So I'm on a roll...
And I already have one review! :D
To Featherfall's Lullaby: Thanks so much! And it's totally okay, haha :3 I'm glad you're reading!
And on that note
Enjoy!
11/1/18: So the short chapters are gonna stay kind of short because I'm mostly just editing existing chapters, and without starting the whole story from scratch it would be a pain to change where the chapters end.
"Kits, it's time to wake up."
Skykit blearily opened her eyes. Flamekit and Featherkit were staggering sleepily to their paws. The sun was streaming into the nursery through the reeds, the colorful stones in the roof of the den casting fun colors onto the ground. Skykit wondered why her mother had woken them up so early when she remembered they were to gather herbs with Heatherheart today.
Suddenly wide-awake, she rolled to her paws and bounced out of the nest. Flamekit and Featherkit stumbled after her, yawning.
"Why are you so excited?" Featherkit mumbled, squinting at her sister.
"Remember? We're going out of the camp today!" she said, bouncing on her toes. Her brother and sister shared excited looks, suddenly wide-awake.
Creamfeather was grooming herself, sitting up in her nest. "Don't forget, you're doing this because of the trouble you caused yesterday," she scolded lightly. "This isn't like a leisure trip."
Duskfur raised her head tiredly. "You four are up early," she commented through a yawn.
"These kits of mine are helping Heatherheart gather herbs today," Creamfeather meowed, "to make up for the trouble they got into yesterday."
"You wouldn't catch me out this early," Duskfur replied, laying back down. "My old bones couldn't take walking to Twolegplace and back."
"We're big and strong," Flamekit said with an excited bounce. "We're almost six moons old!"
"Yes, you are," Duskfur mumbled into her paws.
"You three will be apprenticed in no time at all," Creamfeather remarked. Finishing her washing, she stood up and stretched. "It's shortly after sunrise. Let's go find Heatherheart."
When they emerged from the nursery, they found Heatherheart speaking with Mistystar near the entrance to their leader's den. Even for early in the morning, the day was promising to be as hot and dry as the one before it. The dry camp was already littered with pawprints left in the dust, and butterflies perched in the shade of the reeds. Any other day, the kits would have found great joy in running through the butterflies and watching them scatter, but today, they felt grown up and wanted to impress the bigger cats, so they kept their energy in check…for a solid five heartbeats.
Featherkit pounded toward their leader and Heatherheart with Skykit and Flamekit following on her tail. Skykit's paws itched with excitement—I'm getting a chance to explore RiverClan's territory, and I'm not even an apprentice yet!
Mistystar looked at them as they pulled to a halt beside Heatherheart. "Are you three ready? The trip to Twolegplace and back is going to be long and hard," she warned. "You're going to be exhausted tonight."
"We're big!" Flamekit repeated, puffing out his chest and sticking his tail up. "We can handle it."
Mistystar purred. "Okay, but stay very close to Heatherheart and listen to everything she says. If she tells you to do something, you have to do it, understand, kits?"
"Yes," they all chorused. Skykit kneaded the ground with her paws, eager to be moving.
"Let's go, then," Heatherheart said, touching noses with Creamfeather before turning to head out of the camp. Creamfeather touched each of her kits in turn, her eyes shining.
"Behave yourselves," she meowed.
"We will," Featherkit promised, running after Heatherheart. Flamekit dashed after her. Skykit looked up at Creamfeather. Her eyes held some emotion that Skykit couldn't identify, but she blinked it away and touched noses with her youngest kit.
"Be good," she whispered. "I'll always love you, no matter what."
Skykit blinked. What did Creamfeather mean by that? She opened her mouth to ask a question when Heatherheart called, "Skykit, let's go!"
Skykit hesitated, looking back at her mother.
"Go on," Creamfeather urged, nudging her kit gently toward the entrance with her nose. "Don't keep Heatherheart waiting."
"We'll be back by sundown," she promised, turning and racing after her littermates.
They managed to stay on one side of the river until they reached Twolegplace Big wooden things that Heatherheart called 'fences' surrounded even bigger dens. All the smells were overwhelming; it made Skykit's head hurt and they were hardly even close to it. Heatherheart stopped before they reached the first fence, pointing with her tail to a bush with small black berries on it.
"There's yarrow growing under this bush," she said, "but I'm too big to get under there. Can one of you get it?"
"I can!" Slender Featherkit ducked down and wriggled under the bush.
"Be careful not to hurt yourself," Heatherheart said, crouching down and looking after her. Flamekit and Skykit copied her. Skykit squinted into the darkness and saw Featherkit, belly to the ground, pawing at some plants. "Can you find them?"
"Are they the great big leaves?" Featherkit asked.
"Yes, those," Heatherheart mewed. "Bite them off close to the ground, but don't get any dirt into your mouth or you'll be tasting it for days."
"I'll be! Is that you, Heatherheart?"
She turned her head sharply, her ears sticking straight up. A cat leapt down from a nearby fence and trotted over. He had black and white fur with some lighter gray down his face. He had a long, dangling collar wrapped around his neck that was frayed on the ends.
"Snake!" she meowed, trotting forward to touch noses with the tom. "How's the prey running? Are the Twolegs treating you well?"
"I can't complain," he said, shrugging. Looking around her, his eyes brightened. "And who are these kits?" he inquired as they walked back toward the blackberry bush. Featherkit reappeared from under the bush, shuffling backwards and dragging long, leafy stems of yarrow in her jaws, tail pointed skyward.
"These are Creamfeather's kits," she said. Something flashed darkly in Snake's eyes, a buried memory, perhaps, but it was gone so fast, Skykit couldn't be sure that it had even been there. She tipped her head at him, crouching just a little lower to the ground.
"They look just like her," he murmured, bending forward to sniff at Skykit's flank. She shrank away, unsure of why this kittypet was talking with Heatherheart. "What's your name, little one?" When she hesitated, he purred and meowed, "I'm an old friend of your mother's. I won't hurt you."
The three kits looked at Heatherheart. She nodded her head slightly. They all exchanged looks.
"I'm Skykit," she replied after a moment. "This is my brother Flamekit and my sister Featherkit."
"The names suit you." The darkness in his eyes was back, more pronounced, but his tone was still light and happy. "It's like Creamfeather to have picked such fine names. Who's your father, kits, if you don't mind my asking?"
Featherkit looked uncertainly at Heatherheart, but none of the kits said anything. This kittypet wasn't anything like the elders' stories of the fat, lazy lumps who were scared of their own shadow.
"Mallownose," Heatherheart murmured in Snake's ear. He closed his forest-green eyes and nodded slowly.
"Mallownose," he rumbled to himself. He opened his eyes again, purring. "What are you four doing so far from your camp? And you're just kits too. I thought kits stayed in camp."
"Well, these specific kits got into a spot of trouble yesterday, and I've got them on herb patrol," Heatherheart explained. "We were just getting ready to go fetch some catmint."
"That's a pretty long way to take these little ones," Snake meowed. "If you like, I can run over there and fetch some for you, quick as a fish." He twitched his plumy white-tipped tail.
Heatherheart looked relieved. "Could you do that, Snake?"
"I'll meet you by the lightning-struck tree at the fork in the river," he said. Touching noses with her again, he turned around and pelted off. Skykit watched him go for a long time, until his black and white pelt vanished over the fence again. Heatherheart turned back around and looked down at the yarrow that Featherkit had gathered.
"Is there any more?" Heatherheart asked. "If you could get just a little bit more, Featherkit, the same way you gathered these, that would be fantastic."
"Okay!" Featherkit dove back under the bush. Flamekit was stalking a beetle a little way off. Skykit sat down with a thump and looked after Snake, even though he had already disappeared back into Twolegplace. His scent was beginning to fade.
"Heatherheart, who was that?" she asked.
"He's an old friend of your mother's and mine," Heatherheart replied, scooping the yarrow into a neater pile. Her voice was careful, like she almost didn't want to give a lot away. "We met him at the beginning of the leaf-bare before last when Reedwhisker, the deputy before Sparklesong, was sick with greencough and we didn't have enough catmint. He helped us."
Skykit tipped her head to the side as Featherkit scrabbled back out from under the bush and Flamekit pounced on his beetle. She could tell that there was something that Heatherheart wasn't telling her, but she guessed that she wouldn't figure out what it was even if she pushed.
"Snake seems nice," Flamekit said to no one in particular, patting the beetle, which had stopped moving. "He reminds me of Mallownose."
"Let's go wait by the river while Snake fetches the catmint for us," Heatherheart said, turning her back. "Flamekit, Skykit, can you each take part of this yarrow? Don't bite down too hard, though, or you could damage the leaves."
Skykit scooped some herbs into her jaws and trotted along after Heatherheart, in the lead of her littermates. She and Flamekit exchanged a look. There was something Heatherheart wasn't telling them.
Okay so this one is a little shorter
Oof
Question of the day: Who's your favorite character so far?
~Feathers
