Chapter One
"Open your eyes." A soft voice purred. "You can do it, Robinkit."
The young kit sat still for a moment. She knew she could open her eyes, but she wasn't sure if she wanted to. Right now, she loved the world she lived in. What could be more comforting than this darkness? But then again, she might be missing out on an even better world.
"She'll open her eyes when she's ready." A deep meow rumbled. "Remember our last litter, Pineleaf? They took a while to open their eyes, and Robinkit is only a few days old."
"Yes, but do you remember that they're all dead now?" The soft voice meowed bitterly. Robinkit wiggled a little and contemplated opening her eyes. If she did, she'd please the soft-voiced cat, but she'd be going into the unknown. What if she didn't like having her eyes open?
"Her brothers opened their eyes yesterday." The soft voice stated. The kit felt a little irritated when she heard that. She wanted to be the best. Robinkit took one deep breath and opened her eyes. Everything around her was huge and kind of frightened her. She blinked and everything became focused. A reddish she-cat was looking down at her, her light green eyes shining proudly. "She has lovely eyes. They're yellow, almost the same as yours, Thornstar."
Robinkit followed her mother's stare and was shocked when she saw a huge silver and black tabby tom watching her with his yellow eyes.
"Is that what my eyes look like?" The little silver and white she-kit asked bravely. The tom shook his head. "They're a bit lighter than mine, but unusual nonetheless."
"This is your father, Thornstar." The reddish she-cat meowed lovingly, flicking Robinkit's ears with her tail. "I'm Pineleaf, your mother. Welcome to Shadowclan, little one."
"Can I actually see the rest of Shadowclan?" Robinkit inquired. "I've scented strange things on my brothers when they've gone for a while."
"Go ahead." Thornstar encouraged, picking Robinkit up by her scruff and carrying her out into the camp. "Wander around, figure out Clan life." He set her down and nudged her away from the nursery. Robinkit looked at him incredulously, but he just nodded and nudged her again. She shrugged and padded toward a bramble bush. A black tom came out of it and nearly ran the little kit over.
"Watch it." She hissed, unsheathing her claws. A light tabby she-cat chuckled and lightly cuffed Robinkit. "Calm down, Robinkit. It's your first day out, don't make any enemies."
The little kit let her fur lay flat and nodded slowly. "Sorry."
"It's fine." The black tom meowed, padding away from the two cats.
"I'm Fawnpaw." The she-cat greeted. "I'm guessing you're Robinkit."
"Yes." Robinkit replied coolly. "I was just exploring the camp. That tom surprised me, that's why I was so rude."
"It's fine." Fawnpaw dipped her head. "This is the warriors' den, for future reference. That was Leopardfoot. If you look closely, he's not completely black. He's more of a dark gray with a spotted tabby pelt. It's really hard to see, but his name makes sense once you figure that out. I bet you're looking for your brothers. They're in Rainheart's den, it's right over there." The tabby pointed her tail at a small cave. "She's the medicine cat."
Robinkit meowed a quick goodbye and padded over to the medicine cat's den. Three small toms came barreling out of the small cave and knocked Robinkit off of her paws.
"Get off of me!" She snarled jokingly, throwing a tiny white tom off. Only a dark tabby and a dark ginger tom remained and they were each half her size. Robinkit thrashed around and the dark ginger tom backed away, leaving only the dark tabby.
"Bring it on, Vinekit." Robinkit hissed. The dark tabby looked a bit uneasy. "Are you okay, Robinkit?" He asked.
"I'm fine." Robinkit snapped, stomping her paw into the muddy ground angrily. "Vinekit, I was just playing. You ruined it!"
"You looked serious." The white tom meowed defensively. "I thought you were going to actually try and fight him."
Robinkit rolled her eyes. "Lightkit, you worry too much. You need to take a walk on the wild side, like me."
"Ha!" The dark ginger tom burst. "You just opened your eyes, Robinkit, what do you know about the wild side?"
Robinkit thought for a moment and shrugged. "Nothing, but I bet you know bunches, Applekit. Why don't you show me?" She made sure her mew sounded sweet and sincere.
Applekit motioned for the other kits to move closely, and when they did he made sure to keep his voice low. "We're going to sneak out of camp."
"Great!" Robinkit squeaked. "How?"
"No, no, no." Lightkit argued. "We'll get caught."
"I kind of agree with Lightkit." Vinekit admitted. "I want to go, but what happens if we get caught?"
"Thornstar might not let us become apprentices until we're older than six moons." Lightkit pointed out. Applekit shot his silver and white tabby sister an unsure look. "Maybe we should wait until we're apprentices."
"You're acting like newborn kits." Robinkit insulted her brothers.
"We are." Vinekit retorted.
"Okay, if you're all going to act like scaredy-frogs, then let's just go back to the nursery." Robinkit meowed slyly. Applekit seemed to swell and he got to his paws. "Let's go. We'll go all the way to Thunderclan!"
"Be quiet." Robinkit shot him a disparaging look. "I'll follow you to the camp entrance, but we have to make sure we don't get caught."
"Follow me." Applekit order, crouching low to the ground. The four kits slunk toward a tiny path surrounded by brambles. They dashed out of camp and found themselves in a flat marshland. Robinkit didn't really like the muddy ground squishing around her paws, but she figured she'd get used to it. The four padded along for a while, but then Lightkit stopped, motioning for the others to do the same.
"Do we even know how to get to Thunderclan?" He asked.
"I guess not." Applekit replied, flattening his ears, obviously embarrassed.
"Let's keep going this way." Robinkit coaxed. "Eventually we'll get there." She took the lead and the kits trekked onward. After a while, Lightkit sat down.
"My paws ache." He whined. "I want to go back to camp."
"Me too." Vinekit agreed, sitting beside his smaller brother. "I don't want to get in trouble."
Applekit nodded. "Yeah, Pineleaf will notice that we left."
"Go back." Robinkit dared. "I'm going all the way to Thunderclan. When I get back to camp, the other cats will be so impressed that I'll probably be allowed to leave camp whenever I want. I might even get to become an apprentice early."
"I want that too." Applekit meowed quickly. "I'm staying with Robinkit."
Lightkit and Vinekit reluctantly got to their paws and followed the other kits.
"Shh." Robinkit hissed, only moments after they'd began walking again. "I hear something."
"No, Beetlepaw." A cat meowed sternly. "You're doing the wrong move. I told you to knock my paws out from beneath me, not to jump on my back."
"Sorry." A younger cat apologized. "I got excited. Wait, Spottedpelt, do you scent that?"
"Who's there?" The older cat asked loudly. "Come out."
Robinkit looked around wildly and dashed behind a large dead tree. She tried to stay motionless and even held her breath when she saw a tortoiseshell she-cat approach Applekit, Vinekit, and Fallowkit.
"What are you three doing out of camp?" She meowed, obviously exasperated. "Why Pineleaf had kits, I'll never understand."
"What do you mean?" Applekit asked bravely. "Do you know our mother?"
"She's my littermate, frog-brain." The she-cat chuckled. "I'm taking you back to Pineleaf. Beetlepaw, come grab Lightkit, we're going to have to end training early today."
"Aww, it's only sunhigh." A dusty brown tabby she-cat complained, picking Lightpaw up by his scruff.
"Applekit, are you okay with walking?" Spottedpelt asked the little tom. He nodded and she latched her teeth in Vinekit's scruff.
"What about Robinkit?" Applekit meowed loudly. Robinkit silently cursed her brother and watched as Spottedpelt set down Vinekit. "She's still in camp, we'll go see if she's opened her eyes."
"But-"
"No arguing." The tortoiseshell picked Vinekit up again and started back toward camp. Beetlepaw followed closely behind with Applekit beside her. The silver and white she-kit let out a huge sigh of relief and decided to continue on to Thunderclan. She would be a Shadowclan hero.
Hey! I decided to delete Thieves because I didn't like where I'd gone with the story, but this is the re-write of it. Read and Review please!