A/N: If anyone is confused, Crowfrost and Ivytail are the parents of Yewkit, Jadekit, Jewelkit, and Moonkit, while Leopardstep is the adopted mother of Blackkit, Bronzekit, and Snowkit, and the mate of Toadfoot. Leopardstep's original kits (Snarlpaw, Ravenpaw, and Lynxpaw) have been apprentices for 2 moons.

These author's notes will appear only if I feel like making a comment about the chapter or answering some questions. Otherwise, I'll try not to distract from reading.

Chapter 1

"Ow! What was that for?"

"Nothing. I just hate you."

"Well, I hate you too, and I'm going to go tell Ivytail and Leopardstep what you did, and they'll punish you!"

"Leopardstep would never hurt me, she's my mother!"

"Whatever. Come on, Jewelkit, let's go play with Jadekit and Moonkit and leave this loser to his stupid games." Yewkit beckoned commandingly with his tail, and after a moment, his calico sister followed, casting an apologetic look at Bronzekit. Bronzekit looked down at his auburn paws, seething with anger. Why did Yewkit always have to humiliate him in front of his friends, especially in front of Jewelkit?

A tail-tip touched him on the shoulder. He looked up and saw Blackkit looking at him with sympathy in her dark blue eyes. "Don't worry," she murmured. "Leopardstep won't hurt us, even if she's only our adopted mother. Let's go ask Jadekit and Moonkit to play a new game with us before Yewkit does, so you can pay him back!" She looked at Bronzekit hopefully. He shrugged, but felt his mood lighten.

"All right, let's go!" They scampered off across the pine-needle-strewn clearing, heading towards the apprentices' den, where Moonkit, Jadekit, and Snowkit were practicing stalking techniques. With a flash of satisfaction, Bronzekit overtook Yewkit, who was marching purposefully to his brother and Snowkit. Before Yewkit could do anything but gasp with rage, Bronzekit yowled, "Hey, Moonkit! Snowkit! Jadekit! D'you wanna play a new game with me and Blackkit?" Lowering his voice as he got nearer, Bronzekit added, "You don't have to play with Yewkit, he's being a pain in the tail."

Moonkit's pale grey eyes brightened. "Sure!" he said happily. "What about you, Snowkit?"

"Erm... I'm fine," Snowkit muttered distractedly, glancing around at the pine trees surrounding the camp. "Have any of you seen a raven lately?"

"I've seen a Ravenpaw. He's strutting around, showing off the new battle moves he just learned from Snowbird." Jadekit snorted with disgust. "So, what game did you want to play?"

Blackkit ruffled her jet-black fur. "I don't know, but it better be something that involves running, cause I'm pretty cold!"

"Are you crazy?" Bronzekit asked her. "It's not even leaf-fall yet!"

"It's nightfall, though," Snowkit pointed out. Sure enough, her pure white pelt was starting to glow in the gathering twilight. "I've got to get back to Leopardstep. She promised that if she saw a raven, she'd tell me..." With that, the tiny kit trotted off to the nursery, still muttering something about ravens.

"What's gotten into her?" Jewelkit asked Moonkit as she padded up to the little group. "And what's with her and ravens?"

Moonkit shrugged. "Yeah, whatever. So whadder we gonna play?" he asked Bronzekit.

Bronzekit flicked his tail in thought. "Well, I was thinking maybe a game of hide-and-seek... shadow-style! We have to pretend to be shadow-cats on a mission to collect rare and valuable supplies for our supersecret Clan." His eyes brightened with inspiration. "If anyone who isn't part of our team - that is, anyone who's not a kit - sees us, we have to surrender all of the goods that we collected and return to the prison den! That could be that rock next to the medicine den," he added, pointing with his tail. "So each one of us had to collect an acorn cap, a scrap of moss, a smooth rock, and an herb. Any herb."

Yewkit, who had also come over to listen, snorted. "That's so easy. We can just go into Littlecloud's den and steal some herbs. He's so old, he probably won't even notice!"

"Don't be so mean!" Jadekit snapped at her brother. "Littlecloud is perfectly capable of seeing kits trying to sneak into his herb store for a game!" Turning to Bronzekit, she added, "Not that it's not a good game, or anything, but I don't think it's very safe to get herbs. What if we get something poisonous by accident?"

Blackkit bristled in defense of her brother. "I'm sure Bronzekit was assuming that none of us would be stupid enough to do that! Weren't you listening at Littlecloud's lesson about herbs?"

"Yes," Jadekit muttered.

"Well, then you should know what the poisonous ones look like." Blackkit finished with satisfaction, ignoring Bronzekit's glare. Why did she have to step in to protect me? he thought angrily. I can totally defend myself from insults, thanks!

"Whatever, let's just play!" Jewelkit broke in impatiently. "I think Bronzekit's idea was great, so there!"

"Fine..." Yewkit mumbled, rolling his eyes. Blackkit eyed him distrustfully.

"No one asked you to play," she said. "In fact, you were the one who said –"

"Blackkit." Bronzekit flicked her ear with his tail. "It doesn't matter. If the loser is too cowardly to admit his mistakes, let him! All right, I'm off." With that, he slunk into the shadows next to the apprentices' den, hissing to the others, "Hurry up, or you'll all fail your mission and go to the prison den!"

With a flurry of movement, all the kits scattered into their hiding places in record time. And not a moment too soon; a patrol was coming into camp, led by Oakfur. Olivenose, Kinkfur, and Snarlpaw followed the senior cat.

Bronzekit crouched as low as he could in his hiding place as Blackstar emerged from his den. "Anything to report?" the white tom growled.

"All clear. Those ThunderClan mange-pelts are keeping well inside their borders, and the Twolegs are leaving the clearing," Oakfur replied.

Before Blackstar could say anything, Kinkfur interrupted. "Where are all the kits?"

There was a faint hiss of laughter. Bronzekit looked sideways and saw Blackkit rolling around, giggling as the older cats looked around in alarm, wondering where the youngest members of ShadowClan had gone.

"Quiet, or they'll hear you!" he growled, but he was still unable to suppress a snort. It looked like Olivenose was chasing her own tail, the way she was whirling around like that.

"Jewelkit!" "Moonkit!" "Yewkit!" "Jadekit!" Now, more cats were calling for the kits. Bronzekit waited for them to say "Bronzekit! Blackkit!", but the warriors seemed to only care about Ivytail's kits. He felt a prickle of anger, like a sharp needle that had jabbed him in the nose. Did they really not care about me? he wondered, feeling unexpectedly hurt. Although he did not share Leopardstep's blood, it still made his paws prick when he saw her calling for Yewkit with worry.

"It's like they don't even care about us..." Blackkit murmured. She had stopped laughing, and now she sat by Bronzekit, watching the commotion.

"Maybe... maybe they just forgot..." Bronzekit's voice sounded unconvincing even to his own ears.

Just then, four small figures came slinking out from behind the warriors' den. It was Yewkit and the others! They padded over to their mother, their tails low. Ivytail let out a yowl of surprise and relief and immediately started licking them. The other warriors clustered around them. Even from here, Bronzekit could see the triumphant smirk on Yewkit's face; he was relishing all the attention he was getting!

"Traitors!" he hissed. "They didn't even try to hide for more than five seconds!"

"Cowards," Blackkit spat. "And look at them, lapping up all the attention. Even Snowkit is there!" Sure enough, a tiny white pelt could be seen next to the brown tabby fur of Yewkit and the mottled grey pelt of Jadekit.

The crowd slowly dispersed. Ivytail's four kits trotted off to the nursery, followed by their mother and Snowkit. Leopardstep made to follow them, but suddenly stopped and turned around. Her face looked like she was itching from guilt. Next to her, the frightening shape of Blackstar loomed over her.

"Er... Bronzekit? Blackkit? Are you still hiding?" she called hesitantly. "You can come out now. It's sundown, time to go to sleep."

"Finally," Bronzekit muttered. With his head held high, he stalked towards Leopardstep and Blackstar, pleased that his paws weren't even shaking from fear. Behind him, he heard Blackkit trotting to keep up.

"Kits," Blackstar growled. "Why were you hiding when your mother was calling for you?"

Leopardstep shot Bronzekit an imploring look, as if to say, be polite!

"If you please, Blackstar, we were not called for until just now." Bronzekit dipped his head. "Blackkit, Yewkit, Jewelkit, Jadekit, Moonkit, and I were all going to play a game of shadow-cats, but then your patrol discovered that we were missing. You started calling for Ivytail's kits, but they didn't come out for several minutes. We were not called for, so we did not come out of hiding for twice as long." He risked a peek at Blackstar, but the leader sat with an impassive expression. "If I may so suggest, I think that Ivytail's kits should be punished for ignoring your calls, while Blackkit and I came as soon as you remembered of our existence."

"Bronzekit!" Leopardstep exploded. "Apologize at once!" Turning to Blackstar, she said in a flustered tone, "He is not usually this rude, Blackstar. Please forgive him."

To everyone's surprise, Blackstar started to chuckle. His low, rumbling laugh gave Bronzekit the creeps. "No, no, Leopardstep, he is absolutely right. Any ShadowClan cat should have the right to speak the truth as they see it, and this kit has a lot of audacity to do so to his leader." He beckoned for Blackkit to come closer to him. "I have no doubt that this she-kit would have said the same as her brother. I commend you, Leopardstep, for raising such promising members of ShadowClan - although your mothering skills leave hope for improvement." At the end, a menacing note crept into Blackstar's voice. "I think it is high time for all seven of these kits to receive their apprentice names. They have broken more rules than I care to count, just as any normal kit would and should. Leopardstep, see that this... situation... does not happen again before sundown tomorrow." With that, Blackstar turned and padded off back to his den.

Bronzekit released a breath that he didn't know he was holding; beside him, he heard Blackkit do the same. "That was super close," he whispered to her. She nodded in agreement.

"Kits!" Leopardstep turned to them, anger sparking in her gaze. "How dare you make me look so foolish in front of Blackstar?"

"It was your fault that you forgot about us... Mother." Blackkit managed to make the word sound like an insult.

Leopardstep's eyes narrowed. "I will make sure all of you - all seven of you - do not leave the nursery until your ceremony tomorrow. This is punishment for all of you, because you all broke one rule or another." She stalked off without another word, clearly expecting the two kits to follow.

Blackkit looked sideways at Bronzekit. "This is worse than cleaning the elders' pelts from ticks," She said.

Bronzekit only shrugged. In his opinion, being forgotten like you didn't exist was much worse than doing some stupid job. He vowed to himself that it would never happen again.

A/N: It has come to my attention that Leopardstep did not exist in the Last Hope. Sorry. Consider her added for the purposes of this story.

~Fire