•◇•
The Wasted Years, The Wasted Youth
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Dawnclaw watched the receding form of Aquiver. The she-cat didn't return.

Cats were starting to get ready for the nightly patrols, and Dawnclaw looked at her kits. It had been a long day for them, they needed a sleep.

"Come on little ones. It's time to sleep." She said quietly.

"Do we have to?" Meadowkit whined.

Maplekit took this without question, she already began walking back to the nursery.

Martenkit turned to Dawnclaw, her pale green eyes sparkling.

"Dawnclaw, can we eat first? I'm hungry!" She mewed, her voice as bouncy as usual.

It felt good to have some normality.

"Yeah, can we? I'm almost starved!" Coyotekit said dramatically.

Dawnclaw purred, her second eldest kit was proving to be quite the dramatist.

"Of course you may have some fresh kill. Go and fetch it from the fresh kill pile." She told them, and the two let out a cheer, and them raced off, followed quickly by Meadowkit.

Maplekit had already walked into the den, as did Sablekit.

Meadowkit and Coyotekit came back carrying a vole, and Martenkit was dragging a whitefish.

Dawnclaw helped Martenkit by picking the fish up gently in her jaws, and took it into the nursery.

She and her kits shared their prey, but to Dawnclaw, the few mouthfuls of whitefish tasted like dust. She pushed it to one side, where it was eaten along with the vole.

"Come on, kits. Let's sleep now." She said when they finished.

The kits were full, and happily obliged.

"What do you guys think about Aquiver?" Meadowkit asked suddenly.

Dawnclaw flicked an ear, it would be interesting to hear what the kits thought.

"Well, I don't think she should be here! She's not a Clan cat!" Squeaked Coyotekit.

Sablekit made no noise, he just turned over in his nest. 

Martenkit sat up, her brown tabby fur nearly indistinguishable from the bark den encasing the cats. "I think she should be able to visit for a day or two... but not for long." The little kit mewed, her voice unusually serious.

"She should be able to stay as long as she likes." The small voice of Maplekit said. Her voice was a medium pitch, but the serious tone really presented itself. "Everyone's saying that she shouldn't be here because it's against our rules, as tradition states that we do not allow outsiders. But her rules, her tradition states that she is to learn as many new things as she can, and being here is a great opportunity for her. So what right do we have say that our rules are more important than hers?"

Dawnclaw stared at Maplekit in amazement. Her kit showed greater wisdom than some of the warriors!

And she's right. Our customs and her customs don't meet up. But we cannot say that ours are more important.

"And we could learn a lot from her." Maplekit continued, her gray and cream fur had a silver glow, cast from the faint moonlight that was radiating into the den. 

Coyotekit scoffed. "Obviously our rules are more important than hers. She's sheltering with us, so what we say goes!" 

"Coyotekit's right. And of course our values are more important than hers. Great StarClan, she's just some weird rogue." Meadowkit rolled her eyes, a gesture she had picked up from Fishpaw.

Maplekit twirled around, her fur bristling and her tail lashing.

"How can you be so shallow?! You're all so pathet -" She was broke off mid snarl by Dawnclaw.

"Maplekit, don't speak to your littermates like that. They think differently." She said soothingly. Dawnclaw turned to Meodowkit and Coyotekit.

"There is no right or wrong when it comes to this subject. It all comes down to what we believe in." She told them.

Meadowkit snorted and lay down again, and Coyotekit nodded, than did the same.

"Well, I don't care. Snakestar will sort it out, so I don't need to think about it." Martenkit said with a note of finality.

Maplekit narrowed her eyes. "You're all ridiculous." She said with contempt, but she didn't follow it up.

•◇•

Dawnclaw was awoken by a paw shaking her.

"What? No I don't need to patrol!" She gasped, still half asleep. The other cat swam into focus, and Dawnclaw felt dismay edge her chest as she saw that it was Swiftear.

"Dawnclaw, we need to talk." He said.

Dawnclaw felt her chest collapse. Her ribs cracked as her heart crashed against them.

"Alright." Her voice came out strangled and scared, and Swiftear rested his tail across her shoulders and flashed her a sympathetic glance.

He led her to the medicine den, and she immediately felt claustrophobic. And then she noticed a small, dark brown she-cat. Aquiver.

The cat stood, and her copper eyes looked neutral, and emotionless.
"Let's go. Close to your camp, we can discuss." Aquiver said. Her voice was rich, as deep and dark as a flowing river.

The trio walked outside camp, they got a few curious glances. SpruceClan's only queen, the medicine cat, and the new loner.

They walked through the shaded forest, Dawnclaw noted a few drifting leaves. 

"Here would be a good place." Swiftear said.

Aquiver sat down,not with grace but heavily. She wrapped her tail around her paws, and Swiftear sat beside her.

Dawnclaw, always being one to cut straight to the point, sat down and immediately launched into it.

"What do you want to discuss? It's about Sablekit, isn't it?" She dug her claws into the ground nervously.

"Yes. It is" Swiftear told her. He glanced at Aquiver, and she dipped her head.

"Well, I was observing your camp yesterday, I noticed that Sablekit's behaviour was different to other kits."
Aquiver began speaking.

Dawnclaw winced.

"I remembered something a recent learning that a cat, named Kalon, discovered. On his journey, he met a group of barn cats. He spoke with them, and noticed a young cat, must've been around ten moons, acted differently. They explained that he had a mental disorder known as Reactive Attachment Disorder. This is what Sablekit has."

Dawnclaw let out a whimper as the sky faded. It was hollow, pale, all light was ebbing like a dying tide. The world faded until she was just a speck, a speck of dust consumed in a raging hurricane of grief, grief for herself and grief for her kit.

"No." Dawnclaw rasped.
"No. Please.. No."

Dawnclaw felt a wail rising in her throat, it emerged slowly, and gutteral.

Aquiver silenced her with a wave of her tail, her eyes unsympathetic.

"Listen. There is treatment. He can be... Almost healthy." She said.

Colour leaked into Dawnclaw's world, relief swirled in the form of wind,blowing and brushing her fur, swirling her off her feet.

"You mean.. He can be.. Normal?" She whispered, her words uttered, they felt forbidden.

Aquiver's eyes narrowed, and she lashed her tail.
"Your goal should not be for him to be "normal". In fact, if you ask me, normality is a mere illusion. But, in the term you're speaking, it is possible, maybe even likely, that he will be... Mentally healthy. As long as he gets help,and treatment. However, you should not aim for this. You should aim for his happiness. Obviously, having a mental illness or a mental disorder is not to be desired, but do not make it become all that he is. His happiness is all that matters. " Aquiver's tone was harsh, but her eyes were gentle.

Dawnclaw nodded, she was in a state of shock, unable to do anything else.

Swiftear got up, a sad smile on his face.

"We can discuss more later." He meowed, his pale yellow eyes blinking. With a flick of his ear, he walked away.

Aquiver dipped her head to Dawnclaw, her expression complex. It was unreadable, but not emotionless.

"You'll find support. Don't worry. Make sure to tell Pinetuft." She gave a rueful smile, and then followed Swiftear, leaving Dawnclaw in a state of devastation.

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A/N

I'm really enjoying writing this!

Fact Of The Chapter: Dawnclaw is heteroromantic bisexual, meaning she is romantically attracted to the opposite gender, and sexually attracted to two.