"Thunderclan attack," shouted Dovekit, bursting out of the nursery with Ivykit on her tail.
Ivykit jumped onto a leaf at the center of the camp that came down from one of the many trees surrounding the camp. "Prey stealers," she hissed, battling the leaf with her silver paws. "Windclan scum! Die! Die! The great Ivystar has killed you!"
"Rabbit chasers," squeaked Ferncloud's two moon old kit, Shrewkit. "Take this! Get out of Thunderclan territory! I am the mighty Shrewclaw, the Deputy of Thunderclan."
Dovekit leaped at a stray piece of moss that fell out of Bumblepaw's jaws. Her paws got tangled it in and she landed on the ground with a loud oph. She quickly scrambled to her feet, baring her teeth at the moss and got into a low crouch. "Dare to trip me! You Windclan Scum!" She raked her claws across the moss. "Take that!"
"Way to go," yowled Shrewkit. "You are Dovedust, the mighty Medicine cat of Thunderclan!"
Ivykit began to scan the clearing. Her silver an white pelt bristling with excitement. Her dark blue eyes were wide. "Can you see anymore Windclan warriors in our territory," she squeaked.
Dovekit saw Brambleclaw, Firestar, Sandstorm, and Jayfeather sharing tongues and talking by Firestar's den in a shaft of sunlight. "Yes," Dovekit yowled. "Over there!"
Shrewkit and Ivykit followed her as she raced across the hard earth and skidded to a halt in front of her clan members.
'"Windclan warriors," Dovekit began, trying to sound dignified as her Clan leader, Firestar. Do you agree that Thunderclan is the best of all the clans? Or do you need to feel our claws in our fur to persuade you."
Firestar, his flame colored pelt glowing in the warm light, sat up, giving the rest of the clans an amused glanced. "No, you are far to fierce for us," he mewed. "We don't want to fight."
"Do you promise to let our warriors across your territory when every they want?" Ivykit growled playfully.
"We promise." Jayfeather, Whitewing's best friend, flattened herself to the ground and blinked fearfully up at the kits.
Sandstorm cringed away from the three kits, shuffling her skinny ginger limbs. "Thunderclan is much stronger than us!"
"Yes!" Dovekit bounced in the air. "Thunderclan is the best!" In her excitement she leaped on top of Shrewkit, in a knot of brown and gray fur.
She broke away from Shrewkit and scrambled to her paws. "You are a Windclan warrior now," she urged. "I know some awesome battle moves."
"Battle moves," a scornful voice broke in. "You? You are only a kit!"
Dovekit spun around to see Bumblepaw and his littermates, Biairpaw and Blossompaw, standing a few tail-lengths away.
"And what are you," she demanded, facing up the big, pale gray tom. "You, Blossompaw, and Biairpaw are just paws the last time I looked."
"So. We learn how to hunt and fight," Bumblepaw retorted. "It'll be three whole moons until you become an apprentice."
"In our dreams," Shrewkit hissed. "There are rabbits who can be better warriors than you three."
"Come on," Ivykit called over her shoulder. "Let's go see if there is any mice in the brambles."
"If there is any than you won't catch anything," sneered Blossompaw.
"I'm wasn't talking to you." Shrewkit bristled and he bared her, tiny neelde-sharp teeth. "Kittypet!"
For a moment all six cats froze. Dovekit could feel her head poundeing. Like Ivykit and Shrew kit, she heard the elders gossiping and wondering who had fathered three paws, asking if it could be true that Millie's real mate was a kittypet. Millie had come to the Clan pregnant. And Biairpaw and Blossompaw looked nothing like Graystripe.
Bumblepaw took a step closer to Shrew kit, stiff-legged with fury. "What did you just call me," he snarled, his voice dangerously quit.
Shrewkit's eyes were wide and scared, but she didn't back down. "Kittypet," she repeated.
A low growl came from Bumblepaw's throat. Blossompaw's gaze darken and she flexed her claws. Neither of them looked one bit like a soft fluffy kittypet. Dovekit braced herself to defend her friend.
"Shrewkit!"
Dovekit turned around at the sound of Ferncloud's voice. Ferncloud was standing beside the thorn bush that shielded the nursery hollow. Her fluffy pure white tail was twitching in annoyance.
"Shrewkit, if you can't play nicely than you better come back here. You two, Dovekit and Ivykit. I won't have you fighting."
"Not fair!" Shrewkit muttered as all three of them began trailing toward the nursery. She scuffed her paws through the leaves on the ground. "They started it!"
"They are just stupid kittypets!"
Dovekit couldn't resist but glance over her shoulder as she reached the thorn bush. Bumblepaw and Blossompaw stood in the middle of the clearing, glaring after them. The force of Bumblepaw's anger scared her and fascinated her at the same time. Behind it she could sense something else: a black space that echoed fearful questions. She thought of her own father, Birchfall, who told stories of portals and hunting and gathering at the Gathering islands, who let his kits scramble all over him and pretended to be a fox so they could attack him. Dovekit loved him and wanted to be like him.
What must it be like not to know your father is? Especially if every cat thinks he was the son of a kittypet!
Then Dovekit realized that Bumblepaw's gaze locked with hers. With a squeak of alarm she ducked underneath the branches and tumbled into the nursery after her littermates.
