This chapter includes extreme gore. Blood, death, etc.

"Lionkit! Great StarClan, go get the medicine cat you absolute mouse-brain!" Shadetail ordered, lashing her tail.

Lionkit looked up with his amber eyes at his mother, confused. Then he got the idea. He raced out of the den, across the clearing and squeezed into the medicine cat den.

"Quailflight! Shadetail wants you," he meowed.

The fawn brown she cat turned to him unexpectedly. "What is it now?" She sighed, her shoulders sagging.

Lionkit shrugged. "I don't know, but she needs help fast." 

Quailflight brushed past him and padded towards the nursery, Lionkit at her heels.

"Is everything fine in-" the medicine cat broke off to her horror.

Moonheart lay on the ground, a pool of blood around her. Two kits lay at her belly, still as stone.

Quailflight rushed towards the queen, beginning to help her and soothe her as she gave birth.

The she cat howled in pain and dismay, flaying her paws about.

"Calm down, Moonheart. You'll be okay," Quailflight meowed, hoping it was true.

She looked up at the medicine cat. "I think my time has come," she rasped, slowly looking down at her kits. There was another one beside the first two now. 

Quailflight murmured to herself, before lapping at the queens fur in grief.

Moonheart closed her eyes, and took a shuddering sigh.

Lionkit gasped. He hadn't had a clue what was happening, but the scent of death  and blood hit him.

Quailflight blinked. Then she turned to glare at Lionkit.

"You could have gotten me sooner. Then Moonheart wouldn't have died. Now she only has one surviving kit. This is your fault." She hissed, rushing past him, almost knocking him off his paws.

Shadetail looked at him with hatred. "Why did I ever give birth to you?"

Shock made Lionkit blink painfully. Choking back a strong wail, he turned away, feeling as if a million, sharp stones had pierced his heart. Sorrow and pain flooded him, and he sniffed to avoid letting out an ear-splitting cry.

Shadetail flicked her tail tip, and roughly cuffed him a round the ear, claws unsheathed.

With a force so hard, she managed to make Lionkit topple over, into the nest with the only surviving kit.

It squealed, and Shadetail gasped. She quickly grabbed Lionkit by the scruff and hauled him out of the nest, onto the dusty floor.

***

Shadetail and Moonheart were good friends. Moonheart felt bad for the way she was treating Lionkit, but whenever she tried to persuade her to treat him better, she looked away and denied treating him any worse than any other kit.

The only reason Shadetail despised Lionkit was because of his father, Patchfeather. He murdered three warriors in TreeClan, without telling Shadetail, who was then pregnant with his kit. And he was exiled, and she gave birth to a fatherless kit. She was afraid he would turn out like his father, a blood-thirsty, horrible tom. But Lionkit only wanted to please her. Whatever he did, apparently it was always wrong.

The whole Clan except Moonheart thought he was bad luck.

***

"You mouse-brained fox heart!" Shadetail snarled, beginning to lap at the kits fur.

Lionkit opened his mouth in a protest, but then closed it again. He didn't want her to attack him.

I wish she treated me like that. He thought to himself sadly, before turning away and stalking out of the den.

Cats had heard of the news, and began to gossip to each other, shooting Lionkit dirty looks as if he had murdered Moonheart with his own teeth and claws.

I wish Moonheart was here. Just thinking of her made his throat go dry, and he couldn't breathe as he choked back cries.

A sudden paw hitting the ground beside Lionkit made him open his eyes in surprise.

Antpaw was stomping on the ground next to him, glaring at Lionkit with wide eyes.

"How dare you! Why didn't you get Quailflight sooner? Then my mother's sister wouldn't have died!" He growled, his eyes slitting.

Lionkit stood to his defiance. "It wasn't my fault!" He managed to retort.

Antpaw only got angrier. "Your father killed mine, and now you killed my kin! I will hate you forever, Lionkit. No one wants you here." 

His sharp words stung Lionkit as he crawled away into a bush behind him, cowering below Antpaw's hating glare.

It's not my fault though. I didn't know it was urgent, because Shadetail didn't tell me!