She was ordinary in all aspects of life. Her birth was unremarkable; as was the day she was born. The day had been right before the ground grew cold, and once easily accessible prey disappeared. Her mother had once known the warmth of a home with Twolegs, but that had been moons before she was born. Her mother's name had been forgotten in the moons between her mother's departure from Twoleg life, and the kit's own birth. She, along with her brothers and sisters, remained nameless
Her mother had birthed two other litters before hers, and her mother recognized each kit by scent, and each kit in return, recognized and identified each other solely by scent. This had been a common thing from litter to litter; all the way down to the kit's own litter.
The kit had an unremarkable appearance. She was a black kit, with a white underbelly and each foot was white up until the ankles, where the blackness claimed the legs. Her face was fully black; expect for the white stripe that ranged from her forehead down to most of her nose, and covered both the top and bottom of her mouth. Her chest also bore complete whiteness. Her eyes were a dull color; not quite green and not quite yellow.
She was born to a litter of seven living kits, and she was the last and smallest kit to be born alive. Two more kits had been born, but both had been smaller and had not survived the birth. She struggled to nurse from her mother in the first weeks of life, back when they were tiny squealing kits that could only search helplessly for their mother's belly, and the promise of milk it brought. Her mother had feared for her survival back then, when her six bigger siblings could easily shove her away from her mother's milk.
But she was fierce. She earned her right to a prime nursing spot by sheer determination. She bullied her older siblings out of the way, and only relented her spot willingly when her tummy was full. There were of course times when her bigger siblings had managed to nudge her out of the way, but she always managed to find her mother's milk before too long.
She was the first of the litter to open her eyes, but her littermates followed only days later. The litter took only a week to get used to walking with sight, and as soon as they had her mother started moving the litter to protect them from both Twolegs and Clan cats.
Her mother explained the four Clans that lived deep in the forest. Her mother was born a kittypet, and was therefore unwelcomed within the Clans, though she had met a young warrior tom that fathered her three litters. He had invited her to his Clan when she was pregnant with her first litter, but she refused. The safety that was offered by the Clans was desirable, but her place with near Twolegs. During the warmer seasons, her mother was able to hunt and catch her own prey that always hung close to Twolegs, but when the snow fell her mother was able to get food from the kindness of Twolegs. Her mother would fight to defend her kits, but she would not be able to fight for a Clan that she did not felt connected to.
Her mother had been successfully raising five of her seven kits. Two of the kits had been killed during a dog attack, but the remaining five had stayed healthy, and only weeks away from fully weaning when the coldness finally took its toll on her mother. It had started with a cough, but by the end of the week the illness had claimed both her mother and two of her littermates. Now only three of the originally seven kits in the litter remained. Just her and her brother and sister, but her sister had been showing the same signs as the illness that had taken her mother and other two siblings.
She trotted along the path that had been worn down. The constant snow had made it impossible for a kit of her size to travel off of the trail, but her hunt had been successful. She had managed to sniff out and kill a mouse. It wasn't nearly enough to feed both her and her two siblings, but any amount of food that she could get into their stomachs would be beneficial.
She called out softly, and was relieved when her brother called back. She watched as a cream colored kit poked his head out. He had black tipped ears, black mouth, and each paw was black, but his cream color took over the rest of his legs. He also had a fully black fluffy tail. Icy blue eyes meant hers with warmth as he stepped out of their den to touch her nose. She was always jealous of her brother's unique coloring and piercing eyes. He had been the only kitten from her litter to completely favor their mother. Her other siblings had ranged in color from black and white like her, to any color in between black and cream. None had been a solid color, but only her mother mirrored her mother exactly.
Currently, her only jealously she felt towards her brother was his thick fluffy coat. She was freezing from her time hunting, and her short coat had provided very little protection against the weather.
"Nicely done." He purred.
She dropped the mouse on the floor. "How is she?"
Her brother's eyes softened. "Weak."
She flicked her ears in understanding. "We will let her eat first. Maybe if she keeps her strength up she'll be able to fight it off."
Her brother butted his head against hers, before trotting back into the den. She picked her mouse up and followed. She felt her own eyes soften when she saw her sister. All of her life she had been the smallest kit, but recently that had changed. The illness had stopped her sister's growth, and she had watched helplessly as the weight had fallen off of her. Her sister seemed to struggle the most with eating fresh kill. All three kits should still be suckling from their mother while they learned how to eat meat, but their mother's death had forced all of them to wean overnight.
She placed the mouse on the ground in front of her sister, nudging it until it touched her sister's nose. She waited for her sister's nose to wrinkle, but her sister remained absolutely still. She mewed softly, this time nudging her sister, and was horrified to feel the cold stiffness of her sister's body. Her brother came beside her and tried to rouse their sister, but once again his attempts did nothing. The mouse forgotten, they both curled around their sister's cold body, purring as loud as they could in hopes of bringing life back into the cold body.
Grief made her eyes grow tire, and she could feel the weight of her loss weighing heavily on her heart. Soon they would have to move their sister's body in attempt to keep their den safe, but for now she snuggled close. This would be her last day with a sister. Tomorrow would be the first full day without her sister alive. She was thankful for her brother, but the days were growing colder, and even the prey near the Twolegs was starting to be scarce. Their chance of survival without the guidance of their mother was becoming unlikely.
Perhaps mother will be waiting for us. She thought, as her eyes grew heavier until sleep finally claimed her.
"Kits? From what Clan?"
She tensed when she heard the unfamiliar voice. Her eyes darted to where her brother was sitting. She saw fear in the normally calm blue eyes that glanced over at her. She moved silently away from her sister's cold body, knowing that by now her sister was safely back with their mother, and now she had to focus on her safety as well as her brother's.
A face peeked into the den, and immediately she hissed and swatted with her nails fully extended. The face jerked back in surprise, before an amused purr sounded.
"Calm down kit. We will not harm you." The face purred. "Come out now."
She glanced at her brother silently. He moved over to her and pressed his body against her.
"We don't have a choice. We're corner here, and I smell more than one new scent." Her brother whispered. "They're probably Clan cats." He added as an afterthought.
She nodded. "I'll lead."
With as much confidence as she could muster she strolled out of the den. Her brother follows, although slower and with less confident than his sister.
"They don't smell like any Clan." A she-cat says.
She glances at the older cats, and is disheartened to see that there are three adult cats. One adult cat would be hard to escape from, but three seemed daunting to the young kit. Instead of showing her fear though, she stared each cat down. The largest cat was a ginger tom with bright emerald eyes. Beside him sat a pale ginger she-cat with stripes and pale green eyes. She recognizes the she-cat as the face that had originally peeked into their den. The last cat was a pure white tom with green eyes much lighter than the she-cat's.
"Where is your mother?" the she-cat questioned.
"She's gone." Her brother answered softly. "We mean no harm." He added.
The she-cat's eyes softened. "Firestar, they are clearly orphaned. They can't be much older than one or two moons."
The ginger tom, Firestar, blinked slowly as he looked over the kits. Her brother ducked his head in fear, but she sat tall, unwilling to show the bigger cat any fear.
"How have you survived without your mother?" Firestar asked.
"She was beginning to wean us." Her brother spoke again. "She had already allowed us to taste meat, and my sister has been hunting for us since her death."
"Hunting? Already?" Firestar seemed impressed. "Are you even big enough to take down prey."
She puffed with anger. "Of course." She hissed, flicking her tail in annoyance.
"She's only been hunting near Twoleg places." Her brother added. "Clan cats don't hunt there, so we haven't taken any prey from you. We were born in this den, and our mother was very careful to stay away from Clan territory. We assumed this den was out of any Clan's territory."
"You're just outside of ThunderClan territory." The she-cat replied. "I could smell you, and we followed your scent closer to Twolegs than we would normally go."
"So, you'll let us go?" her brother asked with a nervous flick of the tail.
"No Clan would harm you." The she-cat assured. "Warrior code forbids harming kits."
Her brother glanced at her with relief, and she could feel her own body relax.
"Leaf-bare has barely started." Firestar stated. "And you two are already thin. We will take you back to camp, and help you survive leaf-bare. By the time new leaf has arrived you will no longer be kits, and better able to fend for yourselves."
"We don't need a Clan." She spat, body tensing once again.
"You won't survive without help." Firestar replied.
"Our mother survived just fine without a Clan's help." She hissed.
"Your mother was an adult, not a young kit." Firestar pointed out.
"We've already lost our sister." Her brother spoke softly. "We could use the help."
"Mother wouldn't want us to be warriors. She kept us away from that life for a reason." She argued.
"And now she's not here." Her brother said softly.
"You could leave come new leaf." Firestar said. "We would not force either of you to become warriors. At the start of new leaf you could go back to being loners if you wish."
"How do we know you won't force us later?" She growled.
"Because our Clan doesn't want disloyal warriors." The white tom snapped harshly. "You should be grateful."
"Eaglewing!" the she-cat hissed. "Don't be so harsh."
The white cat rolled his eyes, but a sharp glare from the bigger tom kept him from saying anything else.
"We'll come." Her brother finally spoke. "Thank you for your kindness."
"Of course." The she-cat replied. "What are your names?"
"Our mother didn't name us." Her brother replied.
"Oh." The she-cat seemed surprised as she glanced over to the ginger tom. "They should have names."
Firestar looked over them carefully. "While you stay in our Clan's camp you will be known as Echokit." Firestar paused to look meaningfully at her brother to signal that was his name. "And Moonkit." He finished, glancing at her.
Moonkit flicked her tail in understand. She didn't necessarily agree with getting a name, after all her mother hadn't found it important to name them, but she this time she kept her mouth shut. The adult cats truly were doing them a kindness by taking them in, and if they truly seemed not to want anything in return.
"Sandstorm, grab Echokit, and Eaglewing can take Moonkit." Firestar declared.
Echokit allowed Sandstorm to pick him up by the nape of his neck. Moonkit tensed as Eaglewing walked over to her, but she knew that she wouldn't be able to keep up with the older cats. She was hungry and cold, and allowing the tom to pick her up would mean she would get to warmth quicker. Eaglewing lifted her easily, and together the three cats and two kits headed for camp.
THIS AUTHOR'S NOTE CONTAINS SPOILERS FOR THE ENTIRE WARRIORS SAGE. Please read at your own risks!
We realized that we didn't have a real time line for this story, so in order to give it a bit of a timeline we've changed the leader of ThunderClan from Bramblestar to Firestar. This means this story takes place after "The Darkest Hour", but before "Midnight."
If you have already read this chapter, then you do not need to bother rereading it. The only thing I changed was instead of Bramblestar finding the kits, we have Firestar as the leader, and instead of Squirrelflight being with him we have Sandstorm. Hopefully giving this story a time line helps out a bit!
Chapter two will be posted sometime this week.