Leafpool’s Wish

“I’ll get it!” Hollykit offered, jumping down from the tussock.

“It’s okay, Jaykit can manage,” Leafpool meowed. She watched as her son trotted away from her. He paused when his paws crunched onto the edge of a dead leaf.

“Is this the one?” he called.

“Find the biggest leaf you can, please!” Leafpool told him.

Jaykit lowered his muzzle and brushed his whiskers over the leaf under his paws. He moved sideways and did the same to the next leaf. With a satisfied grunt, he picked up the second leaf and carried it back to Leafpool, almost tripping over the bottom edge.

“Thank you, little one,” Leafpool praised him. “That will get me very clean.” She watched him trot back to his littermates.

“What was all that about?” Squirrelflight asked. “Are you getting him ready for apprentice duties?”

Leafpool shook her head. “He didn’t choose the biggest leaf,” she murmured. “And did you see the way he only stopped when he was standing on them, and how he measured the size of the leaves with his whiskers?”

Squirrelflight looked curiously at her. “Am I missing something?”

Leafpool took a deep breath. “I think Jaykit is blind.”

“Blind? Are you sure?”

Leafpool nodded. Squirrelflight stared at the gray kit as he bundled against Lionkit, growling like the tiniest badger. Lionkit turned and batted him very gently with his paw.

“Poor little thing,” Squirrelflight murmured. “What sort of life will he have?”

“The same as his littermates, of course,” Leafpool snapped.

Squirrelflight’s eyes were troubled. “But blind cats can’t be warriors! Longtail had to join the elders’ den as soon as he lost his sight. What place is there in a Clan for a cat who cannot see?”

“There is an equal place for Jaykit as any of these kits!” Leafpool hissed. “I will make sure of it, even if you won’t. Look at him! He doesn’t know there is anything different about him!”

The she-cats watched the three kits tumbling on the damp grass. When Jaykit rolled too close to a patch of brambles, Hollykit nudged him away from the thorns, then pounced on his tail with a squeal.

“His littermates already know how to look after him,” Leafpool pointed out. Her heart ached. Be brave, my little son. I will always walk beside you, I promise.

Chapter 11

They left the hollow tree at the next sunrise. It was cold and calm, but drifts of snow still lay under the trees in the densest parts of the woods. The kits started out full of enthusiasm, but quickly became tired when their stumpy legs sank into the snow and their fur grew clogged and heavy. Leafpool felt exhausted too, uncomfortably full of milk and with a stabbing ache deep in her belly. Squirrelflight darted from one to the other, hoisting the kits out of clumps of snow and nudging Jaykit when he sat down and refused to move.

At sunhigh Leafpool found a sheltered patch of ferns and ordered the kits to rest. Squirrelflight darted into the undergrowth to look for prey. Hollykit and Jaykit snuggled into Leafpool’s belly for warmth and milk but Lionkit sat bolt upright, his sun-colored eyes curious.

“Where are we going?” he mewed.

“To the place where ThunderClan lives,” Leafpool told him. “In a big hollow full of warm dens and places for you to play. There will be lots of other cats there, and a big lake to cool your paws when it gets hot.”

For a moment Lionkit looked doubtful. “But I liked living in the hollow tree.”

“I know you did. But you’re getting too big to stay there forever! You are a ThunderClan cat, Lionkit, and you need to join your Clanmates.”

“Will they like me?”

“They will love you,” Leafpool purred.

Squirrelflight returned with a rather scrawny vole, which she shared with Leafpool. When they had crunched the last of the bones, Leafpool gently untangled her kits from her fur. “Come on, little ones. Time to go.”

“I don’t want to walk anymore,” Jaykit wailed. “My paws hurt!”

“Climb onto my shoulders,” Squirrelflight meowed, crouching down so he could scramble on. “I’ll carry you for a while.”

“That’s not fair!” grumbled Hollykit. “Just because Jaykit can’t see, it doesn’t mean his legs don’t work!”

“But his legs are much shorter than ours,” Lionkit pointed out, looking down at his fluffy forepaws. “We can manage better than he can in the snow. Race you to that tree, Hollykit!”

Leafpool watched her son and daughter scamper ahead, throwing up specks of snow from their tiny paws. They are so close already, my three beautiful kits. As long as they have one another, they can survive anything.

They followed the steep-banked stream until they could see the open stretch of grass leading down to the lake, then turned and headed along the ridge above the ThunderClan boundary. The snow had melted here and all three kits trotted along, sniffing the new scents.

“We’ll have to cross the border soon,” Squirrelflight mewed.