~Doe Prints/Spottedkit~ Doe Prints’s body was sluggish, and her belly was as empty and painful as her heart, she was all alone now and there was no doubt she was lost. She didn’t know which way was home, and even if she did, there was nothing left for her back there. Her mother had spirited her and her siblings away from The Kinship of Moonflower, because of a disease that had started spreading through the valley, that had taken her mate and Doe’s father from them. Doe’s mother feared she would wake to her kits stiff and cold.
Thus, she struck out on her own for a new home, somewhere safer, they thought they’d found it near a beautiful river and a small stone cropping that had been hollowed out into what Doe’s mother had made their den. They had been living there for naught but a week, until a band of viscous cats that smelled of the ocean breeze and rain had chased them away.
They were relentless in their pursuit, and didn’t let up, until Doe’s mother had started coaxing her and her siblings across some steppingstones across the river. The cats bellowed out a harsh warning for them not to return, and her mother called back that they wouldn’t. A calm lulled over them, but it was a curse in the disguise of a blessing. For one moment the crossing had been going off without a hitch, but then in rolled the storm. It was a flash storm, booming monstrously overhead, and soon the river was welling and surging with a violent current that Doe and her siblings could not flee fast enough from.
A wave of death crashed down into their tiny bodies and swept them through the chaotic current. Doe Prints could barely recall what happened after that, it all came rippling through her in blurred flashes, she could recall the chill that seeped into her. The darkness that swallowed her vision, the blooming pain in her lungs as water forcefully slipped into her maw and she had no choice but to choke it down. She could distantly remember the haunting wails of her siblings as the water claimed them one by one, and then the nipping bite of fangs against her scruff as she was torn back to shore by her exhausted mother.
That was the last thing she recollected from that fateful day, before she woke up the next, right beside her cold and stiff mother. Leaving her all alone. Doe Prints didn’t know where to go from there, but she knew she couldn’t stay with her mother after the carrion birds cast their gloomy shadows over her mother. She barely got away, they had come for Doe as well, though she wasn’t dead yet – she was nearing it.
Doe wasn’t certain how she was still alive, honestly it was a miracle, but there was no doubt that her time was limited in perhaps hours now. It had been two weeks since she last had anything other than nearly rancid meat she had scavenged off of corpses. And even then, it was no substitute for her mother’s milk. Being only six weeks old, she hadn’t yet been weaned off of her mother’s milk.
The lack of nutrition was taking its toll on the young fawn brown and white she-kit. As she stumbled about, swaying and eyes drooping, her environment spinning, and her stomach throbbing with hunger – she spotted in between fades of her vision a small bush with a space underneath it. It was a perfect space for her to get out of the elements and rest.
Doe made a beeline for it, and collapsed underneath the bush, her brittle and bony body just barely visible underneath the branches and browning leaves, of which she nearly blended perfectly into. If not for her stark white markings being a glaring contrast. The small kit could hardly curl her body in on itself as she shivered in the crisp air, hoping that the bush would slowly provide her with warmth.
Involuntary tears of sorrow and of surrender began to drip down her cheeks, as she buried her face against her front legs, and she couldn’t help but let out miserable mewls for a mother that she knew was gone.
~Teablossom~
It hadn't been long since the young molly had lost her kits to the goo that had taken over the clans for so many moons. There was a part of her that she felt as if Starclan was punishing her for who she had mated with to even conceive those helpless kittens. She could remember the day like it was yesterday, the setting was set rather nicely, and she wasn't sure what had come over her. He was someone from the enemy clan. Seeing him the first time she could have sworn she had fallen head over heels for him, something that was unspoken for.
Just as their sweet moment shared to one another was it was so easily ripped away the very next time. Cheetahcry had pretty much ghosted her, feeling used and broken the molly had kept her pregnancy's a secret having asked a friend to do her a solid and claim they were theirs. She had told him about everything and was afraid what her peers would do if they had found the truth about who the true parents were for her kittens. They were only a few moons old when each one of them became rather sick and would past peacefully in their sleep her last one departing a few mere days.
Depression had seeped through the former queen's body the loss of her kits took a rather heavy hit for her thinking that it was indeed her fault despite anything else. She had stayed laying in her nest at all times not wanting to do anything as grief sulked through her. It wasn't until the medicine cat nearly forced her out to go on a walk and get some fresh air. She had tried to get out of it but when she saw there was no point, she had begrudgingly made her way out.
She had been out for quite a while when she noticed a once lively molly resting not too far from the Riverclan border. A soft gasp came from her when she noticed that they were no longer in the land of the living, her heart aching for them. She wasn't sure who this feline was and where they had come from but losing their life at a young age caused her heart to hurt for them and their ability to never age again.
Deciding to give them a proper burial that molly had went to work wanting to give them a place to rest away from the pesky birds that had already started their abuse on the poor queen. When she had finished and made sure it was done the molly felt a few tears trailing down her cheeks running a paw over her eyes as she tried to calm down. Thats when it hit her the scent of another being that smelled rather similar to the molly she had put to rest.
Tilting her head to the ground the molly slowly made her way over to the bush- the scent getting stronger. That's when she saw her, the young kit that was on the brink of death. Gasping softly, she gently nuzzled the small frame hoping to get them to wake and come out.
~Doe Prints/Spottedkit~ At first the skinny little kit didn't stir; it was as though it had freshly succumbed to starvation. Though after a few more coaxing and gentle nuzzles, the poor thing started to sluggishly stir. Its eyes fluttered open, the light within them dimmed and clouded, but still shimmering with the hope of life.
The kit blinked wearily as their eyesight began to filter the sight before them to make sense for their nutrition starved mind. The young kit's eyes went wide as they stared at the feline before them. They smelled of milk and of safety. The scent alone seemed to perk the kit right up as she scrambled to her paws and stared at Teablossom and the light in her eyes grew brighter.
Could it be? No, it couldn't be... her mom was.... yet still- this Molly she smelled just like her mother.
"Mama..." She croaked out, her mewl rough with disuse of her vocals. She stumbled out of the bush, so small and fragile, much like a newborn kit. Once she was out from under the bush, she pressed herself and her shivering skinny frame against Teablossom and began to hiccup and whimper in a mix of relief, sorrow and joy.
"Mama! Mama! Mama!" She cried out over and over, as she nuzzled her face into the Molly's chest, wetting her fur with her tears.
🍵 Teablossom 🍵
The young molly felt her heart shatter to a million pieces, the small cries for a mother that wasn't herself. Having recently lost almost all of hers but one caused the molly to fall in a rather pit. The father of her children pretending to never have known her to this caused her to break down a little a few large tears rolling down her cheeks as she slowly sinking to the ground in front of the starving kitten. Ears folding back against her skull as she brought the molly close to her drawing a few licks across their frail body.
"I'm sorry my love... I'm not your mommy... I'm not sure who or where she is but I'll stay here... I know it's not the same, but you must be starving..." She softly whispered to the kitten before laying on her side drawing the kitten close. Despite her feelings and all in between the molly couldn't bare to leave the kitten out here alone to potentially starve to death. If she was honest, she was sure that if she had been out here for a moment longer her fate would have been so easily sealed without a chance for her to survive and grow.
Teablossom curled up around them nudging the kitten close as a way to show them that they were okay to nurse as long as they could and that they were safe with her for now. She wasn't sure if she should take the kitten back to camp in fear that the mother was close by or where the kitten came from to begin with. Letting out a soft sigh her eyes closes slightly as she tried to calm any nerves she may have.