"Whiteblossom! Whiteblossom! Can we go see Harestep and Runningcloud?" The red she kit bounced excitedly on her paws in the midst of the rest of her litter as the white Queen wearily stirred from her sleep.
"As soon as Silverbreeze lets them off their vigil, yes." She mewed tiredly. "But don't pester them too long. They need to sleep too. And don't pester the other Warriors either, just come straight back and come back to sleep."
"We will!" Nearly all of the group chorused before they all sat patiently in the Nursery entrance, most of them chattering quietly and excitedly. All except Vixenkit. She ignored the chatter, scenting the Deputy as she approached the two new Warriors, her littermates' gazes following hers as she watched the two toms dip their heads to the silver tabby and begin to pad to the Warriors' Den.
"Harestep!" Eaglekit and Longkit squealed excitedly as they lead the group over.
"Runningcloud!" Nightkit added, his eyes glittering brightly as the two toms looked over to the litter, somewhere between suprised and exhausted.
"Hello kits. What are you doing up this early?" The young golden brown tom greeted them with a bright smile, while the pale brown tom seemed like he just wanted to swat them away.
"We came to see you, Runningcloud!" Doekit squealed, speaking so fast she could burst.
Vixenkit, however, was staring at Harestep as he tried to escape to the den. Knowing he couldn't slink away while she was watching him, he sighed and sat next to Runningcloud.
"What's it like being a Warrior?" Longkit asked the two toms.
"And an Apprentice!" Eaglekit added, his dark blue eyes wide in admiration.
"It's a lot of fun, hunting prey on the moor." Runningcloud dropped into a crouch, stalking towards the kits, who squealed in delight as they bounded away.
"And you get to fight for WindClan territory, keeping it out of greedy ThunderClan paws!" Harestep added, only to be pushed over by the kits suddenly attacking him playfully, laughing loudly. Even the pale brown tom laughed too.
"Kits! Let them rest!" Silverbreeze called as she bounded over, picking each one off, leaving Vixenkit until last, regarding her strangely for a moment before she took the kits back to the Nursery.
While most of the kits fell asleep when they all curled up beside the peaceful Whiteblossom, Vixenkit didn't. The look that the Deputy had given her put her slightly on edge but perplexed her at the same time.
Vixenkit was just closing her eyes and burying her nose under her tail to sleep when Whiteblossom herself woke up, very slowly and softly moving as not to wake the other kits.
"Did I hear Silverbreeze bring you all back?" She asked.
Vixenkit just nodded, not even trying to speak. Now the rest of her siblings were asleep, she didn't need to try.
"You weren't out there too long, were you?" She continued.
Vixenkit shook her head grumpily.
"You can talk to them later, Vixenkit." The Queen licked her kit's head as she spoke, nudging her back down as she tried to sit up. "It's still early. Sleep."
Vixenkit curled up again at her mother's command, burying herself among the warmth of the rest of the kits and letting herself fall asleep again.

Vixenkit blinked her eyes open, stretching out and yawning and feeling the ground beneath her paws. The grassy ground.
Confused, she sat up, looking around, finding herself totally alone and in a strange area. Her head flicked around as her body curled up in a defensive ball, her fur standing on end. Moonlight lit the area around her which seemed to be in newleaf, but at night time. Nothing stirred, except a gentle breeze that tumbled a few leaves along with it.
But even this was enough to scare the twitchy Kit, who soon dived into the undergrowth and ran as fast as her little legs could carry her through the unfamiliar ground, looking for somewhere - anywhere - to hide. Seeing a wall of mist, she choose to try there, knowing it would hide her scent until she could calm down.
However, she was barely a whisker away from it when she was suddenly grabbed by the scruff and yanked back.
When her eyes closed, it was the end of her dream.

"Vixenkit! Wake up! The Elders agreed to tell us stories!"
Vixenkit jolted awake as Nightkit roughly prodded her side, to which she swatted a paw at his face and sat up, yawning.
It was nearly sunhigh now and her scruff still felt weird. She turned her head to lick it, trying to soothe it.
"Come on!" Longkit whinned, pushing his sister along towards the Nursery entrance until she got onto her own paws, trailing behind the rest of the litter as they burst into the Elders' Den, the four residents looking up at them from the quiet conversation they had been having before.
While most of the Elders huffed, complaining quietly about Kits these days, a small black tom with orange eyes smiled kindly at them.
"Have you come for your stories?" He asked, barely finishing his question before he was drowned out by the cheers of the kits.
"I don't know why you agreed to this, Littlefire." The other tom in the den grumbled, shuffling angrily in his nest.
"Queens need a break too, Hailshade." The pale silver she cat told him as she and the other Elder shuffled over, resting either side of Littlefire.
"I suppose you'll never understand that." The third elder teased gently, only earning more grumbling from Hailshade as he turned his back to them all.
"So, what do you want us to tell you about?" Littlefire asked. Of all the requests, Doekit's request was loudest of all.
"Why do we have to be so old to be Apprentices?" She asked, the other kits quickly agreeing with her.
"Because the Warrior Code says so." Willowmist replied, having settled on the left side of Littlefire, her pale eyes glittering in amusement.
"But why?"
"Because of a WindClan queen." Frostwing replied, settling her head on her near white paws. "Do you want to hear it?"
"Yes please!"
Frostwing motioned for the Kits to settle down before she started. Vixenkit was closest to her and watched her intently as she spoke.
"Many moons ago, there was a queen named Daisytail. She had one kit, a tom named Specklepaw. Though he was barely a moon older than you, he was already an apprentice. As she watched him practice battle moves with a much older apprentice, she knew that he couldn't even win against the older Apprentice, let alone a bloodthirsty ShadowClan warrior."
"I could take on any warrior!" Eaglekit interrupted, showing off what he called his "battle face", baring his fangs and curling up his lip. The other Kits joined in, even Vixenkit, though she promptly stopped when she heard the Elders chuckle.
"Shall we test that? Vinepaw is supposed to be changing our bedding later. I'm sure he'd like to fight you." Hailshade called from the back of the den.
"N-No, I'm sure he has more important things to do."
"How about Stagstar? Or Nettleclaw? Or Watersplash?"
"Watersplash is so old he couldn't defend himself against a fly." Longkit replied.
"Watersplash is younger than Stagstar, believe it or not. He was a warrior when Watersplash was Waterkit." Willowmist put in.
"Yet, you would have thought they were brothers." Frostwing murmured, watching the two toms talk in the middle of camp.
"Anyway," Littlefire took back the attention. "Daisytail was so worried about her kit going into battle, she spoke to her friend, Hawkfoot..."
Vixenkit stopped listening to the story, trying to pick out bits of the conversation between the two toms in camp.
"... I don't think she can, Stagstar." Watersplash was saying in the near empty hollow. "Yes, she can listen to commands and such, but her training will be slow. Slower than her siblings'."
"That will be the same whatever route she goes down, Watersplash." Stagstar replied, the tension in his voice evident. "I know you want an apprentice, but this might not be her destiny. Just like it wasn't Woollyfur's."
Watersplash visibly bristled at the mention of her father's name.
"And what if she wants to be a Medicine Cat?" He asked coarsely.
"If she wants to, then yes. But we aren't forcing her path just because she can't speak."
The impending arguement was cut off by Silverbreeze and Whiteblossom joining the conversation.
"How about another story where another WindClan cat added a rule to the code?" Littlefire's voice cut through Vixenkit's thoughts like a claw through fur.
"Which code, Littlefire?" Doekit asked.
"That a cat cannot be made Deputy without mentoring at least one Apprentice. In the reign of Featherstar, there was a deputy named Pebblefur..."

The kits had to leave the Elders' Den when Vinepaw came to change their bedding and check for ticks, so the kits decided to ambush Whiteblossom as she padded back to the Nursery, creating pile of laughing cats.
"You're all so good at stalking. Have you been annoying the Warriors or the Apprentices?" Whiteblossom laughed, untangling herself and guiding her kits inside the Nursery again.
"No, but Hailshade threatened to make me fight Vinepaw!" Eaglekit whinned.
"Only because you said you could take on any Warrior." Longkit rolled his eyes dramatically, earning him a playful shove from Eaglekit.
Nightkit, however, fell into step by Vixenkit.
"Are you okay, Vixenkit? You didn't seem to be listening." He quietly asked so none of the others could hear.
Vixenkit nodded her reply, looking over to Petalpool's two kits as they came over to the litter.
"You got to see the Elders!" The tortoiseshell she kit mewed enviously.
"What stories did they tell you?" The yellow tabby she kit asked.
"Cherrykit! Yellowkit!" Petalpool called her kits back as Bramblenose padded in with some rabbits for them.
Vixenkit noticed Petalpool encouraging her kits to eat the prey like she and her siblings did. When they seemed weary, she nudged a rabbit over, taking a happy bite out of it to try and coax them into joining in.
Yellowkit was the first to take a bite, chewing the small bite she had taken dramatically but swallowing it before taking another. Cherrykit followed, sharing the rabbit with her sister and Vixenkit.
As the sun began to set, Vixenkit watched the camp from where she was laid by Whiteblossom, particularly watching the near Medicine Cat Den, Watersplash and Woollyfur returning with their jaws full of herbs. However, her ears rung with the conversation between Stagstar and the Medicine Cat.
I'll show them! I'll be the best warrior WindClan has ever known!