Life is careful with it's Lemons[Open/Important]

[Splash]

Cloud walked dully trough the mud. Memories of four kits.... three like their father, with their black coats the other one like her mother, a tortoiseshell tabby. It had happened so fast. There was nothing she could do. And now? Now she had nothing left. tears filled her eyes at the family she'd almost had. Spade... Her kits... Her mom...... All gone. Was fate really so unfair? Yes. Fate was unfair. The unfairest of all things. Could there be a light spot in her future? She doubted it.

Maybe fate had looked down on her from the beginning. It certainty seemed that way. She collapsed onto her stomach, her nose just out of the mud. Was there even a point anymore? She forced herself to gt back up. Someone, sometime, would need her. and she couldn't just lay here and die. She walked dully onward, through the mud.

[Leonid]

---

Sunpaw skidded to a halt. He sniffed the air and let a low snarl escape his lips. There was a rogue walking about the territory. With Fallenkit on his back, clinging to his pelt with outstretched claws, he couldn't afford an encounter with a hostile rogue. Then, with another scent striking him, Sunpaw's eyes widened. Milk? he thought. She's a queen?

Setting the kit down in the driest area he could find - a pile of leaves - he turned and slowly approached the rogue. "Hello?" he said in an innocent tone. Turning the corner, he found his eyes meet those of a tortiseshell tabby she-cat padding along the mud with her head down in sorrow. "Hello?" he repeated, louder.

---

[Splash]

Cloud head pulled up from her feet at the noise. It had almost been a voice. Then louder. And then she saw the cat. And then, she smelt a kit. This was probably the only reason why she moved in front of the tomcat, still a fox-length away. "Yes?" She meowed in a careful guarded tone. But, at the moment, she was faced with a more pressing matter. The kit scent had been the only reason she hadn't fought or ran.

She hoped the tom would bring it up. Or she would, very soon. Thing was, the kit scent was.. odd. It smelled of milk, yet the milk scent was stale. It also had a trace of death. Did the kit have a mother? If not, then then the kit's mother's tragedy had become her reason to live. And if this cat needed a mother for the kits, then Clouds tragedy in losing her kits, had been the only reason the kit would live now. Of course, Cloud was letting herself run on this small thread of hope. A reason to live. There was slim chance she was right. The cat just needed something, to live for.

[Leonid]

---

Stepping forward, Sunpaw made his voice sound as fearless and overwhelming as he could, being just an Apprentice. "You are trespassing on BogClan territory, loner. Why?" he asked. Although he was attempting to be intimidating, he couldn't hate the cat. She probably had no idea she had crossed any boundaries. She seemed... dead. Or, rather, she smelled of sorrow and hopelessness. She smelled of despair and, ultimately, a wish to die.

Lowering his head, as well as his tone, he started over. "I am Sunpaw of BogClan. You are...?"

---

Fallenkit squealed. A speck of mud had splashed up and gotten on her pelt. She knew, judging by how the other BogClan cats looked, that all her Clan-mates, herself included, should enjoy the mud - or, at least, not mind it. Fallenkit was of BogClan. She wasn't supposed to squeal. Hmm... Fallenkit of BogClan. Now, that didn't seem right. It didn't have much ring to it, for some, strange reason. Why? Why am I such an outcast? she thought, squealing once again as Sunpaw walked away, splashing another few drops of mud onto her pelt.

---

[Splash]

"Sorry. I did not know of this BogClan that controls this patch of territory." She turned away, beginning to walk in the opposite direction, toward the border. "My name is Cloud." She meowed the answer as she left. Cloud had lost a thread of hope. She needed to find something else to cling to. There had to be something else to cling to, another reason to live. Something else to go on.

Cloud wanted to collapse again. To sink beneath the mud and cease to exist. But the same excuse came back to her. Someday someone would need her, and then it would be awfully mean not to be there. So, she had to keep wandering. And then, on that one day, she'd be there. Apparently, today was not that day.

OOC: Do the kits even need a mom anymore? O.O I want her to have a purpose.

[Leonid]

---

Sunpaw sighed. The loner smelled of milk. She had obviously recently given birth to kits of her own. "Where are your kits?" he blurted out. The question had been nagging at him since he'd first scented the she-cat. It was a little far for a mother to go to hunt for her kits - this far into BogClan territory, that is. They were almost to the Gathering Field. Frankly, he was surprised no patrols had scented her. Then, he remembered. There were no patrols, anymore. The sickness had ended that.

Shaking his head, he tried to clear his mind of these memories. A BogClan apprentice needn't dwell upon the happenings of the past. He needed to look forward to the future. To train for the present. To help the other survivors. The other strugglers. All Clans were suffering - CliffClan the most. These kits were the last hope for that Clan. Secretly, Sunpaw hoped the kits would one day learn of their lineage and restart CliffClan. Until then, who would control the territory? Would it be left to fall to random rogues and loners. There was always the possibility of a family of badgers moving in, as well. There was also the possibility in which the remaining Clans - BogClan, his own, and WoodsClan - would split the territory. Personally, Sunpaw hoped it was somewhere in between. Perhaps the two Clans would only hunt near the edges of the former CliffClan territory and send patrols to make sure no rogues were coming too close to the Clans. Yet, no Clan would actually own any part of the territory. It would simply be devoid of cats for a while. Fanciful thoughts. Right now, Sunpaw needed to focus on what to do with this loner. Should he push her out of the territory... or should he hear her story?

---

OOC: Yeah, they still need a mom...

[Splash]

OCC: Good.

Cloud froze at the question, turning back toward the tom. "They.... They're all dead." She meowed with an amount of effort. The sadness welled up inside her again. "Someone -Or Something- Killed their father, and then soon after they were born.... a sickness." -She didn't know what to call the sickness, if it had a name- "It killed them all." She almost whet on, into how her kits looked, and how she hunted for them, and exactly how she had felt when they died, but stopped herself.

This cat didn't want to hear a sap story. He wanted an answer to his question, and her answer had been long enough. Her yellow eyes pulled up from the ground to look at the tom. And, more importantly, hear his answer.

[Leonid]

---

Sunpaw's eyes lost all hostility at the mention of a sickness. "The same sickness took the lives of many cats in the Clans. One... one has been wiped out, completely. No survivors. None." Turning around, he picked Fallenkit up from behind the tree he had hid her in. "This kit's mother... she caught the sickness, as well. Her and her two brothers are all alone, now. They... they don't have a mother and they... they need milk," Sunpaw explained, awkwardly. He was a tom. What business did he have asking the loner to give her milk to a strange band of kits? Especially without permission from his leader - or WoodsClan's leader, Rowanstar. "C-Come with me, please. I would like for you to help these kits, if you'd be so kind. First, however, I need to appeal for the approval of this situation to my superiors. That is, I must do this only if you agree. It's fully your choice but... remember this: if you refuse, these kits will die. So, please, help them." Believing he had had the she-cat nearly convinced, he continued. "There are two other kits, as far as I know, in another Clan that we are joining with to better help us both hunt and defend ourselves from badgers and hostile rogue cats. Would you like to meet the Clans?"

Sunpaw stepped back, placing Fallenkit gently onto his back, once again. He gazed at the she-cat before him with pleading eyes and a hopeful heart. Nervously, he awaited her answer. Of course, she would need permission from both Rowanstar and Flamestar in order to stay and mother the kits. Hopefully, they would agree and she would agree to pretend she was the true mother of the three kits in BogClan. As for the kit's in WoodsClan, they would need to believe their mother was killed by the sickness - which wasn't much of a stretch to make them believe. Sunpaw was sure there would be tales of the Socrates Sickness traveling around both Camps. Even this... this she-cat - Cloud, if he recalled, correctly - could join in on the stories. Judging by her story, she had witnessed the Socrates Sickness first-hand.

Fallenkit mewed and snapped Sunpaw back into focus and out of his thoughts. He prayed to StarClan that both Cloud and the leaders would agree to have the loner mother the kits.

---

[Splash]

"That's.... not an offer I can refuse." Cloud meowed finally, bending down to lick the kits head. She would never be able too leave a cat -much less a kit- Who needed her. And this small kit on the toms back/ Well, it made the offer all the more irresistible. There was not a bone in Cloud's body that didn't want to be a mother again. With kits that would live. Yes, they would live, and it would be because of her.

Her mud covered paws suddenly felt a lot lighter. She almost felt a smile sneaking up on her. What a gift, a smile. Something she hadn't been able to do since her kit's had died. Now, where was he going to when he had said "C-come with me,". Well, now that she had agreed, she was going to find out.