Applestem woke from his dream with a start. He just had a vision from StarClan! He ran to deliver the ever-cryptic prophecy he received to Rainstar. As he sprinted through the camp, he noticed the camp was just beginning to wake up. The dawn patrol should be back soon. When he got to the leader's den, he listened outside to make sure there was no cat in there first. Once he was satisfied that the den was vacant of visitors, he stepped inside to see that Mottlespots was already gone, probably on a dawn patrol. She always put too much pressure on herself to do stuff, since she was the leader's mate. It's not good to have that much stress all the time. He shifted his attention to Rainstar. He was just starting to drift into consciousness, by the looks of it. He made himself comfortable on the floor of the den while he waited for Rainstar to wake up fully. 

The leader had not been one for long. The old one had gone a little crazy and thought that they were in a famine when they really weren't. He sort of sacrificed his last life to the clan, but it was completely unnecessary. Sure they were a little low on food, but that didn't mean he had to stop eating food completely. Maybe it was better for him to go. He would have just continued being obsessed with that rogue, Shadow. Applestem looked back to the leader to see that he was almost fully conscious. 

Rainstar looked up at Applestem with slight confusion, then that changed to expectancy. He figured now was a good time as any to begin his explanation. "I had a vision." Straight and to the point. Rainstar immediately sat up and directed his attention to Applestem. 

"Go on." Applestem took a deep breath and continued. "I was gathering herbs when Heatherleaf came up to me and told me that something was coming. Then she gave me a prophecy: Born of black and born of white, a silver screech pierced the night. Storm will rise and darkness fall, a speckled face will save us all." He let out his breath, not having realized he was holding it.  Rainstar was thinking, pondering the prophecy. Applestem knew that face well. When he was thinking about something, he got lost in his own little world. When that happened, all you could do was wait until he came out of his trance.

Next thing they knew, they could hear a commotion in the camp, so they went to check what it was. The dawn patrol was back, and the rest of the camp was crowded around the entrance of the nursery. Marshpelt (the leader of the patrol) was running towards them, looking a little panicked. He stopped just short of them. Panting, he tried to tell them what happened. "You... know... that... rogue..." He paused to catch his breath. "Shadow?" When Rainstar nodded, he continued. "She came out of some bushes and tried to make a run for the thunderpath. We chased her a bit, but then she got hit by a monster. It went by and we realized, a little too late, I might add, that she had... kits." Rainstar looked wary, like he knew what was coming. "The rogue was dead for sure. So was one of the kits. The other one was just injured, so we brought it back." He watched as Rainstar's eyes were filled with concern and horror, a rather odd combination of emotions. "Just before she got hit, though, she yowled "Find him". We were all wondering what she meant, but then Graypaw came out of the bush - the same one the rogue did - with another kit. It looked very similar to the ones the rogue had. Too similar to be a coincidence. So Lakespring told her to check if it was a tom - and it was. Graypaw wanted to name the kit she found Littlekit. We figured since she was the one who found him, she could." 

Rainstar was deep in thought, and Applestem looked very worried. "I'm gonna go check on that kit..." They watched as he dashed off towards the nursery, leaving them with an uneasy silence.

Rainstar spoke up. "I think you're right about the name. I'm fine with her naming him. But I'm also quite worried that we won't be able to support these kits. I know it's new-leaf and warming up, but we just went through a really harsh leaf-bare,  and the prey is still quite few and far between." 

Marshpelt was slowly nodding. "I know. And Spottednose might have a hard time with two extra kits. But we couldn't just leave them there. That's against the warrior code."

"I know, and I'm not saying that you should have left them. I'm just saying that we might have a hard time with two extra mouths to feed."

They stopped to notice Applestem coming over to them. "How's the kit?" Rainstar called out to him. 

"She'll last the night, but I'm not sure how long I can keep her alive after that. I would advise against naming or getting too attached to her, she probably won't live long."

Rainstar turned to Marshpelt. "Well, that pretty much takes care of one of our problems, or at least softens the blow. Let's go check out that other kit, the tom." They headed over to the nursery. "Everybody, go back to your duties. Spottednose needs her space." As the crowd cleared, they stepped inside the nursery. Spottednose was lying there, four kits nursing. The other one must be in the Medicine Cat Den. 

Spottednose looked exhausted. He didn't blame her. She got woken up in the early morning and told she had to add two more kits to her already troublesome crew. And these ones didn't look anything like the ones she had. Rainstar hadn't seen the she-cat yet, but the tom was white with gray, almost black splotches. The name Littlekit suited him. He was tiny, probably only a sunrise or two old. Too young to be separated from his mother. And yet here we are, he thought. 

He decided to leave Spottednose alone and go hunting. Fishing, to be exact. He left the camp and headed off to the stream.