Guilt

Fallowheart stared up at Silverpelt glittering in the velvety night sky. Pangs tore at her stomach and she sighed. She knew exactly what the pangs meant.

Guilt.

She shook her head to clear it of her confusing thoughts and stood up, careful not to wake the warriors sleeping around her.

She padded into the Gorseledge, treading heavily on her paws. Her belly had swollen, and she knew why.

Fallowheart soon smelled the warm, sweet scent of her mate. She quickened her pace, and soon found the muscular grey tom waiting for her, the moon shining on his amber eyes.

"Snaketail!" she greeted him, nuzzling him. But the pangs of guilt still hurt her.

Ever since she had first met him in the Gorseledge, Fallowheart had been meeting Snaketail in private every night. And even though she loved him very much, she knew that he was from a different Clan, and that she was breaking the warrior code.

There was also something...something off with Snaketail. She just couldn't figure out what.

Fallowheart looked down at her swollen stomach, then looked back up into the eyes of Snaketail.

"There's...something that I have to tell you..." she began softly.

Snaketail purred. "I know," he interrupted. "We have kits!" His eyes shone with happiness.

Fallowheart tried to be happy, but she found that no matter how hard she tried, a solemn feeling still crept down her spine. She forced a happy purr.

Snaketail gave her a strange look, then looked away. "I have to get going..." he muttered suddenly. Then he raced away into the shrubbery.

Fallowheart sighed, and started back towards the den. Once she had curled up in her mossy nest, her mind began whirling with thoughts.

What was it with Snaketail that was...off? she wondered to herself. She recited the prophecy that Pinestar had told them in her head.

Only then will the snake's poison stop to flow...

She gasped, and her head jerked upwards. Her hazel eyes were wide-stretched with shock and fear.

Snaketail...he was the snake in the prophecy, she realized.

And that could only mean that she was going to give birth to the snake's kits.

Suddenly she felt a sharp pang in her stomach. And this pang wasn't guilt.

"They're coming!" she wailed. The cats around her woke up with a start.

"Stay calm," Tawnymist ordered. Then she turned to Windstreak. "Get a medicine cat in here immediately!"

Fallowheart's jaw was clenched in pain. Her claws dug into the ground.

"I never knew you had kits!" Tawnymist yowled over all the noise that now sounded in the den. "Why didn't you tell anyone?"

Fallowheart didn't respond: not only because she was in too much pain to answer, but also because she didn't want to give the answer.

~~~

Three tiny pink kits wriggled at Fallowheart's stomach as they fought for food. One was brown, one was ginger, and one was a bright black.

She nuzzled the brown tabby tom. "You will be Tigerkit."

She turned to the ginger she-cat. "You will be Flamekit."

Finally, she licked the black tom. "And you will be Firkit."

She sighed and rested her head on her paws.

Tawnymist purred, then nudged her. "Who's their father?"

The snake. The snake is their father...Fallowheart thought. But instead, she just turned her head away and closed her eyes, trying to shut out the world surrounding her.

**Pinestar**