"Fire! Fire!" The alarm was caterwauled from every cat. "To the river! Quick!"

A queen, heavy with her kits, moved as quickly as she could out of the camp- which was not very fast. The medicine cat urged her along.

"Come on," he urged, walking alongside her, wincing as she stumbled, her face a mask of pain. "Hurry!"

"I am hurrying, Smokerise."

Nevertheless, queen briefly accelerated before collapsing as another spasm of pain overtook her. She managed to struggle to her feet, but looked like she was barely standing.

Smokerise looked frantic. "Oh no, the spasms are so close together...No! Silvernight, you can't kit here. We are too close to the flames!"

Silvernight shook her head slowly, wincing as spasm interrupted her halfway. "No...farther..." she managed.

The young medicine cat looked terrified. "No, Silvernight!"

Silvernight collapsed unto the ferns. She let out a yowl as another spasm came, even more painful than the last.

Smokerise quickly dashed back into his den to get some raspberry leaves and a stick, almost burning his paw as he picked up the herb from the scorching hot floor of his den. He quickly dashed back out, somehow finding a relatively unharmed stick on the ground in the camp.

Snatching it up, he ran back to the queen. He could now find her simply from her screams. She had started to push as well.

Smokerise quickly fed her the herb and placed the stick in her jaws and placed his paws on her stomach. "The first one is coming."

SIlvernight nodded before biting down hard on the stick, her entire body straining. Before long, a grey tabby kitten was visible. "I can see it!" mewed Smokerise. "One more push." Smokerise looked nervously at the surroundings and winced as a spark landed on his tail, which he quickly smothered. He looked up at the sky. "Please, StarClan."

With another heave, the grey tabby was free. Quickly, Smokerise bit open the sac and licked the kitten the wrong way until it mewled and tried to crawl to its mother. "It's a she-kit," he mewed.

Suddenly, there was a snap as the stick in Silvernight's mouth broke as she bore her second kitten, a black she-kit. Silvernight licked the kit before she yowled once more.

A tiny brown tabby tom emerged. Smokerise licked the kit frantically, but the kit remained limp. "I'm sorry," he mewed. "He walks with StarClan."

As he spoke, a glowing ember fell from a tree at Silvernight paws before a sudden raindrop quenched it. She turned to her newborn kits, who squirmed toward her, mewling. "This kit," she mewed, softly touching the grey tabby's head. "Will be Rainkit." She gestured to the black kitten. "And this kit will be Emberkit."

She looked at the tom sadly. She observed the prey fleeing the forest and her gaze fell on a sparrow. "And the tom will be called Sparrowkit in StarClan."

Emberkit for the fire she was born in.

Rainkit for the rain that saved the camp.

Sparrowkit for every creature who had fallen prey to the jaws of the fire.