"You want your tail to remain completely still, if it touches something, even if it's only a blade of grass, it can alert your prey," Jay instructed, displaying the proper hunter's crouch. "You want to get as close as you can without it seeing you," she continued, stalking silently up in the shadow of a tree, "And then leap." With that she made an impressive jump and landed on the back of a furious orange tom.

"Keep me out of your silly lessons!" Ash spat, wriggling beneath her as she let him up and pawed a bit of snow off his pelt.

"That was great!" "Hurray!" "You caught an Ash!" "I'm going to catch him next!"

Jay chuckled as the hoard of kits peered at the two of them from the shadows, their eyes glittering brightly in the dim light. "They look like a bunch of rats," she purred.

"What are rats?" Ash asked in a tired tone, smoothing out his back fur that she'd ruffled.

"They're kind of like you," Jay mewed, looking Ash up and down slowly.

His ears pinned flat against his head, "Then I don't see how you can compare the kits to them."

"Lighten up, you're not doing anything right now, why not let the kits practice hunting?" Jay mewed easily, though in reality she was as cross as Ash was. Since the snow had filled the mountain trail out of the stone valley, they had been unable to have any communication with the main valley. Plus the two of them were constantly getting on each others last nerve.

"I have better things to do than play dead rabbit," he scowled, getting up and stalking away.

"Aww..." the kits spoke in unison and Jay saw Ash pause, glancing back at his three kits, the smallest kits with the biggest eyes, and he sighed.

"I guess I can help for a little bit," he grumbled, turning back toward them. The kits hurrayed and launched themselves at him, showing their affection for him by pulling at his fur and playfully biting him.

"Mom?" Jay looked down at Ice, "Is Dusk Howl going to join us?"

Jay blinked uncomfortably, in the moon and a half since the tom had joined the group she had been aware that he and Ice had shared several long conversations. However, she never got close enough to learn what they were about. "He's hunting for Crow right now, he may join us later on though," she answered and Ice's green eyes gleamed in pleasure as her tail curled over her back.

"Alright!" the kit mewed cheerfully, rejoining Hail with a cuff to his ears and jumping away before he could retaliate. Jay frowned as she saw she was missing a kit. Eagle had initially been with them at the start, but now he was no longer among the kits.

A twinge of regret shot through her, the event that occurred when she brought Adder and Dusk Howl to the group hadn't been forgotten as easily as she'd hoped. She had apologized upon her return to the camp and her kits and Midnight's had forgiven her immediately and Crow had come around a little while later. Ash didn't care and Adder had told her, "It's forgotten."

Silver, Thunderstorm, and Eagle were a different story. Thunderstorm had seemed to accept it after a moon, but he was even more abrupt with her than before. Eagle had returned to sleeping with her and the other kits soon after that, but he still avoided talking to her and when she played with the kits he went off to join his brother.

Silver was the most difficult, she never mentioned it and never seemed angry with her. But she was never friendly with her either. It was like when she had first taken in the pale she-cat all over again. Short words only when necessary, not exactly avoidance, but always a convenient distance between them that prevented any conversation. If she had been close to considering Silver a friend, that thought was far away now.

"You call that hunting? You couldn't catch a blind mouse like that!" Ash's mocking voice revived Jay to the present and she saw the orange tom engaged with correcting Panther's too tense hunter's crouch.

The black she-kit shrunk away from her father, gray eyes alight with fright. "Here darling, just relax and let your muscles move naturally," Jay soothed, gently amending the kit's position with her tail, shooing Ash away with a glare.

Panther looked at her in relief and nodded her tiny head, concentrating as she relaxed her muscles, creeping forward like slow-moving shadow. Jay nodded in approval, "Keep going," she encouraged.

Ash grumbled, "Looks like an abnormal bug." Jay felt heat rise to her chest but she ignored him, beginning to instruct Hail and Ice on how to hunt as a team.

"One of you will circle behind it like so," she mewed, circling around Ash, "And when you're in position you'll send a signal and the other cat will scare the prey toward you."

"Like this?" Ice asked, jumping at Ash with a ferocious hiss. The orange tom glared at the kit and revealed his teeth, but Jay leaped on his back and tussled him to the ground before he could say anything.

"Just like that," she mewed, nodding approvingly at Ice who looked so satisfied that Hail had to bat at her ears.

"Can we try that?" Breeze asked, jumping around her brother, Rusty.

"Of course not, that's too advanced for little kits like yourselves," Ash grumbled.

"We can hunt!" Breeze argued, looking up at her father with longing and despair.

"Have you ever caught anything?"

"N-no..."

"Then you can't hunt," Ash snorted, turning away.

Jay glared at him, seeing that Breeze was trembling as she bravely faced her father. "You can leave if you aren't going to do anything but criticize," she growled.

"You were the one that told me to stay," he snapped, glaring at her. He didn't look as angry as he sounded, his irritation seemed to be a cover for how uncomfortable he was.

"Keep practicing, kits," Jay ordered, leading Ash away from the six younger cats. "What are you trying to do? Mortify your kits until they're too scared to talk to you?" she hissed when they were out of ear-shot.

Ash's hackles rose, "You're too soft on them! How old are your kits? Six moons? Seven moons? If they were living under the Ivy Cat rules they'd be half-way to being a hunter or fight by now! And Midnight's kits are only a moon younger, they're practically helpless rabbits when they should be at least mediocre weasels!"

"I can't teach seven kits as quickly as I could one. If you are willing to be a sensible mentor I'd love to have you help out, but I nearly had to drag you into it just now and you didn't help them at all," Jay growled angrily.

"Like you really want me teaching your kits anything," Ash sneered, "This is the first time you've ever even invited me closer than three tail-lengths to the kits."

"I never tried to keep you away either," Jay shot back, "You've spent most of this past moon out on your own, ignoring your kits when they try to play or talk to you. You're their only family left, they want to know you and I wouldn't try to get in between that."

"They're not my kits!" Ash hissed, an old annoyance being sparked up again. "You just insist that they are without any proof."

"I don't need to look any further than Panther to get my proof!" Jay spat back. "But that's not the point, you need to stop ignoring your kits and bringing them down. You're hurting them too much for me to not say anything, before you know it they're going to end up hating you and if your own kits hate you, no one will want you ever again."

Ash flinched away from her and his eyes darkened, "Good."

......

"He hasn't talked to you since?" Adder asked as they ate dinner together. Three days following her heated conversation with Ash and he was avoiding her more than usual.

Jay's tail twitched in irritation, it was colder today than it had been all leaf-bare, she could barely keep from shivering, and her meal had only been a stringy mouse. She wasn't in a mood to think about things clearly but she was most annoyed that Ash had refused to help with the kits at all and wasn't even hunting for any cat other than himself. What did he think, she just magically would be able to catch enough food for all the kits?

"He's a waste of space here if he can't help anyone but himself," she muttered angrily, looking down to her left at the clean-picked bones. Her stomach rumbled hungrily in complaint.

"Still hungry?" the young yellow tom asked and she nodded slowly, it was too late to go out hunting again since it was too cold for prey to be out and the kits would want to go to sleep soon anyways.

"I'll go hunting again tomorrow morning, we don't have any left over for breakfast tomorrow," she grumbled, pulling her paws closer to her and shivering as she laid on the cold, stiff pine needles.

"Do you think the kits can start hunting? I was already on my own at their age," Adder mewed.

Jay shifted uncomfortably, "I think Eagle and my kits are at the point where they'll benefit more from actual experience, but I don't like the thought of them going off on their own," she murmured, tail twitching nervously. The thought that they could be attacked by some animal or injured while out all alone made her uneasy.

"If you don't give them permission they're going to go without it. You're not that old, surely you member what it was like?" Adder suggested, brown eyes pointed.

Jay's tail twitched, of course she remembered all her exploits, but that had been in a secure territory during the most gentle seasons, not in a relatively unknown area during the harshest. "Those two are getting along famously," she commented, changing the subject as she nodded toward Silver and Thunderstorm who were grooming each others' pelts.

Adder glanced towards them and shrugged, "They're almost always together. I thought they were mates when I first saw them."

Jay glanced at him in surprise, "I would doubt if they develop that sort of relationship," she muttered, "It's more like they have a mutual dislike about being here."

"Your group is surprisingly dysfunctional," Adder muttered in disappointment. Jay glanced at him, this wasn't the first time he'd shown discontent at how poorly the cats got along with each other.

"I didn't form it planning to take down the StarReaders, I just kept taking in cats that needed help and they stuck around," Jay defended herself. "You and Dusk Howl were the first cats that joined for the purpose of defeating the StarReaders."

Adder shrugged, dropping his gaze, "How soon do you think we can defeat the StarReaders?"

Jay sat up, using a back paw to scratch behind her ear, closing her eyes as she thought, "Hard to say... If we could use the leaf-bare to train and if Amelia is doing her job, we could probably strike as soon as the snow melts. But that's assuming nothing disturbs us."

"What would disturb us out here? And why aren't we training right now then?" Adder demanded, getting to his paws and kneading the pine needles anxiously, making a crinkling sound.

Jay yawned, "I'm always busy watching the kits or hunting. As soon as the kits will be able to start fending for themselves, as you pointed out earlier, both burdens will be alleviated. Then we can start training, as long as everything goes smoothly," she added in a mutter.

"Please answer me, what are you so worried about happening? Is there something out here? Is that why you don't want to give your kits more freedom?" Adder demanded, brown eyes alarmed.

Jay's fur started prickling, "I wonder," she muttered, gaze sliding away to the shadows. "I haven't seen a hint of any predators and the pine tree covering is so thick it's difficult for any eagles or hawks to get here. It's almost too safe."

Adder looked confused but she didn't elaborate on her thoughts, after all, it was only a gut feeling, nothing founded on proof. "I'm going to gather up the kits," she mewed as she walked away. Passing by Silver and Thunderstorm the two gray cats paused their grooming and waited with narrowed eyes as she passed by. How strange it was to be treated with such coldness in her own home by the cats whose lives she'd saved and bellies she fed.

Crow had taken the kits a little ways from camp to allow them to play without disturbing the older cats' meals and Jay found them tumbling around a pile of snow that had fallen from the tree tops. "I'm ruler of the snow hill!" Flint cried, standing at the top of the packed down mound.

"No, I am!" Ice yowled, launching herself up the steep pile of snow, but her paws slipped on the slick snow and she fell on her belly. Eagle snickered as she slid back down with her four legs splayed out, he poked at the gray kit as she puffed out her cheeks. Breeze and Rusty were trying to knock Flint off by throwing pawfulls of soft, fluffy snow at him. But the sleek gray kit ducked and dodged with ease, shaking his head as a snowball fell apart and showered him with a mist of snow.

"Alright, alright kits," Jay chided, looking up at Flint who, at the top of the snow mound, was about a tail-length above her head. "It's getting late, time to go to sleep," she mewed, rounding up the kits at the bottom of the snow pile.

"Aw, just a little longer, please?" Breeze whined, looking at her with pleading eyes, "We have to defeat the evil lord, Flint!"

Jay purred and angled her ears over to Crow, "I don't think a few of you have enough energy to take him today," she mewed. Hail and Panther had already fallen asleep on Crow's flank and the black tom was dozing.

Jay walked over to the three sleepy cats, "Come on, you'll be more comfortable sleeping in a nice warm den," she mewed, picking up the two sleeping kits and setting them on their paws as they stumbled and tried to open their eyes.

Once they were tiredly trudging with their more energetic peers toward the camp, Jay poked Crow, "You too old timer," he groaned and she looked at him closer, sniffing his typically matted pelt. She stiffened as she got closer to the tom, his breathing was rough and even though his paws and ears were frozen, heat radiated from him. When did he get sick? She wondered in alarm, he had seemed fine that morning, but he hadn't been able to eat anything at sun-high...

"Crow, you can get up, can't you?" she asked worriedly, her heart starting to beat faster as he only groaned in his sleep as she kept poking him. Slowly his two yellow eyes opened and he looked at her, mouth open slightly as he panted, and didn't say a word.

"Let's get you back to camp," Jay mewed, putting her shoulder beneath him to lift him to his paws. She noticed he was lighter than she thought he would be for his size and realized beneath his matted tangle of black fur, he was actually much thinner than he should be.

Since he remained practically unconscious she carried him to camp on her back, stumbling through the snow. Silver and Adder met her as she approached camp, "What happened to Crow?" Silver demanded, eyes wide as she looked at the black tom. Adder was looking at the elder who was slung on her back like a piece of prey with incredulity.

"Relax," Jay soothed, seeing that Flint, Eagle, and Ice were still outside of the den and were looking nervously in their direction. She gave a sigh of relief as Dusk Howl realized what was happening and swept the kits to the den, murmuring words too quiet for her to hear.

Attention returned to the two cats in front of her she waved her tail, "He's got a fever and I think he hasn't been able to eat much lately. All he needs is rest and quiet, no need to worry," she mewed cheerfully, "Every cat gets a cold or two in leaf-bare, it happens," she added as she saw how scared Silver looked.

The tabby held her gaze for a moment, a deep fear in her depths. It didn't seem her light tone had convinced Silver but Adder nodded in contentment. "Is there anything I can do to help?" the young yellow tom offered.

Jay nodded in appreciation, padding slowly toward the den, "If you could find more moss and feathers to line his nest, and also soak some moss so that he can drink easily, that would be great. Silver, could you let Thunderstorm know what's happening? I don't want him getting worried," she added as she saw the blind tom pacing at the opposite edge of the clearing, ears pricked in their direction.

"Okay," the tabby nodded, "What about Ash?"

Jay rolled her eyes, "I don't know where he is right now and I'm sure he'll figure it out on his own," she mewed, the last thing she wanted was for him to have another reason for thinking she was not a good mother or leader. Ducking into the dim den she had to push away the curious kits and stalked to the furthest right corner where Crow's nest was located and slid him off her back.

He collapsed limply with his breathing even more laborious than before. She worriedly settled him into a comfortable position with his head propped up to help keep his breathing clear. "Is Crow going to be alright?" Flint asked nervously, coming up and putting his paws on the side of Crow's nest.

"Of course he will be, it's just a little cold," Jay mewed reassuringly, but she quickly pushed her son away toward their own nest. She stepped carefully through the dark den, avoiding the overspilling nest of kits as she reached her paltry herb store and took out a generous dose of feverfew and a couple poppy seeds. Poppy seeds were the only medicine she had plenty of.

Her belly was fluttering as she returned to the old tom, she wasn't as skilled as her mother when it came to sickness and she didn't have much experience treating even minor illnesses. In fact, she was sure the only thing she was experienced with was infection, courtesy of Silver. Was this just a common cold that was hitting him harder than usual because he was old? Or was it more serious? He wasn't coughing, but if his breathing didn't improve it wouldn't be long before he would be gasping for air.

"I need you to eat this," she mewed, gently prying his jaws open and helping him chew and swallow all the leaves. He was almost completely unresponsive and although he was able to fix his eyes on her, she had the sensation of staring into the eyes of a corpse. As she gave him the poppy seeds Adder returned laden with moss, both dry and wet.

She thanked him and started stuffing the dry nest around the elderly tom to give him extra padding from the cold and placed the cold, wet moss by his muzzle. Adder retired to his nest and Jay realized that every other cat was in the den as well, every cat but Ash.

Jay looked down as the sleeping elder, his breathing was still rough and the feverfew didn't seem to have helped him at all as he continued radiating heat while shivering, maybe I can try borage next, she thought. Stepping toward the nest of kits she saw that Dusk Howl had fallen asleep with them, Ice curled close to his head with a peaceful look on her face.

Jay returned to Crow, curling down on the hard ground just outside of his nest with her ears pricked to listen for any change in his breathing. She'd played it down earlier, but Crow was really sick. He was an elder and he was half-starved, even a minor sickness like this could take him.

And what about the kits? He'd been contagious when he took the kits out this evening, and they weren't much stronger than he was. In the Clans the medicine-cat had a separate den to help prevent the sickness from spreading, but they only had the one den. Would every cat get sick? And if so, would she have enough herbs to help them all? Would there be enough cats to hunt for them? Or were they doomed to die from sickness before even starting to help the captive StarReaders?

Closing her eyes tight she curled into a smaller ball. Were these the kind of worries that had plagued her father? Was this what a leader was? It was worse than she'd imagined, fear of a formless enemy haunted her mind not for her own sake, but for the sake of all those around her.

Only the steady, rough breathing of Crow resounding in her ears kept her calm until the morning's pale glow of hope.