Chapter 1: Written in fox blood
"Foxkit... come on," Featherkit looks around nervously. "We need to leave now!" She crouches and moves closer to Foxkit. A crow takes flight a distance from them startling her, meanwhile Foxkit continues to search the nearby brush under an anchient willow.
"Hold on a minute! I know we're close, I can feel it..." Foxkit noses the remnants of brambles that have grown over the tree roots. "Ha! found it!" She then pushes her way through the overgrown brambles into a hollow in the willow roots.
"Foxkit!" Featherkit wines. She glances around nervously and then hesitantly follows her sister into the hollow.
The bramble covered entrance widens out into a spacious den with patches of sunlight streaming down from between the exposed roots of the great willow. the two kits gaze at the marvoulus, abandoned ,yet somehow welcoming, queens den. The den had been abandoned for moons untill the two kits found their way through the forest to it. The first visiters since the fall of willowclan, a kit pale as milky moonlight and her sister like a crying fox. Featherkit overcome with wonder circles the den and comes back around to Foxkit who is still gazing longingly into the roots high above.
"... You were right. It was here... Oh no!" The dappled light from above beginning to fade Featherkit rushed back to the entrance. "Mama's gonna be mad if we arent back before sunfall!" The two sisters rush out of the den. "I hope Blackkit can stall a little longer!"
As they rush around the base of the willow the bushes begin to russel and the two kits skid to a stop barly daring to breath. Then a small black body pops out from behind the bush with twiggs sticking in its short fur. "Blackkit!" they sigh in unison and pad over to their brother happily, if a little anxious.
Blackkit, pulling twigs out of his fur, hurridly explains, "mama's wondering where you are. I told her you went to meet Kish's new kits And asked Kish to lie for us if mama asked. We need to go Now!" pulling the last twig from his pelt he went around the bush turning to check if his sisters had bothered to follow him. Featherkit was following on his heals almost toppling over him when he slowed, Foxkit following at a more reasonable distance.
The three kits ran the remaining way back to the rundown twoleg place where they live. Exhausted and hungry the kits wander over to their mother. The she-cat is sleek and a light orange-brown with black marks trailing from her eyes to her muzzle. Her short fur is well groomed and her and her kits are well fed. Willowsong purrs as her three kits wearily pad over to her then pauses, sniffing. Her eyes widen as she recognizes the faded scent of willowclan. Willowsong slowly takes a step back from her kits shaking her head quietly "I told you not to go into the woods. I told you it was dangerous!" her voice straining, becoming more sever but never rising above a whisper. "I told you not to go there, not to go looking..."
Featherkit anxiously steps toward her mother "Mama were sorry we didn't mean any harm..." then Foxkit interupts "We didn't get hurt mama we promise we wont do it again."
Willowsong, eyes still wide with fear, takes a calming breath, "You intentionally disobayed me. Blackkit you lied about your sisters! Don't you understand how dangerous that was? You three could have gotten killed, or lost!" the fear in her eyes lessens a little as she begins to relax, thinking that they had no knowledge of Willowclans wearabouts. "Come on little ones, eat something and go to sleep. And don't think you've heard the end of this."
Foxkit, Blackkit, and Featherkit all gather around Willowsong after a quick meal. Limbs heavy from a long day and a full belly the three kits qickly drift off into restfull bliss.
Foxkit finds herself standing in a clearing below a great willow tree and a pool of glistening clear watter, a rock jutting majesticly over the water from a hill beside the willow. The night sky clearer than she had ever seen it, inumerable stars dashed across the sky. Foxkit looks back down toward the pool and the other edge of the clearing startled to see a stary figure emerging from the tended brambles at the clearings edge. As the figure approches the pool it grows more distinct, it is a tom with short dark red fur and even darker socks on his four paws. He stops next to the pool and sits staring toward the twinkling sky. Foxkit hesitates then heads over to the tom and sits next to him, a questioning glance directed at him. 'I must be dreaming... I think.'
"You look so much like your mother, and your father Foxkit," he smiles and looks down toward her as she tucks her bushy tail behind her mostly short fured body.
"H-how do you know my name? Who are you?" she blinks, a confused look on her face but somehow at ease next to this stary cat who reminds her so much of herself. "You look, familiar..."
He laughes a sad but comforting laugh, "Well first of all I am Darkstar and you are my kin."
Foxkit looks surprised at the news that she is kin to this stary tom but quickly listens as he begins to tell her more, "Foxkit there is a prophecy as there is always a prophecy. This I must pass on to you, the legacy and hope of Willowclan,"
Darkstar looks up at the stars again and cloes his eyes. "The willow will drown in blood when the dark star rises. Blood will run and kin will flee into the night, into the darkness. Fox will fight fox, blood will fall. One fox of brilliant light, one fox of never ending deceit. One will bring about the rise of Willowclan once again and the other will be its total destruction. Fire and ice will follow the light to clash with the deciever. Only the light can prevent the death of Willowclan." He sighs and looks to Foxkit. "You may be to young yet to understand the prophecy but know that one day you will do great things and the path you chose will forever change your life and the life of many others... you are a Willowclan cat born and raised. Your mother will be proud of you one day..."