This is an ooooold idea for a story of mine which takes place during the first story of my DreamClan series. This character will show up once or twice in there as a minor, but I was always intrigued by his name and by his fighting style.

This is what happened to Rampaw during the first half of the first chronicle. All the characters in this story are MINE, but the name of "DarkClan" was originally that of a guild I was in. I used to role-play this character there, so I decided to take DarkClan with me into this story.

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Harmless Play

Ramkit shivered. The colder days of leaf-bare were always harsh in the Valley of the Lost. The short tufts of white fur that covered most of his body offered him some protection against the bitter cold, but it was not enough to make him feel warm and secure.

Outside the comforting hole that was the DarkClan nursery, Ramkit could hear his littermates Eaglekit and Mudkit playing in the freshly-fallen, swirled snow. The soft sounds the white substance made as it gently landed atop more of its kind made it sound almost like magic; and with the wind silently droning to the tune of the gradual covering of the landscape with the magic, it felt as though the DarkClan camp had slipped into a whole new world, nascent and different to the world that he knew.

Ramkit grunted. Why was he so cold? He took a moment to clean his paws, which were all the color of dry ground in the summertime. His ears, which were always curled backwards, were the only part of his body that always seemed to be perfectly warm.

"'Ey, Ramkit!" came a shout. The young tom looked up to see his older brother, Eaglekit, at the front of the nursery. His dark brown markings stained with the white of his fur and the clumping snow on his flank made him look like a dirty snowball. "C'mon out here! Mudkit and I are having a great time!"

Ramkit looked up at Eaglekit with his milky brown eyes. Finally he shouted, "Okay, give me a moment!" With a soft mumble of effort, Ramkit hauled himself onto his paws. The young, stocky tom twitched his stubby tail, flicking off a bit of dirt which was shamelessly clinging to his fluffy tail. With a soft thud, the kit stumbled outside to where his brothers were waiting.

Mudkit burbled, "What took you so long, Ramkit?" His dark, chocolate* pelt was flecked with snow, giving Ramkit the impression that Mudkit was the target of all the snowflakes.

A short blast of cold air chilled Ramkit's whiskers. He shuddered, "Aren't you guys cold?"

Eaglekit shook it off with a playful, "Nah! Wanna play with us? Mudkit's pretending to be Bloodstar, and I'm the cat who eventually slays him!" **

Ramkit raised a whiskery eyebrow. "Then who will I be?"

"I donno. Maybe you can be the rival leaders who fight Bloodstar to try and protect their clans?"

Not again… Ramkit thought. Though aloud he didn't voice his objection, he bitterly thought how he was always the role of characters who died off like flies. For once, JUST ONCE, I'd like to be Bloodstar…

Aloud, Ramkit smiled, "Well, sure!"

Eaglekit beamed and replied, "Sweet! Now do as I do, little brother, and you shall see what I'm talking about…"

"Wait, you mean I'm actually going to play-fight?" Ramkit chattered. Eaglekit and Mudkit never let him rough and tumble with them before.

For a moment, Eaglekit stood, puzzled. "Why, yes," he responded. Then he shrugged it off with a goofy grin and chuckled, "Well, enough of that! Now just watch me, brother, and you will see how a warrior really fights!"

Ramkit sat down, his dark brown eyes wide with wonder. "Alright!" he smiled, his face glowing with pure, unfiltered excitement.

Mudkit stood and cleared his throat. He then boasted in a mock-manly voice, "You shall never defeat me, Mountainstar! Not when I have a big army of evil cats on my side in order to take over the forest!"

Eaglekit meowed playfully, "Oh, yeah? Well we're tired of you trying to take over the forest and we want you gone, Bloodstar!"

In a rush, Ramkit's brothers started to attack each other, playfully biting and lightly scratching. Imaginary malice sparkled in their young eyes, making them look like reflections of what they might become when they achieve their warrior names. Mudkit weaved around Eaglekit, his claws making small impressions in the snow. Eaglekit quietly growled and pounced on top of his brother.

For a while Ramkit sat there, engrossed in his brothers' play fight. Finally, Eaglekit got off of Mudkit and meowed, "All right, little brother. You can try."

Ramkit gulped his fear. He stood before Mudkit, whose fur was covered with the gentle scratch marks of Eaglekit's claws. Ramkit blinked. What do I say?

"You're going down, Bloodstar!"

Mudkit raised a hairy eyebrow.

Darn.

Mudkit then burbled, "No, YOU'RE going down!"

The chocolate-brown tom got into an attacking pose. Ramkit faltered. What do I do?

"YAH!" Ramkit did the first thing he could think of. He charged at Mudkit, his nose scratching the ground and his feet thudding against the snow. Mudkit rose in a pose for a playful strike, but he tried too late. Ramkit crashed into Mudkit's belly, making his older brother fall to the ground.

"Mudkit!" Eaglekit cried. Ramkit's other brother raced towards Mudkit, his dark blue eyes clouded with worry. "Mudkit, are you alright?"

Mudkit stood up. He was breathing like he had all the wind knocked out of him. "I'm fine," he spluttered with as much dignity as he could muster. Ramkit stared at his older brother, now looking so helpless in the snow.

Eaglekit turned to Ramkit and snarled, "What did you do to him?"

Ramkit, speechless, stammered, "I—I thought that I was supposed to attack…"

"This was a play-fight, not an actual battle! And what the heck was that you just did?! It looked like you could have killed him!"

Part of Ramkit knew his brother was exaggerating; Eaglekit often stretched the truth. But Ramkit could only whimper, "I… I thought…"

Eaglekit growled as he led Mudkit back into the nursery. "Wait until mother hears about this," scolded his brother. "You're going to be really sorry then."

"I'm really sorry NOW!"

But it was too late. Eaglekit had already departed into the nursery, obviously going to wake up their mother and to tattle-tale on Ramkit. The young tom was left alone in the cold snow, imagining what his fate would be after his mother got a hold of him.

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(*): I use the word "chocolate" in the term for the color of a cat's coat. It's a perfectly usable term in this story without making it sound human, because I'm not comparing Mudkit's coat to the candy.

(**): In DarkClan, they imagined that Bloodstar was attacked by some of his rebelling warriors, and was thus led to his death that way. (You might want to refer back to The Chronicles of DreamClan: The Kin of Bloodstar if you are too confused).

Yeah. My beginnings for stories absolutely stink. Read and review, I guess. I don't know if I'll continue this or not, I might with enough positive reviews.