~~~~~~~~~~

A loud yowl of pain split the silent dark night, causing birds to fly away in alarm, rustling the leaves. The yowl seemed to have come  from the direction of BriarClan camp. 

''Keep still and try to stay calm'' WindTear, the BriarClan medicine cat mewed softly. In front of her lay a Queen in labor. ''Fernpaw, go fetch some more cobwebs. Lionfang, instead of pacing around you could make yourself useful and go  get a stick. Make sure it wont break.'' The silver molly cast a glance outside of the nursery. The golden tabby pelted away through the thorn tunnel as soon as he was given a task.


 Windtear gently felt her paw around the queen's belly. Rustling was heard before Fernpaw emerged in the den with cobwebs. A few cats were heard leaving their dens, some trying to poke their heads inside the nursery, while the other queens pushed them away. ''Give the medicine cats some space!'' 

Lionfang ran in with the stick, dropping it at his mate's paws before touching his muzzle to hers, purring, while anxiety and warmth shined in his eyes. ''I'll be fine, don't worry. I've got WindTear and Fernpaw taking care of me, and they're both amazing medicine cats.'' The she-cat mewed gently. 

''I know, Shimmerblossom. I know..'' The tom mewed back, before taking a few steps back to give the medicine cat enough space to work. WindTear turned to Shimmerblossom and  nudged the stick towards her. ''Here, bite on this.'' The molly nodded and clamped the stick in her jaws. Her face twisted in pain and she bit down harder on the stick as the first kit was delivered. Fernpaw began licking it instantly. Afterwards, two more kits were delivered. 


''You have three healthy she-kits.'' WindTear mewed to the queen. ''Congratulations.'' Shimmerblossom was weak, but curled her tail protectively around her newborn nursing kits. ''Thank you.'' She laid her head back and closed her eyes, resting, while her mate groomed her fur. ''What should we name them?'' He asked. She lifted her head to look at her kits. Her gaze landed on a russet-orange kit. ''This will be Flarekit.'' She turned to the only black and gray kit. ''What do you think of Cinderkit?'' She looked at her mate. ''It's perfect. And this one'' He looked at the remaining golden pelted kit. ''This will be Emberkit.''


Just then, an earsplitting shriek cut turned everyone's attention towards the camp entrance.Paws were heard pounding on the forest floor. The thorn tunnel rustled and LightEcho burst through it. ''Rouge attack!'' She yowled. Instantly, LionFang got to his paws. A few other warriors ran after Lightecho and into the forest. The golden tabby tom glanced towards his mate and kits and stood in front of them protectively. 


Shrieks were heard, and a gray rouge with ruffled, unkempt fur that seemed not to have been groomed in moons, with fresh bleeding wounds on his pelt and wide malicious eyes ran inside the camp. A few cats tried to leap at him, but he dodged them, heading straight for the nursery. Lionfang threw himself at the rouge and they tumbled away. Shimmerblossom couldn't see what was happening, but fear and anger overwhelmed her.


She could see blood splatter on the ground in front of the nursery as the rouge approached it, Lionfang out of her sight. The rouge stood in front of her and she lashed out a paw, but the tom dodged it and pushed her to her back. Already exhausted from giving birth, she managed to land a weak blow to his cheek, but the tom didn't seem distracted as he reached for her kits. 

''NO!'' She shrieked, but he already grabbed Cinderkit and Emberkit by their scruffs. The queen got to her paws and leaped at the tom. He fell but quickly stood up, dropping Emberkit, then shook the Queen off of his back and continued running. ''He has my kit!'' She yowled. Lionfang, who was laying on the ground, bleeding, opened his eyes and shakily got to his paws, then broke into a run after the rouge. Overwhelmed by despair, she sat back, unable to stand and let out wails of sadness and pain. She moved towards the end of her den, curling her tail around Emberkit and Flarekit. She closed her eyes, and soon passed out from exhaustion.

She opened her eyes a bit later, the tang of death hitting her like a lightning strike. Standing up, the made her way out of the nursery. The image in front of her shocked her and she stood there, frozen in place, as she saw her mate lying in a pool of blood in the middle of the clearing, their clanmates making a circle around him. She ran to his side and buried her face in his cold, blood matted fur, letting out sobs of grief. 

''He fought the rouge but, sadly, it killed him.. And it took Cinderkit too. I'm so sorry.'' Blossomfall's words rang in her ears, constantly repeating in her head. Her best friend pressed against her, but nothing was able to comfort her. She lost both her mate and one of her kits. Grief washed over her, as cold as the lake in Leaf'bare. 

Her clanmates made a circle around Lionfang, grieving. 

The sun was barely visible among the trees, as the time for morning came, and with it, the time for Lionfang's burial. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~


End of the prologue! This is my first time ever writing any sort of book so please bare with my poor writing skills and logical sense. I'll get better I promise. But for now, here's what i got. I wont normally do author notes at the end of every chapter, but im doing it now since the first chapter wont be out too soon since i get busy. Anyways, I hope you like the prologue. This book isn't meant to be really sad and all so the other parts wont be so depressing. 
Bye and have a good day/night!