Mistykit burst from the nursery, her grayish white tail whistling behind her. "Come on Flakekit! You're so slow!" The little she-cat skidded to a halt as she realized her brother wasn't following her. She raced back to the nursery, her little paws thrumming the ground and throwing up dust as she went. Flakekit was stretching lazily in their nest, Halfbreeze gently grooming between his ears. Mistykit groaned and lashed her tail in annoyance. "Let's go! We're gonna be late!"

"Shush!" An angry hiss sounded from the other side of the nursery, where a still exhausted Willowfall was nursing her newborns. Willowfall's creamy-red fur was matted and ruffled from a long night of kitting. Two little bundles of fur were pressed tightly to the new queen's side. Mistykit's tail went stiff in embarrassment as her mother gave the other queen an apologetic look before ushering her kits out of the nursery.

"Honestly, Mistykit. Willowfall just got her little ones to quit fussing. Don't be so thoughtless." Halfbreeze scolded as she nudged her kits farther from the nursery. The camp was alive with activity as the morning patrol returned, and fresh kill dropped onto the pile. "Now go find Russetsky. It's not polite to keep a warrior waiting."

"But Halfbreeze, I wasn't the one being loud." Flakekit complained, eager to be allowed back in the nursery for a nap. His dark gray fur was ruffled and stuck up behind his ears where their mother had been grooming earlier. His white tipped tail flicking back and forth in his annoyance.

"Come on Flakekit! Russetsky is teaching us how to roll moss today! Besides, you've been inside the nursery all morning!" Mistykit butted her brother with the top of her head, eager to get moving.

Flakekit growled and pushed his sister away, smoothing down his spikey fur. "Can't I just go keep Minnowkit company instead? Or I could stay here and help with the new kits." The little gray tom blinked up at his mother hopefully.

"Mistykit's right this time. You two need to stay out of the nursery today. Willowfall has enough on her mind right now. She doesn't need you two tramping through the den." Halfbreeze licked the top of Flakekit's head reassuringly. "And Minnowkit will be just fine. Littlestep is taking good care of her. Now get going you two."

With heavy steps and a groan, Flakekit followed Mistykit across camp to the apprentices' den. Sitting just outside was a long furred, russet tom, flicking his tail in annoyance. "You're late." Beside him was a large mound of moss, almost as big as Mistykit. The apprentice den had been unused for many moons, and small holes dotted the sides from lack of upkeep. It had been serving as more of a storage area for herbs and moss, and had only been recently cleaned out in anticipation for its next residents.

Mistykit tilted her head, giving the warrior the look that she always gave her father when she wanted to get out of trouble. "Sorry, Russetsky. Besides, Flakekit was the one taking forever this morning. Anyways, did you collect all that moss yourself?"

Flakekit nudged his sister roughly. "You slept in too, Mistykit!"

"Enough." Russetsky frowned at the two kits, his eyes narrowing. "Bluetoes told me I would be teaching three of you. Where's Minnowkit?"

Mistykit glanced briefly at her brother. "She's still sick. Halfbreeze said she should be healthy soon, though!"

"I wish I would have been told, or I wouldn't have collected so much moss." Russetsky sighed and scooped a paw-full of moss in front of him. "If I had known the two of you would be so late, I could have joined the morning patrol, too. Aren't you both supposed to become apprentices soon? No mentor wants an apprentice who runs late all the time."

Mistykit's tail drooped. Russetsky had been one of the warriors she had hoped might be her mentor, but it sounded like he wouldn't be interested in mentoring her now. Flakekit scuffled his paws awkwardly in the dirt beside her, and Mistykit hung her head. Neither of the kits were used to being scolded.

"Hey now, don't be too hard on them." A young black tom padded up behind Russetsky, joining him near the pile of moss. "Don't forget. These two were probably kept up late last night while Willowfall had her kits."

Russetsky huffed in response and began pushing a wad of moss to each of the kits. "I see the morning patrol is back early. Are you helping me or just getting in the way?" He shot a glare at the other warrior. The two were littermates, and despite their similar blood, it was rare to find them getting along.

"Stay and help us with all this moss!" Mistykit squealed, pawing at her mossball, and completely oblivious of the hostility between the two warriors. "Come on, Blackleaf! It'll be fun!"

Blackleaf was another of the warriors on the young she-kit's list of acceptable mentors. The two brothers were young, just recently made warriors, but they were well liked amongst the clan. Blackleaf especially was well respected for his cunning battle strategies and clever hunting techniques. While Russetsky was always called upon for his incredible talent in tracking. The two young toms had no other family in Thunderclan, as they had been adopted into the clan by Snakestar, the clan leader, when they were just kits. Despite their lack of true Thunderclan blood, they fit into the clan as any warrior would.

Russetsky shoved a paw-full of moss toward his brother, who accepted it with a curt nod. "Alright. I'm only going to explain this once, so pay attention." Russetsky directed as he pressed his own moss flat into the ground. "The most important thing about moss is making sure it's dry. No cat will thank you for wet bedding. Especially Willowfall and the new kits." Moving right along, the thick-bodied warrior flicked his paws expertly, folding the moss in on itself and pressing it back into the ground.

Mistykit began flattening her mossball, already a step behind their instructor. Flakekit was struggling beside her, meticulously pressing any moisture out of every strand of moss. The two were obviously struggling, and Mistykit was relieved to see her brother was having just as much trouble as she was.

"How about we go a little slower." Blackleaf cut into the lesson, earning a second glare from his brother, but relieved looks from both kits. "Don't worry about pressing out every last drop, Flakekit. The trick is to pack it lightly, so it is fluffier, and so it's able to air-dry easier." Flakekit looked up from his work and stopped kneading the moss, leaving it fluffy like Blackleaf said.

"No, that wastes time." Russetsky lashed his tail, annoyed at being cut off from his own lesson. Mistykit's round blue eyes bounced between the two brothers, unsure of who to follow. "Get it done quickly, then you can let it sit and dry at the end. The faster you can roll it, the longer it can dry. Now, watch me. This is how you roll it into a ball." Again, with practiced ease and fluidity, Russetsky's flattened out moss was turned into a perfectly formed ball. With a nod, he looked between the two kits. "Now you do it."

With a confident gleam in her eyes, Mistykit followed the same steps as Russetsky had demonstrated, only to have an unkept wad of moss between her paws, nothing like a ball. Before she had time to get disappointed with her work, she noticed that Flakekit's moss looked much more spherical than hers. She lashed her tail in frustration, eager to prove to the two warriors that she had what it took to be an apprentice. After a few more attempts, she felt a tail land softly on her back.

"Don't get too frustrated, Mistykit." Blackleaf had moved beside her, and reached his paws over to her mangey ball of dry, feathery moss. "It takes practice. No cat will master it on their first try." The tall black warrior quickly turned the disheveled heap into a perfectly rounded ball. "It will also help once your paws are a bit larger."

Mistykit's eyes sparkled in admiration as she looked down at Blackleaf's paws, noticing how large they really were. Just one of his paws were easily three or four times the size of hers. They were potentially even larger than her fathers'.

"Errr, I don't think my paws will ever be quite as big as yours though, Blackleaf."

Blackleaf flicked his ears at the compliment. "Don't worry, Mistykit. You never know. You could outgrow me. No cat will know until your older."

"Don't get your hopes too high, Mistykit. Blackleaf has always had large paws, even as a kit." Russetsky stepped back from helping Flakekit and turned a hard gaze on his brother. "Trust me, I know. He flaunted them to just about every cat in the clan while we were apprentices."

"No need to be jealous, Russetsky." Blackleaf flicked his brother's shoulder with his tail. Mistykit's wide blue eyes darted between the warriors, unsure of who to take advice from.

The fours cats continued the moss ball lesson well into the afternoon, until Mistykit's paws felt like they were going to fall off. By the time the four cats had finished, they had a towering mound of well-formed moss balls, ready to make new nests for any of their clanmates. Just as Mistykit thought the job was done, Blackleaf rose to his paws and nudged the two kits up as well.

"We can't just let all the moss sit out here, or our work will have been for nothing. Let's take it to Littlestep in the medicine den." The black warrior picked up several balls of moss, even using his white-tipped chin to carry more between his chin and neck. Russetsky followed suit, leaving four last balls of moss for Mistykit and Flakekit.

Mistykit groaned and her feet complained from being tired as she padded to her designated two balls of moss. She tried to copy Blackleaf and Russetsky, but the moss was too big to carry under her chin, so she managed to just carry both from her mouth, Flakekit doing the same. Despite her tired paws and the strong urge to curl up for a nap with Halfbreeze, doing a task for the clan made her feel proud, so she carried her head high as she waltzed through camp.

The medicine den was humid and cramped, especially with both Blackleaf and Russetsky taking up most of the space. Both of the warriors had very wide-set shoulders, making a smaller cat like Littlestep pale in comparison. In addition to the new intruders, along the far wall of the den was little Minnowkit curled up beside Halfbreeze, blinking awake from a nap.

"I appreciate the moss, but you should have left it outside." Littlestep meowed as he cleared a spot for the new stock, brushing away dust and old crinkled leaves with his tail. "Minnowkit barely got any sleep last night. It's hard to get her to doze off."

Mistykit glanced at her sister from around the moss balls she carried, her heart sinking when she saw how frail and skinny her sister was. Minnowkit had never been as big as Mistykit or Flakekit, but whitecough had done a number on the young she-cat. Halfbreeze also seemed less than pleased by the disturbance, a disappointed glare glued to her tan and gray face.

As soon as Blackleaf and Russetsky dropped their moss along the back wall of the den, they nodded apologetically to Littlestep and left quickly. Littlestep was one of the smaller cats of Thunderclan, but as a medicine cat, he was not only well respected by his clanmates, but by all four clans. He was young, but he did his job well.

Mistykit dropped her moss on the pile and trotted to her mother's side. "Hi Minnowkit. How are you feeling?" She reached forward to touch noses with her sister, but Halfbreeze stopped her with a paw.
"Minnowkit is still a bit sick, Mistykit. She needs her space until she feels better." Halfbreeze licked Mistykit's forehead gently. "I see you two did well today. You weren't too much of a bother to Russetsky and Blackleaf, I hope."

"Yeah! That must have been so fun." Minnowkit's voice was rough and raspy, but her eyes gleamed with excitement as she blinked away her sleepiness.

"Not at all." Flakekit joined Mistykit by their mother's side. "But it was a lot of work." The little dark gray tom licked at his paws.

"I'm sure it was. But I'm proud of both of you." Halfbreeze purred.

"Yeah, you four were busy. You've saved me a load of time by doing that." Littlestep joined the family, a strange smelling, gooey substance on his paw. "How are you feeling Minnowkit? I have some medicine for you."

"I feel great, Littlestep!" The little she-kit leaned forward, sniffing. "Is it the good medicine or the yucky medicine?"

Littlestep purred in amusement. "The good kind. I added a little extra honey for my favorite patient." The light gray and white tom held out his paw so Minnowkit could lick up the sticky substance.

Mistykit stared in wonder as her sister lapped up the medicine. She had never seen Littlestep use herbs before, and the smell of whatever he was giving Minnowkit actually smelled good. She looked around the den once more, now noticing the neatly organized wall of herbs, the large nest pushed into the far back corner, and the small pool beside the herb store. The medicine den smelled overwhelmingly of different herbs and leaves, but it was cozy. Mistykit could see why Littlestep was often preaching of how much he loved living in the medicine den.

As Littlestep washed his paws in the shallow pool at the back of the den, Mistykit turned to Halfbreeze. "What about our apprentice ceremony? If Minnowkit doesn't get better soon, she's going to miss it!"

Halfbreeze curled her tail around her kits. "You'll all be made apprentices in your own time. You don't need to worry about that."

Minnowkit rustled in her nest, fidgeting nervously. "I'll be fine, Mistykit. So what if my ceremony is a little behind yours."

Flakekit flicked his ears and looked down at his paws. "I don't want the ceremony to be delayed, but I don't want to become an apprentice without you, either." Mistykit nodded along to her brother's words. She felt the same.

A rustle at the front of the den announced Bluetoes' arrival, and the medicine den quickly felt overcrowded as the large gray and white tabby moved in beside Halfbreeze, touching his mate's nose affectionately. Mistykit and Flakekit darted in beside their father, Minnowkit rising shakily to her paws in her nest.

Bluetoes was a large cat. He had wide-set shoulders and long, thick fur. His pelt was dark gray, while his underbelly and chest were a pure white. Across his shoulder was a thin scar that prevented any hair from re-growing over the area. This tips of each of his paws were a bluish-gray, and the tip of his bushy tail faded into gray as well.

"I heard my favorite bunch of kits were in the medicine den." Bluetoes purred, nuzzling each of his kits in turn. "I got worried that something might have happened."

Mistykit shook her head. "Nope! We're just visiting!" She bounced across the den and waved her tail toward the pile of moss. "Look at all the moss balls Flakekit and I made!"

"Impressive as always. I heard good things about you two from Blackleaf as well." Mistykit's eyes shone and she pranced back to her father as he continued. "I'm glad to hear your fast leaners. But in the future, remember not to keep warriors waiting." Mistykit's tail drooped slightly, and Flakekit sighed.

"Kits are always running late, Bluetoes." Littlestep shook out his paws and sat across the den, his whiskers twitching in amusement. "And if I remember correctly, I asked you to be here at sunhigh. It appears that tardiness runs through the family."

"He's got you there, Bluetoes." Halfbreeze purred. "Let's just be thankful that Littlestep didn't take after you in that aspect. Snakestar would have a fit if both deputy and medicine cat were always late."

Bluetoes flicked his ears as he wove around his mate, crossing the den to Littlestep. "So where did you want to speak with me?"

The medicine cat glanced over the other cats in the den, his eye lingering on Minnowkit for a few moments before resting on Halfbreeze. "Would you mind giving us the den? Bluetoes and I have some business with Minnowkit."

Mistykit tilted her head in confusion. "With Minnowkit?" She didn't get an answer as Halfbreeze swept her and her brother out into the camp clearing. "What do they want with Minnowkit?"

Flakekit shook out his fur. "It doesn't matter. Whatever it is she'll tell us eventually anyways."

Halfbreeze nudged her kits farther from the medicine den. "I know you two haven't eaten yet today. Let's go see what the hunting patrols brought in this morning."

Mistykit hopped to her paws, and raced her way across camp. It was later in the day than she had thought. The clearing was beginning to grow alive as cats returned from the day's patrols and began sharing tongues and meals in the center of camp. She had to dodge around Creamfur and Darkdapple who were splitting a large sparrow between them. The fresh-kill pile was well stocked for the first time in moons, and the clan seemed to be in high spirits. Mistykit and her littermates had been born into one of the harshest Leafbares the clans had seen, and the warriors were glad to finally welcome newleaf.

"Mistykit, Flakekit!" From beside the old, currently uninhabited elders den called Blackleaf. He was lounging beside Stonejaw, one of the senior warriors. "Grab some fresh kill and join us!" The lithe young tom's eyes glinted in the sun and his fur was neatly groomed. His tail absentmindedly thumped the ground beside him as he watched the kits swarm the fresh kill pile.

Mistykit chose a mouse for herself, and her brother chose a small vole. Together, the two young cats waddled over to Blackleaf, mouths full of their soon to be meal. Halfbreeze followed behind, carrying a thrush for herself.

"I hear Minnowkit is on the path to recovery. I'm glad to hear it." Stonejaw meowed as Halfbreeze sat beside him. The two were long time friends, the senior warrior was in fact Bluetoes' littermate.

"She's doing much better!" Mistykit mewled through a mouthful of mouse. She swallowed the bite after a sharp look from her mother. "We're supposed to become apprentices really soon!"

"Ah, on that topic, who do you think your mentor will be, Mistykit?" Blackleaf drew a paw over his ears casually, watching as the young gray and white she-kit pondered over his question.

"I want someone really smart." Flakekit said as he looked around the clearing. "Like Spiderflight or you, Stonejaw. I want to learn all the best hunting techniques!"

Stonejaw chuckled and nodded toward a group of warriors that were sharing tongues. "If you want the best hunting advice, go talk to Darkdapple. She caught that vole you're eating."

Mistykit followed Stonejaw's gaze to a lean, black and gray dappled she-cat. Mistykit recognized the warrior as Willowfall's littermate, but Darkdapple had never visited the nursery, so Mistykit had never actually spoken to the tall, lanky she-cat. Darkdapple was sitting beside Russetsky, the two grooming each other absent-mindedly.

Mistykit turned her attention back to the group. "I want a mentor who I can be friends with, and who will teach me everything about the forest." She turned her blue gaze to Blackleaf, catching his eye for a moment before looking down at her paws. She knew Stonejaw would make a dependable, experienced mentor, and she had always admired Creamfur's agility and grace. Speckledstep was an option too, but now Blackleaf was at the top of her list. She liked how easily the young tom seemed to adapt to the other cats around him, and she liked the way he taught.

Halfbreeze pushed the last remaining few bites of her thrush to Stonejaw, who accepted them with open paws. "Unfortunately, you two don't get to pick your own mentors." She licked her muzzle clean before continuing. "That decision is up to Snakestar alone."

Mistykit groaned. "I know that! I can't help it though!"

Blackleaf purred in amusement. "You'll get a great mentor, whoever it is. Thunderclan has the best warriors of all four clans." The dark warrior seems to raise his head higher at his own words.

"Don't be too sure of that." Stonejaw narrowed his eyes. "You're young, Blackleaf. Inexperienced. You haven't seen a real battle. When you do, you'll know just how strong and clever the other clans are."

Blackleaf flattened his ears. "I know exactly how experienced I am." The black tom rose to his paws, shaking a bit of dust from his fur. "I'd better get going. Spiderflight and I are going hunting. Willowfall was craving squirrel earlier."

Mistykit rose to her paws as well. "Can I come?"

"No, you silly kit." Halfbreeze wrapped a paw around Mistykit, pulling her daughter close to begin grooming her fur. Mistykit put up a bit of a struggle as Blackleaf padded away, but slowly drifted off to sleep at the rhythmic caress of her mother's tongue.

"That's great, Minnowkit!" Bluetoes beamed down at his tiny daughter, who was blinking up at him with wide, excited eyes. Her nose was still runny and every once in a while, her breath would sound raspy, but her eyes shone in the dim light of the medicine den. Bluetoes touched his nose to hers, purring in pride.

"She's gotten a good look as to what it's like here in my den. I suppose the herbs rubbed off on her." Littlestep fell in beside the deputy. Their pelts held the same pattern, but Bluetoes was several shades of gray darker.

"So, does this mean that I can become an apprentice at the same time as Mistykit and Flakekit?"

The two toms exchanged a quick glance. "I don't see why not." Bluetoes rested the tip of his tail on his son's shoulder. "You'll just spend the first few days as an apprentice here in the medicine den learning all you can from Littlestep."

The medicine cat stepped closer to Minnowkit and bent down to be nose to nose with her. "Are you sure this is the path you want? You'll be giving up a lot for the sake of the clan." He glanced briefly at Bluetoes. "You'll never be able to take a mate, or have kits. You give up on training for hunting and battles. Instead you'll learn about herbs and you'll serve Thunderclan as only a medicine cat can.

Minnowkit looked down at her paws for a few moments before matching Littlestep's gaze. "I'm sure." She waved her tail happily. "Besides, I don't need kits anyways. As a medicine cat, every member of Thunderclan will be my kit."