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~RooRoo~ @
TheSnowyAnimal
Ashfeather rested in the nursery, her two kits curled against her belly. Her gaze stared ahead bleakly. She remained exhausted, even after her meeting with Leafpaw. The grief for Flameclaw and Dogkit was still fresh in her heart, and a weak sigh escaped her. Wetness welled in her eyes and she blinked, feeling them catch on her messy black cheek fur. With her singular seeing eye, she glanced down at the two wonderful bundles. If only she could wrap her tail around them, protect them from the outside world and the cold air that could sometimes get into the nursery during leaf-bare. Yet she couldn’t. Ashfeather tried, even though she knew that it would be impossible. The deformed mass only twitched, still snaking around her.
I love you so much. More tears streamed down her face. Letting out a distorted sniffle from her twisted pink nose, she ducked her head, hiding her crooked muzzle underneath round black paws. She couldn’t hide her tail, but she could hide her face. Her heart pounded harder. So many of her friends and the cats that loved her were gone. WindClan hated her, didn’t they? Another muffled, distorted sniffle. Ashfeather knew that she was running low on milk, although her belly, which felt swollen from the kitting, felt uncomfortably big. Everything else was very skinny despite her rounded head and paws.
I need to protect them. Care for them because I love them so much, she thought, but why did it have to be so hard? Why could nothing go right? Ashfeather would protect them with her life, but the Clan seemed to not want her blood passed on.
Why was I born? I can’t wish anything against these kits, but what about me? They don’t deserve the ridicule from having a mother like me. Even if they weren’t deformed, they’d go after them. Rosebriar and Wolffang especially. Ashfeather whimpered, curling her small, underweight body around the tiny shapes.
“I love you,” she whispered so quietly, muffled by her paws, that there was hardly any chance that they had heard her.