Green eyes peered from the nursery entrance, two pinpricks of light shining out of the gloom. Envy crawled within their depths, a longing for something just out of reach. Thumps echoed across the clearing, as his denmates play-fighted in the packed earth of camp. Blackkit, the larger of the two, reared up, forcing his forepaws down onto Mousekit's shoulders. The she cat squeaked, momentum rocking her sideways. The tom's paws slipped, and he fought to regain balance on all four paws.
Resentment crawled in Mothkit's belly. Too young, They called him. Not big enough to mock battle with the older kits. Blackkit may have been too big, he was tall for his age, but Mousekit was small. Hardly bigger then Mothkit himself, despite their enormous age difference. Blackpaw had Mousekit cornered against a swath of thick ferns, but the small she cat slid between his larger paws, coming up beneath him and, with a shove, unbalanced him.
Mothkit's eyes narrowed, jealousy burning in his stomach. He could take the short brown she cat single pawed. Blackkit was playing soft with her, not putting any effort behind the clumsy attacks, which, knowing Blackkit, thought were rapid and fast paced. Mothkit's eyes narrowed, watching the she-kit play defensive, not retaliating with any attacks of her own. It angered him, these playful antics they toyed with. Not taking the game seriously.
Fur brushed Mothkit's flank, and he had to force his tabby fur to lie flat, knowing exactly who it was.
"Mouseki' en Blackki's apprentice ce'emony today?" His brother, Nettlekit, questioned in his garbled kit speech. Mothkit sighed softly, irritation prickling his skin. His luck Nettlekit was his brother. Small, weak, and timid- he had a right to not play with the older kits. Mothkit straightened himself, stretching his forepaws and admiring the tiny claws that easily scored the soft earth outside the nursery. He, however, was large and strong. Handsome too, with smudged dark tabby fur, cream chest and belly compensating. Nettlekit was simple. Thin dark brown fur, and innocent blue eyes. He tripped over his tail, however impossible the task, and still had to yet master walking to the fresh-kill pile without stumbling. Cute, perhaps, but he'd never make a satisfactory warrior. Not one Marshclan could be proud of anyway.
Nettlekit's nervous blue eyes blinked, waiting for a response that would never come. Mothkit turned away, rolling over till his cheek brushed the earth and uncurled his hind legs, bored. His tail brushed against a nose, and a sneeze from within the den sent Nettlekit skittering. Blackkit and Mousekit paused in their excitement, as their foster mother, Sagefur, emerged from the den. Mothkit snorted. Foster mother. He understood Marshclan was low on warriors so as soon as their kits were weaned Barksnow and Acornfang had left Blackkit and Mousekit, respectively, with the then pregnant Sagefur, but it felt unfair that he had to share his own mother with the other kits.
Sagefur let out a gasp of disapproval as she noticed the smears of dust and mud riddled in the soon-to-be-apprentices ruffled fur. She surged forward, catching Blackkit in an outstretched paw.
"You're ready to receive your mentors looking like a pair of foxes?" She groaned at them, pulling roughly at Blackkit's thick ebony fur with her tongue. Mousekit sent her friend a grin, before grooming her own pelt in quick strokes.
"Our ceremony isn't until the dawn patrol gets back!" Blackkit growled under his breath, claws extended into the ground to keep his balance against Sagefur's tongue.
Mothkit's mother didn't respond, working quickly in the midst of Blackkit's thick tail. Nettlekit purred, whether out of amusement from the situation or because he was Nettlekit, his brother couldn't tell. The smaller dark brown tom padded out of the gloom of the nursery to press into his mothers fur.
His sibling watched from the shadows, as his family's fur glowed with the rising sun's golden light that pooled through the pines, and purred at Nettlekit's stumbling antics. One day it would be his fur shimmering in sunlight, his purr thrumming through the ground, his green eyes the she- cats of the clan would be falling head over heels for.
Ambition burned within him, a wanting, to be the warrior Marshclan would admire and speak of with pride.
Mousekit
"Let all cats old enough to catch their own prey gather here beneath the FallenTree for a Clan meeting!" yowled Spiderstar, summoning her clan to the clearing.
Mousekit swiveled her head, scanning the crowd. Dewleap, Antstrike, Mossclaw, Turtlewing... There, between Fawnlight and Barksnow, Rainpaw! She waved her short tail in the air excitedly, as her green eyes and Rainpaw's blue ones met. She had been Mousekit's closest friend before graduating to apprentice status three moons before with Ryepaw.
Black fur melded with Mousekit's and she smiled up into her denmates yellow eyes. Blackkit grinned back, enthusiasm twitching his paws as the last of their small clan gathered. Spiderstar, satisfied, stood up on the slick wood of the fallen tree, the end held up by an adjoining log.
"I have gathered you here for one of the most enjoyable times of our clan, the making of new apprentices," she meowed," Blackkit, you have reached the age of six moons, and it is now time for you to be apprenticed. From this day on, until you receive your warrior name, you will be known as Blackpaw. Your mentor will be Fawnlight. I hope Fawnlight passes down all she knows on to you."
Blackpaw, tail twitching, trotted forward and touched noses with his new gray and white mentor. Mousekit gave him an encouraging nod, waiting for her turn.
Spiderstar's intimidating amber gaze fell onto Mousekit, who instinctively shrunk back.
"Mousekit, you have reached the age of six moons and it is now time for you to be apprenticed. From this day on, until you receive your warrior name, you will be known as Mousepaw. Your mentor will be Turtlewing. I hope Turtlewing passes down all he knows on to you."
Mousepaw nervously padded through the crowd toward her mentor, acutely aware of the large crowd of cats around her. Turtlewing's silver stripped fur shone in the sunlight, and as she reached up to touch noses with him, she could see his light blue eyes were too. He detected the fear in her green eyes, and gave her a reassuring stroke of the tail along her back as they padded side by side to Blackpaw and Fawnlight.
It took seconds, precious seconds Mousepaw had counted under her breath, for her to be overwhelmed by Pinetuft and Acornfang; her parents. Congratulations poured from them, while she waited for a moment to slip away from the attention. When the deputy, Dewleap, came over to organize a hunting patrol, Mousekit seized her chance and backpedaled quickly, scanning the dispersing crowd for her friend.
"Finally joined us I see," Rainpaw meowed, appearing beside her and butting her shoulder against Mousepaw's. Mousepaw chuckled in agreement.
"Took long enough, Blackpaw was obsessed with this ceremony, he'd practice battle moves on me long into the night if he could." Rainpaw gave a light laugh, knowing full well of the fire to impress that flared inside Blackpaw. The two she cats glanced up as Barksnow approached, Blackpaw's mother and Rainpaw's mentor.
"Turtlewing and Fawnlight want to tour the territory," she meowed, as the two named cats padded up to her side, Blackpaw a few paces behind his mentor," Rainpaw and I will join them on a border patrol."
Mousepaw glanced at Blackpaw, who gave her an eager glance. Mousepaw, missing the hollow pain behind it, followed Turtlewing as they vanished into the hole in the bush line that bordered the camp, apprentice paws sliding in the fresh cool mud churned up just outside camp. Side by side with Rainpaw, silver fur blending with brown, cold earth flying beneath her claws, Mousepaw let a trickle of unguided excitement flow through her. Out in the forest she could escape the pressure of her clan.
Out here in the forest, the small quiet she cat could flee from it all.