Allegiances
Rainclan
Leader - Flashstar - Tom with a brilliant white coat and yellow eyes - A slightly paranoid and cynical individual, who still manages to be supportive and kind to his clan, viciously protective of his clan
Deputy - Lightningfang - Golden tabby with white muzzle, underbelly, and underside of tail and amber eyes
Medicine Cat - Minnowheart - Small white-cat with black tabby stripes and hazel eyes - A surprisingly feisty she-cat who has little to no patience for cats avoiding her den when injured or sick, rather no nonsense, though she does care
Warriors - Leopardfrost - Black bengal tom cat with hazel eyes - A vaguely cynical cat who is soft under a cooler exterior, tends to feel apprehensive when cats are too idealistic
Apprentice: Faithpaw
Waterfang - Black tom with white patches and gray eyes - Confident and gentle, loves to teach and guide the next generation
Apprentice: Honeypaw
Morningglow - Light ginger she-cat with brown eyes - A confident, sometimes pushy cat, who generally does not like to be wrong, fiercely protective over her loved ones
Cedarstrike - Brown tabby tom with hazel eyes - Slightly awkward tom who prefers to follow rather than the lead, generally not easily fazed or put off balance
Needlebird - Light brown tom with brown eyes - Relaxed tom with a slightly sarcastic easy sort of humor, massive mother hen and tends to fuss over clanmates even more than the medicine cat, has a little more knowledge of herbs than your average warrior
Sootspeck - Gray tom with speckled darker spots and brown eyes - Somewhat pessimistic tom who tries to be optimistic, often weary and sounds tired
Snowyash - White she-cat with soft gray tabby stripes with blue eyes - Hopeful and idealistic she-cat who prefers diplomacy over conflict
Apprentices - Honeypaw - Daughter of Morningglow and Cedarstrike, Light ginger she-cat with hazel eyes - A cocky young cat who loves to talk and is usually rather supportive of the cats around her
Faithpaw - Daughter of Sootspeck and Snowyash, White she-cat with soft gray tabby stripes with brown eyes - Determined young she-cat, values perseverance and generally
Queens - Birchwhisper - Lightningfang's mate, Mother of Skykit and Fadingkit, Beautiful silvery tabby with blue eyes, a proud mother
Lilysnow - Waterfang's mate, Mother of Creekkit, Salmonkit, and Shinekit, White she-cat with amber eyes, a gentle and supportive mother
Kits - Skykit - Golden tom with blue eyes - Reserved, quiet, willing to do his best and is fine with that, places more value in family
Fadingkit - Silver tabby with white muzzle, underbelly, and underside of tail and amber eyes - Ambitious, feels underappreciated, bold and determined
Creekkit - Black tom with white patches and gray eyes - Timid, but dislikes being seen as a coward and often pushes himself past his limit
Salmonkit - White she-cat with amber eyes - Curious and generally kind, asks a lot of questions
Shinekit - White she-cat with black patches and amber eyes - Lazy with a tendency to actually nap rather frequently, likes word games rather than physical games
Elders - Shadowsnake - Blind black-furred tom with nasty scars over both eyes, eyes are a faded yellow - Vaguely grumpy tom who likes complaining to whoever will listen, but appreciates cats who stays and rewards them with advice and stories
Chapter 1
"C'mon, wake up already!" Of all things, the one thing that Skykit wanted to wake up to, he couldn't say that his brother's whining was one of them.
"Leave your brother alone, Fadingkit." Scolded their mother. "He'll open his eyes when he's ready."
His brother didn't seem to be deterred, judging by how his whining continued. "I can't go outside until you open your eyes, and I really want to explore the camp with you!" Fadingkit pleaded. Skykit personally thought that his brother was really overselling it, what with his voice increasing in pitch.
Skykit yawned, and tentatively tried opening one eye. He supposed exploring the camp with Fadingkit could be nicer than staying here in darkness. His eyes fluttered open to see a soft face of gray fur, with streaks of darker gray running through it. Almost half of the face he saw was covered in white, and he was surprised by the intense, fiery eyes he was met with. After his first experience with darkness, the sudden splash of color was somewhat startling.
"Finally! Your eyes are open!" Came Fadingkit's voice out of the mouth he could see. Was this bright-eyed kitten his brother? To him, his brother was an insistent, whiny voice. Skykit guessed he'd have to get used to thinking of his brother as a fiery eyed kitten as well. He wondered what he looked like. Did he looked like Fadingkit?
"Uh, yeah… I figured it'd be a nice time to see, and get out and see the camp with you." Skykit felt a sort of tension in his face. Was he smiling?
He wasn't too sure, because Fadingkit was giving him a strange look.
"Your smile is funny looking." His brother declared. The silver tabby suddenly leaned down, and seemed about ready to leap into the air. "Now, c'mon let's go! We can go into the camp, right Mom?!" Fadingkit's gaze suddenly jumped to something behind Skykit, and his own gaze followed. His eyes widened as he took in their mother's appearance.
She was beautiful, with neat, sleek fur. Her pelt looked a lot like Fadingkit's, an attractive silver with dark stripes curling around her. Though, she didn't have white fur like Skykit's brother did, and her eyes were a calm blue, instead of the intense amber of her son. Though, her face left him feeling a tiny bit… Off. He couldn't really put his paw on it, inexperienced with interpreting what he could see.
"Yes, yes. Just be sure to not get in anyone's way." His mother's voice didn't sound nearly as comforting as Skykit remembered.
Suddenly, Fadingkit bumped shoulders with him. "C'mon! C'mon!" His energetic brother instantly began almost bouncing towards the light that marked the nursery's exit.
"Really, Birchwhisper. You should allow them to be kits, and get in trouble as kits will." Came a gentle voice. Skykit looked to see a queen with a pure white coat and amber eyes, gentler than his brother's. She seemed nicer at first sight than Birchwhisper, their own mother.
"Skykit….!" The return of Fadingkit's high-pitched whining.
"I'm coming!" Skykit chirped out as he scrambled to turn around and follow after his brother, shutting his eyes tight as he crossed the threshold. He stopped after crossing, and slowly opened his eyes. Everything was… Brighter than in the nursery. He looked over his shoulder, and it looked like there was a big droopy thing over the nursery.
"Hey!" Chirped a voice in front of the two, causing Skykit to return his gaze to in front of him and he blinked. There were three other kits. He knew of the other three kits in the nursery, Lilysnow's children. He'd only spoken to Shinekit, and that was only once. The voice that had spoken was much more energetic from what he remembered of Shinekit's lazy voice.
Fadingkit nudged his shoulder again, and Skykit's gaze suddenly snapped to his brother. "These are the other kits!" He said, though he had to wonder how dumb his brother thought he was. "The chirpy white one is Salmonkit! The lazy patchy-looking one is Shinekit! And the shrimpy patchy-looking one is Creekkit!"
"H-Hey…!" Protested the one that Fadingkit had pointed out as Creekkit. "I'm not shrimpy! I'm just as brave as any of you!"
Salmonkit nudged her brother's shoulder. "Hey, of course you are!" Then she glared at Fadingkit, and Skykit suddenly felt awkward. "Don't talk to my brother like that! If he's shrimpy, then you're…! You're…! You're stupid!" Skykit thought that after such an effort… Stupid sounded like a kind of lame comeback.
However, it seemed to work perfectly fine on Fadingkit. "I'm not stupid, your face is stupid!"
"What does that even mean?!"
The back and forth bickering infested with insults continued on, and Skykit's feeling of awkwardness failed to subside. "H-Hey… C'mon guys…" He tried weakly, but his attempts at breaking up the fighting didn't have enough fire in them to even reach the argumentative cat's ears. He sighed.
He suddenly was aware of Shinekit's lazy voice next to him. "Leave them be. Once they get it out of their systems, I'm sure they'll be friends." Skykit turned his head.
"You think so?" The arguing didn't really seem… Like the prelude to friendship. From what he knew of friendship… Weren't friends supposed to be nice to each other.
Instead of affirming, Shinekit simply shrugged her shoulders. "Who knows. Probably. Maybe not."
Skykit turned his eyes back to the bickering Salmonkit and Fadingkit, as Creekkit seemed to be… Honestly, he couldn't tell if he was trying to help or taking sides.
"Hey… What do I look like?" He asked.
"Eh? You're just sort of… Gold. You've got blue eyes." Shinekit said, after taking a quick glance at Skykit up from down.
"Gold, huh…? I must look like my Dad." Skykit murmured, but he didn't really know. Sight beyond darkness was a new thing for him, and while he… Kind of remembered what his Dad was supposed to sound like, he certainly didn't know what the tom looked like. He guessed he had his mother eyes, though. Birchwhisper had blue eyes, like he did. He wondered if Lightningfang, his father, had amber eyes like the fiery orbs possessed by Fadingkit.
Shinekit yawned. Skykit blinked and looked at the black and white she-kit with surprise. "You can't be tired already?"
"I like my naps. Don't quite have the energy to keep up with those two." She said, shrugging again. Skykit had a feeling like it'd be a real chore to even offend this kitten. Though, he supposed it was for the best. He liked the idea of having someone to talk to, who was calm and not going to join the argument.
Creekkit didn't seem to be as fiery as his brother or Salmonkit, but he seemed to be making an effort to be.
Though, the argument seemed to have taken a different turn.
"It's not like you know everything!" Fadingkit squeaked indignantly.
"W-Well, no… But I ask a ton of questions so I know a lot of things!" Defended Salmonkit. "I talk to grumpy old Shadowsnake and the apprentices all the time! The apprentices are really nice and answer all my questions! All the warriors always tell me the same thing, it's always 'when you're older with them'..." She seemed to have forgotten she was arguing with Fadingkit, as she turned her body and started staring at her paws.
Fadingkit walked over to Salmonkit and nudged her cheek with a soft forepaw. "The apprentices? Who are they? Can me and Skykit talk to them? They sound pretty cool."
Shinekit sighed beside Skykit. "Looks like we're about to move."
Skykit wasn't sure how the argument had been derailed so quickly, but it seemed like they were all going to go find the apprentices of the clan. He and Shinekit trailed behind the three other kits who were all chattering with each other as they walked across camp, to where Salmonkit claimed the apprentice's slept.
"Hey, how many apprentices are there?" Fadingkit asked.
"Just two. Faithpaw and Honeypaw. Faithpaw's nice, but Honeypaw's kinda loud. She… Kind of talks a lot, and you kinda forgot what you were trying to talk about in the first place…" Creekkit admitted.
"Yeah, yeah! It's loads easier trying to get a straight answer out of Faithpaw! But it's hard because we don't want to hurt Honeypaw's feelings… 'Cause then ya feel like a big jerk and Faithpaw gets mad and doesn't wanna answer you!" Salmonkit chirped.
"Oh. Jeez, they sound really close. Are they siblings?" Fadingkit asked.
"Nah, they're just best friends." Salmonkit replied.
Fadingkit squinted. "Friends can be better than just friends?" He asked, sounding a little confused.
"It's like… A friend that's almost your sibling! Not all of your friends are going to be almost family. Some of them are just friend friends!" Creekkit explained. Fadingkit's face seemed deep in thought, before he complained loudly.
"That makes no sense!"
Skykit gave a nervous laugh from the back. "It does a little…" He replied softly.
He didn't like the betrayed look Fadingkit gave him. "It totally doesn't!"
Salmonkit then promptly swatted at Creekkit's ears. "Moron! You gotta make it clear! Like the air inside camp!"
Fadingkit perked up at the mention of that. "Huh? How do you mean?"
Creekkit looked ready to reply, when Salmonkit practically stuck her paw into Creekkit's open mouth. "No no no! Let me say it this time!" She withdrew her paw, while Creekkit tried to spit out any hairs that had gotten into his mouth. "Most of Rainclan's territory outside is hard to see! It's called fog or something. Basically, it's like if the clouds in the sky were on the ground, so it's super hard to see! Except, Honeypaw and Faithpaw say we'll learn how to navigate through it anyways when we become apprentices!" She squeaked excitedly, seeming very happy about learning how to get through the territory when they got older.
Personally, Skykit thought that sounded a little… Tedious. Why didn't Rainclan live somewhere that was easier to live in? Judging by Shinekit's sighs, it seemed she agreed with him.
Skykit eyed Fadingkit, who had a strange look in his eye that made the golden tom-kit feel uneasy. He didn't mention it to anyone, since he wasn't really sure if he was imagining it or if the look had been real.