"Come on Smokekit!"
Smokekit chased after Pinekit. His sister was born right after him, but she was determined not to let him get ahead. She was faster and acted more like a leader. "You'll never get away!" he roared playfully.
With a single leap, he pinned his sister to the grassy ground. "Hey! That's not fair!" she protested. She wriggled and squirmed and was starting to get free. Smokekit relaxed his muscles, but then his sister sprang free. With a thud, he was on the ground.
"A smart warrior never loses their concentration, even for the slightest moment!" Smokekit wriggled and squirmed, but couldn't get free.
"Fine, you win Pinekit," he admitted. And when Pinekit jumped off, he tackled her. "A smart warrior also never falls for their own trap!" he gloated. Now she was pinned down. "Hi Smokekit!" a voice said. Smokekit jumped off of Pinekit and spun around.
An orange she-cat was standing there. She was four times as big as he, and her warm yellow eyes were on him. "How's your apprentice training?" he asked. "It's fine. Weaselheart is a little tricky at times, but he's a good cat."
Pinekit bounded towards her. "Did you fight any WindClan warriors? Did you tell them that ThunderClan is the best Clan ever?" she asked.
Foxpaw shifted her paws. "Yeah! I showed them who the greatest Clan was!" Smokekit sensed that she was lying, but decided not to spoil it for Pinekit.
A large gray tom walked towards them. His head was towering high with pride, as always. Grayclaw was a direct descendant of Firestar, the greatest leader the Clans had ever seen. The grass was crushed underfoot. He was perturbed by nothing.
"Foxpaw. Weaselheart got a large thorn in his paw, so I'll be your mentor." Grayclaw ran away and Foxpaw chased after him.
Back in the nursery, Smokekit was drinking milk from Featherflame. Featherflame wasn't his real mother. His real mother, Willowheart, died shortly after kitting them. His eyes were still closed so he never knew what she looked like. She was only able to name them before dying.
According to Featherflame, she had white fur like Pinekit, and was the kindest cat any cat could know. Was I supposed to remember her, he often wondered.
He always tried to avoid the subject, but he couldn't help but feel regret. His father, Swiftfoot, was especially close to them, and as nice as Featherflame was, he often wanted to be with Willowheart.
Then there was the Clan issue. Because no other queen had kitted, they had no milk. They were instantly brought to WindClan, where a queen had suckled them until Featherflame had kitted a quarter-moon later.
Despite Swiftfoots encouragement, Smokekit felt strange, considering he was raised in another Clan, even if it was brief. "Rabbit-chaser!" teased Sparrowkit, Featherflame's daughter. "He's a WindClan cat! Rabbit-stinky!"
"Sparrowkit, that's enough! If you tease Smokekit any more, you will have to wait another six moons before you can become an apprentice!" scolded Featherflame.
"Don't worry about her," whispered Larkkit, Sparrowkit's sister.
As night approached, Pinekit asked for a story. A warm greenleaf breeze whistled.
"Well, I'll tell you how I became a warrior," she said.
"Two seasons ago, a badger had come into the forest. It threatened ThunderClan. A patrol of three warriors had gone to confront the badger, but all three of them died.
"I was still Featherpaw at the time. I was a troublesome apprentice. My mentor, Stormclaw, was one of the cats killed by it. I was ready to take it on.
"So when no one was looking, I dashed out of camp. I took the badger head-on. The leaf-bare had brought Foxkit and Dustkit. It would've killed them if it had come to the cat.
"I took the badger head-on. It was extremely fast and strong, but I was smarter. I lured the badger under a loose branch and then cut the branch, killing it."
"Wow! You're awesome!" said Sparrowkit in awe. "Volestar gave me my warrior name, Featherflame," she ended. Smokekits eyes were getting heavy. He closed his eyes and fell asleep.