Ha! Guess what people? I decided to make this into a story! Yay! These will be all of the one-shot challenges from Nightclan made into a not so one-shot story! :3 Thanks for all the good reviews!
Chapter 2: Frozen
Stormkit narrowed her eyes suspiciously, "What do you mean 'who's Darkstream?'"
"I mean, 'who's Darkstream?'!" Foxtooth answered in the same suspicious tone. "I'm asking you who she is."
"Maybe hitting her head at the bottom of the river made her crazy!" a voice sneered.
Foxtooth purred as his gaze centered on Shadekit. "Hello there, son, and that actually may be so."
"Hit my head on the bottom of the river?" she squeaked. "Why would I jump in?"
"You fell in," Flarekit laughed. "You snuck out of camp and went on the frozen river. You were so stupid you didn't even check to see if the ice was steady!"
Even though they were his kits, Foxtooth wouldn't tolerate this behavior. "Don't talk to your clanmate like that!" he hissed.
Flarekit and Shadekit bowed there heads. "Sorry father," they muttered, sounding genuinely guilty. Out of everything that happened, their reaction was what shocked Stormkit the most. Her dream siblings wouldn't admit that Foxtooth or herself were related to them, much less apologize to either.
"Who are you guys?" she raised herself to her paws and began to inch towards the nursery door.
"Foxtooth," the tom chuckled nervously. "The deputy of Nightclan, helper of Darkstar-"
"Darkstar?" the kit gasped in horror. Could it be possible? Could her dream mother be leader?
"Yeah, she's been leader since before we found you," Shadekit sniffed.
"Found me?" Stormkit blinked. "I'm not clanborn?"
"Of course not!" Flarekit spat disdainfully. "You always wished you were. No need to pretend you weren't."
This time Stormkit actually fled the nursery and felt the chill of leaf bare. She looked around to see a fluffy blanket of snow covering the ground. She headed towards the leader's den. "Hello?" she called.
"Stormkit?" a she-cat called from inside the leader's den. Stormkit stopped in her tracks and widened her eyes. There was on mistaking it, the cat that had spoken was her mother. This was her voice, but without the venom that was always there was gone.
"M-mother?" she stuttered as she stumbled into the den. The cat smelled like Darkstream, she looked like Darkstream, and she sounded like Darkstream. It was obvious. This was Darkstream.
"No, little one," Darkstar purred. "Your leader, Darkstar."
Stormkit took a step back. Little one? That's what Foxtooth called me.
"Are you Darkstream?" she asked.
The leader's eyes darkened momentarily then went back to how they were before. "No one has called me that in quite a while," she hissed. "Calling a leader her warrior name is of great disrespect!" All forms of the niceness before had disappeared.
Stormkit trembled, but refused to move. "I'm sorry," she squeaked, voice going high from terror. Now that she had thought about it, the smile had never reached the leader's eyes. It was clear that the leader's heart had frozen.
"Get out of my sight!" the black she-cat spat.
The kit ran out of the den and nearly crashed into her two siblings. "Hey! Watch it, mouse!" Flarekit snarled, scooping up snow onto the smaller kit.
"Don't call be a mouse!" Stormkit protested, but to no avail.
"But you're small enough and weak enough to be one," Shadekit taunted, throwing another pawful of snow.
"Whatever," the silver kit muttered, shaking off the snow. "Can you take me to the river? The one I fell in?"
"So you can fall in again?" The two kits exchanged delighted glances. "Gladly."
Stormkit narrowed her eyes and flicked her tail for them to lead the way. Shadekit padded straight to the entrance of camp, but Flarekit took more precautions. The ginger kit looked around to make sure there were no cats about, but to no one's surprise, no cat decided to stay in the chilly air. Both she-cats followed the black kit quickly.
By the time they reached the river, Stormkit was freezing. Not that her thin pelt did anything to help that. Shadekit and Flarekit were shooting smiles at each other. "Go on, Mousekit," Flarekit sneered. "Go on the river."
Stormkit refused to back down and padded forward, testing the snow with every paw step. She could subconsciously hear the other two kits whispering to each other with the occasional giggle, but she kept going. She reached out to tap the ice with a tiny claw then pressed down with the paw. The ice didn't move. She sighed with relief and put one paw on the spot she tested. She reached out with the other front paw and slid her paw against the surface looking into the ice. She could see water slowly flowing at the bottom. She put her weight down and kept walking.
"It's completely frozen!" she purred with delight, sliding back and forth. "This is so fun!" Her denmates stared at her with mutinous glares and she rolled her eyes. Probably plotting my demise. Her thoughts were interrupted by a loud cracking noise.
Her sibling's chatter stopped suddenly as the cracking got louder. It sounded like thunder in her ears and she fell down. She felt a throbbing pain on her flank after she hit it on a particularly large piece of ice. "Help!" she yelped. The two kits ran forward, but Shadekit slipped on the ice and slid into the widening hole. Flarekit stopped, feeling stunned.
Stormkit gasped for breath as her head bobbed to the surface only to get a mouthful of water as she forced back under. She knew it was over. She gave in to the water and let it drift her wherever it may. She let out a surprised squeak as she felt jaws over her neck.
"Stop being a mouse for once and actually try to live!" Shadekit advised.
Stormkit quickly moved her paws in the water, but it was no use. "Where does the river lead?"
"To the lake," the tom answered.
"Let it take us there," she meowed. "It'll be calmer. Just try to stay on the surface."
Shadekit nodded, to Stormkit's surprise, and let himself be swept away. Stormkit followed suit and felt herself moving downwards. She adjusted her body once in a while to make sure Shadekit was still in sight. "We're almost there!" Shadekit sputtered. "I saw the claw rock."
"Ok!" she called back and spat out water from her mouth.
She felt the water beginning to calm down and began to paddle towards shore. "Stormkit? You there?" she heard the other kit call.
"Yeah!" she replied. "Head to shore." She collapsed on the sand gasping for breath. "Shadekit..."
"I'm here!" he ran up to her and began licking her fur the wrong way to warm her up.
"Thanks," she purred as she sat up. "Which way is camp?"
Shadekit flicked his tail at her and led the way. "We need to find my sister first."
"Right," Stormkit nodded.
The ginger kit was still staring at the water when they found her. "Ghosts!" she gasped. "You guys died!"
"No, we lived," Shadekit muttered grimly.
"No," she hissed. "Get away from me! You died! I saw you wash down the river."
"Flarekit, I-" he began.
"No! Go away!" the kit spat, but her eyes were wide with fright. "The river was frozen, but it wasn't so you guys are dead! I didn't save you. I couldn't."
"But its ok now," her brother mewed with a soothing voice. "We're here and alive." He reached out his tail, but Flarekit hissed and ran away towards camp. "Flarekit!"
"Its my fault," Stormkit mewed, suddenly interested at the snow on the ground. "If I didn't trust that the river had froze, she wouldn't be mad."
"Its ok," Shadekit meowed sadly. "She's always been like that." Stormkit looked at the river, which was already beginning to freeze over again, and dipped her paw in, breaking a thin sheet of ice.
"Thin ice isn't really frozen is it," the tom mused.
"No, it isn't."
Author's Note: Thanks again for all the reviews! :D Stormkit plushie for the two people who voted on my poll :3. I have another story Rise Of The Abyss that I will be updating more frequently so check that out if you want. Link is on my profile. :) As you may have noticed, I changed this story from Complete to In Progress! Er... Next chapter's theme will be the quote "haters gotta hate" so its just a head up!
Coco out! ~