"The trick is to look like you're gliding. Hold yourself as still as possible."
The white cat stiffened immediately, continuing to creep forwards very slowly. Her ears pricked as the wind carried a scent towards her — prey. She kneaded the ground with her paws in anticipation, fighting the urge to twitch her tail as she held it just above the ground. A quick glance at the cat beside her earned a nod from her mentor, giving her the courage she needed to tense up her muscles and crouch down further. Suddenly she leapt forwards with a yowl, pouncing onto her prey and gripping the soft scruff of its neck.
"Ow!" screeched Shadowkit, who had been quickly unceremoniously yanked out of his sleep by being pounced on. "Get off! What are you doing!" Snowkit released him triumphantly and turned to Maplepaw.
"How did I do? Did I catch him?"
Silverpaw's whiskers twitched. "Almost. You shouldn't have yowled. If you did that while actually hunting you would have scared away all other prey nearby. That's what Volewhisker taught me." She held her head slightly higher as she said the deputy's name, clearly proud that she was the apprentice of such a high-ranking cat. Snowkit looked up at the apprentice in wonder; she would be an apprentice in two moons, and from listening to the apprentices, everything they did sounded amazing — hunting, climbing trees, learning to fight. Snowkit longed for the day when she would hear cats call her by 'Snowpaw', and later, her warrior name, whatever it would be. She liked the sound of 'Snowfeather', or perhaps 'Snowsong', but she knew that ultimately the choice would be up to her father, Whitestar. Snowkit glanced at Shadowkit, who had fallen back asleep. If Silverpaw was proud that her mentor was the Clan deputy, Shadowkit was even more proud that his father was the Clan leader. He'd boasted many times that if Volewhisker ever died then he'd certainly be one of the next in line for the position of deputy because he was the leader's son. Snowkit thought it was a bit of a morbid fantasy, but she just tried to ignore it whenever he brought it up.
She realized her mind had been wandering and turned back to Silverpaw.
"What do you think your warrior name will be?" she piped up, looking expectantly into the tabby apprentice's green eyes. Silverpaw shrugged.
"Volewhisker will decide. She'll observe me during training to figure out which warrior name would fit me best; then whenever she or Whitestar think I'm ready to become a warrior she'll tell him my warrior name, and he'll announce it. She might have already picked it. I don't know."
Snowkit's eyes were wide. "But I thought the leader chose all the warrior names!"
"He only gets to choose an apprentice's name if he mentors them. Volewhisker explained it to me." Once again she straightened up with the mention of her mentor's name, fluffing her fur out and pricking her ears.
There was a rustling at the entrance of the nursery — half of an old log that was lined on the inside with moss — and Antfoot entered with half of a bittern in her mouth, heading straight for her kits without even acknowledging Silverpaw and Snowkit. Antfoot's kits were five moons old, and would be apprenticed before Snowkit; she felt jealous about that, even though she was friends with them. Friends with Pinekit and Adderkit, at least. Grousekit was always grumpy and always shouted at Snowkit, though she wasn't sure why.
Once she'd roused her sleeping kits and dropped the bittern in front of them, Antfoot finally seemed to notice that there were others in the den. She stared at Silverpaw for a moment.
"Shouldn't you be training?"
Silverpaw's whiskers twitched. "Volewhisker had to go out on patrol."
"And you couldn't accompany her?" Antfoot's tone wasn't annoyed, just curious. Snowkit became curious too. Silverpaw followed Volewhisker everywhere. Even if she hadn't been allowed out on patrol, she'd have found a way to go anyways.
Silverpaw shook her head. "They were going into the forest."
Antfoot's ears pricked up and then flattened against her head. She stood up.
"Silverpaw, could we talk outside for a moment?"
The apprentice nodded and the two left the nursery. Snowkit immediately rushed to the entrance, straining to catch what they were saying. If something exciting was going on in the Clan, she wanted to know about it.
"...not really AshClan's..."
"It's too dangerous...to tell Whitestar..."
"Whitestar knows."
"...what it could start!"
Snowkit was immediately distracted by something pouncing on her tail. She turned around to find herself staring into Pinekit's hazel eyes. The tomkit giggled and batted playfully at her shoulder before springing back again, inviting her to play. Snowkit nearly refused but she couldn't hear much from outside anyways and it wasn't important enough to warrant her giving up this opportunity for fun.
Snowkit leapt on top of Pinekit at once and the two tumbled around, trying as best as they could to avoid the rest of Snowkit's siblings, who were all sleeping. Grousekit and Adderkit watched as they continued to eat the bittern; Grousekit with disdain, Adderkit with amusement. Snowkit and Pinekit tore away from each other and walked in circles facing each other, waiting for the opportune moment to pounce again.
This time Snowkit was the one who took the leap; she bounded on top of Pinekit but he was bigger than her and easily threw her off. She landed a little ways away with a grunt as the wind was knocked out of her. In her scramble to get back into the play-fight, however, she accidentally tripped over Smallkit, and that became the second of her brothers that she had woken up so far. Smallkit didn't protest like Shadowkit had, however, and simply blinked at her sleepily before curling up again. Snowkit felt annoyed. All her littermates ever did was sleep; they slept all day and then they slept all night, as far as she was aware. Sometimes Plumkit would wake up and try to play but she was too small and Snowkit overpowered her easily in play-fighting. It wasn't a fair match
Antfoot re-entered then, without Silverpaw. Snowkit felt a bit saddened by the sudden disappearance of her apprentice friend. She would have liked to have heard some more stories about training. Once again, Antfoot didn't take immediate notice of Snowkit and her attention was instead focused on her kits.
"Don't eat so much, Grousekit," she scolded, dipping her neck down to lick at his fur. "You'll grow fat."
"Like my dad!" Snowkit added. Grousekit glared at her. At least Antfoot chuckled.
"You should be glad you can say such things about the leader," she purred. "If any of us tried that he'd have us confined to camp before we could apologize."
Snowkit fluffed up her fur proudly, trying to ignore the fact that Grousekit was still staring at her like he was going to murder her as soon as Antfoot left. It made Snowkit slightly nervous, but she did her best to brush it off. Pinekit and Adderkit would protect her if he tried anything. She hoped.
"How much longer until we become apprentices?" Pinekit asked suddenly, changing the topic. Snowkit could connect with the impatience in his voice.
"In less than a moon now," Antfoot reminded him gently. "Asking repeatedly won't make your ceremony come any quicker."
"Maybe Whitestar could mentor me!" Pinekit exclaimed with excitement. Grousekit bristled at that, his lip curling.
"I wouldn't count on it. I'm sure he's saving whatever mentoring skill he has for one of his precious kits. I'm betting Snowkit gets the honor," he added, his tone snide. Antfoot cuffed his ear.
"It's very rude to say things like that," she reminded him. Grousekit pinned his ears back at that and lay down, resting his head on his paws sulkily.
A loud yowl sounded from outside the den and everyone perked up immediately, the awkward atmosphere in the nursery forgotten. It was the unquestionable sound of Whitestar calling a clan meeting. Antfoot hurried out immediately and the kits bounded after her, but she stopped them at the entrance to the nursery.
"I can't go any further than this. Snowkit, your brothers and sisters are still asleep. We have to be able to protect them if something comes along that wants to eat them."
"Nothing will come!" Pinekit protested. "Why can't we go gather with the rest of the Clan? Why can't I? I'm five moons old!"
Antfoot sighed. "Fine. Just be careful."
"It's alright," Adderkit called over her shoulder as the kits raced off. "We won't let anyone trample on our heads and crush us!"
The Clan had gathered in front of Whitestar's den, a soft, hollowed tree that Snowkit knew smelled musty from the few times she had been in there. She wasn't sure how her father, and oftentimes her mother, could stand the smell; she found it to be unbearable. She hoped she'd never have to be Clan leader one day, lest she have to sleep in the stinky old log.
Every cat sat or stood silently, respectfully waiting for Whitestar to come out and greet them. The kits settled near the apprentices; Silverpaw quietly mewed a greeting to Snowkit, who beamed at her. Snowkit couldn't help but notice that Shrikepaw was sitting slightly separate from the rest of the apprentices, as if he wasn't welcome or he thought himself above the rest of them. The former was probably more likely; Snowkit had heard that the Clan had taken him in a few moons ago when a patrol found him wandering the marsh as a loner.
Welcoming meows sounded throughout the crowd as Whitestar emerged from his den. He held up his tail for silence.
"It has come to my attention," he announced, "that a patrol left with Volewhisker earlier today — or, actually, a patrol apparently left. I know that Honeythorn, Badgerface, and Leechstream went out hunting earlier, but to my knowledge no other cats have. Has anyone seen Volewhisker today?"
"No," meowed Nightstripe, and the others chorused their agreement. "I haven't seen Frognose, either. We were supposed to take our apprentices out to train together."
"I'm sure they're fine, then," teased Hollycloud. Nightstripe looked to his mate, his whiskers twitching. "We'll be seeing a new queen in the nursery soon, I expect," she continued.
Whitestar just nodded, his face grave. "Thank you. If they're both missing, then the matter is resolved. If they aren't back by sundown, however, I'll send out a patrol. Now, as it is leaf-fall, I want an increase in hunting patrols — Nightstripe, Greypaw, Silverpaw, go search the marsh. Kestrelwing, and Eelstorm, take Shrikepaw and Maplepaw out to the forest, by the AshClan border, but be careful. We're already in enough trouble with them after they accused us of stealing prey a half-moon ago."
"Will it be safe to leave so few warriors in camp?" inquired Slugpaw, shuffling her paws nervously. Whitestar's expression softened.
"Honeythorn's patrol should be back very soon," he assured her, "and there are enough of us to protect the kits. Don't worry about it." Slugpaw nodded, though she still looked anxious. Her mentor, Larchfoot, pressed against her comfortingly as the patrols gathered and started to head out of camp.