#twigtooth

She didn’t know what to say to most cats these days, really. Though it had been many days since Honeypaw’s vigil, her death still hung heavily above the camp. Darkkit had tried to ask her a few questions about the whole thing, but she had floundered and said something vague about StarClan before hurrying away. Ice-echo had finally woken up, but she still wasn’t quite all there and fell asleep frequently, and Hollyhockseeker made it clear that Twigtooth’s hovering was only hindering her ability to help Ice-echo recover. She could at least be thankful that Gladefur and Bleakspeckle hadn’t gotten into a verbal fight at all, but she knew their temporary treaty was only as good as long as they completely avoided each other during the day. 

And now there she was, alone with Gladefur and wondering if opening her mouth would do anyone any good.

Truthfully, she had wanted to go on this little border patrol on her own. She had done it before, with permission of course, but since the flood, both Clawstar and Gladefur were hesitant to let anyone go off by themselves. They were at least kind enough to not make her be the second cat in Bleakspeckle’s futile search parties; Clawstar had stepped up to that role. 

And with Hollyhockseeker staying in the healer’s den as much as she could, that left just Gladefur. 

She didn’t dislike Gladefur, but she wasn’t exactly friends with him. She was grateful he had pulled Ice-echo from the flood, but she didn’t know how to thank him without making him relive Honeypaw’s loss. It didn’t help that he hadn’t spoken much to anyone since the vigil. But wasn’t that all the more reason to talk to him? They weren’t friends, but surely he could use one now, couldn’t he?

“Gladefur—” she began, but was cut off when he stopped in his tracks, holding up his tail in a signal to be quiet. Twigtooth shifted her focus to their surroundings and heard what he had: loud rustling past the trees in front of them. As Gladefur stalked towards the noise, she opened her mouth to get a better scent. It was faint, so it took her a few moments to process what she was picking up, but when she did, her eyes widened. “Wait!” she shouted, leaping in front of Gladefur to stop him.

“What—?” Gladefur hissed, but she shushed him, eyes focused on the treeline. 

The rustling noise had stopped. Twigtooth didn’t have to hold Gladefur back much longer; she could tell when the scent hit his nose as well when he visibly relaxed and took a step back. 

“It’s all right,” he called. “You can come out.”

A long moment passed, then the rustling started up again, and it slowly came closer. Finally, a head cautiously peeked around one of the trees. It was a ginger molly. “Oh, well, hello,” she said, her voice breaking just a bit at the end. She cleared her throat. “Fine day, isn’t it?”

“Is there anything we can help you with? We can direct you back to the Twolegplace if you’re lost.”

“Twoleg—? Oh, no, no. That’s all right.” She glanced behind her, then looked back to them. “Uhm, well. I was wondering… Are you part of that new group of cats living around here?”

Gladefur exchanged a glance with Twigtooth. “We are.”

The cat’s face brightened. “Oh, good! Then you must know Honeypaw!”

“Honeypaw?” Twigtooth couldn’t help repeating. “You know her?”

“Well, yes. We met a little while ago. Had a nice chat. Is she around?”

“You’re… the kittypet she talked to last moon, aren’t you?” Gladefur asked. Twigtooth blinked, but stayed quiet.

“Oh, so she did mention me!” The cat purred. She took a few steps out from behind the tree, her tail waving in a friendly, carefree manner. “How is she doing? I was hoping to see her among you, really, but I’m sure she’s busy off doing… whatever it is you all do here.”

Gladefur didn’t answer, so Twigtooth quietly said, “Honeypaw… passed away some days ago. There was a flood. She didn’t make it.”

The cat’s tail lowered. “Oh…” 

There was a long moment where no one spoke. Finally, Gladefur asked the question that had been on Twigtooth’s mind ever since this cat’s scent hit her nose: “Where are your kits?”

“My kits?” The cat repeated, taking a cautious step back. She laughed nervously. “Ah, I forgot how well you all can smell. They’re just over there.” She flicked her tail towards a particular bush behind her. “They know to call out if they need me.”

“Why aren’t they with your Twolegs?” Twigtooth asked. She had never heard of a kittypet taking their kits outside of the safety of their Twoleg den. 

The cat didn’t answer at first. When she did say something, her voice cracked again, “We don’t have one anymore.”

“Ah,” Twigtooth said before she could stop herself. Now that was something she had heard of before.

“Do you need help with food then?” Gladefur asked. “I’m sure we could spare some if you really need it. We could even hunt for you right now—”

“That’s very kind,” the cat interrupted. “But anything you’d give us wouldn’t last very long I’m afraid. You see, I have five kits with me, and to be very honest, it’s been a bit of a struggle just getting enough food for myself.”

“You’d like to join ShadeClan then? We’ll have to talk about it with our leader, of course, but I don’t see why—”

“No,” she interrupted again. She wasn’t looking at them as she said, “Well, not quite, I mean. You’re right that I was going to ask you about joining your ‘ShadeClan,’ but only for my kits. I won’t be joining you all.”

“You won’t be…? You want to abandon your kits?” Twigtooth cried.

“I’m not abandoning them,” the cat snapped, any pretence of friendliness completely gone from her voice. “You don’t understand. I’ve tried living the wild life out here, but I’ve spent almost my whole life living with my housefolk. Longer than either of you have been alive, I figure. This life isn’t meant for me. I’m only out here because my housefolk put my kits here! They wouldn’t have survived more than a day on their own, so of course I went with them, because I wouldn't abandon them. But now they’re old enough to survive without my milk, and Honeypaw talked about how your ‘ShadeClan’ took her in when she was a kit. How there were other kits you all took in. So why wouldn’t my kits be welcomed the same way?”

“Those kits didn’t have mothers to go back to,” Twigtooth said lowly. “You said this life isn’t for you. What kind of life are you going to where you can’t take your kits with you?”

“That’s none of your concern. Are you going to take in my kits or not?”

Twigtooth was about to spit back a reply when Gladefur beat her to it: “Of course we will.”

“What—?”

“We’re taking in her kits,” he said firmly. “Don’t you remember what Shadetuft told us? Part of a Clan cat’s duty is taking care of kits. Any kits. It’s why we took in Darkkit and Rimepaw and… Honeypaw, even when we weren’t sure ShadeClan would work, because they needed our help. It’s clear to me that…” He faltered and turned back to the ginger cat. “I’m sorry, your name is…?”

“...Carolina,” she said, eyes narrowed but no longer spitting her words.

He nodded and continued, “It’s clear to me that Carolina here has made up her mind, and there’s nothing we can do to change it, which means her kits do need our help.” He gave Twigtooth a hard look. “Unless you’d rather we leave them in the bush?”

“Of course not,” Twigtooth growled. Her tail lashed as she glared at Carolina. “I’m not like her.”

Carolina’s lips curled back in a snarl, but Gladefur stepped between them. “That’s enough. We’ve agreed to help your kits, Carolina. Let’s focus on them instead of trying to bite each other’s heads off.”

“...All right. They’re just this way.” She gave Twigtooth one last glare before she led them through the underbrush. They didn’t have to walk far; it took only a few pawsteps for them to see the small bundles of fur. There were five of them, just like Carolina said, all about Darkkit’s age, and almost all of them stared wide-eyed at the three adults as they approached.

They could probably hear everything we said… Twigtooth realized with a pang. 

“This is Tangle, Current, Freeze, Spark…” Carolina paused after gesturing to the dark brown molly who had a small stub for a tail and said specifically to Twigtooth, “She was born like that.” As if she thought Twigtooth couldn’t tell the difference between a birth defect and injury. Twigtooth held in her retort as Carolina introduced the last kit, a ginger molly who was the only kit not looking at them. Instead, she was pawing at a leaf. “And that’s Scratch. She’s… quiet. Often lost in her own world.” Carolina went over and nudged Scratch, and it was then that she finally looked at Twigtooth and Gladefur, though she quickly lost interest and went back to inspecting her leaf.

“Do we have to go with them, Momma?” Spark asked in a small voice. Out of all of them, she seemed the most scared. 

Carolina bent her head down as she said, “Yes, you know that, dear. Don’t worry, they’ll be nice to you.” She shot a warning look at Twigtooth.

It was then that Twigtooth realized her own anger was clear as day on her face. Taking a quiet breath, she pushed that anger down and put on as gentle a smile as she could. Crouching down to the kits’ level, she said, “My name is Twigtooth, and that’s Gladefur. We have plenty of food and soft nests for all of you at our camp.”

“But none for Momma,” Freeze said, less like he was asking a question and more like he was stating a fact.

Carolina quickly said, “I will have my own food and soft nest. You won’t have to worry about me.”

Freeze didn’t say anything to that, but Twigtooth could tell that wasn’t quite what he was worried about. 

“We should be heading back soon,” Gladefur said. “Clawstar will want to know about this as soon as possible.” He looked to Carolina. “You know where to find us, if you ever need anything.”

Carolina nodded to him, then turned to her kits. However, before she could begin to say her goodbyes, Freeze stood and nudged Scratch, leading her over to where Twigtooth stood without so much as a look back to their mother. Carolina watched this with an unreadable expression, then finally said to Tangle, Current, and Spark, “Be good now, my dears. Momma will always be thinking of you.”

“Why can’t you come with us?” Spark whined, then squeaked when Tangle batted at her ears.

“Stop asking that!” he muttered. 

“It’s all right. I know this is confusing, darling, but you know Momma has somewhere else she needs to be, and this new place will be so much better for you. Okay?”

“Okay…” Spark murmured.

“Okay. Now, be a good kit and listen to Twigtooth and Gladefur, all right?” She used her tail to gently push them in the right direction. 

Spark still looked hesitant to go. Next to her, Current knocked their shoulders together and said, “Momma says it’ll be fine. It won’t be that bad!” Her reassurances didn’t wipe off the look of misery on Spark’s face, but it did get her finally moving.

Once all the kits were standing between her and Gladefur, Twigtooth turned to Carolina. They stared silently at each other for a moment before Carolina gave her kits one last look. Then, she wordlessly disappeared into the bushes. 

Twigtooth heard a small sniffle that broke her heart. She crouched back down and addressed all of the kits when she said, “It’ll be okay. Your momma might not be with you, but I am.” She looked back to Gladefur. “We are. All of us. That’s what ShadeClan is about. You’re a part of that now, and you always will be. Okay?”

It still didn’t seem to do much, especially for Spark, but Twigtooth knew that it would take more than just the words of a cat they had just met to make them believe. 

“Let’s go,” Gladefur said and began to lead the way back to camp.

All of the kits followed, except for Scratch, who looked torn about leaving behind the leaf she had been playing with. Twigtooth smiled and picked the leaf up by her teeth, then set it gently upon Scratch’s head. The little kit giggled under the leaf, then trotted happily after her littermates, as if she hadn’t a care in the world. 

When they arrived at camp, almost everyone was already out in the clearing, the sound of little pawsteps and tiny voices drawing their curiosity. Clawstar met them at the entrance and smiled down at the kits. “And who do we have here?” Gladefur quickly gave him a report of what happened, and although his expression dimmed a bit when he heard about Carolina’s decision, he quickly smiled again and said to the kits, “Hello, little ones. My name is Clawstar. ShadeClan welcomes you.”

They stared blankly up at him, and Twigtooth held in a snort of laughter as Clawstar cleared his throat.

“Yes, well, the first order of business is to give you all your new Clan names. Each of you will gain the suffix of -kit for as long as you stay in our nursery. Once you reach six moons, you’ll be made an apprentice and given the suffix -paw.”

“Like Honeypaw!” Current suddenly interrupted.

Clawstar was quiet for a moment, then nodded. “Yes, like Honeypaw. Then, once you’ve completed your training, you’ll gain a unique warrior name.”

“So… my name is Currentkit now?”

“Yes, exactly.”

“Cool,” she murmured. 

“You’ll learn more about our Clan and customs later. For now, you should get settled.” Clawstar turned towards the nursery and called out, “Darkkit!”

Twigtooth looked and spotted Darkkit’s wide eyes from the nursery entrance. He startled when called and scrambled to get to them.

“This is Darkkit,” Clawstar said. “Darkkit, these kits are new members of ShadeClan. They’re around your age. I can trust that you’ll be able to show them around? Help them with their nests in the nursery?”

“They’ll be staying?” Darkkit asked.

“Yes, they’ll be staying,” Twigtooth answered with a purr. She knew how lonely he had been, being the only kit in the nursery.

Just as she expected, a big smile burst onto Darkkit’s muzzle. “Okay! Follow me!” he mewed, already bounding back towards the nursery. All of the new kits followed him eagerly, even Sparkkit, who seemed more comfortable at the sight of another kit. 

Well, almost all of the new kits followed Darkkit.

Twigtooth frowned when she saw Freezekit stay by her side. He had a troubled expression on his face. “Don’t you want to go see where your new nest will be?” 

He looked up at her, then after a moment, asked, “Where’s your nest?”

She blinked, thought of her nest in the warriors’ den, then said, “In the nursery. Right next to yours.”

Freezekit stared at her for a moment longer, then smiled. “Okay,” he simply said, then ran to catch up with his littermates. 

“Five more kits…” Clawstar murmured from beside her. “They might be a bit much to handle.”

Twigtooth watched Darkkit lead the others into the nursery, already chatting their ears off. She watched Sparkkit get too engrossed with the new sights to worry about staying close to her littermates. She watched Freezekit point things out to Scratchkit, as if he already knew where everything was. 

She smiled. “I think I can handle them.”

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