A one-shot challenge from a friend!
It was a bright and sunny day, it was sunhigh so cats filled the hollow, sharing tongues and swapping stories with each other. This was the perfect time, Dawnkit had said, to leave camp and explore. Shadowkit knew they shouldn't, he even voiced his concern. And yet, Dawnkit just shrugged him off, saying he was a mousebrained worrywart. She said she had a plan. He had gone out and around the camp, looking for her and her friends, Mosskit, Sunkit, and Mistkit.
They weren't there.
He knew right after looking. They had gone off to explore beyond. Should he tell? Or should he not, maybe go look for them himself? He looked up at Whisperstar. She wouldn't want to be bothered by a little kit like me, Shadowkit thought.
He decided. He'd find them himself and bring them back. He dashed toward the bramble screen of the dirtplace, but not too quickly and also he tried to hide himself so no one would see. Success! He made it out!
All he could see were trees and plants. He could hear a stream bubbling nearby. He could also hear the tiny patter of mice, the loud thump of a rabbit, and the sound of a mewling kit. Dawnkit! She was surely injured, he could tell.
As he moved toward the mews, he slowly got whiffs of her scent and the other kits' scents. On top of that, he smelled a dank, acrid smell. Fox! He knew this scent only because a cat had fought one and drove it off the territory once before. He rushed forward. Lying on the ground was Dawnkit, feebly wailing for help. Across the clearing Mistkit was crouched over Mosskit. Sunkit sat next to her and was wailing in grief. Mosskit was dead, Shadowkit could tell. The cats all looked toward Shadowkit, expecting the fox, and shrank back while Dawnkit wailed louder.
When they all realized who it was they grew silent. The trees rustled. "Help... me..." Dawnkit groaned as she tried to move. Sunkit padded over and helped her up. Mistkit dragged Mosskit over. "W-What do we do now?! We-we never should have come! Now my brother is dead!" Sunkit wailed.
We should go back, Shadowkit wanted to say. He just couldn't find the right words. Dawnkit must've been reading his mind, or she could have had the same thought because she said, "Let's go back, tell the truth, take the punishment, and hold Mosskit's vigil."
As soon as they got back, the clearing was hyper active with cats running frantically about, calling all the kits' names. Shadowkit looked around guiltily. He really should have told someone. Now I'll be in trouble too, he thought.
The cats stared as the kits walked into camp. Shadowkit in the lead, with no scratches. Sunkit and Mistkit, tears filled their eyes as they dragged Mosskit to the center of th clearing, ignoring their cuts. And lastly Dawnkit, who looked around, challenging the cats to speak, with one long cut across the side of her face.
Later that evening...
The kits had been punished enough by Mosskit's death, Whisperstar had decided. Mitskit, Dawnkit, and Sunkit promised to never do that again. Whisperstar had praised Shadowkit, and admitted that he would be an apprentice the very next day.
"I-I'm sorry... I never believed what you said," Dawnkit mewed as they were settling into their mossy bedding, "I'll never forget, just so I remember that you are the smartest furball ever!"
No one ever forgot that day. It was officially written in ThunderClan history. Cats said that someone else had erected the rule of kits not leaving camp till apprenticed at 6 moons, but the ThunderClan cats knew it was all because of Shadowkit. The elders always praised him, his warrior name being Shadowlove, the only cat to ever receive that kind of name. Some say he watches over ever kit, and protects them with his soul...