Chapter 1: Troublemaker
Dawn soon showed, bringing the sun to slowly rise and the air to turn crisp with dew. Wind blew and bushes rattled. Leaf-bare clouds covered the sky and yawns covered the air.
She yawned and padded outside the bush that was the nursery. She looked around, and spotted Nightfire, an elder, dragging himself out the elders den. Cherrykit had heard apprentices helped elders out, so she decided she should start early.
She ran over to Nightfire and accidentally pushed him over. "S-sorry..." She muttered as he snarled and slapped her. "I was going to try to help, but..." Nightfire mumbled under his breath as he quickly padded to the center of the camp. Cherrykit's head drooped a little as she walked the oppisite direction of Nightfire.
Cherrykit ran towards her sister, Skykit, who just ignored her. "Hey... Skykit," Skykit continued to ignored as she got all the other kits together. "Skykit!" Cherrykit yelled as loud as she could. Skykit turned around in surprise, her body shaking. "What do you want?" Skykit snarled when she saw her sister.
"C-can I p-pl-ay with you?" Cherrykit stumbled on her words slightly. Her tortoiseshell fur stuck up wildly because she was frightened from the way Skykit replied. Skykits eyebrows raised and mewed. " I guess so..." Cherrykit then realized that her sister had mumble, "If you don't mess things up." under her breath.
Apparently, the kits foul play from the day before was continuing on that day. They plopped into a bush and Cherrykits brother, Bark-kit, signaled for all the kits to walk through the ferns and bushes to go directly near the leaders den. Cherrykit trailed behind, worried that she'd get in trouble.
As she went through all of the bushes and ferns, she tripped a few times and scratched her pelt. A little bit of blood streaked her fur. Her small stubbed tail got tangled with thorns and her fur was covered in leaves by the time she bumped into the other kits, at the end of their trail to the leaders den.
"Behold, the place we shall take over!" Nightkit squealed and jumped up in happiness. His sister. Greykit, hushed him and then all of them trailed through the vine covered entrance of the leaders den. All they saw was the leader curled up in a ball at the corner of the huge den. Goldenstars' ears were pricked though, and she heard giggling. Uh... I think she's awake... Cherrykit thought and she glanced around uncertain whether to leave or not.
Goldenstar had enough of giggling and she started to pick her body up, and that's when all the kits went wide-eyed and ran out the den. Cherrykit tried to run away from the trampling kits, but she just got trampled. But the awful pain of paws hurt her dearly, and she felt all of the 16 paws hit her body somewhere, mostly on her back. As soon as all of the other kits left, Cherrykit struggled, but got to her paws.
Goldenstar's eyes shot towards Cherrykit in a glare. The piercing of her eyes made Cherrykit feel as vulnerable as a small stick. "Cherrykit... Why have you come to my den to disrupt my thoughts?" Cherrykit gulped and glanced around , left and right, up and down. She's terrifying when she's angry... Cherrykit thought, then stuttered when she started to talk. "I-I... My sister... I m-mean... I w-was just..." Goldenstar stopped glaring, realizing it was terrifying Cherrykit. "Cherrykit, stop that nonsense of talk."
Cherrykit took a deep breath and then explained a lie, "I was trying to find my brother, he said he needed me and I thought he might've been here..." She let the breath out as soon as Goldenstar meowed, "Please don't disturb me anymore, okay?"