A/N: Hello lovely readers, and welcome to this wonderful one-shot :) Please leave a review and let me know what your thoughts are.
Thanks,
Jay~
Edit: OhmyStarClan! I can't believe how fast you have reviewed this! And so positively. :) THANK YOU! *Hands out virtual chocolate-chip cookie dough cakes. ;)
Edit to my edit: Thank you so much to ponyiowa for catching all the little mistakes I made. :)
The Impossible Dream
Tigerkit, a small dark brown tabby tom with black paws and tail-tip and dark, deep green eyes, crept into the nest he shared with his mother and littermates. It had been a long, tiring day; especially for a cat as young as a kit who was barely four moons old.
He had spent half the day helping his friend Patchpaw, who had recently become an apprentice, clean out the elder's den, and the other half of the day he had spent helplessly watching his best friend Lichenkit get picked on by his other friend, the much bigger Snakekit.
Now, you might be wondering why a cat with the name 'Tigerkit' would watch on helplessly as his best friend got bullied by another of his friends, but the truth is that Tigerkit was not nearly as brave as his name suggests. In fact, he was quite the opposite; he never did anything that would get him in trouble, never spoke out of turn, never stood up for something. Not out of respect for others, but out of fear.
All of this ran through Tigerkit's mind as he wished, once more that be would be able to help his two friends in getting along. His eyes started to droop, and his head felt heavy. With a soft sigh, he let himself sleep.
For once, Tigerkit did not enjoy a dreamless sleep, for, as soon as he closed his eyes, he was standing in the middle of camp, watching as Snakekit backed Lichenkit into a corner.
"You pathetic excuse of a cat!" Snakekit hissed at the smaller she-cat. "Won't even raise a claw to defend herself. How useless you are. You'll never make it anywhere in the Clan; you're too weak to defend yourself and you can't stand injuries, so what will you do? I bet you Ravenstar will have to banish you to live as a rogue because she won't know what to do with you!"
Lichenkit was now cowering in the corner she had been backed up into. Tigerkit felt a sudden burst of anger; and of confidence.
He strode forward towards the bigger kit. He stopped about a tail-length away.
"Hey! Snakekit! Why don't you pick on some cat your own size!" Tigerkit shouted bravely.
"Like you?" Snakekit shot back.
"You could never take me. We both know that; I'm too fast for you. No, I said that just to get your attention," Tigerkit said, a little defiantly while the other kit looked at him incredulously. "Bullying another cat, especially one who's smaller than you, is not something you want to do. That will not only turn the entire Clan against you, but will also lead you to living a lonely life. Perhaps, through doing that, you would be the one to end up living as a rogue."
"And how would you know?" Snakekit said irritably. Tigerkit sighed and shook his head; he didn't have any idea how he knew that.
"It just makes sense," he answered simply. "Now, apologize to Lichenkit and talk to her nicely. Otherwise, I will tell your mother." The bigger kit's eyes widened at the mention of telling his mother and he nodded. Tigerkit twitched his black-tipped brown tail in victory as his two friends finally started to get along.
~#~#~
"Tigerkit, wake up. Tigerkit. TIGERKIT!" some cat yelled while poking him with their paw.
Groggily, the young kit sat up in his nest to see the nursery empty except for Patchpaw, a pale ginger tom with green eyes. Tigerkit supposed it had been him who had woken him up.
"You know, it's almost sunhigh. When you're an apprentice, you won't be able to sleep this long," The new apprentice told him, his whiskers twitching in amusement. "Having a good dream were you?"
"Actually, yes, I was. An impossible dream. I stood up to Snakekit and got that prat to stop bullying Lichenkit. I think I got them to have a civil conversation," Tigerkit answered.
"That is an impossible dream. You could never stand up to anyone! Much less a friend."
"I know. But, maybe you could help me change that? The warriors do say you're the bravest apprentice since Ravenstar herself!" The apprentice would have to be, after all. He was so outgoing and outspoken, it was the only explanation.
"Hmm...I'll see what I can do," Patchpaw answered.
From that day to half-moon, Tigerkit spent his every waking moment with Patchpaw; when the apprentice wasn't training of course. The ginger cat told him about bravery and what it was. He told him about how it didn't necessarily mean running into battle blindly but that it meant facing your fears, standing up for what was right. He tried teaching the young kit to be brave by having him eat a spider; which he had a tremendous fear of, and by having him help the medicine cat treat illnesses within the Clan.
For days on end, the two were inseparable. Patchpaw helping Tigerkit develop his courage a little more everyday. He was also the kit's crutch whenever one of the apprentice's ideas went wrong. They bonded over the goal of making Tigerkit into the brave cat worthy of such a name.
The "training", so to speak, of the young kit went on like this until, one day, Tigerkit saw Snakekit needlessly tackle Lichenkit to the ground. He looked at Patchpaw, now his closest friend, for support. When the older tom nodded, he ran in the direction of his two friends.
"Hey, Snakekit! Come off it, will you. What did Lichenkit ever do to you to deserve all the bullying you do to her?" he said, a little rushed, trying to get it over with.
"Nothing. And that's just it. I have to teach her a lesson or else she'll get kicked out. Which wouldn't be so bad, really, considering how useless she is," the bigger kit snapped back.
"Oh yeah? If she's so useless, then why hasn't she run away yet? Why does she have a glimmer of defiance in her eyes?" Tigerkit hissed, noticing for the first time these little details himself. "Perhaps, she could stand up for herself. But she doesn't because she knows all it will get is more trouble for her. Who would trust the word of the daughter of the least respected cat in the Clan over that of the son of the Clan's deputy? No one. So Lichenkit doesn't give herself the trouble of being punished when you tell your mother about how she picked on you," At this point, Snakekit's dark brown eyes widened so much you could see the whites around the irises. He turned to the smaller she-cat he had recently tackled.
"Is what Tigerkit said true? Do you just want to avoid unnecessary trouble?" he asked Lichenkit. She glanced over at Tigerkit; blue eyes meeting green for a moment; before nodding her head at Snakekit's words.
"Well then. I guess you're not so useless after all. You've got quite a mind on your shoulders. Maybe, we could be friends?" Snakekit asked her.
"Maybe. Anything is better than being pummeled and told I'm useless," Lichenkit answered him.
Tigerkit couldn't help but feel proud. He'd finally done it! His friends were no longer opposites; they may actually start getting along!
He padded over to Patchpaw and touched his nose to his friend's cheek.
"Thank you," he said. "Thank you for teaching me bravery."
"I did not teach you anything," the outspoken apprentice said. "I merely helped you find the courage that lay within you."