Author's Note: Before this wondrous story begins, you're going to need some descriptions.
Lightningkit: White tom with a yellow streak down his spine
Skykit: Gray she cat with white splotches
Goldenkit: Golden tom
Shorekit: Tan tom
Yellowkit: Tan she-cat
Streamfur: Silver she-cat
Aquatail: Blue gray she-cat
Sandstar- Tan Tom
Ripfur: Gray, thick furred tom
Pearheart: Light orange she-cat
Aurorakit-White she-cat with orange splotches
Razorkit: White tom with black splotches
On with the story!
Disclaimer: I do not own warriors and I won't be collecting the billions of the dollars this story would make as a book *tear*
Lightningkit opened his eyes to the rocky ceiling of the nursery. He immediately smelled the milky scent of his mother as he slowly got up. He could feel his siblings curled up beside hm. He looked at the opening of the cave to see the dawn of a new day. His little mouth opened wide as he yawned in half tiredness and half boredom. In his 3 moons of life, Lightningkit found that he always woke up earlier than most cats. He was annoyed by this, waiting for hours until he could start doing anything that mattered to him. He put his head in his paws, watching the sunrise.
He saw the dawn patrol head out and come back, the deputy wake up and start ordering a Hunting Patrol, said Hunting Patrol coming back and adding to the Fresh-kill pile and the apprentices going to the Elder's den with mouse bile before he felt his siblings wake up. Skykit, his sister, raised her head and looked at him blearily.
"What are you doing?" She mewed, yawning as she traced his eyes to where he was watching.
"Watching the day start." He stated simply. Skykit gave him a look as though he was crazy, started to say something, gave up and nudged Goldenkit, their brother, awake. He immediately nudged their mother awake. This spread around until everyone in the nursery was awake, most of them irritable in the morning. Lightningkit watched as Mother went to get a squirrel from the fresh-kill pile. She gently laid it down on the ground for them. He heard Skykit sigh. Their mother, Streamfur, was trying (unsuccessfully) to wean them. Lightningkit was the only one to rise towards it. Skykit and Goldenkit complained to their mother.
"Why can't we just get our milk from you? This way, you know where it comes from. That squirrel could be from anywhere." Goldenkit mused. Lightningkit snorted as he ate some of the squirrel. "That squirrel could have jumped into a pile of dirt somewhere."
Lightningkit threw up a little in his mouth. "Someone is actually eating this squirrel and I would not like to throw it up!" Lightningkit said indignantly. Goldenkit suddenly pounced on Lightningkit.
"Oh yeah? Well too bad. You have to throw it up under the rule of Goldenstar! We will never be weaned! " He bellowed.
"Not if the warrior Skystorm has anything to do about it!" Skykit grabbed Goldenkit away from him as he stood up and jumped at Goldenkit as well, squirrel forgotten. Goldenkit grabbed Skykit by the scruff of her neck and threw her at Lightningkit, who jumped over her to Goldenkit as a full play battle set in motion.
Streamfur sighed and started eating the discarded squirrel herself, which was now thoroughly trampled.
She turned towards toward Aquatail, another mother in the nursery, as her two kits, Yellowkit and Shorekit, joined Goldenkit's side of the battle.
"Kits, they say their wonderful, but once you have them they seem like little beings sent to destroy us."
Hearing this, the kits promptly sent out on a joint expedition to destroy Streamfur. Streamfur suddenly had kits on her tail, head, torso and paw. She shook her head slowly in exasperation to Aquatail, kits flying left and right as she did so.
Thymepaw, the medicine cat apprentice, came in at noon to give Pearheart, who was pregnant, her medicine. She gave her herbs that were supposed to support the kits, blah, blah, blah. Lightningkit automatically huddled all the kits together to hatch a plan. He often did this, because whenever anyone else made a plan they got into trouble.
"Here is what we're going to do. Goldenkit, you go and pounce on her tail. Yellowkit, you go and distract Streamfur and Aquatail," She gave an "ah!" at this, but Lightningkit kept on going." Shorekit, Skykit and I will jump at her as she turns and knock her down and then we will all swarm her."
The kits nodded and Yellowkit went and started coughing very dramatically in front of the mothers, who immediately fretted over her. Goldenkit then stealthily snuck around them to Thymepaw who was looking at the herbs she had so she could see if she had anything for coughs. Thymepaw suddenly shrieked as he got her tail. Lightning kit then led the charge as the jumped on her, knocking her to the ground. Yellowkit dodged the mothers and jumped onto the dogpile (catpile?)as the mothers tried to pull them off. Thymepaw laughed as the kits swarmed over her. She loved kits and regularly visited them and had usually been in the past attacked. She kept right on laughing as the mothers finally pulled their kits off her and feverishly apologized for the kits.
"It's fine. I love kits and their playfulness." She mewed in a singsong voice. She said good bye as they heard Sandstar call a clan meeting. "Let all those cats old enough to catch their own prey join here beneath the Leader's den for a clan meeting."
The kits peaked out of the nursery. " Look at it, a warrior ceremony!" mewed Shorekit, his eyes twinkling.
"Wavestorm, are you satisfied that this apprentice is ready to become a warrior of Riverclan?"
Wavestorm dipped his head. "She is." He mewed.
"I, Sandstar, leader of Riverclan, call upon my warrior ancestors to look down on this apprentice," He looked at the midday sun in the sky, "She has trained hard to understand the ways of your noble code and I commend her to you as a warrior in her turn." He set his gaze on the apprentice, Runpaw.
"Runpaw, do you promise to uphold the warrior code and to protect and defend this clan, even at the cost of your life?"
Runpaw looked very excited as she answered, " I do."
"Then by the powers of Starclan I give you your warrior name. Runpaw, from this moment on you will be known as Runheart. Starclan honors your stealth and bravery, and we welcome you as a full warrior of Riverclan."
The warriors chanted Runheart as Sandstar rested his muzzle on her head as she licked his shoulder.
The kits took this all in slowly through shining eyes. "I am going to be the best warrior ever!" Goldenkit exclaimed. Skykit, of course, argued and knocked Goldenkit over starting yet another play battle. Lightningkit refrained from this, however, thinking about what his own warrior ceremony would be like. He imagined everyone screaming his new name, the sense of excitement in the air. It would be the best day of his life.
The kits were soon rounded up for swimming lessons. In Riverclan, kits learned to swim at a very early age. It helped them with tasks they had to learn when they are apprentices. Sandstar himself taught these lessons himself.
At this stage, only Skykit could actually stay in the water. The rest of the kits heads bobbed under the surface after 10 seconds.
"Lightningkit, you have to paddle the whole time. Shorekit, stop holding on to Skykit, you're dragging her down. Skykit, great job!" Sandstar gave advice to the kits as the floundered in the water. Their mothers, swimming strongly, watched over them in the water acting as lifeguards. Lightningkit tried to copy his leader's movements but failed miserably. He looked enviously at his sister before his head went under again. A warrior with a thick gray coat who was watching suddenly dived majestically and landed without a splash next to him. By his look, he was about 29 moons old. He looked at Lightningkit with a knowing look .
"I did the same thing when I was kit. You're not kicking your back paws hard enough. See, you have to kick off more." He said in a friendly tone. He then showed Lightningkit a demonstration, pedaling his paws faster than Lightningkit. Lightningkit tried this and found himself easily swimming. He swam toward Skykit and stuck his tongue out at her. Lightningkit than swam back to the warrior and asked him for his name.
"Ripfur." He said, winking a green eye. He then jumped onto the shore. Lightningkit looked at Ripfur until he vanished from sight.
When they returned to the nursery their pelts were soaking wet and they shivered from the cold air. As they neared the nursery entrance, they saw a commotion. Cats were coming and leaving hurriedly and loud screams cold be heard from inside. Thymepaw came out and saw them heading back.
"Moss has been arranged in the elders den for you. Pearheart is giving birth at the moment and it would be best if you kept out of the way."
For the next hour and a half the mothers had to explain what kitbirth was like to the kits, who seemed to have an endless supply of questions. They were annoyed to the point of exhaustion when Thymepaw said they could go back to the nursery.
"You don't want to bother the kits." she said in her usual singsong voice.
"What about Pearheart?" Streamfur asked, her expression worried. "She was screaming awfully loud." Thymepaw whispered into Streamfur's ear quickly, but Lightningkit could swear he heard 'dead' and 'milk'. Streamfur seemed lightheaded afterwards. Thymepaw then led them into the nursery where the new kits were nestled in moss.
Thymepaw quickly mewed "His name is Razorkit and her name is Aurorakit. Now I recommend you get to sleep."
Streamfur lay down next to the new kits on the piece of moss. His siblings and quickly nestled close to the new kits. Lightningkit stayed up as long as he could, looking at the new kits.
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