"I heard that you were practicing fighting with your sister." Dusk-kit could hear her father's voice say from outside the nursery. She tried to fall back to sleep, but suddenly sat up. Cedarkit landed where she had been laying. "Aw, come on." Cedarkit complained to her sister. "Why didn't you let me catch you?!"
"For Starclan's sake, Cedarkit," Dusk-kit said standing up. "You really thought you could catch me? Yeah right! When rabbits fly!" She crouched down. Cedarkit also crouched. Dusk-kit noticed that Ivyclaw was sitting in the nursery entrance, watching them. All right. Let's show him what I can do. Dusk-kit thought to herself. Cedarkit lept suddenly at Dusk-kit. Dusk-kit stepped out of the way. She then took her turn to jump at Cedarkit. The leap started well, but she lost her balance and ended up falling on Cedarkit instead.
"Hey! Why'd you just fall on me? That's not how you fight!" Cedarkit wailed.
Ivyclaw sighed. "Cedarkit, I don't think she meant to fall on you."
Cedarkit turned to Dusk-kit. She stuck her tongue out at her and winked. "I know..." she said, turning back to Ivyclaw. Dusk-kit roller her eyes.
Applepaw appeared from behind Ivyclaw. "Do you want to see how a real warrior fights?" He asked them. He unsheathed his claws and started looking around. He's probably looking for Blackpaw... Dusk-kit thought. She rolled her eyes again. He's practically obsessed with her.
Cedarkit's eyes lit up. "Can we really watch you?!" she asked. She crouched down again, her rump wiggling in the air.
"Well duh," Applepaw said. "That's why I asked..." He turned around and noticed Blackpaw. "Hey, Blackpaw. Would you perhaps like to show the kittens a practice fight?" he asked her hopefully. Cedarkit could tell that he was nervous about asking her. It was rare to see Applepaw nervous. Well, rare for him to show he was nervous.
Blackpaw started to follow a large white tom out of the camp. "Sorry, Applepaw," she said. "I have to go hunting with Swancloud." She was obviously disappointed that she couldn't show the kits a fight.
Applepaw put his head down. "Oh, that's right. Sorry for asking." he said. He sighed. Ivyclaw smiled. "I could help you." he offered, standing up, but Applepaw didn't look so excited.
"Maybe another time." he said. He stood up and walked away. "What?! Come on!" Cedarkit yelled after him.
Dusk-kit looked at her father. "Can't you just make him show us?" she asked. "You are a warrior after all."
Ivyclaw shook his head. "I might be a warrior, but I shouldn't make him show you unless he wants to." he watched Applepaw talking to Swiftface, his mentor. "And he obviously doesn't want to unless it's with Blackpaw." He smiled, remembering what it was like when he and Buzzardcloud were both just apprentices.
Dusk-kit padded out of the den and over to the fresh kill pile. She looked at it. "There isn't much for me to choose from..." she muttered to herself. She turned away and decided to get something later. "When I'm a warrior I'll catch so much prey that I can have as much as whatever I want." she decided. But then she remembered Cedarkit saying that warriors were only allowed to take what they needed, not what they wanted. Dusk-kit sighed. She say Honeytail talking to Ruddstar. A small light when on inside her head. If I become leader, she thought Then I can have as much as I want. After all, it does say in the warrior code that the leader's word is the code, right? Of course, I only know that from Cedarkit telling me about as many times as there are stars in the sky...
She suddenly found Cedarkit on top of her. "Oof!" she said as she hit the ground.
"HAHA!" Cedarkit said, triumphantly. "Look, Dad! I told you I could catch her!" Ivyclaw smiled and purred.
"That's my girl!" he said proudly. Cedarkit was obviously very happy with the compliment, because she started purring.
"Get off!" Dusk-kit yowled at her sister, shaking her off. Cedarkit landed on the ground and smiled at her sister.
"Oh yeah!" she said, suddenly remembering. "Smallwhisker said that he wanted to see us today!" She started walking towards the elders' den and gestured to Dusk-kit with her tail to follow her.
Smallwhisker? Dusk-kit complained in her head, standing up and starting to follow her sister. But... he's old! Why does what he want matter? She searched in her head for a reason as to why the elders mattered, but couldn't find one. She found herself standing at in the elders' den with her sister.
Smallwhisker lifted his head. He couldn't see the kits, as he was blind, but he could hear them enter. "Ah! Hello, young kits!" he said, delighted to see them. "It's so nice to have the company of someone young in here. Beechfur isn't exactly young..."
"What do you want?" Dusk-kit asked, a little snappily. Cedarkit glared at her, and gave her the 'Don't be rude!' look. Dusk-kit just rolled her eyes.
Smallwhisker didn't seem to mind that she was a bit snappy. I suppose he must be used to it, Dusk-kit realized. He does live with Beechfur, after all. Beechfur was by far the snappiest cat in the clan (though Cedarkit liked to argue that Dusk-kit was a close second).
"I wanted to give you kits a lesson. Please always remember this. Oh, and you might want to sit down. This is a very long story." Smallwhisker began. The two kits sat down. "One time my mother met a cat from Starclan. She didn't believe in Starclan until she met the cat. The cat was her father. He was upset that she believed Starclan didn't exist. She had been very sad after his death. She thought she would never see him again. He didn't like to see her sad, so he went to her in a dream and told her that if she believed in Starclan she could see him again when she died. So the moral is, believe in Starclan."
The two kits just sat there, as if waiting for more. "Is something the matter?" Smallwhisker could sense that they were expecting something else.
"If you don't mind me saying," Cedarkit said politely. "But you said that the story was long. That really didn't take that long to tell." she pointed out.
Smallwhisker looked confused. He thought for a moment. "I guess you're right..." He said. "I suppose there could have been more to the story that I just forgot about. I could have sworn that there was more..." he looked like he was in deep thought, so Dusk-kit gestured for Cedarkit to leave with her.
"What a waste of our time." Dusk-kit complained as they left the den. "I'm never going to be like that when I'm an elder." she announced to her sister.
"Yeah you're right. You're probably going to be more like Beechfur." Cedarkit teased. She dodged out of the way as Dusk-kit lunged at her.
"No! Because I'm going to be the leader when I get older!" Dusk-kit said proudly. "And no one is going to stop me. You just watch! I'll be the greatest warrior ever! The leader will have no choice but to make me the deputy!"
"Really?" Cedarkit said, smiling. "I was planning to become the leader too. If I ever become the leader, I promise I'll make you deputy!" She stood up and started walking towards the nursery.
Dusk-kit just sat there. "But I'm going to to become the leader first. Of course, I guess I'll make you deputy when I become the leader." She suddenly found herself being lifted up. She looked up and saw her mother carrying her to the nursery. She saw some of the warriors watching her. This is just embarrassing... she thought as she watched them.
Her mother put her down in the nest with Cedarkit. "I think that you would both make great leaders!" she said to the two kittens, and started to wash them.
"Stop, please." Dusk-kit said. She wriggled away from her mother and went to a different part of the nursery. She laid down and closed her eyes. Suddenly she found Cedarkit snuggling up with her. She smiled, which was rare. She wasn't a huge fan of being with the other members of the clan like her sister was, but she didn't mind her sister. Soon the two kittens were both asleep, their chests raising and lowering slowly.