DISCLAIMER! If I owned Warriors, Cinderpelt would have been made a warrior (Aw, poor Cindery!). Meaning, I don't own Warriors!
[Note: this takes place in the lake territories, generations after Firestar and the cats from the series lived]
A smoky gray paw prodded Tanglekit awake. "Get up," Stormykit whispered.
Blinking the sleep from her eyes, Tanglekit lifted her head. "What…?" she mumbled.
Stormykit poked her littermate again. "Wake up!"
Shaking her head, Tanglekit stretched and got out of her nest, following Stormykit's tail beckoning her out of the nursery. Dawn had just passed and the patrols had already left. Tanglekit glanced around. Hawkflight, the Clan's temporary deputy, was standing near the Highledge, his head held high. ThunderClan's deputy was Ravenfrost, but she had been expecting kits—and just happened to be Tanglekit and Stormykit's mother—so had stepped down from her position to become a queen while Brindlestar had appointed the tabby warrior as a temporary deputy. Tanglekit gazed admiringly at him. She wanted to be like that, too, one day, standing confidently, overseeing that her Clanmates-
"Tanglekit!" Stormykit's impatient mew sounded from across the hollow, interrupting her thoughts. "Are you coming or what?" Tanglekit's ears flicked up as she darted across the clearing to her sister.
"Sorry," she panted. She scanned her surroundings. "What are we doing here, anyway?"
"Just come." Tanglekit knew that Stormykit was impatient sometimes, but it was always for the better. She was the opposite of Stormypaw, her mother's littermate who had died young from attempting to climb the Sky Oak. She had been a great climber and got overconfident in herself, and so Ravenfrost had always told them to know their limits. She had also said that once she realized Stormypaw had joined StarClan, she wanted to say to her that she was "a cat, not a bird," but it had been too late. That was where Stormykit got her name from, although she was not like the sweet Stormypaw.
Tanglekit flicked her ears and focused on her sister's lead, pushing through a thin sheet of twigs between the apprentices' den and the warriors' den.
"Look," Stormykit breathed. The two kits were now lodged in a shadowed corner between the bushes. "You can see the nests if you peek under."
Tanglekit copied her sister as she poked her muzzle through the bottom of the warriors' den wall. Then Stormykit's ears perked up in excitement. "See, no one's in it but Frostedwind." Frostedwind was their father.
Tanglekit squinted, peering at her father's gray-and-white pelt rising and falling. She looked questioningly at her sister. "What are we going to do?" she asked her.
Stormykit's tail-tip twitched. "Since he's sleeping, we can… hmm… let's see…" A worm of anxiety sprouted in Tanglekit's belly, but she pushed it away. Suddenly Stormykit's eyes lit up. "We can put ferns in the warriors' nests!"
Tanglekit felt relief flood through her. Stormykit didn't have any trouble on her mind! And she was right; the ferns would make the nests much softer. They didn't have any use in medicine, anyway. Then she tensed as Stormykit went on: "It won't hurt them like nettle or thorns, but it will make their pelts tickle and itch all night! Of course they can move them out of the way, but they'll never know who did it!"
"Wait…" Tanglekit mewed softly. "We shouldn't do this."
Stormykit looked at her, bewildered. "Why not?"
Tanglekit shifted her paws. "Because it's… it's…" She searched for the right words. "It's just wrong!" she blurted. Stormykit glanced nervously towards the warrior's den, where Frostedwind's ears twitched and he stirred slightly, then went back to his gentle snoring. Both the kits' muscles relaxed with relief.
Stormykit leaned closer to Tanglekit. "Be more careful next time," she hissed quietly. "And keep your ears low."
By now it was midway between dawn and sunhigh. The patrols would be due back soon, and by then the camp would be bustling with action. "Come on," Stormykit urged, and Tanglekit padded after her to the elders' den. "We can—" Stormykit broke off, her ears flat to her head as she crouched. Tanglekit copied her as she noticed what had spooked her sister.
Honeysap, one of the Clan's elders, was limping out of the den towards the dirtplace. She had been a medicine cat but had her front leg injured when she fell into the stream by the WindClan border, hitting sharp rocks and leaving Snowdapple, her apprentice, to take over. Tanglekit stared in dismay at Honeysap's leg, where the fur had been torn off and would never grow properly again.
The crippled elder tasted the air and was about to continue on when Tanglekit got an idea. If I draw attention to us, Honeysap will know where we are, and Stormykit won't be able to get away with this! she thought hopefully. Then she cast a doubtful glance toward her littermate. What will Stormykit think? Then she shrugged. I'll just say I forgot.
Tanglekit trotted toward Honeysap casually, her tail up. "Hi," she squeaked. Honeysap turned around.
"Good morning, Tanglekit," she replied. "What are you doing out so early? And where's your sister?"
"Oh, just exploring," the tabby kit answered absently. "And she's over there." She swiveled her ears toward the bracken clump Stormykit was crouching under.
Honeysap let out a purr when she saw Stormykit creeping out of her hiding place, looking ruffled. "What were you doing, hiding under there like a mouse?" she teased.
Stormykit opened her mouth, looking indignant, but Tanglekit thought fast. "She was probably just trying her tracking skills." Tanglekit turned to her sister. "You couldn't have done better if you had a mentor," she purred affectionately.
Stormykit narrowed her eyes playfully. "And you're saying that you could?" she countered, and sprang forward. They were a bundle of brown and gray fur as they tussled, rolling across the clearing. Suddenly, Tanglekit felt something soft brush her ear. She released Stormykit and looked up to see a mottled brown tom standing over them.
"What are you doing?" he demanded. "Don't you know there are more important things for a ThunderClan warrior to do than wrangle kits who can't behave?" Bristlethorn was known for being grumpy. His yellow stare bored into Tanglekit's pelt, making her shrink. But Stormykit stretched up onto her toes to meet him so their noses were almost touching, and exclaimed indignantly, "We weren't misbehaving!"
Tanglekit's belly lurched. That was not something the lowest rank in the Clan says to the grumpiest cat in it.
Bristlethorn narrowed his eyes. "Then what were you doing?" he inquired icily.
Tanglekit felt blank. She took a small step back, and then Stormykit piped up again. "We were practicing our battle moves, for when we become apprentices!" she squeaked. Bristlethorn gazed at the two kits disapprovingly.
"You've still got two more moons left," he reminded them, as if they couldn't see it themselves. Stormykit opened her mouth, Tanglekit guessed, for a stinging retort, but Bristlethorn was already walking away.
"Great," Tanglekit muttered. She was caught off guard when Stormykit's fur bushed up. She glared hostilely into Tanglekit's green eyes.
"It's not my fault!" she hissed. "You're the one who went out and told Honeysap where we were!"
Stormykit's scathing tone pierced Tanglekit and made her defensive. "I didn't tell her where we were!" she threw back.
The brown tabby kit drew a breath to continue when Stormykit murmured, "I'm sorry." Tanglekit froze, her mouth still open as her littermate went on. "I guess I just…" She trailed off and gazed at her sister, her eyes blank.
"It's okay," Tanglekit purred, rubbing her muzzle along Stormykit's cheek. "But you're still mouse-brained." Stormykit stiffened. She stared at Tanglekit vacantly. Hurt sparked in her eyes. "Come on, Stormykit!" Tanglekit exclaimed. "It wasn't meant to hurt."
As she spoke, a gray blur barreled into Tanglekit's side and then Stormykit was on top of her. "Ha! You totally fell for that!" she crowed triumphantly. Then her ears flicked as the branches that guarded the nursery rustled. Tanglekit twisted under her sister's weight to see Ravenfrost emerging from the bush, shaking scraps of moss off her sleek black pelt. She used Stormykit's brief distraction as an opportunity to heave her off and trot up to her mother.
"Hi," she mewed cheerily. Ravenfrost greeted her with a flick of her tail over the tip of Tanglekit's ear. Stormykit scampered up behind her. "Hey!" she shouted.
Tanglekit turned around just in time to see a flash of bared teeth and then Stormykit had latched onto her shoulders. Tanglekit bucked around, squealing, and then stopped. Stormykit slid off her back.
"Wow, second time, Tanglekit," she teased. "That's what you get if you mess with Stormykit!" She fluffed up her fur so she looked twice her size.
A black paw gently made its way between them. "Tanglekit," Ravenfrost began. "I can show you a good technique for avoiding a pounce." Her gaze flicked to Stormykit. "Both of you."
The two kits bounced up excitedly. "What is it?" Stormykit questioned.
Ravenfrost didn't answer, just ordered Tanglekit, "Spring at me."
Tanglekit tensed, uncertain. She saw her mother's whiskers twitch once before she leaped up, aiming for the ears. Suddenly Ravenfrost's head cannoned into her. Pain shot through her neck down her spine. "Oof!" She fell to the ground, stunned.
Stormykit trotted up to Ravenfrost. "That was awesome!" she squeaked happily. But Ravenfrost ignored her kit. She stood next to Tanglekit within a single bound.
Ravenfrost lowered her head and sniffed Tanglekit's pelt worriedly. Tanglekit lifted her head. "Raven…?" she mumbled.
"Tanglekit," she answered, pressing her head into her kit's fur. "I'm here."
Stormykit appeared from behind Ravenfrost's hind paw and ventured out. As she approached, the fear in her eyes grew. Ravenfrost swung her head around. "Go back to the nursery," she told her. Reluctantly Stormykit started to trudge away.
Tigerwing's head poked out of the brambles. The black-and silver queen's eyes widened as she saw Tanglekit hunched over on the ground, but Stormykit spoke to her in a hushed voice and she herded the smoky kit away.
"Tanglekit…" Ravenfrost breathed one more time, then raised her head to the rest of the camp and called, "Snowdapple!"
There was no answer. "Snowdapple!" she yowled again.
A silver-and-white head poked out of the medicine den. "Yes?" The medicine cat glanced around the camp expectantly when she noticed Ravenfrost. "Ravenfrost?" she greeted quietly and trotted over to her.
The sleek black queen looked up at her with dull, pleading eyes. "Tanglekit got hurt!"
Snowdapple gently shouldered Ravenfrost out of the way to nose the dark tabby bundle. After a few moments, she reported, "I can't find anything wrong with her; she was probably just stunned." Turning her back on Tanglekit, she questioned, "How did this happen, anyway?"
Ravenfrost hung her head. "I was trying to show her my favorite battle technique," she murmured, "where an enemy lunges for you and you dart under their belly, coming out from behind and attacking their haunches." She shot a glance at her daughter before adding, "I tried to do that on Tanglekit but… but I forgot she wouldn't leap high enough for me to move underneath her, so I slammed into her."
Tanglekit heard the soft sound of Snowdapple's tail brushing over her mother in a gesture of comfort. "It wasn't your fault," she whispered. More briskly, she reassured her, "She'll be fine, you'll see. I won't let anything happen to another of your kin—" She suddenly broke off and looked at Ravenfrost anxiously.
The dark-pelted deputy shuffled her paws. The medicine cat quickly redeemed herself. "I didn't mean to…" and she trailed away.
Ravenfrost just shook her head. She nudged Tanglekit. "Get up," she whispered.
Tanglekit's paws ached as she staggered into a sitting position. Snowdapple nudged a finch toward her, and as she ate, she felt new strength and energy flood her body. I'll be fine, she told herself. Snowdapple won't let anything happen to me.
Feeling better, the young cat got to her paws and stretched. She saw Stormykit's blue eyes peering out from the nursery. She noticed that they were not changing color, in fact, they were deepening, becoming the intelligent blue that Ravenfrost had come to have. Tanglekit, like all kittens, had been born with blue eyes, but they were changing color and turning slightly yellow. She wondered if she would have the piercing gaze that Frostedwind had.
Stormykit ran over to her and licked her sister on the ear. "You're okay!" she exclaimed happily.
"Of course I'm okay, mouse-brain," Tanglekit countered affectionately. "I couldn't leave you, not at just four moons old!" She paused before adding, "I promise you'll never be alone."