Nightfeather

When Nightfeather awoke the next morning, she felt...different---in a good way. She felt love, she felt passion, she felt intensity---she blushed as she thought back to the previous night---but that wasn't all she felt. She felt happy, she felt alive, she felt...the slightest fluttering in her belly.

Nightfeather sat up, careful not to disturb Firefern, who was still asleep. Moving ever so quietly, Nightfeather slipped outside, where the sun was just rising above the horizon. She sat down and closed her eyes, concentrating. Slowly, slowly, she began to tune out her surroundings, focusing only on her own body. She sat there a moment, and, after nothing happened, began to wonder if she'd really felt anything at all.

"Oh!" she cried out softly in surprise as she felt the odd sensation again. She focused once more and, sure enough, there it was. There was something stirring inside her---something very small and very---alive. A proud, happy smile broke out on Nightfeather's face as she thought about this.

Suddenly, Nightfeather heard the slightest shuffling sound, and then Firefern's arms were wrapped around her, embracing her from behind. Her smile broadened.

After a moment of silence as the sun rose higher above the trees, Firefern rested his chin on Nightfeather's shoulder and said, "Good morning."

"Good morning."

Then Nightfeather took Firefern's paw in her own, placed it lightly on her belly, and waited. After a moment, she felt the fluttering again. She turned her head to look at him and smiled.

Firefern's eyes widened, and then a slow smile started to spread across his face. He looked at her. "Does this mean...?"

"Yes. I'm pregnant."

"Are you sure?"

"Yes."

His smile grew. "How many?"

"Four."

He closed his eyes for a moment, smiled, opened them, and said, "I can feel them."

Nightfeather saw pride in his eyes and joy in his smile, and her heart gave a little squeeze in excitement. She turned totally around to face him, and Firefern kissed her with a new intensity, a new sense of joy and passion and love that could never be denied.

********

Later that morning, they went to Specklestar's den to share the wonderful news. Specklestar's face had lit up as she'd congratulated the couple."You'll both make such excellent parents!" she'd said, practically bursting with joy. Then they'd moved on to Dovetail, who'd stopped practicing her moves in order to congratulate them; then the MediCats, then all the cats that were joined around the fire pit, and then all the kits and cats they'd missed in the other dens, until all of Fireclan was buzzing with the news and excitement of the latest batch of kits. Then Nightfeather and Firefern sneaked off to the stream to talk about the kits.
"What are we going to name them?" Nightfeather wondered aloud.
"Well, obviously, we'll have to wait until they're born, to see what they look like, but, for now, why don't we just start off with combinations of our names, and see what we come up with."

"Okay." Nightfeather sat on a sunny rock close to the edge of the stream, and Firefern perched beside her, holding a stick, ready to write their name combinations in the soft dirt.
"Umm..." Nightfeather started thinking. "How about...Nightfern! Orr...Nightfire! Oorrr..."

"Okay, okay, slow down!" Firefern laughed, scratching the names into the ground. "Okay, what about...Firefeather." He wrote it in the dirt. "And Firenight."
Nightfeather giggled.
Firefern raised his eyes innocently. "What?"
"They sound so...silly."

"Silly?" Firefern echoed, amused.

"Yeah. They just...sound so...silly," she said again, and laughed.

"Well," he said, tossing the stick to the ground. "I'll show you silly!" Grinning wickedly, he pounced on her, causing Nightfeather to squeal in surprise and delight. They wrestled around a little, playing and laughing and kissing, until---
"Oh!" Nightfeather felt a cold wetness on the back of her head. She looked to the side and realized that they'd gotten a little too close to the stream, and her head was touching the water. Amused by this, she started to laugh again, which cued in Firefern's laughter as well.

Firefern helped Nightfeather get away from the stream, and they headed back to the den, suddenly exhausted by all the excitement.