Hello Feline Friends

“These kits- Graypaw, they aren’t his,” Hazelpaw managed to find the courage to whisper, voice barely loud enough for her brother to hear, much less anyone else. “He’ll know that, and he’ll kill them.” As those words left her lips, she realized she didn’t want him to kill the kits. Her kits. A protective sort of fury flared to life in her chest, and she amended that thought. I refuse to let him kill my kits. “I need to get out.”

Violetwing softened as she watched, a faint purr escaping her. She’d been worried how her mate would react to Dovepaw, but he’d easily taken up a fatherly role for her, and that meant more to the mother than she could say.

(Edit: My headcanon is that Nightstar is actually an awesome father to his own kits even though he’s a terrible person.)

Graypaw pressed close to his sister and managed the energy to lap at her shoulder once, sighing softly.

“...Mice are very good at sensing your pawsteps through the ground, so you have to tread very carefully when that’s the prey you’re tracking.” Treewhisker explained, demonstrating to his kits how lightly they needed to place their paws.

Hazelpaw flinched slightly at his touch before she managed to make herself relax, reminding herself that it was just her brother. She curled into his side, gratefully accepting the offered comfort. Her mind whirred, trying to think of a way out of her predicament. She rather thought only not being there would save her kits. But how would I even escape? And I don’t want to leave Graypaw...

After a few minutes of silent contemplation, Violetwing turned away from the forest, leaping back down from the fence. She padded over to where her mate was teaching their daughters how to hunt, sitting down to watch them.

Graypaw tentatively approached his sister to offer his company to support her, rubbing his cheek against her shoulder and pressing his side against hers once he got close enough, letting out a soft sigh.

Treewhisker was busy teaching Flowerpaw and Dovepaw proper hunting techniques for all sorts of different animals, using some flowers growing randomly in the unkempt backyard of Henry’s twolegs as targets.

Hazelpaw buried her face in her paws, not bothering to correct Graypaw's erroneous assumption. She barely understood this- this incredible (good or bad remained to be seen, but she was leaning towards bad) happening, how was she supposed to explain it? He would think her crazy. She took in a deep, shuddering breath, shaking under the weight that she could feel bearing down on her. As soon as she started to show, she knew everything would get so much worse for her. Nightstar would know it wasn't possible for her kits to be his own.

Ashpaw and Cinderpaw sat near the apprentices' den, pressed against each other as they shared a mouse. In the half moon they'd been training so far, they'd learned to grab hold of what time with the other they could, as their mentors drove them hard and they were often too exhausted to socialize. Being the kits of the leader, a lot was expected of them.

Violetwing slipped out from underneath the porch, taking a moment to stretch and yawn before padding across the yard. She leaped up onto the fence that surrounded Henry's Twolegs' home. Settling herself, the pale-furred she-cat gazed out into the forest. It had been five moons since she'd managed to escape with Flowerkit and Dovekit (now Flowerpaw and Dovepaw), but that didn't mean the longing for her home hadn't lessened. If anything, it had gotten even worse. Being so close, but also being unable to reach her home due to it being in the control of a bloodthirsty tom obsessed with her... it was torture.

Graypaw pinned his ears back, assuming they had to be Darkstar’s. “I’m so sorry...” mewled the tom softly, a pit forming in the timid Tom’s stomach.

Hazelpaw finally looked back at Graypaw, amber eyes glistening with tears. "I'm pregnant," she choked out, barely having the presence of mind to remember to keep her voice low.

“...Sister?” Mewled Graypaw softly, afraid to raise his voice beyond a soft mewl.

An ear twisted around to point at Graypaw, but that was the only sign that Hazelpaw had actually noticed his presence.

Now Graypaw was really worried, carefully padding towards his sister, his pawsteps conditioned to be timid and tentative during his time in captivity.

Hazelpaw didn't even glance at Graypaw as she made her way over to her nest, for once. She just collapsed into and it and stared blankly at the wall of the small den.

(Ok!)

Graypaw relaxed slightly when it was Hazelpaw that entered the den, but quickly became troubled by her far-away stare. It was clear the she-cat was thinking about something, and the tom settled to listen to what she might have to say to him.

Hazelpaw slipped into the den, still somewhat dazed but growing increasingly more troubled. The kits growing in her belly should have been impossible... and yet, here she was, soon to be the mother of a dead cat’s kits.

(Maybe the circumstances of this conception only work when the cat died relatively recently?)

Graypaw lifted his head as he heard paw steps outside, beginning to worry that it was Nightstar or one of his allies coming to tease him or abuse him again.

After getting a repeated confirmation and convincing Dewglimmer to let her tell Nightstar, saying she wanted to tell him herself- though she had no plans of doing so- Hazelpaw stumbled out of the medicine cat den in a daze. Kits. And they can't be Nightstar's, but how else...? She stopped in her tracks, remembering Yellowfoot, but quickly started moving again when her guard gave an annoyed growl, her paws leading her to Graypaw's den. But that's impossible! He's dead!

(Works for me!)

Graypaw languished miserably on his own, worrying not only about his plight but also his sister. She’d been acting and feeling less like herself for a few days now, and the tom could only imagine what sorts of horrible things might be wrong with her.

(Again, if you see snippets you’d like to RP, we can totally do that.

Also, we never decided how Ashkit and Cinderkit survived, but I looked it up and kittens usually start being weaned between three to four weeks of age. They would have been occasionally eating solid food for like a week by the time they didn't have a mother anymore, so they would have been able to survive so long as they had a she-cat keep them warm and stuff. I'm going to say it was Sparrowfoot, Beechpaw's mother :3 Beechpaw would have been almost an apprentice by then, though, so the three won't view each other as siblings.)


Four and a half moons later...

Hazelpaw could hear the blood rushing in her ears as Dewglimmer’s words echoed in her head. ‘You’re expecting kits, Hazelpaw. In about a moon and a half from now.’ StarClan, she was starting to feel a little faint. “Sorry, what?” She managed to choke out to the tabby medicine cat, despite having heard her perfectly. It shouldn’t have been possible, Nightstar hadn’t released inside her once since that first time he took her!


(Events of the Time Skip in the Clan: (moon 1 means the first moon in the time skip, so ‘moon 1, day 20’ means the 20th day of the time skip)

Moon 1, Day 20: Nightstar’s mother, Smoketail, is killed by a fox.
- Nightstar takes Hazelpaw’s virginity in his (unadmitted) grief. (A couple pages back, Hazelpaw asked him if she could learn herbs, and he gave her a sexual suggestion on how she could gain his trust. I thought maybe he did that.)
Moon 2, Day 21: Mistypelt moves into the nursery, expecting Barkshadow’s kits.
- Graypaw is moved to his own den next to the warriors’ den.
- Hazelpaw and Graypaw are no longer allowed to enter the nursery.
Moon 2, Day 25: Hazelpaw’s and Graypaw’s maternal great-grandmother, Flowerheart, dies of old age.
Moon 3, Day 11: Mistypelt gives birth to two she-kits, Featherkit and Brookkit.
Moon 4, Day 27: Ashkit and Cinderkit are apprenticed to Foxfury and Tinyfern.
Moon 5, Day 10: Robinheart moves into the nursery, expecting Thornstep’s kits.
Moon 5, Day 13: Hazelpaw has been feeling off for a few days, and finally goes to the medicine cat. She finds out she’s been pregnant for a little over half a moon. Time skip ends.

Events of the Time Skip with Violetwing:
Moon 1, Day 11: Treewhisker finally apprentices Flowerkit (she’s seven moons old by this point) to himself.
Moon 4, Day 27: Treewhisker apprentices Dovekit to Violetwing.

Hazelpaw Developments over the Time Skip: Yellowfoot visits her almost every night.
- She didn’t get up the courage to kiss him for a moon, and another two moons to mate with him. They’d only been mating for a moon when she got pregnant.
- She resents Violetwing and Treewhisker for not trying to come back for her, Graypaw, Ashkit, and Cinderkit. She’ll never forgive her parents for seemingly forgetting about them.
- She can’t even look at Ashkit and Cinderkit without seeing Nightstar, so she avoids them. She loves her younger half-siblings, but she can’t connect with them, not when the very sight of them reminds her of her extensive trauma.
- She’s less overwhelmingly miserable- because of Yellowfoot- but has also resigned herself to the realization that she’s going to spend the rest of her life as Nightstar’s toy/mate. Until she realizes that she has to take the risk and run, or else her kits will die.)

(Sure!)

Hazelpaw felt a purr rumbling in her throat for the first time in over a moon.

(Time skip now?)

Yellowfoot hunched over her and curled his tail around Hazelpaw, snuggling into her and purring softly as she pressed against him.

Hazelpaw stared up at the larger tom with wide amber eyes, ears pulling back. Nightstar really was telling the truth. For the (third?) time that night, she practically flung herself at Yellowfoot and buried her face in his fur, this time from joy.

Yellowfoot nodded, padding towards Hazelpaw while holding her gaze, the stars in his pelt making the tom look even more attractive than usual. “I was waiting until your assessment, but I wanted to ask you to be my mate for several moons.”

(Yay! )

Her head whipping back around, Hazelpaw stared at Yellowfoot, amber eyes wide. “You..you do?” She whispered. Nightstar had told her, but she hadn’t believed him. “I love you too, Yellowfoot.” So much.

(We could skip until she finds out, and 14 moons sounds good!)

“I love you,” Yellowfoot finally blurted out, the tom pinning his ears back as he stared at Hazelpaw’s back, the she-cat tired of listening to him.

Hazelpaw looked away from him, feeling a surge of resentment rise up within her. Stop saying that! It doesn’t matter if you can’t do anything!

(After they finish their conversation, can we skip? Should it be to when Hazelpaw gets pregnant, or when she finds out she’s pregnant? And...how old should she be when she gets pregnant? I was thinking maybe fourteen moons old, by which time she’ll also have been in Nightstar’s grasp for six moons. It would also be four moons from this point.)