Mintswirl froze, looming over the brown she-cat. She glared up at them, her fur bristling, but made no move to attack them. The reason for that was perfectly clear- five tiny scraps of fur squirmed at her belly, mewling for their mother's attention.
"You're- uh- DogwoodClan," Mintswirl finally blurted out. "What are you doing here?"
"None of your business," she sniffed.
"Well... it sort of is. You're on ButterflyClan territory. Are you... okay? Do you need any help?" She glared at him for several minutes more before deflating, sheathing her claws and smoothing her fur.
"I can't go back to DogwoodClan," she sighed, looking away. "Bramblestar... well, I made them mad."
"Bramblestar exiled you?" Mintswirl's eyes widened in horror.
"Oh, no! No, they didn't exile me! I left on my own. But I made them mad, and they made me mad, and I really just... don't like anyone there. I felt so alone in DogwoodClan. So I left."
There was a long quiet between them, Mintswirl standing awkwardly over her and the she-cat focusing on her kittens.
"Uh... What are their names?"
"Oh! This is Crabkit, Bubblekit, Shellkit, Basskit, and Foamkit. My father always told me stories of his time as a boat cat," she added sheepishly. "I thought this would be a nice way to remember him. I'm Kitecrash."
The ground was wet and muddy from the melted snow, but Frozenwhisker couldn't find it within himself to mind it. It was the first time since their son had been born that Parsleystar felt up to a walk, and he was making the absolute most of it. They walked in a comfortable silence, tails entwined.
"A tunnel!" Parsleystar gasped suddenly. "Do you think it's a fox hole?"
"Maybe in the past, but there's no scents around here any more," Frozenwhisker responded after a sniff. He crept into the hole, his belly low to the ground. "It's spacious!" he called back. He started to wriggle his way back out when his paws slipped on the mud. The tunnel around him started to crumble, and there was mud in his mouth and his eyes, and all he could smell was dirt, and there was so much weight on his body, oh StarClan he was trapped, and he struggled and struggled, but he could feel his struggling growing weaker, and his chest burned with the need to breathe... and all the while, he could hear Parsleystar screaming his name.
Maybe, he thought dizzily, maybe I'll even be hearing it from StarClan.
