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"Wait!" Snowkit called desperately. "Oh, mom. Do you really have to?" Amberspark pulled aside Snowkit who flopped down ungraciously while Sorrelkit and Nutkit ran past him.

"Your apprentice ceremony is today and I want you to look nice," snapped the queen. Snowkit rolled his eyes and watched his siblings play. Amberspark briskly smoothed his fur into place.

"Can I go yet?" pleaded Snowkit.

"Fine," his mother replied tartly. Snowkit scampered off to join his littermates. Amberspark got up and prowled the area in search of the next doomed kit. Sorrelkit caught his eye and flicked her brown-speckled tail and Snowkit bounded over rapidly.

"Who's she after?" Nutkit wondered. The black kitten risked a glance around the edge of the gorse bush, then ducked back in to report. "Sorrelkit, it's you," he informed her. The white kit squeaked and dove farther into the thicket.

"Sure?" she whispered.

"Sure."

"We have to get to the lake!" declared Snowkit. New game. He thought. Escape Amberspark.

"Sounds good," squeaked Sorrelkit, the marked cat.

Nutkit nodded thoughtfully. "But how?" he asked.

Snowkit thought for a minute. "We'll have to sneak out." the black tom decided.

"But Paintfur's guarding the entrance, and if she caught us, Mistlestar would do something really bad…" Sorrelkit pointed out.

"What could she do?" Nutkit challenged.

"Not let us be apprentices!" gasped Sorrelkit.

"Of course not silly," Nutkit scolded.

"I know," said Snowkit. "She'll give us bad mentors."

"Or bad warrior names!" Sorrelkit squealed.

"Nutblossom!" called out Sorrelkit. Nutkit almost fell over in terror.

"Snowleg!" screeched Nutkit. Snowkit, alarmed, stumbled back.

"Or Sorrelmeat!" he joked. Sorrelkit gave him an astonished look.

"She wouldn't actually do that, would she?" she whispered.

"I don't know…" Nutkit crept forward. "There she is!"

"Aaa!" Sorrelkit lept backwards and got a pelt full of thorns. "That wasn't nice."

A dark ginger pelt flashed past their hideout. "Sorrelkit! Nutkit!"

The kits shared an alarmed look and lowered their voices, consulting their options. Snowkit stepped forward. "Guys, I've got this." he said. "There's another way out."

"How?" they meowed eagerly.

"The stream," he began, "leads to the lake. It also flows through camp."

Sorrelkit hesitated. "Are you saying what I think you're saying?" she said cautiously.

"We swim through the stream and we'll come out on the other side of camp," Snowkit said wisely.

"I'm not sure," admitted Sorrelkit. "It sounds risky."

"We're six moons old!" protested Snowkit. "We're just as capable as Hopepaw! Plus, do you really want Amberspark to get you?" he said with a note of challenge in his voice.

Sorrelkit swallowed. "No."

"Good," Nutkit got to his paws. "Let's go.

The three kits carefully trooped out of the den, slinking in the shadows and hiding behind passing waves of cats. They made it to the edge of camp, in the shadowy dip next to the cool stream. Snowkit sent up a spray of icy water as he jumped in. "It is cold," he admitted, "but not deep!"

Nutkit waded in next to him. Sorrelkit looked unsure. "Come on, Sorrelkit!" Nutkit teased. "Don't be a mouse-heart!"

"Hey!" Sorrelkit sprang in. She skidded on the loose pebbles and her paws swept out from under her. Snowkit cried out as the small white she-cat was swept under the water.