leafkit and her sister trying to copy his movements, one kit on each side of the tom.
“So,” he started. “Seasons ago, when Sandstorm and I were younger, we went out hunting. And this time was special, because it was our first-time hunting as just a duo of us, and as mates.”
The sisters ‘oohed’ at this. It was always difficult to think of Firestar as anything other than a tall, respectable cat. Him as a young warrior seemed farfetched.
“Your mother and I joked around, walked for a bit, then she had the idea of surprising each other with a piece of prey to trade. I ran off, and I searched for the plumpest squirrel I could ever find, which I caught.”
“When I got back to the clearing, Sandstorm came back, with another squirrel, though hers was bigger. We laughed and laughed that we had caught such similar prey. We swapped them, and started going back to camp, and got this… expression, where I could see that she was thinking deeply.”
“Ooh, ooh! I know the face!” Squirrelkit announced proudly. “It`s this!” She scrunched up her snout, and tried to keep her eyes wide open, failing comically.
“Not quite, dear.” Firestar meowed. Leafkit could see he was stopping himself from bursting into a laughter, and even she was giggling.
“So, she got this odd expression, and said that this was our first hunt as mates, and yet we might not remember it, seasons later. That`s when I thought of something, and told her ‘We will remember it, we`ll name our first-born kit after today!’”
“We worked out a system. If the first-born kit looked like Sandstorm, we`d name them Oakkit, and if they looked more like me, we would name them Squirrelkit, because we both caught squirrels in oak trees. And, well, here we are now.” Firestar flicked his tail faintly at Squirrelkit.
“Hmm… so I was named after some prey?” She asked
Firestar nodded. “An important piece of prey, mind. I always wanted my kits names to have impactful meanings.”
“Oh… cool!” Squirrelkit mewed.
“Hey, no fair!” Leafkit meowed indignantly. “Why don`t I have an impic… impace… fancy meaning?”
“Well, that`s because I haven`t explained it yet!” Firestar mewed playfully, tapping Leafkits nose with one gentle paw.
“There was a great medicine cat, from… a seasons ago, named Spottedleaf. She was a good friend, and continued to guide me, even as she joined the legions of Starclan. When you were born, we first saw you and wanted to call you Amberkit. But you tripped in the dirt, and I saw that some had gotten on your face.”
“I noticed how the dirt formed into the exact same pattern that Spottedleaf had on her face, and I took it as a sign from Starclan. So, we chose a new name. Leafkit. I believe that you`ll inherit her wisdom and kindness, some day.”
For just a moment, Leafkit saw something. Piles of neatly stacked herbs, a beautiful stone reflecting starlight, Clanmates nodding their heads at her. The life of a medicine cat. It called. She wanted to call back.
“I think that… I wanna be a medicine cat, like Spottedleaf.” Leafkit mewed through a yawn. When had she gotten so tired? She could hear Squirrelkits gentle snores from the other side of Father.
Leafkit rested her head on Fathers pelt, eyes opening and closing. Soon enough, she was asleep, and a quiet whisper of sweet herb scent comforted Leafkit into peaceful dreams.