Prologue
Crowkit played near his mothers' shadow, a yellow butterfly catching the attention of the dark-eyed kit and drawing him away from the watchful eyes of the other nursery queens. The tom-kit, barely four moons old, caught the butterfly neatly between his paws, crushing the small insect and smearing yellow-green fluids over his dark fur.
"Ewww." The young tom-kit exclaimed, wiping his paws on the grass before his world was darkened. The kit looked up, screwing up his eyes to near slits in a vain attempt to make out the cat standing above him. The brightness of the noonhigh sun haloed the cat, making it impossible for Crowkit to distinguish anything about the stranger other than an earthy, tangy, definitely un-clanlike scent.
"Um, mom?" Crowkit said worriedly, scrambling over his paws in his haste to make it back to the nursery. However, a giant paw stopped him, and before Crowkit knew it he was dangling from the mouth of the stranger.
"Mother!" he wailed, and then the two were gone.
- Four Years Later -
Sleetkit huddled under the grey fur of her aunt, Rainwhisker, and tried to keep herself from trembling. Bodies of clanmates littered the camp, some still twitching, others still fighting in a vain attempt to stop further slaughter. Her own mother lay not far away, throat ripped out in a riot of silver and crimson, her once spotless creamy grey fur now matted with the blood of the dying and dead. The young she-kit whimpered and averted her eyes, looking to the similarly huddled forms of her brother, Shalekit, and her sister, Shadowkit.
"It'll be okay." She whispered, though she doubted that would be the case. Rainwhisker started to talk, then, and Sleetkit listened with rapt attention.
"Listen, Sleetkit, Shalekit, Shadowkit. I'm going to try and make a run for it. You three head in the opposite direction, away from camp. Try and make it to ReedClan. Head away from the sun for as long as you can, okay?" Rainwhisker said, a note of pleading in her voice. Sleetkit didn't want the only cat she trusted to leave, and she knew if Rainwhisker tried to draw the enemies away she would most likely die as well.
"No, Rainwhisker, don't leave us!" the trio of kits pleaded, widening two sets of amber eyes and one set of green in fear. However, their chorus wasn't needed, as a dark shape appeared in the outline of the nursery – blocking their escape.
"Well well well. What do we have here?"
In the end Rainwhisker's plan would've failed. The silver tabby she-cat gave up without a fight to protect the lives of her nieces and nephew, and when the four captured cats were escorted from the nursery they saw the carnage of the battle. Enemy cats swarmed through the camp, churning the wet ground to mud. Sleetkit saw the glassy eyes of her leader and nearly gagged, but the sight of so many cats intrigued and disgusted the kit. Their clan never had a chance.
Rainwhisker hissed in pain and ran to the body of her fallen mate, earning a blow to the shoulder that ripped fur and flesh. The she-cat was wrestled away from the body, then, biting and scratching until she was subdued between two burly toms.
Sleetkit's ears pinned to her head at the sound of an agonized wail. It was Rainwhisker, her head futility trying to turn and glimpse the body of her fallen mate. Sleetkit felt bad for her aunt, but a sharp prick of claws in her side caused the young she-kit's nose to wrinkle in distaste.
"Watch it!" she snarled, turning, expecting to see either Shalekit or Shadowkit. Instead, however, all she saw was a dark set of legs. Her amber eyes widened as her gaze traveled up to a handsome, dark-furred face and intense hazel eyes framed with black lashes. She gulped, then, and stumbled over her own paws while the huge tom grinned, revealing rows and rows of sharp teeth.
"I think this one wants a punishing!" he tossed over his shoulder to the other cats whom were slowly trailing out of them from the ravaged camp. A chorus of racous laughter sounded, and Sleetkit's eyes widened in fear. She returned her gaze to her own paws, cheeks flushed with color, and continued the arduous march forward.
When the three kits and their long entourage reached what Sleetkit supposed was their destination, they nearly collapsed on their paws. They were swarmed by a group of she-cats, smiles on more than one face as the group cooed over the three.
"Ooh, aren't they simply adorable?" one she-cat cooed, two bumbling kits peering from behind her legs. Sleetkit shrank away from all the attention as she she-cats swarmed around them, and suddenly she was scooped under someone's belly.
"This one's mine." A voice exclaimed sharply, and Sleetkit looked up to see the stern face of a dark grey she-cat.
"And these two are mine!" the first she-cat, the one with the two kits, exclaimed, and a collective "awww" echoed through the remaining she-cats. Sleetkit made to protest, but before she could she was dangling rather painfully from the jaws of a tom-cat.
"This one is mine." He growled, and then dropped her. The dark grey queen swept Sleetkit to her side and met the hazel gaze of the tom with the steely blue of her own.
"When she is ready, Crow. When she is ready." The queen's words hardened on the last sentence, almost like a threat, and Sleetkit shrank away from his hungry gaze.
The tom stared at her for a few more seconds, then spun on his heel and walked away, barking out orders to a few cats she didn't recognize. Sleetkit looked worriedly up at the dark grey queen, who met her look with a soft smile.
"Come this way, little one." She said, and padded towards what looked like a huge bush. The grey queen squeezed under a rocky overhang and through a crumbling tunnel, emerging on the other side with a shake of her grey pelt. Sleetkit, with her much smaller size, had trouble scrambling over the many small stones and emerged a few seconds after the grey queen. She took in her surrounding with wide honey-amber eyes and turned a questioning gaze on the queen.
"I am Synth, and this is the communal raising grounds. All of the she-cats live here for their entire lives, raising kits. You'll spend all your time here." Synth smiled, then, a weak smile that did nothing to alleviate the pain in Sleetkit's heart. She knew then she would never be the greatest warrior in the clan, and she would never see the smiling face of her mother again. The tiny she-kit curled up and began to cry softly, her eyes turned towards the ground in shame.
"Now now dear, don't cry. I promise it will turn out all right, in the end. And besides, you haven't met Adder yet." Synth comforted, touching Sleetkit's shoulder briefly with her tail.
"Adder?" Sleetkit sniffed, tears drying in her fur.
"My daughter." Synth said, eyes clouding with pain before brightening again. Sleetkit noticed the flash of emotion but chose to ignore it, instead wiping her eyes with her paw to wash away the tears.
Mollified for now, Sleetkit stood up on weak silver-furred paws.
"Okay. Show me this Adder." She said, trying to play off her exhaustion. By the looks of it, Synth didn't buy her faked enthusiasm, but Sleetkit was too tired to care.
The two headed towards a den near the topmost edge of the clearing, slinking under the overhanging branches. A dark shape stirred from the plush nest, two honey-dark eyes blinking open.
"Mama? Who's that?" a soft voice sounded, and Sleetkit stepped forward into the light.